Probing intermolecular interactions in water/ionic liquid mixtures by far-infrared spectroscopy

Far-infrared spectra in the range from 600 to 20 cm-1 of two hydrophilic (1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate) and one hydrophobic (1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate) ionic liquids and their mixtures with water at different concentrations are reported. Shifts of the librational water bands depending on the nature of the anion are found to be related to the strength of the interaction between the water molecules and the anions. For both hydrophilic ionic liquids, the librational band is centered around 460 cm-1, whereas for the hydrophobic ionic liquid, it is shifted to 388 cm-1, indicating less hindered rotation of single water molecules. Multivariate curve resolution, paying special attention to the spectral range from 50 to 350 cm-1, was used to investigate the presence of different species with increasing water concentration. For both hydrophilic ionic liquids, a band located at 153 cm-1 was resolved into two different contributions. A small contribution at 202 cm-1 can be attributed to intermolecular interactions between water molecules forming dimers. The major contribution (centered at 148 cm-1) corresponds to water molecules that do not bond to each other via H-bonding. It is therefore assigned to a hindered translation arising from the stretching of the hydrogen bond between BF4- anions and water molecules. Formation of water dimers in the hydrophobic ionic liquid does not occur. Furthermore, the spectral contribution of the stretching of H-bonds between water molecules and PF6- cannot be unambiguously detected, which indicates an extremely weak interaction between water molecules and this anion.     

Single particle and collective hydration dynamics for hydrophobic and hydrophilic peptides

We have conducted extensive molecular dynamics simulations to study the single particle and collective dynamics of water in solutions of N-acetyl-glycine-methylamide, a model hydrophilic protein backbone, and N-acetyl-leucine-methylamide, a model (amphiphilic) hydrophobic peptide, as a function of peptide concentration. Various analytical models commonly used in the analysis of incoherent quasielastic neutron scattering (QENS), are tested against the translational and rotational intermediate scattering function, the mean square displacement of the water molecule center of mass, and fits to the second-order rotational correlation function of water evaluated directly from the simulation data. We find that while the agreement between the model-free analysis and analytical QENS models is quantitatively poor, the qualitative feature of dynamical heterogeneity due to caging is captured well by all approaches. The center of mass collective and single particle intermediate scattering functions of water calculated for these peptide solutions show that the crossover from collective to single particle-dominated motions occurs at a higher value of Q for high concentration solutions relative to low concentration because of the greater restriction in movement of water molecules due to confinement. Finally, we have shown that at the same level of confinement of the two peptides, the aqueous amphiphilic amino acid solution shows the strongest deviation between single particle and collective dynamics relative to the hydrophilic amino acid, indicating that chemical heterogeneity induces even greater spatial heterogeneity in the water dynamics.     

Vibrational density of states of hydration water at biomolecular sites: hydrophobicity promotes low density amorphous ice behavior

Inelastic neutron scattering experiments and molecular dynamics simulations have been used to investigate the low frequency modes, in the region between 0 and 100 meV, of hydration water in selected hydrophilic and hydrophobic biomolecules. The results show changes in the plasticity of the hydrogen-bond network of hydration water molecules depending on the biomolecular site. At 200 K, the measured low frequency density of states of hydration water molecules of hydrophilic peptides is remarkably similar to that of high density amorphous ice, whereas, for hydrophobic biomolecules, it is comparable to that of low density amorphous ice behavior. In both hydrophilic and hydrophobic biomolecules, the high frequency modes show a blue shift of the libration mode as compared to the room temperature data. These results can be related to the density of water molecules around the biological interface, suggesting that the apparent local density of water is larger in a hydrophilic environment.     

