In this Review, we reviewed the efforts to expand the applications of conceptual density functional theory reactivity descriptors and hard and soft acid and base principles for macromolecules and other strategies that focused on low-level quantum chemistry methods. Currently, recent applications are taking advantage of modifications of these descriptors using semiempirical electronic structures to explain enzymatic catalysis reactions, protein-binding processes, and structural analysis in proteins. We have explored these new solutions along with their implementations in the software PRIMoRDiA, discussing their impact on the field and its perspectives. We show the main issues in the analysis of the electronic structure of macromolecules, which are the application of the same calculation protocols used for small molecules without considering particularities in those large systems’ electronic configuration. The major result of our discussions is that the use of semiempirical methods is crucial to obtain such a type of analysis, which can provide a powerful dimension of information and be part of future low-cost predictive tools. We expect semiempirical methods continue playing an important role in the quantum chemistry evaluation of large molecules. As computational resources advance, semiempirical methods might lead us to explore the electronic structure of even larger biological macromolecular entities and sets of structures representing larger timescales.
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28 May 2023
Review Article|
May 24 2023
Quantum chemical descriptors based on semiempirical methods for large biomolecules
Special Collection:
Modern Semiempirical Electronic Structure Methods
Igor B. Grillo
;
Igor B. Grillo
a)
(Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Software, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
Departamento de Química, Centro de Ciências Exatas e da Natureza, Universidade Federal da Paraíba
, João Pessoa, Brazil
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Gabriel A. Urquiza-Carvalho
;
Gabriel A. Urquiza-Carvalho
b)
(Conceptualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
Departamento de Química, Centro de Ciências Exatas e da Natureza, Universidade Federal da Paraíba
, João Pessoa, Brazil
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Gerd B. Rocha
Gerd B. Rocha
c)
(Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
Departamento de Química, Centro de Ciências Exatas e da Natureza, Universidade Federal da Paraíba
, João Pessoa, Brazil
c)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: gbr@quimica.ufpb.br. URL: https://www.quantum-chem.pro.br
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c)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: gbr@quimica.ufpb.br. URL: https://www.quantum-chem.pro.br
a)
Electronic mail: barden.grillo@gmail.com
b)
Electronic mail: urquizagabes@gmail.com
Note: This paper is part of the JCP Special Topic on Modern Semiempirical Electronic Structure Methods.
J. Chem. Phys. 158, 201001 (2023)
Article history
Received:
October 30 2022
Accepted:
May 03 2023
Citation
Igor B. Grillo, Gabriel A. Urquiza-Carvalho, Gerd B. Rocha; Quantum chemical descriptors based on semiempirical methods for large biomolecules. J. Chem. Phys. 28 May 2023; 158 (20): 201001. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0132687
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