General Amber Force Field Research Articles

Optimized Lennard-Jones Parameters for Druglike Small Molecules.

Meaningful efforts in computer-aided drug design (CADD) require accurate molecular mechanical force fields to quantitatively characterize protein-ligand interactions, ligand hydration free energies, and other ligand physical properties. Atomic models of new compounds are commonly generated by analogy from the predefined tabulated parameters of a given force field. Two widely used approaches following this strategy are the General Amber Force Field (GAFF) and the CHARMM General Force Field (CGenFF). An important limitation of using pretabulated parameter values is that they may be inadequate in the context of a specific molecule. To resolve this issue, we previously introduced the General Automated Atomic Model Parameterization (GAAMP) for automatically generating the parameters of atomic models of small molecules, using the results from ab initio quantum mechanical (QM) calculations as target data. The GAAMP protocol uses QM data to optimize the bond, valence angle, and dihedral angle internal parameters, and atomic partial charges. However, since the treatment of van der Waals interactions based on QM is challenging and may often be unreliable, the Lennard-Jones 6-12 parameters are kept unchanged from the initial atom types assignments (GAFF or CGenFF), which limits the accuracy that can be achieved by these models. To address this issue, a new set of Lennard-Jones 6-12 parameters was systematically optimized to reproduce experimental neat liquid densities and enthalpies of vaporization for a large set of 430 compounds, covering a wide range of chemical functionalities. Calculations of the hydration free energy indicate that optimal accuracy for these models is achieved when the molecule-water van der Waals dispersion is rescaled by a factor of 1.115. The final optimized model yields an average unsigned error of 0.79 kcal/mol in the hydration free energies.

Alkyl hydrogen atom abstraction reactions of the CN radical with ethanol.

We present a study of the abstraction of alkyl hydrogen atoms from the β and α positions of ethanol by the CN radical in solution using the Empirical Valence Bond (EVB) method. We have built separate 2 × 2 EVB models for the Hβ and Hα reactions, where the atom transfer is parameterized using ab initio calculations. The intra- and intermolecular potentials of the reactant and product molecules were modelled with the General AMBER Force Field, with some modifications. We have carried out the dynamics in water and chloroform, which are solvents of contrasting polarity. We have computed the potential of mean force for both abstractions in each of the solvents. They are found to have a small and early barrier along the reaction coordinate with a large energy release. Analyzing the solvent structure around the reaction system, we have found two solvents to have little effect on either reaction. Simulating the dynamics from the transition state, we also study the fate of the energies in the HCN vibrational modes. The HCN molecule is born vibrationally hot in the CH stretch in both reactions and additionally in the HCN bends for the Hα abstraction reaction. In the early stage of the dynamics, we find that the CN stretch mode gains energy at the expense of the energy in CH stretch mode.

Correction: Developing force fields when experimental data is sparse: AMBER/GAFF-compatible parameters for inorganic and alkyl oxoanions.

Correction for 'Developing force fields when experimental data is sparse: AMBER/GAFF-compatible parameters for inorganic and alkyl oxoanions' by Sadra Kashefolgheta et al., Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2017, 19, 20593-20607.

Comparison of RESP and IPolQ-Mod Partial Charges for Solvation Free Energy Calculations of Various Solute/Solvent Pairs.

The calculation of solvation free energies ΔGsolv by molecular simulations is of great interest as they are linked to other physical properties such as relative solubility, partition coefficient, and activity coefficient. However, shortcomings in molecular models can lead to ΔGsolv deviations from experimental data. Various studies have demonstrated the impact of partial charges on free energy results. Consequently, calculation methods for partial charges aimed at more accurate ΔGsolv predictions are the subject of various studies in the literature. Here we compare two methods to derive partial charges for the general AMBER force field (GAFF), i.e. the default RESP as well as the physically motivated IPolQ-Mod method that implicitly accounts for polarization costs. We study 29 solutes which include characteristic functional groups of drug-like molecules, and 12 diverse solvents were examined. In total, we consider 107 solute/solvent pairs including two water models TIP3P and TIP4P/2005. Comparison with experimental results yields better agreement for TIP3P, regardless of the partial charge scheme. The overall performance of GAFF/RESP and GAFF/IPolQ-Mod is similar, though specific shortcomings in the description of ΔGsolv for both RESP and IPolQ-Mod can be identified. However, the high correlation between free energies obtained with GAFF/RESP and GAFF/IPolQ-Mod demonstrates the compatibility between the modified charges and remaining GAFF parameters.

