Ce mémoire présente une méthodologie théorique pour comprendre l'origine de différence de comportement dynamique de complexes alkylidènes, catalyseurs de type Schrock de la métathèse des oléfines, greffés un support de silice amorphe. Dans un travail antérieur, les différences entre les valeurs de l'anisotropie de déplacement chimique (CSA) obtenus par des mesures de RMN du solide et celles estimées par le calcul pour des systèmes figés avaient conduit à suggérer des régimes dynamiques différents pour ces complexes, certains étant proposés comme immobiles, d'autres comme mobiles. Dans le premier groupe se trouve les complexes du molybdène et dans le second les complexes du tungstène, rhénium et tantale. Dans le cadre de cette thèse, nous nous sommes donc attachés à mettre en place une méthodologie pour déterminer ces CSA et donc la nature de la dynamique de chaque système qui conduit au CSA moyenné. Nous nous sommes d'abord intéressés à des systèmes moléculaires pour révéler des interactions non covalentes entre les complexes et le support silice à partir d'une approche de type petit cluster en utilisant divers niveaux de calculs DFT et modèles moléculaires. Cette modélisation moléculaire de la silice étant insuffisante, nous avons entrepris une modélisation de la surface de silice amorphe par dynamique moléculaire classique dont les caractéristiques ont été comparées aux données expérimentales existantes. Le comportement dynamique de ces systèmes greffés sur silice amorphe a été simulé par dynamique moléculaire ab initio QM/MM, couplant une description quantique du complexe organométallique à une description classique du support. Ces études dynamiques ont conduit à des valeurs de CSA moyennées dans le temps de la dynamique. La comparaison de ces valeurs calculées et des valeurs expérimentales a permis d'apporter des éléments de réponse sur l'origine des différences de comportement dynamique de ces complexes alkylidènes. De façon remarquable des mouvements d'ensemble des espèces greffées par rapport à la surface de silice et des modifications de la coordination du métal par l'apparition d'interaction agostique contribuent à moyenner le CSA. / This work presents a theoretical study aimed at analyzing the origin of the differences in the dynamics of alkylidenes complexes, known as Schrock olefin metathesis catalysts, supported on amorphous silica. The difference between the experimental chemical shift anisotropies (CSA) obtained from solid state NMR measurements and the values computed for the most stable configurations have been used in previous work to suggest different dynamical behaviors for the supported complexes. Some of the complexes were suggested to have limited mobilities while others were suggested to be mobiles. In the first group, one finds Mo complexes, and in the second, W, Re and Ta complexes. In this thesis, a methodology was established to compute the CSA and to obtain information on the dynamics that average the CSA over time. In the first part of this work, molecular species were considered and the non covalent interactions between the surface and the grafted complexes were studied with various DFT levels of calculations and various molecular models. This molecular modeling being inappropriate, a better representation of the surface of amorphous silica was carried out with classical molecular dynamic methods. The nature of the surface was analyzed and compared with available experimental information. In a following step, the dynamic behavior of these complexes was determined using anab initio molecular dynamics (QM/MM) approach in which the metal fragments are treated at the quantum level and the support represented in a classical manner. These molecular dynamics studies yield time averaged CSA that are reasonably close to the experimental values and confirm in particular the partition into immobile (Mo) and mobile (W, Re, Ta) complexes. A detailed analysis of the results leads to a better understanding of the nature of the dynamics. Remarkably, motions relative to the silica surface and vibrations influencing the coordination sphere of the metal involving in particular agostic interactions both contribute to average the CSA.

