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Franco Machado J, Sá M, Pires I, da Silva MT, Marques F, Coelho JAS, Mendes F, Piedade MFM, Machuqueiro M, Jiménez MA, Garcia MH, Correia JDG, Morais TS. Dual FGFR-targeting and pH-activatable ruthenium-peptide conjugates for targeted therapy of breast cancer. Dalton Trans 2024; 53:7682-7693. [PMID: 38573236 DOI: 10.1039/d4dt00497c] [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: 04/05/2024]
Abstract
Dysregulation of Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptors (FGFRs) signaling has been associated with breast cancer, yet employing FGFR-targeted delivery systems to improve the efficacy of cytotoxic agents is still sparsely exploited. Herein, we report four new bi-functional ruthenium-peptide conjugates (RuPCs) with FGFR-targeting and pH-dependent releasing abilities, envisioning the selective delivery of cytotoxic Ru complexes to FGFR(+)-breast cancer cells, and controlled activation at the acidic tumoral microenvironment. The antiproliferative potential of the RuPCs and free Ru complexes was evaluated in four breast cancer cell lines with different FGFR expression levels (SKBR-3, MDA-MB-134-VI, MCF-7, and MDA-MB-231) and in human dermal fibroblasts (HDF), at pH 6.8 and pH 7.4 aimed at mimicking the tumor microenvironment and normal tissues/bloodstream pHs, respectively. The RuPCs showed higher cytotoxicity in cells with higher level of FGFR expression at acidic pH. Additionally, RuPCs showed up to 6-fold higher activity in the FGFR(+) breast cancer lines compared to the normal cell line. The release profile of Ru complexes from RuPCs corroborates the antiproliferative effects observed. Remarkably, the cytotoxicity and releasing ability of RuPCs were shown to be strongly dependent on the conjugation of the peptide position in the Ru complex. Complementary molecular dynamic simulations and computational calculations were performed to help interpret these findings at the molecular level. In summary, we identified a lead bi-functional RuPC that holds strong potential as a FGFR-targeted chemotherapeutic agent.
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Affiliation(s)
- João Franco Machado
- Centro de Química Estrutural, Institute of Molecular Sciences, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal.
- Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias Nucleares, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Estrada Nacional 10 (km 139, 7), 2695-066 Bobadela LRS, Portugal.
| | - Marco Sá
- Centro de Química Estrutural, Institute of Molecular Sciences, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal.
| | - Inês Pires
- BioISI - Biosystems & Integrative Sciences Institute, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Miguel Tarita da Silva
- Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias Nucleares, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Estrada Nacional 10 (km 139, 7), 2695-066 Bobadela LRS, Portugal.
| | - Fernanda Marques
- Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias Nucleares, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Estrada Nacional 10 (km 139, 7), 2695-066 Bobadela LRS, Portugal.
- Departamento de Engenharia e Ciências Nucleares, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Estrada Nacional 10 (km 139, 7), 2695-066 Bobadela LRS, Portugal
| | - Jaime A S Coelho
- Centro de Química Estrutural, Institute of Molecular Sciences, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal.
| | - Filipa Mendes
- Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias Nucleares, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Estrada Nacional 10 (km 139, 7), 2695-066 Bobadela LRS, Portugal.
- Departamento de Engenharia e Ciências Nucleares, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Estrada Nacional 10 (km 139, 7), 2695-066 Bobadela LRS, Portugal
| | - M Fátima M Piedade
- Departamento de Química e Bioquímica, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
- Centro de Química Estrutural, Institute of Molecular Sciences, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Miguel Machuqueiro
- BioISI - Biosystems & Integrative Sciences Institute, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
- Departamento de Química e Bioquímica, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
| | - María Angeles Jiménez
- Institute of Physical Chemistry Blas Cabreras (IQF-CSIC), Serrano 119, E-28006 Madrid, Spain
| | - Maria Helena Garcia
- Centro de Química Estrutural, Institute of Molecular Sciences, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal.
- Departamento de Química e Bioquímica, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
| | - João D G Correia
- Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias Nucleares, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Estrada Nacional 10 (km 139, 7), 2695-066 Bobadela LRS, Portugal.
- Departamento de Engenharia e Ciências Nucleares, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Estrada Nacional 10 (km 139, 7), 2695-066 Bobadela LRS, Portugal
| | - Tânia S Morais
- Centro de Química Estrutural, Institute of Molecular Sciences, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal.
