Carbene Generation by Cytochromes and Electronic Structure of Heme-Iron-Porphyrin-Carbene Complex: A Quantum Chemical Study

Carbene-heme-iron-porphyrin complexes generated from cytochrome P450 (CYP450)-mediated metabolism of compounds containing methylenedioxyphenyl (MDP) moiety lead to the mechanism-based inhibition (MBI) of CYPs. This coordination complex is termed as the metabolic-intermediate complex (MIC). The bioinorganic chemistry of MDP carbenes has been studied using quantum chemical methods employing density functional theory (B3LYP functional with implicit solvent corrections) to (i) analyze the characteristics of MDP-carbene in terms of singlet-triplet energy difference, protonation, and dimerization energies, etc.; (ii) determine the electronic structure and analyze the Fe-carbene interactions; and (iii) elucidate the potential reaction pathways for the generation of carbene, using Cpd I (iron(TV)-oxo-porphine with SH- as the axial ligand) as the model oxidant to mimic the activity of CYP450. The results show that MDP-carbenes are sufficiently stable and nucleophilic, leading to the formation of stable MIC (-40.35 kcal/mol) on the doublet spin state, formed via interaction between sigma(LP) of carbene and empty d(z2) orbital of heme-iron. This was aided by the back-bonding between filled d(xz) of heme-iron and the empty p orbital of carbene. The mechanistic pathway proposed in the literature for the generation of MDP-carbene (CH hydroxylation followed by water elimination) was studied, and observed to be unfavorable, owing to the formation of highly stable hydroxylated product (-57.12 kcal/mol). An intriguing pathway involving hydride ion abstraction and proton transfer followed by water elimination step was observed to be the most probable pathway.