1
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Anderson A, Piñeiro Á, García-Fandiño R, O’Connor MS. Cyclodextrins: Establishing building blocks for AI-driven drug design by determining affinity constants in silico. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2024; 23:1117-1128. [PMID: 38510974 PMCID: PMC10950811 DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2024.02.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2023] [Revised: 02/13/2024] [Accepted: 02/14/2024] [Indexed: 03/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Cyclodextrins (CDs) are cyclic carbohydrate polymers that hold significant promise for drug delivery and industrial applications. Their effectiveness depends on their ability to encapsulate target molecules with strong affinity and specificity, but quantifying affinities in these systems accurately is challenging for a variety of reasons. Computational methods represent an exceptional complement to in vitro assays because they can be employed for existing and hypothetical molecules, providing high resolution structures in addition to a mechanistic, dynamic, kinetic, and thermodynamic characterization. Here, we employ potential of mean force (PMF) calculations obtained from guided metadynamics simulations to characterize the 1:1 inclusion complexes between four different modified βCDs, with different type, number, and location of substitutions, and two sterol molecules (cholesterol and 7-ketocholesterol). Our methods, validated for reproducibility through four independent repeated simulations per system and different post processing techniques, offer new insights into the formation and stability of CD-sterol inclusion complexes. A systematic distinct orientation preference where the sterol tail projects from the CD's larger face and significant impacts of CD substitutions on binding are observed. Notably, sampling only the CD cavity's wide face during simulations yielded comparable binding energies to full-cavity sampling, but in less time and with reduced statistical uncertainty, suggesting a more efficient approach. Bridging computational methods with complex molecular interactions, our research enables predictive CD designs for diverse applications. Moreover, the high reproducibility, sensitivity, and cost-effectiveness of the studied methods pave the way for extensive studies of massive CD-ligand combinations, enabling AI algorithm training and automated molecular design.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amelia Anderson
- Cyclarity Therapeutics, 8001 Redwood Blvd, Novato, CA 94945, USA
- Department of Organic Chemistry, Center for Research in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Materials, Santiago de Compostela University, CIQUS, Spain
- Soft Matter & Molecular Biophysics Group, Department of Applied Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
| | - Ángel Piñeiro
- Soft Matter & Molecular Biophysics Group, Department of Applied Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
| | - Rebeca García-Fandiño
- Department of Organic Chemistry, Center for Research in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Materials, Santiago de Compostela University, CIQUS, Spain
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2
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Hu Z, Martí J. Isomer-sourced structure iteration methods for in silico development of inhibitors: Inducing GTP-bound NRAS-Q61 oncogenic mutations to an "off-like" state. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2024; 23:2418-2428. [PMID: 38882681 PMCID: PMC11176632 DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2024.05.038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2024] [Revised: 05/20/2024] [Accepted: 05/21/2024] [Indexed: 06/18/2024] Open
Abstract
The NRAS-mutant subset of melanoma represent some of the most aggressive and deadliest types associated with poor overall survival. Unfortunately, for more than 40 years, no therapeutic agent directly targeting NRAS mutations has been clinically approved. In this work, based on microsecond scale molecular dynamics simulations, the effect of Q61 mutations on NRAS conformational characteristics is revealed at the atomic level. The GTP-bound NRAS-Q61R and Q61K mutations show a specific targetable pocket between Switch-II and α-helix 3 whereas the NRAS-Q61L non-polar mutation category shows a different targetable pocket. Moreover, a new isomer-sourced structure iteration method has been developed for the in silico design of potential inhibitor prototypes for oncogenes. We show the possibility of a designed prototype HM-387 to target activated NRAS-Q61R and that it can gradually induce the transition from the activated NRAS-Q61R to an "off-like" state.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zheyao Hu
- Department of Physics, Polytechnic University of Catalonia-Barcelona Tech, B4-B5 Northern Campus UPC, Barcelona, 08034, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Jordi Martí
- Department of Physics, Polytechnic University of Catalonia-Barcelona Tech, B4-B5 Northern Campus UPC, Barcelona, 08034, Catalonia, Spain
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3
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Yang Y, Geng C, Shen H, Chao J, Wang Z, Cong W, Li X, Ye G, Jiang Y. Systematical Mutational Analysis of FRATtide against Osteoclast Differentiation by Alanine Scanning. ACS Med Chem Lett 2024; 15:1242-1249. [PMID: 39140067 PMCID: PMC11318000 DOI: 10.1021/acsmedchemlett.4c00127] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2024] [Revised: 06/30/2024] [Accepted: 07/02/2024] [Indexed: 08/15/2024] Open
Abstract
Osteoporosis, a global bone disease, results in decreased bone density, mass, and microarchitecture deterioration, increasing fracture risk. In previous research, FRATtide, a peptide derived from a glycogen synthase kinase-3 binding protein, effectively hindered osteoclast differentiation to yield therapeutically potent derivatives via single and double stapling. However, FRATtide's structure-activity relationship remains unclear. This study synthesized 25 FRATtide-derived peptides through systematic alanine scanning and evaluated their activities. Substitutions in Pro2, Leu5, Leu9, Val10, Leu11, Ser12, Asn14, Leu15, Ile16, Glu18, Arg22, Ser25, and Arg26 showed reduced activity, while FRT13 and FRT20 with Gly13 and Arg21 substitutions, respectively, displayed enhanced activities. F-actin binding and bone resorption assays on FRT13 and FRT20 showed better inhibition of osteoclast differentiation and bone resorption compared with FRATtide. This study elucidated FRATtide's structure-activity relationship, thereby facilitating future structural optimization for osteoporosis treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yi Yang
- School
of Pharmacy, Anhui Medical University, HeFei 230032, China
- School
of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China
| | - Chenchen Geng
- School
of Pharmacy, Anhui Medical University, HeFei 230032, China
- School
of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China
| | - Huaxing Shen
- School
of Medicine, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
| | - Jingru Chao
- School
of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China
| | - Zhe Wang
- Institute
of Bioengineering, College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310000, China
| | - Wei Cong
- School
of Medicine, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
| | - Xiang Li
- School
of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China
| | - Guangming Ye
- Xinrui
Hospital, Xinwu District, Wuxi, 214000, China
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4
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Gorantla K, Krishnan A, Waheed SO, Varghese A, DiCastri I, LaRouche C, Paik M, Fields GB, Karabencheva-Christova TG. Novel Insights into the Catalytic Mechanism of Collagenolysis by Zn(II)-Dependent Matrix Metalloproteinase-1. Biochemistry 2024; 63:1925-1940. [PMID: 38963231 PMCID: PMC11309001 DOI: 10.1021/acs.biochem.4c00076] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2024] [Revised: 06/14/2024] [Accepted: 06/24/2024] [Indexed: 07/05/2024]
Abstract
Collagen hydrolysis, catalyzed by Zn(II)-dependent matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), is a critical physiological process. Despite previous computational investigations into the catalytic mechanisms of MMP-mediated collagenolysis, a significant knowledge gap in understanding remains regarding the influence of conformational sampling and entropic contributions at physiological temperature on enzymatic collagenolysis. In our comprehensive multilevel computational study, employing quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) metadynamics (MetD) simulations, we aimed to bridge this gap and provide valuable insights into the catalytic mechanism of MMP-1. Specifically, we compared the full enzyme-substrate complex in solution, clusters in solution, and gas-phase to elucidate insights into MMP-1-catalyzed collagenolysis. Our findings reveal significant differences in the catalytic mechanism when considering thermal effects and the dynamic evolution of the system, contrasting with conventional static potential energy surface QM/MM reaction path studies. Notably, we observed a significant stabilization of the critical tetrahedral intermediate, attributed to contributions from conformational flexibility and entropy. Moreover, we found that protonation of the scissile bond nitrogen occurs via proton transfer from a Zn(II)-coordinated hydroxide rather than from a solvent water molecule. Following C-N bond cleavage, the C-terminus remains coordinated to the catalytic Zn(II), while the N-terminus forms a hydrogen bond with a solvent water molecule. Subsequently, the release of the C-terminus is facilitated by the coordination of a water molecule. Our study underscores the pivotal role of protein conformational dynamics at physiological temperature in stabilizing the transition state of the rate-limiting step and key intermediates, compared to the corresponding reaction in solution. These fundamental insights into the mechanism of collagen degradation provide valuable guidance for the development of MMP-1-specific inhibitors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Koteswara
Rao Gorantla
- Department
of Chemistry, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan 49931, United States
| | - Anandhu Krishnan
- Department
of Chemistry, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan 49931, United States
| | - Sodiq O. Waheed
- Department
of Chemistry, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan 49931, United States
| | - Ann Varghese
- Department
of Chemistry, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan 49931, United States
| | - Isabella DiCastri
- Department
of Chemical Engineering, Michigan Technological
University, Houghton, Michigan 49931, United States
| | - Ciara LaRouche
- Department
of Chemical Engineering, Michigan Technological
University, Houghton, Michigan 49931, United States
| | - Meredith Paik
- Department
of Chemistry, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan 49931, United States
| | - Gregg B. Fields
- Department
of Chemistry and Biochemistry and I-HEALTH, Florida Atlantic University, Jupiter, Florida 33458, United States
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5
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Mitsuta Y, Asada T. Parameter Optimization Method in Multidimensional Umbrella Sampling. J Chem Theory Comput 2024. [PMID: 39101750 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.4c00282] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/06/2024]
Abstract
Umbrella sampling (US) is an effective method for calculating free-energy landscapes (FELs). However, the complexity of controlling the sampling positions complicates multidimensional FEL calculations. In this study, we proposed a method for controlling sampling by optimizing the US parameters. This method comprises the introduction of a target point and the optimization of the parameters to sample a window around this point. We approximated each window to normal distributions using an umbrella integration method and calculated the divergences between the window distributions and the state distributed at the target position by a variationally enhanced sampling method. Thus, the minimization of the divergence facilitated sampling around the target point, after which the parameters could be optimized on the fly while performing equilibration simulation. In practice, our method employs bias potentials with off-diagonal terms, ensuring a more efficient calculation of multidimensional FEL. Additionally, we developed an algorithm for determining the target point for automated FEL search; the algorithm samples in a specified direction while controlling the overlap of distributions. We performed three different FEL calculations as examples: (1) the calculation of the permeation of a water molecule through a lipid bilayer (one-dimensional FEL), (2) the calculation of the internal structural changes in alanine dipeptide in water (two-dimensional FEL), and (3) the calculation of the internal structural changes from a β-strand structure to an α-helix structure in alanine decapeptide (Ala10, 16-dimensional FEL). These results confirmed that our method could control the number of US windows and calculate the high-dimensional FELs that could not be evaluated by the conventional US method.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuki Mitsuta
- Department of Chemistry, Osaka Metropolitan University, 3-3-138, Sugimoto, Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka 558-8585, Japan
- RIMED, Osaka Metropolitan University, 3-3-138, Sugimoto, Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka 558-8585, Japan
| | - Toshio Asada
- Department of Chemistry, Osaka Metropolitan University, 3-3-138, Sugimoto, Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka 558-8585, Japan
- RIMED, Osaka Metropolitan University, 3-3-138, Sugimoto, Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka 558-8585, Japan
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6
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Montgomery JM, Lemkul JA. Quantifying Induced Dipole Effects in Small Molecule Permeation in a Model Phospholipid Bilayer. J Phys Chem B 2024; 128:7385-7400. [PMID: 39038441 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.4c01634] [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: 07/24/2024]
Abstract
The cell membrane functions as a semipermeable barrier that governs the transport of materials into and out of cells. The bilayer features a distinct dielectric gradient due to the amphiphilic nature of its lipid components. This gradient influences various aspects of small molecule permeation and the folding and functioning of membrane proteins. Here, we employ polarizable molecular dynamics simulations to elucidate the impact of the electronic environment on the permeation process. We simulated eight distinct amino-acid side chain analogs within a 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine bilayer using the Drude polarizable force field (FF). Our approach includes both unbiased and umbrella sampling simulations. By using a polarizable FF, we sought to investigate explicit dipole responses in relation to local electric fields along the membrane normal. We evaluate molecular dipole moments, which exhibit variation based on their localization within the membrane, and compare the outcomes with analogous simulations using the nonpolarizable CHARMM36 FF. This comparative analysis aims to discern characteristic differences in the free energy surfaces of permeation for the various amino-acid analogs. Our results provide the first systematic quantification of the impact of employing an explicitly polarizable FF in this context compared to the fixed-charge convention inherent to nonpolarizable FFs, which may not fully capture the influence of the membrane dielectric gradient.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia M Montgomery
- Department of Biochemistry, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg ,Virginia 24061, United States
| | - Justin A Lemkul
- Department of Biochemistry, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg ,Virginia 24061, United States
- Center for Drug Discovery, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg ,Virginia 24061, United States
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7
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Oktawiec J, Ebrahim OM, Chen Y, Su K, Sharpe C, Rosenmann ND, Barbut C, Weigand SJ, Thompson MP, Byrnes J, Qiao B, Gianneschi NC. Conformational modulation and polymerization-induced folding of proteomimetic peptide brush polymers. Chem Sci 2024:d4sc03420a. [PMID: 39129772 PMCID: PMC11308386 DOI: 10.1039/d4sc03420a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2024] [Accepted: 07/16/2024] [Indexed: 08/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Peptide-brush polymers generated by graft-through living polymerization of peptide-modified monomers exhibit high proteolytic stability, therapeutic efficacy, and potential as functional tandem repeat protein mimetics. Prior work has focused on polymers generated from structurally disordered peptides that lack defined conformations. To obtain insight into how the structure of these polymers is influenced by the folding of their peptide sidechains, a set of polymers with varying degrees of polymerization was prepared from peptide monomers that adopt α-helical secondary structure for comparison to those having random coil structures. Circular dichroism and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy confirm the maintenance of the secondary structure of the constituent peptide when polymerized. Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) studies reveal the solution-phase conformation of PLPs in different solvent environments. In particular, X-ray scattering shows that modulation of solvent hydrophobicity, as well as hydrogen bonding patterns of the peptide sidechain, plays an important role in the degree of globularity and conformation of the overall polymer, with polymers of helical peptide brushes showing less spherical compaction in conditions where greater helicity is observed. These structural insights into peptide brush folding and polymer conformation inform the design of these proteomimetic materials with promise for controlling and predicting their artificial fold and morphology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia Oktawiec
- Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University Evanston IL 60208 USA
| | - Omar M Ebrahim
- Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University Evanston IL 60208 USA
| | - Yu Chen
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University Evanston IL 60208 USA
| | - Kaylen Su
- Department of Natural Sciences, Baruch College, City University of New York New York NY 10010 USA
| | - Christopher Sharpe
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University Evanston IL 60208 USA
| | - Nathan D Rosenmann
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University Evanston IL 60208 USA
| | - Clara Barbut
- Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University Evanston IL 60208 USA
| | - Steven J Weigand
- DuPont-Northwestern-Dow Collaborative Access Team (DND-CAT) Synchrotron Research Center, Northwestern University Argonne IL 60208 USA
| | | | - James Byrnes
- Beamline 16ID, NSLS-II, Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton NY 11973 USA
| | - Baofu Qiao
- Department of Natural Sciences, Baruch College, City University of New York New York NY 10010 USA
| | - Nathan C Gianneschi
- Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University Evanston IL 60208 USA
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University Evanston IL 60208 USA
- International Institute for Nanotechnology, Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, Simpson Querrey Institute, Lurie Cancer Center, Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Department of Pharmacology, Northwestern University Evanston IL 60208 USA
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8
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Bonometti L, Daga LE, Rocca R, Marana NL, Casassa S, D’Amore M, Laasonen K, Petit M, Silveri F, Sgroi MF, Ferrari AM, Maschio L. Path ahead: Tackling the Challenge of Computationally Estimating Lithium Diffusion in Cathode Materials. THE JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY. C, NANOMATERIALS AND INTERFACES 2024; 128:11979-11988. [PMID: 39081560 PMCID: PMC11285369 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.4c00960] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2024] [Revised: 05/09/2024] [Accepted: 05/31/2024] [Indexed: 08/02/2024]
Abstract
In the roadmap toward designing new and improved materials for Lithium ion batteries, the ability to estimate the diffusion coefficient of Li atoms in electrodes, and eventually solid-state electrolytes, is key. Nevertheless, as of today, accurate prediction through computational tools remains challenging. Its experimental measurement does not appear to be much easier. In this work, we devise a computational protocol for the determination of the Li-migration energy barrier and diffusion coefficient, focusing on a common cathode material such as LiNiO2, which represents a prototype of the widely adopted NMC (LiNi1-x-y Mn x Co y O2) class of materials. Different methodologies are exploited, combining ab initio metadynamics, path sampling, and density functional theory. Furthermore, we propose a novel, fast, and simple 1D approximation for the estimation of the effective frequency. The outlined computational protocol aims to be generally applicable to Lithium diffusion in other materials and components for batteries, including anodes and solid electrolytes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Bonometti
- Dipartimento
di Chimica and NIS Centre, Università
di Torino, Via P. Giuria
5, Torino 10125, Italy
| | - Loredana E. Daga
- Dipartimento
di Chimica, Università di Torino, Via P. Giuria 5, Torino 10125, Italy
| | - Riccardo Rocca
- Dipartimento
di Chimica, Università di Torino, Via P. Giuria 5, Torino 10125, Italy
- FIAT
Research Center (CRF), Strada Torino 50, Orbassano, Torino 10043, Italy
| | - Naiara L. Marana
- Dipartimento
di Chimica, Università di Torino, Via P. Giuria 5, Torino 10125, Italy
| | - Silvia Casassa
- Dipartimento
di Chimica, Università di Torino, Via P. Giuria 5, Torino 10125, Italy
| | - Maddalena D’Amore
- Dipartimento
di Chimica, Università di Torino, Via P. Giuria 5, Torino 10125, Italy
| | - Kari Laasonen
- Department
of Chemistry, Aalto University, Espoo 00076, Finland
| | - Martin Petit
- IFP
Energies Nouvelles, Rond-point
de l’échangeur de Solaize—BP3, Solaize 69360, France
| | - Fabrizio Silveri
- Gemmate
Technologies SRL, Via
Reano 31, Buttigliera Alta 10090, Italy
| | - Mauro F. Sgroi
- Dipartimento
di Chimica and NIS Centre, Università
di Torino, Via P. Giuria
5, Torino 10125, Italy
| | - Anna M. Ferrari
- Dipartimento
di Chimica and NIS Centre, Università
di Torino, Via P. Giuria
5, Torino 10125, Italy
| | - Lorenzo Maschio
- Dipartimento
di Chimica and NIS Centre, Università
di Torino, Via P. Giuria
5, Torino 10125, Italy
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9
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Lee S, Wang D, Seeliger MA, Tiwary P. Calculating Protein-Ligand Residence Times through State Predictive Information Bottleneck Based Enhanced Sampling. J Chem Theory Comput 2024; 20:6341-6349. [PMID: 38991145 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.4c00503] [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: 07/13/2024]
Abstract
Understanding drug residence times in target proteins is key to improving drug efficacy and understanding target recognition in biochemistry. While drug residence time is just as important as binding affinity, atomic-level understanding of drug residence times through molecular dynamics (MD) simulations has been difficult primarily due to the extremely long time scales. Recent advances in rare event sampling have allowed us to reach these time scales, yet predicting protein-ligand residence times remains a significant challenge. Here we present a semi-automated protocol to calculate the ligand residence times across 12 orders of magnitude of time scales. In our proposed framework, we integrate a deep learning-based method, the state predictive information bottleneck (SPIB), to learn an approximate reaction coordinate (RC) and use it to guide the enhanced sampling method metadynamics. We demonstrate the performance of our algorithm by applying it to six different protein-ligand complexes with available benchmark residence times, including the dissociation of the widely studied anticancer drug Imatinib (Gleevec) from both wild-type Abl kinase and drug-resistant mutants. We show how our protocol can recover quantitatively accurate residence times, potentially opening avenues for deeper insights into drug development possibilities and ligand recognition mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Suemin Lee
- Biophysics Program and Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park 20742, United States
| | - Dedi Wang
- Biophysics Program and Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park 20742, United States
| | - Markus A Seeliger
- Department of Pharmacological Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794-8651, United States
| | - Pratyush Tiwary
- Biophysics Program and Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park 20742, United States
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park 20742, United States
- University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing, Bethesda, Maryland 20852, United States
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10
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Serse F, Bjola A, Salvalaglio M, Pelucchi M. Unveiling Solvent Effects on β-Scissions through Metadynamics and Mean Force Integration. J Chem Theory Comput 2024; 20:6253-6262. [PMID: 38959515 PMCID: PMC11271823 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.4c00383] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2024] [Revised: 05/30/2024] [Accepted: 05/31/2024] [Indexed: 07/05/2024]
Abstract
This study introduces a methodology that combines accelerated molecular dynamics and mean force integration to investigate solvent effects on chemical reaction kinetics. The newly developed methodology is applied to the β-scission of butyl acrylate (BA) dimer in polar (water) and nonpolar (xylene and BA monomer) solvents. The results show that solvation in both polar and nonpolar environments reduces the free energy barrier of activation by ∼4 kcal/mol and decreases the pre-exponential factor 2-fold. Employing a hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics approach with explicit solvent modeling, we compute kinetic rate constants that better match experimental measurements compared to previous gas-phase calculations. This methodology presents promising potential for accurately predicting kinetic rate constants in liquid-phase polymerization and depolymerization processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesco Serse
- Department
of Chemistry Materials and Chemical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, Milan 20133, Italy
| | - Antoniu Bjola
- Thomas
Young Centre and Department of Chemical Engineering, University College London, London WC1E 7JE, U.K.
| | - Matteo Salvalaglio
- Thomas
Young Centre and Department of Chemical Engineering, University College London, London WC1E 7JE, U.K.
| | - Matteo Pelucchi
- Department
of Chemistry Materials and Chemical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, Milan 20133, Italy
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11
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Olehnovics E, Liu YM, Mehio N, Sheikh AY, Shirts MR, Salvalaglio M. Assessing the Accuracy and Efficiency of Free Energy Differences Obtained from Reweighted Flow-Based Probabilistic Generative Models. J Chem Theory Comput 2024; 20:5913-5922. [PMID: 38984825 PMCID: PMC11270817 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.4c00520] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2024] [Revised: 06/21/2024] [Accepted: 06/21/2024] [Indexed: 07/11/2024]
Abstract
Computing free energy differences between metastable states characterized by nonoverlapping Boltzmann distributions is often a computationally intensive endeavor, usually requiring chains of intermediate states to connect them. Targeted free energy perturbation (TFEP) can significantly lower the computational cost of FEP calculations by choosing a set of invertible maps used to directly connect the distributions of interest, achieving the necessary statistically significant overlaps without sampling any intermediate states. Probabilistic generative models (PGMs) based on normalizing flow architectures can make it much easier via machine learning to train invertible maps needed for TFEP. However, the accuracy and applicability of approaches based on empirically learned maps depend crucially on the choice of reweighting method adopted to estimate the free energy differences. In this work, we assess the accuracy, rate of convergence, and data efficiency of different free energy estimators, including exponential averaging, Bennett acceptance ratio (BAR), and multistate Bennett acceptance ratio (MBAR), in reweighting PGMs trained by maximum likelihood on limited amounts of molecular dynamics data sampled only from end-states of interest. We carry out the comparisons on a set of simple but representative case studies, including conformational ensembles of alanine dipeptide and ibuprofen. Our results indicate that BAR and MBAR are both data efficient and robust, even in the presence of significant model overfitting in the generation of invertible maps. This analysis can serve as a stepping stone for the deployment of efficient and quantitatively accurate ML-based free energy calculation methods in complex systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edgar Olehnovics
- Thomas
Young Centre and Department of Chemical Engineering, University College London, London WC1E 7JE, U.K.
| | - Yifei Michelle Liu
- Molecular
Profiling and Drug Delivery, Research & Development, AbbVie Bioresearch Center, Worcester, Massachusetts 01605, United States
| | - Nada Mehio
- Molecular
Profiling and Drug Delivery, Research & Development, AbbVie Inc, North
Chicago, Illinois 60064, United States
| | - Ahmad Y. Sheikh
- Molecular
Profiling and Drug Delivery, Research & Development, AbbVie Inc, North
Chicago, Illinois 60064, United States
| | - Michael R. Shirts
- University
of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309, United States
| | - Matteo Salvalaglio
- Thomas
Young Centre and Department of Chemical Engineering, University College London, London WC1E 7JE, U.K.
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12
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Hsu WT, Shirts MR. Replica Exchange of Expanded Ensembles: A Generalized Ensemble Approach with Enhanced Flexibility and Parallelizability. J Chem Theory Comput 2024; 20:6062-6081. [PMID: 39007702 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.4c00484] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/16/2024]
Abstract
Generalized ensemble methods such as Hamiltonian replica exchange (HREX) and expanded ensemble (EE) have been shown effective in free energy calculations for various contexts, given their ability to circumvent free energy barriers via nonphysical pathways defined by states with different modified Hamiltonians. However, both HREX and EE methods come with drawbacks, such as limited flexibility in parameter specification or the lack of parallelizability for more complicated applications. To address this challenge, we present the method of replica exchange of expanded ensembles (REXEE), which integrates the principles of HREX and EE methods by periodically exchanging coordinates of EE replicas sampling different yet overlapping sets of alchemical states. With the solvation free energy calculation of anthracene and binding free energy calculation of the CB7-10 binding complex, we show that the REXEE method achieves the same level of accuracy in free energy calculations as the HREX and EE methods, while offering enhanced flexibility and parallelizability. Additionally, we examined REXEE simulations with various setups to understand how different exchange frequencies and replica configurations influence the sampling efficiency in the fixed-weight phase and the weight convergence in the weight-updating phase. The REXEE approach can be further extended to support asynchronous parallelization schemes, allowing looser communications between larger numbers of loosely coupled processors such as cloud computing and therefore promising much more scalable and adaptive executions of alchemical free energy calculations. All algorithms for the REXEE method are available in the Python package ensemble_md, which offers an interface for REXEE simulation management without modifying the source code in GROMACS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei-Tse Hsu
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80305, United States
| | - Michael R Shirts
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80305, United States
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13
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Hei B, Tardiff JC, Schwartz SD. Human cardiac β-myosin powerstroke energetics: Thin filament, Pi displacement, and mutation effects. Biophys J 2024:S0006-3495(24)00451-X. [PMID: 39001604 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2024.07.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2024] [Revised: 07/01/2024] [Accepted: 07/09/2024] [Indexed: 07/25/2024] Open
Abstract
The powerstroke of human cardiac β-myosin is an important stage of the cross-bridge cycle that generates force for muscle contraction. However, the starting structure of this process has never been resolved, and the relative timing of the powerstroke and inorganic phosphate (Pi) release is still controversial. In this study, we generated an atomistic model of myosin on the thin filament and utilized metadynamics simulations to predict the absent starting structure of the powerstroke. We demonstrated that the displacement of Pi from the active site during the powerstroke is likely necessary, reducing the energy barrier of the conformation change. The effects of the presence of the thin filament, the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy mutation R712L, and the binding of mavacamten on the powerstroke process were also investigated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bai Hei
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
| | - Jil C Tardiff
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
| | - Steven D Schwartz
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.
