1
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Woods CJ, Hedges LO, Mulholland AJ, Malaisree M, Tosco P, Loeffler HH, Suruzhon M, Burman M, Bariami S, Bosisio S, Calabro G, Clark F, Mey ASJS, Michel J. Sire: An interoperability engine for prototyping algorithms and exchanging information between molecular simulation programs. J Chem Phys 2024; 160:202503. [PMID: 38814008 DOI: 10.1063/5.0200458] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2024] [Accepted: 04/29/2024] [Indexed: 05/31/2024] Open
Abstract
Sire is a Python/C++ library that is used both to prototype new algorithms and as an interoperability engine for exchanging information between molecular simulation programs. It provides a collection of file parsers and information converters that together make it easier to combine and leverage the functionality of many other programs and libraries. This empowers researchers to use sire to write a single script that can, for example, load a molecule from a PDBx/mmCIF file via Gemmi, perform SMARTS searches via RDKit, parameterize molecules using BioSimSpace, run GPU-accelerated molecular dynamics via OpenMM, and then display the resulting dynamics trajectory in a NGLView Jupyter notebook 3D molecular viewer. This functionality is built on by BioSimSpace, which uses sire's molecular information engine to interconvert with programs such as GROMACS, NAMD, Amber, and AmberTools for automated molecular parameterization and the running of molecular dynamics, metadynamics, and alchemical free energy workflows. Sire comes complete with a powerful molecular information search engine, plus trajectory loading and editing, analysis, and energy evaluation engines. This, when combined with an in-built computer algebra system, gives substantial flexibility to researchers to load, search for, edit, and combine molecular information from multiple sources and use that to drive novel algorithms by combining functionality from other programs. Sire is open source (GPL3) and is available via conda and at a free Jupyter notebook server at https://try.openbiosim.org. Sire is supported by the not-for-profit OpenBioSim community interest company.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher J Woods
- Advanced Computing Research Centre, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
- Centre for Computational Chemistry, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
- OpenBioSim Community Interest Company, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Lester O Hedges
- Advanced Computing Research Centre, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
- OpenBioSim Community Interest Company, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Adrian J Mulholland
- Centre for Computational Chemistry, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Maturos Malaisree
- Centre for Computational Chemistry, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | | | | | | | - Matthew Burman
- OpenBioSim Community Interest Company, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Sofia Bariami
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Stefano Bosisio
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Gaetano Calabro
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Finlay Clark
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Antonia S J S Mey
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Julien Michel
- OpenBioSim Community Interest Company, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
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2
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Herz AM, Kellici T, Morao I, Michel J. Alchemical Free Energy Workflows for the Computation of Protein-Ligand Binding Affinities. Methods Mol Biol 2024; 2716:241-264. [PMID: 37702943 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-3449-3_11] [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] [Indexed: 09/14/2023]
Abstract
Alchemical free energy methods can be used for the efficient computation of relative binding free energies during preclinical drug discovery stages. In recent years, this has been facilitated further by the implementation of workflows that enable non-experts to quickly and consistently set up the required simulations. Given the correct input structures, workflows handle the difficult aspects of setting up perturbations, including consistently defining the perturbable molecule, its atom mapping and topology generation, perturbation network generation, running of the simulations via different sampling methods, and analysis of the results. Different academic and commercial workflows are discussed, including FEW, FESetup, FEPrepare, CHARMM-GUI, Transformato, PMX, QLigFEP, TIES, ProFESSA, PyAutoFEP, BioSimSpace, FEP+, Flare, and Orion. These workflows differ in various aspects, such as mapping algorithms or enhanced sampling methods. Some workflows can accommodate more than one molecular dynamics (MD) engine and use external libraries for tasks. Differences between workflows can present advantages for different use cases, however a lack of interoperability of the workflows' components hinders systematic comparisons.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna M Herz
- EaStChem School of Chemistry, Joseph Black Building, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Tahsin Kellici
- Evotec (UK) Ltd., In Silico Research and Development, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, UK
- Merck & Co., Inc., Modelling and Informatics, West Point, PA, USA
| | - Inaki Morao
- Evotec (UK) Ltd., In Silico Research and Development, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, UK
| | - Julien Michel
- EaStChem School of Chemistry, Joseph Black Building, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
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3
