TY - THES A1 - Mladenovic, Milena T1 - Theoretical Investigation into the Inhibition of Cystein Proteases T1 - Theoretische Untersuchung der Inhibierung von Cysteinproteasen N2 - Although known about and investigated since the late 1970’s, the picture of the basic principles governing inhibitor strengths and the structure-activity relationships of the cysteine protease inhibition mechanism is still very incomplete. Computational approaches can be a very useful tool for investigating such questions, as they allow the inspection of single, specific effects in isolation from all others, in a manner very difficult to achieve experimentally. The ab initio treatments of such large systems like proteins are still not feasible. However, there is a vast number of computational approaches capable of dealing with protein structures with reasonable accuracy. This work presents a summary of theoretical investigations into cysteine protease cathepsin B using a range of methods. We have concentrated on the investigation of cysteine protease inhibition by epoxide- and aziridine-based inhibitors in order to obtain better insight into these important topics. Various model systems are simulated by means of pure quantum mechanical methods and by hybrid (QM/MM) methods. Both approaches provide a static picture. Dynamical effects are then accounted for by additional molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, using both classical and QM/MM MD approaches. The quantum mechanical approach was used to study very small model systems consisting only of the electrophilic warhead of the inhibitor (both substitituted and not) and molecular moieties simulating a very simplified protein active site (methylthiolate instead of Cys29 and methylimidazolium instead of His199 residue) and solvent surroundings (two waters or two ammonium ions, in combination with a continuum solvent model). Although simple, such a system provides a good description of the most important interactions involved in the inhibition reaction. It also allows investigation of the influence of the properties of the electrophilic warhead on the reaction rate. Beside the properties of the electrophilic warhead, the protein and solvent environment is also an important factor in the irreversible deactivation of the enzyme active site by the inhibitor. The non-covalent interactions of the inhibitor with the oxyanion hole and other subsites of the enzyme, as well as its interaction with the solvent molecules, need to be explicitly taken into account in the calculations, because of their possible impact on the reaction profile. As molecular modeling methods allow the treatment of such large systems, but lack the possibility of describing covalent interactions, our method of choice was the combined quantum mechanics/molecular modeling approach. By splitting the system into a smaller part that undergoes the bond cleavage/formation process and must be treated quantum mechanically, and a larger part, comprised of the rest of the protein, which could be treated using force fields, we managed to simulate the system at the desired precision. Our investigations concentrated on the role of His199 in the inhibition mechanism as well as on the structure-reactivity relationships between cysteine protease and various inhibitors, yielding new insight into the kinetics, regio- and stereospecificity of the inhibition. In particular, our calculations provide the following insights: i.) an explanation for the regioselectivity of the reaction, and original insight into which interactions affect the stereoselectivity; ii.) a clear model which explains the known structure-activity relationships and connects these effects with the pH-dependency of the inhibition; iii.) our computations question the generally accepted two-step model by showing that substituent effects accelerate the irreversible step to such an extent that the achievement of an equilibrium in the first step is doubtful; iv.) by way of theoretical characterizations of aziridine models, the reasons for similarities and differences in the mode of action of epoxide- and aziridine-based inhibitors are elucidated; and finally, v.) combining our results with experimental knowledge will allow rational design of new inhibitors. To account for dynamical effects as well, molecular dynamics (MD) computations were also performed. In these calculations the potential energy was computed at the force field level. The results not