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14
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Iyengar SS, Schlegel HB, Sumner I, Li J. Rare Events Sampling Methods for Quantum and Classical Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics. J Phys Chem A 2024; 128:5386-5397. [PMID: 38951489 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.3c07385] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/03/2024]
Abstract
We provide an approach to sample rare events during classical ab initio molecular dynamics and quantum wavepacket dynamics. For classical AIMD, a set of fictitious degrees of freedom are introduced that may harmonically interact with the electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom to steer the dynamics in a conservative fashion toward energetically forbidden regions. A similar approach when introduced for quantum wavepacket dynamics has the effect of biasing the trajectory of the wavepacket centroid toward the regions of the potential surface that are difficult to sample. The approach is demonstrated for a phenol-amine system, which is a prototypical problem for condensed phase-proton transfer, and for model potentials undergoing wavepacket dynamics. In all cases, the approach yields trajectories that conserve energy while sampling rare events.
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Affiliation(s)
- Srinivasan S Iyengar
- Department of Chemistry, Department of Physics, and the Indiana University Quantum Science and Engineering Center (IU-QSEC), Indiana University, 800 E. Kirkwood Avenue, Bloomington 47405, Indiana, United States
| | - H Bernhard Schlegel
- Department of Chemistry, Wayne State University, Detroit 48202, Michigan, United States
| | - Isaiah Sumner
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, James Madison University, Harrisonburg 22807, Virginia, United States
| | - Junjie Li
- Texas Advanced Computing Center, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin 78758, Texas, United States
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15
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Bjola A, Salvalaglio M. Estimating Free-Energy Surfaces and Their Convergence from Multiple, Independent Static and History-Dependent Biased Molecular-Dynamics Simulations with Mean Force Integration. J Chem Theory Comput 2024; 20:5418-5427. [PMID: 38913384 PMCID: PMC11238544 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.4c00091] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2024] [Revised: 05/26/2024] [Accepted: 05/28/2024] [Indexed: 06/25/2024]
Abstract
Addressing the sampling problem is central to obtaining quantitative insight from molecular dynamics simulations. Adaptive biased sampling methods, such as metadynamics, tackle this issue by perturbing the Hamiltonian of a system with a history-dependent bias potential, enhancing the exploration of the ensemble of configurations and estimating the corresponding free energy surface (FES). Nevertheless, efficiently assessing and systematically improving their convergence remains an open problem. Here, building on mean force integration (MFI), we develop and test a metric for estimating the convergence of FESs obtained by combining asynchronous, independent simulations subject to diverse biasing protocols, including static biases, different variants of metadynamics, and various combinations of static and history-dependent biases. The developed metric and the ability to combine independent simulations granted by MFI enable us to devise strategies to systematically improve the quality of FES estimates. We demonstrate our approach by computing FES and assessing the convergence of a range of systems of increasing complexity, including one- and two-dimensional analytical FESs, alanine dipeptide, a Lennard-Jones supersaturated vapor undergoing liquid droplet nucleation, and the model of a colloidal system crystallizing via a two-step mechanism. The methods presented here can be generally applied to biased simulations and are implemented in pyMFI, a publicly accessible, open-source Python library.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antoniu Bjola
- Thomas Young Centre and Department
of Chemical Engineering, University College
London, London WC1E 7JE, U.K.
| | - Matteo Salvalaglio
- Thomas Young Centre and Department
of Chemical Engineering, University College
London, London WC1E 7JE, U.K.
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16
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Li C, Yang W, Liu H, Liu X, Xing X, Gao Z, Dong S, Li H. Picturing the Gap Between the Performance and US-DOE's Hydrogen Storage Target: A Data-Driven Model for MgH 2 Dehydrogenation. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 2024; 63:e202320151. [PMID: 38665013 DOI: 10.1002/anie.202320151] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/28/2023] [Indexed: 07/02/2024]
Abstract
Developing solid-state hydrogen storage materials is as pressing as ever, which requires a comprehensive understanding of the dehydrogenation chemistry of a solid-state hydride. Transition state search and kinetics calculations are essential to understanding and designing high-performance solid-state hydrogen storage materials by filling in the knowledge gap that current experimental techniques cannot measure. However, the ab initio analysis of these processes is computationally expensive and time-consuming. Searching for descriptors to accurately predict the energy barrier is urgently needed, to accelerate the prediction of hydrogen storage material properties and identify the opportunities and challenges in this field. Herein, we develop a data-driven model to describe and predict the dehydrogenation barriers of a typical solid-state hydrogen storage material, magnesium hydride (MgH2), based on the combination of the crystal Hamilton population orbital of Mg-H bond and the distance between atomic hydrogen. By deriving the distance energy ratio, this model elucidates the key chemistry of the reaction kinetics. All the parameters in this model can be directly calculated with significantly less computational cost than conventional transition state search, so that the dehydrogenation performance of hydrogen storage materials can be predicted efficiently. Finally, we found that this model leads to excellent agreement with typical experimental measurements reported to date and provides clear design guidelines on how to propel the performance of MgH2 closer to the target set by the United States Department of Energy (US-DOE).
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Affiliation(s)
- Chaoqun Li
- School of Energy and Power Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Baoding, 071003, Hebei, China
| | - Weijie Yang
- School of Energy and Power Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Baoding, 071003, Hebei, China
| | - Hao Liu
- School of Energy and Power Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Baoding, 071003, Hebei, China
| | - Xinyuan Liu
- School of Energy and Power Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Baoding, 071003, Hebei, China
| | - Xiujing Xing
- Chemistry Department, University of California, Davis, 95616, United States
| | - Zhengyang Gao
- School of Energy and Power Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Baoding, 071003, Hebei, China
| | - Shuai Dong
- School of Energy and Power Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Baoding, 071003, Hebei, China
| | - Hao Li
- Advanced Institute for Materials Research (WPI-AIMR), Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8577, Japan
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17
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Gogal RA, Nessler AJ, Thiel AC, Bernabe HV, Corrigan Grove RA, Cousineau LM, Litman JM, Miller JM, Qi G, Speranza MJ, Tollefson MR, Fenn TD, Michaelson JJ, Okada O, Piquemal JP, Ponder JW, Shen J, Smith RJH, Yang W, Ren P, Schnieders MJ. Force Field X: A computational microscope to study genetic variation and organic crystals using theory and experiment. J Chem Phys 2024; 161:012501. [PMID: 38958156 PMCID: PMC11223778 DOI: 10.1063/5.0214652] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2024] [Accepted: 06/17/2024] [Indexed: 07/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Force Field X (FFX) is an open-source software package for atomic resolution modeling of genetic variants and organic crystals that leverages advanced potential energy functions and experimental data. FFX currently consists of nine modular packages with novel algorithms that include global optimization via a many-body expansion, acid-base chemistry using polarizable constant-pH molecular dynamics, estimation of free energy differences, generalized Kirkwood implicit solvent models, and many more. Applications of FFX focus on the use and development of a crystal structure prediction pipeline, biomolecular structure refinement against experimental datasets, and estimation of the thermodynamic effects of genetic variants on both proteins and nucleic acids. The use of Parallel Java and OpenMM combines to offer shared memory, message passing, and graphics processing unit parallelization for high performance simulations. Overall, the FFX platform serves as a computational microscope to study systems ranging from organic crystals to solvated biomolecular systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rose A. Gogal
- Roy J. Carver Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA
| | - Aaron J. Nessler
- Roy J. Carver Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA
| | - Andrew C. Thiel
- Roy J. Carver Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA
| | - Hernan V. Bernabe
- Roy J. Carver Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA
| | - Rae A. Corrigan Grove
- Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
| | - Leah M. Cousineau
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA
| | - Jacob M. Litman
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA
| | - Jacob M. Miller
- Roy J. Carver Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA
| | - Guowei Qi
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA
| | - Matthew J. Speranza
- Roy J. Carver Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA
| | - Mallory R. Tollefson
- Roy J. Carver Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA
| | - Timothy D. Fenn
- Analytical Development, LEXEO Therapeutics, New York, New York 10010, USA
| | - Jacob J. Michaelson
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA
| | - Okimasa Okada
- Sohyaku Innovative Research Division, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation, 1000 Kamoshida-cho, Aoba-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 227-0033, Japan
| | | | - Jay W. Ponder
- Department of Chemistry, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA
| | - Jana Shen
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, USA
| | - Richard J. H. Smith
- Molecular Otolaryngology and Renal Research Laboratories, Department of Otolaryngology, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA
| | | | - Pengyu Ren
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
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18
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De Souza TPP, Cantão LXS, Rodrigues MQRB, Gonçalves DB, Nagem RAP, Rocha REO, Godoi RR, Lima WJN, Galdino AS, Minardi RCDM, Lima LHFD. Glycosylation and charge distribution orchestrates the conformational ensembles of a biotechnologically promissory phytase in different pHs - a computational study. J Biomol Struct Dyn 2024; 42:5030-5041. [PMID: 37325852 DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2023.2223685] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2023] [Accepted: 06/06/2023] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Phytases [myo-inositol(1,2,3,4,5,6) hexakisphosphate phosphohydrolases] are phytate-specific phosphatases not present in monogastric animals. Nevertheless, they are an essential supplement to feeding such animals and for human special diets. It is crucial, hence, the biotechnological use of phytases with intrinsic stability and activity at the acid pHs from gastric environments. Here we use Metadynamics (METADY) simulations to probe the conformational space of the Aspergillus nidulans phytase and the differential effects of pH and glycosylation in this same space. The results suggest that strategic combinations of pH and glycosylation affect the stability of native-like conformations and alternate these structures from a metastable to a stable profile. Furthermore, the protein segments previously reported as more thermosensitive in phytases from this family present a pivotal role in the conformational changes at different conditions, especially H2, H5-7, L8, L10, L12, and L17. Also, the glycosylations and the pH-dependent charge balance modulate the mobility and interactions at these same regions, with consequences for the surface solvation and active site exposition. Finally, although the glycosylations have stabilized the native structure and improved the substrate docking at all the studied pHs, the data suggest a higher phytate receptivity at catalytic poses for the unglycosylated structure at pH 6.5 and the glycosylated one at pH 4.5. This behavior agrees with the exact change in optimum pH reported for this enzyme, expressed on low or high glycosylating systems. We hope the results and insights presented here will be helpful in future approaches for rational engineering of technologically promising phytases and intelligent planning of their heterologous expression systems and conditions for use.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thaís P P De Souza
- Microbial Biotechnology Laboratory, Universidade Federal de São João Del-Rei, Divinópolis, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Letícia Xavier Silva Cantão
- Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Systems (LBS), Department Of Computer Science, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | | | - Daniel Bonoto Gonçalves
- Department of Biosystems Engineering, Universidade Federal de São João Del-Rei, São João Del-Rei, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Ronaldo Alves Pinto Nagem
- Institute of Biological Sciences Department of Biochemistry and Immunology, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Rafael Eduardo Oliveira Rocha
- Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Systems (LBS), Department Of Computer Science, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
- Laboratory Of Molecular Modeling and Bioinformatics, Department of Exacts and Biological Sciences (DECEB), Universidade Federal de São João Del-Rei, Sete Lagoas, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Renato Ramos Godoi
- Institute of Biological Sciences Department of Biochemistry and Immunology, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - William James Nogueira Lima
- Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Campus Regional de Montes Claros, Montes Claros, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Alexsandro Sobreira Galdino
- Microbial Biotechnology Laboratory, Universidade Federal de São João Del-Rei, Divinópolis, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Raquel Cardoso de Melo Minardi
- Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Systems (LBS), Department Of Computer Science, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Leonardo Henrique França de Lima
- Laboratory Of Molecular Modeling and Bioinformatics, Department of Exacts and Biological Sciences (DECEB), Universidade Federal de São João Del-Rei, Sete Lagoas, Minas Gerais, Brazil
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19
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Jung J, Yagi K, Tan C, Oshima H, Mori T, Yu I, Matsunaga Y, Kobayashi C, Ito S, Ugarte La Torre D, Sugita Y. GENESIS 2.1: High-Performance Molecular Dynamics Software for Enhanced Sampling and Free-Energy Calculations for Atomistic, Coarse-Grained, and Quantum Mechanics/Molecular Mechanics Models. J Phys Chem B 2024; 128:6028-6048. [PMID: 38876465 PMCID: PMC11215777 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.4c02096] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2024] [Revised: 05/15/2024] [Accepted: 05/21/2024] [Indexed: 06/16/2024]
Abstract
GENeralized-Ensemble SImulation System (GENESIS) is a molecular dynamics (MD) software developed to simulate the conformational dynamics of a single biomolecule, as well as molecular interactions in large biomolecular assemblies and between multiple biomolecules in cellular environments. To achieve the latter purpose, the earlier versions of GENESIS emphasized high performance in atomistic MD simulations on massively parallel supercomputers, with or without graphics processing units (GPUs). Here, we implemented multiscale MD simulations that include atomistic, coarse-grained, and hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) calculations. They demonstrate high performance and are integrated with enhanced conformational sampling algorithms and free-energy calculations without using external programs except for the QM programs. In this article, we review new functions, molecular models, and other essential features in GENESIS version 2.1 and discuss ongoing developments for future releases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jaewoon Jung
