1
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Ruiz-Pernía JJ, Świderek K, Bertran J, Moliner V, Tuñón I. Electrostatics as a Guiding Principle in Understanding and Designing Enzymes. J Chem Theory Comput 2024; 20:1783-1795. [PMID: 38410913 PMCID: PMC10938506 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.3c01395] [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: 12/21/2023] [Revised: 02/14/2024] [Accepted: 02/14/2024] [Indexed: 02/28/2024]
Abstract
Enzyme design faces challenges related to the implementation of the basic principles that govern the catalytic activity in natural enzymes. In this work, we revisit basic electrostatic concepts that have been shown to explain the origin of enzymatic efficiency like preorganization and reorganization. Using magnitudes such as the electrostatic potential and the electric field generated by the protein, we explain how these concepts work in different enzymes and how they can be used to rationalize the consequences of point mutations. We also discuss examples of protein design in which electrostatic effects have been implemented. For the near future, molecular simulations, coupled with the use of machine learning methods, can be used to implement electrostatics as a guiding principle for enzyme designs.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Katarzyna Świderek
- Biocomp
group, Institute of Advanced Materials (INAM), Universitat Jaume I, 12071 Castellón Spain
| | - Joan Bertran
- Departament
de Química, Universitat Autònoma
de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
| | - Vicent Moliner
- Biocomp
group, Institute of Advanced Materials (INAM), Universitat Jaume I, 12071 Castellón Spain
| | - Iñaki Tuñón
- Departament
de Química Física, Universitat
de València, 46100 Burjassot, Spain
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2
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Giese TJ, Ekesan Ş, McCarthy E, Tao Y, York DM. Surface-Accelerated String Method for Locating Minimum Free Energy Paths. J Chem Theory Comput 2024; 20:2058-2073. [PMID: 38367218 PMCID: PMC11059188 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.3c01401] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/19/2024]
Abstract
We present a surface-accelerated string method (SASM) to efficiently optimize low-dimensional reaction pathways from the sampling performed with expensive quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) Hamiltonians. The SASM accelerates the convergence of the path using the aggregate sampling obtained from the current and previous string iterations, whereas approaches like the string method in collective variables (SMCV) or the modified string method in collective variables (MSMCV) update the path only from the sampling obtained from the current iteration. Furthermore, the SASM decouples the number of images used to perform sampling from the number of synthetic images used to represent the path. The path is optimized on the current best estimate of the free energy surface obtained from all available sampling, and the proposed set of new simulations is not restricted to being located along the optimized path. Instead, the umbrella potential placement is chosen to extend the range of the free energy surface and improve the quality of the free energy estimates near the path. In this manner, the SASM is shown to improve the exploration for a minimum free energy pathway in regions where the free energy surface is relatively flat. Furthermore, it improves the quality of the free energy profile when the string is discretized with too few images. We compare the SASM, SMCV, and MSMCV using 3 QM/MM applications: a ribozyme methyltransferase reaction using 2 reaction coordinates, the 2'-O-transphosphorylation reaction of Hammerhead ribozyme using 3 reaction coordinates, and a tautomeric reaction in B-DNA using 5 reaction coordinates. We show that SASM converges the paths using roughly 3 times less sampling than the SMCV and MSMCV methods. All three algorithms have been implemented in the FE-ToolKit package made freely available.
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Affiliation(s)
- Timothy J. Giese
- Laboratory for Biomolecular Simulation Research, Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine and Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
| | - Şölen Ekesan
- Laboratory for Biomolecular Simulation Research, Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine and Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
| | - Erika McCarthy
- Laboratory for Biomolecular Simulation Research, Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine and Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
| | - Yujun Tao
- Laboratory for Biomolecular Simulation Research, Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine and Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
| | - Darrin M. York
- Laboratory for Biomolecular Simulation Research, Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine and Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
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3
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Siddiqui SA, Stuyver T, Shaik S, Dubey KD. Designed Local Electric Fields-Promising Tools for Enzyme Engineering. JACS AU 2023; 3:3259-3269. [PMID: 38155642 PMCID: PMC10752214 DOI: 10.1021/jacsau.3c00536] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2023] [Revised: 10/11/2023] [Accepted: 10/12/2023] [Indexed: 12/30/2023]
Abstract
Designing efficient catalysts is one of the ultimate goals of chemists. In this Perspective, we discuss how local electric fields (LEFs) can be exploited to improve the catalytic performance of supramolecular catalysts, such as enzymes. More specifically, this Perspective starts by laying out the fundamentals of how local electric fields affect chemical reactivity and review the computational tools available to study electric fields in various settings. Subsequently, the advances made so far in optimizing enzymatic electric fields through targeted mutations are discussed critically and concisely. The Perspective ends with an outlook on some anticipated evolutions of the field in the near future. Among others, we offer some pointers on how the recent data science/machine learning revolution, engulfing all science disciplines, could potentially provide robust and principled tools to facilitate rapid inference of electric field effects, as well as the translation between optimal electrostatic environments and corresponding chemical modifications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shakir Ali Siddiqui
- Molecular Simulation Lab, Department of Chemistry,
School of Natural Sciences, Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence,
Delhi NCR, India 201314
| | - Thijs Stuyver
- Ecole Nationale Supérieure de
Chimie de Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, Institute of Chemistry for Life and Health
Sciences, 75 005 Paris, France
| | - Sason Shaik
- Institute of Chemistry, Edmond J Safra Campus,
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Givat Ram, Jerusalem,
9190400, Israel
| | - Kshatresh Dutta Dubey
- Molecular Simulation Lab, Department of Chemistry,
School of Natural Sciences, Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence,
Delhi NCR, India 201314
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4