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Clark F, Robb G, Cole DJ, Michel J. Comparison of Receptor-Ligand Restraint Schemes for Alchemical Absolute Binding Free Energy Calculations. J Chem Theory Comput 2023; 19:3686-3704. [PMID: 37285579 PMCID: PMC10308817 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.3c00139] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2023] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Alchemical absolute binding free energy calculations are of increasing interest in drug discovery. These calculations require restraints between the receptor and ligand to restrict their relative positions and, optionally, orientations. Boresch restraints are commonly used, but they must be carefully selected in order to sufficiently restrain the ligand and to avoid inherent instabilities. Applying multiple distance restraints between anchor points in the receptor and ligand provides an alternative framework without inherent instabilities which may provide convergence benefits by more strongly restricting the relative movements of the receptor and ligand. However, there is no simple method to calculate the free energy of releasing these restraints due to the coupling of the internal and external degrees of freedom of the receptor and ligand. Here, a method to rigorously calculate free energies of binding with multiple distance restraints by imposing intramolecular restraints on the anchor points is proposed. Absolute binding free energies for the human macrophage migration inhibitory factor/MIF180, system obtained using a variety of Boresch restraints and rigorous and nonrigorous implementations of multiple distance restraints are compared. It is shown that several multiple distance restraint schemes produce estimates in good agreement with Boresch restraints. In contrast, calculations without orientational restraints produce erroneously favorable free energies of binding by up to approximately 4 kcal mol-1. These approaches offer new options for the deployment of alchemical absolute binding free energy calculations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Finlay Clark
- EaStCHEM
School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FJ, United Kingdom
| | - Graeme Robb
- Oncology
R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge CB4 0WG, United Kingdom
| | - Daniel J. Cole
- School
of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle
University, Newcastle
upon Tyne NE1 7RU, United Kingdom
| | - Julien Michel
- EaStCHEM
School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FJ, United Kingdom
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4
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Bieniek MK, Cree B, Pirie R, Horton JT, Tatum NJ, Cole DJ. An open-source molecular builder and free energy preparation workflow. Commun Chem 2022; 5:136. [PMID: 36320862 PMCID: PMC9607723 DOI: 10.1038/s42004-022-00754-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2022] [Accepted: 10/11/2022] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Automated free energy calculations for the prediction of binding free energies of congeneric series of ligands to a protein target are growing in popularity, but building reliable initial binding poses for the ligands is challenging. Here, we introduce the open-source FEgrow workflow for building user-defined congeneric series of ligands in protein binding pockets for input to free energy calculations. For a given ligand core and receptor structure, FEgrow enumerates and optimises the bioactive conformations of the grown functional group(s), making use of hybrid machine learning/molecular mechanics potential energy functions where possible. Low energy structures are optionally scored using the gnina convolutional neural network scoring function, and output for more rigorous protein-ligand binding free energy predictions. We illustrate use of the workflow by building and scoring binding poses for ten congeneric series of ligands bound to targets from a standard, high quality dataset of protein-ligand complexes. Furthermore, we build a set of 13 inhibitors of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease from the literature, and use free energy calculations to retrospectively compute their relative binding free energies. FEgrow is freely available at https://github.com/cole-group/FEgrow, along with a tutorial.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mateusz K. Bieniek
- School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU UK
| | - Ben Cree
- School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU UK
| | - Rachael Pirie
- School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU UK
| | - Joshua T. Horton
- School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU UK
| | - Natalie J. Tatum
- Newcastle University Centre for Cancer, Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH UK
| | - Daniel J. Cole
- School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU UK
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5
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SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV Spike Protein Binding Studies Support Stable Mimic of Bound 9- O-Acetylated Sialic Acids. Molecules 2022; 27:molecules27165322. [PMID: 36014560 PMCID: PMC9415320 DOI: 10.3390/molecules27165322] [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: 07/29/2022] [Revised: 08/13/2022] [Accepted: 08/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Many disease-causing viruses target sialic acids (Sias), a class of nine-carbon sugars known to coat the surface of many cells, including those in the lungs. Human beta coronaviridae, known for causing respiratory tract diseases, often bind Sias, and some preferentially bind to those with 9-O-Ac-modification. Currently, co-binding of SARS-CoV-2, a beta coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, to human Sias has been reported and its preference towards α2-3-linked Neu5Ac has been shown. Nevertheless, O-acetylated Sias-protein binding studies are difficult to perform, due to the ester lability. We studied the binding free energy differences between Neu5,9Ac2α2-3GalβpNP and its more stable 9-NAc mimic binding to SARS-CoV-2 spike protein using molecular dynamics and alchemical free energy simulations. We identified multiple Sia-binding pockets, including two novel sites, with similar binding affinities to those of MERS-CoV, a known co-binder of sialic acid. In our binding poses, 9-NAc and 9-OAc Sias bind similarly, suggesting an experimentally reasonable mimic to probe viral mechanisms.
