Using molecular dynamics simulations to identify the key factors responsible for chiral recognition by an amino acid-based molecular micelle

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were used to investigate the binding of six chiral compounds to the amino acid-based molecular micelle (MM) poly-(sodium undecyl-(L)-leucine-leucine) or poly(SULL). The MM investigated is used as a chiral selector in capillary electrophoresis. The project goal was to characterize the chiral recognition mechanism in these separations and to move toward predictive models to identify the best amino acid-based MM for a given separation. Poly(SULL) was found to contain six binding sites into which chiral compounds could insert. Four sites had similar sizes, shapes, and electrostatic properties. Enantiomers of alprenolol, propranolol, 1,1′-bi-2-naphthyl-2,2′-diyl hydrogen phosphate, 1,1′-bi-2-naphthol, chlorthalidone, or lorazepam were separately docked into each binding pocket and MD simulations with the resulting intermolecular complexes were performed. Solvent-accessible surface area calculations showed the compounds preferentially associated with binding sites where they penetrated into the MM core and shielded their non-polar atoms from solvent. Furthermore, with five of the six compounds the enantiomer with the most favorable free energy of MM association also experienced the most favorable intermolecular hydrogen bonding interactions with the MM. This result suggests that stereoselective intermolecular hydrogen bonds play an important role in chiral discrimination in separations using amino acid-based MMs.GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT     

Investigation of chiral recognition by molecular micelles with molecular dynamics simulations

Molecular dynamics simulations were used to characterize the binding of the chiral drugs chlorthalidone and lorazepam to the molecular micelle poly-(sodium undecyl-(L)-leucine-valine). The project’s goal was to characterize the nature of chiral recognition in capillary electrophoresis separations that use molecular micelles as the chiral selector. The shapes and charge distributions of the chiral molecules investigated, their orientations within the molecular micelle chiral binding pockets, and the formation of stereoselective intermolecular hydrogen bonds with the molecular micelle were all found to play key roles in determining where and how lorazepam and chlorthalidone enantiomers interacted with the molecular micelle.     

R-Local Delaunay Inhibition Model

Unlike in the classical framework of Gibbs point processes (usually acting on the complete graph), in the context of nearest-neighbour Gibbs point processes the nonnegativeness of the interaction functions do not ensure the local stability property. This paper introduces domain-wise (but not pointwise) inhibition stationary Gibbs models based on some tailor-made Delaunay subgraphs. All of them are subgraphs of the R-local Delaunay graph, defined as the Delaunay subgraph specifically not containing the edges of Delaunay triangles with circumscribed circles of radii greater than some large positive real value R. The usual relative compactness criterion for point processes needed for the existence result is directly derived from the Ruelle-bound of the correlation functions. Furthermore, assuming only the nonnegativeness of the energy function, we have managed to prove the existence of the existence of R-local Delaunay stationary Gibbs states based on nonnegative interaction functions thanks to the use of the compactness of sublevel sets of the relative entropy. In memory of Etienne Bertin.     

Enantiomeric separations by use of polymeric surfactant electrokinetic chromatography

This review surveys the enantiomeric separation of drugs by electrokinetic chromatography using polymeric chiral surfactant pseudostationary phases. These phases have recently been shown to provide better mass transfer and increased rigidity and stability than regular micelles in micellar capillary electrophoresis. Characterization of the polymeric chiral surfactants is presented. Solution interactions of the pseudostationary phases via thermodynamics and fluorescence probe studies are evaluated. Also, case studies of enantiomeric separation of drugs using a single amino acid surfactant and the synergistic effect of the addition of gamma-cyclodextrin to the buffer is discussed. The use of dipeptide surfactants for chiral drug separations is described as well.     

Chiral separations using polymeric dipeptide surfactants: effect of number of chiral centers and steric factors.

Two polymeric dipeptide chiral surfactants (PDCSs), poly sodium N-undecanoyl isoleucyl-valinate (SUILV) with three chiral centers and poly sodium N-undecanoyl leucyl-valinate (SULV) with two chiral centers, have been evaluated and compared as chiral pseudo-stationary phases in electrokinetic capillary chromatography. The performance of these surfactants, in terms of enantioselectivity was examined using anionic, cationic and neutral analytes. Analyses of the data suggest that the enantiomeric resolutions of the analytes with these two PDCSs are dependent upon steric factors rather than number of stereogenic centers.