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Chen J, Qiu Z, Huang J. Structure and Dynamics of Confined Water Inside Diphenylalanine Peptide Nanotubes. ACS OMEGA 2023; 8:42936-42950. [PMID: 38024738 PMCID: PMC10652825 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.3c06071] [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: 08/16/2023] [Revised: 09/22/2023] [Accepted: 10/19/2023] [Indexed: 12/01/2023]
Abstract
Diphenylalanine (FF) peptides exhibit a unique ability to self-assemble into nanotubes with confined water molecules playing pivotal roles in their structure and function. This study investigates the structure and dynamics of diphenylalanine peptide nanotubes (FFPNTs) using all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) and grand canonical Monte Carlo combined with MD (GCMC/MD) simulations with both the CHARMM additive and Drude polarizable force fields. The occupancy and dynamics of confined water molecules were also examined. It was found that less than 2 confined water molecules per FF help stabilize the FFPNTs on the x-y plane. Analyses of the kinetics of confined water molecules revealed distinctive transport behaviors for bound and free water, and their respective diffusion coefficients were compared. Our results validate the importance of polarizable force field models in studying peptide nanotubes and provide insights into our understanding of nanoconfined water.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jinfeng Chen
- College
of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310027, China
- Key
Laboratory of Structural Biology of Zhejiang Province, School of Life
Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310024, China
- Westlake
AI Therapeutics Lab, Westlake Laboratory
of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310024, China
| | - Zongyang Qiu
- Key
Laboratory of Structural Biology of Zhejiang Province, School of Life
Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310024, China
- Westlake
AI Therapeutics Lab, Westlake Laboratory
of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310024, China
| | - Jing Huang
- Key
Laboratory of Structural Biology of Zhejiang Province, School of Life
Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310024, China
- Westlake
AI Therapeutics Lab, Westlake Laboratory
of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310024, China
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5
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Clemente CM, Capece L, Martí MA. Best Practices on QM/MM Simulations of Biological Systems. J Chem Inf Model 2023; 63:2609-2627. [PMID: 37100031 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.2c01522] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/28/2023]
Abstract
During the second half of the 20th century, following structural biology hallmark works on DNA and proteins, biochemists shifted their questions from "what does this molecule look like?" to "how does this process work?". Prompted by the theoretical and practical developments in computational chemistry, this led to the emergence of biomolecular simulations and, along with the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, to the development of hybrid QM/MM methods. QM/MM methods are necessary whenever the problem we want to address involves chemical reactivity and/or a change in the system's electronic structure, with archetypal examples being the studies of an enzyme's reaction mechanism and a metalloprotein's active site. In the last decades QM/MM methods have seen an increasing adoption driven by their incorporation in widely used biomolecular simulation software. However, properly setting up a QM/MM simulation is not an easy task, and several issues need to be properly addressed to obtain meaningful results. In the present work, we describe both the theoretical concepts and practical issues that need to be considered when performing QM/MM simulations. We start with a brief historical perspective on the development of these methods and describe when and why QM/MM methods are mandatory. Then we show how to properly select and analyze the performance of the QM level of theory, the QM system size, and the position and type of the boundaries. We show the relevance of performing prior QM model system (or QM cluster) calculations in a vacuum and how to use the corresponding results to adequately calibrate those derived from QM/MM. We also discuss how to prepare the starting structure and how to select an adequate simulation strategy, including those based on geometry optimizations as well as free energy methods. In particular, we focus on the determination of free energy profiles using multiple steered molecular dynamics (MSMD) combined with Jarzynski's equation. Finally, we describe the results for two illustrative and complementary examples: the reaction performed by chorismate mutase and the study of ligand binding to hemoglobins. Overall, we provide many practical recommendations (or shortcuts) together with important conceptualizations that we hope will encourage more and more researchers to incorporate QM/MM studies into their research projects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Camila M Clemente
- Departamento de Química Biológica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires (FCEyN-UBA) e Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (IQUIBICEN) CONICET, Pabellón 2 de Ciudad Universitaria, Ciudad de Buenos Aires C1428EHA, Argentina
| | - Luciana Capece
- Departamento de Química Inorgánica Analítica y Química Física, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires (FCEyN-UBA) e Instituto de Química de los Materiales, Ambiente y Energía (INQUIMAE) CONICET, Pabellòn 2 de Ciudad Universitaria, Ciudad de Buenos Aires C1428EHA, Argentina
| | - Marcelo A Martí
- Departamento de Química Biológica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires (FCEyN-UBA) e Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (IQUIBICEN) CONICET, Pabellón 2 de Ciudad Universitaria, Ciudad de Buenos Aires C1428EHA, Argentina
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6
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Toldo JM, do Casal MT, Ventura E, do Monte SA, Barbatti M. Surface hopping modeling of charge and energy transfer in active environments. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2023; 25:8293-8316. [PMID: 36916738 PMCID: PMC10034598 DOI: 10.1039/d3cp00247k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/05/2023]
Abstract
An active environment is any atomic or molecular system changing a chromophore's nonadiabatic dynamics compared to the isolated molecule. The action of the environment on the chromophore occurs by changing the potential energy landscape and triggering new energy and charge flows unavailable in the vacuum. Surface hopping is a mixed quantum-classical approach whose extreme flexibility has made it the primary platform for implementing novel methodologies to investigate the nonadiabatic dynamics of a chromophore in active environments. This Perspective paper surveys the latest developments in the field, focusing on charge and energy transfer processes.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Elizete Ventura
- Departamento de Química, CCEN, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, 58059-900, João Pessoa, Brazil.
| | - Silmar A do Monte
- Departamento de Química, CCEN, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, 58059-900, João Pessoa, Brazil.
| | - Mario Barbatti
- Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, ICR, Marseille, France.
