Tuning the activity of glutathione peroxidase mimics through intramolecular Se···N,O interactions: a DFT study incorporating solvent-assisted proton exchange (SAPE).

Diaryl diselenide mimics of the antioxidant selenoprotein glutathione peroxidase (GPx) often incorporate intramolecular Se···N,O interactions to enhance their GPx-like activity. Although the strength of the interaction is defined by the Lewis basicity of the donating group and the strength of the Se-X bond, there is not a clear relationship between the interaction and the GPx-like activity. Density-functional theory and natural bond orbital (NBO) calculations are used to show the range of Se···N,O interactions for various functional groups. The strongest interactions are found for groups which stabilize the donor-acceptor interaction through aromatic stabilization. The activation barriers for the GPx-like mechanism of activity of several substituted areneselenols are calculated using DFT and solvent-assisted proton exchange (SAPE), a technique that incorporates networks of solvent molecules into the theoretical model to facilitate proton transfer between sites in the reactant and product. DFT-SAPE models show that, in addition to decreasing the barrier to oxidation of the selenol, Se···N,O interactions generally increase the barriers for selenenic acid reduction and selenol regeneration because the Se···N,O interaction must be broken for the reaction to proceed. Calculated activation barriers for the rate-determining step are consistent with the relative experimental GPx-like activities of a series of diaryl diselenides.