- Computational
Biophysics Research Team, RIKEN Center for
Computational Science, Kobe, Hyogo 650-0047, Japan
- Theoretical
Molecular Science Laboratory, RIKEN Cluster
for Pioneering Research, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
| | - Kiyoshi Yagi
- Theoretical
Molecular Science Laboratory, RIKEN Cluster
for Pioneering Research, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
| | - Cheng Tan
- Computational
Biophysics Research Team, RIKEN Center for
Computational Science, Kobe, Hyogo 650-0047, Japan
| | - Hiraku Oshima
- Laboratory
for Biomolecular Function Simulation, RIKEN
Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, Kobe, Hyogo 650-0047, Japan
- Graduate
School of Life Science, University of Hyogo, Harima Science Park City, Hyogo 678-1297, Japan
| | - Takaharu Mori
- Theoretical
Molecular Science Laboratory, RIKEN Cluster
for Pioneering Research, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
- Department
of Chemistry, Tokyo University of Science, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8601, Japan
| | - Isseki Yu
- Theoretical
Molecular Science Laboratory, RIKEN Cluster
for Pioneering Research, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
- Department
of Bioinformatics, Maebashi Institute of
Technology, Maebashi, Gunma 371-0816, Japan
| | - Yasuhiro Matsunaga
- Computational
Biophysics Research Team, RIKEN Center for
Computational Science, Kobe, Hyogo 650-0047, Japan
- Graduate
School of Science and Engineering, Saitama
University, Saitama 338-8570, Japan
| | - Chigusa Kobayashi
- Computational
Biophysics Research Team, RIKEN Center for
Computational Science, Kobe, Hyogo 650-0047, Japan
| | - Shingo Ito
- Theoretical
Molecular Science Laboratory, RIKEN Cluster
for Pioneering Research, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
| | - Diego Ugarte La Torre
- Computational
Biophysics Research Team, RIKEN Center for
Computational Science, Kobe, Hyogo 650-0047, Japan
| | - Yuji Sugita
- Computational
Biophysics Research Team, RIKEN Center for
Computational Science, Kobe, Hyogo 650-0047, Japan
- Theoretical
Molecular Science Laboratory, RIKEN Cluster
for Pioneering Research, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
- Laboratory
for Biomolecular Function Simulation, RIKEN
Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, Kobe, Hyogo 650-0047, Japan
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20
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Anderson A, García-Fandiño R, Piñeiro Á, O'Connor MS. Unraveling the molecular dynamics of sugammadex-rocuronium complexation: A blueprint for cyclodextrin drug design. Carbohydr Polym 2024; 334:122018. [PMID: 38553217 DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2024.122018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2023] [Revised: 02/29/2024] [Accepted: 03/01/2024] [Indexed: 04/02/2024]
Abstract
Sugammadex, marketed as Bridion™, is an approved cyclodextrin (CD) based drug for the reversal of neuromuscular blockade in adults undergoing surgery. Sugammadex forms an inclusion complex with the neuromuscular blocking agent (NMBA) rocuronium, allowing rapid reversal of muscle paralysis. In silico methods have been developed for studying CD inclusion complexes, aimed at accurately predicting their structural, energetic, dynamic, and kinetic properties, as well as binding constants. Here, a computational study aimed at characterizing the sugammadex-rocuronium system from the perspective of docking calculations, free molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, and biased metadynamics simulations with potential of mean force (PMF) calculations is presented. The aim is to provide detailed information about this system, as well as to use it as a model system for validation of the methods. This method predicts results in line with experimental evidence for both the optimal structure and the quantitative value for the binding constant. Interestingly, there is a less profound preference for the orientation than might be assumed based on electrostatic interactions, suggesting that both orientations may exist in solution. These results show that this technology can efficiently analyze CD inclusion complexes and could be used to facilitate the development and optimization of novel applications for CDs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amelia Anderson
- Cyclarity Therapeutics, 8001 Redwood Blvd Novato, CA 94945, USA; Department of Organic Chemistry, Center for Research in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Materials, Santiago de Compostela University, CIQUS, Spain; Soft Matter & Molecular Biophysics Group, Department of Applied Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
| | - Rebeca García-Fandiño
- Department of Organic Chemistry, Center for Research in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Materials, Santiago de Compostela University, CIQUS, Spain
| | - Ángel Piñeiro
- Soft Matter & Molecular Biophysics Group, Department of Applied Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
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21
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Lagardère L, Maurin L, Adjoua O, El Hage K, Monmarché P, Piquemal JP, Hénin J. Lambda-ABF: Simplified, Portable, Accurate, and Cost-Effective Alchemical Free-Energy Computation. J Chem Theory Comput 2024; 20:4481-4498. [PMID: 38805379 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.3c01249] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/30/2024]
Abstract
We introduce the lambda-Adaptive Biasing Force (lambda-ABF) method for the computation of alchemical free-energy differences. We propose a software implementation and showcase it on biomolecular systems. The method arises from coupling multiple-walker adaptive biasing force with λ-dynamics. The sampling of the alchemical variable is continuous and converges toward a uniform distribution, making manual optimization of the λ schedule unnecessary. Contrary to most other approaches, alchemical free-energy estimates are obtained immediately without any postprocessing. Free diffusion of λ improves orthogonal relaxation compared to fixed-λ thermodynamic integration or free-energy perturbation. Furthermore, multiple walkers provide generic orthogonal space coverage with minimal user input and negligible computational overhead. We show that our high-performance implementations coupling the Colvars library with NAMD and Tinker-HP can address real-world cases including ligand-receptor binding with both fixed-charge and polarizable models, with a demonstrably richer sampling than fixed-λ methods. The implementation is fully open-source, publicly available, and readily usable by practitioners of current alchemical methods. Thanks to the portable Colvars library, lambda-ABF presents a unified user interface regardless of the back-end (NAMD, Tinker-HP, or any software to be interfaced in the future), sparing users the effort of learning multiple interfaces. Finally, the Colvars Dashboard extension of the visual molecular dynamics (VMD) software provides an interactive monitoring and diagnostic tool for lambda-ABF simulations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Louis Lagardère
- Sorbonne Université, Laboratoire de Chimie Théorique, UMR 7616 CNRS, Paris 75005, France
- Sorbonne Université, Institut Parisien de Chimie Physique et Théorique, FR2622 CNRS, 75005 Paris, France
- Qubit Pharmaceuticals, 29 rue du Faubourg Saint Jacques, 75014 Paris, France
| | - Lise Maurin
- Sorbonne Université, Laboratoire de Chimie Théorique, UMR 7616 CNRS, Paris 75005, France
- Sorbonne Université, Laboratoire Jacques-Louis Lions, UMR 7589 CNRS, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Olivier Adjoua
- Sorbonne Université, Laboratoire de Chimie Théorique, UMR 7616 CNRS, Paris 75005, France
| | - Krystel El Hage
- Qubit Pharmaceuticals, 29 rue du Faubourg Saint Jacques, 75014 Paris, France
| | - Pierre Monmarché
- Sorbonne Université, Laboratoire de Chimie Théorique, UMR 7616 CNRS, Paris 75005, France
- Sorbonne Université, Laboratoire Jacques-Louis Lions, UMR 7589 CNRS, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Jean-Philip Piquemal
- Sorbonne Université, Laboratoire de Chimie Théorique, UMR 7616 CNRS, Paris 75005, France
- Qubit Pharmaceuticals, 29 rue du Faubourg Saint Jacques, 75014 Paris, France
| | - Jérôme Hénin
- Laboratoire de Biochimie Théorique, Université Paris Cité, CNRS, UPR 9080, 75005 Paris, France
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22
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Ghosh D, Biswas A, Radhakrishna M. Advanced computational approaches to understand protein aggregation. BIOPHYSICS REVIEWS 2024; 5:021302. [PMID: 38681860 PMCID: PMC11045254 DOI: 10.1063/5.0180691] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2023] [Accepted: 03/18/2024] [Indexed: 05/01/2024]
Abstract
Protein aggregation is a widespread phenomenon implicated in debilitating diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and cataracts, presenting complex hurdles for the field of molecular biology. In this review, we explore the evolving realm of computational methods and bioinformatics tools that have revolutionized our comprehension of protein aggregation. Beginning with a discussion of the multifaceted challenges associated with understanding this process and emphasizing the critical need for precise predictive tools, we highlight how computational techniques have become indispensable for understanding protein aggregation. We focus on molecular simulations, notably molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, spanning from atomistic to coarse-grained levels, which have emerged as pivotal tools in unraveling the complex dynamics governing protein aggregation in diseases such as cataracts, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's. MD simulations provide microscopic insights into protein interactions and the subtleties of aggregation pathways, with advanced techniques like replica exchange molecular dynamics, Metadynamics (MetaD), and umbrella sampling enhancing our understanding by probing intricate energy landscapes and transition states. We delve into specific applications of MD simulations, elucidating the chaperone mechanism underlying cataract formation using Markov state modeling and the intricate pathways and interactions driving the toxic aggregate formation in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Transitioning we highlight how computational techniques, including bioinformatics, sequence analysis, structural data, machine learning algorithms, and artificial intelligence have become indispensable for predicting protein aggregation propensity and locating aggregation-prone regions within protein sequences. Throughout our exploration, we underscore the symbiotic relationship between computational approaches and empirical data, which has paved the way for potential therapeutic strategies against protein aggregation-related diseases. In conclusion, this review offers a comprehensive overview of advanced computational methodologies and bioinformatics tools that have catalyzed breakthroughs in unraveling the molecular basis of protein aggregation, with significant implications for clinical interventions, standing at the intersection of computational biology and experimental research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Deepshikha Ghosh
- Department of Biological Sciences and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Gandhinagar, Palaj, Gujarat 382355, India
| | - Anushka Biswas
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Gandhinagar, Palaj, Gujarat 382355, India
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23
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Williams-Noonan BJ, Kulkarni K, Todorova N, Franceschi M, Wilde C, Borgo MPD, Serpell LC, Aguilar MI, Yarovsky I. Atomic Scale Structure of Self-Assembled Lipidated Peptide Nanomaterials. ADVANCED MATERIALS (DEERFIELD BEACH, FLA.) 2024; 36:e2311103. [PMID: 38489817 DOI: 10.1002/adma.202311103] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2023] [Revised: 02/12/2024] [Indexed: 03/17/2024]
Abstract
β-Peptides have great potential as novel biomaterials and therapeutic agents, due to their unique ability to self-assemble into low dimensional nanostructures, and their resistance to enzymatic degradation in vivo. However, the self-assembly mechanisms of β-peptides, which possess increased flexibility due to the extra backbone methylene groups present within the constituent β-amino acids, are not well understood due to inherent difficulties of observing their bottom-up growth pathway experimentally. A computational approach is presented for the bottom-up modelling of the self-assembled lipidated β3-peptides, from monomers, to oligomers, to supramolecular low-dimensional nanostructures, in all-atom detail. The approach is applied to elucidate the self-assembly mechanisms of recently discovered, distinct structural morphologies of low dimensional nanomaterials, assembled from lipidated β3-peptide monomers. The resultant structures of the nanobelts and the twisted fibrils are stable throughout subsequent unrestrained all-atom molecular dynamics simulations, and these assemblies display good agreement with the structural features obtained from X-ray fiber diffraction and atomic force microscopy data. This is the first reported, fully-atomistic model of a lipidated β3-peptide-based nanomaterial, and the computational approach developed here, in combination with experimental fiber diffraction analysis and atomic force microscopy, will be useful in elucidating the atomic scale structure of self-assembled peptide-based and other supramolecular nanomaterials.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Ketav Kulkarni
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, 3800, Australia
| | - Nevena Todorova
- School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, 3001, Australia
| | - Matteo Franceschi
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, 3800, Australia
| | - Christopher Wilde
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, 3800, Australia
| | - Mark P Del Borgo
- Department of Pharmacology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, 3800, Australia
| | - Louise C Serpell
- Sussex Neuroscience, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 9QG, UK
| | - Marie-Isabel Aguilar
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, 3800, Australia
| | - Irene Yarovsky
- School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, 3001, Australia
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24
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Yu T, Sudhakar N, Okafor CD. Illuminating ligand-induced dynamics in nuclear receptors through MD simulations. BIOCHIMICA ET BIOPHYSICA ACTA. GENE REGULATORY MECHANISMS 2024; 1867:195025. [PMID: 38614450 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbagrm.2024.195025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2024] [Revised: 03/27/2024] [Accepted: 04/06/2024] [Indexed: 04/15/2024]
Abstract
Nuclear receptors (NRs) regulate gene expression in critical physiological processes, with their functionality finely tuned by ligand-induced conformational changes. While NRs may sometimes undergo significant conformational motions in response to ligand-binding, these effects are more commonly subtle and challenging to study by traditional structural or biophysical methods. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are a powerful tool to bridge the gap between static protein-ligand structures and dynamical changes that govern NR function. Here, we summarize a handful of recent studies that apply MD simulations to study NRs. We present diverse methodologies for analyzing simulation data with a detailed examination of the information each method can yield. By delving into the strengths, limitations and unique contributions of these tools, this review provides guidance for extracting meaningful data from MD simulations to advance the goal of understanding the intricate mechanisms by which ligands orchestrate a range of functional outcomes in NRs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tracy Yu
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
| | - Nishanti Sudhakar
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
| | - C Denise Okafor
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA; Department of Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
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25
