Conformational analysis and vibrational spectroscopic investigation of L-alanyl-L-glutamine dipeptide

In this study conformational behavior of anticancer chemotherapy dipeptide Ala-Gln and its dimers have been investigated by molecular mechanic and ab-initio calculations. The calculations on Ala-Gln dipeptide as a function of side chain torsion angles, enable us to determine their energetically preferred conformations. The relative positions of the side chain residues of the stable conformations of dipeptide were obtained, depending on the obtained conformational analysis results. The lowest energy conformation of the dipeptide has been determined by using the Ramachandran maps (Biopolymers 6 (1963), 1494; J. Mol. Biol. 7 (1963), 95) and compared with the quantum chemical ab-initio results. The geometry optimization, vibrational wavenumbers and intensity calculations of Ala-Gln dipeptide were carried out with the Gaussian03 program by using DFT with B3LYP functional and 6-31++G(d,p) basis set. The IR (4000–400 cm −1 ) and Raman spectra of the Ala-Gln dipeptide have been reported in solid phase, and compared with the theoretical vibrational data.