DFT STUDY OF BOND ENERGIES AND ATTACHMENT SITES OF SAMPLE DIVALENT CATIONS (Mg2+, Ca2+, Zn2+) TO HISTIDINE IN THE GAS PHASE.

In view of better understanding interactions of amino acids and peptides with metallic cations in the isolated state, the model system histidine–M2+ (M2+ = Mg2+, Ca2+, Zn2+) has been studied theoretically. The computations have been performed with the help of the density functional theory (DFT) and the B3LYP functional. The extended basis set was the standard 6-311++G**. All the molecular complexes obtained by the interaction between several energetically low-lying tautomers/conformers/zwitterions of histidine and the cations on different binding sites were considered. Our study shows that complexes of histidine with Mg2+, Ca2+, Zn2+ are rather similar. In the isolated state, the most stable form corresponds to a tridentate complex in which the cation interacts with oxygen and two nitrogen atoms: one from the terminal NH2 and one from the imidazole ring. All computations indicate that the metal ion affinity (MIA) decreases on going from Zn2+ to Mg2+ and Ca2+, for the considered amino acid. This indicates that histidine prefers to bind to the transition metal cation rather than alkali earth metals. The influence of theses cations on the acidity of histidine were also considered. As expected, upon metal complexation, proton dissociation of histidine becomes much more favorable, that is, its acidity becomes much less endothermic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]