only supported and clarified the QM/MM results, but comparison with previous X-ray structures helped correct existing errors in the available geometrical models and resolved inconsistencies in the weighting of various factors governing the inhibition. In the work the first QM/MM MD calculations on the active site of the cysteine proteases are presented. In contrast to the MD simulations, these calculations used potential energies computed at the QM/MM-level. With the help of these computations we sought to address strongly disputed questions about the reasons for the existence of the active site ion pair and its role in the high activity of the enzyme. N2 - Obwohl bereits seit den späten 70ern bekannt und untersucht, ist das Bild über die grundsätzlichen Prinzipien, welche die Wirksamkeit der Inhibition und die Struktur-Aktivitäts-Beziehungen (SAB) der Cysteinprotease-Hemmmechanismen beeinflussen, immer noch sehr unvollständig. In dieser Arbeit wurden quantenmechanische (QM), molekulardynamische (MD) und gemischte quantenmechanische/molekularmechanische (QM/MM) Berechnungen durchgeführt, um die irreversible Inaktivierung des Enzyms durch den Inhibitor, zu untersuchen. Die Stärke von computergestützten Verfahren liegt in der Möglichkeit, den Einfluss einzelner spezifischer Effekte durch das Ausblenden von Umgebungseffekten zu untersuchen. Diese Herangehensweise ist nur sehr schwer im Experiment zu erreichen. Die quantenmechanische Methode wurde benutzt, um sehr kleine Modellsysteme zu untersuchen, welche lediglich aus dem elektrophilen Kerngerüst des Inhibitors und einigen, das aktive Zentrum im Protein vereinfachend darstellenden, Molekülen bestanden. Die Solvensumgebung wurde durch zwei explizite Wassermoleküle und zwei Ammoniumionen in Kombination mit einem Kontinuum-Solvensmodell berücksichtigt. Ein solches vereinfachtes System liefert bereits eine gute Beschreibung der meisten wichtigen Wechselwirkungen während der Inhibierungsreaktion. Es erlaubt die Untersuchung des Einflusses der Eigenschaften des elektrophilen „Warheads“ auf den Reaktionsverlauf. Neben den Eigenschaften des elektrophilen „Warheads“ ist sowohl die Protein- als auch die Solvensumgebung von großer Bedeutung für die irreversible Deaktivierung des aktiven Zentrums des Enzyms durch den Inhibitor. Aufgrund eines möglichen Einflusses auf das Reaktionsprofil müssen Solvensmoleküle sowie die nicht-kovalenten Wechselwirkungen des Inhibitors mit dem Oxyanionloch und anderen Nebenbindungstellen des Enzyms explizit behandelt werden. Berücksichtigt man, dass nur molekularmechanische Methoden eine Behandlung von solch großen Systeme erlauben, im Gegenzug aber nicht in der Lage sind, kovalente Wechselwirkungen zu beschreiben, so wurde als Methode der Wahl ein kombinierter QM/MM Ansatz gewählt. Durch das Aufteilen des Gesamtsystems in einen kleinen Bereich, der die Bindungsspaltung- und Bindungsbildungsreaktionen beinhaltet (mit QM behandelt), und in einen großen Teil, welcher den Rest des Proteins umfasst (mit MM behandelt), waren wir in der Lage, das System mit gewünschter Genauigkeit zu simulieren. In den Kapiteln 3.2.2 bis 3.2.4 werden die Struktur-Reaktivitäts-Beziehungen (SRB) zwischen der Cysteinprotease und verschiedenen Inhibitoren vorgestellt. Es wird gezeigt, dass die SRB eine entscheidende Rolle in Kinetik, Regio- und Stereoselektivität der Inhibierung spielen. Um auch die dynamischen Effekte im Anspruch zu nehmen, wurden klassische molekulardynamische (MD) Simulationen durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse dieser Berechnungen haben nicht nur unterstützt und die QM/MM Ergebnisse näher erklärt, sondern auch durch der Vergleich mit bereits bestehenden Röntgenstrukturen verschiedener Cysteineprotease-Inhibitor-Komplexen geholfen, Fehler in vorhandenen Proteinkristallstrukturen zu korrigieren. Somit wurden Widersprüche in der Bewertung verschiedener Funktionen, die die Inhibierungsreaktion bestimmen, aufgelöst (Kapitel 3.2.5). In der Arbeit werden auch die ersten QM/MM MD Berechnungen vom aktiven Zentrum der Cysteineprotease vorgestellt. Im Kontrast zu den klassischen MD Simulationen, wird in diesen Untersuchungen die potentielle Energie auf dem QM/MM Theorieniveau berechnet. Hier haben wir versucht die stark umstrittene Frage über die Gründe für das Vorhandensein des aktiven Zentrums als His199+/Cys29- Ion-paar und seine Rolle für die hohe Aktivität des Enzyms zu beantworten. KW - Quantenchemie KW - Quantum mechanics / molecular modeling KW - Molecular dynamics Y1 - 2008 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-25763 ER - TY - THES A1 - Maksimenka, Katsiaryna T1 - Absolute Configuration by Circular Dichroism: Quantum Chemical CD Calculations T1 - Absolute Konfiguration durch Circular-Dichroismus: Quantenchemische Rechnungen des Circular-Dichroismus (CD) N2 - Quantum chemical calculations of circular dichroism (CD) spectra in combination with experimental CD studies are one of the most efficient analytical tools for the elucidation of the three-dimensional structure of a chiral molecule. In the present work 18 chiral compounds of most different molecular structures and origins were investigated using various theoretical methods (the semiempirical CIS methods, the time-dependent DFT and DFT/MRCI approaches). The advantages and limitations of the applied methods were discussed in the context of the studied compounds. Furthermore, the last part of this work deals with the CD investigations of a chiral compound in the crystalline state. A well-known natural product with a specific conformation/CD spectrum behavior was used as a model compound to examine a novel solid-state CD method and to investigate the possibility of its improvement to provide a higher reliability for the assignment of the absolute configuration. N2 - Quantenchemische Rechnungen des Circular-Dichroismus (CD) in Kombination mit experimentellen CD-Studien sind eines der besten analytischen Werkzeuge zur Aufklärung der dreidimensionalen Struktur eines chiralen Moleküls. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurden 18 chirale Verbindungen mit unterschiedlichsten Strukturen und von unterschiedlichster Herkunft unter Verwendung von verschiedenen theoretischen Methoden (semiempirische CIS-Methoden, zeitabhängige DFT- und DFT/MRCI-Ansätze) untersucht. Die Vorteile und Grenzen der angewandten Methoden wurden im Rahmen der untersuchten Verbindungen diskutiert. Desweiteren befasst sich der letzte Teil der vorliegenden Arbeit mit den CD-Untersuchungen einer chiralen Verbindung im kristallinen Zustand. Ein bekannter Naturstoff mit einem spezifischen Konformation/CD-Spektrum-Verhalten wurde als Modellverbindung verwendet, um einen neuartige Festkörper-CD-Ansatz zu testen, und um die Möglichkeit seiner Verbesserung zu untersuchen, um eine höhere Zuverlässlichkeit für die Zuordnung der absoluten Konfiguration zu bieten. KW - Circular-Dichroismus KW - Quantenchemie KW - Konfiguration KW - Quantenchemische Rechnungen KW - Absolute Konfiguration KW - Absolute Configuration KW - Circular Dichroism KW - Quantum Chemical CD Calculations Y1 - 2010 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-56552 ER - TY - THES A1 - Grüne, Marvin T1 - Solid-state NMR Spectroscopic, X-Ray Diffraction and Quantum Chemical Investigations of the Crystalline Cancer Drug Paclitaxel and Paclitaxel incorporated into Polymer Micelles T1 - Festkörper-NMR-, Röntgendiffraktometrie- und quantenchemische Untersuchungen des kristallinen Krebs-Wirkstoffs Paclitaxel und Paclitaxel eingebettet in Polymermizellen N2 - Paclitaxel (PTX) is one of the leading drugs against breast and ovarian cancer. Due to its low solubility, treatment of the patients with this drug requires a very well-suited combination with a soluble pharmaceutical excipient to increase the bioavailability and reduce the strong side ef-fects. One efficient way to achieve this in the future could be the incorporation of PTX into pol-ymeric micelles composed of poly(2-oxazoline) based triblock copolymers (POL) which ena-bles PTX loadings of up to 50 wt.%. However, structural information at an atomic level and thus the knowledge of interaction sites within these promising but complex PTX-POL formula-tions were not yet available. Such results could support the future development of improved excipients for PTX and suitable excipients for other pharmaceutical drugs. Therefore, a solid-state MAS NMR investigation of these amorphous formulations with different POL-PTX com-positions was performed in this thesis as this gives insights of the local structure at an atomic level in its solid state. NMR in solution showed very broad 13C signals of PTX for this system due to the reduced mobility of the incorporated drug which exclude this as an analytical meth-od. In a first study, crystalline PTX was structurally characterized by solid-state NMR as no com-plete 13C spectrum assignment and no 1H NMR data existed