- Institut Universitaire de France, 75231, Paris, France
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7
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Csizi K, Reiher M. Universal
QM
/
MM
approaches for general nanoscale applications. WIRES COMPUTATIONAL MOLECULAR SCIENCE 2023. [DOI: 10.1002/wcms.1656] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Markus Reiher
- Laboratorium für Physikalische Chemie ETH Zürich Zürich Switzerland
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8
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Bondanza M, Demoulin B, Lipparini F, Barbatti M, Mennucci B. Trajectory Surface Hopping for a Polarizable Embedding QM/MM Formulation. J Phys Chem A 2022; 126:6780-6789. [PMID: 36107729 PMCID: PMC9527758 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.2c04756] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
![]()
We present the implementation of trajectory surface-hopping
nonadiabatic
dynamics for a polarizable embedding QM/MM formulation. Time-dependent
density functional theory was used at the quantum mechanical level
of theory, whereas the molecular mechanics description involved the
polarizable AMOEBA force field. This implementation has been obtained
by integrating the surface-hopping program Newton-X NS with an interface
between the Gaussian 16 and the Tinker suites of codes to calculate
QM/AMOEBA energies and forces. The implementation has been tested
on a photoinduced electron-driven proton-transfer reaction involving
pyrimidine and a hydrogen-bonded water surrounded by a small cluster
of water molecules and within a large water droplet.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mattia Bondanza
- Dipartimento di Chimica e Chimica Industriale, Università di Pisa, Via G. Moruzzi 13, 56124 Pisa, Italy
| | | | - Filippo Lipparini
- Dipartimento di Chimica e Chimica Industriale, Università di Pisa, Via G. Moruzzi 13, 56124 Pisa, Italy
| | - Mario Barbatti
- Aix Marseille University, CNRS, ICR, 13385 Marseille, France
- Institut Universitaire de France, 75231 Paris, France
| | - Benedetta Mennucci
- Dipartimento di Chimica e Chimica Industriale, Università di Pisa, Via G. Moruzzi 13, 56124 Pisa, Italy
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9
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Lier B, Poliak P, Marquetand P, Westermayr J, Oostenbrink C. BuRNN: Buffer Region Neural Network Approach for Polarizable-Embedding Neural Network/Molecular Mechanics Simulations. J Phys Chem Lett 2022; 13:3812-3818. [PMID: 35467875 PMCID: PMC9082612 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.2c00654] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2022] [Accepted: 04/18/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) simulations have advanced the field of computational chemistry tremendously. However, they require the partitioning of a system into two different regions that are treated at different levels of theory, which can cause artifacts at the interface. Furthermore, they are still limited by high computational costs of quantum chemical calculations. In this work, we develop the buffer region neural network (BuRNN), an alternative approach to existing QM/MM schemes, which introduces a buffer region that experiences full electronic polarization by the inner QM region to minimize artifacts. The interactions between the QM and the buffer region are described by deep neural networks (NNs), which leads to the high computational efficiency of this hybrid NN/MM scheme while retaining quantum chemical accuracy. We demonstrate the BuRNN approach by performing NN/MM simulations of the hexa-aqua iron complex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bettina Lier
- Institute
for Molecular Modeling and Simulation, Department of Material Sciences
and Process Engineering, University of Natural
Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Muthgasse 18, 1190 Vienna, Austria
| | - Peter Poliak
- Institute
for Molecular Modeling and Simulation, Department of Material Sciences
and Process Engineering, University of Natural
Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Muthgasse 18, 1190 Vienna, Austria
- Department
of Chemical Physics, Institute of Physical Chemistry and Chemical
Physics, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Radlinského 9, 812 37 Bratislava, Slovakia
| | - Philipp Marquetand
- Institute
of Theoretical Chemistry, University of
Vienna, Währingerstraße 17, 1090 Vienna, Austria
| | - Julia Westermayr
- Department
of Chemistry, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry CV4 7AL, U.K.
| | - Chris Oostenbrink
- Institute
for Molecular Modeling and Simulation, Department of Material Sciences
and Process Engineering, University of Natural
Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Muthgasse 18, 1190 Vienna, Austria
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10
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Salahub DR. Multiscale molecular modelling: from electronic structure to dynamics of nanosystems and beyond. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2022; 24:9051-9081. [PMID: 35389399 DOI: 10.1039/d1cp05928a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Important contemporary biological and materials problems often depend on interactions that span orders of magnitude differences in spatial and temporal dimensions. This Tutorial Review attempts to provide an introduction to such fascinating problems through a series of case studies, aimed at beginning researchers, graduate students, postdocs and more senior colleagues who are changing direction to focus on multiscale aspects of their research. The choice of specific examples is highly personal, with examples either chosen from our own work or outstanding multiscale efforts from the literature. I start with various embedding schemes, as exemplified by polarizable continuum models, 3-D RISM, molecular DFT and frozen-density embedding. Next, QM/MM (quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical) techniques are the workhorse of pm-to-nm/ps-to-ns simulations; examples are drawn from enzymes and from nanocatalysis for oil-sands upgrading. Using polarizable force-fields in the QM/MM framework represents a burgeoning subfield; with examples from ion channels and electron dynamics in molecules subject to strong external fields, probing the atto-second dynamics of the electrons with RT-TDDFT (real-time - time-dependent density functional theory) eventually coupled with nuclear motion through the Ehrenfest approximation. This is followed by a section on coarse graining, bridging dimensions from atoms to cells. The penultimate chapter gives a quick overview of multiscale approaches that extend into the meso- and macro-scales, building on atomistic and coarse-grained techniques to enter the world of materials engineering, on the one hand, and cell biology, on the other. A final chapter gives just a glimpse of the burgeoning impact of machine learning on the structure-dynamics front. I aim to capture the excitement of contemporary leading-edge breakthroughs in the description of physico-chemical systems and processes in complex environments, with only enough historical content to provide context and aid the next generation of methodological development. While I aim also for a clear description of the essence of methodological breakthroughs, equations are kept to a minimum and detailed formalism and implementation details are left to the references. My approach is very selective (case studies) rather than exhaustive. I think that these case studies should provide fodder to build as complete a reference tree on multiscale modelling as the reader may wish, through forward and backward citation analysis. I hope that my choices of cases will excite interest in newcomers and help to fuel the growth of multiscale modelling in general.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dennis R Salahub
- Department of Chemistry, Department of Physics and Astronomy, CMS-Centre for Molecular Simulation, IQST-Institute for Quantum Science and Technology, Quantum Alberta, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4, Canada.
