1
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Alniss HY, Kemp BM, Holmes E, Hoffmann J, Ploch RM, Ramadan WS, Msallam YA, Al-Jubeh HM, Madkour MM, Celikkaya BC, Scott FJ, El-Awady R, Parkinson JA. Spectroscopic, biochemical and computational studies of bioactive DNA minor groove binders targeting 5'-WGWWCW-3' motif. Bioorg Chem 2024; 148:107414. [PMID: 38733748 DOI: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2024.107414] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2024] [Revised: 04/18/2024] [Accepted: 04/27/2024] [Indexed: 05/13/2024]
Abstract
Spectroscopic, biochemical, and computational modelling studies have been used to assess the binding capability of a set of minor groove binding (MGB) ligands against the self-complementary DNA sequences 5'-d(CGCACTAGTGCG)-3' and 5'-d(CGCAGTACTGCG)-3'. The ligands were carefully designed to target the DNA response element, 5'-WGWWCW-3', the binding site for several nuclear receptors. Basic 1D 1H NMR spectra of the DNA samples prepared with three MGB ligands show subtle variations suggestive of how each ligand associates with the double helical structure of both DNA sequences. The variations among the investigated ligands were reflected in the line shape and intensity of 1D 1H and 31P-{1H} NMR spectra. Rapid visual inspection of these 1D NMR spectra proves to be beneficial in providing valuable insights on MGB binding molecules. The NMR results were consistent with the findings from both UV DNA denaturation and molecular modelling studies. Both the NMR spectroscopic and computational analyses indicate that the investigated ligands bind to the minor grooves as antiparallel side-by-side dimers in a head-to-tail fashion. Moreover, comparisons with results from biochemical studies offered valuable insights into the mechanism of action, and antitumor activity of MGBs in relation to their structures, essential pre-requisites for future optimization of MGBs as therapeutic agents.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hasan Y Alniss
- College of Pharmacy, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates; Research Institute for Medical and Health Sciences, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates.
| | - Bryony M Kemp
- Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, University of Strathclyde, 295 Cathedral Street, Glasgow G1 1XL, Scotland, UK
| | - Elizabeth Holmes
- Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, University of Strathclyde, 295 Cathedral Street, Glasgow G1 1XL, Scotland, UK
| | - Joanna Hoffmann
- Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, University of Strathclyde, 295 Cathedral Street, Glasgow G1 1XL, Scotland, UK
| | - Rafal M Ploch
- Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, University of Strathclyde, 295 Cathedral Street, Glasgow G1 1XL, Scotland, UK
| | - Wafaa S Ramadan
- Research Institute for Medical and Health Sciences, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates
| | - Yousef A Msallam
- College of Pharmacy, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates; Research Institute for Medical and Health Sciences, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates
| | - Hadeel M Al-Jubeh
- Research Institute for Medical and Health Sciences, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates
| | - Moustafa M Madkour
- College of Pharmacy, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates; Research Institute for Medical and Health Sciences, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates
| | - Bekir C Celikkaya
- Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, University of Strathclyde, 295 Cathedral Street, Glasgow G1 1XL, Scotland, UK
| | - Fraser J Scott
- Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, University of Strathclyde, 295 Cathedral Street, Glasgow G1 1XL, Scotland, UK
| | - Raafat El-Awady
- College of Pharmacy, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates; Research Institute for Medical and Health Sciences, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates
| | - John A Parkinson
- Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, University of Strathclyde, 295 Cathedral Street, Glasgow G1 1XL, Scotland, UK.
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2
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Alniss HY, Al-Jubeh HM, Msallam YA, Siddiqui R, Makhlouf Z, Ravi A, Hamdy R, Soliman SSM, Khan NA. Structure-based drug design of DNA minor groove binders and evaluation of their antibacterial and anticancer properties. Eur J Med Chem 2024; 271:116440. [PMID: 38678825 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2024.116440] [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: 12/07/2023] [Revised: 04/09/2024] [Accepted: 04/18/2024] [Indexed: 05/01/2024]
Abstract
Antimicrobial and chemotherapy resistance are escalating medical problem of paramount importance. Yet, research for novel antimicrobial and anticancer agents remains lagging behind. With their reported medical applications, DNA minor groove binders (MGBs) are worthy of exploration. In this study, the approach of structure-based drug design was implemented to generate 11 MGB compounds including a novel class of bioactive alkyne-linked MGBs. The NCI screening protocol was utilized to evaluate the antitumor activity of the target MGBs. Furthermore, a variety of bactericidal, cytopathogenicity, MIC90, and cytotoxicity assays were carried out using these MGBs against 6 medically relevant bacteria: Salmonella enterica, Escherichia coli, Serratia marcescens, Bacillus cereus, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Streptococcus pyogenes. Moreover, molecular docking, molecular dynamic simulations, DNA melting, and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) analyses were utilized to explore the binding mode and interactions between the most potent MGBs and the DNA duplex d(CGACTAGTCG)2. NCI results showed that alkyne-linked MGBs (26 & 28) displayed the most significant growth inhibition among the NCI-60 panel. In addition, compounds MGB3, MGB4, MGB28, and MGB32 showed significant bactericidal effects, inhibited B. cereus and S. enterica-mediated cytopathogenicity, and exhibited low cytotoxicity. MGB28 and MGB32 demonstrated significant inhibition of S. pyogenes, whereas MGB28 notably inhibited S. marcescens and all four minor groove binders significantly inhibited B. cereus. The ability of these compounds to bind with DNA and distort its groove dimensions provides the molecular basis for the allosteric perturbation of proteins-DNA interactions by MGBs. This study shed light on the mechanism of action of MGBs and revealed the important structural features for their antitumor and antibacterial activities, which are important to guide future development of MGB derivatives as novel antibacterial and anticancer agents.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hasan Y Alniss
- College of Pharmacy, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Sharjah, 27272, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates; Research Institute for Medical and Health Sciences, University of Sharjah, 27272, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
| | - Hadeel M Al-Jubeh
- Research Institute for Medical and Health Sciences, University of Sharjah, 27272, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
| | - Yousef A Msallam
- College of Pharmacy, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Sharjah, 27272, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates; Research Institute for Medical and Health Sciences, University of Sharjah, 27272, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
| | - Ruqaiyyah Siddiqui
- Institute of Biological Chemistry, Biophysics and Bioengineering, Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh, EH14 4AS, United Kingdom; Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Istinye University, Istanbul, 34010, Turkey
| | - Zinb Makhlouf
- College of Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences, University of Sharjah, 27272, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
| | - Anil Ravi
- Research Institute for Medical and Health Sciences, University of Sharjah, 27272, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
| | - Rania Hamdy
- Research Institute for Medical and Health Sciences, University of Sharjah, 27272, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
| | - Sameh S M Soliman
- College of Pharmacy, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Sharjah, 27272, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates; Research Institute for Medical and Health Sciences, University of Sharjah, 27272, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
| | - Naveed A Khan
- Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Istinye University, Istanbul, 34010, Turkey.
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3
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Mondal B, Chakraborty D, Hori N, Nguyen HT, Thirumalai D. Competition between Stacking and Divalent Cation-Mediated Electrostatic Interactions Determines the Conformations of Short DNA Sequences. J Chem Theory Comput 2024; 20:2934-2946. [PMID: 38498914 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.3c01193] [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: 03/20/2024]
Abstract
Interplay between divalent cations (Mg2+ and Ca2+) and single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) and double-stranded DNA (dsDNA), as well as stacking interactions, is important in nucleosome stability and phase separation in nucleic acids. Quantitative techniques accounting for ion-DNA interactions are needed to obtain insights into these and related problems. Toward this end, we created a sequence-dependent computational TIS-ION model that explicitly accounts for monovalent and divalent ions. Simulations of the rigid 24 base-pair (bp) dsDNA and flexible ssDNA sequences, dT30 and dA30, with varying amounts of the divalent cations show that the calculated excess number of ions around the dsDNA and ssDNA agree quantitatively with ion-counting experiments. Using an ensemble of all-atom structures generated from coarse-grained simulations, we calculated the small-angle X-ray scattering profiles, which are in excellent agreement with experiments. Although ion-counting experiments mask the differences between Mg2+ and Ca2+, we find that Mg2+ binds to the minor grooves and phosphate groups, whereas Ca2+ binds specifically to the minor groove. Both Mg2+ and Ca2+ exhibit a tendency to bind to the minor groove of DNA as opposed to the major groove. The dA30 conformations are dominated by stacking interactions, resulting in structures with considerable helical order. The near cancellation of the favorable stacking and unfavorable electrostatic interactions leads to dT30 populating an ensemble of heterogeneous conformations. The successful applications of the TIS-ION model are poised to confront many problems in DNA biophysics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Balaka Mondal
- Department of Chemistry, The University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
| | - Debayan Chakraborty
- Department of Chemistry, The University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
| | - Naoto Hori
- School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, U.K
| | - Hung T Nguyen
- Department of Chemistry, The University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
| | - D Thirumalai
- Department of Chemistry, The University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
- Department of Physics, The University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
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4
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Delgado JM, Nagy PR, Varma S. Polarizable AMOEBA Model for Simulating Mg 2+·Protein·Nucleotide Complexes. J Chem Inf Model 2024; 64:378-392. [PMID: 38051630 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.3c01513] [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] [Indexed: 12/07/2023]
Abstract