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6
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Nelson L, Bariami S, Ringrose C, Horton JT, Kurdekar V, Mey ASJS, Michel J, Cole DJ. Implementation of the QUBE Force Field in SOMD for High-Throughput Alchemical Free-Energy Calculations. J Chem Inf Model 2021; 61:2124-2130. [PMID: 33886305 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.1c00328] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The quantum mechanical bespoke (QUBE) force-field approach has been developed to facilitate the automated derivation of potential energy function parameters for modeling protein-ligand binding. To date, the approach has been validated in the context of Monte Carlo simulations of protein-ligand complexes. We describe here the implementation of the QUBE force field in the alchemical free-energy calculation molecular dynamics simulation package SOMD. The implementation is validated by demonstrating the reproducibility of absolute hydration free energies computed with the QUBE force field across the SOMD and GROMACS software packages. We further demonstrate, by way of a case study involving two series of non-nucleoside inhibitors of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase, that the availability of QUBE in a modern simulation package that makes efficient use of graphics processing unit acceleration will facilitate high-throughput alchemical free-energy calculations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lauren Nelson
- School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, United Kingdom
| | - Sofia Bariami
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FJ, United Kingdom
| | - Chris Ringrose
- School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, United Kingdom
| | - Joshua T Horton
- School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, United Kingdom
| | - Vadiraj Kurdekar
- School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, United Kingdom
| | - Antonia S J S Mey
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FJ, United Kingdom
| | - Julien Michel
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FJ, United Kingdom
| | - Daniel J Cole
- School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, United Kingdom
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7
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Scheen J, Wu W, Mey ASJS, Tosco P, Mackey M, Michel J. Hybrid Alchemical Free Energy/Machine-Learning Methodology for the Computation of Hydration Free Energies. J Chem Inf Model 2020; 60:5331-5339. [PMID: 32639733 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.0c00600] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
A methodology that combines alchemical free energy calculations (FEP) with machine learning (ML) has been developed to compute accurate absolute hydration free energies. The hybrid FEP/ML methodology was trained on a subset of the FreeSolv database and retrospectively shown to outperform most submissions from the SAMPL4 competition. Compared to pure machine-learning approaches, FEP/ML yields more precise estimates of free energies of hydration and requires a fraction of the training set size to outperform standalone FEP calculations. The ML-derived correction terms are further shown to be transferable to a range of related FEP simulation protocols. The approach may be used to inexpensively improve the accuracy of FEP calculations and to flag molecules which will benefit the most from bespoke force field parametrization efforts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jenke Scheen
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FJ, United Kingdom
| | - Wilson Wu
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FJ, United Kingdom
| | - Antonia S J S Mey
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FJ, United Kingdom
| | - Paolo Tosco
- Cresset Group, New Cambridge House, Bassingbourn Road, Litlington, Cambridgeshire SG8 0SS, United Kingdom
| | - Mark Mackey
- Cresset Group, New Cambridge House, Bassingbourn Road, Litlington, Cambridgeshire SG8 0SS, United Kingdom
| | - Julien Michel
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FJ, United Kingdom
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8
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Kuhn M, Firth-Clark S, Tosco P, Mey ASJS, Mackey M, Michel J. Assessment of Binding Affinity via Alchemical Free-Energy Calculations. J Chem Inf Model 2020; 60:3120-3130. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.0c00165] [Citation(s) in RCA: 60] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Maximilian Kuhn
- Cresset, New Cambridge House, Bassingbourn Road, Litlington SG8 0SS, Cambridgeshire, U.K
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FJ, U.K
| | - Stuart Firth-Clark
- Cresset, New Cambridge House, Bassingbourn Road, Litlington SG8 0SS, Cambridgeshire, U.K
| | - Paolo Tosco
- Cresset, New Cambridge House, Bassingbourn Road, Litlington SG8 0SS, Cambridgeshire, U.K
| | - Antonia S. J. S. Mey
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FJ, U.K
| | - Mark Mackey
- Cresset, New Cambridge House, Bassingbourn Road, Litlington SG8 0SS, Cambridgeshire, U.K
| | - Julien Michel
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FJ, U.K
