Toward the Understanding of the Metabolism of Levodopa I. DFT Investigation of the Equilibrium Geometries, Acid-Base Properties and Levodopa-Water Complexes

Levodopa (LD) is used to increase dopamine level for treating Parkinson’s disease. The major metabolism of LD to produce dopamine is decarboxylation. In order to understand the metabolism of LD; the electronic structure of levodopa was investigated at the Density Functional DFT/B3LYP level of theory using the 6-311+G** basis set, in the gas phase and in solution. LD is not planar, with the amino acid side chain acting as a free rotator around several single bonds. The potential energy surface is broad and flat. Full geometry optimization enabled locating and identifying the global minimum on this Potential energy surface (PES). All possible protonation/deprotonation forms of LD were examined and analyzed. Protonation/deprotonation is local in nature, i.e., is not transmitted through the molecular framework. The isogyric protonation/deprotonation reactions seem to involve two subsequent steps: First, deprotonation, then rearrangement to form H-bonded structures, which is the origin of the extra stability of the deprotonated forms. Natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis of LD and its deprotonated forms reveals detailed information of bonding characteristics and interactions across the molecular framework. The effect of deprotonation on the donor-acceptor interaction across the molecular framework and within the two subsystems has also been examined. Attempts to mimic the complex formation of LD with water have been performed

Tandem ATRP/Diels–Alder synthesis of polyHEMA-based hydrogels

The efficient, controlled polymerization of a batch of new poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate-co-furfuryl methacrylate)s, [poly(HEMA-co-FMA)], of various compositions was achieved using atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) in methanol. When the FMA composition did not exceed the 10 mol% ratio, the evolution of molecular weight with conversion was linear, and polydispersities were around 1.1 for polymerization reactions at 15 °C and around 1.3-1.4 at 25 °C, indicating good control over the polymerization process. HEMA-based hydrogels were obtained by means of the Diels-Alder reaction between poly(HEMA-co-FMA) and an hydrophilic bisdienophile. Gelification was monitored by diffusion-filtered 1H NMR and solution 1H NMR spectroscopy. Modulated temperature differential scanning calorimetry (MTDSC) suggests the thermo-reversibility of the Diels-Alder coupling reaction of HEMA polymeric networks. Rheological studies showed that the linear viscoelasticity functions of hydrogels were influenced by the chemical composition.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad MAT2012-38044-C03-001Junta de Andalucía Grant P12-FQM-155