Influence of Polarization on Carbohydrate Hydration: A Comparative Study Using Additive and Polarizable Force Fields

Carbohydrates are known to closely modulate their surrounding solvent structures and influence solvation dynamics. Spectroscopic investigations studying far-IR regions (below 1000 cm^–1) have observed spectral shifts in the libration band (around 600 cm^–1) of water in the presence of monosaccharides and polysaccharides. In this paper, we use molecular dynamics simulations to gain atomistic insight into carbohydrate–water interactions and to specifically highlight the differences between additive (nonpolarizable) and polarizable simulations. A total of six monosaccharide systems, α and β anomers of glucose, galactose, and mannose, were studied using additive and polarizable Chemistry at HARvard Macromolecular Mechanics (CHARMM) carbohydrate force fields. Solvents were modeled using three additive water models TIP3P, TIP4P, and TIP5P in additive simulations and polarizable water model SWM4 in polarizable simulations. The presence of carbohydrate has a significant effect on the microscopic water structure, with the effects being pronounced for proximal water molecules. Notably, disruption of the tetrahedral arrangement of proximal water molecules was observed due to the formation of strong carbohydrate–water hydrogen bonds in both additive and polarizable simulations. However, the inclusion of polarization resulted in significant water-bridge occupancies, improved ordered water structures (tetrahedral order parameter), and longer carbohydrate–water H-bond correlations as compared to those for additive simulations. Additionally, polarizable simulations also allowed the calculation of power spectra from the dipole–dipole autocorrelation function, which corresponds to the IR spectra. From the power spectra, we could identify spectral signatures differentiating the proximal and bulk water structures, which could not be captured from additive simulations.