Molecular mechanics (MM) simulations have the potential to provide detailed insights into the mechanisms of enzymes that utilize nucleotides as cofactors. In most cases, the activities of these enzymes also require the binding of divalent cations to catalytic sites. However, modeling divalent cations in MM simulations has been challenging. The inclusion of explicit polarization was considered promising, but despite improvements over nonpolarizable force fields and despite the inclusion of "Nonbonded-fix (NB-fix)" corrections, errors in interaction energies of divalent cations with proteins remain large. Importantly, the application of these models fails to reproduce the experimental structural data on Mg2+·Protein·ATP complexes. Focusing on these complexes, here we provide a systematic assessment of the polarizable AMOEBA model and recommend critical changes that substantially improve its predictive performance. Our key results are as follows. We first show that our recent revision of the AMOEBA protein model (AMOEBABIO18-HFC), which contains high field corrections (HFCs) to induced dipoles, dramatically improves Mg2+-protein interaction energies, reducing the mean absolute error (MAE) from 17 to 10 kcal/mol. This further supports the general applicability of AMOEBABIO18-HFC. The inclusion of many-body NB-fix corrections further reduces MAE to 6 kcal/mol, which amounts to less than 2% error. The errors are estimated with respect to vdW-inclusive density functional theory that we benchmark against CCSD(T) calculations and experiments. We also present a new model of ATP with revised polarization parameters to better capture its high field response, as well as new vdW and dihedral parameters. The ATP model accurately predicts experimental Mg2+-ATP binding free energy in the aqueous phase and provides new insights into how Mg2+ associates with ATP. Finally, we show that molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of Mg2+·Kinase·ATP complexes carried out with these improvements lead to a better agreement in global and local catalytic site structures between MD and X-ray crystallography.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julian M Delgado
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Avenue, Tampa, Florida 33620, United States
| | - Péter R Nagy
- Department of Physical Chemistry and Materials Science, Faculty of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Műegyetem rkp. 3., Budapest H-1111, Hungary
- HUN-REN-BME Quantum Chemistry Research Group, Műegyetem rkp. 3., Budapest H-1111, Hungary
- MTA-BME Lendület Quantum Chemistry Research Group, Műegyetem rkp. 3., Budapest H-1111, Hungary
| | - Sameer Varma
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Avenue, Tampa, Florida 33620, United States
- Department of Physics, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Avenue, Tampa, Florida 33620, United States
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5
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Arteaga S, Dolenz BJ, Znosko BM. Competitive Influence of Alkali Metals in the Ion Atmosphere on Nucleic Acid Duplex Stability. ACS OMEGA 2024; 9:1287-1297. [PMID: 38222622 PMCID: PMC10785066 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.3c07563] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2023] [Revised: 12/04/2023] [Accepted: 12/11/2023] [Indexed: 01/16/2024]
Abstract
The nonspecific atmosphere around nucleic acids, often termed the ion atmosphere, encompasses a collection of weak ion-nucleic acid interactions. Although nonspecific, the ion atmosphere has been shown to influence nucleic acid folding and structural stability. Studies investigating the composition of the ion atmosphere have shown competitive occupancy of the atmosphere between metal ions in the same solution. Many studies have investigated single ion effects on nucleic acid secondary structure stability; however, no comprehensive studies have investigated how the competitive occupancy of mixed ions in the ion atmosphere influences nucleic acid secondary structure stability. Here, six oligonucleotides were optically melted in buffers containing molar quantities, or mixtures, of either XCl (X = Li, K, Rb, or Cs) or NaCl. A correction factor was developed to better predict RNA duplex stability in solutions containing mixed XCl/NaCl. For solutions containing a 1:1 mixture of XCl/NaCl, one alkali metal chloride contributed more to duplex stability than the other. Overall, there was a 54% improvement in predictive capabilities with the correction factor compared with the standard 1.0 M NaCl nearest-neighbor models. This correction factor can be used in models to better predict RNA secondary structure in solutions containing mixed XCl/NaCl.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sebastian
J. Arteaga
- Department of Chemistry, Saint Louis University, Saint
Louis, Missouri 63103, United States
| | - Bruce J. Dolenz
- Department of Chemistry, Saint Louis University, Saint
Louis, Missouri 63103, United States
| | - Brent M. Znosko
- Department of Chemistry, Saint Louis University, Saint
Louis, Missouri 63103, United States
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6
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Singh S, Sahani H. Current Advancement and Future Prospects: Biomedical Nanoengineering. Curr Radiopharm 2024; 17:120-137. [PMID: 38058099 DOI: 10.2174/0118744710274376231123063135] [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: 08/09/2023] [Revised: 10/19/2023] [Accepted: 10/27/2023] [Indexed: 12/08/2023]
Abstract
Recent advancements in biomedicine have seen a significant reliance on nanoengineering, as traditional methods often fall short in harnessing the unique attributes of biomaterials. Nanoengineering has emerged as a valuable approach to enhance and enrich the performance and functionalities of biomaterials, driving research and development in the field. This review emphasizes the most prevalent biomaterials used in biomedicine, including polymers, nanocomposites, and metallic materials, and explores the pivotal role of nanoengineering in developing biomedical treatments and processes. Particularly, the review highlights research focused on gaining an in-depth understanding of material properties and effectively enhancing material performance through molecular dynamics simulations, all from a nanoengineering perspective.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sonia Singh
- Institute of Pharmaceutical Research, GLA University, 17 km Stone, NH-2, Mathura-Delhi Road Mathura, Chaumuhan, Uttar Pradesh, 281406, India
| | - Hrishika Sahani
- Lifecell International Pvt. Ltd., NSP Office, Pearls Business Park, 8th Floor Office No-804, Netaji Subhash Palace Delhi, 110034, India
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7
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Yu YS, Ren Q, Tan RR, Ding HM. Exploring the non-monotonic DNA capture behavior in a charged graphene nanopore. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2023; 25:28034-28042. [PMID: 37846110 DOI: 10.1039/d3cp03767c] [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: 10/18/2023]
Abstract
Nanopore-based biomolecule detection has emerged as a promising and sought-after innovation, offering high throughput, rapidity, label-free analysis, and cost-effectiveness, with potential applications in personalized medicine. However, achieving efficient and tunable biomolecule capture into the nanopore remains a significant challenge. In this study, we employ all-atom molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the capture of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) molecules into graphene nanopores with varying positive charges. We discover a non-monotonic relationship between the DNA capture rate and the charge of the graphene nanopore. Specifically, the capture rate initially decreases and then increases with an increase in nanopore charge. This behavior is primarily attributed to differences in the electrophoretic force, rather than the influence of electroosmosis or counterions. Furthermore, we also observe this non-monotonic trend in various ionic solutions, but not in ionless solutions. Our findings shed light on the design of novel DNA sequencing devices, offering valuable insights into enhancing biomolecule capture rates in nanopore-based sensing platforms.
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Affiliation(s)
- You-Sheng Yu
- School of Science, East China University of Technology, Nanchang 330013, China
- National Lab of Solid State Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
| | - Qiang Ren
- School of Science, East China University of Technology, Nanchang 330013, China
| | - Rong-Ri Tan
- Department of Physics, Jiangxi Science & Technology Normal University, Nanchang 330013, China.
| | - Hong-Ming Ding
- Center for Soft Condensed Matter Physics and Interdisciplinary Research, Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, China.
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8
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Alston JJ, Soranno A. Condensation Goes Viral: A Polymer Physics Perspective. J Mol Biol 2023; 435:167988. [PMID: 36709795 PMCID: PMC10368797 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2023.167988] [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: 10/18/2022] [Revised: 01/18/2023] [Accepted: 01/21/2023] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
The past decade has seen a revolution in our understanding of how the cellular environment is organized, where an incredible body of work has provided new insights into the role played by membraneless organelles. These rapid advancements have been made possible by an increasing awareness of the peculiar physical properties that give rise to such bodies and the complex biology that enables their function. Viral infections are not extraneous to this. Indeed, in host cells, viruses can harness existing membraneless compartments or, even, induce the formation of new ones. By hijacking the cellular machinery, these intracellular bodies can assist in the replication, assembly, and packaging of the viral genome as well as in the escape of the cellular immune response. Here, we provide a perspective on the fundamental polymer physics concepts that may help connect and interpret the different observed phenomena, ranging from the condensation of viral genomes to the phase separation of multicomponent solutions. We complement the discussion of the physical basis with a description of biophysical methods that can provide quantitative insights for testing and developing theoretical and computational models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jhullian J Alston
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Washington University in St Louis, 660 St Euclid Ave, 63110 Saint Louis, MO, USA; Center for Biomolecular Condensates, Washington University in St Louis, 1 Brookings Drive, 63130 Saint Louis, MO, USA
| | - Andrea Soranno
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Washington University in St Louis, 660 St Euclid Ave, 63110 Saint Louis, MO, USA; Center for Biomolecular Condensates, Washington University in St Louis, 1 Brookings Drive, 63130 Saint Louis, MO, USA.
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9
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Alniss HY, Chu C, Ramadan WS, Msallam YA, Srinivasulu V, El-Awady R, Macgregor RB, Al-Tel TH. Interaction of an anticancer benzopyrane derivative with DNA: Biophysical, biochemical, and molecular modeling studies. Biochim Biophys Acta Gen Subj 2023; 1867:130347. [PMID: 36958685 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbagen.2023.130347] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2023] [Revised: 03/09/2023] [Accepted: 03/20/2023] [Indexed: 03/25/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND SIMR1281 is a potent anticancer lead candidate with multi- target activity against several proteins; however, its mechanism of action at the molecular level is not fully understood. Revealing the mechanism and the origin of multitarget activity is important for the rational identification and optimization of multitarget drugs. METHODS We have used a variety of biophysical (circular dichroism, isothermal titration calorimetry, viscosity, and UV DNA melting), biochemical (topoisomerase I & II assays) and computational (molecular docking and MD simulations) methods to study the interaction of SIMR1281 with duplex DNA structures. RESULTS The biophysical results revealed that SIMR1281 binds to dsDNA via an intercalation-binding mode with an average binding constant of 3.1 × 106 M-1. This binding mode was confirmed by the topoisomerases' inhibition assays and molecular modeling simulations, which showed the intercalation of the benzopyrane moiety between DNA base pairs, while the remaining moieties (thiazole and phenyl rings) sit in the minor groove and interact with the flanking base pairs adjacent to the intercalation site. CONCLUSIONS The DNA binding characteristics of SIMR1281, which can disrupt/inhibit DNA function as confirmed by the topoisomerases' inhibition assays, indicate that the observed multi-target activity might originate from ligand intervention at nucleic acids level rather than due to direct interactions with multiple biological targets at the protein level. GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE The findings of this study could be helpful to guide future optimization of benzopyrane-based ligands for therapeutic purposes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hasan Y Alniss
- College of Pharmacy, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, P.O. Box 27272, United Arab Emirates; Sharjah Institute for Medical Research, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, P.O. Box 27272, United Arab Emirates.
