1
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Krishna NB, Roopa L, Pravin Kumar R, S GT. Computational studies on the catalytic potential of the double active site for enzyme engineering. Sci Rep 2024; 14:17892. [PMID: 39095391 PMCID: PMC11297320 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-60824-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2023] [Accepted: 04/27/2024] [Indexed: 08/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Proteins possessing double active sites have the potential to revolutionise enzyme design strategies. This study extensively explored an enzyme that contains both a natural active site (NAS) and an engineered active site (EAS), focusing on understanding its structural and functional properties. Metadynamics simulations were employed to investigate how substrates interacted with their respective active sites. The results revealed that both the NAS and EAS exhibited similar minimum energy states, indicating comparable binding affinities. However, it became apparent that the EAS had a weaker binding site for the substrate due to its smaller pocket and constrained conformation. Interestingly, the EAS also displayed dynamic behaviour, with the substrate observed to move outside the pocket, suggesting the possibility of substrate translocation. To gain further insights, steered molecular dynamics (SMD) simulations were conducted to study the conformational changes of the substrate and its interactions with catalytic residues. Notably, the substrate adopted distinct conformations, including near-attack conformations, in both the EAS and NAS. Nevertheless, the NAS demonstrated superior binding minima for the substrate compared to the EAS, reinforcing the observation that the engineered active site was less favourable for substrate binding due to its limitations. The QM/MM (Quantum mechanics and molecular mechanics) analyses highlight the energy disparity between NAS and EAS. Specifically, EAS exhibited elevated energy levels due to its engineered active site being located on the surface. This positioning exposes the substrate to solvents and water molecules, adding to the energy challenge. Consequently, the engineered enzyme did not provide a significant advantage in substrate binding over the single active site protein. Further, the investigation of internal channels and tunnels within the protein shed light on the pathways facilitating transport between the two active sites. By unravelling the complex dynamics and functional characteristics of this double-active site protein, this study offers valuable insights into novel strategies of enzyme engineering. These findings establish a solid foundation for future research endeavours aimed at harnessing the potential of double-active site proteins in diverse biotechnological applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Naveen Banchallihundi Krishna
- Department of Computational Biology and AI, Kcat Enzymatic Private Limited, #16, Ramakrishnappa Road, Cox Town, Bangalore, 560005, India
- Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research, Mysuru, 570015, India
| | - Lalitha Roopa
- Department of Computational Biology and AI, Kcat Enzymatic Private Limited, #16, Ramakrishnappa Road, Cox Town, Bangalore, 560005, India
| | - R Pravin Kumar
- Department of Computational Biology and AI, Kcat Enzymatic Private Limited, #16, Ramakrishnappa Road, Cox Town, Bangalore, 560005, India.
| | - Gopenath T S
- Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research, Mysuru, 570015, India
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2
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Zhang R, Yang L, Xiao X, Liu H. Dissipative Particle Dynamics Simulation of Protein Folding in Explicit and Implicit Solvents: Coarse-Grained Model for Atomic Resolution. J Chem Theory Comput 2024. [PMID: 39053012 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.4c00573] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/27/2024]
Abstract
Advancements have been made to dissipative particle dynamics (DPD), a robust coarse-grained (CG) simulation method, to study the folded structures of four miniproteins (1L2Y, 1WN8, 1YRF, and 2I9M) in explicit and implicit solvents. In this endeavor, we aim to establish model parametrization and enhance computational efficiency. Unlike traditional CG models that use empirical force parameters, ex-force parameters (r0(ex), a ~ , δd, δp) of DPD particles constructed for specific research purposes can be obtained from atomistic molecular dynamics simulations. On the other hand, im-force parameters (r0(im), c, σ) can be derived from ex-DPD simulations, according to the underlying thermodynamic theory. Based on a mapping scheme proposed for the modeling of amino acids, all-atom proteins can be converted into a CG model. Both ex-/im-DPDs are then carried out to investigate the folding pathways of the four mini-proteins. Structural analysis of the RMSDs shows that the im-simulated proteins have greater structural similarity to native proteins than the ex-simulated ones. The constructed CG models achieve a resolution of Angstrom (Å), a level normally associated with atomic models. Additionally, speed tests reveal that im-DPD accelerates the simulation process and significantly improves simulation efficiency.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruzhuang Zhang
- Department of Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou City, Hainan Province 570228, PR China
| | - Li Yang
- Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Process of Ministry of Education, Hubei Key Laboratory of Novel Reactor Green Chemical Technology, School of Chemical Engineering and Pharmacy, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan 430205, PR China
| | - Xingqing Xiao
- Department of Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou City, Hainan Province 570228, PR China
| | - Honglai Liu
- Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, PR China
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3
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Kuang K, Chen X, Wang M, Han W, Qiu X, Jin T, Xu R, Yuan B, Qian M, Li C, Xiang R, Li F, Zhang S, Yang Z, Du J, Li D, Zhang C, Wang Q, Jia T. Design and Discovery of New Collagen V-Derived FGF2-Blocking Natural Peptides Inhibiting Lung Squamous Cell Carcinoma In Vitro and In Vivo. J Med Chem 2024. [PMID: 39045829 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.4c00654] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/25/2024]
Abstract
Aberrant FGF2/FGFR signaling is implicated in lung squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC), posing treatment challenges due to the lack of targeted therapeutic options. Designing drugs that block FGF2 signaling presents a promising strategy different from traditional kinase inhibitors. We previously reported a ColVα1-derived fragment, HEPV (127AA), that inhibits FGF2-induced angiogenesis. However, its large size may limit therapeutic application. This study combines rational peptide design, molecular dynamics simulations, knowledge-based prediction, and GUV and FRET assays to identify smaller peptides with FGF2-blocking properties. We synthesized two novel peptides, HBS-P1 (45AA) and HBS-P2 (66AA), that retained the heparin-binding site. Both peptides demonstrated anti-LSCC and antiangiogenesis properties in cell viability and microvessel network induction assays. In two LSCC subcutaneous models, HBS-P1, with its affinity for FGF2 and enhanced penetration ability, demonstrated substantial therapeutic potential without apparent toxicities. Our study provides the first evidence supporting the development of collagen V-derived natural peptides as FGF2-blocking agents for LSCC treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Keli Kuang
- Key Laboratory of Drug-Targeting and Drug Delivery System of the Education Ministry and Sichuan Province, Sichuan Engineering Laboratory for Plant-Sourced Drug and Sichuan Research Center for Drug Precision Industrial Technology, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China
| | - Xiang Chen
- Key Laboratory of Drug-Targeting and Drug Delivery System of the Education Ministry and Sichuan Province, Sichuan Engineering Laboratory for Plant-Sourced Drug and Sichuan Research Center for Drug Precision Industrial Technology, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China
| | - Maolin Wang
- Key Laboratory of Drug-Targeting and Drug Delivery System of the Education Ministry and Sichuan Province, Sichuan Engineering Laboratory for Plant-Sourced Drug and Sichuan Research Center for Drug Precision Industrial Technology, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China
| | - Weijing Han
- Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan, Guangdong 523808, China
| | - Xue Qiu
- Key Laboratory of Marine Drug, Ministry of Education, School of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China
- Laboratory forMarine Drugs and Bioproducts, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Scienceand Technology, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266237, China
| | - Taoli Jin
- Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan, Guangdong 523808, China
| | - Rong Xu
- Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan, Guangdong 523808, China
| | - Bing Yuan
- Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan, Guangdong 523808, China
| | - Meiqi Qian
- Key Laboratory of Marine Drug, Ministry of Education, School of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China
- Laboratory forMarine Drugs and Bioproducts, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Scienceand Technology, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266237, China
| | - Chunyan Li
- Key Laboratory of Drug-Targeting and Drug Delivery System of the Education Ministry and Sichuan Province, Sichuan Engineering Laboratory for Plant-Sourced Drug and Sichuan Research Center for Drug Precision Industrial Technology, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China
| | - Run Xiang
- Department of Thoracic Surgery, Sichuan Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Sichuan Cancer Hospital & Institute, Sichuan Cancer Center, Affiliated Cancer Hospital of University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610041, China
| | - Fei Li
- Key Laboratory of Drug-Targeting and Drug Delivery System of the Education Ministry and Sichuan Province, Sichuan Engineering Laboratory for Plant-Sourced Drug and Sichuan Research Center for Drug Precision Industrial Technology, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China
| | - Shuwen Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Drug-Targeting and Drug Delivery System of the Education Ministry and Sichuan Province, Sichuan Engineering Laboratory for Plant-Sourced Drug and Sichuan Research Center for Drug Precision Industrial Technology, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China
| | - Zi Yang
- Key Laboratory of Drug-Targeting and Drug Delivery System of the Education Ministry and Sichuan Province, Sichuan Engineering Laboratory for Plant-Sourced Drug and Sichuan Research Center for Drug Precision Industrial Technology, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China
| | - Junrong Du
- Key Laboratory of Drug-Targeting and Drug Delivery System of the Education Ministry and Sichuan Province, Sichuan Engineering Laboratory for Plant-Sourced Drug and Sichuan Research Center for Drug Precision Industrial Technology, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China
| | - Dapeng Li
- Key Laboratory of Drug-Targeting and Drug Delivery System of the Education Ministry and Sichuan Province, Sichuan Engineering Laboratory for Plant-Sourced Drug and Sichuan Research Center for Drug Precision Industrial Technology, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China
| | - Chun Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Drug-Targeting and Drug Delivery System of the Education Ministry and Sichuan Province, Sichuan Engineering Laboratory for Plant-Sourced Drug and Sichuan Research Center for Drug Precision Industrial Technology, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China
| | - Qiantao Wang
- Key Laboratory of Drug-Targeting and Drug Delivery System of the Education Ministry and Sichuan Province, Sichuan Engineering Laboratory for Plant-Sourced Drug and Sichuan Research Center for Drug Precision Industrial Technology, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China
| | - Tao Jia
- Key Laboratory of Drug-Targeting and Drug Delivery System of the Education Ministry and Sichuan Province, Sichuan Engineering Laboratory for Plant-Sourced Drug and Sichuan Research Center for Drug Precision Industrial Technology, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China
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4
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Otteson L, Nagy G, Kunkel J, Kodis G, Zheng W, Bignon C, Longhi S, Grubmüller H, Vaiana AC, Vaiana SM. Transient Non-local Interactions Dominate the Dynamics of Measles Virus N TAIL. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.07.22.604679. [PMID: 39091801 PMCID: PMC11291014 DOI: 10.1101/2024.07.22.604679] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/04/2024]
Abstract
The RNA genome of measles virus is encapsidated by the nucleoprotein within a helical nucleocapsid that serves as template for both transcription and replication. The intrinsically disordered domain of the nucleoprotein (NTAIL), partly protruding outward from the nucleocapsid, is essential for binding the polymerase complex responsible for viral transcription and replication. As for many IDPs, binding of NTAIL occurs through a short molecular recognition element (MoRE) that folds upon binding, with the majority of NTAIL remaining disordered. Though NTAIL regions far from the MoRE influence the binding affinity, interactions between them and the MoRE have not been investigated in depth. Using an integrated approach, relying on photo-induced electron transfer (PET) experiments between tryptophan and cysteine pairs placed at different positions in the protein under varying salt and pH conditions, combined with simulations and analytical models, we identified transient interactions between two disordered regions distant in sequence, which dominate NTAIL dynamics, and regulate the conformational preferences of both the MoRE and the entire NTAIL domain. Co-evolutionary analysis corroborates our findings, and suggests an important functional role for the same intramolecular interactions. We propose mechanisms by which these non-local interactions may regulate binding to the phosphoprotein, polymerase recruitment, and ultimately viral transcription and replication. Our findings may be extended to other IDPs, where non-local intra-protein interactions affect the conformational preferences of intermolecular binding sites.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lillian Otteson
- Center for Biological Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
- Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
| | - Gabor Nagy
- Theoretical and Computational Biophysics, Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, Göttingen, Germany
| | - John Kunkel
- Center for Biological Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
- Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
| | - Gerdenis Kodis
- Center for Biological Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
- Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
| | - Wenwei Zheng
- College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, Arizona State University, Mesa, AZ 85212, USA
| | | | - Sonia Longhi
- Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, AFMB, UMR 7257, Marseille, France
| | - Helmut Grubmüller
- Theoretical and Computational Biophysics, Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Andrea C Vaiana
- Theoretical and Computational Biophysics, Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, Göttingen, Germany
- Present address: Nature's Toolbox, Inc. (NTx), Rio Rancho, NM 87144, USA
| | - Sara M Vaiana
- Center for Biological Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
- Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
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5
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Andrews B, Schweitzer-Stenner R, Urbanc B. Intrinsic Conformational Dynamics of Glycine and Alanine in Polarizable Molecular Dynamics Force Fields: Comparison to Spectroscopic Data. J Phys Chem B 2024; 128:6217-6231. [PMID: 38877893 PMCID: PMC11215781 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.4c02278] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2024] [Revised: 05/29/2024] [Accepted: 05/30/2024] [Indexed: 06/28/2024]
Abstract
Molecular dynamics (MD) is a great tool for elucidating conformational dynamics of proteins and peptides in water at the atomistic level that often surpasses the level of detail available experimentally. Structure predictions, however, are limited by the accuracy of the underlying MD force field. This limitation is particularly stark in the case of intrinsically disordered peptides and proteins, which are characterized by solvent-accessible and disordered peptide regions and domains. Recent studies show that most additive MD force fields, including CHARMM36m, do not reproduce the intrinsic conformational distributions of guest amino acid residues x in cationic GxG peptides in water in line with experimental data. Positing that a lack of polarizability in additive MD force fields may be the culprit for the reported discrepancies, we here examine the conformational dynamics of guest glycine and alanine residues in cationic GxG peptides in water using two polarizable MD force fields, CHARMM Drude and AMOEBA. Our results indicate that while AMOEBA captures the experimental data better than CHARMM Drude, neither of the two polarizable force fields offers an improvement of the Ramachandran distributions of glycine and alanine residues in cationic GGG and GAG peptides, respectively, over CHARMM36m.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian Andrews
- Department
of Physics, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, United States
| | | | - Brigita Urbanc
- Department
of Physics, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, United States
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6
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Patel R, Onyema A, Tang PK, Loverde SM. Conformational Dynamics of the Nucleosomal Histone H2B Tails Revealed by Molecular Dynamics Simulations. J Chem Inf Model 2024; 64:4709-4726. [PMID: 38865599 PMCID: PMC11200259 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.4c00059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2024] [Revised: 05/31/2024] [Accepted: 06/03/2024] [Indexed: 06/14/2024]
Abstract
Epigenetic modifications of histone N-terminal tails play a critical role in regulating the chromatin structure and biological processes such as transcription and DNA repair. One of the key post-translational modifications (PTMs) is the acetylation of lysine residues on histone tails. Epigenetic modifications are ubiquitous in the development of diseases, such as cancer and neurological disorders. Histone H2B tails are critical regulators of nucleosome dynamics, biological processes, and certain diseases. Here, we report all-atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of the nucleosome to demonstrate that acetylation of the histone tails changes their conformational space and interaction with DNA. We perform simulations of H2B tails, critical regulators of gene regulation, in both the lysine-acetylated (ACK) and unacetylated wild type (WT) states. To explore the effects of salt concentration, we use two different NaCl concentrations to perform simulations at microsecond time scales. Salt can modulate the effects of electrostatic interactions between the DNA phosphate backbone and histone tails. Upon acetylation, H2B tails shift their secondary structure helical propensity. The number of contacts between the DNA and the H2B tail decreases. We characterize the conformational dynamics of the H2B tails by principal component analysis (PCA). The ACK tails become more compact at increased salt concentrations, but conformations from the WT tails display the most contacts with DNA at both salt concentrations. Mainly, H2B acetylation may increase the DNA accessibility for regulatory proteins to bind, which can aid in gene regulation and NCP stability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rutika Patel
- Ph.D.