Molecular dynamics simulations of liquid-liquid phase equilibrium of ternary methanol/water/hydrocarbon mixtures

We report molecular simulation studies of liquid-liquid equilibria (LLE) in mixtures that include polar (water/methanol) and nonpolar/weakly polar (cyclic) components. While vapor-liquid equilibria (VLE) has been widely studied using molecular simulations, there have been relatively few such studies for LLE despite their industrial importance. Often equation of state parameters that work for VLE do not work well for LLE, our studies show, however, that molecular potentials for VLE were successful in predicting reliable results for LLE. Our methodology is an extension of our previous studies for VLE (solubility of gases in liquids). In these studies, we used the generalized AMBER force field (GAFF) with no further adjustments. Our results showed good agreement with recent experimental results for LLE of these systems and showed some interesting trends. We found that the behavior of mixtures of hydrocarbons with both methanol and water present became significantly different when no water was present. After validating our method and models in our LLE studies, we also used these simulations to explore other dynamic and equilibrium properties of these mixtures. Our results showed significant changes in the structural and dynamic behavior of these mixtures as the concentration of water changed.

Spectroscopic investigations (FT-IR, UV, 1H and 13C NMR) and DFT/TD-DFT calculations of potential analgesic drug 2-[2-(dimethylamino)ethyl]-6-methoxy-4-(pyridin-2-yl)-1(2H)-phthalazinone

The theoretical molecular geometry and the IR, UV, 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopic properties of 2-[2-(dimethylamino)ethyl]-6-methoxy-4-(pyridin-2-yl)-1(2H)-phthalazinone with the previously demonstrated in vivo analgesic activity were characterized. The conformational analysis, performed using the molecular mechanics method with the General AMBER Force Field (GAFF) and the Density Functional Theory (DFT) approach with the B3LYP hybrid functional and the 6–31 + g(d) basis sets, allowed to determine the most stable rotamer. The theoretical molecular geometry of this conformer was then calculated at the B3LYP/6–311++g(d,p) level of theory, and its phthalazinone core was compared with the experimental geometry of 1(2H)-phthalazinone. The calculated vibrational frequencies and the potential energy distribution enabled to assign the theoretical vibrational modes to the experimental FT-IR bands. The UV spectrum calculated with the Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory (TD-DFT) method in methanol identified the main electronic transitions and their character. 1H and 13C NMR chemical shifts simulated by the Gauge-Independent Atomic Orbital (GIAO) method in chloroform confirmed the previous assignment of the experimental resonance signals. The stability of the molecule was considered taking into account the hyperconjugation and electron density delocalization effects evaluated by the Natural Bond Orbital (NBO) method. The calculated spatial distribution of molecular electrostatic potential made possible to estimate the regions with nucleophilic and electrophilic properties. The results of the potentiodynamic polarization measurements were also indicated the corrosion inhibition activity of the title compound on 100Cr6 bearing steel in 1 mol dm−3 HCl solution.

Prediction of EPR Spectra of Lyotropic Liquid Crystals using a Combination of Molecular Dynamics Simulations and the Model-Free Approach.

We report the first application of fully atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to the prediction of the motional electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra of lyotropic liquid crystals in different aggregation states doped with a paramagnetic spin probe. The purpose of this study is twofold. First, given that EPR spectra are highly sensitive to the motions and order of the spin probes doped within lyotropic aggregates, simulation of EPR line shapes from the results of MD modelling provides an ultimate test bed for the force fields currently employed to model such systems. Second, the EPR line shapes are simulated using the motional parameters extracted from MD trajectories using the Model-Free (MF) approach. Thus a combined MD-EPR methodology allowed us to test directly the validity of the application of the MF approach to systems with multi-component molecular motions. All-atom MD simulations using the General AMBER Force Field (GAFF) have been performed on sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and dodecyltrimethylammonium chloride (DTAC) liquid crystals. The resulting MD trajectories were used to predict and interpret the EPR spectra of pre-micellar, micellar, rod and lamellar aggregates. The predicted EPR spectra demonstrate good agreement with most of experimental line shapes thus confirming the validity of both the force fields employed and the MF approach for the studied systems. At the same time simulation results confirm that GAFF tends to overestimate the packing and the order of the carbonyl chains of the surfactant molecules.