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9
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Parks CD, Gaieb Z, Chiu M, Yang H, Shao C, Walters WP, Jansen JM, McGaughey G, Lewis RA, Bembenek SD, Ameriks MK, Mirzadegan T, Burley SK, Amaro RE, Gilson MK. D3R grand challenge 4: blind prediction of protein-ligand poses, affinity rankings, and relative binding free energies. J Comput Aided Mol Des 2020; 34:99-119. [PMID: 31974851 PMCID: PMC7261493 DOI: 10.1007/s10822-020-00289-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 60] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2019] [Accepted: 01/13/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
The Drug Design Data Resource (D3R) aims to identify best practice methods for computer aided drug design through blinded ligand pose prediction and affinity challenges. Herein, we report on the results of Grand Challenge 4 (GC4). GC4 focused on proteins beta secretase 1 and Cathepsin S, and was run in an analogous manner to prior challenges. In Stage 1, participant ability to predict the pose and affinity of BACE1 ligands were assessed. Following the completion of Stage 1, all BACE1 co-crystal structures were released, and Stage 2 tested affinity rankings with co-crystal structures. We provide an analysis of the results and discuss insights into determined best practice methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Conor D Parks
- Drug Design Data Resource, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Zied Gaieb
- Drug Design Data Resource, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Michael Chiu
- Drug Design Data Resource, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Huanwang Yang
- RCSB Protein Data Bank, Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, 08903, USA
- San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Chenghua Shao
- RCSB Protein Data Bank, Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, 08903, USA
- San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | | | - Johanna M Jansen
- Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Emeryville, CA, 94608, USA
| | | | - Richard A Lewis
- Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Novartis Pharma AG, 4002, Basel, Switzerland
| | | | | | | | - Stephen K Burley
- RCSB Protein Data Bank, Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, 08903, USA
- San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Rommie E Amaro
- Drug Design Data Resource, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA.
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093-0340, USA.
| | - Michael K Gilson
- Drug Design Data Resource, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA.
- Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, UC San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, MC0751, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA.
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10
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Mey ASJS, Allen BK, Macdonald HEB, Chodera JD, Hahn DF, Kuhn M, Michel J, Mobley DL, Naden LN, Prasad S, Rizzi A, Scheen J, Shirts MR, Tresadern G, Xu H. Best Practices for Alchemical Free Energy Calculations [Article v1.0]. LIVING JOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL MOLECULAR SCIENCE 2020; 2:18378. [PMID: 34458687 PMCID: PMC8388617 DOI: 10.33011/livecoms.2.1.18378] [Citation(s) in RCA: 114] [Impact Index Per Article: 28.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Abstract
Alchemical free energy calculations are a useful tool for predicting free energy differences associated with the transfer of molecules from one environment to another. The hallmark of these methods is the use of "bridging" potential energy functions representing alchemical intermediate states that cannot exist as real chemical species. The data collected from these bridging alchemical thermodynamic states allows the efficient computation of transfer free energies (or differences in transfer free energies) with orders of magnitude less simulation time than simulating the transfer process directly. While these methods are highly flexible, care must be taken in avoiding common pitfalls to ensure that computed free energy differences can be robust and reproducible for the chosen force field, and that appropriate corrections are included to permit direct comparison with experimental data. In this paper, we review current best practices for several popular application domains of alchemical free energy calculations performed with equilibrium simulations, in particular relative and absolute small molecule binding free energy calculations to biomolecular targets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonia S. J. S. Mey
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, David Brewster Road, Joseph Black Building, The King’s Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3FJ, UK
| | | | - Hannah E. Bruce Macdonald
- Computational and Systems Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York NY, USA
| | - John D. Chodera
- Computational and Systems Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York NY, USA
| | - David F. Hahn
- Computational Chemistry, Janssen Research & Development, Turnhoutseweg 30, Beerse B-2340, Belgium
| | - Maximilian Kuhn