for the solid state. In addition, the asymmetric unit of the PTX crystal structure consists of two molecules (Z'=2) that can only be investigated in its solid state. As crystalline PTX in total has about 100 different 13C and 1H chemical shifts with very small differences due to Z’=2, and furthermore, its unit cell consisting of more than 900 atoms, accompanying GIPAW (CASTEP) calculations were required for NMR signal assignments. These calculations were performed using the first three available purely hydrous and anhydrous PTX structures, which were determined by XRD and published by Vel-la-Zarb et al. in 2013. Within this thesis, is was discovered that two investigated batches of commercially available PTX from the same supplier both contained an identical and so far un-known PTX phase that was elucidated by PXRD as well as solid-state NMR data. One of the two batches consists of an additional phase that was shown to be very similar to a known hy-drated phase published in 2013.[1] By heating the batch with the mixture of the two phases un-der vacuum, it is transformed completely to the new dry phase occurring in both PTX batches. Since the drying conditions to obtain anhydrous PTX in-situ on the PXRD setup described by Vella-Zarb et. al.[1] were much softer than ours, we identify our dry phase as a relaxed version of their published anhydrate structure. The PXRD data of the new anhydrate phase was trans-ferred into a new structural model, which currently undergoes geometry optimization. Based on solid-state NMR data at MAS spinning frequencies up to 100 kHz, a 13C and a partial 1H signal assignment for the new anhydrous structure were achieved. These results provided sufficient structural information for further investigations of the micellar POL-PTX system. In a second study, the applicability and benefit of two-dimensional solid-state 14N-1H HMQC MAS NMR spectra for the characterization of amorphous POL-PTX formulations was investi-gated. The mentioned technique has never been applied to a system of similar complexity be-fore and was chosen because around 84% of the small-molecule drugs contain at least one nitrogen atom. In addition, the number of nitrogen atoms in both POL and PTX is much smaller than the number of carbons or hydrogens, which significantly reduces the spectral complexity. 14N has a natural abundance of 99.6% but leads to quadrupolar broadening due to its nuclear spin quantum number I = 1. While this is usually undesirable due to broadening in the resulting 1D 14N NMR spectra, this effect is explicitly used in the 2D 14N-1H HMQC MAS experiment. The indirect 14N measurement can avoid the broadening while maintaining the advantage of the high natural abundance and making use of the much more dispersed signals due to the additional quadrupolar shifts as compared to 15N. This measurement method could be successfully applied to the complex amorphous POL-PTX mixtures. With increasing PTX loading of the formulations, additional peaks arise as spatial proximities of the amide nitrogens of POL to NH or OH groups of PTX. In addition, the 14N quadrupolar shift of these amide nitrogens decreases with increasing PTX content indicating a more symmetric nitrogen environment. The latter can be explained by a transformation of the trigonal planar coordination of the tertiary amide nitrogen atoms in pure POL towards a more tetrahedral environment upon PTX loading induced by the formation of hydrogen bonds with NH/OH groups of PTX. In the third and last project, the results of the two abovementioned studies were used and ex-tended by solid state 13C and two-dimensional 1H-13C as well as 1H-1H MAS NMR data with the aim to derive a structural model of the POL-PTX formulations at an atomic level. The knowledge of the NMR signal assignments for crystalline PTX was transferred to amorphous PTX (present in the micelles of the formulations). The 13C solid-state NMR signals were evalu-ated concerning changes in chemical shifts and full widths of half maximum (FWHM) for the different PTX loadings. In this way, the required information about possible interaction sites at an atomic level becomes available. Due to the complexity of these systems, such proximities often cannot be assigned to special atoms, but more to groups of atoms, as the individual de-velopments of line widths and line shifts are mutually dependent. An advantageous aspect for this analysis was that pure POL already forms unloaded micelles. The