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Dutta N, Sarzynska J, Deb I, Lahiri A. Predicting nearest neighbor free energies of modified RNA with LIE: results for pseudouridine and N1-methylpseudouridine within RNA duplexes. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2024; 26:992-999. [PMID: 38088148 DOI: 10.1039/d3cp02442c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2024]
Abstract
Pseudouridine (Ψ) and N1-methylpseudouridine (m1Ψ) are among the key modifications in the field of mRNA therapeutics and vaccine research. The accuracy of the design and development of therapeutic RNAs containing such modifications depends on the accuracy of the secondary structure prediction, which in turn depends on the nearest neighbor (NN) thermodynamic parameters for the standard and modified residues. Here, we propose a simple approach based on molecular dynamics simulations and linear interaction energy (LIE) approximation that is able to predict the NN free energy parameters for U-A, Ψ-A and m1Ψ-A pairs in reasonable agreement with the recent experimental reports. We report the NN thermodynamic parameters for different U, Ψ and m1Ψ base pairs, which might be helpful for a deeper understanding of the effect of these modifications in RNA. The predicted NN free energy parameters in this study are able to closely reproduce the folding free energies of duplexes containing internal Ψ for which the thermodynamic data were available. Additionally, we report the predicted folding free energies for the duplexes containing internal m1Ψ.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nivedita Dutta
- Department of Biophysics, Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics, University of Calcutta, 92, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, Kolkata 700009, West Bengal, India.
| | - Joanna Sarzynska
- Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Noskowskiego 12/14, Poznan 61-704, Poland
| | - Indrajit Deb
- Department of Biophysics, Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics, University of Calcutta, 92, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, Kolkata 700009, West Bengal, India.
| | - Ansuman Lahiri
- Department of Biophysics, Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics, University of Calcutta, 92, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, Kolkata 700009, West Bengal, India.
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Vögele J, Duchardt-Ferner E, Kruse H, Zhang Z, Sponer J, Krepl M, Wöhnert J. Structural and dynamic effects of pseudouridine modifications on noncanonical interactions in RNA. RNA (NEW YORK, N.Y.) 2023; 29:790-807. [PMID: 36868785 PMCID: PMC10187676 DOI: 10.1261/rna.079506.122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2022] [Accepted: 02/10/2023] [Indexed: 05/18/2023]
Abstract
Pseudouridine is the most frequently naturally occurring RNA modification, found in all classes of biologically functional RNAs. Compared to uridine, pseudouridine contains an additional hydrogen bond donor group and is therefore widely regarded as a structure stabilizing modification. However, the effects of pseudouridine modifications on the structure and dynamics of RNAs have so far only been investigated in a limited number of different structural contexts. Here, we introduced pseudouridine modifications into the U-turn motif and the adjacent U:U closing base pair of the neomycin-sensing riboswitch (NSR)-an extensively characterized model system for RNA structure, ligand binding, and dynamics. We show that the effects of replacing specific uridines with pseudouridines on RNA dynamics crucially depend on the exact location of the replacement site and can range from destabilizing to locally or even globally stabilizing. By using a combination of NMR spectroscopy, MD simulations and QM calculations, we rationalize the observed effects on a structural and dynamical level. Our results will help to better understand and predict the consequences of pseudouridine modifications on the structure and function of biologically important RNAs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer Vögele
- Institute of Molecular Biosciences and Center for Biomolecular Magnetic Resonance (BMRZ), Goethe-University Frankfurt, 60438 Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Elke Duchardt-Ferner
- Institute of Molecular Biosciences and Center for Biomolecular Magnetic Resonance (BMRZ), Goethe-University Frankfurt, 60438 Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Holger Kruse
- Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, 612 65 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Zhengyue Zhang
- Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, 612 65 Brno, Czech Republic
- CEITEC-Central European Institute of Technology, Masaryk University, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic
- National Centre for Biomolecular Research, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Jiri Sponer
- Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, 612 65 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Miroslav Krepl
- Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, 612 65 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Jens Wöhnert
- Institute of Molecular Biosciences and Center for Biomolecular Magnetic Resonance (BMRZ), Goethe-University Frankfurt, 60438 Frankfurt, Germany
