Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37917924›Full record

ArticleJournal of the American Chemical Society2023

The Energetic Origins of Pi-Pi Contacts in Proteins.

Kay Carter-Fenk, Meili Liu, Leila Pujal, Matthias Loipersberger, Maria Tsanai, Robert M Vernon, Julie D Forman-Kay, Martin Head-Gordon, Farnaz Heidar-Zadeh, Teresa Head-Gordon

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
25citing papers in PubMed
18.5field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

25 citing papers in PubMed, 47 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
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  4. COACS omega · 2026
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  8. Hidden Interactions: Quantum Perspectives in Drug Design.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2026
    Review
  9. Review
  10. Article
  11. Making Sense of Heteroatom Effects in π-π Interactions.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2025
    Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. What is the Exchange Repulsion Energy? Insight by Partitioning into Physically Meaningful Contributions.Chemphyschem : a European journal of chemical physics and physical chemistry · 2025
    Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.

Kay Carter-FenkKenneth S. Pitzer Center for Theoretical Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.ORCID 0000-0001-8302-4750
Meili LiuKenneth S. Pitzer Center for Theoretical Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.
Leila PujalDepartment of Chemistry, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada.
Matthias LoipersbergerKenneth S. Pitzer Center for Theoretical Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.ORCID 0000-0002-3648-0101
Maria TsanaiKenneth S. Pitzer Center for Theoretical Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.
Robert M VernonMolecular Medicine Program, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario M5G 0A4, Canada.
Julie D Forman-KayMolecular Medicine Program, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario M5G 0A4, Canada.ORCID 0000-0001-8265-972X
Martin Head-GordonKenneth S. Pitzer Center for Theoretical Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.ORCID 0000-0002-4309-6669
Farnaz Heidar-ZadehDepartment of Chemistry, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada.
Teresa Head-GordonKenneth S. Pitzer Center for Theoretical Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.ORCID 0000-0003-0025-8987
Center for Theoretical Biological Physics · USQueen's University · CAUniversity of Toronto · CABeijing Normal University · CN

Funding

Calculating Ensembles of Discrete Dynamic Complexes and Condensed States of Intrinsically Disordered ProteinsR01GM127627 · NIGMS · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY · PI Teresa L. Head-Gordon · 2018 to 2026
$2.1M
Towards a Quantum-Mechanical Understanding of Redox Chemistry in ProteinsF32GM149165 · NIGMS · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY · PI CARTER-FENK, KEVIN · 2023 to 2024
$108k
NIGMS NIH HHS F32 GM149165NIGMS NIH HHS R01 GM127627
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Accurate potential energy models of proteins must describe the many different types of noncovalent interactions that contribute to a protein's stability and structure. Pi-pi contacts are ubiquitous structural motifs in all proteins, occurring between aromatic and nonaromatic residues and play a nontrivial role in protein folding and in the formation of biomolecular condensates. Guided by a geometric criterion for isolating pi-pi contacts from classical molecular dynamics simulations of proteins, we use quantum mechanical energy decomposition analysis to determine the molecular interactions that stabilize different pi-pi contact motifs. We find that neutral pi-pi interactions in proteins are dominated by Pauli repulsion and London dispersion rather than repulsive quadrupole electrostatics, which is central to the textbook Hunter-Sanders model. This results in a notable lack of variability in the interaction profiles of neutral pi-pi contacts even with extreme changes in the dielectric medium, explaining the prevalence of pi-stacked arrangements in and between proteins. We also find interactions involving pi-containing anions and cations to be extremely malleable, interacting like neutral pi-pi contacts in polar media and like typical ion-pi interactions in nonpolar environments. Like-charged pairs such as arginine-arginine contacts are particularly sensitive to the polarity of their immediate surroundings and exhibit canonical pi-pi stacking behavior only if the interaction is mediated by environmental effects, such as aqueous solvation.

Identifiers

PMID37917924
PMCPMC10655088
OpenAlexW4388211342

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.