Ab initio models for receptor-ligand interactions in proteins. 4. Model assembly study of the catalytic mechanism of triosephosphate isomerase

Triosephosphate isomerase: 15N and 13C chemical shift assignments and conformational change upon ligand binding by magic-angle spinning solid-state NMR spectroscopy

Microcrystalline uniformly (13)C,(15)N-enriched yeast triosephosphate isomerase (TIM) is sequentially assigned by high-resolution solid-state NMR (SSNMR). Assignments are based on intraresidue and interresidue correlations, using dipolar polarization transfer methods, and guided by solution NMR assignments of the same protein. We obtained information on most of the active-site residues involved in chemistry, including some that were not reported in a previous solution NMR study, such as the side-chain carbons of His95. Chemical shift differences comparing the microcrystalline environment to the aqueous environment appear to be mainly due to crystal packing interactions. Site-specific perturbations of the enzyme's chemical shifts upon ligand binding are studied by SSNMR for the first time. These changes monitor proteinwide conformational adjustment upon ligand binding, including many of the sites probed by solution NMR and X-ray studies. Changes in Gln119, Ala163, and Gly210 were observed in our SSNMR studies, but were not reported in solution NMR studies (chicken or yeast). These studies identify a number of new sites with particularly clear markers for ligand binding, paving the way for future studies of triosephosphate isomerase dynamics and mechanism.

A critical evaluation of different QM/MM frontier treatments with SCC-DFTB as the QM method

The performance of different link atom based frontier treatments in QM/MM simulations was evaluated critically with SCC-DFTB as the QM method. In addition to the analysis of gas-phase molecules as in previous studies, an important element of the present work is that chemical reactions in realistic enzyme systems were also examined. The schemes tested include all options available in the program CHARMM for SCC-DFTB/MM simulation, which treat electrostatic interactions due to the MM atoms close to the QM/MM boundary in different ways. In addition, a new approach, the divided frontier charge (DIV), has been implemented in which the partial charge associated with the frontier MM atom ("link host") is evenly distributed to the other MM atoms in the same group. The performance of these schemes was evaluated based on properties including proton affinities, deprotonation energies, dipole moments, and energetics of proton transfer reactions. Similar to previous work, it was found that calculated proton affinities and deprotonation energies of alcohols, carbonic acids, amino acids, and model DNA bases are very sensitive to the link atom scheme; the commonly used single link atom approach often gives error on the order of 15 to 20 kcal/mol. Other schemes give better and, on average, mutually comparable results. For proton transfer reactions, encouragingly, both activation barriers and reaction energies are fairly insensitive (within a typical range of 2-4 kcal/mol) to the link atom scheme due to error cancellation, and this was observed for both gas-phase and enzyme systems. Therefore, the effect of using different link atom schemes in QM/MM simulations is rather small for chemical reactions that conserve the total charge. Although the current study used an approximate DFT method as the QM level, the observed trends are expected to be applicable to QM/MM methods with use of other QM approaches. This observation does not mean to encourage QM/MM simulations without careful benchmark in the study of specific systems, rather it emphasizes that other technical details, such as the treatment of long-range electrostatics, tend to play a more important role and need to be handled carefully.

PEARLS: Program for Energetic Analysis of Receptor−Ligand System

Analysis of the energetics of small molecule ligand-protein, ligand-nucleic acid, and protein-nucleic acid interactions facilitates the quantitative understanding of molecular interactions that regulate the function and conformation of proteins. It has also been extensively used for ranking potential new ligands in virtual drug screening. We developed a Web-based software, PEARLS (Program for Energetic Analysis of Ligand-Receptor Systems), for computing interaction energies of ligand-protein, ligand-nucleic acid, protein-nucleic acid, and ligand-protein-nucleic acid complexes from their 3D structures. AMBER molecular force field, Morse potential, and empirical energy functions are used to compute the van der Waals, electrostatic, hydrogen bond, metal-ligand bonding, and water-mediated hydrogen bond energies between the binding molecules. The change in the solvation free energy of molecular binding is estimated by using an empirical solvation free energy model. Contribution from ligand conformational entropy change is also estimated by a simple model. The computed free energy for a number of PDB ligand-receptor complexes were studied and compared to experimental binding affinity. A substantial degree of correlation between the computed free energy and experimental binding affinity was found, which suggests that PEARLS may be useful in facilitating energetic analysis of ligand-protein, ligand-nucleic acid, and protein-nucleic acid interactions. PEARLS can be accessed at http://ang.cz3.nus.edu.sg/cgi-bin/prog/rune.pl.

Investigation on an Orientation and Interaction Energy of the Water Molecule in the HIV-1 Reverse Transcriptase Active Site by Quantum Chemical Calculations

To obtain basic information such as interaction between the water molecule and amino acids in the active site of HIV-1 Reverse Transcriptase (HIV-1 RT), ab initio molecular orbital calculations and the two-layer ONIOM method were performed. The energetic results from different methods show that the ONIOM2 (MP2/6-311G:HF/6-31G//HF/6-31G:HF/3-21G) can provide reliable results on the orientation of the water molecule in the HIV-1 RT active site. The interaction between the water molecule and Asp186 was found to be the most preferable. The obtained results from ONIOM2 calculations indicated that the active site model system included six amino acid residues (Asp186, Asp185, Met184, Tyr183, Leu187, and Tyr188) leading a preferable representation of the environment surrounding the water molecule in the more realistic model. The water molecule presented in the active site tends to form H-bonding with Asp186, Tyr183, and Tyr188 as indicated by the distances of O4-H2 = 1.91 A, O3-H7 = 2.36 A, and O3-H17 = 1.73 A, respectively. The stability of this complex system brings to the foundation of the estimated binding energy approximately -15.8 kcal/mol or -8.1 kcal/mol which is more stabilized relative to the smallest model complex. These observations revealed that the water molecule forms both a hydrogen bond donor and a hydrogen bond acceptor in the cavity and plays an important role in the specific conformation of the active site of HIV-1 RT. The H-bonding is a rather strong interaction; thus, the water might induce the conformation of the active site to fit the catalysis process and helpfully attract dNTP to elongate the viral DNA in the replication process of this enzyme.

Ab initio molecular dynamics studies on HIV-1 reverse transcriptase triphosphate binding site: implications for nucleoside-analog drug resistance

Quantum-chemical methods are used to shed light on the functional role of residues involved in the resistance of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase against nucleoside-analog drugs. Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations are carried out for models representing the adduct between the triphosphate substrate and the nucleoside binding site. The triphosphate is considered either deprotonated or protonated at the gamma-position. Although the protonated form already experiences large rearrangements in the ps time scale, the fully deprotonated state exhibits a previously unrecognized low-barrier hydrogen bond between Lys65 and gamma-phosphate. Absence of this interaction in Lys65-->Arg HIV-1 RT might play a prominent role in the resistance of this mutant for nucleoside analogs (Gu Z et al., 1994b, Antimicrob Agents Chemother 38:275-281; Zhang D et al., 1994, Antimicrob Agents Chemother 38:282-287). Water molecules present in the active site, not detected in the X-ray structure, form a complex H-bond network. Among these waters, one may be crucial for substrate recognition as it bridges Gln151 and Arg72 with the beta-phosphate. Absence of this stabilizing interaction in Gln151-->Met HIV-1 RT mutant may be a key factor for the known drug resistance of this mutant toward dideoxy-type drugs and AZT (Shirasaka T et al., 1995, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 92:2398-2402: Iversen AK et al., 1996, J Virol 70:1086-1090).