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Ce travail se situe dans le contexte de la chimie des organolithiens, qui a fait l’objet de nombreuses études théoriques et expérimentales pendant ces dernières années. Il concerne plus particulièrement l’étude de la structure et de la réactivité des systèmes superbasiques monométalliques lithiés à l’aide de différents outils de la chimie théorique. Dans un premier temps, la dynamique moléculaire et les méthodes mixtes QM/MM ont été utilisées pour modéliser l’effet d’un solvant coordinant sur les différents types d’agrégats. Ensuite, le rôle de la solvatation sur la contribution entropique et enthalpique à l’énergie libre des agrégats n-BuLi, LiPM (LiPM= (S)-N-méthyle-2-pyrrolidine méthylate de lithium) et des agrégats mixtes n-BuLi / LiPM a été discuté en détail. Enfin, nous avons réalisé quelques calculs d’états de transition qui ont permis de discuter les mécanismes réactionnels possibles lors de la réaction de la 2-chloropyridine avec la superbase n-BuLi / LiPM dans différents solvants. / In this work, we report computational investigation intended to get a deeper insight on the structure and reactivity of organolithium compounds and the role of solvent on aggregation. Briefly, we have investigated : (1) The structure and the dynamics of simple aggregates in ethereal solvents. (2) The structure of n-BuLi, LiPM and mixed n-BuLi/LiPM aggregates in gas phase, hexane and THF. (3) The reaction mechanisms of n-BuLi/LiPM aggregates with pyridine making a comparison between the reaction rates for a-, ortho-metallation and nucleophilic addition. Several solvent models have been used. Molecular Dynamics simulations have been carried out using a previously developed QM/MM approach. Quantum mechanical calculations have been carried out at density functional theory and ab initio levels.

<div>Computational Chemistry has proven to be an effective means of solving chemical problems. The two main tools of Computational Chemistry - quantum mechanics and molecular mechanics, have provided viable avenues to probe such chemical problems at an electronic or molecular level, with varying levels of accuracy and speed. In this work, attempts have been made to combine the speed of molecular mechanics and the accuracy of quantum mechanics to work across multiples scales of time and length, effectively resulting in simulations of large chemical systems without compromising the accuracy.</div><div><br></div><div>The primary tool utilized for methods development and application in this work is the Effective Fragment Potential (EFP) method. The EFP method is a computational technique for studying non-covalent interactions in complex systems. EFP is an accurate \textit{ab initio} force field, with accuracy comparable to many Density Functional Theory (DFT) methods, at significantly lower computational cost. EFP decomposes intermolecular interactions into contributions from four terms: electrostatics, polarization, exchange-repulsion and dispersion.</div><div><br></div><div>In the first chapter, the possibility of applying EFP method to study large radical-water clusters is probed. An approximate theoretical model in which the transition dipole moments of excitations are computed using the information from the ground state orbitals is implemented.</div><div><br></div><div>A major challenge to broaden the scope of EFP is to overcome its limitation in describing only small and rigid molecules such as water, acetone, etc. In the second chapter, the extension of EFP method to large covalently bound biomolecules and polymers such as proteins, lipids etc., is described. Using this new method, referred to as BioEFP/mEFP, it is shown that the effect of polarization is non-negligible and must be accounted for when modeling photochemical and electron-transfer processes in photoactive proteins.</div><div><br></div><div>Another area of interest is the development of novel drug-target binding models, in which a chemically active part of the ligand is modified via functional group modification, while the rest of the system remains intact. In the third chapter, the development and application of a drug-target binding model is explained.<br></div><div><br></div><div><div>Lastly, in the fourth and final chapter, we show the derivation for working equations corresponding to the coupling gradient term describing the dispersion interactions between quantum mechanical and effective fragment potential regions.</div><div><br></div><div>The primary focus of this work is to explore and expand the boundaries of multiscale QM/MM simulations applied to chemical and biomolecular systems. We believe that the work described here leads to exciting pathways in the future in terms of modeling novel systems and processes such as heterogeneous catalysis, QSAR, crystal structure prediction, etc.</div></div>

In this thesis methodological developments have been made for the description of flexible conjugated dyes in room temperature spectrum calculations. The methods in question target increased accuracy and efficiency by combining classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with time-dependent response theory spectrum calculations. For absorption and fluorescence spectroscopies a form of conformational averaging is used, where the final spectrum is obtained as an average of spectra calculated for geometries extracted from ground and excited state MD simulations. For infrared and Raman spectroscopies averaged spectra are calculated based on individual spectra, obtained for zero-temperature optimized molecular structures, weighted by conformational statistics from MD trajectories. Statistics for structural properties are also used in both cases to gain additional information about the systems, allowing more efficient utilization of computational resources. As it is essential that the molecular mechanics description of the system is highly accurate for methods of this nature to be effective, high quality force field parameters have been derived, describing the molecules of interest in either the MM3 or CHARMM force fields. These methods have been employed in the study of three systems. The first is a platinum(II) actylide chromophore used in optical power limiting materials, for which a ultraviolet/visible absorption spectrum has been calculated. The second is a family of molecular probes called luminescent conjugated oligothiophenes, used to detect and characterize amyloid proteins, for which both absorption and fluorescence spectra have been calculated. Finally, infrared and Raman spectra have been calculated for a group of branched oligothiophenes used in organic solar cells. In addition, solvation effects have been studied for conjugated poly\-eletrolytes in water, resulting in the development of two solvation models suitable for this class of molecules. The first uses a quantum meachanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) description, in which the solute mole\-cule is described using accurate quantum mechanical methods while the surrounding water molecules are described using point charges and polarizable point dipoles. The second discards the water entirely and removes the ionic groups of the solute. The QM/MM model provides highly accurate results while the cut-down model gives results of slightly lower quality but at a much reduced computational cost. Finally, a study of protein-dye interactions has been performed, with the goal of explaining changes in the luminescence properties of the LCO chromophores when in the presence of amyloid proteins. Results were less than conclusive.