Program in Biochemistry, The Graduate Center
of the City University of New York, New York, New York 10016, United States
- Department
of Chemistry, College of Staten Island, The City University of New York, 2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, New
York, New York 10314, United States
| | - Augustine Onyema
- Ph.D.
Program in Biochemistry, The Graduate Center
of the City University of New York, New York, New York 10016, United States
- Department
of Chemistry, College of Staten Island, The City University of New York, 2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, New
York, New York 10314, United States
| | - Phu K. Tang
- Ph.D.
Program in Biochemistry, The Graduate Center
of the City University of New York, New York, New York 10016, United States
- Department
of Chemistry, College of Staten Island, The City University of New York, 2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, New
York, New York 10314, United States
| | - Sharon M. Loverde
- Ph.D.
Program in Biochemistry, The Graduate Center
of the City University of New York, New York, New York 10016, United States
- Department
of Chemistry, College of Staten Island, The City University of New York, 2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, New
York, New York 10314, United States
- Ph.D.
Program in Chemistry, The Graduate Center
of the City University of New York, New York, New York 10016, United States
- Ph.D.
Program in Physics, The Graduate Center
of the City University of New York, New York, New York 10016, United States
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7
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Duran C, Casadevall G, Osuna S. Harnessing conformational dynamics in enzyme catalysis to achieve nature-like catalytic efficiencies: the shortest path map tool for computational enzyme redesign. Faraday Discuss 2024. [PMID: 38910409 DOI: 10.1039/d3fd00156c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/25/2024]
Abstract
Enzymes exhibit diverse conformations, as represented in the free energy landscape (FEL). Such conformational diversity provides enzymes with the ability to evolve towards novel functions. The challenge lies in identifying mutations that enhance specific conformational changes, especially if located in distal sites from the active site cavity. The shortest path map (SPM) method, which we developed to address this challenge, constructs a graph based on the distances and correlated motions of residues observed in nanosecond timescale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We recently introduced a template based AlphaFold2 (tAF2) approach coupled with 10 nanosecond MD simulations to quickly estimate the conformational landscape of enzymes and assess how the FEL is shifted after mutation. In this study, we evaluate the potential of SPM when coupled with tAF2-MD in estimating conformational heterogeneity and identifying key conformationally-relevant positions. The selected model system is the beta subunit of tryptophan synthase (TrpB). We compare how the SPM pathways differ when integrating tAF2 with different MD simulation lengths from as short as 10 ns until 50 ns and considering two distinct Amber forcefield and water models (ff14SB/TIP3P versus ff19SB/OPC). The new methodology can more effectively capture the distal mutations found in laboratory evolution, thus showcasing the efficacy of tAF2-MD-SPM in rapidly estimating enzyme dynamics and identifying the key conformationally relevant hotspots for computational enzyme engineering.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cristina Duran
- Departament de Química, Institut de Química Computacional i Catàlisi, Universitat de Girona, c/Maria Aurèlia Capmany 69, 17003, Girona, Spain.
| | - Guillem Casadevall
- Departament de Química, Institut de Química Computacional i Catàlisi, Universitat de Girona, c/Maria Aurèlia Capmany 69, 17003, Girona, Spain.
| | - Sílvia Osuna
- Departament de Química, Institut de Química Computacional i Catàlisi, Universitat de Girona, c/Maria Aurèlia Capmany 69, 17003, Girona, Spain.
- ICREA, Pg. Lluís Companys 23, 08010, Barcelona, Spain
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8
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Smardz P, Anila MM, Rogowski P, Li MS, Różycki B, Krupa P. A Practical Guide to All-Atom and Coarse-Grained Molecular Dynamics Simulations Using Amber and Gromacs: A Case Study of Disulfide-Bond Impact on the Intrinsically Disordered Amyloid Beta. Int J Mol Sci 2024; 25:6698. [PMID: 38928405 PMCID: PMC11204378 DOI: 10.3390/ijms25126698] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2024] [Revised: 06/12/2024] [Accepted: 06/13/2024] [Indexed: 06/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) pose challenges to conventional experimental techniques due to their large-scale conformational fluctuations and transient structural elements. This work presents computational methods for studying IDPs at various resolutions using the Amber and Gromacs packages with both all-atom (Amber ff19SB with the OPC water model) and coarse-grained (Martini 3 and SIRAH) approaches. The effectiveness of these methodologies is demonstrated by examining the monomeric form of amyloid-β (Aβ42), an IDP, with and without disulfide bonds at different resolutions. Our results clearly show that the addition of a disulfide bond decreases the β-content of Aβ42; however, it increases the tendency of the monomeric Aβ42 to form fibril-like conformations, explaining the various aggregation rates observed in experiments. Moreover, analysis of the monomeric Aβ42 compactness, secondary structure content, and comparison between calculated and experimental chemical shifts demonstrates that all three methods provide a reasonable choice to study IDPs; however, coarse-grained approaches may lack some atomistic details, such as secondary structure recognition, due to the simplifications used. In general, this study not only explains the role of disulfide bonds in Aβ42 but also provides a step-by-step protocol for setting up, conducting, and analyzing molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, which is adaptable for studying other biomacromolecules, including folded and disordered proteins and peptides.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | - Pawel Krupa
- Institute of Physics Polish Academy of Sciences, Al. Lotników 32/46, 02-668 Warsaw, Poland; (P.S.); (M.M.A.); (P.R.); (M.S.L.); (B.R.)
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9
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Grassmann G, Miotto M, Desantis F, Di Rienzo L, Tartaglia GG, Pastore A, Ruocco G, Monti M, Milanetti E. Computational Approaches to Predict Protein-Protein Interactions in Crowded Cellular Environments. Chem Rev 2024; 124:3932-3977. [PMID: 38535831 PMCID: PMC11009965 DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.3c00550] [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: 07/31/2023] [Revised: 02/20/2024] [Accepted: 02/21/2024] [Indexed: 04/11/2024]
Abstract
Investigating protein-protein interactions is crucial for understanding cellular biological processes because proteins often function within molecular complexes rather than in isolation. While experimental and computational methods have provided valuable insights into these interactions, they often overlook a critical factor: the crowded cellular environment. This environment significantly impacts protein behavior, including structural stability, diffusion, and ultimately the nature of binding. In this review, we discuss theoretical and computational approaches that allow the modeling of biological systems to guide and complement experiments and can thus significantly advance the investigation, and possibly the predictions, of protein-protein interactions in the crowded environment of cell cytoplasm. We explore topics such as statistical mechanics for lattice simulations, hydrodynamic interactions, diffusion processes in high-viscosity environments, and several methods based on molecular dynamics simulations. By synergistically leveraging methods from biophysics and computational biology, we review the state of the art of computational methods to study the impact of molecular crowding on protein-protein interactions and discuss its potential revolutionizing effects on the characterization of the human interactome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Greta Grassmann
- Department
of Biochemical Sciences “Alessandro Rossi Fanelli”, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome 00185, Italy
- Center
for Life Nano & Neuro Science, Istituto
Italiano di Tecnologia, Rome 00161, Italy
| | - Mattia Miotto
- Center
for Life Nano & Neuro Science, Istituto
Italiano di Tecnologia, Rome 00161, Italy
| | - Fausta Desantis
- Center
for Life Nano & Neuro Science, Istituto
Italiano di Tecnologia, Rome 00161, Italy
- The
Open University Affiliated Research Centre at Istituto Italiano di
Tecnologia, Genoa 16163, Italy
| | - Lorenzo Di Rienzo
- Center
for Life Nano & Neuro Science, Istituto
Italiano di Tecnologia, Rome 00161, Italy
| | - Gian Gaetano Tartaglia
- Center
for Life Nano & Neuro Science, Istituto
Italiano di Tecnologia, Rome 00161, Italy
- Department
of Neuroscience and Brain Technologies, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa 16163, Italy
- Center
for Human Technologies, Genoa 16152, Italy
| | - Annalisa Pastore
- Experiment
Division, European Synchrotron Radiation
Facility, Grenoble 38043, France
| | - Giancarlo Ruocco
- Center
for Life Nano & Neuro Science, Istituto
Italiano di Tecnologia, Rome 00161, Italy
- Department
of Physics, Sapienza University, Rome 00185, Italy
| | - Michele Monti
- RNA
System Biology Lab, Department of Neuroscience and Brain Technologies, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa 16163, Italy
| | - Edoardo Milanetti
- Center
for Life Nano & Neuro Science, Istituto
Italiano di Tecnologia, Rome 00161, Italy
- Department
of Physics, Sapienza University, Rome 00185, Italy
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10
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Xie S, Yue C, Ye S, Li Z. Probing the hierarchical dynamics of DNA-sperm nuclear transition protein complexes through fuzzy interaction and mesoscale condensation. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2024; 26:10408-10418. [PMID: 38502252 DOI: 10.1039/d3cp05957j] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/21/2024]
Abstract
Nuclear transition protein TNP1 is a crucial player mediating histone-protamine exchange in condensing spermatids. A unique combination of intrinsic disorder and multivalent properties turns TNP1 into an ideal agent for orchestrating the formation of versatile TNP-DNA assemblies. Despite its significance, the physicochemical property and the molecular mechanism followed by TNP1 for histone replacement and DNA condensation are still poorly understood. This study reports the first-time in vitro expression and purification of human TNP1 and investigates the hierarchical dynamics of TNP1-DNA interaction using a combination of computational simulations, biochemical assays, fluorescence imaging, and atomic force microscopy. We explored three crucial facets of TNP1-DNA interactions. Initially, we delve into the molecular binding process that entails fuzzy interactions between TNP1 and DNA at the atomistic scale. Subsequently, we analyze how TNP1 binding affects the electrostatic and mechanical characteristics of DNA and influences its morphology. Finally, we study the biomolecular condensation of TNP1-DNA when subjected to high concentrations. The findings of our study set the foundation for comprehending the potential involvement of TNP1 in histone replacement and DNA condensation in spermatogenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shangqiang Xie
- School of Life Science, Tianjin University, 92 Weijin Road, Tianjin 300072, China.
| | - Congran Yue
- School of Life Science, Tianjin University, 92 Weijin Road, Tianjin 300072, China.
| | - Sheng Ye
- School of Life Science, Tianjin University, 92 Weijin Road, Tianjin 300072, China.
- Frontiers Science Center for Synthetic Biology (Ministry of Education), Tianjin Key Laboratory of Function and Application of Biological Macromolecular Structures, Tianjin University, 92 Weijin Road, Tianjin 300072, China
| | - Zhenlu Li
- School of Life Science, Tianjin University, 92 Weijin Road, Tianjin 300072, China.