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Dutta N, Deb I, Sarzynska J, Lahiri A. Data-informed reparameterization of modified RNA and the effect of explicit water models: application to pseudouridine and derivatives. J Comput Aided Mol Des 2022; 36:205-224. [PMID: 35338419 PMCID: PMC8956458 DOI: 10.1007/s10822-022-00447-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2021] [Accepted: 03/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Pseudouridine is one of the most abundant post-transcriptional modifications in RNA. We have previously shown that the FF99-derived parameters for pseudouridine and some of its naturally occurring derivatives in the AMBER distribution either alone or in combination with the revised γ torsion parameters (parmbsc0) failed to reproduce their conformational characteristics observed experimentally (Deb et al. in J Chem Inf Model 54:1129–1142, 2014; Deb et al. in J Comput Chem 37:1576–1588, 2016; Dutta et al. in J Chem Inf Model 60:4995–5002, 2020). However, the application of the recommended bsc0 correction did lead to an improvement in the description not only of the distribution in the γ torsional space but also of the sugar pucker distributions. In an earlier study, we examined the transferability of the revised glycosidic torsion parameters (χIDRP) for Ψ to its derivatives. We noticed that although these parameters in combination with the AMBER FF99-derived parameters and the revised γ torsional parameters resulted in conformational properties of these residues that were in better agreement with experimental observations, the sugar pucker distributions were still not reproduced accurately. Here we report a new set of partial atomic charges for pseudouridine, 1-methylpseudouridine, 3-methylpseudouridine and 2′-O-methylpseudouridine and a new set of glycosidic torsional parameters (χND) based on chosen glycosidic torsional profiles that most closely corresponded to the NMR data for conformational propensities and studied their effect on the conformational distributions using REMD simulations at the individual nucleoside level. We have also studied the effect of the choice of water model on the conformational characteristics of these modified nucleosides. Our observations suggest that the current revised set of parameters and partial atomic charges describe the sugar pucker distributions for these residues more accurately and that the choice of a suitable water model is important for the accurate description of their conformational properties. We have further validated the revised sets of parameters by studying the effect of substitution of uridine with pseudouridine within single stranded RNA oligonucleotides on their conformational and hydration characteristics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nivedita Dutta
- Department of Biophysics, Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics, University of Calcutta, 92, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, Kolkata, West Bengal, 700009, India
| | - Indrajit Deb
- Department of Biophysics, Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics, University of Calcutta, 92, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, Kolkata, West Bengal, 700009, India
| | - Joanna Sarzynska
- Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Noskowskiego 12/14, 61-704, Poznan, Poland
| | - Ansuman Lahiri
- Department of Biophysics, Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics, University of Calcutta, 92, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, Kolkata, West Bengal, 700009, India.
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Dutta N, Sarzynska J, Lahiri A. Molecular Dynamics Simulation of the Conformational Preferences of Pseudouridine Derivatives: Improving the Distribution in the Glycosidic Torsion Space. J Chem Inf Model 2020; 60:4995-5002. [PMID: 33030900 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.0c00369] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
There are only four derivatives of pseudouridine (Ψ) that are known to occur naturally in RNA as post-transcriptional modifications. We have studied the conformational consequences of pseudouridylation and further modifications using replica exchange molecular dynamics simulations at the nucleoside level, and the simulated conformational preferences were compared with the available experimental (NMR) data. We found that the existing AMBER FF99-derived parameters for these nucleosides did not reproduce the observed experimental features and while the recommended bsc0 correction could be combined with these parameters leading to an improvement in the description of sugar pucker distributions, the χOL3 correction could not be applied to these nucleosides as such because of base isomerization. On the other hand, the revised χ torsion parameters (χIDRP) for Ψ developed earlier by us (Deb, I., J. Comput. Chem., 2016, 37, 1576-1588) in combination with the AMBER provided parameters and the revised γ torsion parameters generated conformational distributions, which generally were in better agreement with the experimental data. A significant shift of the distribution of base orientation toward the syn conformation was observed with our revised parameter sets compared to the large excess of anti conformation predicted by the FF99 parameters. Overall, our observations indicated that our revised set of parameters (χIDRP) for Ψ were also able to generate conformational distributions for all of the derivatives of Ψ in better agreement with the experimental data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nivedita Dutta
- Department of Biophysics, Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics, University of Calcutta, 92, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, Kolkata 700009, West Bengal, India
| | - Joanna Sarzynska
- Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Noskowskiego 12/14, 61-704 Poznan, Poland
| | - Ansuman Lahiri
- Department of Biophysics, Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics, University of Calcutta, 92, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, Kolkata 700009, West Bengal, India
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Sikorska C, Gaston N. Modified Lennard-Jones potentials for nanoscale atoms. J Comput Chem 2020; 41:1985-2000. [PMID: 32592415 DOI: 10.1002/jcc.26368] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2020] [Revised: 04/29/2020] [Accepted: 05/31/2020] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Abstract