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Anjo SI, He Z, Hussain Z, Farooq A, McIntyre A, Laughton CA, Carvalho AN, Finelli MJ. Protein Oxidative Modifications in Neurodegenerative Diseases: From Advances in Detection and Modelling to Their Use as Disease Biomarkers. Antioxidants (Basel) 2024; 13:681. [PMID: 38929122 PMCID: PMC11200609 DOI: 10.3390/antiox13060681] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2024] [Revised: 05/26/2024] [Accepted: 05/29/2024] [Indexed: 06/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Oxidation-reduction post-translational modifications (redox-PTMs) are chemical alterations to amino acids of proteins. Redox-PTMs participate in the regulation of protein conformation, localization and function, acting as signalling effectors that impact many essential biochemical processes in the cells. Crucially, the dysregulation of redox-PTMs of proteins has been implicated in the pathophysiology of numerous human diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. This review aims to highlight the current gaps in knowledge in the field of redox-PTMs biology and to explore new methodological advances in proteomics and computational modelling that will pave the way for a better understanding of the role and therapeutic potential of redox-PTMs of proteins in neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we summarize the main types of redox-PTMs of proteins while providing examples of their occurrence in neurodegenerative diseases and an overview of the state-of-the-art methods used for their detection. We explore the potential of novel computational modelling approaches as essential tools to obtain insights into the precise role of redox-PTMs in regulating protein structure and function. We also discuss the complex crosstalk between various PTMs that occur in living cells. Finally, we argue that redox-PTMs of proteins could be used in the future as diagnosis and prognosis biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sandra I. Anjo
- CNC-Center for Neurosciences and Cell Biology, University of Coimbra, 3004-517 Coimbra, Portugal
- Centre for Innovative Biomedicine and Biotechnology (CIBB), University of Coimbra, 3004-517 Coimbra, Portugal
- Institute for Interdisciplinary Research (IIIUC), University of Coimbra, 3030-789 Coimbra, Portugal
| | - Zhicheng He
- Biodiscovery Institute, School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
| | - Zohaib Hussain
- Biodiscovery Institute, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
| | - Aruba Farooq
- Biodiscovery Institute, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
| | - Alan McIntyre
- Biodiscovery Institute, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
| | - Charles A. Laughton
- Biodiscovery Institute, School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
| | - Andreia Neves Carvalho
- Research Institute for Medicines (iMed.ULisboa), Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidade de Lisboa, 1649-003 Lisbon, Portugal
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Medicines, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidade de Lisboa, 1649-003 Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Mattéa J. Finelli
- Biodiscovery Institute, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
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26
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Balicki M, Śmiechowski M. Hydration of N-Hydroxyurea from Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics Simulations. Molecules 2024; 29:2435. [PMID: 38893311 PMCID: PMC11173572 DOI: 10.3390/molecules29112435] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2024] [Revised: 05/17/2024] [Accepted: 05/18/2024] [Indexed: 06/21/2024] Open
Abstract
N-Hydroxyurea (HU) is an important chemotherapeutic agent used as a first-line treatment in conditions such as sickle cell disease and β-thalassemia, among others. To date, its properties as a hydrated molecule in the blood plasma or cytoplasm are dramatically understudied, although they may be crucial to the binding of HU to the radical catalytic site of ribonucleotide reductase, its molecular target. The purpose of this work is the comprehensive exploration of HU hydration. The topic is studied using ab initio molecular dynamic (AIMD) simulations that apply a first principles representation of the electron density of the system. This allows for the calculation of infrared spectra, which may be decomposed spatially to better capture the spectral signatures of solute-solvent interactions. The studied molecule is found to be strongly hydrated and tightly bound to the first shell water molecules. The analysis of the distance-dependent spectra of HU shows that the E and Z conformers spectrally affect, on average, 3.4 and 2.5 of the closest H2O molecules, respectively, in spheres of radii of 3.7 Å and 3.5 Å, respectively. The distance-dependent spectra corresponding to these cutoff radii show increased absorbance in the red-shifted part of the water OH stretching vibration band, indicating local enhancement of the solvent's hydrogen bond network. The radially resolved IR spectra also demonstrate that HU effortlessly incorporates into the hydrogen bond network of water and has an enhancing effect on this network. Metadynamics simulations based on AIMD methodology provide a picture of the conformational equilibria of HU in solution. Contrary to previous investigations of an isolated HU molecule in the gas phase, the Z conformer of HU is found here to be more stable by 17.4 kJ·mol-1 than the E conformer, pointing at the crucial role that hydration plays in determining the conformational stability of solutes. The potential energy surface for the OH group rotation in HU indicates that there is no intramolecular hydrogen bond in Z-HU in water, in stark contrast to the isolated solute in the gas phase. Instead, the preferred orientation of the hydroxyl group is perpendicular to the molecular plane of the solute. In view of the known chaotropic effect of urea and its N-alkyl-substituted derivatives, N-hydroxyurea emerges as a unique urea derivative that exhibits a kosmotropic ordering of nearby water. This property may be of crucial importance for its binding to the catalytic site of ribonucleotide reductase with a concomitant displacement of a water molecule.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Maciej Śmiechowski
- Department of Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Gdańsk University of Technology, Narutowicza 11/12, 80-233 Gdańsk, Poland;
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27
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Lu X, Huang J. Molecular mechanisms of Na +-driven bile acid transport in human NTCP. Biophys J 2024; 123:1195-1210. [PMID: 38544409 PMCID: PMC11140467 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2024.03.033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/01/2024] [Revised: 02/17/2024] [Accepted: 03/25/2024] [Indexed: 04/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Human Na+ taurocholate co-transporting protein (hNTCP) is a key bile salt transporter to maintain enterohepatic circulation and is responsible for the recognition of hepatitis B and D viruses. Despite landmark cryoelectron microscopy studies revealing open-pore and inward-facing states of hNTCP stabilized by antibodies, the transport mechanism remains largely unknown. To address this knowledge gap, we used molecular dynamics and enhanced sampling metadynamics simulations to elucidate the intrinsic mechanism of hNTCP-mediated taurocholate acid (TCA) transport driven by Na+ binding. We uncovered three TCA-binding modes, including one that closely matched the limited cryoelectron microscopy density observed in the open-pore hNTCP. We also captured several key hNTCP conformations in the substrate transport cycle, particularly including an outward-facing, substrate-bound state. Furthermore, we provided thermodynamic evidence supporting that changes in the Na+-binding state drive the TCA transport by exploiting the amphiphilic nature of the substrate and modulating the protein environment, thereby enabling the TCA molecule to flip through. Understanding these mechanistic details of Na+-driven bile acid transport may aid in the development of hNTCP-targeted therapies for liver diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoli Lu
- Westlake AI Therapeutics Laboratory, Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China; Key Laboratory of Structural Biology of Zhejiang Province, School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
| | - Jing Huang
- Westlake AI Therapeutics Laboratory, Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China; Key Laboratory of Structural Biology of Zhejiang Province, School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
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28
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Blumer O, Reuveni S, Hirshberg B. Short-Time Infrequent Metadynamics for Improved Kinetics Inference. J Chem Theory Comput 2024; 20:3484-3491. [PMID: 38668722 PMCID: PMC11099961 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.4c00170] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2024] [Revised: 04/02/2024] [Accepted: 04/02/2024] [Indexed: 05/15/2024]
Abstract
Infrequent Metadynamics is a popular method to obtain the rates of long time-scale processes from accelerated simulations. The inference procedure is based on rescaling the first-passage times of the Metadynamics trajectories using a bias-dependent acceleration factor. While useful in many cases, it is limited to Poisson kinetics, and a reliable estimation of the unbiased rate requires slow bias deposition and prior knowledge of efficient collective variables. Here, we propose an improved inference scheme, which is based on two key observations: (1) the time-independent rate of Poisson processes can be estimated using short trajectories only. (2) Short trajectories experience minimal bias, and their rescaled first-passage times follow the unbiased distribution even for relatively high deposition rates and suboptimal collective variables. Therefore, by basing the inference procedure on short time scales, we obtain an improved trade-off between speedup and accuracy at no additional computational cost, especially when employing suboptimal collective variables. We demonstrate the improved inference scheme for a model system and two molecular systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ofir Blumer
- School
of Chemistry, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel
| | - Shlomi Reuveni
- School
of Chemistry, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel
- The
Center for Computational Molecular and Materials Science, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel
- The
Center for Physics and Chemistry of Living Systems, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel
| | - Barak Hirshberg
- School
of Chemistry, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel
- The
Center for Computational Molecular and Materials Science, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel
- The
Center for Physics and Chemistry of Living Systems, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel
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29
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Zheng X, Chen Z, Guo M, Liang H, Song X, Liu Y, Liao Z, Zhang Y, Guo J, Zhou Y, Zhang ZM, Tu Z, Zhang Y, Chen Y, Zhang Z, Lu X. Structure-Based Optimization of Pyrazinamide-Containing Macrocyclic Derivatives as Fms-like Tyrosine Kinase 3 (FLT3) Inhibitors to Overcome Clinical Mutations. ACS Pharmacol Transl Sci 2024; 7:1485-1506. [PMID: 38751627 PMCID: PMC11092118 DOI: 10.1021/acsptsci.4c00071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2024] [Revised: 03/26/2024] [Accepted: 03/27/2024] [Indexed: 05/18/2024]
Abstract
Secondary mutations in Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3-tyrosine kinase domain (FLT3-TKD) (e.g., D835Y and F691L) have become a major on-target resistance mechanism of FLT3 inhibitors, which present a significant clinical challenge. To date, no effective drugs have been approved to simultaneously overcome clinical resistance caused by these two mutants. Thus, a series of pyrazinamide macrocyclic compounds were first designed and evaluated to overcome the secondary mutations of FLT3. The representative 8v exhibited potent inhibitory activities against FLT3D835Y and FLT3D835Y/F691L with IC50 values of 1.5 and 9.7 nM, respectively. 8v also strongly suppressed the proliferation against Ba/F3 cells transfected with FLT3-ITD, FLT3-ITD-D835Y, FLT3-ITD-F691L, FLT3-ITD-D835Y-F691L, and MV4-11 acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cell lines with IC50 values of 12.2, 10.5, 24.6, 16.9, and 6.8 nM, respectively. Furthermore, 8v demonstrated ideal anticancer efficacy in a Ba/F3-FLT3-ITD-D835Y xenograft model. The results suggested that 8v can serve as a promising macrocycle-based FLT3 inhibitor for the treatment of AML.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xuan Zheng
- State
Key Laboratory of Bioactive Molecules and Druggability Assessment,
International Cooperative Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Modernization and Innovative Drug Discovery of Chinese Ministry of
Education, Guangzhou City Key Laboratory of Precision Chemical Drug
Development, School of Pharmacy, Jinan University, #855 Xingye Avenue, Guangzhou 510632, China
| | - Zhiwen Chen
- State
Key Laboratory of Bioactive Molecules and Druggability Assessment,
International Cooperative Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Modernization and Innovative Drug Discovery of Chinese Ministry of
Education, Guangzhou City Key Laboratory of Precision Chemical Drug
Development, School of Pharmacy, Jinan University, #855 Xingye Avenue, Guangzhou 510632, China
| | - Ming Guo
- Department
of Oncology, NHC Key Laboratory of Cancer Proteomics, State Local
Joint Engineering Laboratory for Anticancer Drugs, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410008, China
| | - Hong Liang
- State
Key Laboratory of Bioactive Molecules and Druggability Assessment,
International Cooperative Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Modernization and Innovative Drug Discovery of Chinese Ministry of
Education, Guangzhou City Key Laboratory of Precision Chemical Drug
Development, School of Pharmacy, Jinan University, #855 Xingye Avenue, Guangzhou 510632, China
| | - Xiaojuan Song
- State
Key Laboratory of Bioactive Molecules and Druggability Assessment,
International Cooperative Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Modernization and Innovative Drug Discovery of Chinese Ministry of
Education, Guangzhou City Key Laboratory of Precision Chemical Drug
Development, School of Pharmacy, Jinan University, #855 Xingye Avenue, Guangzhou 510632, China
| | - Yiling Liu
- State
Key Laboratory of Bioactive Molecules and Druggability Assessment,
International Cooperative Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Modernization and Innovative Drug Discovery of Chinese Ministry of
Education, Guangzhou City Key Laboratory of Precision Chemical Drug
Development, School of Pharmacy, Jinan University, #855 Xingye Avenue, Guangzhou 510632, China
| | - Zhenling Liao
- State
Key Laboratory of Bioactive Molecules and Druggability Assessment,
International Cooperative Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Modernization and Innovative Drug Discovery of Chinese Ministry of
Education, Guangzhou City Key Laboratory of Precision Chemical Drug
Development, School of Pharmacy, Jinan University, #855 Xingye Avenue, Guangzhou 510632, China
| | - Yan Zhang
- State
Key Laboratory of Bioactive Molecules and Druggability Assessment,
International Cooperative Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Modernization and Innovative Drug Discovery of Chinese Ministry of
Education, Guangzhou City Key Laboratory of Precision Chemical Drug
Development, School of Pharmacy, Jinan University, #855 Xingye Avenue, Guangzhou 510632, China
| | - Jing Guo
- State
Key Laboratory of Bioactive Molecules and Druggability Assessment,
International Cooperative Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Modernization and Innovative Drug Discovery of Chinese Ministry of
Education, Guangzhou City Key Laboratory of Precision Chemical Drug
Development, School of Pharmacy, Jinan University, #855 Xingye Avenue, Guangzhou 510632, China
| | - Yang Zhou
- State
Key Laboratory of Bioactive Molecules and Druggability Assessment,
International Cooperative Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Modernization and Innovative Drug Discovery of Chinese Ministry of
Education, Guangzhou City Key Laboratory of Precision Chemical Drug
Development, School of Pharmacy, Jinan University, #855 Xingye Avenue, Guangzhou 510632, China
| | - Zhi-min Zhang
- State
Key Laboratory of Bioactive Molecules and Druggability Assessment,
International Cooperative Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Modernization and Innovative Drug Discovery of Chinese Ministry of
Education, Guangzhou City Key Laboratory of Precision Chemical Drug
Development, School of Pharmacy, Jinan University, #855 Xingye Avenue, Guangzhou 510632, China
| | - Zhengchao Tu
- State
Key Laboratory of Bioactive Molecules and Druggability Assessment,
International Cooperative Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Modernization and Innovative Drug Discovery of Chinese Ministry of