- Frontiers Science Center for Synthetic Biology (Ministry of Education), Tianjin Key Laboratory of Function and Application of Biological Macromolecular Structures, Tianjin University, 92 Weijin Road, Tianjin 300072, China
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11
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Fischer AL, Tichy A, Kokot J, Hoerschinger VJ, Wild RF, Riccabona JR, Loeffler JR, Waibl F, Quoika PK, Gschwandtner P, Forli S, Ward AB, Liedl KR, Zacharias M, Fernández-Quintero ML. The Role of Force Fields and Water Models in Protein Folding and Unfolding Dynamics. J Chem Theory Comput 2024; 20:2321-2333. [PMID: 38373307 PMCID: PMC10938642 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.3c01106] [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: 10/06/2023] [Revised: 01/29/2024] [Accepted: 01/29/2024] [Indexed: 02/21/2024]
Abstract
Protein folding is a fascinating, not fully understood phenomenon in biology. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are an invaluable tool to study conformational changes in atomistic detail, including folding and unfolding processes of proteins. However, the accuracy of the conformational ensembles derived from MD simulations inevitably relies on the quality of the underlying force field in combination with the respective water model. Here, we investigate protein folding, unfolding, and misfolding of fast-folding proteins by examining different force fields with their recommended water models, i.e., ff14SB with the TIP3P model and ff19SB with the OPC model. To this end, we generated long conventional MD simulations highlighting the perks and pitfalls of these setups. Using Markov state models, we defined kinetically independent conformational substates and emphasized their distinct characteristics, as well as their corresponding state probabilities. Surprisingly, we found substantial differences in thermodynamics and kinetics of protein folding, depending on the combination of the protein force field and water model, originating primarily from the different water models. These results emphasize the importance of carefully choosing the force field and the respective water model as they determine the accuracy of the observed dynamics of folding events. Thus, the findings support the hypothesis that the water model is at least equally important as the force field and hence needs to be considered in future studies investigating protein dynamics and folding in all areas of biophysics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna-Lena
M. Fischer
- Institute
for General, Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry, Center for Molecular
Biosciences Innsbruck (CMBI), University
of Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Anna Tichy
- Institute
for General, Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry, Center for Molecular
Biosciences Innsbruck (CMBI), University
of Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Janik Kokot
- Institute
for General, Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry, Center for Molecular
Biosciences Innsbruck (CMBI), University
of Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Valentin J. Hoerschinger
- Institute
for General, Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry, Center for Molecular
Biosciences Innsbruck (CMBI), University
of Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Robert F. Wild
- Institute
for General, Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry, Center for Molecular
Biosciences Innsbruck (CMBI), University
of Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Jakob R. Riccabona
- Institute
for General, Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry, Center for Molecular
Biosciences Innsbruck (CMBI), University
of Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Johannes R. Loeffler
- Institute
for General, Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry, Center for Molecular
Biosciences Innsbruck (CMBI), University
of Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Franz Waibl
- Department
of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH
Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 2, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Patrick K. Quoika
- Center
for Protein Assemblies (CPA), Physics Department, Chair of Theoretical
Biophysics, Technical University of Munich, D-80333 Munich, Germany
| | | | - Stefano Forli
- Department
of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, Scripps Research Institute, La
Jolla, California 92037, United States
| | - Andrew B. Ward
- Department
of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, Scripps Research Institute, La
Jolla, California 92037, United States
| | - Klaus R. Liedl
- Institute
for General, Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry, Center for Molecular
Biosciences Innsbruck (CMBI), University
of Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Martin Zacharias
- Center
for Protein Assemblies (CPA), Physics Department, Chair of Theoretical
Biophysics, Technical University of Munich, D-80333 Munich, Germany
| | - Monica L. Fernández-Quintero
- Institute
for General, Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry, Center for Molecular
Biosciences Innsbruck (CMBI), University
of Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
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12
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Tolstova AP, Makarov AA, Adzhubei AA. Structure Comparison of Beta Amyloid Peptide Aβ 1-42 Isoforms. Molecular Dynamics Modeling. J Chem Inf Model 2024; 64:918-932. [PMID: 38241093 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.3c01624] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/21/2024]
Abstract
Beta amyloid peptide Aβ 1-42 (Aβ42) has a unique dual role in the human organism, as both the peptide with an important physiological function and one of the most toxic biological compounds provoking Alzheimer's disease (AD). There are several known Aβ42 isoforms that we discuss here that are highly neurotoxic and lead to the early onset of AD. Aβ42 is an intrinsically disordered protein with no experimentally solved structure under physiological conditions. The objective of this research was to establish the appropriate molecular dynamics (MD) methodology and model a uniform set of structures for the Aβ42 isoforms that form the core of this study. For that purpose, force field selection and verification including convergence testing for MD simulations was made. Replica exchange MD and conventional MD modeling of several Aβ42 and Aβ16 isoforms that have neurotoxic and amyloidogenic effects impacting the severity of Alzheimer's disease were carried out with the optimal force field and solvent parameters. A standardized ensemble of structures for the Aβ42 and Aβ16 isoforms covering 30-50% of the conformational ensembles extracted from the free energy minima was calculated from MD trajectories. The resulting data set of modeled structures includes Aβ42 wild type, isoD7, pS8, D7H, and H6R-Aβ42 and Aβ16 wild type, isoD7, pS8, D7H, and H6R-Aβ16. The representative structures are given in the Supporting Information; they are open for public access. In the study, we also evaluated the differences between the structures of Aβ42 isoforms and speculate on their possible relevance to the known functions. Utilizing several representative structures for a single disordered protein for docking, with their subsequent averaging by conformations, would markedly increase the reliability of docking results.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna P Tolstova
- Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119991, Russia
| | - Alexander A Makarov
- Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119991, Russia
| | - Alexei A Adzhubei
- Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119991, Russia
- Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington 20052, D.C., United States
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13
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Gunasinghe KJ, Rahman T, Chee Wezen X. Unraveling the Behavior of Intrinsically Disordered Protein c-Myc: A Study Utilizing Gaussian-Accelerated Molecular Dynamics. ACS OMEGA 2024; 9:2250-2262. [PMID: 38250404 PMCID: PMC10795134 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.3c05822] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2023] [Revised: 11/02/2023] [Accepted: 11/21/2023] [Indexed: 01/23/2024]
Abstract
The protein c-Myc is a transcription factor that remains largely intrinsically disordered and is known to be involved in various biological processes and is overexpressed in various cancers, making it an attractive drug target. However, intrinsically disordered proteins such as c-Myc do not show funnel-like basins in their free-energy landscapes; this makes their druggability a challenge. For the first time, we propose a heterodimer model of c-Myc/Max in full length in this work. We used Gaussian-accelerated molecular dynamics (GaMD) simulations to explore the behavior of c-Myc and its various regions, including the transactivation domain (TAD) and the basic helix-loop-helix-leucine-zipper (bHLH-Zipper) motif in three different conformational states: (a) monomeric c-Myc, (b) c-Myc when bound to its partner protein, Max, and (c) when Max was removed after binding. We analyzed the GaMD trajectories using root-mean-square deviation (RMSD), radius of gyration, root-mean-square fluctuation, and free-energy landscape (FEL) calculations to elaborate the behaviors of these regions. The results showed that the monomeric c-Myc structure showed a higher RMSD fluctuation as compared with the c-Myc/Max heterodimer in the bHLH-Zipper motif. This indicated that the bHLH-Zipper motif of c-Myc is more stable when it is bound to Max. The TAD region in both monomeric and Max-bound states showed similar plasticity in terms of RMSD. We also conducted residue decomposition calculations and showed that the c-Myc and Max interaction could be driven mainly by electrostatic interactions and the residues Arg299, Ile403, and Leu420 seemed to play important roles in the interaction. Our work provides insights into the behavior of c-Myc and its regions that could support the development of drugs that target c-Myc and other intrinsically disordered proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Taufiq Rahman
- Department
of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1PD, United Kingdom
| | - Xavier Chee Wezen
- Faculty
of Engineering, Computing and Science, Swinburne
University of Technology Sarawak, Kuching 93350, Malaysia
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14
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Lebedenko OO, Salikov VA, Izmailov SA, Podkorytov IS, Skrynnikov NR. Using NMR diffusion data to validate MD models of disordered proteins: Test case of N-terminal tail of histone H4. Biophys J 2024; 123:80-100. [PMID: 37990496 PMCID: PMC10808029 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2023.11.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2023] [Revised: 10/28/2023] [Accepted: 11/17/2023] [Indexed: 11/23/2023] Open
Abstract
MD simulations can provide uniquely detailed models of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs). However, these models need careful experimental validation. The coefficient of translational diffusion Dtr, measurable by pulsed field gradient NMR, offers a potentially useful piece of experimental information related to the compactness of the IDP's conformational ensemble. Here, we investigate, both experimentally and via the MD modeling, the translational diffusion of a 25-residue N-terminal fragment from histone H4 (N-H4). We found that the predicted values of Dtr, as obtained from mean-square displacement of the peptide in the MD simulations, are largely determined by the viscosity of the MD water (which has been reinvestigated as a part of our study). Beyond that, our analysis of the diffusion data indicates that MD simulations of N-H4 in the TIP4P-Ew water give rise to an overly compact conformational ensemble for this peptide. In contrast, TIP4P-D and OPC simulations produce the ensembles that are consistent with the experimental Dtr result. These observations are supported by the analyses of the 15N spin relaxation rates. We also tested a number of empirical methods to predict Dtr based on IDP's coordinates extracted from the MD snapshots. In particular, we show that the popular approach involving the program HYDROPRO can produce misleading results. This happens because HYDROPRO is not intended to predict the diffusion properties of highly flexible biopolymers such as IDPs. Likewise, recent empirical schemes that exploit the relationship between the small-angle x-ray scattering-informed conformational ensembles of IDPs and the respective experimental Dtr values also prove to be problematic. In this sense, the first-principle calculations of Dtr from the MD simulations, such as demonstrated in this work, should provide a useful benchmark for future efforts in this area.
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Affiliation(s)
- Olga O Lebedenko
- Laboratory of Biomolecular NMR, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia
| | - Vladislav A Salikov
- Laboratory of Biomolecular NMR, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia
| | - Sergei A Izmailov
- Laboratory of Biomolecular NMR, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia
| | - Ivan S Podkorytov
- Laboratory of Biomolecular NMR, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia
| | - Nikolai R Skrynnikov
- Laboratory of Biomolecular NMR, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia; Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.