A classical 6-12 Lennard-Jones (LJ) equation has been widely used to model materials and is the potential of choice in studies when the focus is on fundamental issues. Here we report a systematic study comparing the pair interaction potentials within solid-state materials (i.e., [Co6 Se8 (PEt3 )6 ][C60 ]2 , [Cr6 Te8 (PEt3 )6 ][C60 ]2 , [Ni9 Te6 (PEt3 )8 ][C60 ]) using density functional theory (DFT) calculations and LJ parametrization. Both classical (6-12 LJ) and modified LJ (mLJ) models were developed. In the mLJ approach, the exponents 6 and 12 are replaced by different integer number n and 2n, respectively, and an additional parameter (α) is introduced to describe intermolecular distance shift arising within the geometric centers' approach (instead of the shortest interatomic distance between particles). A general LJ approach reexamination reveals that in the case of nanoatoms, the attractive term decays with distance as the inverse fourth power, and the dominating at short distances repulsive term decays as the inverse eighth power. The modification of the LJ equation is even more prominent for interaction profiles, where intermolecular distance corresponds to separation between geometric centers of particles. In this approach, the attractive term decays with distance as the inverse 12th power, while the repulsive term decays rapidly (as the inverse 24th power). Thus, the mLJ models (e.g., 4-8 LJ) rather than the 6-12 classical ones seem to be a better choice for the description of binary interactions of nanoatoms. The developed mLJ models and electronic structure characteristics give an insight into the explanation of the unique physicochemical properties of superatomic-based solid-state materials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Celina Sikorska
- Department of Physics, The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Nicola Gaston
- Department of Physics, The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
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Sarkar AK, Sarzynska J, Lahiri A. Ensemble Allosteric Model for the Modified Wobble Hypothesis. J Phys Chem Lett 2020; 11:6337-6343. [PMID: 32701298 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c00854] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
The residue 2-thiouridine (s2U) provides a remarkable example for the "modified wobble" hypothesis, which postulates that some post-transcriptional modifications at the wobble position of tRNAs restrict recognition of degenerate codons. Through extensive molecular dynamics simulations using our χIDRP force field parameters, we demonstrate how this modification shifts the conformational ensemble from a predominantly disordered, as in the case of an RNA pentamer (GUUUC), to a substantially ordered population in Gs2UUUC. Our simulations clearly showed that the van der Waals interaction of sulfur played a major role in driving the disorder-to-order transition. The conformational redistribution and the slowing down of the transition between the clusters within the population in the presence of s2U suggest ensemble allostery to be a key mechanism that may play a general role in the functioning of the wobble modifications of tRNAs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aditya K Sarkar
- Department of Biophysics, Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics, University of Calcutta, 92, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, Kolkata 700 009, India
| | - Joanna Sarzynska
- Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Z. Noskowskiego 12/14, 61-704 Poznan, Poland
| | - Ansuman Lahiri
- Department of Biophysics, Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics, University of Calcutta, 92, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, Kolkata 700 009, India
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Computational and NMR studies of RNA duplexes with an internal pseudouridine-adenosine base pair. Sci Rep 2019; 9:16278. [PMID: 31700156 PMCID: PMC6838189 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-52637-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2019] [Accepted: 10/03/2019] [Indexed: 01/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Pseudouridine (Ψ) is the most common chemical modification present in RNA. In general, Ψ increases the thermodynamic stability of RNA. However, the degree of stabilization depends on the sequence and structural context. To explain experimentally observed sequence dependence of the effect of Ψ on the thermodynamic stability of RNA duplexes, we investigated the structure, dynamics and hydration of RNA duplexes with an internal Ψ-A base pair in different nearest-neighbor sequence contexts. The structures of two RNA duplexes containing 5′-GΨC/3′-CAG and 5′-CΨG/3′-GAC motifs were determined using NMR spectroscopy. To gain insight into the effect of Ψ on duplex dynamics and hydration, we performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of RNA duplexes with 5′-GΨC/3′-CAG, 5′-CΨG/3′-GAC, 5′-AΨU/3′-UAA and 5′-UΨA/3′-AAU motifs and their unmodified counterparts. Our results showed a subtle impact from Ψ modification on the structure and dynamics of the RNA duplexes studied. The MD simulations confirmed the change in hydration pattern when U is replaced with Ψ. Quantum chemical calculations showed that the replacement of U with Ψ affected the intrinsic stacking energies at the base pair steps depending on the sequence context. The calculated intrinsic stacking energies help to explain the experimentally observed sequence dependent changes in the duplex stability from Ψ modification.
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Abstract
Our current knowledge on the unique roles of RNA in cells makes it vital to investigate the properties of RNA systems using computational methods because of the potential pharmaceutical applications. With the continuous advancement of computer technology, it is now possible to study RNA folding. Molecular mechanics calculations are useful in discovering the structural and thermodynamic properties of RNA systems. Yet, the predictions depend on the quality of the RNA force field, which is a set of parameters describing the potential energy of the system. Torsional parameters are one of the terms in a force field that can be revised using physics-based approaches. This chapter focuses on improvements provided by revisions of torsional parameters of the AMBER (Assisted Model Building with Energy Refinement) RNA force field. The theory behind torsional revisions and re-parameterization of several RNA torsions is briefly described. Applications of the revised torsional parameters to study RNA nucleosides, single-stranded RNA tetramers, and RNA repeat expansions are described in detail. It is concluded that RNA force fields require constant revisions and should be benchmarked against diverse RNA systems such as single strands and internal loops in order to test their qualities.
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