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  • Quantum Mechanical Design o...
    Zhang, Xiyun; DeChancie, Jason; Gunaydin, Hakan; Chowdry, Arnab B; Clemente, Fernando R; Smith; Handel, T. M; Houk, K. N

    Journal of organic chemistry, 02/2008, Volume: 73, Issue: 3
    Journal Article

    The design of active sites has been carried out using quantum mechanical calculations to predict the rate-determining transition state of a desired reaction in presence of the optimal arrangement of catalytic functional groups (theozyme). Eleven versatile reaction targets were chosen, including hydrolysis, dehydration, isomerization, aldol, and Diels−Alder reactions. For each of the targets, the predicted mechanism and the rate-determining transition state (TS) of the uncatalyzed reaction in water is presented. For the rate-determining TS, a catalytic site was designed using naturalistic catalytic units followed by an estimation of the rate acceleration provided by a reoptimization of the catalytic site. Finally, the geometries of the sites were compared to the X-ray structures of related natural enzymes. Recent advances in computational algorithms and power, coupled with successes in computational protein design, have provided a powerful context for undertaking such an endeavor. We propose that theozymes are excellent candidates to serve as the active site models for design processes.