1
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Mohamed SK, Siddique SA, Karthikeyan S, Ahmed EA, Omran OA, Mague JT, Al-Salahi R, El Bakri Y. Synthesis, X-ray crystallography, computational investigation on quinoxaline derivatives as potent against adenosine receptor A2AAR. J Biomol Struct Dyn 2024:1-19. [PMID: 38385483 DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2024.2314268] [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: 10/09/2023] [Accepted: 01/28/2024] [Indexed: 02/23/2024]
Abstract
Quinoxaline represents one of the most important classes of heterocyclic compounds, which have exhibited a wide range of biological activities and industrial importance in many different fields. In this regard, we have synthetized two new quinoxaline derivatives. Their structures were confirmed by single-crystal X-ray analysis. The compounds show potent activity against adenosine receptors A2AAR based on structural activity relationship studies. Further molecular docking, molecular dynamics, ADMET analysis, and DFT (density functional theory) calculations were performed to understand the titled compound's future drug candidacy. DFT computations confirmed the good stability of the synthesized compounds, as evidenced by the optimized molecular geometry, HOMO-LUMO energy gap, and intermolecular interactions. NBO analysis confirmed intermolecular interactions mediated by lone pair, bonding, and anti-bonding orbitals. All DFT findings were consistent with experimental results, indicating that the synthesized molecules are highly stable. These findings suggest that the synthesized compounds are promising candidates for further development as drugs for the treatment of A2AAR-related diseases.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shaaban K Mohamed
- Chemistry and Environmental Division, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, England
| | - Sabir Ali Siddique
- Institute of Chemistry, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Baghdad-ul-Jadeed Campus, Bahawalpur, Pakistan
| | - Subramani Karthikeyan
- Centre for Healthcare Advancement, Innovation and Research, Vellore Institute of Technology University, Chennai Campus, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
| | - Eman A Ahmed
- Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Sohag University, Sohag, Egypt
| | - Omran A Omran
- Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Sohag University, Sohag, Egypt
| | - Joel T Mague
- Department of Chemistry, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA
| | - Rashad Al-Salahi
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | - Youness El Bakri
- Department of Theoretical and Applied Chemistry, South Ural State University, Chelyabinsk, Russian Federation
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2
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López-Correa JM, König C, Vellido A. GPCR molecular dynamics forecasting using recurrent neural networks. Sci Rep 2023; 13:20995. [PMID: 38017062 PMCID: PMC10684758 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-48346-4] [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: 04/13/2023] [Accepted: 11/25/2023] [Indexed: 11/30/2023] Open
Abstract
G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are a large superfamily of cell membrane proteins that play an important physiological role as transmitters of extracellular signals. Signal transmission through the cell membrane depends on conformational changes in the transmembrane region of the receptor, which makes the investigation of the dynamics in these regions particularly relevant. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations provide a wealth of data about the structure, dynamics, and physiological function of biological macromolecules by modelling the interactions between their atomic constituents. In this study, a Recurrent and Convolutional Neural Network (RNN) model, namely Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), is used to predict the dynamics of two GPCR states and three specific simulations of each one, through their activation path and focussing on specific receptor regions. Active and inactive states of the GPCRs are analysed in six scenarios involving APO, Full Agonist (BI 167107) and Partial Inverse Agonist (carazolol) of the receptor. Four Machine Learning models with increasing complexity in terms of neural network architecture are evaluated, and their results discussed. The best method achieves an overall RMSD lower than 0.139 Å and the transmembrane helices are the regions showing the minimum prediction errors and minimum relative movements of the protein.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Caroline König
- Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
- IDEAI-UPC - Research Center, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Alfredo Vellido
- Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.
- IDEAI-UPC - Research Center, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.
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3
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Arthur DE, Soliman ME, Adeniji SE, Adedirin O, Peter F. QSAR AND MOLECULAR DOCKING STUDY OF GONADOTROPIN-RELEASING HORMONE RECEPTOR INHIBITORS. SCIENTIFIC AFRICAN 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.sciaf.2022.e01291] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/16/2022] Open
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4
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Zhao Z, Xu Q, Chen W, Wang S, Yang Q, Dong Y, Zhang J. Rational Design, Synthesis, and Biological Investigations of N-Methylcarbamoylguanidinyl Azamacrolides as a Novel Chitinase Inhibitor. JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD CHEMISTRY 2022; 70:4889-4898. [PMID: 35416043 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.2c00016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Chitinase is one of the most important glycoside hydrolyases, widely existing in bacteria, fungi, insects, and plants. It is involved in fungal cell wall remodeling and insect molting. Chitinase inhibitors are an effective means of controlling pathogens and pests. Natural product argifin is a 17-membered pentapeptide that exhibits efficient chitinase inhibitory activity. However, the complexity of the synthetic process results in a lot of restrictions for wide range of applications. In this work, we designed a series of azamacrolide chitinase inhibitors based on the structural features of argifin that have high inhibitory activities against bacterial and insectile chitinase. The most potent chitinase inhibitor compound 19c exhibited IC50 values of 56 nM and 110 nM against OfChi-h and SmChiB, respectively. The molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations revealed that all inhibitors were bound to the -1 subsite of chitinases via N-methylcarbamoylguanidinyl as well as argifin. Finally, a bioactivity assay against pests was carried out. Compound 18a showed 80% mortality for Mythimna separata at a concentration of 50 mg/L. Besides, insecticides 19b and 19c exhibited high mortality against Plutella xylostella (76 and 73% mortalities at 50 mg/L, respectively).
