BHUBANESWAR: In a path-breaking discovery, a group of scientists has decoded the protein structure in bio-molecules and claimed to have found the first evidence for hydrogen bonds with carbon atoms in proteins.The four-member team led by an Odia scientist Himansu Sekhar Biswal discovered that carbon atoms can accept hydrogen bonding. The discovery will help design new drugs and ensure their targeted delivery.
Hydrogen bonds (H-bonds) is a century-old concept which finds place in almost all the branches of natural and pharmaceutical sciences since their inception in 1912.The contributions of H-bonds in different biological processes, molecular recognition and materials science have been well accepted. As science progressed, the research on H-bonding became more and more interesting, leading to a steady evolution of H-bonds.
Associate Professor at the National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) in Bhubaneswar, Biswal said the most frequent donor and acceptor atoms that bond with hydrogen are the second-row elements nitrogen (N), oxygen (O), and fluorine (F). “The study has found that carbon can also accept hydrogen bonding, that too in complex structures like proteins. The discovery can be termed as a major breakthrough in the field of chemical science as the origin and nature of these hydrogen bonds are very different to conventional ones,” he said.
Biswal said the carbon-hydrogen bonding can help proteins bind their molecules and the cumulative effect could be large enough to control the structure and functions of proteins. “It will encourage researchers involved in drug inventions to explore the influence of the hydrogen bonding with carbon,” he added. The researchers team searched the protein data bank (PDB) for non-covalent bonding involving tetravalent carbons attached to electropositive elements like arsenic by using home-written code.
They found 1,051 such non-covalent interactions in 918 different molecular crystals in existing PDB, out of which 843 crystal structures have carbon-hydrogen bond interactions. “Some of the earlier studies show that carbon can donate hydrogen bonding. We found the carbon atoms are the hydrogen bond acceptors here. The study will be useful for structural biologists in explaining molecule binding through carbon atoms and for synthetic chemists to design carbon-hydrogen activation,” said Akshay Kumar Sahu, another researcher.
The study titled ‘Carbon-Centered Hydrogen Bonds in Proteins’ has been published in the recent issue of Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling (JCIM), a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Chemical Society. Other researchers included Juhi Dutta and Abhijeet S Bhadauria.
STUDY FINDINGS
Carbon-hydrogen bonding can help proteins bind their molecules and cumulative effect could be large enough to control the structure and functions of proteins
Discovery will help design new drugs, ensure their targeted delivery