ROLE OF WATER MOLECULES IN THE CRYSTAL STRUCTURE OF ACYCLOVIR

Kinga Suwinska¹, Bozenna Golankiewicz² and Wojciech Zielenkiewicz¹

¹Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warszawa, Poland
²Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznan, Poland

The biologically important molecule of acyclovir shows conformational flexibility which is observed in the solid state as two symmetrically independent molecules with different conformation of the side chain. Additionally, one of these molecules exhibits disorder of the side chain and it turns out that three different conformations exist in the crystal.

Water molecules found in the crystal form (H₂O)₈ clusters which are located between acyclovir molecules. The complex hydrogen bond network formed between water and acyclovir molecules in the solid state may be related to the salvation of the molecules in solution. Details of this supramolecular assembly will be discussed.