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11
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Reinholdt P, Kongsted J, Lipparini F. Fast Approximate but Accurate QM/MM Interactions for Polarizable Embedding. J Chem Theory Comput 2021; 18:344-356. [PMID: 34951300 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.1c01037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
The coupling between the quantum (QM) and classical (MM) regions is often one of the computational bottlenecks when applying polarizable QM/MM to computational spectroscopy. In this Article, we explore three strategies to approximate the QM/MM coupling based on multipole expansion techniques. The implementations of these approximations are benchmarked in terms of both accuracy and computational efficiency and are furthermore applied to the calculation of spectroscopic properties including both one- and two-photon absorption strengths. We show that the proposed strategies provide significant computational savings without compromising the accuracy of the calculated spectroscopic properties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter Reinholdt
- Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Southern Denmark, DK-5230 Odense M, Denmark
| | - Jacob Kongsted
- Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Southern Denmark, DK-5230 Odense M, Denmark
| | - Filippo Lipparini
- Dipartimento di Chimica e Chimica Industriale, Università di Pisa, 56127 Pisa, Italy
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12
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Schlick T, Portillo-Ledesma S, Myers CG, Beljak L, Chen J, Dakhel S, Darling D, Ghosh S, Hall J, Jan M, Liang E, Saju S, Vohr M, Wu C, Xu Y, Xue E. Biomolecular Modeling and Simulation: A Prospering Multidisciplinary Field. Annu Rev Biophys 2021; 50:267-301. [PMID: 33606945 PMCID: PMC8105287 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-biophys-091720-102019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
We reassess progress in the field of biomolecular modeling and simulation, following up on our perspective published in 2011. By reviewing metrics for the field's productivity and providing examples of success, we underscore the productive phase of the field, whose short-term expectations were overestimated and long-term effects underestimated. Such successes include prediction of structures and mechanisms; generation of new insights into biomolecular activity; and thriving collaborations between modeling and experimentation, including experiments driven by modeling. We also discuss the impact of field exercises and web games on the field's progress. Overall, we note tremendous success by the biomolecular modeling community in utilization of computer power; improvement in force fields; and development and application of new algorithms, notably machine learning and artificial intelligence. The combined advances are enhancing the accuracy andscope of modeling and simulation, establishing an exemplary discipline where experiment and theory or simulations are full partners.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tamar Schlick
- Department of Chemistry, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA;
- Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, New York, New York 10012, USA
- New York University-East China Normal University Center for Computational Chemistry, New York University Shanghai, Shanghai 200122, China
| | | | - Christopher G Myers
- Department of Chemistry, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA;
| | - Lauren Beljak
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Justin Chen
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Sami Dakhel
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Daniel Darling
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Sayak Ghosh
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Joseph Hall
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Mikaeel Jan
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Emily Liang
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Sera Saju
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Mackenzie Vohr
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Chris Wu
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Yifan Xu
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Eva Xue
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
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13
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Computational investigations of allostery in aromatic amino acid biosynthetic enzymes. Biochem Soc Trans 2021; 49:415-429. [PMID: 33544132 DOI: 10.1042/bst20200741] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2020] [Revised: 01/14/2021] [Accepted: 01/15/2021] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Allostery, in which binding of ligands to remote sites causes a functional change in the active sites, is a fascinating phenomenon observed in enzymes. Allostery can occur either with or without significant conformational changes in the enzymes, and the molecular basis of its mechanism can be difficult to decipher using only experimental techniques. Computational tools for analyzing enzyme sequences, structures, and dynamics can provide insights into the allosteric mechanism at the atomic level. Combining computational and experimental methods offers a powerful strategy for the study of enzyme allostery. The aromatic amino acid biosynthesis pathway is essential in microorganisms and plants. Multiple enzymes involved in this pathway are sensitive to feedback regulation by pathway end products and are known to use allostery to control their activities. To date, four enzymes in the aromatic amino acid biosynthesis pathway have been computationally investigated for their allosteric mechanisms, including 3-deoxy-d-arabino-heptulosonate 7-phosphate synthase, anthranilate synthase, chorismate mutase, and tryptophan synthase. Here we review the computational studies and findings on the allosteric mechanisms of these four enzymes. Results from these studies demonstrate the capability of computational tools and encourage future computational investigations of allostery in other enzymes of this pathway.
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14
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Abstract
QM/MM simulations have become an indispensable tool in many chemical and biochemical investigations. Considering the tremendous degree of success, including recognition by a 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, are there still "burning challenges" in QM/MM methods, especially for biomolecular systems? In this short Perspective, we discuss several issues that we believe greatly impact the robustness and quantitative applicability of QM/MM simulations to many, if not all, biomolecules. We highlight these issues with observations and relevant advances from recent studies in our group and others in the field. Despite such limited scope, we hope the discussions are of general interest and will stimulate additional developments that help push the field forward in meaningful directions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qiang Cui
- Departments of Chemistry, Physics, and Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, United States
| | - Tanmoy Pal
- Department of Chemistry, Boston University, 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, United States
| | - Luke Xie
- Department of Chemistry, Boston University, 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, United States
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15
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Lambros E, Lipparini F, Cisneros GA, Paesani F. A Many-Body, Fully Polarizable Approach to QM/MM Simulations. J Chem Theory Comput 2020; 16:7462-7472. [PMID: 33213149 PMCID: PMC8131112 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.0c00932] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Abstract
We present a new development in quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) methods by replacing conventional MM models with data-driven many-body (MB) representations rigorously derived from high-level QM calculations. The new QM/MM approach builds on top of mutually polarizable QM/MM schemes developed for polarizable force fields with inducible dipoles and uses permutationally invariant polynomials to effectively account for quantum-mechanical contributions (e.g., exchange-repulsion and charge transfer and penetration) that are difficult to describe by classical expressions adopted by conventional MM models. Using the many-body MB-pol and MB-DFT potential energy functions for water, which include explicit two-body and three-body terms fitted to reproduce the corresponding CCSD(T) and PBE0 two-body and three-body energies for water, we demonstrate a smooth energetic transition as molecules are transferred between QM and MM regions, without the need of a transition layer. By effectively elevating the accuracy of both the MM region and the QM/MM interface to that of the QM region, the new QM/MB-MM approach achieves an accuracy comparable to that obtained with a fully QM treatment of the entire system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eleftherios Lambros