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhixiang Zhao
- Department of Applied Chemistry, College of Science, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, People's Republic of China
| | - Qingbo Xu
- Department of Applied Chemistry, College of Science, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, People's Republic of China
| | - Wei Chen
- State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, People's Republic of China
- Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture (Shenzhen Branch), Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518120, China
| | - Siming Wang
- Department of Applied Chemistry, College of Science, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, People's Republic of China
| | - Qing Yang
- State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, People's Republic of China
- Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture (Shenzhen Branch), Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518120, China
| | - Yanhong Dong
- Department of Applied Chemistry, College of Science, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, People's Republic of China
| | - Jianjun Zhang
- Department of Applied Chemistry, College of Science, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, People's Republic of China
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5
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Jana K, Mehra R, Dehury B, Blundell TL, Kepp KP. Common mechanism of thermostability in small α- and β-proteins studied by molecular dynamics. Proteins 2020; 88:1233-1250. [PMID: 32368818 DOI: 10.1002/prot.25897] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2019] [Revised: 04/01/2020] [Accepted: 04/29/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Protein thermostability is important to evolution, diseases, and industrial applications. Proteins use diverse molecular strategies to achieve stability at high temperature, yet reducing the entropy of unfolding seems required. We investigated five small α-proteins and five β-proteins with known, distinct structures and thermostability (Tm ) using multi-seed molecular dynamics simulations at 300, 350, and 400 K. The proteins displayed diverse changes in hydrogen bonding, solvent exposure, and secondary structure with no simple relationship to Tm . Our dynamics were in good agreement with experimental B-factors at 300 K and insensitive to force-field choice. Despite the very distinct structures, the native-state (300 + 350 K) free-energy landscapes (FELs) were significantly broader for the two most thermostable proteins and smallest for the three least stable proteins in both the α- and β-group and with both force fields studied independently (tailed t-test, 95% confidence level). Our results suggest that entropic ensembles stabilize proteins at high temperature due to reduced entropy of unfolding, viz., ΔG = ΔH - TΔS. Supporting this mechanism, the most thermostable proteins were also the least kinetically stable, consistent with broader FELs, typified by villin headpiece and confirmed by specific comparison to a mesophilic ortholog of Thermus thermophilus apo-pyrophosphate phosphohydrolase. We propose that molecular strategies of protein thermostabilization, although diverse, tend to converge toward highest possible entropy in the native state consistent with the functional requirements. We speculate that this tendency may explain why many proteins are not optimally structured and why molten-globule states resemble native proteins so much.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Budheswar Dehury
- DTU Chemistry, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark.,Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Tom L Blundell
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Kasper P Kepp
- DTU Chemistry, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
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6
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Geng H, Chen F, Ye J, Jiang F. Applications of Molecular Dynamics Simulation in Structure Prediction of Peptides and Proteins. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2019; 17:1162-1170. [PMID: 31462972 PMCID: PMC6709365 DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2019.07.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2019] [Revised: 07/07/2019] [Accepted: 07/23/2019] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Compared with rapid accumulation of protein sequences from high-throughput DNA sequencing, obtaining experimental 3D structures of proteins is still much more difficult, making protein structure prediction (PSP) potentially very useful. Currently, a vast majority of PSP efforts are based on data mining of known sequences, structures and their relationships (informatics-based). However, if closely related template is not available, these methods are usually much less reliable than experiments. They may also be problematic in predicting the structures of naturally occurring or designed peptides. On the other hand, physics-based methods including molecular dynamics (MD) can utilize our understanding of detailed atomic interactions determining biomolecular structures. In this mini-review, we show that all-atom MD can predict structures of cyclic peptides and other peptide foldamers with accuracy similar to experiments. Then, some notable successes in reproducing experimental 3D structures of small proteins through MD simulations (some with replica-exchange) of the folding were summarized. We also describe advancements of MD-based refinement of structure models, and the integration of limited experimental or bioinformatics data into MD-based structure modeling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hao Geng
- Lab of Computational Chemistry and Drug Design, State Key Laboratory of Chemical Oncogenomics, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Fangfang Chen
- Guangdong and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Male Reproductive Medicine and Genetics, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen PKU-HKUST Medical Center, Shenzhen 518036, China
| | - Jing Ye
- Guangdong and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Male Reproductive Medicine and Genetics, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen PKU-HKUST Medical Center, Shenzhen 518036, China
| | - Fan Jiang
- Lab of Computational Chemistry and Drug Design, State Key Laboratory of Chemical Oncogenomics, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen 518055, China
- NanoAI Biotech Co.,Ltd., Silicon Valley Compound, Longhua District, Shenzhen 518109, China
- Corresponding author at: Lab of Computational Chemistry and Drug Design, State Key Laboratory of Chemical Oncogenomics, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen 518055, China.