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, David Brewster Road, Joseph Black Building, The King’s Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3FJ, UK
- Cresset, Cambridgeshire, UK
| | - Julien Michel
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, David Brewster Road, Joseph Black Building, The King’s Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3FJ, UK
| | - David L. Mobley
- Departments of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, USA
| | - Levi N. Naden
- Molecular Sciences Software Institute, Blacksburg VA, USA
| | | | - Andrea Rizzi
- Silicon Therapeutics, Boston, MA, USA
- Tri-Institutional Training Program in Computational Biology and Medicine, New York, NY, USA
| | - Jenke Scheen
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, David Brewster Road, Joseph Black Building, The King’s Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3FJ, UK
| | | | - Gary Tresadern
- Computational Chemistry, Janssen Research & Development, Turnhoutseweg 30, Beerse B-2340, Belgium
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11
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Herr JE, Koh K, Yao K, Parkhill J. Compressing physics with an autoencoder: Creating an atomic species representation to improve machine learning models in the chemical sciences. J Chem Phys 2019; 151:084103. [DOI: 10.1063/1.5108803] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- John E. Herr
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The University of Notre Dame du Lac, 251 Nieuwland Science Hall, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, USA
| | - Kevin Koh
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The University of Notre Dame du Lac, 251 Nieuwland Science Hall, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, USA
| | - Kun Yao
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The University of Notre Dame du Lac, 251 Nieuwland Science Hall, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, USA
| | - John Parkhill
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The University of Notre Dame du Lac, 251 Nieuwland Science Hall, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, USA
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12
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Application of ESMACS binding free energy protocols to diverse datasets: Bromodomain-containing protein 4. Sci Rep 2019; 9:6017. [PMID: 30979914 PMCID: PMC6461631 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-41758-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2018] [Accepted: 03/08/2019] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
As the application of computational methods in drug discovery pipelines becomes more widespread it is increasingly important to understand how reproducible their results are and how sensitive they are to choices made in simulation setup and analysis. Here we use ensemble simulation protocols, termed ESMACS (enhanced sampling of molecular dynamics with approximation of continuum solvent), to investigate the sensitivity of the popular molecular mechanics Poisson-Boltzmann surface area (MMPBSA) methodology. Using the bromodomain-containing protein 4 (BRD4) system bound to a diverse set of ligands as our target, we show that robust rankings can be produced only through combining ensemble sampling with multiple trajectories and enhanced solvation via an explicit ligand hydration shell.
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13
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Granadino-Roldán JM, Mey ASJS, Pérez González JJ, Bosisio S, Rubio-Martinez J, Michel J. Effect of set up protocols on the accuracy of alchemical free energy calculation over a set of ACK1 inhibitors. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0213217. [PMID: 30861030 PMCID: PMC6413950 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213217] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2018] [Accepted: 02/15/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Hit-to-lead virtual screening frequently relies on a cascade of computational methods that starts with rapid calculations applied to a large number of compounds and ends with more expensive computations restricted to a subset of compounds that passed initial filters. This work focuses on set up protocols for alchemical free energy (AFE) scoring in the context of a Docking–MM/PBSA–AFE cascade. A dataset of 15 congeneric inhibitors of the ACK1 protein was used to evaluate the performance of AFE set up protocols that varied in the steps taken to prepare input files (using previously docked and best scored poses, manual selection of poses, manual placement of binding site water molecules). The main finding is that use of knowledge derived from X-ray structures to model binding modes, together with the manual placement of a bridging water molecule, improves the R2 from 0.45 ± 0.06 to 0.76 ± 0.02 and decreases the mean unsigned error from 2.11 ± 0.08 to 1.24 ± 0.04 kcal mol-1. By contrast a brute force automated protocol that increased the sampling time ten-fold lead to little improvements in accuracy. Besides, it is shown that for the present dataset hysteresis can be used to flag poses that need further attention even without prior knowledge of experimental binding affinities.