Ultrafast hydration dynamics in melittin folding and aggregation: helix formation and tetramer self-assembly

Melittin, an amphipathic peptide from honeybee venom, consists of 26 amino acid residues and adopts different conformations from a random coil, to an alpha-helix, and to a self-assembled tetramer under certain aqueous environments. We report here our systematic studies of the hydration dynamics in these conformations using single intrinsic tryptophan (W19) as a molecular probe. With femtosecond resolution, we observed the solvation dynamics occurring in 0.62 and 14.7 ps in a random-coiled primary structure. The former represents bulklike water motion, and the latter reflects surface-type hydration dynamics of proteins. As a comparison, a model tripeptide (KWK) was also studied. At a membrane-water interface, melittin folds into a secondary alpha-helical structure, and the interfacial water motion was found to take as long as 114 ps, indicating a well-ordered water structure along the membrane surface. In high-salt aqueous solution, the dielectric screening and ionic solvation promote the hydrophobic core collapse in melittin aggregation and facilitate the tetramer formation. This self-assembled tertiary structure is also stabilized by the strong hydrophilic interactions of charged C-terminal residues and associated ions with water molecules in the two assembled regions. The hydration dynamics was observed to occur in 87 ps, significantly slower than typical water relaxation at protein surfaces but similar to water motion at membrane interfaces. Thus, the observed time scale of approximately 100 ps probably implies appropriate water mobility for mediating the formation of high-order structures of melittin in an alpha-helix and a self-assembled tetramer. These results elucidate the critical role of hydration dynamics in peptide conformational transitions and protein structural stability and integrity.     

Molecular view of water dynamics near model peptides

Incoherent quasi-elastic neutron scattering (QENS) has been used to measure the dynamics of water molecules in solutions of a model protein backbone, N-acetyl-glycine-methylamide (NAGMA), as a function of concentration, for comparison with results for water dynamics in aqueous solutions of the N-acetyl-leucine-methylamide (NALMA) hydrophobic peptide at comparable concentrations. From the analysis of the elastic incoherent structure factor, we find significant fractions of elastic intensity at high and low concentrations for both solutes, which corresponds to a greater population of protons with rotational time scales outside the experimental resolution (>13 ps). The higher-concentration solutions show a component of the elastic fraction that we propose is due to water motions that are strongly coupled to the solute motions, while for low-concentration solutions an additional component is activated due to dynamic coupling between inner and outer hydration layers. An important difference between the solute types at the highest concentration studied is found from stretched exponential fits to their experimental intermediate scattering functions, showing more pronounced anomalous diffusion signatures for NALMA, including a smaller stretched exponent beta and a longer structural relaxation time tau than those found for NAGMA. The more normal water diffusion exhibited near the hydrophilic NAGMA provides experimental support for an explanation of the origin of the anomalous diffusion behavior of NALMA as arising from frustrated interactions between water molecules when a chemical interface is formed upon addition of a hydrophobic side chain, inducing spatial heterogeneity in the hydration dynamics in the two types of regions of the NALMA peptide. We place our QENS measurements on model biological solutes in the context of other spectroscopic techniques and provide both confirming as well as complementary dynamic information that attempts to give a unifying molecular view of hydration dynamics signatures near peptides and proteins.     

Inelastic neutron scattering study of water in hydrated LTA-type zeolites

The vibrational dynamics of water molecules encapsulated in synthetic Na-A and Mg-exchanged A zeolites were studied versus temperature by inelastic neutron scattering (INS) measurements (30-1200 cm(-1)) as a function of the induced ion-exchange percentage by using the indirect geometry tof spectrometer TOSCA at the ISIS pulse neutron facility (RAL, UK). The experimental INS spectra were compared with those of ice Ih to characterize the structural changes induced by confinement on the H2O hydrogen-bonded network. We observed, after increasing the Mg2+ content, a tendency of water molecules to restore the bulklike arrangements together with more hindered dynamics. These results are confirmed by the analysis of the evaluated one-phonon amplitude-weighted proton vibrational density of states aimed, in particular, to follow the evolution of the water molecules librational mode region.     