| | - Chen Chu
- Graduate Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Wafaa S Ramadan
- Sharjah Institute for Medical Research, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, P.O. Box 27272, United Arab Emirates
| | - Yousef A Msallam
- College of Pharmacy, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, P.O. Box 27272, United Arab Emirates; Sharjah Institute for Medical Research, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, P.O. Box 27272, United Arab Emirates
| | - Vunnam Srinivasulu
- Sharjah Institute for Medical Research, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, P.O. Box 27272, United Arab Emirates
| | - Raafat El-Awady
- College of Pharmacy, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, P.O. Box 27272, United Arab Emirates; Sharjah Institute for Medical Research, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, P.O. Box 27272, United Arab Emirates
| | - Robert B Macgregor
- Graduate Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Taleb H Al-Tel
- College of Pharmacy, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, P.O. Box 27272, United Arab Emirates; Sharjah Institute for Medical Research, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, P.O. Box 27272, United Arab Emirates
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10
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Cruz-León S, Schwierz N. RNA Captures More Cations than DNA: Insights from Molecular Dynamics Simulations. J Phys Chem B 2022; 126:8646-8654. [PMID: 36260822 PMCID: PMC9639116 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.2c04488] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
The distribution of cations around nucleic acids is essential for a broad variety of processes ranging from DNA condensation and RNA folding to the detection of biomolecules in biosensors. Predicting the exact distribution of ions remains challenging since the distribution and, hence, a broad variety of nucleic acid properties depend on the salt concentration, the valency of the ions, and the ion type. Despite the importance, a general theory to quantify ion-specific effects for highly charged biomolecules is still lacking. Moreover, recent experiments reveal that despite their similar building blocks, DNA and RNA duplexes can react differently to the same ionic conditions. The aim of our current work is to provide a comprehensive set of molecular dynamics simulations using more than 180 μs of simulation time. For the mono- and divalent cations Li+, Na+, K+, Cs+, Ca2+, Sr2+, and Ba2+, the simulations allow us to reveal the ion-specific distributions and binding patterns for DNA and RNA duplexes. The microscopic insights from the simulations display the origin of ion-specificity and shed light on the question of why DNA and RNA show opposing behavior in the same ionic conditions. Finally, the detailed binding patterns from the simulations reveal why RNA can capture more cations than DNA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sergio Cruz-León
- Department
of Theoretical Biophysics, Max Planck Institute
of Biophysics, Max-von-Laue-Str. 3, 60438Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Nadine Schwierz
- Department
of Theoretical Biophysics, Max Planck Institute
of Biophysics, Max-von-Laue-Str. 3, 60438Frankfurt am Main, Germany,Institute
of Physics, University of Augsburg, Universitätsstraße 1, 86159Augsburg, Germany,E-mail:
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11
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Yu B, Wang X, Iwahara J. Measuring Local Electrostatic Potentials Around Nucleic Acids by Paramagnetic NMR Spectroscopy. J Phys Chem Lett 2022; 13:10025-10029. [PMID: 36264151 PMCID: PMC9700389 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.2c02623] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Electrostatic potentials around macromolecules in the presence of mobile charges are difficult to assess especially for highly charged systems. Here, we report measurements of local electrostatic potentials around DNA by paramagnetic NMR. Through quantitative analysis of NMR paramagnetic relaxation enhancement arising from positively charged or neutral paramagnetic cosolutes, we were able to determine local electrostatic potentials around 1H nuclei at >100 sites in major and minor grooves of 13C,15N-labeled 15-bp DNA at 100 mM NaCl. Our experimental electrostatic potential data directly confirmed the Coulombic end effects of DNA. The effective near-surface electrostatic potentials from the NMR data were in good agreement with the theoretical predictions with the Poisson-Boltzmann equation. This NMR method allows for unprecedented experimental investigations into the electrostatic properties of nucleic acids.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Junji Iwahara
- Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Sealy Center for Structural Biology & Molecular Biophysics, University of Texas Medical Branch, 301 University Blvd, Galveston, Texas 77555-1068, USA
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12
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Delgado JA, Wineman-Fisher V, Pandit S, Varma S. Inclusion of High-Field Target Data in AMOEBA's Calibration Improves Predictions of Protein-Ion Interactions. J Chem Inf Model 2022; 62:4713-4726. [PMID: 36173398 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.2c00758] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
The reliability of molecular mechanics simulations to predict effects of ion binding to proteins depends on their ability to simultaneously describe ion-protein, ion-water, and protein-water interactions. Force fields (FFs) to describe protein-water and ion-water interactions have been constructed carefully and have also been refined routinely to improve accuracy. Descriptions for ion-protein interactions have also been refined, although in an a posteriori manner through the use of "nonbonded-fix (NB-fix)" approaches in which parameters from default Lennard-Jones mixing rules are replaced with those optimized against some reference data. However, even after NB-fix corrections, there remains a significant need for improvement. This is also true for polarizable FFs that include self-consistent inducible moments. Our recent studies on the polarizable AMOEBA FF suggested that the problem associated with modeling ion-protein interactions could be alleviated by recalibrating polarization models of cation-coordinating functional groups so that they respond better to the high electric fields present near ions. Here, we present such a recalibration of carbonyls, carboxylates, and hydroxyls in the AMOEBA protein FF and report that it does improve predictions substantially─mean absolute errors in Na+-protein and K+-protein interaction energies decrease from 8.7 to 5.3 and 9.6 to 6.3 kcal/mol, respectively. Errors are computed with respect to estimates from van der Waals-inclusive density functional theory benchmarked against high-level quantum mechanical calculations and experiments. While recalibration does improve ion-protein interaction energies, they still remain underestimated, suggesting that further improvements can be made in a systematic manner through modifications in classical formalism. Nevertheless, we show that by applying our many-body NB-fix correction to Lennard-Jones components, these errors are further reduced to 2.7 and 2.6 kcal/mol, respectively, for Na+ and K+ ions. Finally, we show that the recalibrated AMOEBA protein FF retains its intrinsic reliability in predicting protein structure and dynamics in the condensed phase.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julián A Delgado
- Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Avenue, Tampa, Florida 33620, United States
| | - Vered Wineman-Fisher
- Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Avenue, Tampa, Florida 33620, United States
| | - Sagar Pandit
- Department of Physics, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Avenue, Tampa, Florida 33620, United States
| | - Sameer Varma
- Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Avenue, Tampa, Florida 33620, United States.,Department of Physics, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Avenue, Tampa, Florida 33620, United States
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13
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Jing Z, Ren P. Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Protein RNA Complexes by Using an Advanced Electrostatic Model. J Phys Chem B 2022; 126:7343-7353. [PMID: 36107618 PMCID: PMC9530969 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.2c05278] [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] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Protein-RNA interactions are integral to the biological functions of RNA. It is well recognized that molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of protein-RNA complexes are more challenging than those of each component. The difficulty arises from the strong electrostatic interactions and the delicate balance between various types of physical forces at the interface. Previously, MD simulations of protein-RNA complexes have predominantly employed fixed-charge force fields. Although force field modifications have been developed to address problems identified in the simulations, some protein-RNA structures are still hard to reproduce by simulations. Here, we present MD simulations of two representative protein-RNA complexes using the AMOEBA polarizable force field. The van der Waals parameters were refined to reproduce accurate quantum-mechanical data of base-base and base-amino acid interactions. It was found that the refined parameters produced a more stable hydrogen-bond network in the interface. One of the complexes remained stable during the short simulations, whereas it could quickly break down in previous simulations using fixed-charge force fields. There was reversible breaking and formation of hydrogen bonds that are observed in the crystal structure, which may indicate the difference in solution and crystal structures. While further improvement and validation of the force fields are still needed, this work demonstrates that polarizable force fields are promising for the study of protein-RNA complexes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhifeng Jing
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712
| | - Pengyu Ren
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712
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14
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Yu B, Bien KG, Wang T, Iwahara J. Diffusion NMR-based comparison of electrostatic influences of DNA on various monovalent cations. Biophys J 2022; 121:3562-3570. [PMID: 35754184 PMCID: PMC9515368 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2022.06.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2022] [Revised: 06/03/2022] [Accepted: 06/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Counterions are important constituents for the structure and function of nucleic acids. Using 7Li and 133Cs nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, we investigated how ionic radii affect the behavior of counterions around DNA through diffusion measurements of Li+ and Cs+ ions around a 15-bp DNA duplex. Together with our previous data on 23Na+ and 15NH4+ ions around the same DNA under the same conditions, we were able to compare the dynamics of four different monovalent ions around DNA. From the apparent diffusion coefficients at varied concentrations of DNA, we determined the diffusion coefficients of these cations inside and outside the ion atmosphere around DNA (Db and Df, respectively). We also analyzed ionic competition with K+ ions for the ion atmosphere and assessed the relative affinities of these cations for DNA. Interestingly, all cations (i.e., Li+, Na+, NH4+, and Cs+) analyzed by diffusion NMR spectroscopy exhibited nearly identical Db/Df ratios despite the differences in their ionic radii, relative affinities, and diffusion coefficients. These results, along with the theoretical relationship between diffusion and entropy, suggest that the entropy change due to the release of counterions from the ion atmosphere around DNA is also similar regardless of the monovalent ion types. These findings and the experimental diffusion data on the monovalent ions are useful for examination of computational models for electrostatic interactions or ion solvation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Binhan Yu
- Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Sealy Center for Structural Biology & Molecular Biophysics, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas
| | - Karina G Bien
- Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Sealy Center for Structural Biology & Molecular Biophysics, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas
| | - Tianzhi Wang
- Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Sealy Center for Structural Biology & Molecular Biophysics, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas
| | - Junji Iwahara
- Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Sealy Center for Structural Biology & Molecular Biophysics, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas.
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15
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Zhang C, Tian F, Lu Y, Yuan B, Tan ZJ, Zhang XH, Dai L. Twist-diameter coupling drives DNA twist changes with salt and temperature. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2022; 8:eabn1384. [PMID: 35319990 PMCID: PMC8942373 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abn1384] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2021] [Accepted: 01/31/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
DNA deformations upon environmental changes, e.g., salt and temperature, play crucial roles in many biological processes and material applications. Here, our magnetic tweezers experiments observed that the increase in NaCl, KCl, or RbCl concentration leads to substantial DNA overwinding. Our simulations and theoretical calculation quantitatively explain the salt-induced twist change through the mechanism: More salt enhances the screening of interstrand electrostatic repulsion and hence reduces DNA diameter, which is transduced to twist increase through twist-diameter coupling. We determined that the coupling constant is 4.5 ± 0.8 kBT/(degrees∙nm) for one base pair. The coupling comes from the restraint of the contour length of DNA backbone. On the basis of this coupling constant and diameter-dependent DNA conformational entropy, we predict the temperature dependence of DNA twist Δωbp/ΔT ≈ -0.01 degree/°C, which agrees with our and previous experimental results. Our analysis suggests that twist-diameter coupling is a common driving force for salt- and temperature-induced DNA twist changes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chen Zhang
- College of Life Sciences, The Institute for Advanced Studies, State Key Laboratory of Virology, Hubei Key Laboratory of Cell Homeostasis, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
| | - Fujia Tian
- Department of Physics, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
| | - Ying Lu
- Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
| | - Bing Yuan
- Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan, Guangdong 523808, China
| | - Zhi-Jie Tan
- School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
| | - Xing-Hua Zhang
- College of Life Sciences, The Institute for Advanced Studies, State Key Laboratory of Virology, Hubei Key Laboratory of Cell Homeostasis, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
| | - Liang Dai
- Department of Physics, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
- Shenzhen Research Institute, City University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen 518057, China
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16
