Peptide models 5. Topological features of molecular mechanics and ab initio 4D-Ramachandran maps

Peptide models. XXXIII. Extrapolation of low-level Hartree-Fock data of peptide conformation to large basis set SCF, MP2, DFT, and CCSD(T) results. The Ramachandran surface of alanine dipeptide computed at various levels of theory

At the dawn of the new millenium, new concepts are required for a more profound understanding of protein structures. Together with NMR and X-ray-based 3D-structure determinations in silico methods are now widely accepted. Homology-based modeling studies, molecular dynamics methods, and quantum mechanical approaches are more commonly used. Despite the steady and exponential increase in computational power, high level ab initio methods will not be in common use for studying the structure and dynamics of large peptides and proteins in the near future. We are presenting here a novel approach, in which low- and medium-level ab initio energy results are scaled, thus extrapolating to a higher level of information. This scaling is of special significance, because we observed previously on molecular properties such as energy, chemical shielding data, etc., determined at a higher theoretical level, do correlate better with experimental data, than those originating from lower theoretical treatments. The Ramachandran surface of an alanine dipeptide now determined at six different levels of theory [RHF and B3LYP 3-21G, 6-31+G(d) and 6-311++G(d,p)] serves as a suitable test. Minima, first-order critical points and partially optimized structures, determined at different levels of theory (SCF, DFT), were completed with high level energy calculations such as MP2, MP4D, and CCSD(T). For the first time three different CCSD(T) sets of energies were determined for all stable B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) minima of an alanine dipeptide. From the simplest ab initio data (e.g., RHF/3-21G) to more complex results [CCSD(T)/6-311+G(d,p)//B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p)] all data sets were compared, analyzed in a comprehensive manner, and evaluated by means of statistics.

Article

The ab initio conformational energy minima of the model tripeptide N-formyl-L-alanyl-L-alanine amide (ALA-ALA) were determined by ab initio RHF/4-21G and RHF/6-31G* gradient geometry refinement. For the current investigation, 11 664 RHF/4-21G structures were optimized, representing grid points in the four-dimensional (phi1, psi1, phi2, psi2) conformational space, which were constructed in 40° increments along the outer torsions phi1 and psi2 and in 30° increments along the inner torsions psi1 and phi2 of ALA-ALA. Two new energy minima, previously not reported, are described. The positions of the RHF/6-31G* energy minima in phi,psi-space can differ significantly from the corresponding RHF/4-21G locations, and both sets are not clustered in the centers but on the fringes of the most populated regions of phi, psi-space in protein crystal structures. Thus, the torsion angles of the ab initio energy minima are not those of the typical substructures of proteins: the most stable helices are not alphaR, and the torsion angles of the most stable bend forms are not those most frequently encountered in protein bends. Limitations of the dipeptide approximation are explored, illustrating how the conformational energies of an amino acid residue depend on the state of its neighbor.Key words: alanyl alanine amide, dipeptide approximation, model tripeptide, peptide models, structure of peptides.

Secondary structural elements as a basis for antibody recognition in the immunodominant region of human immunodeficiency viruses 1 and 2

Synthetic peptide antigens corresponding to the entire third variable region V3, the principal neutralizing determinant of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) envelope glycoprotein of HIV-1 subtype B (1), HIV-2 subtype A (5), and HIV-2 subtype B (7) were synthesized by solid-phase peptide synthesis (Table 1). 1 and 5 were also prepared as their GlcNAc-glycosylated forms at the natural N-glycosylation site NXT (positions 6-8; peptides 4 and 6). Additionally, the proposed beta-turn region of 1 (GPGR; positions 15-18) was altered by introducing D-Ala17 (2) and D-Pro16 (3). All compounds have been studied by two-dimensional NMR techniques. Interproton distances and 3JNH/H alpha coupling constants derived from NMR data are used as restraints in distance geometry and ENSEMBLE-Distance and angle-bound driven dynamics calculations. The stimulations led to disordered conformations except for a high propensity of a beta II-turn in the region GPXR (positions 15-18) in 1, 2, and 4. In 3 (G-D-ProGR, positions 15-18), a type beta I'-turn was mainly found instead. For peptide 7, the consensus sequence of HIV-2 subtype B, a type beta II-turn was also found although the primary structure (VSGL; positions 15-18) differs grossly from the HIV-1 peptide 1. With the exception of 2, all beta II-turns were able to form a canonically opened beta-turn by a 180 degree rotation of phi(G17). Surprisingly, compounds 5 and 6 that are highly similar to 7 showed no beta II-type turn within MSGL (positions 15-18). They form a type beta VIII-turn across the tetrapeptide SGLV (positions 16-19) together with a non-canonical turn conformation across LMSG (positions 14-17) leading to an S-conformation. The reaction of the peptides with HIV-positive sera from patients infected with different subtypes of HIV-1 and HIV-2 was tested in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA reactions). No HIV-2 sera reacted peptide 1 and no HIV-1 sera showed reactivity to peptide 5. We propose that certain amino acid exchanges within the V3 domain lead to altered conformations of the V3 loop resulting in antibodies that show altered binding properties to the peptide antigens used in the ELISA reactions.

Peptide models XI. Substitution effects on peptide chains. The magnitude of side-chain–backbone interactions in oligopeptides HCO-(NHCHRCO)n-NH2 for R=CH3. An ab initio study

The stabilization effect of the Me group with respect to H has been determined for peptides of the type HCO-(NH-CHR-CO)n-NH2 for 1 ≤ n ≤ 3. It was found that for the Me group the stabilization energy was in the vicinity of 5.4 kcal/mol. The site of substitution had no appreciable effect on the stabilization energy. The stabilization energy for monomethyl substitution (R=CH3) ranged from 5.21 to 5.60 kcal/mol. For dimethyl substitution the values were between 10.53 and 10.81 kcal/mol, and for trimethyl substitution it was 15.99 kcal/mol. Keywords: stabilization effects of substituents, oligopeptide conformations, ab initio study on HCO-(NHCHRCO)n-NH2.