Effective charges of ionic liquid determined self-consistently through combination of molecular dynamics simulation and density-functional theory.

A self-consistent scheme combining the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and density functional theory (DFT) was recently proposed to incorporate the effects of the charge transfer and polarization of ions into non-poralizable force fields of ionic liquids for improved description of energetics and dynamics. The purpose of the present work is to analyze the detailed setups of the MD/DFT scheme by focusing on how the basis set, exchange-correlation (XC) functional, charge-fitting method or force field for the intramolecular and Lennard-Jones interactions affects the MD/DFT results of 1,3-dimethylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl) imide ( [C1mim][NTf2]) and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium glycinate ( [C2mim][Gly]). It was found that the double-zeta valence polarized or larger size of basis set is required for the convergence of the effective charge of the ion. The choice of the XC functional was further not influential as far as the generalized gradient approximation is used. The charge-fitting method and force field govern the accuracy of the MD/DFT scheme, on the other hand. We examined the charge-fitting methods of Blöchl, the iterative Hirshfeld (Hirshfeld-I), and REPEAT in combination with Lopes et al.'s force field and general AMBER force field. There is no single combination of charge fitting and force field that provides good agreements with the experiments, while the MD/DFT scheme reduces the effective charges of the ions and leads to better description of energetics and dynamics compared to the original force field with unit charges. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Exploring the Relation among Free Volume, Electrostatic Interaction, and Side Chain Flexibility of Ether‐Functionalized Ionic Liquids by Molecular Dynamics Simulations

AbstractAlkoxy chain effect on the viscosity of ionic liquids has been extensively studied by experiments in order to disclose the relationship between viscosity and structure. A free‐volume model was used to interpret the mechanism of the alkoxy chain effect, suggesting that flexible alkoxy chains can improve the viscosity of ionic liquids owing to the increase of free volume. Computational studies revealed that the improvement of viscosity arises from the less effective packing between flexible alkoxy chains as well as the reduction in electrostatic interaction between cations and anions. However, few computational studies have been undertaken to address the relation among free volume, electrostatic interaction, and side chain flexibility of ether‐functionalized ionic liquids. In this work, we develop a general amber force field (GAFF) for ether‐functionalized ionic liquids by following the traditional procedure of parameterizing GAFF for ionic liquids. Our work demonstrates that the alkoxy chain effect on the viscosity of ionic liquids can be qualitatively captured by GAFF without any optimizations. Analysis of electrostatic interactions between cations and anions in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations advances our understanding of the alkoxy chain effect from various aspects. Finally, we propose for the first time that the total free volume can further be divided into two portions, which are associated with electrostatic interactions between cations and anions.

Development of an AMBER-compatible transferable force field for poly(ethylene glycol) ethers (glymes).

An all-atom force field consistent with the general AMBER force field (GAFF) format for poly(ethylene glycol) dimethyl ether (diglyme or G2) was developed by fitting to experimental liquid densities and dielectric constants. Not surprisingly, the new force field gives excellent agreement with experimental liquid phase densities and dielectric constants over a wide temperature range. Other dynamic and thermodynamic properties of liquid G2 such as its self-diffusion coefficient, shear viscosity, and vaporization enthalpy were also calculated and compared to experimental data. For all of the properties studied, the performance of the proposed new force field is better than that of the standard GAFF force field. The force field parameters were transferred to model two other poly(ethylene glycol) ethers: monoglyme (G1) and tetraglyme (G4). The predictive ability of the modified force field for G1 and G4 was significantly better than that of the original GAFF force field. The proposed force field provides an alternative option for the simulation of mixtures containing glymes using GAFF-compatible force fields, particularly for electrochemical applications. The accuracy of a previously published force field based on the OPLS-AA format and the accuracies of two modified versions of that force field were also examined for G1, G2, and G4. It was found that the original OPLS-AA force field is superior to the modified versions of it, and that it has a similar accuracy to the proposed new GAFF-compatible force field. Graphical abstract Transferability of an AMBER-compatible force field parameterized for G2 to other glymes.