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, United States
| | - Filippo Lipparini
- Dipartimento di Chimica e Chimica Industriale, University of Pisa, via G. Moruzzi 13, 56124 Pisa, Italy
| | | | - Francesco Paesani
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, United States
- Materials Science and Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, United States
- San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, United States
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16
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Gheorghiu A, Coveney PV, Arabi AA. The influence of base pair tautomerism on single point mutations in aqueous DNA. Interface Focus 2020; 10:20190120. [PMID: 33178413 PMCID: PMC7653342 DOI: 10.1098/rsfs.2019.0120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/24/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
The relationship between base pair hydrogen bond proton transfer and the rate of spontaneous single point mutations at ambient temperatures and pressures in aqueous DNA is investigated. By using an ensemble-based multiscale computational modelling method, statistically robust rates of proton transfer for the A:T and G:C base pairs within a solvated DNA dodecamer are calculated. Several different proton transfer pathways are observed within the same base pair. It is shown that, in G:C, the double proton transfer tautomer is preferred, while the single proton transfer process is favoured in A:T. The reported range of rate coefficients for double proton transfer is consistent with recent experimental data. Notwithstanding the approximately 1000 times more common presence of single proton transfer products from A:T, observationally there is bias towards G:C to A:T mutations in a wide range of living organisms. We infer that the double proton transfer reactions between G:C base pairs have a negligible contribution towards this bias for the following reasons: (i) the maximum half-life of the G*:C* tautomer is in the range of picoseconds, which is significantly smaller than the milliseconds it takes for DNA to unwind during replication, (ii) statistically, the majority of G*:C* tautomers revert back to their canonical forms through a barrierless process, and (iii) the thermodynamic instability of the tautomers with respect to the canonical base pairs. Through similar reasoning, we also deduce that proton transfer in the A:T base pair does not contribute to single point mutations in DNA.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Gheorghiu
- Centre for Computational Science, University College London, London, UK
| | - P V Coveney
- Centre for Computational Science, University College London, London, UK.,Informatics Institute, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - A A Arabi
- Centre for Computational Science, University College London, London, UK.,College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Biochemistry Department, United Arab Emirates University, PO Box 17666, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
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17
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The Impact of Electron Correlation on Describing QM/MM Interactions in the Attendant Molecular Dynamics Simulations of CO in Myoglobin. Sci Rep 2020; 10:8539. [PMID: 32444817 PMCID: PMC7244521 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-65475-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2019] [Accepted: 05/05/2020] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
The impact of the dispersion and electron correlation effects on describing quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) interactions in QM/MM molecular dynamics (MD) simulations was explored by performing a series of up to 2 ns QM/MM MD simulations on the B states of the myoglobin-carbon monoxide (MbCO) system. The results indicate that both dispersion and electron correlations play significant roles in the simulation of the ratios of two B states (B1/B2), which suggests that the inclusion of the electron correlation effects is essential for accurately modeling the interactions between QM and MM subsystems. We found that the QM/MM interaction energies between the CO and the surroundings statistically present a linear correlation with the electric fields along the CO bond. This indicates that QM/MM interactions can be described by a simple physical model of a dipole with constant moment under the action of the electric fields. The treatment provides us with an accurate and effective approach to account for the electron correlation effects in QM/MM MD simulations.
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18
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Mehmood R, Kulik HJ. Both Configuration and QM Region Size Matter: Zinc Stability in QM/MM Models of DNA Methyltransferase. J Chem Theory Comput 2020; 16:3121-3134. [PMID: 32243149 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.0c00153] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Quantum-mechanical/molecular-mechanical (QM/MM) methods are essential to the study of metalloproteins, but the relative importance of sampling and degree of QM treatment in achieving quantitative predictions is poorly understood. We study the relative magnitude of configurational and QM-region sensitivity of energetic and electronic properties in a representative Zn2+ metal binding site of a DNA methyltransferase. To quantify property variations, we analyze snapshots extracted from 250 ns of molecular dynamics simulation. To understand the degree of QM-region sensitivity, we perform analysis using QM regions ranging from a minimal 49-atom region consisting only of the Zn2+ metal and its four coordinating Cys residues up to a 628-atom QM region that includes residues within 12 Å of the metal center. Over the configurations sampled, we observe that illustrative properties (e.g., rigid Zn2+ removal energy) exhibit large fluctuations that are well captured with even minimal QM regions. Nevertheless, for both energetic and electronic properties, we observe a slow approach to asymptotic limits with similarly large changes in absolute values that converge only with larger (ca. 300-atom) QM region sizes. For the smaller QM regions, the electronic description of Zn2+ binding is incomplete: the metal binds too tightly and is too stabilized by the strong electrostatic potential of MM point charges, and the Zn-S bond covalency is overestimated. Overall, this work suggests that efficient sampling with QM/MM in small QM regions is an effective method to explore the influence of enzyme structure on target properties. At the same time, accurate descriptions of electronic and energetic properties require a larger QM region than the minimal metal-coordinating residues in order to converge treatment of both metal-local bonding and the overall electrostatic environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rimsha Mehmood
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States.,Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Heather J Kulik
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
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19
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Inakollu VS, Geerke DP, Rowley CN, Yu H. Polarisable force fields: what do they add in biomolecular simulations? Curr Opin Struct Biol 2020; 61:182-190. [PMID: 32044671 DOI: 10.1016/j.sbi.2019.12.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2019] [Revised: 12/18/2019] [Accepted: 12/19/2019] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
The quality of biomolecular simulations critically depends on the accuracy of the force field used to calculate the potential energy of the molecular configurations. Currently, most simulations employ non-polarisable force fields, which describe electrostatic interactions as the sum of Coulombic interactions between fixed atomic charges. Polarisation of these charge distributions is incorporated only in a mean-field manner. In the past decade, extensive efforts have been devoted to developing simple, efficient, and yet generally applicable polarisable force fields for biomolecular simulations. In this review, we summarise the latest developments in accounting for key biomolecular interactions with polarisable force fields and applications to address challenging biological questions. In the end, we provide an outlook for future development in polarisable force fields.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vs Sandeep Inakollu
- School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia; Molecular Horizons, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522 Australia; Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia
| | - Daan P Geerke
- AIMMS Division of Molecular and Computational Toxicology, Department of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1108, 1081 HZ Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
| | - Christopher N Rowley
- Department of Chemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
| | - Haibo Yu
- School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia; Molecular Horizons, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522 Australia; Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia.
