New simple atom-atom potential functions for simulating behavior of nucleic acids and their fragments in aqueous solutions are suggested. These functions contains terms which are inversely proportional to the first (electrostatics), sixth (or tenth for the atoms, forming hydrogen bonds) and twelfth (repulsion of all the atoms) powers of interatomic distance. For the refinement of the potential function parameters calculations of ice lattice energy, potential energy and configuration of small clusters consisting of water and nucleic acid base molecules as well as Monte Carlo simulation of liquid water were performed. Calculations using new potential functions give rise to more linear hydrogen bonds between water and base molecules than using other potentials. Sites of preferential hydration of five nucleic bases - uracil, thymine, cytosine, guanine and adenine as well as of 6,6,9-trimethyladenine were found. In the most energetically favourable sites water molecular interacts with two adjacent hydrophilic centres of the base. Studies of interaction of the bases with several water molecules showed that water-water interactions play an important role in the arrangement of the nearest to the base water molecules. Hydrophilic centres are connected by "bridges" formed by hydrogen bonded water molecules. The results obtained are consistent with crystallographic and mass-spectrometric data.

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ABSTRACT:To understand the molecular basis of the principal biological action of the caffeine (CAF), the molecular mechanics calculations of possible complexes between CAF and the fragments of human A 1 adenosine receptor were performed. The fragments were selected after considerations of the CAF molecular structure and its possible interactions, as well as after an analysis of the extensive bibliography on the structure, biological role, site-directed mutagenesis, and the modeling of the adenosine receptors. The minimum energy configurations of these complexes were obtained using two different computer programs with different force fields. The most favorable configurations correspond to the formation of two hydrogen bonds between the CAF molecule and hydrophilic amino acid residues of the fragments of transmembrane domains of the receptor. These configurations are supposed to contribute to CAF blocking of the adenosine receptors. They will be used later for the construction of model CAF complexes with two transmembrane domains simultaneously.

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