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Saunders M, Wineman-Fisher V, Jakobsson E, Varma S, Pandit SA. High-Dimensional Parameter Search Method to Determine Force Field Mixing Terms in Molecular Simulations. LANGMUIR : THE ACS JOURNAL OF SURFACES AND COLLOIDS 2022; 38:2840-2851. [PMID: 35192365 PMCID: PMC9801415 DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c03105] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Molecular dynamics (MD) force fields for lipids and ions are typically developed independently of one another. In simulations consisting of both lipids and ions, lipid-ion interaction energies are estimated using a predefined set of mixing rules for Lennard-Jones (LJ) interactions. This, however, does not guarantee their reliability. In fact, compared to the quantum mechanical reference data, Lorentz-Berthelot mixing rules substantially underestimate the binding energies of Na+ ions with small-molecule analogues of lipid headgroups, yielding errors on the order of 80 and 130 kJ/mol, respectively, for methyl acetate and diethyl phosphate. Previously, errors associated with mixing force fields have been reduced using approaches such as "NB-fix" in which LJ interactions are computed using explicit cross terms rather than those from mixing rules. Building on this idea, we derive explicit lipid-ion cross terms that also may implicitly include many-body cooperativity effects. Additionally, to account for the interdependency between cross terms, we optimize all cross terms simultaneously by performing high-dimensional searches using our ParOpt software. The cross terms we obtain reduce the errors due to mixing rules to below 10 kJ/mol. MD simulation of the lipid bilayer conducted using these optimized cross terms resolves the structural discrepancies between our previous simulations and small-angle X-ray and neutron scattering experiments. These results demonstrate that simulations of lipid bilayers with ions that are accurate up to structural data from scattering experiments can be performed without explicit polarization terms. However, it is worth noting that such NB-fix cross terms are not based on any physical principle; a polarizable lipid model would be more realistic and is still desired. Our approach is generic and can be applied to improve the accuracies of simulations employing mixed force fields.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Eric Jakobsson
- Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, and Department of Biochemistry, Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
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17
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Yu B, Bien KG, Pletka CC, Iwahara J. Dynamics of Cations around DNA and Protein as Revealed by 23Na Diffusion NMR Spectroscopy. Anal Chem 2022; 94:2444-2452. [PMID: 35080384 PMCID: PMC8829827 DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.1c04197] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Counterions are vital for the structure and function of biomolecules. However, the behavior of counterions remains elusive due to the difficulty in characterizing mobile ions. Here, we demonstrate that the dynamics of cations around biological macromolecules can be revealed by 23Na diffusion nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. NMR probe hardware capable of generating strong magnetic field gradients enables 23Na NMR-based diffusion measurements for Na+ ions in solutions of biological macromolecules and their complexes. The dynamic properties of Na+ ions interacting with the macromolecules can be investigated using apparent 23Na diffusion coefficients measured under various conditions. Our diffusion data clearly show that Na+ ions retain high mobility within the ion atmosphere around DNA. The 23Na diffusion NMR method also permits direct observation of the release of Na+ ions from nucleic acids upon protein-nucleic acid association. The entropy change due to the ion release can be estimated from the diffusion data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Binhan Yu
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Sealy Center for Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77555-1068 United States
| | - Karina G Bien
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Sealy Center for Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77555-1068 United States
| | - Channing C Pletka
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Sealy Center for Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77555-1068 United States
| | - Junji Iwahara
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Sealy Center for Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77555-1068 United States
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18
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Sengul MY, MacKerell AD. Accurate Modeling of RNA Hairpins Through the Explicit Treatment of Electronic Polarizability with the Classical Drude Oscillator Force Field. JOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL BIOPHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY 2022; 21:461-471. [DOI: 10.1142/s2737416521420060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations play a crucial role in modeling biomolecular systems in which the electrostatic interactions are critical in dictating the structural and dynamical properties. Thus, the treatment of the electrostatic interactions defined in the underlying force field (FF) strongly affects the simulation accuracy. Most FFs use fixed partial atomic charges to include electrostatic interactions, and therefore lack the electronic polarization response, representing an intrinsic limitation. To address this limitation, polarizable FFs have been developed that treat atomic polarizabilities explicitly. Here we present the application of the all-atom polarizable (Drude) and non-polarizable (CHARMM) nucleic acid FFs in RNA hairpin systems to investigate the impact of polarization on structural properties, dipole moment distributions, and cation interactions. Results show that the presence of polarizability in the FF significantly improves the stabilization of RNA hairpin structure. As expected, the distributions of dipole moments show more fluctuations when simulated using the polarizable FF, with the variation in dipoles contributing to the stabilization of the structures of the loop regions of the RNAs. Contact map analyses between the bases and cations show that the variation of the ion distribution around the entire hairpin is larger for the polarizable FF and the cations occupy the outer hydration shell to a greater extent. The presented results indicate the importance of the explicit treatment of electronic polarizability in molecular simulations of RNA, including in non-canonical regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mert Y. Sengul
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, USA
| | - Alexander D. MacKerell
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, USA
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19
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Yin L, Zhang H, Wang Y, He L, Lu L. Exploring the fluorescence enhancement of the split G-quadruplex towards DNA-templated AgNCs and their application in omethoate detection. J Mater Chem B 2022; 10:8856-8861. [DOI: 10.1039/d2tb01755e] [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
Based on the enhancement of split G-quadruplex on the fluorescence of DNA-templated AgNCs, a facile label-free and enzyme-free omethoate detection platform has been successfully constructed through the interaction between split G4 with DNA-AgNCs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Li Yin
- College of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao 266109, China
| | - Hui Zhang
- College of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao 266109, China
| | - Ying Wang
- College of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao 266109, China
| | - Liang He
- Penglai Jiaxin Dye Chemical., LTD, Yantai 265600, China
| | - Lihua Lu
- College of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao 266109, China
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20
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Ma CY, Pezzotti S, Schwaab G, Gebala M, Herschlag D, Havenith M. Cation enrichment in the ion atmosphere is promoted by local hydration of DNA. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2021; 23:23203-23213. [PMID: 34622888 PMCID: PMC8797164 DOI: 10.1039/d1cp01963e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Electrostatic interactions are central to the structure and function of nucleic acids, including their folding, condensation, and interaction with proteins and other charged molecules. These interactions are profoundly affected by ions surrounding nucleic acids, the constituents of the so-called ion atmosphere. Here, we report precise Fourier Transform-Terahertz/Far-Infrared (FT-THz/FIR) measurements in the frequency range 30-500 cm-1 for a 24-bp DNA solvated in a series of alkali halide (NaCl, NaF, KCl, CsCl, and CsF) electrolyte solutions which are sensitive to changes in the ion atmosphere. Cation excess in the ion atmosphere is detected experimentally by observation of cation modes of Na+, K+, and Cs+ in the frequency range between 70-90 cm-1. Based on MD simulations, we propose that the magnitude of cation excess (which is salt specific) depends on the ability of the electrolyte to perturb the water network at the DNA interface: In the NaF atmosphere, the ions reduce the strength of interactions between water and the DNA more than in case of a NaCl electrolyte. Here, we explicitly take into account the solvent contribution to the chemical potential in the ion atmosphere: A decrease in the number of bound water molecules in the hydration layer of DNA is correlated with enhanced density fluctuations, which decrease the free energy cost of ion-hydration, thus promoting further ion accumulation within the DNA atmosphere. We propose that taking into account the local solvation is crucial for understanding the ion atmosphere.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chun Yu Ma
- Department of Physical Chemistry II, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany.
| | - Simone Pezzotti
- Department of Physical Chemistry II, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany.
| | - Gerhard Schwaab
- Department of Physical Chemistry II, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany.
| | - Magdalena Gebala
- Department of Biochemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
| | - Daniel Herschlag
- Department of Biochemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
| | - Martina Havenith
- Department of Physical Chemistry II, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany.
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21
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Orabi EA, Öztürk TN, Bernhardt N, Faraldo-Gómez JD. Corrections in the CHARMM36 Parametrization of Chloride Interactions with Proteins, Lipids, and Alkali Cations, and Extension to Other Halide Anions. J Chem Theory Comput 2021; 17:6240-6261. [PMID: 34516741 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.1c00550] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
The nonpolarizable CHARMM force field is one of the most widely used energy functions for all-atom biomolecular simulations. Chloride is the only halide ion included in the latest version, CHARMM36m, and is used widely in simulation studies, often as an electrolyte ion but also as the biological substrate of transport proteins and enzymes. Here, we find that existing parameters systematically underestimate the interaction of Cl- with proteins and lipids. Accordingly, when examined in solution, little to no Cl-association can be observed with most components of the protein, including backbone, polar side chains and aromatic rings. The strength of the interaction with cationic side chains and with alkali ions is also incongruent with experimental measurements, specifically osmotic coefficients of concentrated solutions. Consistent with these findings, a 4-μs trajectory of the Cl--specific transport protein CLC-ec1 shows irreversible Cl- dissociation from the so-called Scen binding site, even in a 150 mM NaCl buffer. To correct for these deficiencies, we formulate a series of pair-specific Lennard-Jones parameters that override those resulting from the conventional Lorentz-Berthelot combination rules. These parameters, referred to as NBFIX, are systematically calibrated against available experimental data as well as ab initio geometry optimizations and energy evaluations, for a wide set of binary and ternary Cl- complexes with protein and lipid analogs and alkali cations. Analogously, we also formulate parameter sets for the other three biological halide ions, namely, fluoride, bromide, and iodide. The resulting parameters are used to calculate the potential of mean force defining the interaction of each anion and each of the protein and lipid analogues in bulk water, revealing association free energies in the range of -0.3 to -3.3 kcal/mol, with the F- complexes being the least stable. The NBFIX corrections also preserve the Cl- occupancy of CLC-ec1 in a second 4-μs trajectory. We posit that these optimized molecular-mechanics models provide a more realistic foundation for all-atom simulation studies of processes entailing changes in hydration, recognition, or transport of halide anions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Esam A Orabi
- Theoretical Molecular Biophysics Laboratory, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, 10 Center Drive, Bethesda, Maryland 20814, United States
| | - Tuǧba N Öztürk
- Theoretical Molecular Biophysics Laboratory, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, 10 Center Drive, Bethesda, Maryland 20814, United States.,Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, United States
| | - Nathan Bernhardt
- Theoretical Molecular Biophysics Laboratory, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, 10 Center Drive, Bethesda, Maryland 20814, United States
| | - José D Faraldo-Gómez
- Theoretical Molecular Biophysics Laboratory, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, 10 Center Drive, Bethesda, Maryland 20814, United States
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22
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Milenkovic S, Bodrenko IV, Carpaneto A, Ceccarelli M. The key role of the central cavity in sodium transport through ligand-gated two-pore channels. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2021; 23:18461-18474. [PMID: 34612386 DOI: 10.1039/d1cp02947a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Subcellular and organellar mechanisms have manifested a prominent importance for a broad variety of processes that maintain cellular life at its most basic level. Mammalian two-pore channels (TPCs) appear to be cornerstones of these processes in endo-lysosomes by controlling delicate ion-concentrations in their interiors. With evolutionary remarkable architecture and one-of-a-kind selectivity filter, TPCs are an extremely attractive topic per se. In the light of the current COVID-19 pandemic, hTPC2 emerges to be more than attractive. As a key regulator of the endocytosis pathway, it is potentially essential for diverse viral infections in humans, as demonstrated. Here, by means of multiscale molecular simulations, we propose a model of sodium transport from the lumen to the cytosol where the central cavity works as a reservoir. Since the inhibition of hTPC2 is proven to stop SARS-CoV2 in vitro, shedding light on the hTPC2 function and mechanism is the first step towards the selection of potential inhibiting candidates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefan Milenkovic
- Department of Physics, University of Cagliari, 09042 Monserrato, Italy.