Estimation of the hydration of polar groups of α-amino acids by differential scanning calorimetry

The heat capacity of hydration of zwitterions derived from aliphatic amino acids depends linearly on the surface area of the amino acid side radicals accessible to water molecules with the slopeb = 2.35±0.11 J mol^–1 K^–1 Å^–2 at 298 K. The linear correlation between hydration heat capacities of zwitterions of aliphatic amino acids and the corresponding aliphatic alcohols with a coefficient of approximately unity confirms the assumption that hydrophobic hydration does not depend on the nature of the surrounding groups. Using the assumption that the hydration of hydrocarbon radicals is independent of the neighboring groups, theb value has been used to calculate the contributions of polar groups. The contributions of OH, COON, and CONH groups of the side radicals in polar amino acids in the zwitterion form are close to zero; in the case of organic nonionic molecules, these contributions are negative. The increments for polar groups obtained for the zwitterions can be used for the calculation of the heat capacities of proteins and polypeptides incorporating charged amino acid residues. The difference between hydrophilic and hydrophobic hydration mechanisms is manifested not only as different magnitudes and signs of heat capacities and temperature coefficients but also in the fact that the neighboring polar (charged) groups have an effect on hydrophilic hydration but have no effect on hydrophobic hydration.Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 9, pp. 2237–2242, September, 1996.     

Role of hydration in the phase transition of polypeptides investigated by NMR and Raman spectroscopy

NMR, Raman spectroscopy and ab initio quantum-chemical calculations have been employed to investigate the role of the hydration water in the inverse temperature transition of elastin-derived biopolymers represented by poly(Gly-Val-Gly-Val-Pro) and poly(Ala-Val-Gly-Val-Pro). Temperature and concentration dependences of the Raman spectra measured for water solutions of polymers and of a low-molecular-weight model have been correlated with the vibrational frequencies calculated at the DFT (B3LYP) and MP2 levels for the peptide segment surrounded by a growing number of water molecules. The results indicate strong hydration before the transition that, in addition to water hydrogen-bonded to amide groups, includes hydrophobic hydration of non-polar groups by a dynamic cluster of several water molecules. According to ¹H longitudinal and transverse relaxation of HOD signals in D₂O solutions, the number of water molecules motionally correlated with the polymer is about 4 per one amino acid residue.     

L-alanine in a droplet of water: a density-functional molecular dynamics study

We report the results of a Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics study on an L-alanine amino acid in neutral aqueous solution. The whole system, the L-alanine zwitterion and 50 water molecules, was treated quantum mechanically. We found that the hydrophobic side chain (R = CH3) defines the trajectory path of the molecule. Initially fully hydrated in an isolated droplet of water, the amino acid moves to the droplet's surface, exposing its hydrophobic methyl group and alpha-hydrogen out of the water. The structure of an L-alanine with the methyl group exposed to the water surface was found to be energetically favorable compared to a fully hydrated molecule. The dynamic behavior of the system suggests that the first hydration shell of the amino acid is localized around carboxylate (CO2-) and ammonium (NH3+) functional groups; it is highly ordered and quite rigid. In contrast, the hydration shell around the side chain is much less structured, suggesting a modest influence of the methyl group on the structure of water. The number of water molecules in the first hydration shell of an alanine molecule is constantly changing; the average number was found to equal 7. The molecular dynamics results show that L-alanine in water does not have a preferred conformation, as all three of the molecule's functional sites (i.e., CH3, NH3+, CO2-) perform rotational movements around the C(alpha)-site bond.     

Thermodynamical properties of reaction intermediates during apoplastocyanin folding in time domain

Two intermediates observed for the folding process of apoplastocyanin (apoPC) were investigated by using a photoinduced triggering system combined with the transient grating and transient lens methods. The thermodynamic quantities, enthalpy, heat capacity, partial volume, and thermal expansion volume changes during the protein folding reaction were measured in time domain for the first time. An interesting observation is the positive enthalpy changes during the folding process. This positive enthalpy change must be compensated by positive entropy changes, which could be originated from the dehydration effect of hydrophobic residues and/or the translational entropy gain of bulk water molecules. Observed negative heat capacity change was explained by the dehydration effect of hydrophilic residues and/or motional confinement of amino acid side chains and water molecules in apoPC. The signs of the volume change and thermal expansion volume were different for two processes and these changes were interpreted in terms of the different relative contributions of the hydration and the dehydration of the hydrophilic residues. These results indicated two-step hydrophobic collapses in the early stage of the apoPC folding, but the nature of the dynamics was different.     