- Departamento de Química e Bioquímica, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
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Rodrigues FEP, Darbre T, Machuqueiro M. High Charge Density in Peptide Dendrimers is Required to Destabilize Membranes: Insights into Endosome Evasion. J Chem Inf Model 2024; 64:3430-3442. [PMID: 38588472 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.4c00018] [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: 04/10/2024]
Abstract
Peptide dendrimers are a type of branched, symmetric, and topologically well-defined molecule that have already been used as delivery systems for nucleic acid transfection. Several of the most promising sequences showed high efficiency in many key steps of transfection, namely, binding siRNA, entering cells, and evading the endosome. However, small changes to the peptide dendrimers, such as in the hydrophobic core, the amino acid chirality, or the total available charges, led to significantly different experimental results with unclear mechanistic insights. In this work, we built a computational model of several of those peptide dendrimers (MH18, MH13, and MH47) and some of their variants to study the molecular details of the structure and function of these molecules. We performed CpHMD simulations in the aqueous phase and in interaction with a lipid bilayer to assess how conformation and protonation are affected by pH in different environments. We found that while the different peptide dendrimer sequences lead to no substantial structural differences in the aqueous phase, the total charge and, more importantly, the total charge density are key for the capacity of the dendrimer to interact and destabilize the membrane. These dendrimers become highly charged when the pH changes from 7.5 to 4.5, and the presence of a high charge density, which is decreased for MH47 that has four fewer titratable lysines, is essential to trigger membrane destabilization. These findings are in excellent agreement with the experimental data and help us to understand the high efficiency of some dendrimers and why the dendrimer MH47 is unable to complete the transfection process. This evidence provides further understanding of the mode of action of these peptide dendrimers and will be pivotal for the future design of new sequences with improved transfection capabilities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Filipe E P Rodrigues
- BioISI─Instituto de Biossistemas e Ciências Integrativas Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa 1749-016, Portugal
| | - Tamis Darbre
- Department of Chemistry Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Bern, Bern 3012, Switzerland
| | - Miguel Machuqueiro
- BioISI─Instituto de Biossistemas e Ciências Integrativas Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa 1749-016, Portugal
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Srivastava D, Patra N. Enhanced Uptake of Anticancer C6-Pep Dimer in a Model Membrane Caused by Differential p Ka in Acidic Microenvironment. J Phys Chem B 2023; 127:9747-9758. [PMID: 37776281 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.3c04217] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/02/2023]
Abstract
Acidic tumor microenvironment (TME) presents a challenge for the action of antitumor drugs by acting as an additional barrier for the passive crossing of the cell membrane by chemotherapic agents playing a critical role in the proliferation of tumor cells. Anticancer lipopeptide C6-Pep dimer containing the leucine zipper motif shows an increased uptake into the model tumor membrane in TME, and application of external heat might lead to the uncoiling of the zipper, which could result in cell lysis. This work investigated the cause of this increased uptake of C6-Pep dimer into the bilayer model in TME. Accurate protonation states of all the titratable residues of the C6-Pep dimer in TME were determined using constant pH molecular dynamics. In TME, except for two terminal Glu5 residues, all other Glu residues in the C6-Pep dimer were permanently protonated. The remaining Glu5 residues had differential pKa values, leading to the construction of four possible dimers with different fixed protonation states, and molecular dynamics was used to study their interaction with the anionic bilayer. Except for the dimer at a physiological pH, the other dimers were positively charged and could readily adsorb on the membrane surface. The free energy of insertion of these dimers in the bilayer was lower for single and double protonated Glu5-containing dimers than for the others. After the insertion of the lipopeptides into the membrane, thinning of the bilayer in the vicinity of dimers and an increase in area per lipid of the bilayer were observed for all systems, indicating destabilization of the bilayer due to this intercalation. This study shows that the anticancer lipopeptide C6-Pep utilizes the TME around a tumor cell for insertion into the membrane.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diship Srivastava
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Indian Institute of Technology (ISM) Dhanbad, Dhanbad 826004, India
| | - Niladri Patra
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Indian Institute of Technology (ISM) Dhanbad, Dhanbad 826004, India