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23
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Walker B, Jing Z, Ren P. Molecular dynamics free energy simulations of ATP:Mg 2+ and ADP:Mg 2+ using the polarizable force field AMOEBA. MOLECULAR SIMULATION 2021; 47:439-448. [PMID: 34421214 DOI: 10.1080/08927022.2020.1725003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
ATPases and GTPases are two important classes of protein that play critical roles in energy transduction, cellular signaling, gene regulation and catalysis. These proteins use cofactors such as nucleoside di and tri-phosphates (NTP, NDP) and can detect the difference between NDP and NTP which then induce different protein conformations. Mechanisms that drive proteins into the NTP or NDP conformation may depend on factors such as ligand structure and how Mg2+ coordinates with the ligand, amino acids in the pocket and water molecules. Here, we have used the advanced electrostatic and polarizable force field AMOEBA and molecular dynamics free energy simulations (MDFE) to examine the various binding mechanisms of ATP:Mg2+ and ADP:Mg2+.We compared the ATP:Mg2+ binding with previous studies using non-polarizable force fields and experimental data on the binding affinity. It was found that the total free energy of binding for ATP:Mg2+ (-7.00 ± 2.13 kcal/mol) is in good agreement with experimental values (-8.6 ± .2 kcal/mol)1. In addition, parameters for relevant protonation states of ATP, ADP, GTP and GDP have been derived. These parameters will allow for researchers to investigate biochemical phenomena involving NTP's and NDP's with greater accuracy than previous studies involving non-polarizable force fields.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brandon Walker
- Department of Biomedical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
| | - Zhifeng Jing
- Department of Biomedical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
| | - Pengyu Ren
- Department of Biomedical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
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24
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Boychuk BTA, Rebecca Jeong YE, Wetmore SD. Assessment of the Accuracy of DFT-Predicted Li +-Nucleic Acid Binding Energies. J Chem Theory Comput 2021; 17:5392-5408. [PMID: 34339194 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.1c00401] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Understanding how lithium interacts with complex biosystems is crucial for uncovering the roles of this alkali metal in biology and designing extraction techniques for battery production and environmental remediation. In this light, fundamental information about Li+ binding to nucleic acids is required. Herein, a new database of Li+-nucleic acid interactions is presented that contains CCSD(T)/CBS benchmark energies for all nucleobase and phosphate binding locations. Furthermore, the performance of 54 DFT functionals in combination with three triple-zeta (TZ) basis sets (6-311+G(3df,2p), aug-cc-pVTZ, and def2-TZVPP) is tested. The results identify a range of functionals across different families (B2-PLYP, PBE-QIDH, ωB97, ωB97X-D, MN15, B3PW91, B97-2, TPSS, BP86-D3(BJ), and PBE) that can accurately describe coordinated Li+-nucleic acid interactions, with the average mean percent error (AMPE) across binding positions and basis sets being below 2%. Nevertheless, only three functionals tested (B2-PLYP, PBE-QIDH, and ωB97X-D) preserve this accuracy for metal cation-π interactions, suggesting that caution is warranted when choosing a functional to describe a diverse range of Li+-nucleic acid complexes. Removal of counterpoise corrections has very little impact on the reliability of most functionals, while the effect of empirical dispersion corrections varies depending on the functional choice and interaction type. While increasing the basis set to quadruple-zeta quality had little impact on the AMPE, the accuracy of double-zeta basis sets varies with family. Importantly, DFT methods reproduce the CCSD(T)/CBS trend in the preferred binding position for a given nucleic acid component and the global trend across components (phosphate ≫ G > C ≫ A ∼ T = U), as well as the geometries of the metal-nucleic acid complexes. The overall top performing functional is PBE-QIDH, which results in deviations from CCSD(T)/CBS values as small as ∼0.1 kcal/mol for nucleobase contacts and ∼1 kcal/mol for phosphate interactions. The most accurate DFT methods identified in the present work are recommended for future investigations of lithium interactions in larger nucleic acid systems to provide insights into the biological roles of this metal and the design of novel biosensing strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Briana T A Boychuk
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Lethbridge, 4401 University Drive West, Lethbridge, Alberta T1K 3M4, Canada
| | - Ye Eun Rebecca Jeong
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Lethbridge, 4401 University Drive West, Lethbridge, Alberta T1K 3M4, Canada
| | - Stacey D Wetmore
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Lethbridge, 4401 University Drive West, Lethbridge, Alberta T1K 3M4, Canada
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25
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Xu HT, Zhang N, Li MR, Zhang FS. Anion effect of Cl−, I−, and F− on counterions condensation within nucleic acid ion atmosphere. J Mol Liq 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.molliq.2021.115899] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
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26
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Schlick T, Portillo-Ledesma S, Myers CG, Beljak L, Chen J, Dakhel S, Darling D, Ghosh S, Hall J, Jan M, Liang E, Saju S, Vohr M, Wu C, Xu Y, Xue E. Biomolecular Modeling and Simulation: A Prospering Multidisciplinary Field. Annu Rev Biophys 2021; 50:267-301. [PMID: 33606945 PMCID: PMC8105287 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-biophys-091720-102019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
We reassess progress in the field of biomolecular modeling and simulation, following up on our perspective published in 2011. By reviewing metrics for the field's productivity and providing examples of success, we underscore the productive phase of the field, whose short-term expectations were overestimated and long-term effects underestimated. Such successes include prediction of structures and mechanisms; generation of new insights into biomolecular activity; and thriving collaborations between modeling and experimentation, including experiments driven by modeling. We also discuss the impact of field exercises and web games on the field's progress. Overall, we note tremendous success by the biomolecular modeling community in utilization of computer power; improvement in force fields; and development and application of new algorithms, notably machine learning and artificial intelligence. The combined advances are enhancing the accuracy andscope of modeling and simulation, establishing an exemplary discipline where experiment and theory or simulations are full partners.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tamar Schlick
- Department of Chemistry, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA;
- Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, New York, New York 10012, USA
- New York University-East China Normal University Center for Computational Chemistry, New York University Shanghai, Shanghai 200122, China
| | | | - Christopher G Myers
- Department of Chemistry, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA;
| | - Lauren Beljak
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Justin Chen
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Sami Dakhel
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Daniel Darling
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Sayak Ghosh
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Joseph Hall
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Mikaeel Jan
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Emily Liang
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Sera Saju
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Mackenzie Vohr
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Chris Wu
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Yifan Xu
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Eva Xue
- College of Arts and Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
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27
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Savelyev A. Assessment of the DNA partial specific volume and hydration layer properties from CHARMM Drude polarizable and additive MD simulations. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2021; 23:10524-10535. [PMID: 33899879 PMCID: PMC8121142 DOI: 10.1039/d1cp00688f] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
In this study we report on the accurate computation of the biomolecular partial specific volume (PSV) from explicit-solvent molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The case of DNA is considered, and the predictions from two state-of-the-art biomolecular force fields, the CHARMM36 additive (C36) and Drude polarizable models, are presented. Unlike most of the existing approaches to assess the biomolecular PSV, our proposed method bypasses the need for the arbitrarily defined volume partitioning scheme into the intrinsic solute and solvent contributions. At the same time, to assess the density of the hydration layer water, we combine our simulation analysis approach with some of the existing fixed-size methods to determine the solute's intrinsic volume, and also propose our own approach to compute all required quantities exclusively from MD simulations. Our findings provide useful insights into the properties of the hydration layer, specifically its size and density, parameters of great importance to the variety of techniques used to model hydrodynamic and structural properties of biological molecules. The computed PSV values are found to be in close agreement with the values obtained from analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC) experiments performed on canonical B-form duplex DNAs and single-stranded DNAs forming G-quadruplex structures. Since the biomolecular PSV represents an important quantitative measure of solute-solvent interactions, near quantitative agreement with AUC measurements is indicative of the quality of the all-atom models used in the MD simulations, particularly the reliability of the CHARMM force-field parameters for nucleic acids, water, mobile ions, and interactions among these entities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexey Savelyev
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812, USA.
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28
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Yuan Y, Fu S, Huo D, Su W, Zhang R, Wei J. Multipolar electrostatics for hairpin and pseudoknots in RNA: Improving the accuracy of force field potential energy function. J Comput Chem 2021; 42:771-786. [PMID: 33586809 DOI: 10.1002/jcc.26497] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2020] [Revised: 01/17/2021] [Accepted: 01/24/2021] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations that rely on force field methods has been widely used to explore the structure and function of RNAs. However, the current commonly used force fields are limited by the electrostatic description offered by atomic charge, dipole and at most quadrupole moments, failing to capture the anisotropic picture of electronic features. Actually, the distribution of electrons around atomic nuclei is not spherically symmetric but is geometry dependent. A multipolar electrostatic model based on high rank multipole moments is described in this work, which allows us to combine polarizability and anisotropy of electron density. RNA secondary structure was taken as a research system, and its substructures including stem, loops (hairpin loop, bulge loop, internal loop, and multi-branch loop), and pseudoknots (H-type and K-type) were investigated, respectively, as well as the hairpin. First, the atom-atom electrostatic properties derived from one chain of a duplex RNA 2MVY in our previous work (Ref. 58) were measured by the pilot RNA systems of hairpin, hairpin loop, stem, and H-type pseudoknot, respectively. The prediction results were not satisfactory. Consequently, to obtain a general set of electrostatic parameters for RNA force fields, the convergence behavior of the atom-atom electrostatic interactions in the pilot RNA systems was explored using high rank atomic multipole moments. The pilot RNA systems were cut into four types of different-sized molecular fragments, and the single nucleotide fragment and nucleotide-paired fragment proved to be the most reasonable systems for base-unpairing regions and base-pairing regions to investigate the convergence behavior of all types of atom-atom electrostatic interactions, respectively. Transferability of the electrostatic properties drawn from the pilot RNA systems to the corresponding test systems was also investigated. Furthermore, the convergence behavior of atomic electrostatic interactions in other substructures including bulge loop, internal loop, multi-branch loop, and K-type pseudoknot was expected to be modeled via the hairpin.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yongna Yuan
- School of Information Science & Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China
| | - Shaowei Fu
- School of Information Science & Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China
| | - Dongxu Huo
- School of Information Science & Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China
| | - Wei Su
- School of Information Science & Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China
| | - Ruisheng Zhang
- School of Information Science & Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China
| | - Jiaxuan Wei
- School of Information Science & Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China
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29
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Salsbury AM, Lemkul JA. Cation competition and recruitment around the c-kit1 G-quadruplex using polarizable simulations. Biophys J 2021; 120:2249-2261. [PMID: 33794153 PMCID: PMC8390831 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2021.03.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2020] [Revised: 02/22/2021] [Accepted: 03/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Nucleic acid-ion interactions are fundamentally important to the physical, energetic, and conformational properties of DNA and RNA. These interactions help fold and stabilize highly ordered secondary and tertiary structures, such as G-quadruplexes (GQs), which are functionally relevant in telomeres, replication initiation sites, and promoter sequences. The c-kit proto-oncogene encodes for a receptor tyrosine kinase and is linked to gastrointestinal stromal tumors, mast cell disease, and leukemia. This gene contains three unique GQ-forming sequences that have proposed antagonistic effects on gene expression. The dominant GQ, denoted c-kit1, has been shown to decrease expression of c-kit transcripts, making the c-kit1 GQ a promising drug target. Toward disease intervention, more information is needed regarding its conformational dynamics and ion binding properties. Therefore, we performed molecular dynamics simulations of the c-kit1 GQ with K+, Na+, Li+, and mixed salt solutions using the Drude-2017 polarizable force field. We evaluated GQ structure, ion sampling, core energetics, ion dehydration and binding, and ion competition and found that each analysis supported the known GQ-ion specificity trend (K+ > Na+ > Li+). We also found that K+ ions coordinate in the tetrad core antiprismatically, whereas Na+ and Li+ align coplanar to guanine tetrads, partially because of their attraction to surrounding water. Further, we showed that K+ occupancy is higher around the c-kit1 GQ and its nucleobases than Na+ and Li+, which tend to interact with backbone and sugar moieties. Finally, we showed that K+ binding to the c-kit1 GQ is faster and more frequent than Na+ and Li+. Such descriptions of GQ-ion dynamics suggest the rate of dehydration as the dominant factor for preference of K+ by DNA GQs and provide insight into noncanonical nucleic acids for which little experimental data exist.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Justin A Lemkul
- Department of Biochemistry, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia; Center for Drug Discovery, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia.
