Ab initio molecular dynamics of the reactivity of vitamin C toward hydroxyl and $$ {HO}_2/{O}_2^{-} $$ radicals

Vitamin C is one of the most abundant exogenous antioxidants in the cell, and it is of the utmost importance to elucidate its mechanism of action against radicals. In this study, the reactivity of vitamin C toward OH and \( {HO}_2/{O}_2^{-} \) radicals in aqueous medium was analyzed by ab initio molecular dynamics using CPMD code. The simulations led to results similar to those of static studies or experiments for the pair of \( {HO}_2/{O}_2^{-} \) radicals but bring new insights for the reactivity with hydroxyl radical: the reaction takes place before the formation of an adduct and consists of two steps: first an electron is transferred to hydroxyl radical and then the ascorbyl radical loses a proton.

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Graphical Abstract Reactivity of vitamin C toward hydroxyl and \( {HO}_2/{O}_2^{-} \) radicals