Substituted quinoline quinones as surrogates for the PQQ cofactor: an electrochemical and computational study

Pyrroloquinoline quinones (PQQ) are important cofactors that shuttle redox equivalents in diverse metalloproteins. Quinoline 7,8-quinones have been synthesized and characterized as surrogates for PQQ to elucidate redox energetics within metalloenzyme active sites. The quinoline 7,8-quinones were accessed using polymer-supported iodoxybenzoic acid and the compounds evaluated using solution electrochemistry. Together with a family of quinones, the products were evaluated computationally and used to generate a predictive correlation between a computed ΔG and the experimental reduction potentials.