Dielectric relaxation of aqueous solutions of hydrophilic versus amphiphilic peptides

We report on molecular dynamics simulations of the frequency-dependent dielectric relaxation spectra at room temperature for aqueous solutions of a hydrophilic peptide and an amphiphilic peptide at two concentrations. We find that only the high-concentration amphiphilic peptide solution exhibits an anomalous dielectric increment over that of pure water, while the hydrophilic peptide exhibits a significant dielectric decrement. The dielectric component analysis carried out by decomposing these peptide solutions into peptide, hydration layer, and outer layer(s) of water clearly shows the presence of a unique dipolar component with a relaxation time scale on the order of approximately 25 ps (compared to the bulk water time scale of approximately 11 ps) that originates from the interaction between the hydration layer water and the outer layer(s) of water. Results obtained from the dielectric component analysis further show the emergence of a distinct and much lower frequency relaxation process for the high-concentration amphiphilic peptide compared to the hydrophilic peptide due to strong peptide dipolar couplings to all constituents, accompanied by a slowing of the structural relaxation in all water layers, giving rise to time scales close to approximately 1 ns. We suggest that the molecular origin of the dielectric relaxation anomalies is due to frustration in the water network arising from the amphiphilic chemistry of the peptide that does not allow it to reorient on the picosecond time scale of bulk water motions. This explanation is consistent with the idea of the "slaving" of residue side chain motions to protein surface water, and furthermore offers the possibility that the anomalous dynamics observed from a number of spectroscopies arises at the interface of hydrophobic and hydrophilic domains on the protein surface.     

Ion-interaction CZE: the presence of high concentrations of ion-pairing reagents demonstrates the complex mechanisms involved in peptide separations

We have furthered our understanding of the separative mechanism of a novel CE approach, termed ion-interaction CZE (II-CZE), developed in our laboratory for the resolution of mixtures of cationic peptides. Thus, II-CZE and RP-HPLC were applied to the separation of peptides differing by a single amino acid substitution in 10- and 12-residue synthetic model peptide sequences. Substitutions differed by a wide range of properties or side-chain type (e.g., alkyl side-chains, polar side-chains, etc.) at the substitution site. When carried out in high concentrations (400 mM) of pentafluoropropionic acid (PFPA), II-CZE separated peptides in order of increasing hydrophobicity when the substituted side-chains were of a similar type; when II-CZE was applied to the mixtures of peptides with substitutions of side-chains that differed in the type of functional group, there was no longer a correlation of electrophoretic mobility in II-CZE with relative peptide hydrophobicity, suggesting that a third factor is involved in the separative mechanism beyond charge and hydrophobicity. Interestingly, the hydrophobic PFPA- anion is best for separating peptides that differ in hydrophobicity with hydrophobic side-chains but high concentrations of the hydrophilic H2PO4- anion are best when separating peptides that differ in polar side-chains relative to hydrophobic side-chains. We speculate that differential hydration/dehydration properties of various side-chains in the peptide and the hydration/dehydration properties of the hydrophilic/hydrophobic anions as well as the electrostatic attractions between the peptide and the anions in solution all play a critical role in these solution-based effects.     