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7
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Zhao ZX, Cheng LP, Li M, Pang W, Wu FH. Discovery of novel acylhydrazone neuraminidase inhibitors. Eur J Med Chem 2019; 173:305-313. [PMID: 31022584 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2019.04.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2018] [Revised: 03/12/2019] [Accepted: 04/02/2019] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
Neuraminidase (NA) plays a crucial role in the replication and transmission of influenza virus. NA inhibitors have been developed as effective treatments for influenza A and B infections. In this paper, a new lead neuraminidase inhibitor 6a (IC50 = 7.10 ± 0.2 μM) was discovered by ligand-based virtual screening, receptor-based virtual screening, molecular dynamics simulation (MD), and bioassay validation. MD simulation indicates that the morpholinyl group of 6a could be embedded in 430-loop of NA. To exploit the 430-loop in the active site, a series of novel acylhydrazone NA inhibitors 6b-6g were designed and synthesized based on the lead compound 6a. Compound 6e exerts the most potency, with IC50 value of 2.37 ± 0.5 μM against NA, which is lower than that of oseltamivir carboxylate (OC) (IC50 = 3.84 μM). Overall, this work provided unique insights in the discovery of potent inhibitors against NA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhi Xiang Zhao
- School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Shanghai Institute of Technology, Shanghai, 201418, China
| | - Li Ping Cheng
- School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Shanghai Institute of Technology, Shanghai, 201418, China.
| | - Meng Li
- School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Shanghai Institute of Technology, Shanghai, 201418, China
| | - Wan Pang
- School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Shanghai Institute of Technology, Shanghai, 201418, China.
| | - Fan Hong Wu
- School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Shanghai Institute of Technology, Shanghai, 201418, China.
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8
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Feig M. Computational protein structure refinement: Almost there, yet still so far to go. WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS. COMPUTATIONAL MOLECULAR SCIENCE 2017; 7:e1307. [PMID: 30613211 PMCID: PMC6319934 DOI: 10.1002/wcms.1307] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Protein structures are essential in modern biology yet experimental methods are far from being able to catch up with the rapid increase in available genomic data. Computational protein structure prediction methods aim to fill the gap while the role of protein structure refinement is to take approximate initial template-based models and bring them closer to the true native structure. Current methods for computational structure refinement rely on molecular dynamics simulations, related sampling methods, or iterative structure optimization protocols. The best methods are able to achieve moderate degrees of refinement but consistent refinement that can reach near-experimental accuracy remains elusive. Key issues revolve around the accuracy of the energy function, the inability to reliably rank multiple models, and the use of restraints that keep sampling close to the native state but also limit the degree of possible refinement. A different aspect is the question of what exactly the target of high-resolution refinement should be as experimental structures are affected by experimental conditions and different biological questions require varying levels of accuracy. While improvement of the global protein structure is a difficult problem, high-resolution refinement methods that improves local structural quality such as favorable stereochemistry and the avoidance of atomic clashes are much more successful.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Feig
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Michigan State University, 603 Wilson Rd., Room 218 BCH, East Lansing, MI, USA, ; 517-432-7439
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9
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Kumar A, Campitelli P, Thorpe MF, Ozkan SB. Partial unfolding and refolding for structure refinement: A unified approach of geometric simulations and molecular dynamics. Proteins 2015; 83:2279-92. [PMID: 26476100 DOI: 10.1002/prot.24947] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2015] [Revised: 09/11/2015] [Accepted: 09/29/2015] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
The most successful protein structure prediction methods to date have been template-based modeling (TBM) or homology modeling, which predicts protein structure based on experimental structures. These high accuracy predictions sometimes retain structural errors due to incorrect templates or a lack of accurate templates in the case of low sequence similarity, making these structures inadequate in drug-design studies or molecular dynamics simulations. We have developed a new physics based approach to the protein refinement problem by mimicking the mechanism of chaperons that rehabilitate misfolded proteins. The template structure is unfolded by selectively (targeted) pulling on different portions of the protein using the geometric based technique FRODA, and then refolded using hierarchically restrained replica exchange molecular dynamics simulations (hr-REMD). FRODA unfolding is used to create a diverse set of topologies for surveying near native-like structures from a template and to provide a set of persistent contacts to be employed during re-folding. We have tested our approach on 13 previous CASP targets and observed that this method of folding an ensemble of partially unfolded structures, through the hierarchical addition of contact restraints (that is, first local and then nonlocal interactions), leads to a refolding of the structure along with refinement in most cases (12/13). Although this approach yields refined models through advancement in sampling, the task of blind selection of the best refined models still needs to be solved. Overall, the method can be useful for improved sampling for low resolution models where certain of the portions of the structure are incorrectly modeled.