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Gomes AM, Costa PJ, Machuqueiro M. Recent advances on molecular dynamics-based techniques to address drug membrane permeability with atomistic detail. BBA ADVANCES 2023; 4:100099. [PMID: 37675199 PMCID: PMC10477461 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbadva.2023.100099] [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: 04/18/2023] [Revised: 06/13/2023] [Accepted: 08/10/2023] [Indexed: 09/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Several factors affect the passive membrane permeation of small molecules, including size, charge, pH, or the presence of specific chemical groups. Understanding these features is paramount to identifying or designing drug candidates with optimal ADMET properties and this can be achieved through experimental/knowledge-based methodologies or using computational approaches. Empirical methods often lack detailed information about the underlying molecular mechanism. In contrast, Molecular Dynamics-based approaches are a powerful strategy, providing an atomistic description of this process. This technique is continuously growing, featuring new related methodologies. In this work, the recent advances in this research area will be discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- André M.M. Gomes
- BioISI - Instituto de Biossistemas e Ciências Integrativas, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, 1749-016, Portugal
- Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Paulo J. Costa
- BioISI - Instituto de Biossistemas e Ciências Integrativas, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, 1749-016, Portugal
- Departamento de Química e Bioquímica, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Miguel Machuqueiro
- BioISI - Instituto de Biossistemas e Ciências Integrativas, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, 1749-016, Portugal
- Departamento de Química e Bioquímica, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal
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Ancona N, Bastola A, Alexov E. PKAD-2: New entries and expansion of functionalities of the database of experimentally measured pKa's of proteins. JOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL BIOPHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY 2023; 22:515-524. [PMID: 37520074 PMCID: PMC10373500 DOI: 10.1142/s2737416523500230] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/01/2023]
Abstract
Almost all biological reactions are pH dependent and understanding the origin of pH dependence requires knowledge of the pKa's of ionizable groups. Here we report a new edition of PKAD, the PKAD-2, which is a database of experimentally measured pKa's of proteins, both wild type and mutant proteins. The new additions include 117 wild type and 54 mutant pKa values, resulting in total 1742 experimentally measured pKa's. The new edition of PKAD-2 includes 8 new wild type and 12 new mutant proteins, resulting in total of 220 proteins. This new edition incorporates a visual 3D image of the highlighted residue of interest within the corresponding protein or protein complex. Hydrogen bonds were identified, counted, and implemented as a search feature. Other new search features include the number of neighboring residues <4A from the heaviest atom of the side chain of a given amino acid. Here, we present PKAD-2 with the intention to continuously incorporate novel features and current data with the goal to be used as benchmark for computational methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicolas Ancona
- Department of Biological Sciences, College of Science, Clemson University, 105 Sikes Hall, Address, Clemson, SC 29634, United States of America
| | - Ananta Bastola
- School of Computing, College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences, Clemson University, 105 Sikes Hall, SC 29634, United States of America
| | - Emil Alexov
- Department of Physics, College of Science, Clemson University, 105 Sikes Hall, Address, Clemson, SC 29634, United States of America
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Xue M, Cao Y, Shen C, Guo W. Computational Advances of Protein/Neurotransmitter-membrane Interactions Involved in Vesicle Fusion and Neurotransmitter Release. J Mol Biol 2023; 435:167818. [PMID: 36089056 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2022.167818] [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: 05/31/2022] [Revised: 08/22/2022] [Accepted: 09/04/2022] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
Vesicle fusion is of crucial importance to neuronal communication at neuron terminals. The exquisite but complex fusion machinery for neurotransmitter release is tightly controlled and regulated by protein/neurotransmitter-membrane interactions. Computational 'microscopies', in particular molecular dynamics simulations and related techniques, have provided notable insight into the physiological process over the past decades, and have made enormous contributions to fields such as neurology, pharmacology and pathophysiology. Here we review the computational advances of protein/neurotransmitter-membrane interactions related to presynaptic vesicle-membrane fusion and neurotransmitter release, and outline the in silico challenges ahead for understanding this important physiological process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Minmin Xue
- Key Laboratory for Intelligent Nano Materials and Devices of Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, and Institute for Frontier Science, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China
| | - Yuwei Cao
- State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Chun Shen
- Key Laboratory for Intelligent Nano Materials and Devices of Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, and Institute for Frontier Science, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China.
