Gas-phase protonation thermochemistry of adenosine

The goal of this work was to obtain a detailed insight on the gas-phase protonation energetic of adenosine using both mass spectrometric experiments and quantum chemical calculations. The experimental approach used the extended kinetic method with nanoelectrospray ionization and collision-induced dissociation tandem mass spectrometry. This method provides experimental values for proton affinity, PA(adenosine) = 979 +/- 1 kJ.mol (-1), and for the "protonation entropy", Delta p S degrees (adenosine) = S degrees (adenosineH +) - S degrees (adenosine) = -5 +/- 5 J.mol (-1).K (-1). The corresponding gas-phase basicity is consequently equal to: GB(adenosine) = 945 +/- 2 kJ.mol (-1) at 298K. Theoretical calculations conducted at the B3LYP/6-311+G(3df,2p)//B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p) level, including 298 K enthalpy correction, predict a proton affinity value of 974 kJ.mol (-1) after consideration of isodesmic proton transfer reactions with pyridine as the reference base. Moreover, computations clearly showed that N3 is the most favorable protonation site for adenosine, due to a strong internal hydrogen bond involving the hydroxyl group at the 2' position of the ribose sugar moiety, unlike observations for adenine and 2'-deoxyadenosine, where protonation occurs on N1. The existence of negligible protonation entropy is confirmed by calculations (theoretical Delta p S degrees (adenosine) approximately -2/-3 J.mol (-1).K (-1)) including conformational analysis and entropy of hindered rotations. Thus, the calculated protonation thermochemical properties are in good agreement with our experimental measurements. It may be noted that the new PA value is approximately 10 kJ.mol (-1) lower than the one reported in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) database, thus pointing to a correction of the tabulated protonation thermochemistry of adenosine.