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Affiliation(s)
- Avishek Kumar
- Department of Physics and Center for Biological Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona
| | - Paul Campitelli
- Department of Physics and Center for Biological Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona
| | - M F Thorpe
- Department of Physics and Center for Biological Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona.,Rudolf Peierls Center for Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3NP, United Kingdom
| | - S Banu Ozkan
- Department of Physics and Center for Biological Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona
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10
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Xue Y, Skrynnikov NR. Ensemble MD simulations restrained via crystallographic data: accurate structure leads to accurate dynamics. Protein Sci 2015; 23:488-507. [PMID: 24452989 DOI: 10.1002/pro.2433] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2013] [Revised: 01/06/2014] [Accepted: 01/18/2014] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Currently, the best existing molecular dynamics (MD) force fields cannot accurately reproduce the global free-energy minimum which realizes the experimental protein structure. As a result, long MD trajectories tend to drift away from the starting coordinates (e.g., crystallographic structures). To address this problem, we have devised a new simulation strategy aimed at protein crystals. An MD simulation of protein crystal is essentially an ensemble simulation involving multiple protein molecules in a crystal unit cell (or a block of unit cells). To ensure that average protein coordinates remain correct during the simulation, we introduced crystallography-based restraints into the MD protocol. Because these restraints are aimed at the ensemble-average structure, they have only minimal impact on conformational dynamics of the individual protein molecules. So long as the average structure remains reasonable, the proteins move in a native-like fashion as dictated by the original force field. To validate this approach, we have used the data from solid-state NMR spectroscopy, which is the orthogonal experimental technique uniquely sensitive to protein local dynamics. The new method has been tested on the well-established model protein, ubiquitin. The ensemble-restrained MD simulations produced lower crystallographic R factors than conventional simulations; they also led to more accurate predictions for crystallographic temperature factors, solid-state chemical shifts, and backbone order parameters. The predictions for (15) N R1 relaxation rates are at least as accurate as those obtained from conventional simulations. Taken together, these results suggest that the presented trajectories may be among the most realistic protein MD simulations ever reported. In this context, the ensemble restraints based on high-resolution crystallographic data can be viewed as protein-specific empirical corrections to the standard force fields.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yi Xue
- Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, 560 Oval Drive, West Lafayette, Indiana, 47907-2084, USA
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11
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Gorham R, Forest DL, Khoury GA, Smadbeck J, Beecher CN, Healy ED, Tamamis P, Archontis G, Larive C, Floudas CA, Radeke MJ, Johnson LV, Morikis D. New compstatin peptides containing N-terminal extensions and non-natural amino acids exhibit potent complement inhibition and improved solubility characteristics. J Med Chem 2015; 58:814-26. [PMID: 25494040 PMCID: PMC4306506 DOI: 10.1021/jm501345y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2014] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
Compstatin peptides are complement inhibitors that bind and inhibit cleavage of complement C3. Peptide binding is enhanced by hydrophobic interactions; however, poor solubility promotes aggregation in aqueous environments. We have designed new compstatin peptides derived from the W4A9 sequence (Ac-ICVWQDWGAHRCT-NH2, cyclized between C2 and C12), based on structural, computational, and experimental studies. Furthermore, we developed and utilized a computational framework for the design of peptides containing non-natural amino acids. These new compstatin peptides contain polar N-terminal extensions and non-natural amino acid substitutions at positions 4 and 9. Peptides with α-modified non-natural alanine analogs at position 9, as well as peptides containing only N-terminal polar extensions, exhibited similar activity compared to W4A9, as quantified via ELISA, hemolytic, and cell-based assays, and showed improved solubility, as measured by UV absorbance and reverse-phase HPLC experiments. Because of their potency and solubility, these peptides are promising candidates for therapeutic development in numerous complement-mediated diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ronald
D. Gorham
- Department
of Bioengineering, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, United States
| | - David L. Forest
- Center
for the Study of Macular Degeneration, Neuroscience Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
| | - George A. Khoury
- Department
of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, United States
| | - James Smadbeck
- Department
of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, United States
| | - Consuelo N. Beecher
- Department
of Chemistry, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, United States
| | - Evangeline D. Healy
- Center
for the Study of Macular Degeneration, Neuroscience Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
| | - Phanourios Tamamis
- Department
of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, United States
- Department
of Physics, University of Cyprus, PO20537, CY1678 Nicosia, Cyprus
| | - Georgios Archontis
- Department
of Physics, University of Cyprus, PO20537, CY1678 Nicosia, Cyprus
| | - Cynthia
K. Larive
- Department
of Chemistry, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, United States
| | - Christodoulos A. Floudas
- Department
of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, United States
| | - Monte J. Radeke
- Center
for the Study of Macular Degeneration, Neuroscience Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
| | - Lincoln V. Johnson
- Center
for the Study of Macular Degeneration, Neuroscience Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
| | - Dimitrios Morikis
- Department
of Bioengineering, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, United States
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12
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Smadbeck J, Peterson MB, Zee BM, Garapaty S, Mago A, Lee C, Giannis A, Trojer P, Garcia BA, Floudas CA. De novo peptide design and experimental validation of histone methyltransferase inhibitors. PLoS One 2014; 9:e90095. [PMID: 24587223 PMCID: PMC3938834 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0090095] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2013] [Accepted: 01/30/2014] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Histones are small proteins critical to the efficient packaging of DNA in the nucleus. DNA–protein complexes, known as nucleosomes, are formed when the DNA winds itself around the surface of the histones. The methylation of histone residues by enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) maintains gene repression over successive cell generations. Overexpression of EZH2 can silence important tumor suppressor genes leading to increased invasiveness of many types of cancers. This makes the inhibition of EZH2 an important target in the development of cancer therapeutics. We employed a three-stage computational de novo peptide design method to design inhibitory peptides of EZH2. The method consists of a sequence selection stage and two validation stages for fold specificity and approximate binding affinity. The sequence selection stage consists of an integer linear optimization model that was solved to produce a rank-ordered list of amino acid sequences with increased stability in the bound peptide-EZH2 structure. These sequences were validated through the calculation of the fold specificity and approximate binding affinity of the designed peptides. Here we report the discovery of novel EZH2 inhibitory peptides using the de novo peptide design method. The computationally discovered peptides were experimentally validated in vitro using dose titrations and mechanism of action enzymatic assays. The peptide with the highest in vitro response, SQ037, was validated in nucleo using quantitative mass spectrometry-based proteomics. This peptide had an IC50 of 13.5 M, demonstrated greater potency as an inhibitor when compared to the native and K27A mutant control peptides, and demonstrated competitive inhibition versus the peptide substrate. Additionally, this peptide demonstrated high specificity to the EZH2 target in comparison to other histone methyltransferases. The validated peptides are the first computationally designed peptides that directly inhibit EZH2. These inhibitors should prove useful for further chromatin biology investigations.
