The reactions of hydrated electrons (e aq -) with 8-bromoisoguanosine and 8-bromoxanthosine were studied by pulse radiolysis techniques and addressed computationally by means of hybrid meta DFT calculations at the B1B95/6-31þG** level. The one-electron oxidized purine derivative is formed either by oxidation of the corresponding purine with SO 4•-or by reduction of the corresponding 8-bromopurine with e aq -at pH 7. The reactivity of 8-bromoxanthosine depends on its protonation state. In agreement with the experimental findings, DFT calculations suggest that the reaction of the e aq -/H þ couple with 8-bromoisoguanosine and 8-bromoxanthosine (monoanion) involves sequential electron-transfer-proton-transfer (ET-PT) and concerted electron-proton-transfer (EPT) pathways, respectively.
SECTION Biophysical ChemistryO ur understanding of the one-electron reduction of 8-bromopurines 1 has been improved in recent years (Scheme 1). The nature of the substituents X and Yat positions 6 and 2 of the nitrogenous six-member ring plays an important role in the reaction outcome. 8-Bromo-2 0 deoxyadenosine (X = NH 2 , Y = H) 1 and 8-bromo-2 0 -deoxyinosine (X = O, Y = H) 2 were found to capture hydrated electrons and rapidly lose bromide ions to give the corresponding σ-type radicals 2 as expected for delocalized halide (Cl, Br) π anion radicals. 3 Radical translocation to the sugar moiety affords C5 0 radicals and allows for the detailed study of these species. On the other hand, electron transfer (ET) to 8-bromoguanine (X = O, Y = NH 2 ) 4,5 and 8-bromo-2-aminoadenine (X = Y = NH 2 ) 6 derivatives was found to give radical anion 3, which undergoes a fast protonation at C8 by proton transfer (PT) from solvent to afford the complex 4. This mechanism is similar to the step-by-step ET-PT reactions observed in pulse radiolysis of adenine 7 and guanine 8 nucleosides. The successive debromination allowed studying for the first time the tautomerization of one-electron-oxidized guanosine. 4,5 This Letter reports on the reactivity of 8-bromoisoguanosine (X = NH 2 , Y = O) and 8-bromoxanthosine (X = Y = O) as well as on the dynamics of the proton-coupled electron-transfer (PCET) reactions, [9][10][11] in particular, on the sequential electron-transfer-proton-transfer (ET-PT) versus concerted electron-proton-transfer (EPT) mechanism. 9,10Radiolysis of neutral water leads to e aq -(0.27), HO • (0.28), and H • (0.062), where the values in parentheses represent the radiation chemical yields in units of μmol J -1 . The reactions of e aq -with the substrates were studied in O 2 -free solutions containing 0.25 t-BuOH. With this amount of t-BuOH, HO • and H • are scavenged efficiently. 12 The optical absorption spectrum obtained after the reaction of e aq -with 8-bromoisoguanosine (5) at pH 7 is shown in Figure 1 (black circles). The time profile of the formation of this transient at 340 nm (upper inset) or the disappearance of e aq -at 720 nm (lower inset) leads to the same pseudo-first-order rate constant (k obs ), indicating that if any interm...