Education, Guangzhou City Key Laboratory of Precision Chemical Drug
Development, School of Pharmacy, Jinan University, #855 Xingye Avenue, Guangzhou 510632, China
| | - Ye Zhang
- Guangxi
Key Laboratory of Drug Discovery and Optimization, School of Pharmacy, Guilin Medical University, Guilin 541199, China
| | - Yongheng Chen
- Department
of Oncology, NHC Key Laboratory of Cancer Proteomics, State Local
Joint Engineering Laboratory for Anticancer Drugs, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410008, China
| | - Zhang Zhang
- State
Key Laboratory of Bioactive Molecules and Druggability Assessment,
International Cooperative Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Modernization and Innovative Drug Discovery of Chinese Ministry of
Education, Guangzhou City Key Laboratory of Precision Chemical Drug
Development, School of Pharmacy, Jinan University, #855 Xingye Avenue, Guangzhou 510632, China
| | - Xiaoyun Lu
- State
Key Laboratory of Bioactive Molecules and Druggability Assessment,
International Cooperative Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Modernization and Innovative Drug Discovery of Chinese Ministry of
Education, Guangzhou City Key Laboratory of Precision Chemical Drug
Development, School of Pharmacy, Jinan University, #855 Xingye Avenue, Guangzhou 510632, China
- Department
of Hematology, Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China
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30
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Le HT, Tran LH, Phung HTT. SARS-CoV-2 omicron RBD forms a weaker binding affinity to hACE2 compared to Delta RBD in in-silico studies. J Biomol Struct Dyn 2024; 42:4087-4096. [PMID: 37345564 DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2023.2222827] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2023] [Accepted: 05/21/2023] [Indexed: 06/23/2023]
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic sparked an unprecedented race in biotechnology in a search for effective therapies and a preventive vaccine. The continued appearance of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VoCs) further swept the world. The entry of SARS-CoV-2 into cells is mediated by binding the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the S protein to the cell-surface receptor, human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2). In this study, using a coarse-grained force field to parameterize the system, we employed steered-molecular dynamics (SMD) simulations to reveal the binding of SARS-CoV-2 Delta/Omicron RBD to hACE2. Our benchmarked results demonstrate a good correlation between computed rupture force and experimental binding free energy for known protein-protein systems. Moreover, our findings show that the Omicron RBD has a weaker binding affinity to hACE2, consistent with the respective experimental results. This indicates that our method can effectively be applied to other emerging SARS-CoV-2 strains.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hoa Thanh Le
- Laboratory of Theoretical and Computational Biophysics, Advanced Institute of Materials Science, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
- Faculty of Applied Sciences, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
| | - Linh Hoang Tran
- Faculty of Civil Engineering, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT), Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
- Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
| | - Huong Thi Thu Phung
- NTT Hi-Tech Institute, Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
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31
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Jin H, Merz KM. Modeling Zinc Complexes Using Neural Networks. J Chem Inf Model 2024; 64:3140-3148. [PMID: 38587510 PMCID: PMC11040731 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.4c00095] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2024] [Revised: 03/04/2024] [Accepted: 03/28/2024] [Indexed: 04/09/2024]
Abstract
Understanding the energetic landscapes of large molecules is necessary for the study of chemical and biological systems. Recently, deep learning has greatly accelerated the development of models based on quantum chemistry, making it possible to build potential energy surfaces and explore chemical space. However, most of this work has focused on organic molecules due to the simplicity of their electronic structures as well as the availability of data sets. In this work, we build a deep learning architecture to model the energetics of zinc organometallic complexes. To achieve this, we have compiled a configurationally and conformationally diverse data set of zinc complexes using metadynamics to overcome the limitations of traditional sampling methods. In terms of the neural network potentials, our results indicate that for zinc complexes, partial charges play an important role in modeling the long-range interactions with a neural network. Our developed model outperforms semiempirical methods in predicting the relative energy of zinc conformers, yielding a mean absolute error (MAE) of 1.32 kcal/mol with reference to the double-hybrid PWPB95 method.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hongni Jin
- Department
of Chemistry, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, United States
| | - Kenneth M. Merz
- Department
of Chemistry, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, United States
- Department
of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Michigan
State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, United States
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32
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Milia V, Tarrat N, Zanon C, Cortés J, Rapacioli M. Exploring Molecular Energy Landscapes by Coupling the DFTB Potential with a Tree-Based Stochastic Algorithm: Investigation of the Conformational Diversity of Phthalates. J Chem Inf Model 2024; 64:3290-3301. [PMID: 38497727 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.3c01981] [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: 03/19/2024]
Abstract
Exploring the global energy landscape of relatively large molecules at the quantum level is a challenging problem. In this work, we report the coupling of a nonredundant conformational space exploration method, namely, the robotics-inspired iterative global exploration and local optimization (IGLOO) algorithm, with the quantum-chemical density functional tight binding (DFTB) potential. The application of this fast and efficient computational approach to three close-sized molecules of the phthalate family (DBP, BBP, and DEHP) showed that they present different conformational landscapes. These differences have been rationalized by making use of descriptors based on distances and dihedral angles. Coulomb interactions, steric hindrance, and dispersive interactions have been found to drive the geometric properties. A strong correlation has been evidenced between the two dihedral angles describing the side-chain orientation of the phthalate molecules. Our approach identifies low-energy minima without prior knowledge of the potential energy surface, paving the way for future investigations into transition paths and states.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valentin Milia
- LAAS-CNRS, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, 31031 Toulouse, France
- Laboratoire de Chimie et Physique Quantiques LCPQ/FERMI, UMR 5626, Université de Toulouse (UPS) and CNRS, 118 Route de Narbonne, F-31062 Toulouse, France
| | - Nathalie Tarrat
- CEMES, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, 29 Rue Jeanne Marvig, F-31055 Toulouse, France
| | | | - Juan Cortés
- LAAS-CNRS, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, 31031 Toulouse, France
| | - Mathias Rapacioli
- Laboratoire de Chimie et Physique Quantiques LCPQ/FERMI, UMR 5626, Université de Toulouse (UPS) and CNRS, 118 Route de Narbonne, F-31062 Toulouse, France
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33
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Lee S, Wang D, Seeliger MA, Tiwary P. Calculating Protein-Ligand Residence Times Through State Predictive Information Bottleneck based Enhanced Sampling. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.04.16.589710. [PMID: 38659748 PMCID: PMC11042289 DOI: 10.1101/2024.04.16.589710] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/26/2024]
Abstract
Understanding drug residence times in target proteins is key to improving drug efficacy and understanding target recognition in biochemistry. While drug residence time is just as important as binding affinity, atomic-level understanding of drug residence times through molecular dynamics (MD) simulations has been difficult primarily due to the extremely long timescales. Recent advances in rare event sampling have allowed us to reach these timescales, yet predicting protein-ligand residence times remains a significant challenge. Here we present a semi-automated protocol to calculate the ligand residence times across 12 orders of magnitudes of timescales. In our proposed framework, we integrate a deep learning-based method, the state predictive information bottleneck (SPIB), to learn an approximate reaction coordinate (RC) and use it to guide the enhanced sampling method metadynamics. We demonstrate the performance of our algorithm by applying it to six different protein-ligand complexes with available benchmark residence times, including the dissociation of the widely studied anti-cancer drug Imatinib (Gleevec) from both wild-type Abl kinase and drug-resistant mutants. We show how our protocol can recover quantitatively accurate residence times, potentially opening avenues for deeper insights into drug development possibilities and ligand recognition mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Suemin Lee
- Biophysics Program and Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park 20742, USA
| | - Dedi Wang
- Biophysics Program and Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park 20742, USA
| | - Markus A. Seeliger
- Department of Pharmacological Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-8651, USA
| | - Pratyush Tiwary
- Biophysics Program and Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park 20742, USA
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park 20742, USA
- University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing, Rockville, United States
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34
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Nessler A, Okada O, Kinoshita Y, Nishimura K, Nagata H, Fukuzawa K, Yonemochi E, Schnieders MJ. Crystal Polymorph Search in the NPT Ensemble via a Deposition/Sublimation Alchemical Path. CRYSTAL GROWTH & DESIGN 2024; 24:3205-3217. [PMID: 38659664 PMCID: PMC11036363 DOI: 10.1021/acs.cgd.3c01358] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2023] [Revised: 02/22/2024] [Accepted: 02/23/2024] [Indexed: 04/26/2024]
Abstract
The formulation of active pharmaceutical ingredients involves discovering stable crystal packing arrangements or polymorphs, each of which has distinct pharmaceutically relevant properties. Traditional experimental screening techniques utilizing various conditions are commonly supplemented with in silico crystal structure prediction (CSP) to inform the crystallization process and mitigate risk. Predictions are often based on advanced classical force fields or quantum mechanical calculations that model the crystal potential energy landscape but do not fully incorporate temperature, pressure, or solution conditions during the search procedure. This study proposes an innovative alchemical path that utilizes an advanced polarizable atomic multipole force field to predict crystal structures based on direct sampling of the NPT ensemble. The use of alchemical (i.e., nonphysical) intermediates, a novel Monte Carlo barostat, and an orthogonal space tempering bias combine to enhance the sampling efficiency of the deposition/sublimation phase transition. The proposed algorithm was applied to 2-((4-(2-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)ethyl)phenyl)amino)benzoic acid (Cambridge Crystallography Database Centre ID: XAFPAY) as a case study to showcase the algorithm. Each experimentally determined polymorph with one molecule in the asymmetric unit was successfully reproduced via approximately 1000 short 1 ns simulations per space group where each simulation was initiated from random rigid body coordinates and unit cell parameters. Utilizing two threads of a recent Intel CPU (a Xeon Gold 6330 CPU at 2.00 GHz), 1 ns of sampling using the polarizable AMOEBA force field can be acquired in 4 h (equating to more than 300 ns/day using all 112 threads/56 cores of a dual CPU node) within the Force Field X software (https://ffx.biochem.uiowa.edu). These results demonstrate a step forward in the rigorous use of the NPT ensemble during the CSP search process and open the door to future algorithms that incorporate solution conditions using continuum solvation methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aaron
J. Nessler
- Department
of Biomedical Engineering, University of
Iowa, 103 South Capitol
Street, 5601 Seamans Center for the Engineering Arts and Sciences, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, United States
| | - Okimasa Okada
- Sohyaku
Innovative Research Division, Mitsubishi
Tanabe Pharma Corporation, 1000 Kamoshida-cho, Aoba-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 227-0033, Japan
| | - Yuya Kinoshita
- Analytical
Development, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Takeda
Pharmaceutical Company Limited, 2-26-1, Muraoka-Higashi, Fujisawa 251-8555, Kanagawa, Japan
| | - Koki Nishimura
- Analytical
Development, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Takeda
Pharmaceutical Company Limited, 2-26-1, Muraoka-Higashi, Fujisawa 251-8555, Kanagawa, Japan
| | - Hiroomi Nagata
- CMC
Modality Technology Laboratories, Production Technology and Supply
Chain Management Division, Mitsubishi Tanabe
Pharma Corporation, Osaka 541-8505, Japan
| | - Kaori Fukuzawa
- Graduate
School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka
University, 1-6 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
| | - Etsuo Yonemochi
- Department
of Physical Chemistry, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hoshi University, 2-4-41 Ebara, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 142-8501, Japan
| | - Michael J. Schnieders
- Department
of Biomedical Engineering, University of
Iowa, 103 South Capitol
Street, 5601 Seamans Center for the Engineering Arts and Sciences, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, United States
- Department
of Biochemistry, University of Iowa, 51 Newton Road, 4-403 Bowen Science
Building, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, United States
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35
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Dutta S, Shukla D. Characterization of binding kinetics and intracellular signaling of new psychoactive substances targeting cannabinoid receptor using transition-based reweighting method. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2023.09.29.560261. [PMID: 37873328 PMCID: PMC10592854 DOI: 10.1101/2023.09.29.560261] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2023]
Abstract
New psychoactive substances (NPS) targeting cannabinoid receptor 1 pose a significant threat to society as recreational abusive drugs that have pronounced physiological side effects. These greater adverse effects compared to classical cannabinoids have been linked to the higher downstream β-arrestin signaling. Thus, understanding the mechanism of differential signaling will reveal important structure-activity relationship essential for identifying and potentially regulating NPS molecules. In this study, we simulate the slow (un)binding process of NPS MDMB-Fubinaca and classical cannabinoid HU-210 from CB1 using multi-ensemble simulation to decipher the effects of ligand binding dynamics on downstream signaling. The transition-based reweighing method is used for the estimation of transition rates and underlying thermodynamics of (un)binding processes of ligands with nanomolar affinities. Our analyses reveal major interaction differences with transmembrane TM7 between NPS and classical cannabinoids. A variational autoencoder-based approach, neural relational inference (NRI), is applied to assess the allosteric effects on intracellular regions attributable to variations in binding pocket interactions. NRI analysis indicate a heightened level of allosteric control of NPxxY motif for NPS-bound receptors, which contributes to the higher probability of formation of a crucial triad interaction (Y7.53-Y5.58-T3.46) necessary for stronger β-arrestin signaling. Hence, in this work, MD simulation, data-driven statistical methods, and deep learning point out the structural basis for the heightened physiological side effects associated with NPS, contributing to efforts aimed at mitigating their public health impact.