| | - Wanlin Guo
- Key Laboratory for Intelligent Nano Materials and Devices of Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, and Institute for Frontier Science, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China; State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
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Silva TD, Vila-Viçosa D, Machuqueiro M. Increasing the Realism of in Silico pHLIP Peptide Models with a Novel pH Gradient CpHMD Method. J Chem Theory Comput 2022; 18:6472-6481. [PMID: 36257921 PMCID: PMC9775217 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.2c00880] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
The pH-low insertion peptides (pHLIP) are pH-dependent membrane inserting peptides, whose function depends on the cell microenvironment acidity. Several peptide variants have been designed to improve upon the wt-sequence, particularly the state transition kinetics and the selectivity for tumor pH. The variant 3 (Var3) peptide is a 27 residue long peptide, with a key titrating residue (Asp-13) that, despite showing a modest performance in liposomes (pKins ∼ 5.0), excelled in tumor cell experiments. To help rationalize these results, we focused on the pH gradient in the cell membrane, which is one of the crucial properties that are not present in liposomes. We extended our CpHMD-L method and its pH replica-exchange (pHRE) implementation to include a pH gradient and mimic the pHLIP-membrane microenvironment in a cell where the internal pH is fixed (pH 7.2) and the external pH is allowed to change. We showed that, by properly modeling the pH-gradient, we can correctly predict the experimentally observed loss and gain of performance in tumor cells experiments by the wt and Var3 sequences, respectively. In sum, the pH gradient implementation allowed for more accurate and realistic pKa estimations and was a pivotal step in bridging the in silico data and the in vivo cell experiments.
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Borges PT, Silva D, Silva TF, Brissos V, Cañellas M, Lucas MF, Masgrau L, Melo EP, Machuqueiro M, Frazão C, Martins LO. Unveiling molecular details behind improved activity at neutral to alkaline pH of an engineered DyP-type peroxidase. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2022; 20:3899-3910. [PMID: 35950185 PMCID: PMC9334217 DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2022.07.032] [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: 05/31/2022] [Revised: 07/18/2022] [Accepted: 07/18/2022] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
DyP-type peroxidases (DyPs) are microbial enzymes that catalyze the oxidation of a wide range of substrates, including synthetic dyes, lignin-derived compounds, and metals, such as Mn2+ and Fe2+, and have enormous biotechnological potential in biorefineries. However, many questions on the molecular basis of enzyme function and stability remain unanswered. In this work, high-resolution structures of PpDyP wild-type and two engineered variants (6E10 and 29E4) generated by directed evolution were obtained. The X-ray crystal structures revealed the typical ferredoxin-like folds, with three heme access pathways, two tunnels, and one cavity, limited by three long loops including catalytic residues. Variant 6E10 displays significantly increased loops' flexibility that favors function over stability: despite the considerably higher catalytic efficiency, this variant shows poorer protein stability compared to wild-type and 29E4 variants. Constant-pH MD simulations revealed a more positively charged microenvironment near the heme pocket of variant 6E10, particularly in the neutral to alkaline pH range. This microenvironment affects enzyme activity by modulating the pK a of essential residues in the heme vicinity and should account for variant 6E10 improved activity at pH 7-8 compared to the wild-type and 29E4 that show optimal enzymatic activity close to pH 4. Our findings shed light on the structure-function relationships of DyPs at the molecular level, including their pH-dependent conformational plasticity. These are essential for understanding and engineering the catalytic properties of DyPs for future biotechnological applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patrícia T. Borges
- Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Av. da República, 2780-157 Oeiras, Portugal
| | - Diogo Silva
- Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Av. da República, 2780-157 Oeiras, Portugal
| | - Tomás F.D. Silva
- BioISI – Biosystems & Integrative Sciences Institute, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Vânia Brissos
- Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Av. da República, 2780-157 Oeiras, Portugal
| | - Marina Cañellas
- Zymvol Biomodeling, Carrer Roc Boronat, 117, 08018 Barcelona, Spain
| | | | - Laura Masgrau
- Zymvol Biomodeling, Carrer Roc Boronat, 117, 08018 Barcelona, Spain,Department of Chemistry, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
| | - Eduardo P. Melo
- Centro de Ciências do Mar, Universidade do Algarve, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal
| | - Miguel Machuqueiro
- BioISI – Biosystems & Integrative Sciences Institute, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Carlos Frazão
- Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Av. da República, 2780-157 Oeiras, Portugal
| | - Lígia O. Martins
- Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Av. da República, 2780-157 Oeiras, Portugal,Corresponding author.