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Affiliation(s)
- José M. Granadino-Roldán
- Departamento de Química Física, Facultad de Ciencias Experimentales, Universidad de Jaén, Campus “Las Lagunillas” s/n, Jaén, Spain
- * E-mail: (JMG); (JM)
| | | | - Juan J. Pérez González
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Stefano Bosisio
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, Joseph Black Building, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Jaime Rubio-Martinez
- Departament de Química Física, Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and the Institut de Recerca en Quimica Teorica i Computacional (IQTCUB), Martí i Franqués 1, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Julien Michel
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, Joseph Black Building, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- * E-mail: (JMG); (JM)
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De Simone A, Georgiou C, Ioannidis H, Gupta AA, Juárez-Jiménez J, Doughty-Shenton D, Blackburn EA, Wear MA, Richards JP, Barlow PN, Carragher N, Walkinshaw MD, Hulme AN, Michel J. A computationally designed binding mode flip leads to a novel class of potent tri-vector cyclophilin inhibitors. Chem Sci 2019; 10:542-547. [PMID: 30746096 PMCID: PMC6335623 DOI: 10.1039/c8sc03831g] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2018] [Accepted: 10/14/2018] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Cyclophilins (Cyps) are a major family of drug targets that are challenging to prosecute with small molecules because the shallow nature and high degree of conservation of the active site across human isoforms offers limited opportunities for potent and selective inhibition. Herein a computational approach based on molecular dynamics simulations and free energy calculations was combined with biophysical assays and X-ray crystallography to explore a flip in the binding mode of a reported urea-based Cyp inhibitor. This approach enabled access to a distal pocket that is poorly conserved among key Cyp isoforms, and led to the discovery of a new family of sub-micromolar cell-active inhibitors that offer unprecedented opportunities for the development of next-generation drug therapies based on Cyp inhibition. The computational approach is applicable to a broad range of organic functional groups and could prove widely enabling in molecular design.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alessio De Simone
- University of Edinburgh , Joseph Black Building, King's Buildings, David Brewster Road , Edinburgh , Scotland EH9 3FJ , UK .
| | - Charis Georgiou
- University of Edinburgh , Joseph Black Building, King's Buildings, David Brewster Road , Edinburgh , Scotland EH9 3FJ , UK .
| | - Harris Ioannidis
- University of Edinburgh , Joseph Black Building, King's Buildings, David Brewster Road , Edinburgh , Scotland EH9 3FJ , UK .
| | - Arun A Gupta
- University of Edinburgh , Joseph Black Building, King's Buildings, David Brewster Road , Edinburgh , Scotland EH9 3FJ , UK .
| | - Jordi Juárez-Jiménez
- University of Edinburgh , Joseph Black Building, King's Buildings, David Brewster Road , Edinburgh , Scotland EH9 3FJ , UK .
| | - Dahlia Doughty-Shenton
- Edinburgh Phenotypic Assay Centre , University of Edinburgh , Queen's Medical Research Institute , Little France Cres , Edinburgh , Scotland EH16 4TJ , UK
| | - Elizabeth A Blackburn
- The Edinburgh Protein Production Facility (EPPF) , University of Edinburgh , Level 3 Michael Swann Building, King's Buildings, Max Born Crescent , Edinburgh , Scotland EH9 3BF , UK
| | - Martin A Wear
- The Edinburgh Protein Production Facility (EPPF) , University of Edinburgh , Level 3 Michael Swann Building, King's Buildings, Max Born Crescent , Edinburgh , Scotland EH9 3BF , UK
| | - Jonathan P Richards
- University of Edinburgh , Joseph Black Building, King's Buildings, David Brewster Road , Edinburgh , Scotland EH9 3FJ , UK .
| | - Paul N Barlow
- University of Edinburgh , Joseph Black Building, King's Buildings, David Brewster Road , Edinburgh , Scotland EH9 3FJ , UK .
| | - Neil Carragher
- Cancer Research UK Edinburgh Centre , University of Edinburgh , MRC Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine , Crewe Road South , Edinburgh , Scotland EH4 2XR , UK
| | - Malcolm D Walkinshaw
- University of Edinburgh , Michael Swann Building, Max Born Crescent , Edinburgh , Scotland EH9 3BF , UK
| | - Alison N Hulme
- University of Edinburgh , Joseph Black Building, King's Buildings, David Brewster Road , Edinburgh , Scotland EH9 3FJ , UK .
| | - Julien Michel
- University of Edinburgh , Joseph Black Building, King's Buildings, David Brewster Road , Edinburgh , Scotland EH9 3FJ , UK .
