A test of the single-conformation hypothesis in the analysis of NMR data for small polar molecules: A force field comparison

A tricyclic ketone with seven stereogenic centers produced in >95:5 diastereomeric excess by an asymmetric Diels-Alder reaction has been subjected to a careful 2-D NMR(CDCl3)ND analysis by Reggelin and co-workers and interpreted in terms of a single conformation in CDCl3 solution. The present work examines the validity of this interpretation. Specifically, the conformational profile of the endo isomer of the tricyclic ketone was examined by Monte Carlo searches with both the MM2* and MMFF force fields in MacroModel using the GB/SA CHCl3 solvent continuum model. The two sets of conformations were then combined and optimized with the MM3(96) force field. The structures of the resulting conformations and the NMR-derived geometric variables were together subjected to a NAMFIS analysis (NMR analysis of molecular flexibility in solution). Ideally, the procedure deconvolutes the thermally averaged NMR data into a small family of conformations that optimally represents the J-derived torsions and the NOE-derived distances. It is concluded that the tricyclic ketone under study is not well-characterized by a single conformation in CDCl3 solution, but by a set of rapidly equilibrating conformers that produces a deceptively averaged NMR spectrum. It would appear that the previously suggested structure is a virtual conformation obligated to compress multiconformer features into a single 3-D construct. In additon, we find that current force fields do not uniformly represent the conformational profile of polar molecules such as 1. The cause is traced primarily to the variable treatment of electrostatic effects.