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Affiliation(s)
- Soumajit Dutta
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801
| | - Diwakar Shukla
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801
- Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801
- Cancer Center at Illinois, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801
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36
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Liu Y, Ghosh TK, Lin G, Chen M. Unbiasing Enhanced Sampling on a High-Dimensional Free Energy Surface with a Deep Generative Model. J Phys Chem Lett 2024; 15:3938-3945. [PMID: 38568182 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.3c03515] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/12/2024]
Abstract
Biased enhanced sampling methods that utilize collective variables (CVs) are powerful tools for sampling conformational ensembles. Due to their large intrinsic dimensions, efficiently generating conformational ensembles for complex systems requires enhanced sampling on high-dimensional free energy surfaces. While temperature-accelerated molecular dynamics (TAMD) can trivially adopt many CVs in a simulation, unbiasing the simulation to generate unbiased conformational ensembles requires accurate modeling of a high-dimensional CV probability distribution, which is challenging for traditional density estimation techniques. Here we propose an unbiasing method based on the score-based diffusion model, a deep generative learning method that excels in density estimation across complex data landscapes. We demonstrate that this unbiasing approach, tested on multiple TAMD simulations, significantly outperforms traditional unbiasing methods and can generate accurate unbiased conformational ensembles. With the proposed approach, TAMD can adopt CVs that focus on improving sampling efficiency and the proposed unbiasing method enables accurate evaluation of ensemble averages of important chemical features.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yikai Liu
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47906, United States
| | - Tushar K Ghosh
- Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47906, United States
| | - Guang Lin
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47906, United States
| | - Ming Chen
- Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47906, United States
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37
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Pirnia A, Maqdisi R, Mittal S, Sener M, Singharoy A. Perspective on Integrative Simulations of Bioenergetic Domains. J Phys Chem B 2024; 128:3302-3319. [PMID: 38562105 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.3c07335] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/04/2024]
Abstract
Bioenergetic processes in cells, such as photosynthesis or respiration, integrate many time and length scales, which makes the simulation of energy conversion with a mere single level of theory impossible. Just like the myriad of experimental techniques required to examine each level of organization, an array of overlapping computational techniques is necessary to model energy conversion. Here, a perspective is presented on recent efforts for modeling bioenergetic phenomena with a focus on molecular dynamics simulations and its variants as a primary method. An overview of the various classical, quantum mechanical, enhanced sampling, coarse-grained, Brownian dynamics, and Monte Carlo methods is presented. Example applications discussed include multiscale simulations of membrane-wide electron transport, rate kinetics of ATP turnover from electrochemical gradients, and finally, integrative modeling of the chromatophore, a photosynthetic pseudo-organelle.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam Pirnia
- School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1004, United States
| | - Ranel Maqdisi
- School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1004, United States
| | - Sumit Mittal
- VIT Bhopal University, Sehore 466114, Madhya Pradesh, India
| | - Melih Sener
- School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1004, United States
- Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
| | - Abhishek Singharoy
- School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1004, United States
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38
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Liu M, Wang J, Hu J, Liu P, Niu H, Yan X, Li J, Yan H, Yang B, Sun Y, Chen C, Kresse G, Zuo L, Chen XQ. Layer-by-layer phase transformation in Ti 3O 5 revealed by machine-learning molecular dynamics simulations. Nat Commun 2024; 15:3079. [PMID: 38594273 PMCID: PMC11004112 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47422-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2023] [Accepted: 03/28/2024] [Indexed: 04/11/2024] Open
Abstract
Reconstructive phase transitions involving breaking and reconstruction of primary chemical bonds are ubiquitous and important for many technological applications. In contrast to displacive phase transitions, the dynamics of reconstructive phase transitions are usually slow due to the large energy barrier. Nevertheless, the reconstructive phase transformation from β- to λ-Ti3O5 exhibits an ultrafast and reversible behavior. Despite extensive studies, the underlying microscopic mechanism remains unclear. Here, we discover a kinetically favorable in-plane nucleated layer-by-layer transformation mechanism through metadynamics and large-scale molecular dynamics simulations. This is enabled by developing an efficient machine learning potential with near first-principles accuracy through an on-the-fly active learning method and an advanced sampling technique. Our results reveal that the β-λ phase transformation initiates with the formation of two-dimensional nuclei in the ab-plane and then proceeds layer-by-layer through a multistep barrier-lowering kinetic process via intermediate metastable phases. Our work not only provides important insight into the ultrafast and reversible nature of the β-λ transition, but also presents useful strategies and methods for tackling other complex structural phase transitions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mingfeng Liu
- Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Shenyang, 110016, China
| | - Jiantao Wang
- Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Shenyang, 110016, China
| | - Junwei Hu
- State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, International Center for Materials Discovery, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710072, China
| | - Peitao Liu
- Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China.
| | - Haiyang Niu
- State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, International Center for Materials Discovery, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710072, China.
| | - Xuexi Yan
- Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China
| | - Jiangxu Li
- Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China
| | - Haile Yan
- Key Laboratory for Anisotropy and Texture of Materials (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, China
| | - Bo Yang
- Key Laboratory for Anisotropy and Texture of Materials (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, China
| | - Yan Sun
- Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China
| | - Chunlin Chen
- Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China
| | - Georg Kresse
- University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics and Center for Computational Materials Science, Kolingasse 14-16, A-1090, Vienna, Austria
| | - Liang Zuo
- Key Laboratory for Anisotropy and Texture of Materials (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, China
| | - Xing-Qiu Chen
- Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China
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39
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Xie P, Car R, E W. Ab initio generalized Langevin equation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2308668121. [PMID: 38551836 PMCID: PMC10998567 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2308668121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2023] [Accepted: 02/22/2024] [Indexed: 04/08/2024] Open
Abstract
We introduce a machine learning-based approach called ab initio generalized Langevin equation (AIGLE) to model the dynamics of slow collective variables (CVs) in materials and molecules. In this scheme, the parameters are learned from atomistic simulations based on ab initio quantum mechanical models. Force field, memory kernel, and noise generator are constructed in the context of the Mori-Zwanzig formalism, under the constraint of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. Combined with deep potential molecular dynamics and electronic density functional theory, this approach opens the way to multiscale modeling in a variety of situations. Here, we demonstrate this capability with a study of two mesoscale processes in crystalline lead titanate, namely the field-driven dynamics of a planar ferroelectric domain wall, and the dynamics of an extensive lattice of coarse-grained electric dipoles. In the first case, AIGLE extends the reach of ab initio simulations to a regime of noise-driven motions not accessible to molecular dynamics. In the second case, AIGLE deals with an extensive set of CVs by adopting a local approximation for the memory kernel and retaining only short-range noise correlations. The scheme is computationally more efficient than molecular dynamics by several orders of magnitude and mimics the microscopic dynamics at low frequencies where it reproduces accurately the dominant far-infrared absorption frequency.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pinchen Xie
- Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ08544
| | - Roberto Car
- Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ08544
- Department of Chemistry and Princeton Materials Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ08544
- Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ08544
| | - Weinan E
- AI for Science Institute, Beijing100080, China
- Center for Machine Learning Research and School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing100084, China
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40
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Eslami H, Müller-Plathe F. Self-Assembly Pathways of Triblock Janus Particles into 3D Open Lattices. SMALL (WEINHEIM AN DER BERGSTRASSE, GERMANY) 2024; 20:e2306337. [PMID: 37990935 DOI: 10.1002/smll.202306337] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2023] [Revised: 10/20/2023] [Indexed: 11/23/2023]
Abstract
The self-assembly of triblock Janus particles is simulated from a fluid to 3D open lattices: pyrochlore, perovskite, and diamond. The coarse-grained model explicitly takes into account the chemical details of the Janus particles (attractive patches at the poles and repulsion around the equator) and it contains explicit solvent particles. Hydrodynamic interactions are accounted for by dissipative particle dynamics. The relative stability of the crystals depends on the patch width. Narrow, intermediate, and wide patches stabilize the pyrochlore-, the perovskite-, and the diamond-lattice, respectively. The nucleation of all three lattices follows a two-step mechanism: the particles first agglomerate into a compact and disordered liquid cluster, which does not crystallize until it has grown to a threshold size. Second, the particles reorient inside this cluster to form crystalline nuclei. The free-energy barriers for the nucleation of pyrochlore and perovskite are ≈10 kBT, which are close to the nucleation barriers of previously studied 2D kagome lattices. The barrier height for the nucleation of diamond, however, is much larger (>20 kBT), as the symmetry of the triblock Janus particles is not perfect for a diamond structure. The large barrier is associated with the reorientation of particles, i.e., the second step of the nucleation mechanism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hossein Eslami
- Department of Chemistry, College of Sciences, Persian Gulf University, Boushehr, 75168, Iran
- Eduard-Zintl-Institut für Anorganische und Physikalische Chemie, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Peter-Grünberg-Straße 8, 64287, Darmstadt, Germany
| | - Florian Müller-Plathe
- Eduard-Zintl-Institut für Anorganische und Physikalische Chemie, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Peter-Grünberg-Straße 8, 64287, Darmstadt, Germany
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41
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Sencanski M, Glisic S, Kubale V, Cotman M, Mavri J, Vrecl M. Computational Modeling and Characterization of Peptides Derived from Nanobody Complementary-Determining Region 2 (CDR2) Targeting Active-State Conformation of the β 2-Adrenergic Receptor (β 2AR). Biomolecules 2024; 14:423. [PMID: 38672440 PMCID: PMC11048008 DOI: 10.3390/biom14040423] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2024] [Revised: 03/20/2024] [Accepted: 03/28/2024] [Indexed: 04/28/2024] Open
Abstract
This study assessed the suitability of the complementarity-determining region 2 (CDR2) of the nanobody (Nb) as a template for the derivation of nanobody-derived peptides (NDPs) targeting active-state β2-adrenergic receptor (β2AR) conformation. Sequences of conformationally selective Nbs favoring the agonist-occupied β2AR were initially analyzed by the informational spectrum method (ISM). The derived NDPs in complex with β2AR were subjected to protein-peptide docking, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, and metadynamics-based free-energy binding calculations. Computational analyses identified a 25-amino-acid-long CDR2-NDP of Nb71, designated P4, which exhibited the following binding free-energy for the formation of the β2AR:P4 complex (ΔG = -6.8 ± 0.8 kcal/mol or a Ki = 16.5 μM at 310 K) and mapped the β2AR:P4 amino acid interaction network. In vitro characterization showed that P4 (i) can cross the plasma membrane, (ii) reduces the maximum isoproterenol-induced cAMP level by approximately 40% and the isoproterenol potency by up to 20-fold at micromolar concentration, (iii) has a very low affinity to interact with unstimulated β2AR in the cAMP assay, and (iv) cannot reduce the efficacy and potency of the isoproterenol-mediated β2AR/β-arrestin-2 interaction in the BRET2-based recruitment assay. In summary, the CDR2-NDP, P4, binds preferentially to agonist-activated β2AR and disrupts Gαs-mediated signaling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Milan Sencanski
- Laboratory for Plant Molecular Biology, Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
- Laboratory for Bioinformatics and Computational Chemistry, Institute of Nuclear Sciences VINCA, National Institute of Serbia, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia;
| | - Sanja Glisic
- Laboratory for Bioinformatics and Computational Chemistry, Institute of Nuclear Sciences VINCA, National Institute of Serbia, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia;
| | - Valentina Kubale
- Institute of Preclinical Sciences, Veterinary Faculty, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia; (V.K.); (M.C.)
| | - Marko Cotman
- Institute of Preclinical Sciences, Veterinary Faculty, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia; (V.K.); (M.C.)
| | - Janez Mavri
- Department of Computational Biochemistry and Drug Design, National Institute of Chemistry, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia;
| | - Milka Vrecl
- Institute of Preclinical Sciences, Veterinary Faculty, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia; (V.K.); (M.C.)