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Affiliation(s)
- James Smadbeck
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America
| | - Meghan B. Peterson
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America
| | - Barry M. Zee
- Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America
| | - Shivani Garapaty
- Constellation Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Aashna Mago
- Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America
| | - Christina Lee
- Constellation Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | | | - Patrick Trojer
- Constellation Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Benjamin A. Garcia
- Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America
- Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America
- Epigenetics Program, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Christodoulos A. Floudas
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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13
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Smadbeck J, Peterson MB, Khoury GA, Taylor MS, Floudas CA. Protein WISDOM: a workbench for in silico de novo design of biomolecules. J Vis Exp 2013. [PMID: 23912941 DOI: 10.3791/50476] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/31/2022] Open
Abstract
The aim of de novo protein design is to find the amino acid sequences that will fold into a desired 3-dimensional structure with improvements in specific properties, such as binding affinity, agonist or antagonist behavior, or stability, relative to the native sequence. Protein design lies at the center of current advances drug design and discovery. Not only does protein design provide predictions for potentially useful drug targets, but it also enhances our understanding of the protein folding process and protein-protein interactions. Experimental methods such as directed evolution have shown success in protein design. However, such methods are restricted by the limited sequence space that can be searched tractably. In contrast, computational design strategies allow for the screening of a much larger set of sequences covering a wide variety of properties and functionality. We have developed a range of computational de novo protein design methods capable of tackling several important areas of protein design. These include the design of monomeric proteins for increased stability and complexes for increased binding affinity. To disseminate these methods for broader use we present Protein WISDOM (http://www.proteinwisdom.org), a tool that provides automated methods for a variety of protein design problems. Structural templates are submitted to initialize the design process. The first stage of design is an optimization sequence selection stage that aims at improving stability through minimization of potential energy in the sequence space. Selected sequences are then run through a fold specificity stage and a binding affinity stage. A rank-ordered list of the sequences for each step of the process, along with relevant designed structures, provides the user with a comprehensive quantitative assessment of the design. Here we provide the details of each design method, as well as several notable experimental successes attained through the use of the methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- James Smadbeck
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, USA
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14
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Salon JA, Lodowski DT, Palczewski K. The significance of G protein-coupled receptor crystallography for drug discovery. Pharmacol Rev 2012; 63:901-37. [PMID: 21969326 DOI: 10.1124/pr.110.003350] [Citation(s) in RCA: 160] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Crucial as molecular sensors for many vital physiological processes, seven-transmembrane domain G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) comprise the largest family of proteins targeted by drug discovery. Together with structures of the prototypical GPCR rhodopsin, solved structures of other liganded GPCRs promise to provide insights into the structural basis of the superfamily's biochemical functions and assist in the development of new therapeutic modalities and drugs. One of the greatest technical and theoretical challenges to elucidating and exploiting structure-function relationships in these systems is the emerging concept of GPCR conformational flexibility and its cause-effect relationship for receptor-receptor and receptor-effector interactions. Such conformational changes can be subtle and triggered by relatively small binding energy effects, leading to full or partial efficacy in the activation or inactivation of the receptor system at large. Pharmacological dogma generally dictates that these changes manifest themselves through kinetic modulation of the receptor's G protein partners. Atomic resolution information derived from increasingly available receptor structures provides an entrée to the understanding of these events and practically applying it to drug design. Supported by structure-activity relationship information arising from empirical screening, a unified structural model of GPCR activation/inactivation promises to both accelerate drug discovery in this field and improve our fundamental understanding of structure-based drug design in general. This review discusses fundamental problems that persist in drug design and GPCR structural determination.
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Affiliation(s)
- John A Salon
- Department of Molecular Structure, Amgen Incorporated, Thousand Oaks, California, USA
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15
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Li DW, Brüschweiler R. Dynamic and Thermodynamic Signatures of Native and Non-Native Protein States with Application to the Improvement of Protein Structures. J Chem Theory Comput 2012; 8:2531-9. [PMID: 26588978 DOI: 10.1021/ct300358u] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Accurate knowledge of the 3D structural ensemble of proteins is important for understanding of their biological function. We report here the application of microsecond all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in explicit solvent for the improvement of the quality of low-resolution structures obtained by protein structure prediction (decoys). Seventy MD simulations of ∼1 μs average duration were performed on 13 different protein systems starting from X-ray crystal structures and decoys. Their behavior can be divided into three groups: 22 trajectories converged toward the native state, 27 trajectories displayed a quasi-equilibrium by populating mainly a single non-native free energy basin, and 21 trajectories drifted away from their initial decoy structure transiently visiting multiple free energy minima. To determine whether the native structure can be identified among non-native ensembles, the free energy was determined for each basin by the MM/GBSA method together with the von Mises entropy estimator in dihedral angle space. For the proteins studied here, it is found that the ensembles belonging to free energy basins with the lowest free energies and the longest residence times are most native-like. The results demonstrate that explicit solvent microsecond MD simulations using the latest generation of protein force fields and free energy metrics are sufficiently accurate to permit positive identification of native state ensembles against low-resolution structural models and decoys. The approach can be applied to the direct refinement of predicted or experimental low-resolution protein structures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Da-Wei Li
- Chemical Sciences Laboratory, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306, United States
| | - Rafael Brüschweiler