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Magalhães P, Reis PBPS, Vila-Viçosa D, Machuqueiro M, Victor BL. Optimization of an in Silico Protocol Using Probe Permeabilities to Identify Membrane Pan-Assay Interference Compounds. J Chem Inf Model 2022; 62:3034-3042. [PMID: 35697029 PMCID: PMC9770580 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.2c00372] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Membrane pan-assay interference compounds (PAINS) are a class of molecules that interact nonspecifically with lipid bilayers and alter their physicochemical properties. An early identification of these compounds avoids chasing false leads and the needless waste of time and resources in drug discovery campaigns. In this work, we optimized an in silico protocol on the basis of umbrella sampling (US)/molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to discriminate between compounds with different membrane PAINS behavior. We showed that the method is quite sensitive to membrane thickness fluctuations, which was mitigated by changing the US reference position to the phosphate atoms of the closest interacting monolayer. The computational efficiency was improved further by decreasing the number of umbrellas and adjusting their strength and position in our US scheme. The inhomogeneous solubility-diffusion model (ISDM) used to calculate the membrane permeability coefficients confirmed that resveratrol and curcumin have distinct membrane PAINS characteristics and indicated a misclassification of nothofagin in a previous work. Overall, we have presented here a promising in silico protocol that can be adopted as a future reference method to identify membrane PAINS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pedro
R. Magalhães
- BioISI
- Biosystems & Integrative Sciences Institute, Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisboa, Campo Grande, C8 bdg, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Pedro B. P. S. Reis
- BioISI
- Biosystems & Integrative Sciences Institute, Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisboa, Campo Grande, C8 bdg, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Diogo Vila-Viçosa
- BioISI
- Biosystems & Integrative Sciences Institute, Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisboa, Campo Grande, C8 bdg, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Miguel Machuqueiro
- BioISI
- Biosystems & Integrative Sciences Institute, Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisboa, Campo Grande, C8 bdg, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal,. Phone: +351-21-7500112
| | - Bruno L. Victor
- BioISI
- Biosystems & Integrative Sciences Institute, Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisboa, Campo Grande, C8 bdg, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal,. Phone: +351-21-7500000
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Oliveira NF, Machuqueiro M. Novel US-CpHMD Protocol to Study the Protonation-Dependent Mechanism of the ATP/ADP Carrier. J Chem Inf Model 2022; 62:2550-2560. [PMID: 35442654 PMCID: PMC9775199 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.2c00233] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
We have designed a protocol combining constant-pH molecular dynamics (CpHMD) simulations with an umbrella sampling (US) scheme (US-CpHMD) to study the mechanism of ADP/ATP transport (import and export) by their inner mitochondrial membrane carrier protein [ADP/ATP carrier (AAC)]. The US scheme helped overcome the limitations of sampling the slow kinetics involved in these substrates' transport, while CpHMD simulations provided an unprecedented realism by correctly capturing the associated protonation changes. The import of anionic substrates along the mitochondrial membrane has a strong energetic disadvantage due to a smaller substrate concentration and an unfavorable membrane potential. These limitations may have created an evolutionary pressure on AAC to develop specific features benefiting the import of ADP. In our work, the potential of mean force profiles showed a clear selectivity in the import of ADP compared to ATP, while in the export, no selectivity was observed. We also observed that AAC sequestered both substrates at longer distances in the import compared to the export process. Furthermore, only in the import process do we observe transient protonation of both substrates when going through the AAC cavity, which is an important advantage to counteract the unfavorable mitochondrial membrane potential. Finally, we observed a substrate-induced disruption of the matrix salt-bridge network, which can promote the conformational transition (from the C- to M-state) required to complete the import process. This work unraveled several important structural features where the complex electrostatic interactions were pivotal to interpreting the protein function and illustrated the potential of applying the US-CpHMD protocol to other transport processes involving membrane proteins.
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Network Biology and Artificial Intelligence Drive the Understanding of the Multidrug Resistance Phenotype in Cancer. Drug Resist Updat 2022; 60:100811. [DOI: 10.1016/j.drup.2022.100811] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/29/2021] [Revised: 01/22/2022] [Accepted: 01/24/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
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