Submitted by Marlene Santos (marlene.bc.ufg@gmail.com) on 2016-04-20T18:45:25Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertaçao - Leandro Rezende Franco- 2016.pdf: 12911790 bytes, checksum: 424add978f6ebc12f99143d7bb1c924f (MD5) license_rdf: 19874 bytes, checksum: 38cb62ef53e6f513db2fb7e337df6485 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2016-04-25T14:29:50Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertaçao - Leandro Rezende Franco- 2016.pdf: 12911790 bytes, checksum: 424add978f6ebc12f99143d7bb1c924f (MD5) license_rdf: 19874 bytes, checksum: 38cb62ef53e6f513db2fb7e337df6485 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T14:29:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertaçao - Leandro Rezende Franco- 2016.pdf: 12911790 bytes, checksum: 424add978f6ebc12f99143d7bb1c924f (MD5) license_rdf: 19874 bytes, checksum: 38cb62ef53e6f513db2fb7e337df6485 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-29 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The combined use of the Sequential QM/MM method with the ASEC mean field approximation [1] and the Free Energy Gradient method [2] has been very successful in describing the electronic structure of molecules in solution [3]. The advantage of this combination is that it permits the usage of an atomic- level modeling of the whole system, in contrast to continuum models, and, at the same time, it is less computationally expensive than ab initio or QM/MM simulations, even allowing the employment of more sophisticated electronic structure methods. In this context, the present work deals with the study of conformational and electronic structure, in solvent medium, of two organic compounds, DMACA and Phenol Blue, which have in common the characteristic of having acceptor-donor groups. The study is conducted in the presence of nonpolar, polar protic and polar aprotic solvents. It is adopted as basic methodology the ASEC-FEG, but also it is made a study with a continuum method, namely PCM. The results show that the solvent effect causes a significant geometric distortion of the molecules of interest while causing an internal charge displacement from donor group to acceptor group. Both effects are more pronounced in protic and aprotic solvents but mainly in protic solvents, in which hydrogen bonds lead to a greater solute polarization. The absorption spectra of these molecules, calculated by TD-DFT (CAM-B3LYP), directly reflect these changes. For all solvents, the absolute values of electronic transitions and their respective solvatochromic shifts are in good agreement with the experimental results. / O uso combinado de métodos QM/MM sequencial com uma aproximação de campo médio (ASEC) [1] e o método do Gradiente de Energia Livre [2] tem tido sucesso na descrição da estrutura eletrônica de moléculas em solução [3]. Uma das vantagens dessa combinação é que ela permite o tratamento do sistema soluto-solvente em um nível atomístico, em contraste com modelos contínuos, e tem a vantagem de, ao mesmo tempo, ser uma metodologia menos cara computacionalmente do que simulações QM/MM ab initio [4]. Nesse contexto, o presente trabalho versa sobre o estudo da estrutura conformacional e eletrônica, em meio, de dois compostos orgânicos, DMACA e Phenol Blue, que tem em comum a característica de possuir grupos aceitador e doador de elétrons. O estudo é realizado na presença de solventes apolares, polares apróticos e polares próticos. Adota-se como metodologia básica o método QM/MM sequencial utilizando o ASEC, mas faz-se também um estudo com um método contínuo conhecido, o PCM. Os resultados mostram que o efeito de solvente provoca uma signifativa reestruturação geométrica das moléculas de interesse, ao mesmo tempo em que causa um deslocamento interno de carga do grupo doador para o grupo aceitador. Os dois efeitos são mais pronuciados em solventes apróticos e próticos, mas principalmente nos solventes próticos, em que as ligações de hidrogênio levam a uma maior polarização do soluto. Essas mudanças refletem diretamente no espectro de absorção, calculado por TD-DFT (CAM-B3LYP), dessas moléculas. Dos meios apolares, passando pelos polares apróticos, indo até os polares próticos, os valores absolutos das transições eletrônicas e seus respectivos deslocamentos solvatocrômicos encontram-se em bom acordo com os resultados experimentais.