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30
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Ratnasinghe BD, Salsbury AM, Lemkul JA. Ion Binding Properties and Dynamics of the bcl-2 G-Quadruplex Using a Polarizable Force Field. J Chem Inf Model 2020; 60:6476-6488. [PMID: 33264004 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.0c01064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
G-quadruplexes (GQs) are topologically diverse, highly thermostable noncanonical nucleic acid structures that form in guanine-rich sequences in DNA and RNA. GQs are implicated in transcriptional and translational regulation and genome maintenance, and deleterious alterations to their structures contribute to diseases such as cancer. The expression of the B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) antiapoptotic protein, for example, is under transcriptional control of a GQ in the promoter of the bcl-2 gene. Modulation of the bcl-2 GQ by small molecules is of interest for chemotherapeutic development but doing so requires knowledge of the factors driving GQ folding and stabilization. To develop a greater understanding of the electrostatic properties of the bcl-2 promoter GQ, we performed molecular dynamics simulations using the Drude-2017 polarizable force field and compared relevant outcomes to the nonpolarizable CHARMM36 force field. Our simulation outcomes highlight the importance of dipole-dipole interactions in the bcl-2 GQ, particularly during the recruitment of a bulk K+ ion to the solvent-exposed face of the tetrad stem. We also predict and characterize an "electronegative pocket" at the tetrad-long loop junction that induces local backbone conformational change and may induce local conformational changes at cellular concentrations of K+. These outcomes suggest that moieties within the bcl-2 GQ can be targeted by small molecules to modulate bcl-2 GQ stability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian D Ratnasinghe
- Department of Biochemistry, Virginia Tech, 303 Engel Hall, 340 West Campus Dr., Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, United States
| | - Alexa M Salsbury
- Department of Biochemistry, Virginia Tech, 303 Engel Hall, 340 West Campus Dr., Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, United States
| | - Justin A Lemkul
- Department of Biochemistry and Center for Drug Discovery, Virginia Tech, 303 Engel Hall, 340 West Campus Dr., Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, United States
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31
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Rupakheti C, Lamoureux G, MacKerell AD, Roux B. Statistical mechanics of polarizable force fields based on classical Drude oscillators with dynamical propagation by the dual-thermostat extended Lagrangian. J Chem Phys 2020; 153:114108. [PMID: 32962358 PMCID: PMC7656322 DOI: 10.1063/5.0019987] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2020] [Accepted: 08/13/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Polarizable force fields based on classical Drude oscillators offer a practical and computationally efficient avenue to carry out molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of large biomolecular systems. To treat the polarizable electronic degrees of freedom, the Drude model introduces a virtual charged particle that is attached to its parent nucleus via a harmonic spring. Traditionally, the need to relax the electronic degrees of freedom for each fixed set of nuclear coordinates is achieved by performing an iterative self-consistent field (SCF) calculation to satisfy a selected tolerance. This is a computationally demanding procedure that can increase the computational cost of MD simulations by nearly one order of magnitude. To avoid the costly SCF procedure, a small mass is assigned to the Drude particles, which are then propagated as dynamic variables during the simulations via a dual-thermostat extended Lagrangian algorithm. To help clarify the significance of the dual-thermostat extended Lagrangian propagation in the context of the polarizable force field based on classical Drude oscillators, the statistical mechanics of a dual-temperature canonical ensemble is formulated. The conditions for dynamically maintaining the dual-temperature properties in the case of the classical Drude oscillator are analyzed using the generalized Langevin equation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chetan Rupakheti
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
| | - Guillaume Lamoureux
- Department of Chemistry and Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey 08102, USA
| | - Alexander D. MacKerell
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, USA
| | - Benoît Roux
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
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32
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Wineman-Fisher V, Delgado JM, Nagy PR, Jakobsson E, Pandit SA, Varma S. Transferable interactions of Li + and Mg 2+ ions in polarizable models. J Chem Phys 2020; 153:104113. [PMID: 32933310 DOI: 10.1063/5.0022060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Therapeutic implications of Li+, in many cases, stem from its ability to inhibit certain Mg2+-dependent enzymes, where it interacts with or substitutes for Mg2+. The underlying details of its action are, however, unknown. Molecular simulations can provide insights, but their reliability depends on how well they describe relative interactions of Li+ and Mg2+ with water and other biochemical groups. Here, we explore, benchmark, and recommend improvements to two simulation approaches: the one that employs an all-atom polarizable molecular mechanics (MM) model and the other that uses a hybrid quantum and MM implementation of the quasi-chemical theory (QCT). The strength of the former is that it describes thermal motions explicitly and that of the latter is that it derives local contributions from electron densities. Reference data are taken from the experiment, and also obtained systematically from CCSD(T) theory, followed by a benchmarked vdW-inclusive density functional theory. We find that the QCT model predicts relative hydration energies and structures in agreement with the experiment and without the need for additional parameterization. This implies that accurate descriptions of local interactions are essential. Consistent with this observation, recalibration of local interactions in the MM model, which reduces errors from 10.0 kcal/mol to 1.4 kcal/mol, also fixes aqueous phase properties. Finally, we show that ion-ligand transferability errors in the MM model can be reduced significantly from 10.3 kcal/mol to 1.2 kcal/mol by correcting the ligand's polarization term and by introducing Lennard-Jones cross-terms. In general, this work sets up systematic approaches to evaluate and improve molecular models of ions binding to proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vered Wineman-Fisher
- Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida 33620, USA
| | - Julián Meléndez Delgado
- Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida 33620, USA
| | - Péter R Nagy
- Department of Physical Chemistry and Materials Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, P.O. Box 91, H-1521 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Eric Jakobsson
- National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology, Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
| | - Sagar A Pandit
- Department of Physics, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida 33620, USA
| | - Sameer Varma
- Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida 33620, USA
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33
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Abstract
![]()
Molecular association of proteins with nucleic
acids is required
for many biological processes essential to life. Electrostatic interactions
via ion pairs (salt bridges) of nucleic acid phosphates and protein
side chains are crucial for proteins to bind to DNA or RNA. Counterions
around the macromolecules are also key constituents for the thermodynamics
of protein–nucleic acid association. Until recently, there
had been only a limited amount of experiment-based information about
how ions and ionic moieties behave in biological macromolecular processes.
In the past decade, there has been significant progress in quantitative
experimental research on ionic interactions with nucleic acids and
their complexes with proteins. The highly negatively charged surfaces
of DNA and RNA electrostatically attract and condense cations, creating
a zone called the ion atmosphere. Recent experimental studies were
able to examine and validate theoretical models on ions and their
mobility and interactions with macromolecules. The ionic interactions
are highly dynamic. The counterions rapidly diffuse within the ion
atmosphere. Some of the ions are released from the ion atmosphere
when proteins bind to nucleic acids, balancing the charge via intermolecular
ion pairs of positively charged side chains and negatively charged
backbone phosphates. Previously, the release of counterions had been
implicated indirectly by the salt-concentration dependence of the
association constant. Recently, direct detection of counterion
release by NMR spectroscopy
has become possible and enabled more accurate and quantitative analysis
of the counterion release and its entropic impact on the thermodynamics
of protein–nucleic acid association. Recent studies also revealed
the dynamic nature of ion pairs of protein side chains and nucleic
acid phosphates. These ion pairs undergo transitions between two major
states. In one of the major states, the cation and the anion are in
direct contact and form hydrogen bonds. In the other major state,
the cation and the anion are separated by water. Transitions between
these states rapidly occur on a picosecond to nanosecond time scale.
When proteins interact with nucleic acids, interfacial arginine (Arg)
and lysine (Lys) side chains exhibit considerably different behaviors.
Arg side chains show a higher propensity to form rigid contacts with
nucleotide bases, whereas Lys side chains tend to be more mobile at
the molecular interfaces. The dynamic ionic interactions may facilitate
adaptive molecular recognition and play both thermodynamic and kinetic
roles in protein–nucleic acid interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Binhan Yu
- Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Sealy Center for Structural Biology & Molecular Biophysics, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77555-1068, United States
| | - B. Montgomery Pettitt
- Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Sealy Center for Structural Biology & Molecular Biophysics, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77555-1068, United States
| | - Junji Iwahara
- Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Sealy Center for Structural Biology & Molecular Biophysics, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77555-1068, United States
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Wineman-Fisher V, Al-Hamdani Y, Nagy PR, Tkatchenko A, Varma S. Improved description of ligand polarization enhances transferability of ion-ligand interactions. J Chem Phys 2020; 153:094115. [PMID: 32891085 PMCID: PMC9812517 DOI: 10.1063/5.0022058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
The reliability of molecular mechanics (MM) simulations in describing biomolecular ion-driven processes depends on their ability to accurately model interactions of ions simultaneously with water and other biochemical groups. In these models, ion descriptors are calibrated against reference data on ion-water interactions, and it is then assumed that these descriptors will also satisfactorily describe interactions of ions with other biochemical ligands. The comparison against the experiment and high-level quantum mechanical data show that this transferability assumption can break down severely. One approach to improve transferability is to assign cross terms or separate sets of non-bonded descriptors for every distinct pair of ion type and its coordinating ligand. Here, we propose an alternative solution that targets an error-source directly and corrects misrepresented physics. In standard model development, ligand descriptors are never calibrated or benchmarked in the high electric fields present near ions. We demonstrate for a representative MM model that when the polarization descriptors of its ligands are improved to respond to both low and high fields, ligand interactions with ions also improve, and transferability errors reduce substantially. In our case, the overall transferability error reduces from 3.3 kcal/mol to 1.8 kcal/mol. These improvements are observed without compromising on the accuracy of low-field interactions of ligands in gas and condensed phases. Reference data for calibration and performance evaluation are taken from the experiment and also obtained systematically from "gold-standard" CCSD(T) in the complete basis set limit, followed by benchmarked vdW-inclusive density functional theory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vered Wineman-Fisher
- Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida 33620, USA
| | - Yasmine Al-Hamdani
- Physics and Materials Science Research Unit, University of Luxembourg, 162a Avenue de La Fïancerie, Luxembourg City L-1511, Luxembourg
| | - Péter R. Nagy
- Department of Physical Chemistry and Materials Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, P. O. Box 91, H-1521 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Alexandre Tkatchenko
- Physics and Materials Science Research Unit, University of Luxembourg, 162a Avenue de La Fïancerie, Luxembourg City L-1511, Luxembourg
| | - Sameer Varma
- Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida 33620, USA,Author to whom correspondence should be addressed:
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35
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Xu L, Pang Y, Huang D, Zhuang H, Luo T, Lee PH, Liu W, Zhang S, Feng L. Increasing ammonia recovery from high-level ammonium wastewater via adding sodium sulfate to prevent nitrogen generation in the cathode. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2020; 186:109521. [PMID: 32335429 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109521] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/25/2019] [Revised: 04/09/2020] [Accepted: 04/10/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
The high-level ammonium-nitrogen (NH4+-N) is a contaminant for aqueous environment but a potential hydrogen fuel. This study investigated an approach of increasing ammonia recovery via adding sodium sulfate of 0-1.5 M to prevent from nitrogen generation. The results of experiment tests, electrochemical analysis and MD simulation demonstrated that the added Na2SO4 assisted ammonium transport inhibited nitrogen gas generation in a certain concentration range. In electric double layer (EDL), with Na2SO4 concentration increasing, both the migration velocities of NH4+ and Na+ are accelerated for Na2SO4 of 0-0.25 M, whereas they are decelerated for concentrate Na2SO4 that 0.5 M). A thick layer formed by Na+ that imposed a fierce competitive adsorption blocked the migration of NH4+ and the transportation of electrons. The decrease of electrons and the accumulation of water molecules caused the potential drop in the EDL. 0.25 M Na2SO4 was the optimal concentration from the aspect of ion transports. The results obtained in this study can allow the manipulation of EDI capacity optimization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Linji Xu
- Environmental Engineering Technology Research Center, Chongqing Academy of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Qishan Road 252, Yubei district, Chongqing, PR China
| | - Yunsong Pang
- Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, United States
| | - Dezhao Huang
- Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, United States
| | - Huichuan Zhuang
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, PR China
| | - Tengfei Luo
- Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, United States
| | - Po-Heng Lee
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Wenzong Liu
- Key Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China
| | - Sheng Zhang
- Environmental Engineering Technology Research Center, Chongqing Academy of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Qishan Road 252, Yubei district, Chongqing, PR China
| | - Li Feng
- Environmental Engineering Technology Research Center, Chongqing Academy of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Qishan Road 252, Yubei district, Chongqing, PR China.