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20
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Ding Y, Xu Y, Qian C, Chen J, Zhu J, Huang H, Shi Y, Huang J. Predicting partition coefficients of drug-like molecules in the SAMPL6 challenge with Drude polarizable force fields. J Comput Aided Mol Des 2020; 34:421-435. [PMID: 31960252 DOI: 10.1007/s10822-020-00282-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2019] [Accepted: 01/08/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
The water-octanol partition coefficient is an important physicochemical property for small molecule drug design. Here, we report our participation in the SAMPL6 logP prediction challenge with free energy perturbation (FEP) calculations in the water phase and in the 1-octanol phase using Drude polarizable force fields. Root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) of our prediction are equal to 1.85 and 1.25 logP units. The errors are not evenly distributed. Out of eleven SAMPL6 solutes, FEP/Drude performed very badly on three molecules (deviations all larger than 2 logP units) but good on the remaining eight (deviations all less than 1 logP unit). We find while FEP converges well within one nanosecond in water, simulations in 1-octanol need much longer simulation time and possibly more independent runs for sampling. We also find out that 1-octanol, albeit being a non-polar solvent, still polarizes solute molecules and forms stable hydrogen bonds with them. At the end, we attempt to reweight FEP trajectories with QM/Drude calculations and discuss possible caveats in our simulation setup.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ye Ding
- Key Laboratory of Structural Biology of Zhejiang Province, School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, 18 Shilongshan Road, Hangzhou, 310024, Zhejiang Province, China.,Institute of Biology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, 18 Shilongshan Road, Hangzhou, 310024, Zhejiang Province, China
| | - You Xu
- Key Laboratory of Structural Biology of Zhejiang Province, School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, 18 Shilongshan Road, Hangzhou, 310024, Zhejiang Province, China.,Institute of Biology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, 18 Shilongshan Road, Hangzhou, 310024, Zhejiang Province, China
| | - Cheng Qian
- Key Laboratory of Structural Biology of Zhejiang Province, School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, 18 Shilongshan Road, Hangzhou, 310024, Zhejiang Province, China.,Institute of Biology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, 18 Shilongshan Road, Hangzhou, 310024, Zhejiang Province, China
| | - Jinfeng Chen
- Key Laboratory of Structural Biology of Zhejiang Province, School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, 18 Shilongshan Road, Hangzhou, 310024, Zhejiang Province, China.,Institute of Biology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, 18 Shilongshan Road, Hangzhou, 310024, Zhejiang Province, China
| | - Jian Zhu
- Key Laboratory of Structural Biology of Zhejiang Province, School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, 18 Shilongshan Road, Hangzhou, 310024, Zhejiang Province, China.,Institute of Biology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, 18 Shilongshan Road, Hangzhou, 310024, Zhejiang Province, China
| | - Houhou Huang
- Key Laboratory of Structural Biology of Zhejiang Province, School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, 18 Shilongshan Road, Hangzhou, 310024, Zhejiang Province, China.,Institute of Biology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, 18 Shilongshan Road, Hangzhou, 310024, Zhejiang Province, China
| | - Yi Shi
- Key Laboratory of Structural Biology of Zhejiang Province, School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, 18 Shilongshan Road, Hangzhou, 310024, Zhejiang Province, China.,Institute of Biology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, 18 Shilongshan Road, Hangzhou, 310024, Zhejiang Province, China
| | - Jing Huang
- Key Laboratory of Structural Biology of Zhejiang Province, School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, 18 Shilongshan Road, Hangzhou, 310024, Zhejiang Province, China. .,Institute of Biology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, 18 Shilongshan Road, Hangzhou, 310024, Zhejiang Province, China.
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21
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Lodola A, Callegari D, Scalvini L, Rivara S, Mor M. Design and SAR Analysis of Covalent Inhibitors Driven by Hybrid QM/MM Simulations. Methods Mol Biol 2020; 2114:307-337. [PMID: 32016901 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0282-9_19] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) hybrid technique is emerging as a reliable computational method to investigate and characterize chemical reactions occurring in enzymes. From a drug discovery perspective, a thorough understanding of enzyme catalysis appears pivotal to assist the design of inhibitors able to covalently bind one of the residues belonging to the enzyme catalytic machinery. Thanks to the current advances in computer power, and the availability of more efficient algorithms for QM-based simulations, the use of QM/MM methodology is becoming a viable option in the field of covalent inhibitor design. In the present review, we summarized our experience in the field of QM/MM simulations applied to drug design problems which involved the optimization of agents working on two well-known drug targets, namely fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). In this context, QM/MM simulations gave valuable information in terms of geometry (i.e., of transition states and metastable intermediates) and reaction energetics that allowed to correctly predict inhibitor binding orientation and substituent effect on enzyme inhibition. What is more, enzyme reaction modelling with QM/MM provided insights that were translated into the synthesis of new covalent inhibitor featured by a unique combination of intrinsic reactivity, on-target activity, and selectivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alessio Lodola
- Drug Design and Discovery Group, Department of Food and Drug, University of Parma, Parma, Italy.