Microscopic wetting of self-assembled monolayers with different surfaces: a combined molecular dynamics and quantum mechanics study

Molecular dynamics simulations are used to study the micronature of the organization of water molecules on the flat surface of well-ordered self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of 18-carbon alkanethiolate chains bound to a silicon (111) substrate. Six different headgroups (-CH(3), -C═C, -OCH(3), -CN, -NH(2), -COOH) are used to tune the character of the surface from hydrophobic to hydrophilic, while the level of hydration is consistent on all six SAM surfaces. Quantum mechanics calculations are employed to optimize each alkyl chain of the different SAMs with one water molecule and to investigate changes in the configuration of each headgroup under hydration. We report the changes of the structure of the six SAMs with different surfaces in the presence of water, and the area of the wetted surface of each SAM, depending on the terminal group. Our results suggest that a corrugated and hydrophobic surface will be formed if the headgroups of SAM surface are not able to form H-bonds either with water molecules or between adjacent groups. In contrast, the formation of hydrogen bonds not only among polar heads but also between polar heads and water may enhance the SAM surface hydrophilicity and corrugation. We explicitly discuss the micromechanisms for the hydration of three hydrophilic SAM (CN-, NH(2)- and COOH-terminated) surfaces, which is helpful to superhydrophilic surface design of SAM in biomimetic materials.     

Influence of hydrophilic and hydrophobic aerosil particles on the molecular modes in the liquid crystal 4-n-pentyl-4'-cyanobiphenyl

Dielectric spectroscopy in the frequency range 10⁶-10⁹ Hz was applied to investigate the influence of hydrophilic and hydrophobic aerosil particles on molecular processes in the liquid crystal 4-n-pentyl-4'-cyanobiphenyl. The dynamics of the molecular process in the isotropic phase is non-Arrhenius; it weakly depends on the aerosil density and shows critical temperature dependence of the activation energy near the isotropic-nematic phase transition. The relaxation rate of the process related to the hindered rotation of the molecule around its molecular short axis (slower process) follows an Arrhenius law over about thirty degrees in the nematic range (except close to the phase transition) with an activation energy comparable to the bulk and is almost independent of the aerosil density. The relaxation rate of the process originating from the fluctuation of the molecular long axis around the director (librational mode, faster process), however, follows the Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann law. With increasing disorder achieved by increasing the aerosil density, the relative dielectric strength of the librational mode increases in comparison with the bulk. The relaxation frequency of the slower process increases but that of the faster process decreases with increasing aerosil density. Both these effects are less pronounced for hydrophobic than for hydrophilic aerosils.     

Perfluorobutane sulfonic acid hydration and interactions with O2 adsorbed on Pt3

The side chain of NAFION, a proton conductive membrane used as electrolyte in low-temperature fuel cells, is modeled with perfluorobutane sulfonic acid. Density functional theory is used to characterize structures and energetics of hydration of the model system interacting with a proton solvated with up to 24 water molecules and analyze interactions of some of these hydrated complexes with O(2) adsorbed on Pt(3). It is found that at least three water molecules are needed to ionize the sulfonic acid, and higher degrees of hydration induce the formation of cages where the water molecules are held together via complex hydrogen-bond networks. The interaction between the complex formed by the ionized acid and the hydrated proton, in contact with a bridge-adsorbed O(2)-Pt(3), promotes the protonation of the adsorbed O(2). Upon protonation, the O(2)-Pt(3) system evolves from hydrophobic to hydrophilic behavior, which may facilitate further interfacial contact.     

The IR Absorption Spectra of Aqueous Solutions of Dimethylsulfoxide over the Frequency Range 50–300 cm−1 and the Mobility of Water Molecules

The IR absorption spectra of aqueous solutions of dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) with concentrations from 100% H₂O to 100% DMSO were recorded over the frequency range 50–500 cm^?1. The absorption spectra were described using the theoretical scheme of hindered rotators. A model was developed according to which orientation relaxation in solution was related to separate rotations of H₂O and DMSO molecules through fixed small and (or) large angles in a unified network of H-bonds consisting of several subsystems ordered to various degrees. The calculated absorption spectra were in agreement with the experimental data in the far IR region. Elementary motions of molecules were found to slow down in the passage from pure dimethylsulfoxide to its aqueous solutions. The special features of the hydrophilic and hydrophobic hydration of DMSO polar and nonpolar groups were considered.     

