English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Zendy Plus

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Zendy Tools

Zendy Open

Density functional theory and ab initio methods have been employed to addressthe impacts of hydroxyl (OH) group substitutions on the physico-chemicalproperties of levodopa (or L-dopa) against the natural amino acids,phenylalanine and tyrosine. L-dopa, which is an important therapeutic drug forParkinson's disease, shares structural homology with the amino acids, whosestructures differ only by OH substitutions in their phenyl side chains. It isrevealed that the backbone geometries of the aromatic molecules do not showapparent OH-dependent differences; however, their other molecular-levelproperties, such as molecular dipole moment, electronic properties andaromaticity, change significantly. The core binding energy spectra indicatethat the atom sites that undergo modifications exhibit large energy shifts, soas to accommodate the changes in the intra-molecular chemical environment ofthe molecules. The binding energies of the modified C 1s sites in the moleculesshift as much as 1.8 eV, whereas the electronic changes in their O 1s spectrahappen in the higher energy region (ca. 536 eV). The valence spectra provideenhanced insights on the reactivity and chemical properties of the aromaticmolecules. The impacts of OH moieties on the valence spectra are predominantlyfocussed in the energy band<16 eV, where the frontier molecular orbitalsdisplay much reorganization and energy shifts from the amino acids to L-dopa.Of the three molecules, L-dopa also has the least HOMO-LUMO energy gap, whichcan readily explain its proactivity as a drug compound. Furthermore, thenuclear independent chemical shift calculations suggest that L-dopa also hasmore aromaticity features than those of the amino acids. The OH groups,therefore, play a more prominent role in shaping the physico-chemicalproperties of L-dopa, which significantly improve its drug potency.

From building blocks of proteins to drugs: A quantum chemical study on structure-property relationships of phenylalanine, tyrosine and dopa