The Nuclear Overhauser Effect NOE

The double resonance experiment can be used to simplify a spectrum as discussed in Section 3.4.4, or to probe correlations between different nuclei. Two types of double resonance experiments are described. In the homonuclear double resonance experiment the nuclei irradiated are the same isotope as those observed Shorthand notation for this is, for example, In hetero- 

As stated previously, for a spin=1/2 nuclei so that 7=1/2 and A7J=pBo/7, one obtains equation 3.27. Rewriting this in terms of the magnetogyric ratio, where y=27i/h( i/I), yields equation 3.28. 

The number of nuclei in the upper energy state, Ni, is less than that in the lower energy state, Ni, and the probabilities of upwards and downwards transitions are different. The spin transitions are caused by the spins 5 of a nucleus, and the influence of these occurs directly through space. The transi- 

A similar expression for the difference of the two spin S populations can be written as 

Now if S is strongly irradiated, then it is saturated and S is no longer at its Boltzmann equilibrium. Therefore it cannot maintain the Boltzmann equilibrium of spins I and the intensity of the I signal is changed. Equalizing S populations produces a proportional change in I populations such that equation 3.31 can be written in which r is is called the nuclear Overhauser enhancement (NOE) factor. 

The intensity of resonances may be increased by up to 200% when iR nuclei which are directly bonded to the carbon atom are irradiated. This effect is very important in increasing the intensity of spectra when they are proton-decoupled. The efficiency of the proton/carbon NOE varies from carbon to carbon and this is a factor that contributes to the generally non-quantitative nature of NMR. While the intensity of protonated carbon atoms can be increased significantly by NOE, non-protonated carbons (quaternary carbon atoms) receive little NOE and are usually the weakest signals in a NMR spectmm. 

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Another technique often used to examine the stmcture of double-heUcal oligonucleotides is two-dimensional nmr spectroscopy (see AfAGNETiC SPIN resonance). This method rehes on measurement of the nuclear Overhauser effects (NOEs) through space to determine the distances between protons (6). The stmcture of an oligonucleotide may be determined theoretically from a set of iaterproton distances. As a result of the complexities of the experiment and data analysis, the quality of the stmctural information obtained is debated. However, nmr spectroscopy does provide information pertaining to the stmcture of DNA ia solution and can serve as a complement to the stmctural information provided by crystallographic analysis. 

Whereas spin decoupling, COSY and TOCSY techniques are used to establish connectivities between protons through bonds, techniques that make use of the nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE), such as 1-D NOE and NOESY, 1- and 2-D GOESY, 1- and 2-D ROESY, can establish connectivities through space. Before looking at these techniques in detail, it s worth spending a little time considering the NOE phenomenon itself - in a nonmathematical manner, of course ... 

Convincing evidence was found that the majority of acyclic aldo-nitrones exist in the Z-form, by investigating the ASIS-effect (aromatic solvent induced shift effect) (399). However, in some cases, specified by structural factors and solvent, the presence of both isomers has been revealed. Thus, in C -acyl-nitrones the existence of Z -and -isomers was detected. Their ratio appears to be heavily dependant on the solvent polar solvents stabilize Z-isomers and nonpolar, E-isomers (399). A similar situation was observed in a- methoxy-A-tert-butylnitrones. In acetone, the more polar Z-isomer was observed, whereas in chloroform, the less polar E-isomer prevailed. The isomer assignments were made on the basis of the Nuclear Overhauser Effect (NOE) (398). /Z-Isomerization of acylnitrones can occur upon treatment with Lewis acids, such as, MgBr2 (397). Another reason for isomerization is free rotation with respect to the C-N bond in adduct (218) resulting from the reversible addition of MeOH to the C=N bond (Scheme 2.74). The increase of the electron acceptor character of the substituent contributes to the process (135). 

As with the COSY experiment, the sequence starts with a pulse followed by an evolution period, but now the mechanism that couples the two spins (which must be in close proximity, typically <6 A) is the Nuclear Overhauser Effect (NOE). The second pulse converts magnetization into population disturbances, and cross-relaxation is allowed during the mixing time. Finally, the third pulse transfers the spins back to the x-y-plane, where detection takes place. The spectrum will resemble a COSY spectrum, but the off-diagonal peaks now indicate through-space rather than through-bond interactions. 

The observed polarization is primarily associated with the former parahydrogen protons. However, other protons may also experience a drastic signal enhancement due to nuclear spin polarization transferred to these nuclei via the nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) or similar processes, both in the final reaction products as well as in their precursor intermediates. 

When one resonance in an NMR spectrum is perturbed by saturation or inversion, the net intensities of other resonances in the spectrum may change. This phenomenon is called the nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE). The change in resonance intensities is caused by spins close in space to those directly affected by the perturbation. In an ideal NOE experiment, the target resonance is completely saturated by selected irradiation, while all other signals are completely unaffected. An NOE study of a rigid molecule or molecular residue often gives both structural and conformational information, whereas for highly flexible molecules or residues NOE studies are less useful. 

The principle source of experimental conformational data in an NMR structure determination is constraints on short interatomic distances between hydrogen atoms obtained from NMR measurements of the nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE). NOEs result from cross-relaxation mediated by the dipole-dipole interaction between spatially proximate nu-... 

Recently, a number of NMR screening techniques based on the nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) have been developed. 

Since the discovery of the nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE, see previous section) [4, 5] and scalar coupling constants [36, 37] decades ago, NMR-derived structure calculations of biomolecules largely depended on the measurement of these two parameters [38]. Recently it became possible to use cross-correlated relaxation (CCR) to directly measure angles between bond vectors [39] (see also Chapt 7). In addition, residual dipolar couplings of weakly aligned molecules were discovered to measure the orientation of bond vectors relative to the alignment tensor (see Sect 16.5). Measurement of cross-correlated relaxation was described experimentally earlier for homonuclear cases [40, 41] and is widely used in solid-state NMR [42 14]. 

Nuclear Overhauser effect—The nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) occurs only between nuclei that share a dipole coupling, i.e., their nuclei are so close that their magnetic dipoles interact. Techniques that use NOE enhance spectra and allow spacial relationships of protons to be determined. 

H is particularly important in NMR experiments because of its high sensitivity and natural abundance. For macromolecules, 1H NMR spectra can become quite complicated. Even a small protein has hundreds of 1H atoms, typically resulting in a one-dimensional NMR spectrum too complex for analysis. Structural analysis of proteins became possible with the advent of two-dimensional NMR techniques (Fig. 3). These methods allow measurement of distance-dependent coupling of nuclear spins in nearby atoms through space (the nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE), in a method dubbed NOESY) or the coupling of nuclear spins in atoms connected by covalent bonds (total correlation spectroscopy, or TOCSY). 

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