表面活性剂类多肽A6KA6K的自组装及机理研究

为了研究表面活性剂类多肽疏水链段长度及亲疏水氨基酸比例对其自组装结构的影响,本文设计了一种表面活性剂类多肽A6K的二倍体A6KA6K。圆二色谱分析表明的二级结构主要为无规卷曲结构并伴有少量的α-螺旋;透射电子显微镜和动态光散射分析表明,其在水溶液中能自组装形成纳米囊泡状结构。芘荧光分子探针研究表明自组装体存在疏水微区域将芘分子包裹在其中,证明了这种多肽在溶液中可形成胶束类的自组装体,并计算了其临界胶束浓度。相比已报道的表面活性剂类肽A6K,本文设计的肽序列A6KA6K由于在较长疏水链段区域中存在亲水性氨基酸K,对疏水相互作用有影响,使得含有14个氨基酸的肽自组装形成纳米囊泡状结构。     

Dynamical properties of the water molecules in the hydration shells of Fe(II) and Fe(III) ions: ab initio QM/MM molecular dynamics simulations

Dynamical properties, librational and vibrational motions of water molecules in the first and second hydration shells of the Fe(II) and Fe(III) ion were evaluated by means of velocity autocorrelation functions obtained by combined quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical molecular dynamics (QM/MM-MD) simulations. The frequencies of rotation around three principal axes and the frequencies of intramolecular vibration of the water molecules in the first hydration shells obtained from the simulations are blue-shifted for both ions compared to those observed experimentally for liquid water. The intramolecular geometry of water molecules in the quantum mechanically treated region (ion plus first hydration shell) shows shorter O–H bonds and wider H–O–H angles than the bulk solvent.     

Hydrophilic Oligo(lactic acid)s Captured by a Hydrophobic Polyaromatic Cavity in Water

Biologically relevant hydrophilic molecules rarely interact with hydrophobic compounds and surfaces in water owing to effective hydration. Nevertheless, herein we report that the hydrophobic cavity of a polyaromatic capsule, formed through coordination‐driven self‐assembly, can encapsulate hydrophilic oligo(lactic acid)s in water with relatively high binding constants (up to K_a=3×10⁵ m ⁻¹). X‐ray crystallographic and ITC analyses revealed that the unusual host–guest behavior is caused by enthalpic stabilization through multiple CH–π and hydrogen‐bonding interactions. The polyaromatic cavity stabilizes hydrolyzable cyclic di(lactic acid) and captures tetra(lactic acid) preferentially from a mixture of oligo(lactic acid)s even in water.     

Molecular dynamics study of the solvation of an alpha-helical transmembrane peptide by DMSO

A 10-ns molecular dynamics study of the solvation of a hydrophobic transmembrane helical peptide in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is presented. The objective is to analyze how this aprotic polar solvent is able to solvate three groups of amino acid residues (i.e., polar, apolar, and charged) that are located in a stable helical region of a transmembrane peptide. The 25-residue peptide (sMTM7) used mimics the cytoplasmic proton hemichannel domain of the seventh transmembrane segment (TM7) from subunit a of H(+)-V-ATPase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The three-dimensional structure of peptide sMTM7 in DMSO has been previously solved by NMR spectroscopy. The radial and spatial distributions of the DMSO molecules surrounding the peptide as well as the number of hydrogen bonds between DMSO and the side chains of the amino acid residues involved are extracted from the molecular dynamics simulations. Analysis of the molecular dynamics trajectories shows that the amino acid side chains are fully embedded in DMSO. Polar and positively charged amino acid side chains have dipole-dipole interactions with the oxygen atom of DMSO and form hydrogen bonds. Apolar residues become solvated by DMSO through the formation of a hydrophobic pocket in which the methyl groups of DMSO are pointing toward the hydrophobic side chains of the residues involved. The dual solvation properties of DMSO cause it to be a good membrane-mimicking solvent for transmembrane peptides that do not unfold due to the presence of DMSO.