Intriguing Intermolecular Interplay in Guanine Quartet Complexes with Alkali and Alkaline Earth Cations

The possibility to target noncanonical guanine structures with specific ligands for therapeutic purposes inspired numerous theoretical and experimental investigations of a guanine quartet and its stacked composites. In this work, we employed the interacting quantum atoms methodology to study interactions among different fragments in complexes composed of a guanine quartet and alkali (Li+, Na+, K+) or alkaline earth (Be2+, Mg2+, Ca2+) cations in vacuo: metal-quartet interaction, influence of the cation on guanine-guanine interaction, as well as hydrogen bond cooperativity in the guanine quartet and its complexes with metal ions. Interestingly, although the presence of a cation intensifies interaction among guanine molecules, it lowers their binding energy because of notable quartet's distortion which is responsible for guanines' substantial deformation energy. This phenomenon is particularly pronounced with Be2+ which, out of the six analyzed cations, enhances hydrogen bond cooperativity to the greatest extent.