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15
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Aduriz-Arrizabalaga J, Lopez X, De Sancho D. Atomistic molecular simulations of Aβ-Zn conformational ensembles. Proteins 2024; 92:134-144. [PMID: 37746887 DOI: 10.1002/prot.26590] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2023] [Revised: 09/01/2023] [Accepted: 09/07/2023] [Indexed: 09/26/2023]
Abstract
The amyloid-forming Aβ peptide is able to interact with metal cations to form very stable complexes that influence fibril formation and contribute to the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Multiple structures of peptides derived from Aβ in complex with different metals have been resolved experimentally to provide an atomic-level description of the metal-protein interactions. However, Aβ is intrinsically disordered, and hence more amenable to an ensemble description. Molecular dynamics simulations can now reach the timescales needed to generate ensembles for these type of complexes. However, this requires accurate force fields both for the protein and the protein-metal interactions. Here we use state-of-the-art methods to generate force field parameters for the Zn(II) cations in a set of complexes formed by different Aβ variants and combine them with the Amber99SB*-ILDN optimized force field. Upon comparison of NMR experiments with the simulation results, further optimized with a Bayesian/Maximum entropy approach, we provide an accurate description of the molecular ensembles for most Aβ-metal complexes. We find that the resulting conformational ensembles are more heterogeneous than the NMR models deposited in the Protein Data Bank.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julen Aduriz-Arrizabalaga
- Polimero eta Material Aurreratuak: Fisika, Kimika eta Teknologia, Kimika Fakultatea, UPV/EHU & Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), Donostia-San Sebastian, Euskadi, Spain
| | - Xabier Lopez
- Polimero eta Material Aurreratuak: Fisika, Kimika eta Teknologia, Kimika Fakultatea, UPV/EHU & Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), Donostia-San Sebastian, Euskadi, Spain
| | - David De Sancho
- Polimero eta Material Aurreratuak: Fisika, Kimika eta Teknologia, Kimika Fakultatea, UPV/EHU & Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), Donostia-San Sebastian, Euskadi, Spain
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16
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Tolmachev DA, Malkamäki M, Linder MB, Sammalkorpi M. Spidroins under the Influence of Alcohol: Effect of Ethanol on Secondary Structure and Molecular Level Solvation of Silk-Like Proteins. Biomacromolecules 2023; 24:5638-5653. [PMID: 38019577 PMCID: PMC10716855 DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.3c00637] [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: 06/29/2023] [Revised: 11/08/2023] [Accepted: 11/08/2023] [Indexed: 11/30/2023]
Abstract
Future sustainable materials based on designer biomolecules require control of the solution assembly, but also interfacial interactions. Alcohol treatments of protein materials are an accessible means to this, making understanding of the process at the molecular level of seminal importance. We focus here on the influence of ethanol on spidroins, the main proteins of silk. By large-scale atomistically detailed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and interconnected experiments, we characterize the protein aggregation, secondary structure changes, molecular level origins of them, and solvation environment changes for the proteins, as induced by ethanol as a solvation additive. The MD and circular dichoroism (CD) findings jointly show that ethanol promotes ordered structure in the protein molecules, leading to an increase of helix content and turns but also increased aggregation, as revealed by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and light microscopy. The structural changes correlate at the molecular level with increased intramolecular hydrogen bonding. The simulations reveal that polar amino acids, such as glutamine and serine, are most influenced by ethanol, whereas glycine residues are most prone to be involved in the ethanol-induced secondary structure changes. Furthermore, ethanol engages in interactions with the hydrophobic alanine-rich regions of the spidroin, significantly decreasing the hydrophobic interactions of the protein with itself and its surroundings. The protein solutes also change the microstructure of water/ethanol mixtures, essentially decreasing the level of larger local clustering. Overall, the work presents a systematic characterization of ethanol effects on a widely used, common protein type, spidroins, and generalizes the findings to other intrinsically disordered proteins by pinpointing the general features of the response. The results can aid in designing effective alcohol treatments for proteins, but also enable design and tuning of protein material properties by a relatively controllable solvation handle, the addition of ethanol.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dmitry A. Tolmachev
- Department
of Chemistry and Materials Science, Aalto
University, P.O. Box 16100, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland
- Academy
of Finland Center of Excellence in Life-Inspired Hybrid Materials
(LIBER), Aalto University, P.O. Box 16100, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland
| | - Maaria Malkamäki
- Department
of Bioproducts and Biosystems, Aalto University, P.O. Box 16100, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland
- Academy
of Finland Center of Excellence in Life-Inspired Hybrid Materials
(LIBER), Aalto University, P.O. Box 16100, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland
| | - Markus B. Linder
- Department
of Bioproducts and Biosystems, Aalto University, P.O. Box 16100, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland
- Academy
of Finland Center of Excellence in Life-Inspired Hybrid Materials
(LIBER), Aalto University, P.O. Box 16100, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland
| | - Maria Sammalkorpi
- Department
of Chemistry and Materials Science, Aalto
University, P.O. Box 16100, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland
- Department
of Bioproducts and Biosystems, Aalto University, P.O. Box 16100, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland
- Academy
of Finland Center of Excellence in Life-Inspired Hybrid Materials
(LIBER), Aalto University, P.O. Box 16100, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland
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17
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Sun W, Lebedenko OO, Salguero NG, Shannon MD, Zandian M, Poirier MG, Skrynnikov NR, Jaroniec CP. Conformational and Interaction Landscape of Histone H4 Tails in Nucleosomes Probed by Paramagnetic NMR Spectroscopy. J Am Chem Soc 2023; 145:25478-25485. [PMID: 37943892 PMCID: PMC10719895 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.3c10340] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2023]
Abstract
The fundamental repeat unit of chromatin, the nucleosome, consists of approximately 147 base pairs of double-stranded DNA and a histone protein octamer containing two copies each of histones H2A, H2B, H3, and H4. Each histone possesses a dynamically disordered N-terminal tail domain, and it is well-established that the tails of histones H3 and H4 play key roles in chromatin compaction and regulation. Here we investigate the conformational ensemble and interactions of the H4 tail in nucleosomes by means of solution NMR measurements of paramagnetic relaxation enhancements (PREs) in recombinant samples reconstituted with 15N-enriched H4 and nitroxide spin-label tagged H3. The experimental PREs, which report on the proximities of individual H4 tail residues to the different H3 spin-label sites, are interpreted by using microsecond time-scale molecular dynamics simulations of the nucleosome core particle. Collectively, these data enable improved localization of histone H4 tails in nucleosomes and support the notion that H4 tails engage in a fuzzy complex interaction with nucleosomal DNA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wenjun Sun
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
| | - Olga O. Lebedenko
- Laboratory of Biomolecular NMR, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg 199034, Russia
| | - Nicole Gonzalez Salguero
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
| | - Matthew D. Shannon
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
| | - Mohamad Zandian
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
| | - Michael G. Poirier
- Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
| | - Nikolai R. Skrynnikov
- Laboratory of Biomolecular NMR, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg 199034, Russia
- Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette 47907, United States
| | - Christopher P. Jaroniec
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
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18
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Laurent H, Hughes MDG, Walko M, Brockwell DJ, Mahmoudi N, Youngs TGA, Headen TF, Dougan L. Visualization of Self-Assembly and Hydration of a β-Hairpin through Integrated Small and Wide-Angle Neutron Scattering. Biomacromolecules 2023; 24:4869-4879. [PMID: 37874935 PMCID: PMC10646990 DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.3c00583] [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: 06/14/2023] [Revised: 10/03/2023] [Indexed: 10/26/2023]
Abstract
Fundamental understanding of the structure and assembly of nanoscale building blocks is crucial for the development of novel biomaterials with defined architectures and function. However, accessing self-consistent structural information across multiple length scales is challenging. This limits opportunities to exploit atomic scale interactions to achieve emergent macroscale properties. In this work we present an integrative small- and wide-angle neutron scattering approach coupled with computational modeling to reveal the multiscale structure of hierarchically self-assembled β hairpins in aqueous solution across 4 orders of magnitude in length scale from 0.1 Å to 300 nm. Our results demonstrate the power of this self-consistent cross-length scale approach and allows us to model both the large-scale self-assembly and small-scale hairpin hydration of the model β hairpin CLN025. Using this combination of techniques, we map the hydrophobic/hydrophilic character of this model self-assembled biomolecular surface with atomic resolution. These results have important implications for the multiscale investigation of aqueous peptides and proteins, for the prediction of ligand binding and molecular associations for drug design, and for understanding the self-assembly of peptides and proteins for functional biomaterials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Harrison Laurent
- School
of Physics and Astronomy, University of
Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom, LS2
9JT
| | - Matt D. G. Hughes
- School
of Physics and Astronomy, University of
Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom, LS2
9JT
- Astbury
Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom LS2
9JT
| | - Martin Walko
- School
of Chemistry, University of Leeds, Leeds, United
Kingdom, LS2 9JT
| | - David J. Brockwell
- Astbury
Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom LS2
9JT
| | - Najet Mahmoudi
- ISIS
Neutron and Muon Source, Rutherford Appleton
Laboratory, Harwell Oxford, Didcot, United Kingdom, OX11 0QX
| | - Tristan G. A. Youngs
- ISIS
Neutron and Muon Source, Rutherford Appleton
Laboratory, Harwell Oxford, Didcot, United Kingdom, OX11 0QX
| | - Thomas F. Headen
- ISIS
Neutron and Muon Source, Rutherford Appleton
Laboratory, Harwell Oxford, Didcot, United Kingdom, OX11 0QX
| | - Lorna Dougan
- School
of Physics and Astronomy, University of
Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom, LS2
9JT
- Astbury
Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom LS2
9JT
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19
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Ramans-Harborough S, Kalverda AP, Manfield IW, Thompson GS, Kieffer M, Uzunova V, Quareshy M, Prusinska JM, Roychoudhry S, Hayashi KI, Napier R, del Genio C, Kepinski S. Intrinsic disorder and conformational coexistence in auxin coreceptors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2221286120. [PMID: 37756337 PMCID: PMC10556615 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2221286120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2022] [Accepted: 07/17/2023] [Indexed: 09/29/2023] Open
Abstract
AUXIN/INDOLE 3-ACETIC ACID (Aux/IAA) transcriptional repressor proteins and the TRANSPORT INHIBITOR RESISTANT 1/AUXIN SIGNALING F-BOX (TIR1/AFB) proteins to which they bind act as auxin coreceptors. While the structure of TIR1 has been solved, structural characterization of the regions of the Aux/IAA protein responsible for auxin perception has been complicated by their predicted disorder. Here, we use NMR, CD and molecular dynamics simulation to investigate the N-terminal domains of the Aux/IAA protein IAA17/AXR3. We show that despite the conformational flexibility of the region, a critical W-P bond in the core of the Aux/IAA degron motif occurs at a strikingly high (1:1) ratio of cis to trans isomers, consistent with the requirement of the cis conformer for the formation of the fully-docked receptor complex. We show that the N-terminal half of AXR3 is a mixture of multiple transiently structured conformations with a propensity for two predominant and distinct conformational subpopulations within the overall ensemble. These two states were modeled together with the C-terminal PB1 domain to provide the first complete simulation of an Aux/IAA. Using MD to recreate the assembly of each complex in the presence of auxin, both structural arrangements were shown to engage with the TIR1 receptor, and contact maps from the simulations match closely observations of NMR signal-decreases. Together, our results and approach provide a platform for exploring the functional significance of variation in the Aux/IAA coreceptor family and for understanding the role of intrinsic disorder in auxin signal transduction and other signaling systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sigurd Ramans-Harborough
- School of Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, LeedsLS2 9JT, United Kingdom
| | - Arnout P. Kalverda
- Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, LeedsLS2 9JT, United Kingdom
| | - Iain W. Manfield
- Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, LeedsLS2 9JT, United Kingdom
| | - Gary S. Thompson
- Wellcome Biological Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility, Division of Natural Sciences, University of Kent, CanterburyCT2 7NJ, United Kingdom
| | - Martin Kieffer
- School of Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, LeedsLS2 9JT, United Kingdom
| | - Veselina Uzunova
- School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, CoventryCV4 7AL, United Kingdom
| | - Mussa Quareshy
- School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, CoventryCV4 7AL, United Kingdom
| | | | - Suruchi Roychoudhry
- School of Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, LeedsLS2 9JT, United Kingdom
| | - Ken-ichiro Hayashi
- Department of Bioscience, Okayama University of Science, Okayama700-0005, Japan
| | - Richard Napier
- School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, CoventryCV4 7AL, United Kingdom
| | - Charo del Genio
- Centre for Fluid and Complex Systems, Coventry University, CoventryCV1 5FB, United Kingdom
| | - Stefan Kepinski
- School of Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, LeedsLS2 9JT, United Kingdom
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20
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Maiti S, Heyden M. Model-Dependent Solvation of the K-18 Domain of the Intrinsically Disordered Protein Tau. J Phys Chem B 2023; 127:7220-7230. [PMID: 37556237 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.3c01726] [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: 08/11/2023]
Abstract
A known imbalance between intra-protein and protein-water interactions in many empirical force fields results in collapsed conformational ensembles of intrinsically disordered proteins in explicit solvent simulations that disagree with experiments. Multiple strategies have been introduced in the literature to modify protein-water interactions, which improve agreement between experiments and simulations. In this work, we combine simulations with standard and modified force fields with a spatially resolved analysis of solvation free energy contributions and compare the consequences of each strategy. We find that enhanced Lennard-Jones (LJ) interactions between protein atoms and water oxygens primarily improve the solvation of nonpolar functional groups of the protein. In contrast, modified electrostatics in the water model or strengthened LJ interactions between the protein and water hydrogens mainly affect the hydration of polar functional groups. Modified electrostatics further impact the average orientation of water molecules in the hydration shell. As a result, protein-water interactions with the first hydration layers are strengthened, while interactions with water molecules in higher hydration shells are weakened. Hence, distinct strategies to balance intra-protein and protein-water interactions in simulations have qualitatively different effects on protein solvation. These differences are not necessarily captured by comparisons to experiments that report on global parameters describing protein conformational ensembles, e.g., the radius of gyration, but will influence the tendency of a protein to form aggregates or phase-separated droplets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sthitadhi Maiti
- School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, United States
| | - Matthias Heyden
- School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, United States
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21
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Mori T, Yoshida N. Tuning the ATP-ATP and ATP-disordered protein interactions in high ATP concentration by altering water models. J Chem Phys 2023; 159:035102. [PMID: 37458354 DOI: 10.1063/5.0158046] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2023] [Accepted: 06/27/2023] [Indexed: 07/20/2023] Open
Abstract
The adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-protein interactions have been of great interest since the recent experimental finding of ATP's role as a hydrotrope. The interaction between ATP and disordered proteins is fundamental to the dissolution of protein aggregates and the regulation of liquid-liquid phase separation by ATP. Molecular dynamics simulation is a powerful tool for analyzing these interactions in molecular detail but often suffers from inaccuracies in describing disordered proteins and ATPs in high concentrations. Recently, several water models have been proposed to improve the description of the protein-disordered states, yet how these models work with ATP has not been explored. To this end, here, we study how water models affect ATP and alter the ATP-ATP and ATP-protein interactions for the intrinsically disordered protein, α-Synuclein. Three water models, TIP4P-D, OPC, and TIP3P, are compared, while the protein force field is fixed to ff99SBildn. The results show that ATP over-aggregates into a single cluster in TIP3P water, but monomers and smaller clusters are found in TIP4P-D and OPC waters. ATP-protein interaction is also over-stabilized in TIP3P, whereas repeated binding/unbinding of ATP to α-Synuclein is observed in OPC and TIP4P-D waters, which is in line with the recent nuclear magnetic resonance experiment. The adenine ring-mediated interaction is found to play a major role in ATP-ATP and ATP-protein contacts. Interestingly, changing Mg2+ into Na+ strengthened the electrostatic interaction and promoted ATP oligomerization and ATP-α-Synuclein binding. Overall, this study shows that changing the water model can be an effective approach to improve the properties of ATP in high concentration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Toshifumi Mori
- Institute for Materials Chemistry and Engineering, Kyushu University, Kasuga, Fukuoka 816-8580, Japan
- Department of Interdisciplinary Engineering Sciences, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Engineering Sciences, Kyushu University, Kasuga, Fukuoka 816-8580, Japan
| | - Norio Yoshida
- Graduate School of Informatics, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan
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22
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Li M, Chen G, Zhang Z. Modeling the effects of phosphorylation on phase separation of the FUS low-complexity domain. Biophys J 2023; 122:2636-2645. [PMID: 37211763 PMCID: PMC10397571 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2023.05.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2022] [Revised: 05/13/2023] [Accepted: 05/18/2023] [Indexed: 05/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Aggregation of the RNA-binding protein fused in sarcoma (FUS) is a hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases. Phosphorylation of Ser/Thr in the FUS low-complexity domain (FUS-LC) may regulate phase separation of FUS and prevent pathological aggregation in cells. However, many details of this process remain elusive to date. In this work, we systematically investigated the phosphorylation of FUS-LC and the underlying molecular mechanism by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and free energy calculations. The results clearly show that phosphorylation can destroy the fibril core structure of FUS-LC by breaking interchain interactions, particularly contacts involving residues like Tyr, Ser, and Gln. Among the six phosphorylation sites, Ser61 and Ser84 may have more important effects on the stability of the fibril core. Our study reveals structural and dynamic details of FUS-LC phase separation modulated by phosphorylation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mingwei Li
- MOE Key Laboratory for Cellular Dynamics and Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, P.R. China
| | - Guanglin Chen
- Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, P.R. China
| | - Zhiyong Zhang
- MOE Key Laboratory for Cellular Dynamics and Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, P.R. China; Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, P.R. China.