Molecular drug design begins with the identication of a problem to solve. This work identies the growing resistance among human pathogens to current treatments. Once the problem is identied and understood, solutions must be proposed. This one is straight forward, we need new antimicrobial drugs. More specically, we need to identify novel targets to inhibit. A large portion of antibiotics focus on disruption of macromolecular production while only a few target metabolic systems. Finally, you need to propose solutions based on the information gathered. In order to avoid existing resistance, it is important to avoid the macromolecular route and focus on metabolic enzymes. Preferably, the pathway would have little overlap or similarity with pathways found in the treatment organism. With this in mind, the non-mevalonate (NMA) pathway poses as a very good target for drug design. Many pathogens have been found to be strictly dependent on this pathway while it is absent in humans. Additionally, fosmidomycin has already been shown to inhibit this pathway. Initially thought to just inhibit the 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5- phosphate (DXP) reductoisomerase (DXR), it has been shown to inhibit several enzymes along the path to a lesser extent. Ideally, this could be repeated or improve upon for future drug design. With this in mind, the initial stages of the rst two enzymes of the NMA pathway were examined utilizing quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) techniques. The rst enzyme was DXP synthase (DXS), which catalyzes a transketolase-like condensation of pyruvate and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate to produce DXP. DXS and other transketolases are dependent on the thiamine diphosphate (TDP) cofactor, which must be deprotonated of the imidazolium C2 atom producing a highly reactive ylide. A tautomerization occurs prior to this deprotonation to prime the pyrimidinium ring N4 atom to perform the C2 abstraction. The question at hand was the identity of a general base to perform the N4 abstraction. The results favored a water-mediate mechanism with a higher than usual Ez of 22.7 kcal/mol. An observation pertaining the tautomerization pertained to the aromaticity of the pyrimidine ring. Upon further investigation, aromaticity was found to play a signicant role in the ΔE observed. Aromaticity might contribute 14.2 kcal/mol to the barrier height. This high energy would drive the reaction forward producing the ylide. Investigation of the DXR enzyme followed this work. Initially, the work was going to focus on the 2 mechanisms proposed for activity, alpha-ketol rearrangement and retroaldol/ aldol mechanism. Subsequent publications involving secondary kinetic isotope effects (KIEs) add to the pile of evidence supporting the retro-aldol/aldol mechanism. So the project was retooled to investigate the energetic dierences between two metal binding modes. The results of this work support a metal coordination across the C3-C4 bond, which eventually extends coordination to include the C2 oxygen. This conformation was help explain the tight binding eecting observation of the putative intermediates (transition states) and aldehyde intermediate. Additionally, as the C2-C3 mode consistently transfers a proton to the phosphate group of DXP or produces an elongated C-O bond, the C2-C3 mode would not be favorable. Further investigations of these enzymes (e.g. completing the step begin, continuing through the reaction) could provide further illumination into the mechanism of action and possibly reveal new avenues of drug design. Examining the enzymes downstream in the NMA pathway might provide details of interest. Of particular interest is the radical reaction proposed for HDR/IspH. The nal step of the pathway produces IDP and DMADP in a 4:1 proportion, which corresponds to the general system requirements for production of the long chain, branched isoprenoids. It would be interesting to compute the mechanism to see if energetics could provide further insights. Additionally, normal mode analysis coupled with vibrational subsystem analysis could identify allosteric sites for feedback sensitivity.

