Excited electronic states of flavin-containing coenzyme models

Abstract

In order to gain further insight into the physical basis of flavin-catalyzed reactions, the interactions of a flavin with a second flavin and with other aromatic ring systems were studied. For this purpose compounds through 1 were synthesized These compounds contain the interacting units in defined geometric orientation. A monomeric flavin and glutathione reductase a flavoenzyme of known active-site chemistry, were included as reference molecules. The present report deals with excited triplet states of the flavin compounds as studied by optical spectroscopy and optically detected magnetic resonances (ODMR) at 1.3K.