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23
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Sarthak K, Winogradoff D, Ge Y, Myong S, Aksimentiev A. Benchmarking Molecular Dynamics Force Fields for All-Atom Simulations of Biological Condensates. J Chem Theory Comput 2023; 19:3721-3740. [PMID: 37134270 PMCID: PMC11169342 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.3c00148] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/05/2023]
Abstract
Proteins containing intrinsically disordered regions are integral parts of the cellular signaling pathways and common components of biological condensates. Point mutations in the protein sequence, genetic at birth or acquired through aging, can alter the properties of the condensates, marking the onset of neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS and dementia. While the all-atom molecular dynamics method can, in principle, elucidate the conformational changes that arise from point mutations, the applications of this method to protein condensate systems is conditioned upon the availability of molecular force fields that can accurately describe both structured and disordered regions of such proteins. Using the special-purpose Anton 2 supercomputer, we benchmarked the efficacy of nine presently available molecular force fields in describing the structure and dynamics of a Fused in sarcoma (FUS) protein. Five-microsecond simulations of the full-length FUS protein characterized the effect of the force field on the global conformation of the protein, self-interactions among its side chains, solvent accessible surface area, and the diffusion constant. Using the results of dynamic light scattering as a benchmark for the FUS radius of gyration, we identified several force fields that produced FUS conformations within the experimental range. Next, we used these force fields to perform ten-microsecond simulations of two structured RNA binding domains of FUS bound to their respective RNA targets, finding the choice of the force field to affect stability of the RNA-FUS complex. Taken together, our data suggest that a combination of protein and RNA force fields sharing a common four-point water model provides an optimal description of proteins containing both disordered and structured regions and RNA-protein interactions. To make simulations of such systems available beyond the Anton 2 machines, we describe and validate implementation of the best performing force fields in a publicly available molecular dynamics program NAMD. Our NAMD implementation enables simulations of large (tens of millions of atoms) biological condensate systems and makes such simulations accessible to a broader scientific community.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kumar Sarthak
- Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61820, United States
| | - David Winogradoff
- Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61820, United States
- Center for the Physics of Living Cells, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61820, United States
| | - Yingda Ge
- Department of Biophysics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, United States
| | - Sua Myong
- Center for the Physics of Living Cells, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61820, United States
- Program in Cell, Molecular, Developmental Biology, and Biophysics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, United States
| | - Aleksei Aksimentiev
- Center for the Physics of Living Cells, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61820, United States
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24
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Coppa C, Bazzoli A, Barkhordari M, Contini A. Accelerated Molecular Dynamics for Peptide Folding: Benchmarking Different Combinations of Force Fields and Explicit Solvent Models. J Chem Inf Model 2023; 63:3030-3042. [PMID: 37163419 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.3c00138] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
Accelerated molecular dynamics (aMD) protocols were assessed on predicting the secondary structure of eight peptides, of which two are helical, three are β-hairpins, and three are disordered. Protocols consisted of combinations of three force fields (ff99SB, ff14SB, ff19SB) and two explicit solvation models (TIP3P and OPC), and were evaluated in two independent aMD simulations, one starting from an extended conformation, the other starting from a misfolded conformation. The results of these analyses indicate that all three combinations performed well on helical peptides. As for β-hairpins, ff19SB performed well with both solvation methods, with a slight preference for the TIP3P solvation model, even though performance was dependent on both peptide sequence and initial conformation. The ff19SB/OPC combination had the best performance on intrinsically disordered peptides. In general, ff14SB/TIP3P suffered the strongest helical bias.
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Affiliation(s)
- Crescenzo Coppa
- Dipartimento di Scienze Farmaceutiche - Sezione di Chimica Generale e Organica "Alessandro Marchesini", Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Venezian, 21, 20133 Milano, Italy
| | - Andrea Bazzoli
- Dipartimento di Scienze Farmaceutiche - Sezione di Chimica Generale e Organica "Alessandro Marchesini", Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Venezian, 21, 20133 Milano, Italy
| | - Maral Barkhordari
- Dipartimento di Scienze Farmaceutiche - Sezione di Chimica Generale e Organica "Alessandro Marchesini", Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Venezian, 21, 20133 Milano, Italy
| | - Alessandro Contini
- Dipartimento di Scienze Farmaceutiche - Sezione di Chimica Generale e Organica "Alessandro Marchesini", Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Venezian, 21, 20133 Milano, Italy
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25
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Gaalswyk K, Haider A, Ghosh K. Critical Assessment of Self-Consistency Checks in the All-Atom Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins. J Chem Theory Comput 2023; 19:2973-2984. [PMID: 37133846 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.2c01140] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
All atom simulations can be used to quantify conformational properties of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins (IDP). However, simulations must satisfy convergence checks to ensure observables computed from simulation are reliable and reproducible. While absolute convergence is purely a theoretical concept requiring infinitely long simulation, a more practical, yet rigorous, approach is to impose Self Consistency Checks (SCCs) to gain confidence in the simulated data. Currently there is no study of SCCs in IDPs, unlike their folded counterparts. In this paper, we introduce different criteria for self-consistency checks for IDPs. Next, we impose these SCCs to critically assess the performance of different simulation protocols using the N terminal domain of HIV Integrase and the linker region of SARS-CoV-2 Nucleoprotein as two model IDPs. All simulation protocols begin with all-atom implicit solvent Monte Carlo (MC) simulation and subsequent clustering of MC generated conformations to create the representative structures of the IDPs. These representative structures serve as the initial structure for subsequent molecular dynamics (MD) runs with explicit solvent. We conclude that generating multiple short (∼3 μs) MD simulation trajectories─all starting from the most representative MC generated conformation─and merging them is the protocol of choice due to (i) its ability to satisfy multiple SCCs, (ii) consistently reproducing experimental data, and (iii) the efficiency of running independent trajectories in parallel by harnessing multiple cores available in modern GPU clusters. Running one long trajectory (greater than 20 μs) can also satisfy the first two criteria but is less desirable due to prohibitive computation time. These findings help resolve the challenge of identifying a usable starting configuration, provide an objective measure of SCC, and establish rigorous criteria to determine the minimum length (for one long simulation) or number of trajectories needed in all-atom simulation of IDPs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kari Gaalswyk
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado 80208, United States
| | - Austin Haider
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biophysics, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado 80208, United States
| | - Kingshuk Ghosh
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado 80208, United States
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biophysics, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado 80208, United States
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26
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Bekker GJ, Araki M, Oshima K, Okuno Y, Kamiya N. Mutual induced-fit mechanism drives binding between intrinsically disordered Bim and cryptic binding site of Bcl-xL. Commun Biol 2023; 6:349. [PMID: 36997643 PMCID: PMC10063584 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-04720-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2022] [Accepted: 03/16/2023] [Indexed: 04/03/2023] Open
Abstract
The intrinsically disordered region (IDR) of Bim binds to the flexible cryptic site of Bcl-xL, a pro-survival protein involved in cancer progression that plays an important role in initiating apoptosis. However, their binding mechanism has not yet been elucidated. We have applied our dynamic docking protocol, which correctly reproduced both the IDR properties of Bim and the native bound configuration, as well as suggesting other stable/meta-stable binding configurations and revealed the binding pathway. Although the cryptic site of Bcl-xL is predominantly in a closed conformation, initial binding of Bim in an encounter configuration leads to mutual induced-fit binding, where both molecules adapt to each other; Bcl-xL transitions to an open state as Bim folds from a disordered to an α-helical conformation while the two molecules bind each other. Finally, our data provides new avenues to develop novel drugs by targeting newly discovered stable conformations of Bcl-xL.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gert-Jan Bekker
- Institute for Protein Research, Osaka University, 3-2 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan.
| | - Mitsugu Araki
- Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, 53 Shogoin-Kawaharacho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8507, Japan
| | - Kanji Oshima
- Bio-Pharma Research Laboratories, KANEKA CORPORATION, 1-8 Miyamae-cho, Takasago-cho, Takasago, Hyogo, 676-8688, Japan
| | - Yasushi Okuno
- Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, 53 Shogoin-Kawaharacho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8507, Japan
| | - Narutoshi Kamiya
- Graduate School of Information Science, University of Hyogo, 7-1-28 Minatojima Minami-machi, Chuo-ku, Kobe, Hyogo, 650-0047, Japan.
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27
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Sarthak K, Winogradoff D, Ge Y, Myong S, Aksimentiev A. Benchmarking Molecular Dynamics Force Fields for All-Atom Simulations of Biological Condensates. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.02.09.527891. [PMID: 36798393 PMCID: PMC9934651 DOI: 10.1101/2023.02.09.527891] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/12/2023]
Abstract
Proteins containing intrinsically disordered regions are integral components of the cellular signaling pathways and common components of biological condensates. Point mutations in the protein sequence, genetic at birth or acquired through aging, can alter the properties of the condensates, marking the onset of neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS and dementia. While all-atom molecular dynamics method can, in principle, elucidate the conformational changes responsible for the aging of the condensate, the applications of this method to protein condensate systems is conditioned by the availability of molecular force fields that can accurately describe both structured and disordered regions of such proteins. Using the special-purpose Anton 2 supercomputer, we benchmarked the efficacy of nine presently available molecular force fields in describing the structure and dynamics of a Fused in sarcoma (FUS) protein. Five-microsecond simulations of the full-length FUS protein characterized the effect of the force field on the global conformation of the protein, self-interactions among its side chains, solvent accessible surface area and the diffusion constant. Using the results of dynamic light scattering as a benchmark for the FUS radius of gyration, we identified several force field that produced FUS conformations within the experimental range. Next, we used these force fields to perform ten-microsecond simulations of two structured RNA binding domains of FUS bound to their respective RNA targets, finding the choice of the force field to affect stability of the RNA-FUS complex. Taken together, our data suggest that a combination of protein and RNA force fields sharing a common four-point water model provides an optimal description of proteins containing both disordered and structured regions and RNA-protein interactions. To make simulations of such systems available beyond the Anton 2 machines, we describe and validate implementation of the best performing force fields in a publicly available molecular dynamics program NAMD. Our NAMD implementation enables simulations of large (tens of millions of atoms) biological condensate systems and makes such simulations accessible to a broader scientific community. Graphical TOC Entry
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28
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Sun B, Kekenes-Huskey PM. Myofilament-associated proteins with intrinsic disorder (MAPIDs) and their resolution by computational modeling. Q Rev Biophys 2023; 56:e2. [PMID: 36628457 PMCID: PMC11070111 DOI: 10.1017/s003358352300001x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Abstract
The cardiac sarcomere is a cellular structure in the heart that enables muscle cells to contract. Dozens of proteins belong to the cardiac sarcomere, which work in tandem to generate force and adapt to demands on cardiac output. Intriguingly, the majority of these proteins have significant intrinsic disorder that contributes to their functions, yet the biophysics of these intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) have been characterized in limited detail. In this review, we first enumerate these myofilament-associated proteins with intrinsic disorder (MAPIDs) and recent biophysical studies to characterize their IDRs. We secondly summarize the biophysics governing IDR properties and the state-of-the-art in computational tools toward MAPID identification and characterization of their conformation ensembles. We conclude with an overview of future computational approaches toward broadening the understanding of intrinsic disorder in the cardiac sarcomere.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bin Sun
- Research Center for Pharmacoinformatics (The State-Province Key Laboratories of Biomedicine-Pharmaceutics of China), Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Medicine Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150081, China
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29
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Zheng W, Du Z, Ko SB, Wickramasinghe NP, Yang S. Incorporation of D 2O-Induced Fluorine Chemical Shift Perturbations into Ensemble-Structure Characterization of the ERalpha Disordered Region. J Phys Chem B 2022; 126:9176-9186. [PMID: 36331868 PMCID: PMC10066504 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.2c05456] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
Structural characterization of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) requires a concerted effort between experiments and computations by accounting for their conformational heterogeneity. Given the diversity of experimental tools providing local and global structural information, constructing an experimental restraint-satisfying structural ensemble remains challenging. Here, we use the disordered N-terminal domain (NTD) of the estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) as a model system to combine existing small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and hydroxyl radical protein footprinting (HRPF) data and newly acquired solvent accessibility data via D2O-induced fluorine chemical shifting (DFCS) measurements. A new set of DFCS data for the solvent exposure of a set of 12 amino acid positions were added to complement previously acquired HRPF measurements for the solvent exposure of the other 16 nonoverlapping amino acids, thereby improving the NTD ensemble characterization considerably. We also found that while choosing an initial ensemble of structures generated from a different atomic-level force field or sampling/modeling method can lead to distinct contact maps even when the same sets of experimental measurements were used for ensemble-fitting, comparative analyses from these initial ensembles reveal commonly recurring structural features in their ensemble-averaged contact map. Specifically, nonlocal or long-range transient interactions were found consistently between the N-terminal segments and the central region, sufficient to mediate the conformational ensemble and regulate how the NTD interacts with its coactivator proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wenwei Zheng
- College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, Arizona State University, Mesa, Arizona 85212, United States
| | - Zhanwen Du
- Center for Proteomics and Department of Nutrition, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, United States
| | - Soo Bin Ko
- Center for Proteomics and Department of Nutrition, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, United States
| | | | - Sichun Yang
- Center for Proteomics and Department of Nutrition, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, United States
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30
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Bhattacharya S, Zhang M, Hu W, Qi T, Heisterkamp N. Targeting disordered-structured domain interactions in Galectin-3 based on NMR and enhanced MD. Biophys J 2022; 121:4342-4357. [PMID: 36209362 PMCID: PMC9703043 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2022.10.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2021] [Revised: 05/18/2022] [Accepted: 10/06/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) are common and important functional domains in many proteins. However, IDRs are difficult to target for drug development due to the lack of defined structures that would facilitate the identification of possible drug-binding pockets. Galectin-3 is a carbohydrate-binding protein of which overexpression has been implicated in a wide variety of disorders, including cancer and inflammation. Apart from its carbohydrate-recognition/binding domain (CRD), Galectin-3 also contains a functionally important disordered N-terminal domain (NTD) that contacts the C-terminal domain (CTD) and could be a target for drug development. To overcome challenges involved in inhibitor design due to lack of structure and the highly dynamic nature of the NTD, we used a protocol combining nuclear magnetic resonance data from recombinant Galectin-3 with accelerated molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. This approach identified a pocket in the CTD with which the NTD makes frequent contact. In accordance with this model, mutation of residues L131 and L203 in this pocket caused loss of Galectin-3 agglutination ability, signifying the functional relevance of the cavity. In silico screening was used to design candidate inhibitory peptides targeting the newly discovered cavity, and experimental testing of only three of these yielded one peptide that inhibits the agglutination promoted by wild-type Galectin-3. NMR experiments further confirmed that this peptide indeed binds to a cavity in the CTD, not within the actual CRD. Our results show that it is possible to apply a combination of MD simulations and NMR experiments to precisely predict the binding interface of a disordered domain with a structured domain, and furthermore use this predicted interface for designing inhibitors. This procedure can potentially be extended to many other targets in which similar IDR interactions play a vital functional role.
