Politzer P, Laurence P R, Jayasuriya K
Environ Health Perspect. 1985 Sep;61:191-202. doi: 10.1289/ehp.8561191.
The electrostatic potential V(r) that is created in the space around a molecule by its nuclei and electrons (treated as static distributions of charge) is a very useful property for analyzing and predicting molecular reactive behavior. It is rigorously defined and can be determined experimentally as well as computationally. The potential has been particularly useful as an indicator of the sites or regions of a molecule to which an approaching electrophile is initially attracted, and it has also been applied successfully to the study of interactions that involve a certain optimum relative orientation of the reactants, such as between a drug and its cellular receptor. A variety of methods for calculating V(r) is available, at different levels of rigor. For large biologically active molecules, multipole expansions and superposition of potentials computed for subunits have been found to be effective. A large number of chemical and biochemical systems and processes have now been studied in terms of electrostatic potentials. Three examples of such applications are surveyed in this paper. These deal with: (a) reactive properties of nucleic acids, including their component bases; (b) biological recognition processes, including drug-receptors and enzyme-substrate interactions; and (c) chemical carcinogenesis, referring specifically to the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and halogenated olefins and their epoxides. For each of these areas, examples of the use of electrostatic potentials in elucidating structure-activity patterns are given.
分子的原子核和电子（视为静态电荷分布）在其周围空间产生的静电势V(r)，对于分析和预测分子的反应行为是一种非常有用的性质。它有严格的定义，并且既可以通过实验测定，也可以通过计算确定。该电势作为一种指标，对于指示分子中最初吸引接近的亲电试剂的位点或区域特别有用，并且它也已成功应用于涉及反应物特定最佳相对取向的相互作用的研究，例如药物与其细胞受体之间的相互作用。有多种计算V(r)的方法，其严格程度各不相同。对于大型生物活性分子，已发现多极展开和针对亚基计算的电势叠加是有效的。现在已经根据静电势研究了大量的化学和生化系统及过程。本文概述了此类应用的三个例子。这些例子涉及：(a)核酸及其组成碱基的反应性质；(b)生物识别过程，包括药物-受体和酶-底物相互作用；以及(c)化学致癌作用，具体涉及多环芳烃和卤代烯烃及其环氧化物。对于这些领域中的每一个，都给出了利用静电势阐明构效关系模式的例子。
