Molecular dynamics, density functional and second-order Møller-Plesset theory study of the structure and conformation of acetylcholine in vacuo and in solution

Molecular mechanics minimizations based on the CVFF force field and molecular dynamics simulation for a time of 2.5 ns were performed to examine the conformational behaviour and the molecular motion of acetylcholine in vacuo and in aqueous solution. Five low-lying conformations, namely the TT, TG, GG, G*G and GT, were obtained from molecular mechanics computations with the GT structure as the absolute minimum. Molecular dynamics trajectories in vacuo and in water show that only four (GT, GG, G*G and TG) and three (TG, TT and GT) conformations are present in the simulation time, respectively. Density functional B3LYP and second-order Møller-Plesset (MP2) methods were then used to study all the five lowest-lying conformers of acetylcholine neurotransmitter in vacuo and in water by the polarizable continuum model approach. The B3LYP and MP2 computations show that in the gas phase all minima lie in a narrow range of energy with the G*G conformer as the most stable one. The relative minima GG, GT, TG and TT are located at 1.1 (3.3), 1.8 (4.2), 2.1 (4.5) and 4.3 (7.3) kcal/mol above the absolute one at the B3LYP (MP2) level. The preferred conformation in water is the TG. Solvation reduces the relative energy differences between the five minima in both computations.