Quantum Mechanical Study of theSynandAntiConformations of Solvated Cyclic GMP

Abstract

Self-consistent Reaction Field (SCRF) computational methods have been applied to guanosine 3′:5′-cyclic monophosphate (cGMP) to determine the geometries and energetics of the syn and anti conformations of this cyclic nucleotide in aqueous solution. The syn conformation of cGMP has been predicted to be more stable in the gas phase due to an internal hydrogen bond. The syn conformation is observed in the crystal structure of the sodium tetrahydrate salt, although a bridging water molecule is present in lieu of the internal hydrogen bond. In the gas phase, we find from Hartree–Fock/6-31+G(d) optimizations that the syn conformation is more stable than the anti by about 4 kcal/mol. However, we report here that the anti conformation is more stable in aqueous solution, according to estimates based upon results from both the Onsager model and the Isodensity Polarized Continuum Method (IPCM). Our best estimate from single-point IPCM B3LYP/6-31+G(d) calculations has the anti conformation 19 kcal/mol lower in energy. For comparison purposes, we also present SCRF results for syn and anti adenosine 3′:5′-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP). For cAMP, we estimate the anti conformation to be more stable than the syn by about 6 kcal/mol. We suggest that the relative stability of the anti conformation of cGMP be considered in studies, such as, enzyme docking.