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42
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Abettan A, Nguyen MH, Ladant D, Monticelli L, Chenal A. CyaA translocation across eukaryotic cell membranes. Front Mol Biosci 2024; 11:1359408. [PMID: 38584704 PMCID: PMC10995232 DOI: 10.3389/fmolb.2024.1359408] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2023] [Accepted: 01/23/2024] [Indexed: 04/09/2024] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Amiel Abettan
- Institut Pasteur, Université de Paris Cité, CNRS UMR3528, Biochemistry of Macromolecular Interactions Unit, Paris, France
- Molecular Microbiology and Structural Biochemistry Laboratory, CNRS UMR 5086, University of Lyon, IBCP, Lyon, France
| | - Minh-Ha Nguyen
- Institut Pasteur, Université de Paris Cité, CNRS UMR3528, Biochemistry of Macromolecular Interactions Unit, Paris, France
- Université de Paris Cité, Paris, France
- Institut Pasteur, Université de Paris Cité, CNRS UMR3528, Biological NMR and HDX-MS Technological Platform, Paris, France
| | - Daniel Ladant
- Institut Pasteur, Université de Paris Cité, CNRS UMR3528, Biochemistry of Macromolecular Interactions Unit, Paris, France
- Université de Paris Cité, Paris, France
| | - Luca Monticelli
- Molecular Microbiology and Structural Biochemistry Laboratory, CNRS UMR 5086, University of Lyon, IBCP, Lyon, France
- Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Lyon, France
| | - Alexandre Chenal
- Institut Pasteur, Université de Paris Cité, CNRS UMR3528, Biochemistry of Macromolecular Interactions Unit, Paris, France
- Université de Paris Cité, Paris, France
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43
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Chon NL, Lin H. Fluoride Ion Binding and Translocation in the CLC F Fluoride/Proton Antiporter: Molecular Insights from Combined Quantum-Mechanical/Molecular-Mechanical Modeling. J Phys Chem B 2024; 128:2697-2706. [PMID: 38447081 PMCID: PMC10962343 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.4c00079] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2024] [Revised: 02/15/2024] [Accepted: 02/20/2024] [Indexed: 03/08/2024]
Abstract
CLCF fluoride/proton antiporters move fluoride ions out of bacterial cells, leading to fluoride resistance in these bacteria. However, many details about their operating mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we report a combined quantum-mechanical/molecular-mechanical (QM/MM) study of a CLCF homologue from Enterococci casseliflavus (Eca), in accord with the previously proposed windmill mechanism. Our multiscale modeling sheds light on two critical steps in the transport cycle: (i) the external gating residue E118 pushing a fluoride in the external binding site into the extracellular vestibule and (ii) an incoming fluoride reconquering the external binding site by forcing out E118. Both steps feature competitions for the external binding site between the negatively charged carboxylate of E118 and the fluoride. Remarkably, the displaced E118 by fluoride accepts a proton from the nearby R117, initiating the next transport cycle. We also demonstrate the importance of accurate quantum descriptions of fluoride solvation. Our results provide clues to the mysterious E318 residue near the central binding site, suggesting that the transport activities are unlikely to be disrupted by the glutamate interacting with a well-solvated fluoride at the central binding site. This differs significantly from the structurally similar CLC chloride/proton antiporters, where a fluoride trapped deep in the hydrophobic pore causes the transporter to be locked down. A free-energy barrier of 10-15 kcal/mol was estimated via umbrella sampling for a fluoride ion traveling through the pore to repopulate the external binding site.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nara L. Chon
- Department of Chemistry, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, Colorado 80217, United States
| | - Hai Lin
- Department of Chemistry, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, Colorado 80217, United States
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Pracht P, Grimme S, Bannwarth C, Bohle F, Ehlert S, Feldmann G, Gorges J, Müller M, Neudecker T, Plett C, Spicher S, Steinbach P, Wesołowski PA, Zeller F. CREST-A program for the exploration of low-energy molecular chemical space. J Chem Phys 2024; 160:114110. [PMID: 38511658 DOI: 10.1063/5.0197592] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2024] [Accepted: 02/29/2024] [Indexed: 03/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Conformer-rotamer sampling tool (CREST) is an open-source program for the efficient and automated exploration of molecular chemical space. Originally developed in Pracht et al. [Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 22, 7169 (2020)] as an automated driver for calculations at the extended tight-binding level (xTB), it offers a variety of molecular- and metadynamics simulations, geometry optimization, and molecular structure analysis capabilities. Implemented algorithms include automated procedures for conformational sampling, explicit solvation studies, the calculation of absolute molecular entropy, and the identification of molecular protonation and deprotonation sites. Calculations are set up to run concurrently, providing efficient single-node parallelization. CREST is designed to require minimal user input and comes with an implementation of the GFNn-xTB Hamiltonians and the GFN-FF force-field. Furthermore, interfaces to any quantum chemistry and force-field software can easily be created. In this article, we present recent developments in the CREST code and show a selection of applications for the most important features of the program. An important novelty is the refactored calculation backend, which provides significant speed-up for sampling of small or medium-sized drug molecules and allows for more sophisticated setups, for example, quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics and minimum energy crossing point calculations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philipp Pracht
- Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1EW, United Kingdom
| | - Stefan Grimme
- Mulliken Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, University of Bonn, Beringstr. 4, 53115 Bonn, Germany
| | - Christoph Bannwarth
- Institute for Physical Chemistry, RWTH Aachen University, Melatener Str. 20, 52056 Aachen, Germany
| | - Fabian Bohle
- Mulliken Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, University of Bonn, Beringstr. 4, 53115 Bonn, Germany
| | - Sebastian Ehlert
- AI4Science, Microsoft Research, Evert van de Beekstraat 354, 1118 CZ Schiphol, The Netherlands
| | - Gereon Feldmann
- Institute for Physical Chemistry, RWTH Aachen University, Melatener Str. 20, 52056 Aachen, Germany
| | - Johannes Gorges
- Mulliken Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, University of Bonn, Beringstr. 4, 53115 Bonn, Germany
| | - Marcel Müller
- Mulliken Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, University of Bonn, Beringstr. 4, 53115 Bonn, Germany
| | - Tim Neudecker
- Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, University of Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany
| | - Christoph Plett
- Mulliken Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, University of Bonn, Beringstr. 4, 53115 Bonn, Germany
| | | | - Pit Steinbach
- Institute for Physical Chemistry, RWTH Aachen University, Melatener Str. 20, 52056 Aachen, Germany
| | - Patryk A Wesołowski
- Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1EW, United Kingdom
| | - Felix Zeller
- Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, University of Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany
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Wu D, Chen W. Molecular mechanisms and emerging therapies in wild-type transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy. Heart Fail Rev 2024; 29:511-521. [PMID: 38233673 PMCID: PMC10942909 DOI: 10.1007/s10741-023-10380-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/07/2023] [Indexed: 01/19/2024]
Abstract
Wild-type transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTRwt-CM) is an underrecognized cause of heart failure due to misfolded wild-type transthyretin (TTRwt) myocardial deposition. The development of wild-type TTR amyloid fibrils is a complex pathological process linked to the deterioration of homeostatic mechanisms owing to aging, plausibly implicating multiple molecular mechanisms. The components of amyloid transthyretin often include serum amyloid P, proteoglycans, and clusterin, which may play essential roles in the localization and elimination of amyloid fibrils. Oxidative stress, impaired mitochondrial function, and perturbation of intracellular calcium dynamics induced by TTR contribute to cardiac impairment. Recently, tafamidis has been the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of ATTRwt-CM. In addition, small interfering RNAs and antisense oligonucleotides for ATTR-CM are promising therapeutic approaches and are currently in phase III clinical trials. Newly emerging therapies, such as antibodies targeting amyloid, inhibitors of seed formation, and CRISPR‒Cas9 technology, are currently in the early stages of research. The development of novel therapies is based on progress in comprehending the molecular events behind amyloid cardiomyopathy. There is still a need to further advance innovative treatments, providing patients with access to alternative and effective therapies, especially for patients diagnosed at a late stage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Danni Wu
- Dept. of Cardiology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100730, China
| | - Wei Chen
- Dept. of Cardiology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100730, China.
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46
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Salvadori G, Mazzeo P, Accomasso D, Cupellini L, Mennucci B. Deciphering Photoreceptors Through Atomistic Modeling from Light Absorption to Conformational Response. J Mol Biol 2024; 436:168358. [PMID: 37944793 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2023.168358] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2023] [Revised: 10/28/2023] [Accepted: 11/02/2023] [Indexed: 11/12/2023]
Abstract
In this review, we discuss the successes and challenges of the atomistic modeling of photoreceptors. Throughout our presentation, we integrate explanations of the primary methodological approaches, ranging from quantum mechanical descriptions to classical enhanced sampling methods, all while providing illustrative examples of their practical application to specific systems. To enhance the effectiveness of our analysis, our primary focus has been directed towards the examination of applications across three distinct photoreceptors. These include an example of Blue Light-Using Flavin (BLUF) domains, a bacteriophytochrome, and the orange carotenoid protein (OCP) employed by cyanobacteria for photoprotection. Particular emphasis will be placed on the pivotal role played by the protein matrix in fine-tuning the initial photochemical event within the embedded chromophore. Furthermore, we will investigate how this localized perturbation initiates a cascade of events propagating from the binding pocket throughout the entire protein structure, thanks to the intricate network of interactions between the chromophore and the protein.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giacomo Salvadori
- Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Pisa, 56124 Pisa, Italy
| | - Patrizia Mazzeo
- Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Pisa, 56124 Pisa, Italy
| | - Davide Accomasso
- Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Pisa, 56124 Pisa, Italy
| | - Lorenzo Cupellini
- Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Pisa, 56124 Pisa, Italy
| | - Benedetta Mennucci
- Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Pisa, 56124 Pisa, Italy
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47
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Kang C, Bernaldez M, Stamatis SD, Rose JP, Sun R. Interaction between Permeation Enhancers and Lipid Bilayers. J Phys Chem B 2024; 128:1668-1679. [PMID: 38232311 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.3c06448] [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: 01/19/2024]
Abstract
Permeation enhancers (PEs) are a class of molecules that interact with the epithelial membrane and transiently increase its transcellular permeability. Although there have been few clinical trials of PE coformulated drugs, the mechanism of action of PEs remains elusive. In this paper, the interaction between two archetypes of PEs [salcaprozate sodium (SNAC) and sodium caprate (C10)] and membranes is investigated with extensive all-atom molecular dynamics simulations. The simulations show that (1) the association between the neutral PEs and membranes is favored in free energy, (2) the propensity of neutral PE aggregation is larger in aqueous solution than in lipid bilayers, (3) the equilibrium distribution of neutral PEs in membranes is fast, e.g., accessible with unbiased MD simulations, and (4) the micelle of neutral PEs formed in aqueous solution does not rupture the membranes (e.g., not forming pores or breaking up the membrane) under simulation conditions. All results combined, this study indicates that PEs insert into the membranes in an equilibrium or near equilibrium process. This study lays the foundation for future investigations of how PEs impact the free energy of permeation for small molecules.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher Kang
- Department of Chemistry, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, United States
| | - Mabel Bernaldez
- Department of Chemistry, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, United States
| | - Stephen D Stamatis
- Lilly Corporate Center, Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, Indiana 46285, United States
| | - John P Rose
- Lilly Corporate Center, Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, Indiana 46285, United States
| | - Rui Sun
- Department of Chemistry, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, United States
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48
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Arandhara M, Ramesh SG. Nuclear quantum effects in gas-phase 2-fluoroethanol. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2024; 26:6885-6902. [PMID: 38333949 DOI: 10.1039/d3cp05657k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/10/2024]
Abstract
Torsional motions along the FCCO and HOCC dihedrals lead to the five unique conformations of 2-fluoroethanol, of which the conformer that is gauche along both dihedrals has the lowest energy. In this work, we explore how nuclear quantum effects (NQEs) manifest in the structural parameters of the lowest energy conformer, in the intramolecular free energy landscape along the FCCO and HOCC dihedrals, and also in the infrared spectrum of the title molecule, through the use of path integral simulations. We have first developed a full dimensional potential energy surface using the reaction surface Hamiltonian framework. On this potential, we have carried out path integral molecular dynamics simulations at several temperatures starting from the minimum energy well to explore structural influences of NQEs including geometrical markers of the interaction between the OH and F groups. From the computed free energy landscapes, significant reduction of the torsional barrier is found at low temperature near the cis region of the dihedrals, which can be understood through the trends in the radii of gyration of the atomic ring polymers. We find that the inclusion of NQEs in the computation of infrared spectrum is important to obtain good agreement with the experimental band positions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mrinal Arandhara
- Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India.
| | - Sai G Ramesh
- Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India.
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49
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Li R, Zhou C, Singh A, Pei Y, Henkelman G, Li L. Local-environment-guided selection of atomic structures for the development of machine-learning potentials. J Chem Phys 2024; 160:074109. [PMID: 38380745 DOI: 10.1063/5.0187892] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2023] [Accepted: 01/26/2024] [Indexed: 02/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Machine learning potentials (MLPs) have attracted significant attention in computational chemistry and materials science due to their high accuracy and computational efficiency. The proper selection of atomic structures is crucial for developing reliable MLPs. Insufficient or redundant atomic structures can impede the training process and potentially result in a poor quality MLP. Here, we propose a local-environment-guided screening algorithm for efficient dataset selection in MLP development. The algorithm utilizes a local environment bank to store unique local environments of atoms. The dissimilarity between a particular local environment and those stored in the bank is evaluated using the Euclidean distance. A new structure is selected only if its local environment is significantly different from those already present in the bank. Consequently, the bank is then updated with all the new local environments found in the selected structure. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm, we applied it to select structures for a Ge system and a Pd13H2 particle system. The algorithm reduced the training data size by around 80% for both without compromising the performance of the MLP models. We verified that the results were independent of the selection and ordering of the initial structures. We also compared the performance of our method with the farthest point sampling algorithm, and the results show that our algorithm is superior in both robustness and computational efficiency. Furthermore, the generated local environment bank can be continuously updated and can potentially serve as a growing database of feature local environments, aiding in efficient dataset maintenance for constructing accurate MLPs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renzhe Li
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Micro/Nano-Porous Functional Materials (SKLPM), Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, People's Republic of China
- College of Chemistry, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan 411105, Hunan Province, People's Republic of China
| | - Chuan Zhou
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Micro/Nano-Porous Functional Materials (SKLPM), Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, People's Republic of China
| | - Akksay Singh
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Micro/Nano-Porous Functional Materials (SKLPM), Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, People's Republic of China
- Department of Chemistry, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
- Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
| | - Yong Pei
- College of Chemistry, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan 411105, Hunan Province, People's Republic of China
| | - Graeme Henkelman
- Department of Chemistry, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
- Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
| | - Lei Li
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Micro/Nano-Porous Functional Materials (SKLPM), Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, People's Republic of China
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50
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Nam K, Shao Y, Major DT, Wolf-Watz M. Perspectives on Computational Enzyme Modeling: From Mechanisms to Design and Drug Development. ACS OMEGA 2024; 9:7393-7412. [PMID: 38405524 PMCID: PMC10883025 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.3c09084] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2023] [Revised: 01/15/2024] [Accepted: 01/19/2024] [Indexed: 02/27/2024]
Abstract
Understanding enzyme mechanisms is essential for unraveling the complex molecular machinery of life. In this review, we survey the field of computational enzymology, highlighting key principles governing enzyme mechanisms and discussing ongoing challenges and promising advances. Over the years, computer simulations have become indispensable in the study of enzyme mechanisms, with the integration of experimental and computational exploration now established as a holistic approach to gain deep insights into enzymatic catalysis. Numerous studies have demonstrated the power of computer simulations in characterizing reaction pathways, transition states, substrate selectivity, product distribution, and dynamic conformational changes for various enzymes. Nevertheless, significant challenges remain in investigating the mechanisms of complex multistep reactions, large-scale conformational changes, and allosteric regulation. Beyond mechanistic studies, computational enzyme modeling has emerged as an essential tool for computer-aided enzyme design and the rational discovery of covalent drugs for targeted therapies. Overall, enzyme design/engineering and covalent drug development can greatly benefit from our understanding of the detailed mechanisms of enzymes, such as protein dynamics, entropy contributions, and allostery, as revealed by computational studies. Such a convergence of different research approaches is expected to continue, creating synergies in enzyme research. This review, by outlining the ever-expanding field of enzyme research, aims to provide guidance for future research directions and facilitate new developments in this important and evolving field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kwangho Nam
- Department
of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University
of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas 76019, United States
| | - Yihan Shao
- Department
of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University
of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma 73019-5251, United States
| | - Dan T. Major
- Department
of Chemistry and Institute for Nanotechnology & Advanced Materials, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel
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