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36
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Prajapati JD, Mele C, Aksoyoglu MA, Winterhalter M, Kleinekathöfer U. Computational Modeling of Ion Transport in Bulk and through a Nanopore Using the Drude Polarizable Force Field. J Chem Inf Model 2020; 60:3188-3203. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.0c00389] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Crystal Mele
- Department of Physics and Earth Sciences, Jacobs University Bremen, 28759 Bremen, Germany
| | | | - Mathias Winterhalter
- Department of Life Sciences and Chemistry, Jacobs University Bremen, 28759 Bremen, Germany
| | - Ulrich Kleinekathöfer
- Department of Physics and Earth Sciences, Jacobs University Bremen, 28759 Bremen, Germany
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37
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38
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Salsbury AM, Dean TJ, Lemkul JA. Polarizable Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Two c-kit Oncogene Promoter G-Quadruplexes: Effect of Primary and Secondary Structure on Loop and Ion Sampling. J Chem Theory Comput 2020; 16:3430-3444. [PMID: 32307997 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.0c00191] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
G-quadruplexes (GQs) are highly ordered nucleic acid structures that play fundamental roles in regulating gene expression and maintaining genomic stability. GQs are topologically diverse and enriched in promoter sequences of growth regulatory genes and proto-oncogenes, suggesting that they may serve as attractive targets for drug design at the level of transcription rather than inhibiting the activity of the protein products of these genes. The c-kit promoter contains three adjacent GQ-forming sequences that have proposed antagonistic effects on gene expression and thus are promising drug targets for diseases such as gastrointestinal stromal tumors, mast cell disease, and leukemia. Because GQ stability is influenced by primary structure, secondary structure, and ion interactions, a greater understanding of GQ structure, dynamics, and ion binding properties is needed to develop novel, GQ-targeting therapeutics. Here, we performed molecular dynamics simulations to systematically study the c-kit2 and c-kit* GQs, evaluating nonpolarizable and polarizable force fields (FFs) and examining the effects of base substitutions and cation type (K+, Na+, and Li+) on the dynamics of their isolated and linked structures. We found that the Drude polarizable FF outperformed the additive CHARMM36 FF in two- and three-tetrad GQs and solutions of KCl, NaCl, and LiCl. Drude simulations with different cations agreed with the known GQ stabilization preference (K+ > Na+ > Li+) and illustrated that tetrad core-ion coordination differs as a function of cation type. Finally, we showed that differences in primary and secondary structure influence loop sampling, ion binding, and core-ion energetics of GQs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexa M Salsbury
- Department of Biochemistry and Center for Drug Discovery, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, United States
| | - Tanner J Dean
- Department of Biochemistry and Center for Drug Discovery, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, United States
| | - Justin A Lemkul
- Department of Biochemistry and Center for Drug Discovery, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, United States
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Lemkul JA. Same fold, different properties: polarizable molecular dynamics simulations of telomeric and TERRA G-quadruplexes. Nucleic Acids Res 2020; 48:561-575. [PMID: 31807754 PMCID: PMC6954416 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkz1154] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2019] [Revised: 11/21/2019] [Accepted: 11/26/2019] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
DNA and RNA sequences rich in guanine can fold into noncanonical structures called G-quadruplexes (GQs), which exhibit a common stem structure of Hoogsteen hydrogen-bonded guanine tetrads and diverse loop structures. GQ sequence motifs are overrepresented in promoters, origins of replication, telomeres, and untranslated regions in mRNA, suggesting roles in modulating gene expression and preserving genomic integrity. Given these roles and unique aspects of different structures, GQs are attractive targets for drug design, but greater insight into GQ folding pathways and the interactions stabilizing them is required. Here, we performed molecular dynamics simulations to study two bimolecular GQs, a telomeric DNA GQ and the analogous telomeric repeat-containing RNA (TERRA) GQ. We applied the Drude polarizable force field, which we show outperforms the additive CHARMM36 force field in both ion retention and maintenance of the GQ folds. The polarizable simulations reveal that the GQs bind bulk K+ ions differently, and that the TERRA GQ accumulates more K+ ions, suggesting different ion interactions stabilize these structures. Nucleobase dipole moments vary as a function of position and also contribute to ion binding. Finally, we show that the TERRA GQ is more sensitive than the telomeric DNA GQ to water-mediated modulation of ion-induced dipole-dipole interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justin A Lemkul
- Department of Biochemistry and Center for Drug Discovery, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
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40
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Long MP, Alland S, Martin ME, Isborn CM. Molecular dynamics simulations of alkaline earth metal ions binding to DNA reveal ion size and hydration effects. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2020; 22:5584-5596. [DOI: 10.1039/c9cp06844a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Classical molecular dynamics simulations reveal size-dependent trends of alkaline earth metal ions binding to DNA are due to ion size and hydration behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Serra Alland
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
- University of Central Arkansas
- Arkansas 72035
- USA
| | - Madison E. Martin
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
- University of Central Arkansas
- Arkansas 72035
- USA
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41
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Zhu S. Validation of the Generalized Force Fields GAFF, CGenFF, OPLS-AA, and PRODRGFF by Testing Against Experimental Osmotic Coefficient Data for Small Drug-Like Molecules. J Chem Inf Model 2019; 59:4239-4247. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.9b00552] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Shun Zhu
- Department of Cellular and Genetic Medicine, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, P.R. China
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42
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Quantitative Studies of an RNA Duplex Electrostatics by Ion Counting. Biophys J 2019; 117:1116-1124. [PMID: 31466697 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2019.08.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2019] [Revised: 08/01/2019] [Accepted: 08/05/2019] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
RNAs are one of the most charged polyelectrolytes in nature, and understanding their electrostatics is fundamental to their structure and biological functions. An effective way to characterize the electrostatic field generated by nucleic acids is to quantify interactions between nucleic acids and ions that surround the molecules. These ions form a loosely associated cloud referred to as an ion atmosphere. Although theoretical and computational studies can describe the ion atmosphere around RNAs, benchmarks are needed to guide the development of these approaches, and experiments to date that read out RNA-ion interactions are limited. Here, we present ion counting studies to quantify the number of ions surrounding well-defined model systems of RNA and DNA duplexes. We observe that the RNA duplex attracts more cations and expels fewer anions compared to the DNA duplex, and the RNA duplex interacts significantly stronger with the divalent cation Mg2+, despite their identical total charge. These experimental results suggest that the RNA duplex generates a stronger electrostatic field than DNA, as is predicted based on the structural differences between their helices. Theoretical calculations using a nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann equation give excellent agreement with experiments for monovalent ions but underestimate Mg2+-DNA and Mg2+-RNA interactions by 20%. These studies provide needed stringent benchmarks to use against other all-atom theoretical models of RNA-ion interactions, interactions that likely must be accurately accounted for in structural, dynamic, and energetic terms to confidently model RNA structure, interactions, and function.