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Affiliation(s)
- Supriyo Bhattacharya
- Integrative Genomics Core, Beckman Research Institute, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA 91010, USA
| | - Mingfeng Zhang
- Department of Systems Biology, Beckman Research Institute City of Hope, Monrovia, California
| | - Weidong Hu
- Department of Molecular Imaging and Therapy, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Duarte, California
| | - Tong Qi
- Department of Systems Biology, Beckman Research Institute City of Hope, Monrovia, California
| | - Nora Heisterkamp
- Department of Systems Biology, Beckman Research Institute City of Hope, Monrovia, California.
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31
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Abstract
Simulating water accurately has been a major challenge in atomistic simulations for decades. Inclusion of electronic polarizability effects holds considerable promise, yet existing approaches suffer from significant computational overheads compared to the widely used nonpolarizable water models. We have developed a globally optimal polarizable water model, OPC3-pol, that explicitly accounts for electronic polarizability with minimal impact on the computational efficiency. OPC3-pol reproduces five key bulk water properties at room temperature with an average relative error of 0.6%. In atomistic simulations, OPC3-pol's computational efficiency is in between that of 3- and 4-point nonpolarizable models; the model supports increased (4 fs) integration time step. OPC3-pol is tested in simulations of globular protein ubiquitin and a B-DNA dodecamer with several AMBER force fields, ff99SB, ff14SB, ff19SB, and OL15, demonstrating structure stability close to reference on multi-microsecond time scale. Simulation of an intrinsically disordered amyloid β-peptide yields an ensemble with the radius of gyration of a random coil. The proposed water model can be trivially adopted by any package that supports standard nonpolarizable force fields and water models; its intended use is in long classical atomistic simulations where water polarization effects are expected to be important.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yeyue Xiong
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg24061, United States
| | - Saeed Izadi
- Pharmaceutical Development Department, Genentech, South San Francisco94080, United States
| | - Alexey V Onufriev
- Department of Computer Science, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg24061, United States
- Department of Physics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg24061, United States
- Center for Soft Matter and Biological Physics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg24061, United States
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32
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Hao X, Li C, Liu C, Meng Q, Sun J. The performance of OPC water model in prediction of the phase equilibria of methane hydrate. J Chem Phys 2022; 157:014504. [DOI: 10.1063/5.0093659] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed to determine the three-phase coexistence line of sI methane hydrates. The MD simulations were carried out at four different pressures (4, 10, 40 and 100 MPa) by using direct phase coexistence method. In current simulations, water was described by either TIP4P/Ice or OPC models and methane was described as a simple Lennard-Jones (LJ) interaction site. Lorentz-Berthelot combining rules were used to calculate the parameters of the cross interactions. For OPC model, positive deviations from the energetic Lorentz-Berthelot rule were also considered based on the solubility of methane in water. For TIP4P/Ice water model, the obtained three phase coexistence temperatures showed good agreement with experiment data at higher pressures, which is consistent with previous predictions. For OPC water model, simulations using the classic and the modified LB parameters both showed negative deviations to the experimental values. Our results also indicated that the deviation of the T3 prediction by OPC model not much correlated with the predicted melting point of ice. At 4 MPa, the modified OPC model showed outstanding prediction of hydrate equilibrium temperature, even better than the prediction by TIP4P/Ice. The relative higher accuracy in biomolecular MD of OPC model suggests that this model may have a better performance in hydrate MD simulations of biomolecule-based additives.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiluo Hao
- Qingdao Institute of Marine Geology, China
| | | | | | | | - Jianye Sun
- Qingdao Institute of Marine Geology, China
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33
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Mendoza-Martinez C, Papadourakis M, Llabrés S, Gupta AA, Barlow PN, Michel J. Energetics of a protein disorder-order transition in small molecule recognition. Chem Sci 2022; 13:5220-5229. [PMID: 35655546 PMCID: PMC9093188 DOI: 10.1039/d2sc00028h] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2022] [Accepted: 04/01/2022] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Many proteins recognise other proteins via mechanisms that involve the folding of intrinsically disordered regions upon complex formation. Here we investigate how the selectivity of a drug-like small molecule arises from its modulation of a protein disorder-to-order transition. Binding of the compound AM-7209 has been reported to confer order upon an intrinsically disordered ‘lid’ region of the oncoprotein MDM2. Calorimetric measurements revealed that truncation of the lid region of MDM2 increases the apparent dissociation constant of AM-7209 250-fold. By contrast, lid truncation has little effect on the binding of the ligand Nutlin-3a. Insights into these differential binding energetics were obtained via a complete thermodynamic analysis that featured adaptive absolute alchemical free energy of binding calculations with enhanced-sampling molecular dynamics simulations. The simulations reveal that in apo MDM2 the ordered lid state is energetically disfavoured. AM-7209, but not Nutlin-3a, shows a significant energetic preference for ordered lid conformations, thus shifting the balance towards ordering of the lid in the AM-7209/MDM2 complex. The methodology reported herein should facilitate broader targeting of intrinsically disordered regions in medicinal chemistry. Molecular simulations and biophysical measurements elucidate why the ligand AM-7209 orders a disordered region of the protein MDM2 on binding. This work expands strategies available to medicinal chemists for targeting disordered proteins.![]()
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Affiliation(s)
- Cesar Mendoza-Martinez
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh David Brewster Road Edinburgh EH9 3FJ UK
| | - Michail Papadourakis
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh David Brewster Road Edinburgh EH9 3FJ UK
| | - Salomé Llabrés
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh David Brewster Road Edinburgh EH9 3FJ UK
| | - Arun A Gupta
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh David Brewster Road Edinburgh EH9 3FJ UK
| | - Paul N Barlow
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh David Brewster Road Edinburgh EH9 3FJ UK
| | - Julien Michel
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh David Brewster Road Edinburgh EH9 3FJ UK
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34
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Rizzuti B. Molecular simulations of proteins: From simplified physical interactions to complex biological phenomena. BIOCHIMICA ET BIOPHYSICA ACTA. PROTEINS AND PROTEOMICS 2022; 1870:140757. [PMID: 35051666 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbapap.2022.140757] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2021] [Revised: 01/08/2022] [Accepted: 01/10/2022] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Molecular dynamics simulation is the most popular computational technique for investigating the structural and dynamical behaviour of proteins, in search of the molecular basis of their function. Far from being a completely settled field of research, simulations are still evolving to best capture the essential features of the atomic interactions that govern a protein's inner motions. Modern force fields are becoming increasingly accurate in providing a physical description adequate to this purpose, and allow us to model complex biological systems under fairly realistic conditions. Furthermore, the use of accelerated sampling techniques is improving our access to the observation of progressively larger molecular structures, longer time scales, and more hidden functional events. In this review, the basic principles of molecular dynamics simulations and a number of key applications in the area of protein science are summarized, and some of the most important results are discussed. Examples include the study of the structure, dynamics and binding properties of 'difficult' targets, such as intrinsically disordered proteins and membrane receptors, and the investigation of challenging phenomena like hydration-driven processes and protein aggregation. The findings described provide an overall picture of the current state of this research field, and indicate new perspectives on the road ahead to the upcoming future of molecular simulations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bruno Rizzuti
- CNR-NANOTEC, SS Rende (CS), Department of Physics, University of Calabria, 87036 Rende, Italy; Institute for Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems (BIFI), Joint Unit GBsC-CSIC-BIFI, University of Zaragoza, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain.
