Theoretical calculations have been carried out to investigate the effect of the 4(R)-substituents ( OH , F , NH 2, and [Formula: see text]) in proline on the stability of the collagen triple helix. A series of substituted proline models were studied first with density functional (B3LYP/6-31+G*) calculations. The solvent effect was studied using the SCIPCM method. While the F , OH and NH 2 groups increase the stability of the trans-up conformation with respect to the trans-down conformation, [Formula: see text] appears to favor the trans-down conformation in an aqueous solution. Second, the triple helices of the tripeptide models, Ac – Pro – Pro(X) – Gly – H with the two proline residues in the down/down and down/up puckering conformations, were optimized with a repeating unit approach using the HF/6-31G* method. For the Ac – Pro – Pro – Gly – H model peptide, the calculated binding energies of the two triple helices with the different puckering modes are similar. All four substituents, F , OH , NH 2, and [Formula: see text], considerably increased the binding energy of the down/up helix, but only [Formula: see text] stabilizes the down/down triple helix. Our calculations indicate that the inter-chain electrostatic interactions involving the 4(R)-substituents play an important role in stabilizing triple helical collagen models and allow the rationalization of all available experimental observations. Further model studies indicate that the substituent effects by the F , OH and NH 2 substituents are local while the effect of [Formula: see text] is long-range in nature.