| | - Donatella Callegari
- Drug Design and Discovery Group, Department of Food and Drug, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
| | - Laura Scalvini
- Drug Design and Discovery Group, Department of Food and Drug, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
| | - Silvia Rivara
- Drug Design and Discovery Group, Department of Food and Drug, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
| | - Marco Mor
- Drug Design and Discovery Group, Department of Food and Drug, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
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22
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Kaliakin DS, Fedorov DG, Alexeev Y, Varganov SA. Locating Minimum Energy Crossings of Different Spin States Using the Fragment Molecular Orbital Method. J Chem Theory Comput 2019; 15:6074-6084. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.9b00641] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Danil S. Kaliakin
- Department of Chemistry, University of Nevada, Reno, 1664 N. Virginia Street, Reno, Nevada 89557-0216, United States
| | - Dmitri G. Fedorov
- Research Center for Computational Design of Advanced Functional Materials (CD-FMat), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Central 2, Umezono 1-1-1, Tsukuba 305-8568, Japan
| | - Yuri Alexeev
- Computational Science Division and Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, United States
| | - Sergey A. Varganov
- Department of Chemistry, University of Nevada, Reno, 1664 N. Virginia Street, Reno, Nevada 89557-0216, United States
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23
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Bedrov D, Piquemal JP, Borodin O, MacKerell AD, Roux B, Schröder C. Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Ionic Liquids and Electrolytes Using Polarizable Force Fields. Chem Rev 2019; 119:7940-7995. [PMID: 31141351 PMCID: PMC6620131 DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.8b00763] [Citation(s) in RCA: 274] [Impact Index Per Article: 54.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Many applications in chemistry, biology, and energy storage/conversion research rely on molecular simulations to provide fundamental insight into structural and transport properties of materials with high ionic concentrations. Whether the system is comprised entirely of ions, like ionic liquids, or is a mixture of a polar solvent with a salt, e.g., liquid electrolytes for battery applications, the presence of ions in these materials results in strong local electric fields polarizing solvent molecules and large ions. To predict properties of such systems from molecular simulations often requires either explicit or mean-field inclusion of the influence of polarization on electrostatic interactions. In this manuscript, we review the pros and cons of different treatments of polarization ranging from the mean-field approaches to the most popular explicit polarization models in molecular dynamics simulations of ionic materials. For each method, we discuss their advantages and disadvantages and emphasize key assumptions as well as their adjustable parameters. Strategies for the development of polarizable models are presented with a specific focus on extracting atomic polarizabilities. Finally, we compare simulations using polarizable and nonpolarizable models for several classes of ionic systems, discussing the underlying physics that each approach includes or ignores, implications for implementation and computational efficiency, and the accuracy of properties predicted by these methods compared to experiments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dmitry Bedrov
- Department
of Materials Science & Engineering, University of Utah, 122 South Central Campus Drive, Room 304, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, United States
| | - Jean-Philip Piquemal
- Laboratoire
de Chimie Théorique, Sorbonne Université,
UMR 7616 CNRS, CC137, 4 Place Jussieu, Tour 12-13, 4ème étage, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France
- Institut
Universitaire de France, 75005, Paris Cedex 05, France
- Department
of Biomedical Engineering, The University
of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
| | - Oleg Borodin
- Electrochemistry
Branch, Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate, Army Research Laboratory, 2800 Powder Mill Road, Adelphi, Maryland 20703, United
States
| | - Alexander D. MacKerell
- Department
of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Maryland, 20 Penn Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, United
States
| | - Benoît Roux
- Department
of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Gordon Center for Integrative
Science, University of Chicago, 929 57th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
| | - Christian Schröder
- Department
of Computational Biological Chemistry, University
of Vienna, Währinger Strasse 17, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
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24
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Yang Z, Mehmood R, Wang M, Qi HW, Steeves AH, Kulik HJ. Revealing quantum mechanical effects in enzyme catalysis with large-scale electronic structure simulation. REACT CHEM ENG 2019; 4:298-315. [PMID: 31572618 PMCID: PMC6768422 DOI: 10.1039/c8re00213d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Enzymes have evolved to facilitate challenging reactions at ambient conditions with specificity seldom matched by other catalysts. Computational modeling provides valuable insight into catalytic mechanism, and the large size of enzymes mandates multi-scale, quantum mechanical-molecular mechanical (QM/MM) simulations. Although QM/MM plays an essential role in balancing simulation cost to enable sampling with full QM treatment needed to understand electronic structure in enzyme active sites, the relative importance of these two strategies for understanding enzyme mechanism is not well known. We explore challenges in QM/MM for studying the reactivity and stability of three diverse enzymes: i) Mg2+-dependent catechol O-methyltransferase (COMT), ii) radical enzyme choline trimethylamine lyase (CutC), and iii) DNA methyltransferase (DNMT1), which has structural Zn2+ binding sites. In COMT, strong non-covalent interactions lead to long range coupling of electronic structure properties across the active site, but the more isolated nature of the metallocofactor in DNMT1 leads to faster convergence of some properties. We quantify these effects in COMT by computing covariance matrices of by-residue electronic structure properties during dynamics and along the reaction coordinate. In CutC, we observe spontaneous bond cleavage following initiation events, highlighting the importance of sampling and dynamics. We use electronic structure analysis to quantify the relative importance of CHO and OHO non-covalent interactions in imparting reactivity. These three diverse cases enable us to provide some general recommendations regarding QM/MM simulation of enzymes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhongyue Yang
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
| | - Rimsha Mehmood
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
| | - Mengyi Wang
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
| | - Helena W. Qi
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
| | - Adam H. Steeves
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
| | - Heather J. Kulik
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
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25
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König G, Pickard FC, Huang J, Thiel W, MacKerell AD, Brooks BR, York DM. A Comparison of QM/MM Simulations with and without the Drude Oscillator Model Based on Hydration Free Energies of Simple Solutes. Molecules 2018; 23:E2695. [PMID: 30347691 PMCID: PMC6222909 DOI: 10.3390/molecules23102695] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2018] [Revised: 10/15/2018] [Accepted: 10/16/2018] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
Maintaining a proper balance between specific intermolecular interactions and non-specific solvent interactions is of critical importance in molecular simulations, especially when predicting binding affinities or reaction rates in the condensed phase. The most rigorous metric for characterizing solvent affinity are solvation free energies, which correspond to a transfer from the gas phase into solution. Due to the drastic change of the electrostatic environment during this process, it is also a stringent test of polarization response in the model. Here, we employ both the CHARMM fixed charge and polarizable force fields to predict hydration free energies of twelve simple solutes. The resulting classical ensembles are then reweighted to obtain QM/MM hydration free energies using a variety of QM methods, including MP2, Hartree⁻Fock, density functional methods (BLYP, B3LYP, M06-2X) and semi-empirical methods (OM2 and AM1 ). Our simulations test the compatibility of quantum-mechanical methods with molecular-mechanical water models and solute Lennard⁻Jones parameters. In all cases, the resulting QM/MM hydration free energies were inferior to purely classical results, with the QM/MM Drude force field predictions being only marginally better than the QM/MM fixed charge results. In addition, the QM/MM results for different quantum methods are highly divergent, with almost inverted trends for polarizable and fixed charge water models. While this does not necessarily imply deficiencies in the QM models themselves, it underscores the need to develop consistent and balanced QM/MM interactions. Both the QM and the MM component of a QM/MM simulation have to match, in order to avoid artifacts due to biased solute⁻solvent interactions. Finally, we discuss strategies to improve the convergence and efficiency of multi-scale free energy simulations by automatically adapting the molecular-mechanics force field to the target quantum method.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gerhard König
- Laboratory of Computational Biology, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
- Laboratory for Biomolecular Simulation Research, Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.
- Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, 45470 Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany.
| | - Frank C Pickard
- Laboratory of Computational Biology, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
| | - Jing Huang
- Laboratory of Computational Biology, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
- Department of Pharmaceutical Science, School of Pharmacy, University of Maryland, 20 Penn Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA.