- Chemical Sciences Laboratory, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306, United States
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16
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Tamamis P, de Victoria AL, Gorham RD, Bellows-Peterson ML, Pierou P, Floudas CA, Morikis D, Archontis G. Molecular dynamics in drug design: new generations of compstatin analogs. Chem Biol Drug Des 2012; 79:703-18. [PMID: 22233517 PMCID: PMC3319835 DOI: 10.1111/j.1747-0285.2012.01324.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
We report the computational and rational design of new generations of potential peptide-based inhibitors of the complement protein C3 from the compstatin family. The binding efficacy of the peptides is tested by extensive molecular dynamics-based structural and physicochemical analysis, using 32 atomic detail trajectories in explicit water for 22 peptides bound to human, rat or mouse target protein C3, with a total of 257 ns. The criteria for the new design are: (i) optimization for C3 affinity and for the balance between hydrophobicity and polarity to improve solubility compared to known compstatin analogs; and (ii) development of dual specificity, human-rat/mouse C3 inhibitors, which could be used in animal disease models. Three of the new analogs are analyzed in more detail as they possess strong and novel binding characteristics and are promising candidates for further optimization. This work paves the way for the development of an improved therapeutic for age-related macular degeneration, and other complement system-mediated diseases, compared to known compstatin variants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Phanourios Tamamis
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA
- Department of Physics, University of Cyprus, PO20537, CY1678, Nicosia, Cyprus
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
| | | | - Ronald D. Gorham
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA
| | - Meghan L. Bellows-Peterson
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
| | - Panayiota Pierou
- Department of Physics, University of Cyprus, PO20537, CY1678, Nicosia, Cyprus
| | - Christodoulos A. Floudas
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
| | - Dimitrios Morikis
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA
| | - Georgios Archontis
- Department of Physics, University of Cyprus, PO20537, CY1678, Nicosia, Cyprus
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17
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Pritchard-Bell A, Shell MS. Smoothing protein energy landscapes by integrating folding models with structure prediction. Biophys J 2011; 101:2251-9. [PMID: 22067165 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2011.09.036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2011] [Revised: 09/13/2011] [Accepted: 09/19/2011] [Indexed: 10/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Decades of work has investigated the energy landscapes of simple protein models, but what do the landscapes of real, large, atomically detailed proteins look like? We explore an approach to this problem that systematically extracts simple funnel models of actual proteins using ensembles of structure predictions and physics-based atomic force fields and sampling. Central to our effort are calculations of a quantity called the relative entropy, which quantifies the extent to which a given set of structure decoys and a putative native structure can be projected onto a theoretical funnel description. We examine 86 structure prediction targets and one coupled folding-binding system, and find that in a majority of cases the relative entropy robustly signals which structures are nearest to native (i.e., which appear to lie closest to a funnel bottom). Importantly, the landscape model improves substantially upon purely energetic measures in scoring decoys. Our results suggest that physics-based models-including both folding theories and all-atom force fields-may be successfully integrated with structure prediction efforts. Conversely, detailed predictions of structures and the relative entropy approach enable one to extract coarse topographic features of protein landscapes that may enhance the development and application of simpler folding models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ari Pritchard-Bell
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, USA
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18
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Bellows ML, Taylor MS, Cole PA, Shen L, Siliciano RF, Fung HK, Floudas CA. Discovery of entry inhibitors for HIV-1 via a new de novo protein design framework. Biophys J 2011; 99:3445-53. [PMID: 21081094 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2010.09.050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2010] [Revised: 09/23/2010] [Accepted: 09/27/2010] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
A new (to our knowledge) de novo design framework with a ranking metric based on approximate binding affinity calculations is introduced and applied to the discovery of what we believe are novel HIV-1 entry inhibitors. The framework consists of two stages: a sequence selection stage and a validation stage. The sequence selection stage produces a rank-ordered list of amino-acid sequences by solving an integer programming sequence selection model. The validation stage consists of fold specificity and approximate binding affinity calculations. The designed peptidic inhibitors are 12-amino-acids-long and target the hydrophobic core of gp41. A number of the best-predicted sequences were synthesized and their inhibition of HIV-1 was tested in cell culture. All peptides examined showed inhibitory activity when compared with no drug present, and the novel peptide sequences outperformed the native template sequence used for the design. The best sequence showed micromolar inhibition, which is a 3-15-fold improvement over the native sequence, depending on the donor. In addition, the best sequence equally inhibited wild-type and Enfuvirtide-resistant virus strains.
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Affiliation(s)
- M L Bellows
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
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19
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Lin MS, Head-Gordon T. Reliable protein structure refinement using a physical energy function. J Comput Chem 2010; 32:709-17. [DOI: 10.1002/jcc.21664] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2010] [Revised: 08/02/2010] [Accepted: 08/07/2010] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
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20
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New compstatin variants through two de novo protein design frameworks. Biophys J 2010; 98:2337-46. [PMID: 20483343 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2010.01.057] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2009] [Revised: 01/21/2010] [Accepted: 01/25/2010] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Two de novo protein design frameworks are applied to the discovery of new compstatin variants. One is based on sequence selection and fold specificity, whereas the other approach is based on sequence selection and approximate binding affinity calculations. The proposed frameworks were applied to a complex of C3c with compstatin variant E1 and new variants with improved binding affinities are predicted and experimentally validated. The computational studies elucidated key positions in the sequence of compstatin that greatly affect the binding affinity. Positions 4 and 13 were found to favor Trp, whereas positions 1, 9, and 10 are dominated by Asn, and position 11 consists mainly of Gln. A structural analysis of the C3c-bound peptide analogs is presented.
