Thermodynamics of amide hydrogen bond formation in polar and apolar solvents

We present the initial findings of a theoretical study of hydrogen bond formation between two formamide molecules in water and in carbon tetrachloride. These systems were chosen as the simplest models for secondary structure formation in the polar environment near the protein surface and the apolar environment of the protein interior. We have employed thermodynamic simulation methods to obtain absolute binding free energies and free energy profiles for the formation of peptide hydrogen bonds in the two solvents. We find that the amide hydrogen bond is stable by 8.4 kcal/mol in CCl4, and by 0.3 kcal/mol in water. Our results indicate also that the hydrogen-bonded dimer is 2.2 kcal/mol more stable in water than it is in CCl4. We compare our results with those from experiment, and discuss their use in interpreting mechanisms of protein folding.