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35
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Grotz KK, Schwierz N. Magnesium Force Fields for OPC Water with Accurate Solvation, Ion-Binding, and Water-Exchange Properties: Successful Transfer from SPC/E. J Chem Phys 2022; 156:114501. [DOI: 10.1063/5.0087292] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Magnesium plays a vital role in a large variety of biological processes. To model such processes by molecular dynamics simulations, researchers rely on accurate force field parameters for Mg2+ and water. OPC is one of the most promising water models yielding an improved description of biomolecules in water. The aim of this work is to provide force field parameters for Mg2+ that lead to accurate simulation results in combination with OPC water. Using twelve different Mg2+ parameter sets, that were previously optimized with different water models, we systematically assess the transferability to OPC based on a large variety of experimental properties. The results show that the Mg2+ parameters for SPC/E are transferable to OPC and closely reproduce the experimental solvation free energy, radius of the first hydration shell, coordination number, activity derivative, and binding affinity toward the phosphate oxygens on RNA. Two optimal parameter sets are presented: MicroMg yields water exchange in OPC on the microsecond timescale in agreement with experiments. NanoMg yields accelerated exchange on the nanosecond timescale and facilitates the direct observation of ion binding events for enhanced sampling purposes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kara K. Grotz
- Theoretical Biophysics, Max Planck Institute of Biophysics, Germany
| | - Nadine Schwierz
- Theoretical Biophysics, Max Planck Institute of Biophysics, Germany
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36
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Robustelli P, Ibanez-de-Opakua A, Campbell-Bezat C, Giordanetto F, Becker S, Zweckstetter M, Pan AC, Shaw DE. Molecular Basis of Small-Molecule Binding to α-Synuclein. J Am Chem Soc 2022; 144:2501-2510. [PMID: 35130691 PMCID: PMC8855421 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c07591] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
![]()
Intrinsically disordered
proteins (IDPs) are implicated in many
human diseases. They have generally not been amenable to conventional
structure-based drug design, however, because their intrinsic conformational
variability has precluded an atomic-level understanding of their binding
to small molecules. Here we present long-time-scale, atomic-level
molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of monomeric α-synuclein
(an IDP whose aggregation is associated with Parkinson’s disease)
binding the small-molecule drug fasudil in which the observed protein–ligand
interactions were found to be in good agreement with previously reported
NMR chemical shift data. In our simulations, fasudil, when bound,
favored certain charge–charge and π-stacking interactions
near the C terminus of α-synuclein but tended not to form these
interactions simultaneously, rather breaking one of these interactions
and forming another nearby (a mechanism we term dynamic shuttling). Further simulations with small molecules chosen to modify these
interactions yielded binding affinities and key structural features
of binding consistent with subsequent NMR experiments, suggesting
the potential for MD-based strategies to facilitate the rational design
of small molecules that bind with disordered proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Robustelli
- D. E. Shaw Research, New York, New York 10036, United States.,Department of Chemistry, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, United States
| | | | | | | | - Stefan Becker
- Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Markus Zweckstetter
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), 37077 Göttingen, Germany.,Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.,DFG Research Center for Nanoscale Microscopy and Molecular Physiology of the Brain (CNMPB), 37073 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Albert C Pan
- D. E. Shaw Research, New York, New York 10036, United States
| | - David E Shaw
- D. E. Shaw Research, New York, New York 10036, United States.,Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, United States
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37
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Andrews B, Guerra J, Schweitzer-Stenner R, Urbanc B. Do molecular dynamics force fields accurately model Ramachandran distributions of amino acid residues in water? Phys Chem Chem Phys 2022; 24:3259-3279. [PMID: 35048087 DOI: 10.1039/d1cp05069a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
Molecular dynamics (MD) is a powerful tool for studying intrinsically disordered proteins, however, its reliability depends on the accuracy of the force field. We assess Amber ff19SB, Amber ff14SB, OPLS-AA/M, and CHARMM36m with respect to their capacity to capture intrinsic conformational dynamics of 14 guest residues x (=G, A, L, V, I, F, Y, DP, EP, R, C, N, S, T) in GxG peptides in water. The MD-derived Ramachandran distribution of each guest residue is used to calculate 5 J-coupling constants and amide I' band profiles to facilitate a comparison to spectroscopic data through reduced χ2 functions. We show that the Gaussian model, optimized to best fit the experimental data, outperforms all MD force fields by an order of magnitude. The weaknesses of the MD force fields are: (i) insufficient variability of the polyproline II (pPII) population among the guest residues; (ii) oversampling of antiparallel at the expense of transitional β-strand region; (iii) inadequate sampling of turn-forming conformations for ionizable and polar residues; and (iv) insufficient guest residue-specificity of the Ramachandran distributions. Whereas Amber ff19SB performs worse than the other three force fields with respect to χ2 values, it accounts for residue-specific pPII content better than the other three force fields. Additional testing of residue-specific RSFF1 and Amber ff14SB combined with TIP4P/2005 on six guest residues x (=A, I, F, DP, R, S) reveals that residue specificity derived from protein coil libraries or an improved water model alone do not result in significantly lower χ2 values.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian Andrews
- Department of Physics, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
| | - Jose Guerra
- Department of Chemistry, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA
| | | | - Brigita Urbanc
- Department of Physics, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
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38
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Michalski M, Setny P. Membrane-Bound Configuration and Lipid Perturbing Effects of Hemagglutinin Subunit 2 N-Terminus Investigated by Computer Simulations. Front Mol Biosci 2022; 9:826366. [PMID: 35155580 PMCID: PMC8830744 DOI: 10.3389/fmolb.2022.826366] [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] [Received: 11/30/2021] [Accepted: 01/04/2022] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Hemagglutinin (HA) mediated fusion of influenza virus envelope with host lipid membrane is a critical step warrantying virus entry to the cell. Despite tremendous advances in structural biology methods, the knowledge concerning the details of HA2 subunit insertion into the target membrane and its subsequent bilayer perturbing effect is still rather limited. Herein, based on a set of molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate the structure and interaction with lipid membrane of the N-terminal HA2 region comprising a trimer of fusion peptides (HAfps) tethered by flexible linkers to a fragment of coiled-coil stem structure. We find that, prior to insertion into the membrane, HAfps within the trimers do not sample space individually but rather associate into a compact hydrophobic aggregate. Once within the membrane, they fold into tight helical hairpins, which remain at the lipid-water interface. However, they can also assume stable, membrane-spanning configurations of significantly increased membrane-perturbing potential. In this latter case, HAfps trimers centre around the well-hydrated transmembrane channel-forming distinct, symmetric assemblies, whose wedge-like shape may play a role in promoting membrane curvature. We also demonstrate that, following HAfps insertion, the coiled-coil stem spontaneously tilts to almost membrane-parallel orientation, reflecting experimentally observed configuration adopted in the course of membrane fusion by complete HA2 units at the rim of membrane contact zones.
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39
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Peptide Dynamics and Metadynamics: Leveraging Enhanced Sampling Molecular Dynamics to Robustly Model Long-Timescale Transitions. Methods Mol Biol 2022; 2405:151-167. [PMID: 35298813 PMCID: PMC9313359 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1855-4_8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
Molecular dynamics simulations can in theory reveal the thermodynamics and kinetics of peptide conformational transitions at atomic-level resolution. However, even with modern computing power, they are limited in the timescales they can sample, which is especially problematic for peptides that are fully or partially disordered. Here, we discuss how the enhanced sampling methods accelerated molecular dynamics (aMD) and metadynamics can be leveraged in a complementary fashion to quickly explore conformational space and then robustly quantify the underlying free energy landscape. We apply these methods to two peptides that have an intrinsically disordered nature, the histone H3 and H4 N-terminal tails, and use metadynamics to compute the free energy landscape along collective variables discerned from aMD simulations. Results show that these peptides are largely disordered, with a slight preference for α-helical structures.
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40
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Nguyen PH, Derreumaux P. Computer Simulations Aimed at Exploring Protein Aggregation and Dissociation. Methods Mol Biol 2022; 2340:175-196. [PMID: 35167075 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1546-1_9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Protein aggregation can lead to well-defined structures that are functional, but is also the cause of the death of neuron cells in many neurodegenerative diseases. The complexity of the molecular events involved in the aggregation kinetics of amyloid proteins and the transient and heterogeneous characters of all oligomers prevent high-resolution structural experiments. As a result, computer simulations have been used to determine the atomic structures of amyloid proteins at different association stages as well as to understand fibril dissociation. In this chapter, we first review the current computer simulation methods used for aggregation with some atomistic and coarse-grained results aimed at better characterizing the early formed oligomers and amyloid fibril formation. Then we present the applications of non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations to comprehend the dissociation of protein assemblies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Phuong H Nguyen
- Laboratoire de Biochimie Théorique, UPR 9080, CNRS, Université de Paris, Paris, France
- Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique, Fondation Edmond de Rothschild, PSL Research University, Paris, France
| | - Philippe Derreumaux
- Laboratoire de Biochimie Théorique, UPR 9080, CNRS, Université de Paris, Paris, France.
- Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique, Fondation Edmond de Rothschild, PSL Research University, Paris, France.
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41
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Kolesnikov ES, Gushchin IY, Zhilyaev PA, Onufriev AV. Similarities and Differences between Na + and K + Distributions around DNA Obtained with Three Popular Water Models. J Chem Theory Comput 2021; 17:7246-7259. [PMID: 34633813 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.1c00332] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
We have compared distributions of sodium and potassium ions around double-stranded DNA, simulated using fixed charge SPC/E, TIP3P, and OPC water models and the Joung/Cheatham (J/C) ion parameter set, as well as the Li/Merz HFE 6-12 (L/M HFE) ion parameters for OPC water. In all the simulations, the ion distributions are in qualitative agreement with Manning's condensation theory and the Debye-Hückel theory, where expected. In agreement with experiment, binding affinity of monovalent ions to DNA does not depend on ion type in every solvent model. However, behavior of deeply bound ions, including ions bound to specific sites, depends strongly on the solvent model. In particular, the number of potassium ions in the minor groove of AT-tracts differs at least 3-fold between the solvent models tested. The number of sodium ions associated with the DNA agrees quantitatively with the experiment for the OPC water model, followed closely by TIP3P+J/C; the largest deviation from the experiment, ∼10%, is seen for SPC/E+J/C. On the other hand, SPC/E+J/C model is most consistent (67%) with the experimental potassium binding sites, followed by OPC+J/C (60%), TIP3P+J/C (53%), and OPC+L/M HFE (27%). The use of NBFIX correction with TIP3P+J/C improves its consistency with the experiment. In summary, the choice of the solvent model matters little for simulating the diffuse atmosphere of sodium and potassium ions around DNA, but ion distributions become increasingly sensitive to the solvent model near the helical axis. We offer an explanation for these trends. There is no single gold standard solvent model, although OPC water with J/C ions or TIP3P with J/C + NBFIX may offer an imperfect compromise for practical simulations of ionic atmospheres around DNA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Egor S Kolesnikov
- Research Center for Molecular Mechanisms of Aging and Age-Related Diseases, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudny 141700, Russia
| | - Ivan Yu Gushchin
- Research Center for Molecular Mechanisms of Aging and Age-Related Diseases, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudny 141700, Russia
| | - Petr A Zhilyaev
- Center for Design, Manufacturing and Materials, Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Bolshoy Boulevard 30, bld. 1, Moscow 121205, Russia
| | - Alexey V Onufriev
- Department of Computer Science, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg 24061-0131, United States.,Department of Physics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg 24061-0131, United States.,Center for Soft Matter and Biological Physics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg 24061-0131, United States
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42
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Mu J, Pan Z, Chen HF. Balanced Solvent Model for Intrinsically Disordered and Ordered Proteins. J Chem Inf Model 2021; 61:5141-5151. [PMID: 34546059 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.1c00407] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) have no fixed three-dimensional (3D) structures under physiological conditions, with the content being about 51% in human proteomics. IDPs are associated with many human diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, and neurodegenerative diseases. Because IDPs do not crystallize and have diverse conformers, traditional experimental methods such as crystallization and NMR can hardly capture their conformation ensemble and just provide average structural characters of IDPs. Therefore, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations become a valuable complement to the experimental data. However, the accuracy of molecular dynamics simulation for IDPs depends on the combination of force fields and solvent models. Recently, we released an environment-specific force field (ESFF1) for IDPs, which can well reproduce the local structural properties (such as J-coupling and secondary chemical shifts). However, there is still a large deviation for the radius of gyration (Rg). Therefore, a solvent model combined with ESFF1 is necessary to capture the local and global characters for IDPs and ordered proteins. Here, we investigated the underestimation or overestimation of the solvent interaction for four solvent models (TIP3P, TIP4P-Ew, TIP4P-D, OPC) under ESFF1 and found the important ε parameter of the solvent model to play a key role in scaling Rg. A near-linear relationship between the simulation Rg and the ε parameter was used to develop the new solvent model, named TIP4P-B. The results indicate that the simulated Rg with TIP4P-B is in better agreement with the experimental observations than the other four solvent models. Simultaneously, TIP4P-B can also maintain the advantages of the ESFF1 force field for the local structural properties. Additionally, TIP4P-B can successfully sample the conformation of ordered proteins. These findings confirm that TIP4P-B is a balanced solvent model and can improve sampling Rg performance for folded proteins and IDPs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Junxi Mu
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial metabolism, Joint International Research Laboratory of Metabolic & Developmental Sciences, Department of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, National Experimental Teaching Center for Life Sciences and Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Zhengsong Pan
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial metabolism, Joint International Research Laboratory of Metabolic & Developmental Sciences, Department of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, National Experimental Teaching Center for Life Sciences and Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.,MD Program, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China
| | - Hai-Feng Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial metabolism, Joint International Research Laboratory of Metabolic & Developmental Sciences, Department of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, National Experimental Teaching Center for Life Sciences and Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.,Shanghai Center for Bioinformation Technology, Shanghai 200235, China
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43
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Kadaoluwa Pathirannahalage SP, Meftahi N, Elbourne A, Weiss ACG, McConville CF, Padua A, Winkler DA, Costa Gomes M, Greaves TL, Le TC, Besford QA, Christofferson AJ. Systematic Comparison of the Structural and Dynamic Properties of Commonly Used Water Models for Molecular Dynamics Simulations. J Chem Inf Model 2021; 61:4521-4536. [PMID: 34406000 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.1c00794] [Citation(s) in RCA: 64] [Impact Index Per Article: 21.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
Water is a unique solvent that is ubiquitous in biology and present in a variety of solutions, mixtures, and materials settings. It therefore forms the basis for all molecular dynamics simulations of biological phenomena, as well as for many chemical, industrial, and materials investigations. Over the years, many water models have been developed, and it remains a challenge to find a single water model that accurately reproduces all experimental properties of water simultaneously. Here, we report a comprehensive comparison of structural and dynamic properties of 30 commonly used 3-point, 4-point, 5-point, and polarizable water models simulated using consistent settings and analysis methods. For the properties of density, coordination number, surface tension, dielectric constant, self-diffusion coefficient, and solvation free energy of methane, models published within the past two decades consistently show better agreement with experimental values compared to models published earlier, albeit with some notable exceptions. However, no single model reproduced all experimental values exactly, highlighting the need to carefully choose a water model for a particular study, depending on the phenomena of interest. Finally, machine learning algorithms quantified the relationship between the water model force field parameters and the resulting bulk properties, providing insight into the parameter-property relationship and illustrating the challenges of developing a water model that can accurately reproduce all properties of water simultaneously.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sachini P Kadaoluwa Pathirannahalage
