Molecular electrostatic potentials in aromatic substituted 4-hydroxyquino-2-lones: Glycine/NMDA receptor antagonists

Hydroxyquinolone derivatives have proven to be useful for inhibition at the glycine binding site of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor. In this work the electronic structure, molecular electrostatic potential (MESP) and vibrational characteristics of a set of C₃ substituted 4-hydroxyquino-2-lone (HQ) derivatives, which act as Glycine/NMDA receptor antagonists, have been investigated using the density functional calculations. In the optimized structures a substituent at the C₃ site of HQ tends to adopt a helical structure. MESP investigations reveal that the ligands showing better inhibition activity should possess electron-rich regions extending over the substituent and carbonyl group of HQ. A correlation of inhibitory activity to the molecular electrostatic potential topography at the carbonyl oxygen as well as to the molecular electron density topography turns out to be a significant output of the investigation. Figure Quantam chemical approach has been employed to understand the reactivity of a set of hydroxyquinolone derivatives known for their inhibition activity towards Glycine/NMDA receptor. Molecular electrostatic potential topography has been used as a tool to understand the reactivity pattern