evaluation of the data showed that the terminal phenyl groups of PTX seem to be most involved in the interaction by the establishment of the micelle for lowest drug loading and that they are likely to react to the change in the amount of PTX molecules as well. For the incorporation of PTX in the micelles, the following model could be obtained: For lowest drug loading, PTX is mainly located in the inner part of the micelles. Upon further increasing of the loading, it progressively extends to-ward the micellar shell. This could be well shown by the increasing interactions of the hydro-phobic butyl chain of POL and PTX, proceeding in the direction of the polymer backbone with rising drug load. Furthermore, due to the size of PTX and the hydrodynamic radius of the mi-celles, even at the lowest loading, the PTX molecules partially reach the core-shell interface of the micelle. Upon increasing the drug loading, the surface coverage with PTX clusters increas-es based on the obtained model approach. The latter result is supported by DLS and SANS data of this system. The abovementioned results of the 14N-1H HMQC MAS investigation of the POL-PTX formulations support the outlined model. As an outlook, the currently running geometry optimization and subsequently scheduled calcu-lation of the chemical shieldings of the newly obtained anhydrous PTX crystal structure can further improve the solid-state NMR characterization through determination of further spatial proximities among protons using the existing 2D 1H(DQ)-1H(SQ) solid-state MAS NMR spec-trum at 100 kHz rotor spinning frequency. The 2D 14N-1H HMQC MAS NMR experiments were shown to have great potential as a technique for the analysis of other disordered and amor-phous drug delivery systems as well. The results of this thesis should be subsequently applied to other micellar systems with varying pharmaceutical excipients or active ingredients with the goal of systematically achieving higher drug loadings (e.g., for the investigated PTX, the similar drug docetaxel or even different natural products). Additionally, it is planned to transfer the knowledge to another complex polymer system containing poly(amino acids) which offers hy-drogen bonding donor sites for additional intermolecular interactions. Currently, the POL-PTX system is investigated by further SANS studies that may provide another puzzle piece to the model as complementary measurement method in the future. In addition, the use of MD simu-lations might be considered in the future. This would allow a computerized linking of the differ-ent pieces of information with the aim to determine the most likely model. N2 - Paclitaxel (PTX) ist eines der führenden Medikamente gegen Brust-und Eierstockkrebs. Aufgrund seiner geringen Löslichkeit erfordert die Behandlung der Patienten mit diesem Medikament eine sehr gut geeignete Kombination mit einem löslichen pharmazeutischenHilfsstoff, um die Bioverfügbarkeit zu erhöhen und die starken Nebenwirkungen zu reduzieren. Ein effizienter Weg, dies in Zukunft zu erreichen, könnte der Einbau von PTX in polymere Mizellen sein, die aus Poly(2-oxazolin)-basierten Triblock-Copolymeren (POL) bestehen und PTX-Beladungen von bis zu 50 Gew.-% ermöglichen. Strukturelle Informationen auf atomarer Ebene und damit die Kenntnis von Wechselwirkungeninnerhalb dieser vielversprechenden, aber komplexen PTX-POL-Formulierungen waren jedoch bisher nichtverfügbar. Solche Ergebnisse könnten die zukünftige Entwicklung von verbesserten Hilfsstoffen für PTX und von geeigneten Hilfsstoffen für andere pharmazeutische Wirkstoffe unterstützen. Aus diesem Grund wurdenin der vorliegenden DissertationFestkörper-NMR-Untersuchungen andiesenamorphen Formulierungen mit unterschiedlichen POL-PTX Zusammensetzungen durchgeführt, weil damit Einblickein die lokale Struktur auf atomarer Ebene im festen Zustand erhalten werden können. Aufgrund der verringerten Mobilität des eingebrachten Wirkstoffs in diesem System ergeben NMR-Messungen in Lösung sehr breite 13C-PTX-Signale, was diese Technikals Analysemethode ausschließt. ... KW - Wirkstoff-Träger-System KW - NMR-Spektroskopie KW - Röntgendiffraktometrie KW - Taxol KW - Quantenchemie KW - Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy KW - X-Ray Diffraction KW - Quantum Chemical Calculations KW - Drug Delivery System KW - Taxol KW - Festkörper-NMR KW - quantenchemische Berechnungen Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-237199 ER -