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21
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Sun J, Abdeljabbar DM, Clarke N, Bellows ML, Floudas CA, Link AJ. Reconstitution and engineering of apoptotic protein interactions on the bacterial cell surface. J Mol Biol 2009; 394:297-305. [PMID: 19766123 PMCID: PMC2913173 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2009.09.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2009] [Revised: 08/06/2009] [Accepted: 09/11/2009] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
The interactions between pro- and anti-apoptotic members of the Bcl-2 class of proteins control whether a cell lives or dies, and the study of these protein-protein interactions has been an area of intense research. In this report, we describe a new tool for the study and engineering of apoptotic protein interactions that is based on the flow cytometric detection of these interactions on the surface of Escherichia coli. After validation of the assay with the well-studied interaction between the Bak(72-87) peptide and the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-x(L), the effect of both increasing and decreasing Bak peptide length on Bcl-x(L) binding was investigated. Previous work demonstrated that the Bak(72-87) peptide also binds to the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2, albeit with lower binding affinity compared to Bcl-x(L). Here, we demonstrate that a slightly longer Bak peptide corresponding to amino acids 72-89 of Bak binds Bcl-x(L) and Bcl-2 equally well. Approximate binding affinity calculations on these peptide-protein complexes confirm the experimental observations. The flow cytometric assay was also used to screen a saturation mutagenesis library of Bak(72-87) variants for improved affinity to Bcl-x(L). The best variants obtained from this library exhibit an apparent K(d) to Bcl-x(L) 4-fold lower than that of wild-type Bak(72-87).
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Affiliation(s)
- Jingjing Sun
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Diya M. Abdeljabbar
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Nicole Clarke
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Meghan L. Bellows
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | | | - A. James Link
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
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22
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Lee TS, Ma W, Zhang X, Giles F, Kantarjian H, Albitar M. Mechanisms of constitutive activation of Janus kinase 2-V617F revealed at the atomic level through molecular dynamics simulations. Cancer 2009; 115:1692-700. [PMID: 19195039 DOI: 10.1002/cncr.24183] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The tyrosine kinase Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) is important in triggering nuclear translocation and regulation of target genes expression through signal transducer and activator of transcription pathways. The valine-to-phenylalanine mutation at amino acid 617 (V617F), which results in the deregulation of JAK2, has been implicated in the oncogenesis of chronic myeloproliferative disease. However, both the mechanism of JAK2 autoinhibition and the mechanism of V617F constitutive activation remain unclear. METHOD In this work, the authors used molecular dynamics simulation techniques to establish plausible mechanisms of JAK2 autoinhibition and V617F constitutive activation at the atomic level. RESULTS In wild-type JAK2, the activation loop of JAK2-homology domain 1 (JH1) is pulled toward the JH1/JH2 interface through interactions with key residues of JH2, especially S591, F595, and V617, and stabilizes the inactivated form of JH1. In the case of V617F, through the aromatic ring-ring stacking interaction, F617 blocks the interaction of JH1 the activation loop, S591, and F595, thus causing the JH1 activation loop to move back to its activated form. CONCLUSIONS The current results indicated that this simulation-derived mechanism of JAK2 autoregulation is consistent with current available experimental evidence and may lead to a deeper understanding of JAK2 and other kinase systems that are regulated by pseudokinases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tai-Sung Lee
- Department of Chemistry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
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23
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Combelles C, Gracy J, Heitz A, Craik DJ, Chiche L. Structure and folding of disulfide-rich miniproteins: insights from molecular dynamics simulations and MM-PBSA free energy calculations. Proteins 2009; 73:87-103. [PMID: 18393393 DOI: 10.1002/prot.22054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/02/2023]
Abstract
The fold of small disulfide-rich proteins largely relies on two or more disulfide bridges that are main components of the hydrophobic core. Because of the small size of these proteins and their high cystine content, the cysteine connectivity has been difficult to ascertain in some cases, leading to uncertainties and debates in the literature. Here, we use molecular dynamics simulations and MM-PBSA free energy calculations to compare similar folds with different disulfide pairings in two disulfide-rich miniprotein families, namely the knottins and the short-chain scorpion toxins, for which the connectivity has been discussed. We first show that the MM-PBSA approach is able to discriminate the correct knotted topology of knottins from the laddered one. Interestingly, a comparison of the free energy components for kalata B1 and MCoTI-II suggests that cyclotides and squash inhibitors, although sharing the same scaffold, are stabilized through different interactions. Application to short-chain scorpion toxins suggests that the conventional cysteine pairing found in many homologous toxins is significantly more stable than the unconventional pairing reported for maurotoxin and for spinoxin. This would mean that native maurotoxin and spinoxin are not at the lowest free energy minimum and might result from kinetically rather than thermodynamically driven oxidative folding processes. For both knottins and toxins, the correct or conventional disulfide connectivities provide lower flexibilities and smaller deviations from the initial conformations. Overall, our work suggests that molecular dynamics simulations and the MM-PBSA approach to estimate free energies are useful tools to analyze and compare disulfide bridge connectivities in miniproteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cecil Combelles
- Université de Montpellier, CNRS, UMR5048, Centre de Biochimie Structurale, 34090 Montpellier, France
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24
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Abstract
One of the most challenging problems in protein structure prediction is improvement of homology models (structures within 1-3 A C(alpha) rmsd of the native structure), also known as the protein structure refinement problem. It has been shown that improvement could be achieved using in vacuo energy minimization with molecular mechanics and statistically derived continuously differentiable hybrid knowledge-based (KB) potential functions. Globular proteins, however, fold and function in aqueous solution in vivo and in vitro. In this work, we study the role of solvent in protein structure refinement. Molecular dynamics in explicit solvent and energy minimization in both explicit and implicit solvent were performed on a set of 75 native proteins to test the various energy potentials. A more stringent test for refinement was performed on 729 near-native decoys for each native protein. We use a powerfully convergent energy minimization method to show that implicit solvent (GBSA) provides greater improvement for some proteins than the KB potential: 24 of 75 proteins showing an average improvement of >20% in C(alpha) rmsd from the native structure with GBSA, compared to just 7 proteins with KB. Molecular dynamics in explicit solvent moved the structures further away from their native conformation than the initial, unrefined decoys. Implicit solvent gives rise to a deep, smooth potential energy attractor basin that pulls toward the native structure.
