Strong, low-barrier hydrogen bonds may be available to enzymes

The debate over the possible role of strong, low-barrier hydrogen bonds in stabilizing reaction intermediates at enzyme active sites has taken place in the absence of an awareness of the upper limits to the strengths of low-barrier hydrogen bonds involving amino acid side chains. Hydrogen bonds exhibit their maximal strengths in isolation, i.e., in the gas phase. In this work, we measured the ionic hydrogen bond strengths of three enzymatically relevant model systems in the gas phase using anion photoelectron spectroscopy; we calibrated these against the hydrogen bond strength of HF2(-), measured using the same technique, and we compared our results with other gas-phase experimental data. The model systems studied here, the formate-formic acid, acetate-acetic acid, and imidazolide-imidazole anionic complexes, all exhibit very strong hydrogen bonds, whose strengths compare favorably with that of the hydrogen bifluoride anion, the strongest known hydrogen bond. The hydrogen bond strengths of these gas-phase complexes are stronger than those typically estimated as being required to stabilize enzymatic intermediates. If there were to be enzyme active site environments that can facilitate the retention of a significant fraction of the strengths of these isolated (gas-phase), hydrogen bonded couples, then low-barrier hydrogen bonding interactions might well play important roles in enzymatic catalysis.