Evaluation of phase state and rotational viscosity of fast response liquid crystals using a fully atomistic molecular dynamics

ABSTRACTRational design of liquid crystals (LCs) with excellent phase state and rotational viscosity has been a crucial technique for response speed improvement of LC wavefront corrector. A complete process for theoretically evaluating the phase state and rotational viscosity of fast response LCs using a fully atomistic molecular dynamics is reported. Predicted trends in molecular order, phase-transition temperature between metastable states and rotational viscosity show excellent agreement with experimental results. We also demonstrate that overestimation of the attraction both between and within molecules in the general Amber force field mainly leads to a systematic shift in the phase-transition temperature, rotational viscosity and figure-of-merit for fast response LCs. With further optimisations of intermolecular potential, simulation procedure and data processing, this fully atomistic simulation will be a useful evaluation method of response performance of LC materials.

Deep eutectic solvent formation: a structural view using molecular dynamics simulations with classical force fields

ABSTRACTDeep eutectic solvents (DES) have gained a reputation as inexpensive and easy to handle ionic liquid analogues. This work employs molecular dynamics (MD) to simulate a variety of DES. The hydrogen bond acceptor (HBA) choline chloride was paired with the hydrogen bond donors (HBD) glycerol, 1,4-butanediol, and levulinic acid. Levulinic acid was also paired with the zwitterionic HBA betaine. In order to evaluate the reliability of data MD simulations can provide for DES, two force fields were compared: the Merck Molecular Force Field and the General Amber Force Field with two different sets of partial charges for the latter. The force fields were evaluated by comparing available experimental thermodynamic and transport properties against simulated values. Structural analysis was performed on the eutectic systems and compared to non-eutectic compositions. All force fields could be validated against certain experimental properties, but performance varied depending on the system and property in question. While extensive hydrogen bonding was found for all systems, details about the contribution of individual groups strongly varied among force fields. Interaction potentials revealed that HBA–HBA interactions weaken linearly with increasing HBD ratio, while HBD–HBD interactions grew disproportionally in magnitude, which might hint at the eutectic composition of a system.

Single Conformation Spectroscopy of Suberoylanilide Hydroxamic Acid: A Molecule Bites Its Tail.

Suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) is a histone deacetylase inhibitor that causes growth arrest and differentiation of many tumor types and is an approved drug for the treatment of cancer. The chemical structure of SAHA consists of formanilide "head" and a hydroxamic acid "tail" separated by an n-hexyl chain, C6H5NH(C═O)-(CH2)6-(C═O)NHOH. The alkyl chain's preference for extended structures is in competition with tail-to-head (T-H) or head-to-tail (H-T) hydrogen bonds between the amide and hydroxamic acid groups. Laser desorption was used to bring SAHA into the gas phase and cool it in a supersonic expansion before interrogation with mass-resolved resonant two-photon ionization spectroscopy. Single conformation UV spectra in the S0-S1 region and infrared spectra in the hydride stretch and mid-IR regions were recorded using IR-UV hole-burning and resonant ion-dip infrared spectroscopy, respectively. Three conformers of SAHA were distinguished and spectroscopically characterized. Comparison of the experimental IR spectra with the predictions of density functional theory calculations (DFT, B3LYP D3BJ/6-31+G(d)) leads to assignments for the three conformers, all of which possess tightly folded alkyl chains that enable formation of a T-H (conformer A) or H-T (conformers B and C) hydrogen bonds. A modified version of the generalized Amber force field was developed to more accurately describe the hydroxamic acid OH internal rotor potential, leading to predictions for the relative energies in reasonable agreement with experiment. This force field was used to generate a disconnectivity graph for the low-energy portion of the potential energy landscape of SAHA. This disconnectivity graph contains more than one hundred minima and maps out the lowest-energy pathways between them, which could then be characterized via DFT calculations. This combination of force field and DFT calculations provides insight into the potential energy landscape and how population was funneled into the three observed conformers.

Developing force fields when experimental data is sparse: AMBER/GAFF-compatible parameters for inorganic and alkyl oxoanions.