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15
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Papadourakis M, Bosisio S, Michel J. Blinded predictions of standard binding free energies: lessons learned from the SAMPL6 challenge. J Comput Aided Mol Des 2018; 32:1047-1058. [PMID: 30159717 DOI: 10.1007/s10822-018-0154-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2018] [Accepted: 08/24/2018] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
In the context of the SAMPL6 challenges, series of blinded predictions of standard binding free energies were made with the SOMD software for a dataset of 27 host-guest systems featuring two octa-acids hosts (OA and TEMOA) and a cucurbituril ring (CB8) host. Three different models were used, ModelA computes the free energy of binding based on a double annihilation technique; ModelB additionally takes into account long-range dispersion and standard state corrections; ModelC additionally introduces an empirical correction term derived from a regression analysis of SAMPL5 predictions previously made with SOMD. The performance of each model was evaluated with two different setups; buffer explicitly matches the ionic strength from the binding assays, whereas no-buffer merely neutralizes the host-guest net charge with counter-ions. ModelC/no-buffer shows the lowest mean-unsigned error for the overall dataset (MUE 1.29 < 1.39 < 1.50 kcal mol-1, 95% CI), while explicit modelling of the buffer improves significantly results for the CB8 host only. Correlation with experimental data ranges from excellent for the host TEMOA (R2 0.91 < 0.94 < 0.96), to poor for CB8 (R2 0.04 < 0.12 < 0.23). Further investigations indicate a pronounced dependence of the binding free energies on the modelled ionic strength, and variable reproducibility of the binding free energies between different simulation packages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michail Papadourakis
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, Joseph Black Building, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3FJ, UK
| | - Stefano Bosisio
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, Joseph Black Building, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3FJ, UK
| | - Julien Michel
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, Joseph Black Building, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3FJ, UK.
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16
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Mey ASJS, Jiménez JJ, Michel J. Impact of domain knowledge on blinded predictions of binding energies by alchemical free energy calculations. J Comput Aided Mol Des 2018; 32:199-210. [PMID: 29134431 PMCID: PMC5767197 DOI: 10.1007/s10822-017-0083-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2017] [Accepted: 11/03/2017] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
The Drug Design Data Resource (D3R) consortium organises blinded challenges to address the latest advances in computational methods for ligand pose prediction, affinity ranking, and free energy calculations. Within the context of the second D3R Grand Challenge several blinded binding free energies predictions were made for two congeneric series of Farsenoid X Receptor (FXR) inhibitors with a semi-automated alchemical free energy calculation workflow featuring FESetup and SOMD software tools. Reasonable performance was observed in retrospective analyses of literature datasets. Nevertheless, blinded predictions on the full D3R datasets were poor due to difficulties encountered with the ranking of compounds that vary in their net-charge. Performance increased for predictions that were restricted to subsets of compounds carrying the same net-charge. Disclosure of X-ray crystallography derived binding modes maintained or improved the correlation with experiment in a subsequent rounds of predictions. The best performing protocols on D3R set1 and set2 were comparable or superior to predictions made on the basis of analysis of literature structure activity relationships (SAR)s only, and comparable or slightly inferior, to the best submissions from other groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonia S J S Mey
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3FJ, UK
| | - Jordi Juárez Jiménez
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3FJ, UK
| | - Julien Michel
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3FJ, UK.
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17
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Wagner V, Jantz L, Briem H, Sommer K, Rarey M, Christ CD. Computational Macrocyclization: From de novo Macrocycle Generation to Binding Affinity Estimation. ChemMedChem 2017; 12:1866-1872. [PMID: 28977738 PMCID: PMC5725703 DOI: 10.1002/cmdc.201700478] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2017] [Revised: 09/26/2017] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Macrocycles play an increasing role in drug discovery, but their synthesis is often demanding. Computational tools that suggest macrocyclization based on a known binding mode and that estimate the binding affinity of these macrocycles could have a substantial impact on the medicinal chemistry design process. For both tasks, we established a workflow with high practical value. For five diverse pharmaceutical targets we show that the effect of macrocyclization on binding can be calculated robustly and accurately. Applying this method to macrocycles designed by LigMac, a search tool for de novo macrocyclization, our results suggest that we have a robust protocol in hand to design macrocycles and prioritize them prior to synthesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vincent Wagner
- Bayer AG, Drug Discovery, Medicinal Chemistry13353BerlinGermany
| | - Linda Jantz
- Universität HamburgZBH-Center for Bioinformatics20146HamburgGermany
| | - Hans Briem
- Bayer AG, Drug Discovery, Medicinal Chemistry13353BerlinGermany
| | - Kai Sommer
- Universität HamburgZBH-Center for Bioinformatics20146HamburgGermany
| | - Matthias Rarey
- Universität HamburgZBH-Center for Bioinformatics20146HamburgGermany
| | - Clara D. Christ
- Bayer AG, Drug Discovery, Medicinal Chemistry13353BerlinGermany
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