- School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, 18 Shilongshan Street, Hangzhou 310024, China.
| | - Walter Thiel
- Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, 45470 Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany.
| | - Alexander D MacKerell
- Department of Pharmaceutical Science, School of Pharmacy, University of Maryland, 20 Penn Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA.
| | - Bernard R Brooks
- Laboratory of Computational Biology, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
| | - Darrin M York
- Laboratory for Biomolecular Simulation Research, Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.
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26
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Kulik HJ. Large-scale QM/MM free energy simulations of enzyme catalysis reveal the influence of charge transfer. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2018; 20:20650-20660. [PMID: 30059109 PMCID: PMC6085747 DOI: 10.1039/c8cp03871f] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
Hybrid quantum mechanical-molecular mechanical (QM/MM) simulations provide key insights into enzyme structure-function relationships. Numerous studies have demonstrated that large QM regions are needed to systematically converge ground state, zero temperature properties with electrostatic embedding QM/MM. However, it is not well known if ab initio QM/MM free energy simulations have this same dependence, in part due to the hundreds of thousands of energy evaluations required for free energy estimations that in turn limit QM region size. Here, we leverage recent advances in electronic structure efficiency and accuracy to carry out range-separated hybrid density functional theory free energy simulations in a representative methyltransferase. By studying 200 ps of ab initio QM/MM dynamics for each of five QM regions from minimal (64 atoms) to one-sixth of the protein (544 atoms), we identify critical differences between large and small QM region QM/MM in charge transfer between substrates and active site residues as well as in geometric structure and dynamics that coincide with differences in predicted free energy barriers. Distinct geometric and electronic structure features in the largest QM region indicate that important aspects of enzymatic rate enhancement in methyltransferases are identified with large-scale electronic structure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heather J Kulik
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
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27
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Das S, Nam K, Major DT. Rapid Convergence of Energy and Free Energy Profiles with Quantum Mechanical Size in Quantum Mechanical–Molecular Mechanical Simulations of Proton Transfer in DNA. J Chem Theory Comput 2018; 14:1695-1705. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.7b00964] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Susanta Das
- Department of Chemistry, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 5290002, Israel
| | - Kwangho Nam
- Department of Chemistry, Umeå University, 901 87 Umeå, Sweden
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas 76019-0065, United States
| | - Dan Thomas Major
- Department of Chemistry, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 5290002, Israel
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Boulanger E, Harvey JN. QM/MM methods for free energies and photochemistry. Curr Opin Struct Biol 2018; 49:72-76. [PMID: 29414514 DOI: 10.1016/j.sbi.2018.01.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2017] [Revised: 12/17/2017] [Accepted: 01/02/2018] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Hybrid computational methods describing a small region of a biomolecular system with quantum mechanics and the bulk with molecular mechanics, referred to as QM/MM methods, are now a central part of computational biochemistry. This review considers developments in the QM/MM approach that make it easier to calculate free energies using accurate QM-based potential energy expressions. We also describe techniques to treat electronic coupling between the core region and the MM environment. Polarizability of the protein matrix is important but so is electronic coupling. Applications of these new methods, especially to photochemistry, are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eliot Boulanger
- Department of Chemistry, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200F, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium.
| | - Jeremy N Harvey
- Department of Chemistry, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200F, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium.
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29
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Dohn AO, Jónsson EÖ, Levi G, Mortensen JJ, Lopez-Acevedo O, Thygesen KS, Jacobsen KW, Ulstrup J, Henriksen NE, Møller KB, Jónsson H. Grid-Based Projector Augmented Wave (GPAW) Implementation of Quantum Mechanics/Molecular Mechanics (QM/MM) Electrostatic Embedding and Application to a Solvated Diplatinum Complex. J Chem Theory Comput 2017; 13:6010-6022. [PMID: 29083921 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.7b00621] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
A multiscale density functional theory-quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (DFT-QM/MM) scheme is presented, based on an efficient electrostatic coupling between the electronic density obtained from a grid-based projector augmented wave (GPAW) implementation of density functional theory and a classical potential energy function. The scheme is implemented in a general fashion and can be used with various choices for the descriptions of the QM or MM regions. Tests on H2O clusters, ranging from dimer to decamer show that no systematic energy errors are introduced by the coupling that exceeds the differences in the QM and MM descriptions. Over 1 ns of liquid water, Born-Oppenheimer QM/MM molecular dynamics (MD) are sampled combining 10 parallel simulations, showing consistent liquid water structure over the QM/MM border. The method is applied in extensive parallel MD simulations of an aqueous solution of the diplatinum [Pt2(P2O5H2)4]4- complex (PtPOP), spanning a total time period of roughly half a nanosecond. An average Pt-Pt distance deviating only 0.01 Å from experimental results, and a ground-state Pt-Pt oscillation frequency deviating by <2% from experimental results were obtained. The simulations highlight a remarkable harmonicity of the Pt-Pt oscillation, while also showing clear signs of Pt-H hydrogen bonding and directional coordination of water molecules along the Pt-Pt axis of the complex.
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Affiliation(s)
- A O Dohn
- Faculty of Physical Sciences and Science Institute, University of Iceland , 107 Reykjavı́k, Iceland
| | - E Ö Jónsson
- Faculty of Physical Sciences and Science Institute, University of Iceland , 107 Reykjavı́k, Iceland
| | - G Levi
- Department of Chemistry, Technical University of Denmark , 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - J J Mortensen
- CAMD, Department of Physics, Technical University of Denmark , 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - O Lopez-Acevedo
- Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University , 02150 Espoo, Finland
| | - K S Thygesen
- CAMD, Department of Physics, Technical University of Denmark , 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - K W Jacobsen
- CAMD, Department of Physics, Technical University of Denmark , 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - J Ulstrup
- Department of Chemistry, Technical University of Denmark , 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - N E Henriksen
- Department of Chemistry, Technical University of Denmark , 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - K B Møller
- Department of Chemistry, Technical University of Denmark , 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - H Jónsson
- Faculty of Physical Sciences and Science Institute, University of Iceland , 107 Reykjavı́k, Iceland.,Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University , 02150 Espoo, Finland
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