4 research outputs found
An Efficient Synthesis of Phenanthroindolizidine Core via Hetero Diels-Alder Reaction of In Situ Generated α-Allenylchalcogenoketenes With Cyclic Imines
Synthesis of phenanthroindolizidine core was efficiently achieved through a pathway involving hetero Diels-Alder reaction of α-allenylchalcogenoketenes, generated in situ by thermal [3,3] sigmatropic rearrangement of alkynyl propargyl sulfides or selenides, with cyclic imines and the subsequent iodine-assisted photochemical cyclization.journal articl
Realistic Simulations of Proton Transport along the Gramicidin Channel: Demonstrating the Importance of Solvation Effects
The nature of proton transduction (PTR) through a file of water molecules, along the gramicidin A (gA)
channel, has long been considered as being highly relevant to PTR in biological systems. Previous attempts
to model this process implied that the so-called Grotthuss mechanism and the corresponding orientation of
the water file plays a major role. The present work reexamines the PTR in gA by combining a fully microscopic
empirical valence bond (EVB) model and a recently developed simplified EVB-based model with Langevin
dynamics (LD) simulations. The full model is used first to evaluate the free energy profile for a stepwise
PTR process. The corresponding results are then used to construct the effective potential of the simplified
EVB. This later model is then used in Langevin dynamics simulations, taking into account the correct physics
of possible concerted motions and the effect of the solvent reorganization. The simulations reproduce the
observed experimental trend and lead to a picture that is quite different from that assumed previously. It is
found that the PTR in gA is controlled by the change in solvation energy of the transferred proton along the
channel axis. Although the time dependent electrostatic fluctuations of the channel and water dipoles play
their usual role in modulating the proton-transfer process (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 1984, 81, 444), the
PTR rate is mainly determined by the free energy profile. Furthermore, the energetics of the reorientation of
the unprotonated water file do not appear to provide a consistent way of assessing the activation barrier for
the PTR process. It seems to us that in the case of gA, and probably other systems with significant electrostatic
barriers for the transfer of the proton charge, the PTR rate is controlled by the electrostatic barrier. This
finding has clear consequences with regards to PTR processes in biological systems