We present a set of Lennard-Jones parameters for classical, all-atom models of acetate and various alkylated and non-alkylated forms of sulfate, sulfonate and phosphate ions, optimized to reproduce their interactions with water and with the physiologically relevant sodium, ammonium and methylammonium cations. The parameters are internally consistent and are fully compatible with the Generalized Amber Force Field (GAFF), the AMBER force field for proteins, the accompanying TIP3P water model and the sodium model of Joung and Cheatham. The parameters were developed primarily relying on experimental information - hydration free energies and solution activity derivatives at 0.5 m concentration - with ab initio, gas phase calculations being used for the cases where experimental information is missing. The ab initio parameterization scheme presented here is distinct from other approaches because it explicitly connects gas phase binding energies to intermolecular interactions in solution. We demonstrate that the original GAFF/AMBER parameters often overestimate anion-cation interactions, leading to an excessive number of contact ion pairs in solutions of carboxylate ions, and to aggregation in solutions of divalent ions. GAFF/AMBER parameters lead to excessive numbers of salt bridges in proteins and of contact ion pairs between sodium and acidic protein groups, issues that are resolved by using the optimized parameters presented here.

Experimental and in silico characterization of xylitol as seasonal heat storage material

Solid-liquid phase change is one of the most favorable means of compact heat storage in the built environment. Recent studies propose C4-C6 polyalcohols for seasonal storage applications, for their high latent melting enthalpy, evident supercooling effect, and low environmental impact. In this study, we carry out a comprehensive study of xylitol as a seasonal heat storage material, using both experimental techniques and theoretical predictions based on molecular dynamics simulations. In the experimental measurements, the melting enthalpy of xylitol is determined to be 263(13) kJ/kg (0.95 level of confidence) at a melting point of 366.15(50) K. A more than 70 K supercooling is observed during a cooling test, with xylitol being in liquid state at around 300 K. However, at such a low temperature, the molecular mobility is greatly reduced, causing a reduced crystal growth speed. The thermal conductivity of xylitol liquid at 303 K is 0.42(4) W/m/K, roughly independent of the temperature. In the molecular dynamics simulations, multiple molecular models (force fields) are tested and validated. The generalized AMBER force field (gAff) has the best performance. Using this model, the large melting enthalpy of xylitol is found to be related to the rich and strong hydrogen bonds in the solid state.

High-Resolution Coarse-Grained Model of Hydrated Anion-Exchange Membranes that Accounts for Hydrophobic and Ionic Interactions through Short-Ranged Potentials.

Molecular simulations provide a versatile tool to study the structure, anion conductivity, and stability of anion-exchange membrane (AEM) materials and can provide a fundamental understanding of the relation between structure and property of membranes that is key for their use in fuel cells and other applications. The quest for large spatial and temporal scales required to model the multiscale structure and transport processes in the polymer electrolyte membranes, however, cannot be met with fully atomistic models, and the available coarse-grained (CG) models suffer from several challenges associated with their low-resolution. Here, we develop a high-resolution CG force field for hydrated polyphenylene oxide/trimethylamine chloride (PPO/TMACl) membranes compatible with the mW water model using a hierarchical parametrization approach based on Uncertainty Quantification and reference atomistic simulations modeled with the Generalized Amber Force Field (GAFF) and TIP4P/2005 water. The parametrization weighs multiple properties, including coordination numbers, radial distribution functions (RDFs), self-diffusion coefficients of water and ions, relative vapor pressure of water in the solution, hydration enthalpy of the tetramethylammonium chloride (TMACl) salt, and cohesive energy of its aqueous solutions. We analyze the interdependence between properties and address how to compromise between the accuracies of the properties to achieve an overall best representability. Our optimized CG model FFcomp quantitatively reproduces the diffusivities and RDFs of the reference atomistic model and qualitatively reproduces the experimental relative vapor pressure of water in solutions of tetramethylammonium chloride. These properties are of utmost relevance for the design and operation of fuel cell membranes. To our knowledge, this is the first CG model that includes explicitly each water and ion and accounts for hydrophobic, ionic, and intramolecular interactions explicitly parametrized to reproduce multiple properties of interest for hydrated polyelectrolyte membranes. The CG model of hydrated PPO/TMACl water is about 100 times faster than the reference atomistic GAFF-TIP4P/2005 model. The strategy implemented here can be used in the parametrization of CG models for other substances, such as biomolecular systems and membranes for desalination, water purification, and redox flow batteries. We anticipate that the large spatial and temporal simulations made possible by the CG model will advance the quest for anion-exchange membranes with improved transport and mechanical properties.

