Indolizidine (−)-235B′ is a particularly interesting natural product, as it is the currently known, most potent and subtype-selective
open-channel blocker of the α4β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR). In the current study, extensive first-principles
electronic structure calculations have been carried out in order to determine the stable molecular conformations and their
relative free energies of the protonated and deprotonated states of (−)-235B′ in the gas phase, in chloroform, and in aqueous
solution. The
1H and
13C NMR chemical shifts calculated using the computationally determined dominant molecular conformation of the deprotonated
state are all consistent with available experimental NMR spectra of (−)-235B′ in chloroform, which suggests that the computationally
determined molecular conformations are reasonable. Our computational results reveal for the first time that two geminal H
atoms on carbon-3 (C3) of (−)-235B′ have remarkably different chemical shifts (i.e., 3.24 and 2.03 ppm). The computational
results help one to better understand and analyze the experimental
1H NMR spectra of (−)-235B′. The finding of remarkably different chemical shifts of two C3 geminal H atoms in a certain molecular
conformation of (−)-235B′ may also be valuable in analysis of NMR spectra of other related ring-containing compounds. In addition,
the p
K
a of (−)-235B′ in aqueous solution is predicted to be ~9.7. All of the computational results provide a solid basis for future
studies of the microscopic and phenomenological binding of various receptor proteins with the protonated and deprotonated
structures of this unique open-channel blocker of α4β2 nAChRs. This computational study also demonstrates how one can appropriately
use computational modeling and spectroscopic analysis to address the structural and spectroscopic problems that cannot be
addressed by experiments alone.
Keywords Molecular conformation - Antagonist of receptor protein - Blocker of ion channel - NMR chemical shift