Computational methods have been extensively developed at various levels of approximation in recent years to model biomolecular interactions and for rational drug design. This research work aims to explore the feasibility of using quantum mechanical (QM) methods within the two broad categories of in silico ligand-based and structure-based drug design. First, density functional theory at the M06L level of theory was employed to examine structure-activity relationships of boron-based heterocyclic compounds, anti-inflammatory inhibitors targetting the interleukin-1β (IL-1β) cytokine. Our findings from computed energies and shapes of the molecular orbitals provide understanding of electronic effects associated with the inhibitory activity. We also found that the boron atom, specifically its electrostatic polarity, appears to be essential for the anti-IL-1β activity as evidenced by the biological assay of non-boron analogues selected from the ligand-based virtual screening results. Secondly, we aimed to dock ligands at the active sites of zinc-containing metalloproteins with reasonable computational cost and with accuracy. Therefore, an in-house docking scheme based on a Monte Carlo sampling algorithm using the semiempirical PM6/AMBER force field scoring function was compiled for the first time within the Gaussian 09 program. It was applied to four test cases, docking to cytidine deaminase and human carbonic anhydrase II proteins. The docking results show the method’s promise in resolving false-positive docking poses and improving the predicted binding modes over a conventional docking scheme. Finally, semiempirical QM methods which include dispersion and hydrogen-bond corrections were assessed for modelling conformations of β-cyclodextrin (βCD) and their adsorption on graphene. The closed in vacuo βCD cccw conformer was found to be in the lowest energy, in good agreement with previous ab initio QM studies. DFTB3, PM6-DH2 and PM7 methods were applied to model the intermolecular interactions of large βCD/graphene complexes, over a thousand atoms in size. We found that the binding preference of βCD on graphene is in a closed conformation via its C2C3 rim, agreeing with reported experimental and computational findings.

In this thesis, we have employed two computational methods, molecular dynamics (MD) and hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) MD simulations with umbrella sampling (US), to gain insights into the molecular mechanism governing the molecular recognition and reactivity in several protein-ligand complexes. Three systems involving protein-ligand interactions are examined in this dissertation utilizing well-established computational methodologies and mathematical modeling. The three proteins studied here are acetylcholinesterase (AChE), butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), and peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase NIMA-interacting 1 (PIN1). These enzymes are known to interact with a variety of ligands. AChE dysfunction caused by organophosphorus (OP) chemicals is a severe hazard since AChE is a critical enzyme in neurotransmission. Oximes are chemical compounds that can reactivate inhibited AChE; hence in the development of better oximes, it is critical to understand the mechanism through which OPs block AChE. We have described the covalent inhibition mechanism between AChE and the OP insecticide phorate oxon and its more potent metabolites and established their free energy profiles using QM/MM MD-US for the first time. Our results suggest a concerted mechanism and provide insights into the challenges in reactivating phorate oxon inhibited AChE. Reactivating BChE is another therapeutic approach to detoxifying circulating OP molecules before reaching the target AChE. We explored the covalent modification of BChE with phorate oxon and its metabolites using hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) umbrella sampling simulations (PM6/ff14SB) for the inhibition process. Our results reveal that the mechanism is distinct between the inhibitors. The PM6 methodology is a good predictor of these compounds' potency, which may efficiently help study OPs like phorate oxon with larger leaving groups. Finally, we investigated the interactions between Peptidyl-prolyl isomerase (PPIase), which consists of a peptidyl isomerase (PPIase) domain flexibly tethered to a smaller Trp-Trp (WW) protein-binding domain, and chimeric peptides based on the human histone H1.4 sequence (KATGAApTPKKSAKW), as well as the effects on inter-domain dynamics. Using explicit solvent MD simulations, simulated annealing, and native contact analysis, our modeling sugget that the residues in the N-terminal immediate to the pSer/Thr Pro site connect the PPIase and WW domains via a series of hydrogen bonds and native contacts.

No description available.