Effects of functionality on the transport properties of thiol-ene/acrylate systems: A molecular dynamics study

Photopolymerization reaction of thiol-ene/acrylate systems are known to be of multi-faceted use in fabrication of materials from areas such as materials science, bioconjugation and drug delivery. Knowledge of various properties of the starting modular units helps in development of end user applications. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation technique, with the help of Generalized Amber Force Field (GAFF), is employed to predict self-diffusivity and viscosity of six ‘acrylate’, five ‘thiol’ and five ‘ene’ monomers within a temperature range of 293–333K. Applicability of GAFF is validated for this work with the prediction of viscosity and density of methyl acrylate, ethyl acrylate and butyl acrylate at the said temperature range. The deviation of predicted viscosity and densites from experimental values fell within 20% and 0.18% respectively. A range of transport properties with respect to self-diffusion (~10−10m2s−1) and viscosity (~100mPa·s) were obtained across all the five ‘thiol’, five ‘ene’ and six ‘acrylate’ monomers. Reaction-diffusion mechanism of thiol-ene/acrylate photopolymerization requires computation of multicomponent diffusion as it is often seen to be the rate limiting step. Predictive Darken equation is used to obtain Fick's diffusivity values from Maxwell-Stefan diffusivities for fourteen binary systems which shows resemblance with experimental findings. Viscosity values for the mixtures have also been reported.

Prediction of cyclohexane-water distribution coefficient for SAMPL5 drug-like compounds with the QMPFF3 and ARROW polarizable force fields.

We present the performance of blind predictions of water-cyclohexane distribution coefficients for 53 drug-like compounds in the SAMPL5 challenge by three methods currently in use within our group. Two of them utilize QMPFF3 and ARROW, polarizable force-fields of varying complexity, and the third uses the General Amber Force-Field (GAFF). The polarizable FF's are implemented in an in-house MD package, Arbalest. We find that when we had time to parametrize the functional groups with care (batch 0), the polarizable force-fields outperformed the non-polarizable one. Conversely, on the full set of 53 compounds, GAFF performed better than both QMPFF3 and ARROW. We also describe the torsion-restrain method we used to improve sampling of molecular conformational space and thus the overall accuracy of prediction. The SAMPL5 challenge highlighted several drawbacks of our force-fields, such as our significant systematic over-estimation of hydrophobic interactions, specifically for alkanes and aromatic rings.

Calculating Partition Coefficients of Small Molecules in Octanol/Water and Cyclohexane/Water.

Partition coefficients describe how a solute is distributed between two immiscible solvents. They are used in drug design as a measure of a solute's hydrophobicity and a proxy for its membrane permeability. We calculate partition coefficients from transfer free energies using molecular dynamics simulations in explicit solvent. Setup is done by our new Solvation Toolkit which automates the process of creating input files for any combination of solutes and solvents for many popular molecular dynamics software packages. We calculate partition coefficients between octanol/water and cyclohexane/water with the Generalized AMBER Force Field (GAFF) and the Dielectric Corrected GAFF (GAFF-DC). With similar methods in the past we found a root-mean-squared error (RMSE) of 6.3 kJ/mol in hydration free energies which would correspond to an error of around 1.6 log units in partition coefficients if solvation free energies in both solvents were estimated with comparable accuracy. Here we find an overall RMSE of about 1.2 log units with both force fields. Results from GAFF and GAFF-DC seem to exhibit systematic biases in opposite directions for calculated cyclohexane/water partition coefficients.

Kirkwood-Buff Integrals for Aqueous Urea Solutions Based upon the Quantum Chemical Electrostatic Potential and Interaction Energies.

Cosolvents, such as urea, affect protein folding and binding, and the solubility of solutes. The modeling of cosolvents has been facilitated significantly by the rigorous Kirkwood-Buff (KB) theory of solutions, which can describe structural thermodynamics over the entire composition range of aqueous cosolvent mixtures based only on the solution density and the KB integrals (KBIs), i.e., the net excess radial distribution functions from the bulk. Using KBIs to describe solution thermodynamics has given rise to a clear guideline that an accurate prediction of KBIs is equivalent to accurate modeling of cosolvents. Taking urea as an example, here we demonstrate that an improvement in the prediction of KBIs comes from an improved reproduction of high-level quantum chemical (QC) electrostatic potential and molecular pairwise interaction energies. This rational approach to the improvement of the KBI prediction stems from a comparison of existing force fields, AMOEBA, and the generalized AMBER force field, as well as the further optimization of the former to enable better agreement with QC interaction energies. Such improvements would pave the way toward a rational and systematic determination of the transferable force field parameters for a number of important small molecule cosolvents.