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Bedrov D, Piquemal JP, Borodin O, MacKerell AD, Roux B, Schröder C. Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Ionic Liquids and Electrolytes Using Polarizable Force Fields. Chem Rev 2019; 119:7940-7995. [PMID: 31141351 PMCID: PMC6620131 DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.8b00763] [Citation(s) in RCA: 278] [Impact Index Per Article: 55.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Many applications in chemistry, biology, and energy storage/conversion research rely on molecular simulations to provide fundamental insight into structural and transport properties of materials with high ionic concentrations. Whether the system is comprised entirely of ions, like ionic liquids, or is a mixture of a polar solvent with a salt, e.g., liquid electrolytes for battery applications, the presence of ions in these materials results in strong local electric fields polarizing solvent molecules and large ions. To predict properties of such systems from molecular simulations often requires either explicit or mean-field inclusion of the influence of polarization on electrostatic interactions. In this manuscript, we review the pros and cons of different treatments of polarization ranging from the mean-field approaches to the most popular explicit polarization models in molecular dynamics simulations of ionic materials. For each method, we discuss their advantages and disadvantages and emphasize key assumptions as well as their adjustable parameters. Strategies for the development of polarizable models are presented with a specific focus on extracting atomic polarizabilities. Finally, we compare simulations using polarizable and nonpolarizable models for several classes of ionic systems, discussing the underlying physics that each approach includes or ignores, implications for implementation and computational efficiency, and the accuracy of properties predicted by these methods compared to experiments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dmitry Bedrov
- Department
of Materials Science & Engineering, University of Utah, 122 South Central Campus Drive, Room 304, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, United States
| | - Jean-Philip Piquemal
- Laboratoire
de Chimie Théorique, Sorbonne Université,
UMR 7616 CNRS, CC137, 4 Place Jussieu, Tour 12-13, 4ème étage, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France
- Institut
Universitaire de France, 75005, Paris Cedex 05, France
- Department
of Biomedical Engineering, The University
of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
| | - Oleg Borodin
- Electrochemistry
Branch, Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate, Army Research Laboratory, 2800 Powder Mill Road, Adelphi, Maryland 20703, United
States
| | - Alexander D. MacKerell
- Department
of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Maryland, 20 Penn Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, United
States
| | - Benoît Roux
- Department
of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Gordon Center for Integrative
Science, University of Chicago, 929 57th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
| | - Christian Schröder
- Department
of Computational Biological Chemistry, University
of Vienna, Währinger Strasse 17, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
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Xi K, Wang FH, Xiong G, Zhang ZL, Tan ZJ. Competitive Binding of Mg 2+ and Na + Ions to Nucleic Acids: From Helices to Tertiary Structures. Biophys J 2019; 114:1776-1790. [PMID: 29694858 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2018.03.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2017] [Revised: 02/21/2018] [Accepted: 03/06/2018] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Nucleic acids generally reside in cellular aqueous solutions with mixed divalent/monovalent ions, and the competitive binding of divalent and monovalent ions is critical to the structures of nucleic acids because of their polyanionic nature. In this work, we first proposed a general and effective method for simulating a nucleic acid in mixed divalent/monovalent ion solutions with desired bulk ion concentrations via molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and investigated the competitive binding of Mg2+/Na+ ions to various nucleic acids by all-atom MD simulations. The extensive MD-based examinations show that single MD simulations conducted using the proposed method can yield desired bulk divalent/monovalent ion concentrations for various nucleic acids, including RNA tertiary structures. Our comprehensive analyses show that the global binding of Mg2+/Na+ to a nucleic acid is mainly dependent on its structure compactness, as well as Mg2+/Na+ concentrations, rather than the specific structure of the nucleic acid. Specifically, the relative global binding of Mg2+ over Na+ is stronger for a nucleic acid with higher effective surface charge density and higher relative Mg2+/Na+ concentrations. Furthermore, the local binding of Mg2+/Na+ to a phosphate of a nucleic acid mainly depends on the local phosphate density in addition to Mg2+/Na+ concentrations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kun Xi
- Center for Theoretical Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- and Nano-structures of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
| | - Feng-Hua Wang
- Engineering Training Center, Jianghan University, Wuhan, China
| | - Gui Xiong
- Center for Theoretical Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- and Nano-structures of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
| | - Zhong-Liang Zhang
- Center for Theoretical Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- and Nano-structures of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
| | - Zhi-Jie Tan
- Center for Theoretical Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- and Nano-structures of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
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Wineman-Fisher V, Al-Hamdani Y, Addou I, Tkatchenko A, Varma S. Ion-Hydroxyl Interactions: From High-Level Quantum Benchmarks to Transferable Polarizable Force Fields. J Chem Theory Comput 2019; 15:2444-2453. [PMID: 30830778 PMCID: PMC6598712 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.8b01198] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
Ion descriptors in molecular mechanics models are calibrated against reference data on ion-water interactions. It is then typically assumed that these descriptors will also satisfactorily describe interactions of ions with other functional groups, such as those present in biomolecules. However, several studies now demonstrate that this transferability assumption produces, in many different cases, large errors. Here we address this issue in a representative polarizable model and focus on transferability of cationic interactions from water to a series of alcohols. Both water and alcohols use hydroxyls for ion-coordination, and, therefore, this set of molecules constitutes the simplest possible case of transferability. We obtain gas phase reference data systematically from "gold-standard" quantum Monte Carlo and CCSD(T) methods, followed by benchmarked vdW-corrected DFT. We learn that the original polarizable model yields large gas phase water → alcohol transferability errors - the RMS and maximum errors are 2.3 and 5.1 kcal/mol, respectively. These errors are, nevertheless, systematic in that ion-alcohol interactions are overstabilized, and systematic errors typically imply that some essential physics is either missing or misrepresented. A comprehensive analysis shows that when both low- and high-field responses of ligand dipole polarization are described accurately, then transferability improves significantly - the RMS and maximum errors in the gas phase reduce, respectively, to 0.9 and 2.5 kcal/mol. Additionally, predictions of condensed phase transfer free energies also improve. Nevertheless, within the limits of the extrathermodynamic assumptions necessary to separate experimental estimates of salt dissolution into constituent cationic and anionic contributions, we note that the error in the condensed phase is systematic, which we attribute, at least, partially to the parametrization in long-range electrostatics. Overall, this work demonstrates a rational approach to boosting transferability of ionic interactions that will be applicable broadly to improving other polarizable and nonpolarizable models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vered Wineman-Fisher
- Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology , University of South Florida , Tampa , Florida 33620 , United States
| | - Yasmine Al-Hamdani
- Physics and Materials Science Research Unit , University of Luxembourg , 162a avenue de la Fïancerie , Luxembourg City , L-1511 , Luxembourg
| | - Iqbal Addou
- Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology , University of South Florida , Tampa , Florida 33620 , United States
| | - Alexandre Tkatchenko
- Physics and Materials Science Research Unit , University of Luxembourg , 162a avenue de la Fïancerie , Luxembourg City , L-1511 , Luxembourg
| | - Sameer Varma
- Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology , University of South Florida , Tampa , Florida 33620 , United States
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46
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Heid E, Fleck M, Chatterjee P, Schröder C, MacKerell AD. Toward Prediction of Electrostatic Parameters for Force Fields That Explicitly Treat Electronic Polarization. J Chem Theory Comput 2019; 15:2460-2469. [PMID: 30811193 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.8b01289] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/16/2023]
Abstract
The derivation of atomic polarizabilities for polarizable force field development has been a long-standing problem. Atomic polarizabilities were often refined manually starting from tabulated values, rendering an automated assignment of parameters difficult and hampering reproducibility and transferability of the obtained values. To overcome this, we trained both a linear increment scheme and a multilayer perceptron neural network on a large number of high-quality quantum mechanical atomic polarizabilities and partial atomic charges, where only the type of each atom and its connectivity were used as input. The predicted atomic polarizabilities and charges had average errors of 0.023 Å3 and 0.019 e using the neural net and 0.063 Å3 and 0.069 e using the simple increment scheme. As the algorithm relies only on the connectivities of the atoms within a molecule, thus omitting dependencies on the three-dimensional conformation, the approach naturally assigns like charges and polarizabilities to symmetrical groups. Accordingly, a convenient utility is presented for generating the partial atomic charges and atomic polarizabilities for organic molecules as needed in polarizable force field development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Esther Heid
- Department of Computational Biological Chemistry , University of Vienna, Faculty of Chemistry , Währingerstraße 17 , A-1090 Vienna , Austria.,Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy , University of Maryland , Baltimore , Maryland 21201 , United States
| | - Markus Fleck
- Department of Computational Biological Chemistry , University of Vienna, Faculty of Chemistry , Währingerstraße 17 , A-1090 Vienna , Austria
| | - Payal Chatterjee
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy , University of Maryland , Baltimore , Maryland 21201 , United States
| | - Christian Schröder
- Department of Computational Biological Chemistry , University of Vienna, Faculty of Chemistry , Währingerstraße 17 , A-1090 Vienna , Austria
| | - Alexander D MacKerell
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy , University of Maryland , Baltimore , Maryland 21201 , United States
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Abstract
Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have been widely applied to computer-aided drug design (CADD). While MD has been used in a variety of applications such as free energy perturbation and long-time simulations, the accuracy of the results from those methods depends strongly on the force field used. Force fields for small molecules are crucial, as they not only serve as building blocks for developing force fields for larger biomolecules but also act as model compounds that will be transferred to ligands used in CADD. Currently, a wide range of small molecule force fields based on additive or nonpolarizable models have been developed. While these nonpolarizable force fields can produce reasonable estimations of physical properties and have shown success in a variety of systems, there is still room for improvements due to inherent limitations in these models including the lack of an electronic polarization response. For this reason, incorporating polarization effects into the energy function underlying a force field is believed to be an important step forward, giving rise to the development of polarizable force fields. Recent simulations of biological systems have indicated that polarizable force fields are able to provide a better physical representation of intermolecular interactions and, in many cases, better agreement with experimental properties than nonpolarizable, additive force fields. Therefore, this chapter focuses on the development of small molecule force fields with emphasis on polarizable models. It begins with a brief introduction on the importance of small molecule force fields and their evolution from additive to polarizable force fields. Emphasis is placed on the additive CHARMM General Force Field and the polarizable force field based on the classical Drude oscillator. The theory for the Drude polarizable force field and results for small molecules are presented showing their improvements over the additive model. The potential importance of polarization for their application in a wide range of biological systems including CADD is then discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fang-Yu Lin
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Computer-Aided Drug Design Center, School of Pharmacy, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Alexander D MacKerell
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Computer-Aided Drug Design Center, School of Pharmacy, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA.
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48
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Jahan M, Uline MJ. Quantifying Mg 2+ Binding to ssDNA Oligomers: A Self-Consistent Field Theory Study at Varying Ionic Strengths and Grafting Densities. Polymers (Basel) 2018; 10:polym10121403. [PMID: 30961328 PMCID: PMC6401855 DOI: 10.3390/polym10121403] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2018] [Revised: 12/12/2018] [Accepted: 12/14/2018] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
The performance of aptamer-based biosensors is crucially impacted by their interactions with physiological metal ions, which can alter their structures and chemical properties. Therefore, elucidating the nature of these interactions carries the utmost importance in the robust design of highly efficient biosensors. We investigated Mg2+ binding to varying sequences of polymers to capture the effects of ionic strength and grafting density on ion binding and molecular reorganization of the polymer layer. The polymers are modeled as ssDNA aptamers using a self-consistent field theory, which accounts for non-covalent ion binding by integrating experimentally-derived binding constants. Our model captures the typical polyelectrolyte behavior of chain collapse with increased ionic strength for the ssDNA chains at low grafting density and exhibits the well-known re-entrant phenomena of stretched chains with increased ionic strength at high grafting density. The binding results suggest that electrostatic attraction between the monomers and Mg2+ plays the dominant role in defining the ion cloud around the ssDNA chains and generates a nearly-uniform ion distribution along the chains containing varying monomer sequences. These findings are in qualitative agreement with recent experimental results for Mg2+ binding to surface-bound ssDNA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Merina Jahan
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA.
| | - Mark J Uline
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA.
- Biomedical Engineering Program, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA.
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49
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Lemkul JA, MacKerell AD. Polarizable force field for RNA based on the classical drude oscillator. J Comput Chem 2018; 39:2624-2646. [PMID: 30515902 PMCID: PMC6284239 DOI: 10.1002/jcc.25709] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2018] [Revised: 08/01/2018] [Accepted: 09/23/2018] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
RNA molecules are highly dynamic and capable of adopting a wide range of complex, folded structures. The factors driving the folding and dynamics of these structures are dependent on a balance of base pairing, hydration, base stacking, ion interactions, and the conformational sampling of the 2'-hydroxyl group in the ribose sugar. The representation of these features is a challenge for empirical force fields used in molecular dynamics simulations. Toward meeting this challenge, the inclusion of explicit electronic polarization is important in accurately modeling RNA structure. In this work, we present a polarizable force field for RNA based on the classical Drude oscillator model, which represents electronic degrees of freedom via negatively charged particles attached to their parent atoms by harmonic springs. Beginning with parametrization against quantum mechanical base stacking interaction energy and conformational energy data, we have extended the Drude-2017 nucleic acid force field to include RNA. The conformational sampling of a range of RNA sequences were used to validate the force field, including canonical A-form RNA duplexes, stem-loops, and complex tertiary folds that bind multiple Mg2+ ions. Overall, the Drude-2017 RNA force field reproduces important properties of these structures, including the conformational sampling of the 2'-hydroxyl and key interactions with Mg2+ ions. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Alexander D. MacKerell
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD 21201
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50
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Salsbury AM, Lemkul JA. Molecular Dynamics Simulations of the c-kit1 Promoter G-Quadruplex: Importance of Electronic Polarization on Stability and Cooperative Ion Binding. J Phys Chem B 2018; 123:148-159. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.8b11026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
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