Force Fields for Carbohydrate-Divalent Cation Interactions

We report molecular dynamics simulations to study intermolecular interactions for carbohydrate-divalent cation complexes. We observed that common force fields from literature with standard Lorentz-Berthelot combining rules are unable to reproduce the experimental stability constants for model carbohydrate monomer (α-d-Allopyranose) and alkali earth metal cation (Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, Sr²⁺, or Ba²⁺) complexes. A modified combining rule with rescaled effective cross-interaction radius between cations and the hydroxyl oxygens on the carbohydrates was introduced to reproduce the experimental stability constants, which the preferential carbohydrate-cation complexing structures through the ax-eq-ax sequence of O-1, O-2, and O-3 on α-d-Allopyranose were also observed. The effective radius scaling factor obtained from (α-d-Allopyranose)-Ca²⁺ complexes was directly transferrable to the similar six-membered ring (α-d-Ribopyranose)-Ca²⁺ complexes; however, reparameterization for the scaling factor may be necessary for the five-membered ring (α-d-Ribofuranose)-Ca²⁺ complexes.