ISSN 1017-2548(Print)
ISSN 2234-8530(Online)
Volume 38, Number 1
JKCSEZ 38(1)
February 20, 1994 

The proton affinities of substituted imidazoles, relevant to the binding of lexitropsins that contain imidazole ring to the base pair (G-C sequence) of minor groove of DNA, are studied with the aid of EHT calculations. It is shown that proton affinity of imidazole substituted at position α to the basic nitrogen is slightly larger than that of imidazole substituted at N for the methylimidazole. Proton affinities of N-substituted imidazoles are found to be larger than those of imidazoles substituted at position α for a selected set of the other derivatives. As predicted the proton affinity increases when electron-donating group is attached at position N of imidazole.