- School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia.,Laboratoire de Chimie, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, CNRS, Lyon 69342, France
| | - Nastaran Meftahi
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science, School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia
| | - Aaron Elbourne
- School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia
| | - Alessia C G Weiss
- Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung e.V., Hohe Straße 6, 01069 Dresden, Germany
| | - Chris F McConville
- School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia.,Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria 3220, Australia
| | - Agilio Padua
- Laboratoire de Chimie, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, CNRS, Lyon 69342, France
| | - David A Winkler
- School of Biochemistry and Genetics, La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3086, Australia.,Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia.,School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2QL, U.K
| | | | - Tamar L Greaves
- School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia
| | - Tu C Le
- School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia
| | - Quinn A Besford
- Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung e.V., Hohe Straße 6, 01069 Dresden, Germany
| | - Andrew J Christofferson
- School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia.,ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science, School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia
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44
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Peng Y, Li S, Onufriev A, Landsman D, Panchenko AR. Binding of regulatory proteins to nucleosomes is modulated by dynamic histone tails. Nat Commun 2021; 12:5280. [PMID: 34489435 PMCID: PMC8421395 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25568-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2020] [Accepted: 08/17/2021] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Little is known about the roles of histone tails in modulating nucleosomal DNA accessibility and its recognition by other macromolecules. Here we generate extensive atomic level conformational ensembles of histone tails in the context of the full nucleosome, totaling 65 microseconds of molecular dynamics simulations. We observe rapid conformational transitions between tail bound and unbound states, and characterize kinetic and thermodynamic properties of histone tail-DNA interactions. Different histone types exhibit distinct binding modes to specific DNA regions. Using a comprehensive set of experimental nucleosome complexes, we find that the majority of them target mutually exclusive regions with histone tails on nucleosomal/linker DNA around the super-helical locations ± 1, ± 2, and ± 7, and histone tails H3 and H4 contribute most to this process. These findings are explained within competitive binding and tail displacement models. Finally, we demonstrate the crosstalk between different histone tail post-translational modifications and mutations; those which change charge, suppress tail-DNA interactions and enhance histone tail dynamics and DNA accessibility. The intrinsic disorder of histone tails poses challenges in their characterization. Here the authors apply extensive molecular dynamics simulations of the full nucleosome to show reversible binding to DNA with specific binding modes of different types of histone tails, where charge-altering modifications suppress tail-DNA interactions and may boost interactions between nucleosomes and nucleosome-binding proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yunhui Peng
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Shuxiang Li
- Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, School of Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada
| | - Alexey Onufriev
- Physics Department, Virginia Tech, VA, USA.,Computer Science Department, Virginia Tech, VA, USA.,Center for Soft Matter and Biological Physics, Virginia Tech, VA, USA
| | - David Landsman
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Anna R Panchenko
- Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, School of Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
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45
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Bernetti M, Hall KB, Bussi G. Reweighting of molecular simulations with explicit-solvent SAXS restraints elucidates ion-dependent RNA ensembles. Nucleic Acids Res 2021; 49:e84. [PMID: 34107023 PMCID: PMC8373061 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkab459] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2021] [Revised: 05/07/2021] [Accepted: 05/16/2021] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) experiments are increasingly used to probe RNA structure. A number of forward models that relate measured SAXS intensities and structural features, and that are suitable to model either explicit-solvent effects or solute dynamics, have been proposed in the past years. Here, we introduce an approach that integrates atomistic molecular dynamics simulations and SAXS experiments to reconstruct RNA structural ensembles while simultaneously accounting for both RNA conformational dynamics and explicit-solvent effects. Our protocol exploits SAXS pure-solute forward models and enhanced sampling methods to sample an heterogenous ensemble of structures, with no information towards the experiments provided on-the-fly. The generated structural ensemble is then reweighted through the maximum entropy principle so as to match reference SAXS experimental data at multiple ionic conditions. Importantly, accurate explicit-solvent forward models are used at this reweighting stage. We apply this framework to the GTPase-associated center, a relevant RNA molecule involved in protein translation, in order to elucidate its ion-dependent conformational ensembles. We show that (a) both solvent and dynamics are crucial to reproduce experimental SAXS data and (b) the resulting dynamical ensembles contain an ion-dependent fraction of extended structures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mattia Bernetti
- Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, Via Bonomea 265, Trieste 34136, Italy
| | - Kathleen B Hall
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA
| | - Giovanni Bussi
- Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, Via Bonomea 265, Trieste 34136, Italy
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46
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Röder K. Is the H4 histone tail intrinsically disordered or intrinsically multifunctional? Phys Chem Chem Phys 2021; 23:5134-5142. [PMID: 33624669 DOI: 10.1039/d0cp05405d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
The structural versatility of histone tails is one of the key elements in the organisation of chromatin, which allows for the compact storage of genomic information. However, this structural diversity also complicates experimental and computational studies. Here, the potential and free energy landscape for the isolated and bound H4 histone tail are explored. The landscapes exhibit a set of distinct structural ensembles separated by high energy barriers, with little difference between isolated and bound tails. This consistency is a desirable feature that facilitates the formation of transient interactions, which are required for the liquid-like chromatin organisation. The existence of multiple, distinct structures on a multifunnel energy landscape is likely to be associated with multifunctionality, i.e. a set of evolved, distinct functions. Contrasting it with previously reported results for other disordered peptides, this type of landscape may be associated with a conformational selection based binding mechanism. Given the similarity to other systems exhibiting similar multifunnel energy landscapes, the disorder in histone tails might be better described in context of multifunctionality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Konstantin Röder
- Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge, CB2 1EW, UK.
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47
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Qiu Y, Shan W, Zhang H. Force Field Benchmark of Amino Acids. 3. Hydration with Scaled Lennard-Jones Interactions. J Chem Inf Model 2021; 61:3571-3582. [PMID: 34185520 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.1c00339] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Classical protein force fields were reported with too weak protein-water interactions relative to protein-protein interactions, leading to more compact structures and artificial protein aggregation. Here we investigated the impacts of scaled Lennard-Jones (LJ) interactions on the hydration of amino acids and the simulation of folded and intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs). The obtained optimal scaling parameters reproduce accurately hydration free energies of neutral amino acid side chain analogues and do not affect the compactness and structural stability of folded proteins significantly. The scaling leads to less compact IDPs and varies from case to case. Strengthening the interactions between protein and water oxygen or hydrogen atoms by increasing the interacting LJ well depth (ε) appears more effective than weakening protein-protein interactions by reducing the interacting dispersion coefficients (C6). We demonstrate that weakening water-water interactions is a solution as well to obtaining more favorable protein-water interactions in an indirect way, although modern force fields like Amber ff19SB and a99SB-disp tend to use water models with strong water-water interactions. This is likely a compromise between strong protein-protein interactions and strong water-water interactions. Independent optimization of protein force fields and water models is therefore needed to make both interactions more close to reality, leading to good accuracy without bias or scaling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yejie Qiu
- Department of Biological Science and Engineering, School of Chemistry and Biological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, 100083 Beijing, China
| | - Wenjie Shan
- Department of Biological Science and Engineering, School of Chemistry and Biological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, 100083 Beijing, China
| | - Haiyang Zhang
- Department of Biological Science and Engineering, School of Chemistry and Biological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, 100083 Beijing, China
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48
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Feng JJ, Chen JN, Kang W, Wu YD. Accurate Structure Prediction for Protein Loops Based on Molecular Dynamics Simulations with RSFF2C. J Chem Theory Comput 2021; 17:4614-4628. [PMID: 34170125 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.1c00341] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Protein loops, connecting the α-helices and β-strands, are involved in many important biological processes. However, due to their conformational flexibility, it is still challenging to accurately determine three-dimensional (3D) structures of long loops experimentally and computationally. Herein, we present a systematic study of the protein loop structure prediction via a total of ∼850 μs molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. For a set of 15 long (10-16 residues) and solvent-exposed loops, we first evaluated the performance of four state-of-the-art loop modeling algorithms, DaReUS-Loop, Sphinx, Rosetta-NGK, and MODELLER, on each loop, and none of them could accurately predict the structures for most loops. Then, temperature replica exchange molecular dynamics (REMD) simulations were conducted with three recent force fields, RSFF2C with TIP3P water model, CHARMM36m with CHARMM-modified TIP3P, and AMBER ff19SB with OPC. We found that our recently developed residue-specific force field RSFF2C performed the best and successfully predicted 12 out of 15 loops with a root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) < 1.5 Å. As an alternative with lower computational cost, normal MD simulations at high temperatures (380, 500, and 620 K) were investigated. Temperature-dependent performance was observed for each force field, and, for RSFF2C+TIP3P, we found that three independent 100-ns MD simulations at 500 K gave comparable results with REMD simulations. These results suggest that MD simulations, especially with enhanced sampling techniques such as replica exchange, with the RSFF2C force field could be useful for accurate loop structure prediction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jia-Jie Feng
- Lab of Computational Chemistry and Drug Design, State Key Laboratory of Chemical Oncogenomics, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Jia-Nan Chen
- Lab of Computational Chemistry and Drug Design, State Key Laboratory of Chemical Oncogenomics, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Wei Kang
- Pingshan Translational Medicine Center, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen 518132, China
| | - Yun-Dong Wu
- Lab of Computational Chemistry and Drug Design, State Key Laboratory of Chemical Oncogenomics, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen 518055, China.,College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.,Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen 518132, China
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49
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Kandeel M, Yamamoto M, Park BK, Al-Taher A, Watanabe A, Gohda J, Kawaguchi Y, Oh-Hashi K, Kwon HJ, Inoue JI. Discovery of New Potent anti-MERS CoV Fusion Inhibitors. Front Pharmacol 2021; 12:685161. [PMID: 34149429 PMCID: PMC8206564 DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2021.685161] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2021] [Accepted: 05/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), capable of zoonotic transmission, has been associated with emerging viral pneumonia in humans. In this study, a set of highly potent peptides were designed to prevent MERS-CoV fusion through competition with heptad repeat domain 2 (HR2) at its HR1 binding site. We designed eleven peptides with stronger estimated HR1 binding affinities than the wild-type peptide to prevent viral fusion with the cell membrane. Eight peptides showed strong inhibition of spike-mediated MERS-CoV cell-cell fusion with IC50 values in the nanomolar range (0.25–2.3 µM). Peptides #4–6 inhibited 95–98.3% of MERS-CoV plaque formation. Notably, peptide four showed strong inhibition of MERS-CoV plaques formation with EC50 = 0.302 µM. All peptides demonstrated safe profiles without cytotoxicity up to a concentration of 10 μM, and this cellular safety, combined with their anti-MERS-CoV antiviral activity, indicate all peptides can be regarded as potential promising antiviral agents.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mahmoud Kandeel
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia.,Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafrelsheikh, Egypt
| | - Mizuki Yamamoto
- Research Center for Asian Infectious Diseases, Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.,Division of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Department of Cancer Biology, Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Byoung Kwon Park
- Department of Microbiology, Hallym University College of Medicine, Chuncheon, South Korea
| | - Abdulla Al-Taher
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia
| | - Aya Watanabe
- Division of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Department of Cancer Biology, Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Jin Gohda
- Research Center for Asian Infectious Diseases, Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Yasushi Kawaguchi
- Research Center for Asian Infectious Diseases, Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.,Division of Molecular Virology, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Kentaro Oh-Hashi
- Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Science, Faculty of Engineering, Gifu University, Gifu, Japan
| | - Hyung-Joo Kwon
- Department of Microbiology, Hallym University College of Medicine, Chuncheon, South Korea
| | - Jun-Ichiro Inoue
- Division of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Department of Cancer Biology, Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.,Senior Professor Office, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
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50
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Glaser M, Bruce NJ, Han SB, Wade RC. Simulation of the Positive Inotropic Peptide S100A1ct in Aqueous Environment by Gaussian Accelerated Molecular Dynamics. J Phys Chem B 2021; 125:4654-4666. [PMID: 33944558 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.1c00902] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
The S100A1ct peptide, consisting of the C-terminal 20 residues of the S100A1 protein fused to an N-terminal 6-residue hydrophilic tag, has been found to exert a positive inotropic effect, resulting in improved contractile performance of failing cardiac and skeletal muscle without arrhythmic side-effects. The S100A1ct peptide thus has high potential for the treatment of acute heart failure. As a step toward understanding its molecular mechanism of action, and to provide a basis for peptidomimetic design to optimize its properties, we here describe de novo structure predictions and molecular dynamics simulations to characterize the conformational landscape of S100A1ct in aqueous environment. In S100A1, the C-terminal 20 residues form an α-helix, but de novo peptide structure predictions indicate that other conformations are also possible. Conventional molecular dynamics simulations in implicit and explicit solvent corroborated this finding. To ensure adequate sampling, we performed simulations of a tagged 10-residue segment of S100A1ct, and we carried out Gaussian accelerated molecular dynamics simulations of the peptides. These simulations showed that although the helical conformation of S100A1ct was the most energetically stable, the peptide can adopt a range of kinked conformations, suggesting that its activity may be related to its ability to act as a conformational switch.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manuel Glaser
- Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS), Schloss-Wolfsbrunnenweg 35, 69118 Heidelberg, Germany.,Informatics for Life, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Neil J Bruce
- Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS), Schloss-Wolfsbrunnenweg 35, 69118 Heidelberg, Germany.,Informatics for Life, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Sungho Bosco Han
- Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS), Schloss-Wolfsbrunnenweg 35, 69118 Heidelberg, Germany.,Faculty of Biosciences, Heidelberg University, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Rebecca C Wade
- Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS), Schloss-Wolfsbrunnenweg 35, 69118 Heidelberg, Germany.,Informatics for Life, Heidelberg, Germany.,Faculty of Biosciences, Heidelberg University, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.,Zentrum für Molekulare Biologie der Universität Heidelberg (ZMBH), DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance and Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR), 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
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