Free Energy and Hydration Free Energy of Ac-Ala-NHMe

Abstract

The changes in the free energy and hydration free energy of N-acetyl-N'-methylalaninamide in the unhydrated and hydrated states were calculated with ECEPP/2 and the hydration shell model. The configurational entropy change of each conformation in both states were computed by a harmonic method. To understand the hydration structure of each hydrated conformation, the hydration-shell coordination numbers of functional groups of the molecule were estimated from water-accessible volumes, and the contributions of water-accessible volume and polarization of each group to the hydration free energy were analyzed. The results show a reasonable agreement with those of recent theoretical studies and experiments.