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25
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Sonavane UB, Ramadugu SK, Joshi RR. Study of Early Events in the Protein Folding of Villin Headpiece using Molecular Dynamics Simulation. J Biomol Struct Dyn 2008; 26:203-14. [DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2008.10507236] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
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26
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Protein model refinement using an optimized physics-based all-atom force field. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2008; 105:8268-73. [PMID: 18550813 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0800054105] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
One of the greatest challenges in protein structure prediction is the refinement of low-resolution predicted models to high-resolution structures that are close to the native state. Although contemporary structure prediction methods can assemble the correct topology for a large fraction of protein domains, such approximate models are often not of the resolution required for many important applications, including studies of reaction mechanisms and virtual ligand screening. Thus, the development of a method that could bring those structures closer to the native state is of great importance. We recently optimized the relative weights of the components of the Amber ff03 potential on a large set of decoy structures to create a funnel-shaped energy landscape with the native structure at the global minimum. Such an energy function might be able to drive proteins toward their native structure. In this work, for a test set of 47 proteins, with 100 decoy structures per protein that have a range of structural similarities to the native state, we demonstrate that our optimized potential can drive protein models closer to their native structure. Comparing the lowest-energy structure from each trajectory with the starting decoy, structural improvement is seen for 70% of the models on average. The ability to do such systematic structural refinements by using a physics-based all-atom potential represents a promising approach to high-resolution structure prediction.
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27
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Wroblewska L, Skolnick J. Can a physics-based, all-atom potential find a protein's native structure among misfolded structures? I. Large scale AMBER benchmarking. J Comput Chem 2007; 28:2059-66. [PMID: 17407093 DOI: 10.1002/jcc.20720] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Recent work has shown that physics-based, all-atom energy functions (AMBER, CHARMM, OPLS-AA) and local minimization, when used in scoring, are able to discriminate among native and decoy structures. Yet, there have been only few instances reported of the successful use of physics based potentials in the actual refinement of protein models from a starting conformation to one that ends in structures, which are closer to the native state. An energy function that has a global minimum energy in the protein's native state and a good correlation between energy and native-likeness should be able to drive model structures closer to their native structure during a conformational search. Here, the possible reasons for the discrepancy between the scoring and refinement results for the case of AMBER potential are examined. When the conformational search via molecular dynamics is driven by the AMBER potential for a large set of 150 nonhomologous proteins and their associated decoys, often the native minimum does not appear to be the lowest free energy state. Ways of correcting the potential function in order to make it more suitable for protein model refinement are proposed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liliana Wroblewska
- Center for the Study of Systems Biology, School of Biology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30318, USA
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28
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Lee MS, Olson MA. Evaluation of Poisson solvation models using a hybrid explicit/implicit solvent method. J Phys Chem B 2007; 109:5223-36. [PMID: 16863188 DOI: 10.1021/jp046377z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 56] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Implicit solvent methods have become popular tools in the field of protein dynamics simulations, yet evaluation of their validity has been primarily limited to comparisons with experimental and theoretical data for small molecules. In this paper, we use a recently developed hybrid explicit/implicit solvent methodology to evaluate the accuracy of several Poisson-based implicit solvent models. Specifically, we focus on the calculation of electrostatic solvation free energies of various fixed conformations for two proteins. We show that, among various dielectric boundary definitions, the Lee-Richards molecular surface has the best agreement with hybrid solvent results. Furthermore, certain modifications of the molecular surface Poisson protocol provide varied results. For instance, simple modifications of atomic radii on charged residues generally improve absolute errors but do not significantly reduce relative errors among conformations. On the other hand, using a water-probe radius of 1.0 A, as opposed to the standard value of 1.4 A, to generate the molecular surface, moderately improves both absolute and relative results.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael S Lee
- Department of Cell Biology and Biochemistry, U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, 1425 Porter Street, Frederick, Maryland 21702, USA.
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29
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De Mori GMS, Colombo G, Micheletti C. Study of the Villin headpiece folding dynamics by combining coarse-grained Monte Carlo evolution and all-atom molecular dynamics. Proteins 2006; 58:459-71. [PMID: 15521059 DOI: 10.1002/prot.20313] [Citation(s) in RCA: 53] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
The folding mechanism of the Villin headpiece (HP36) is studied by means of a novel approach which entails an initial coarse-grained Monte Carlo (MC) scheme followed by all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in explicit solvent. The MC evolution occurs in a simplified free-energy landscape and allows an efficient selection of marginally-compact structures which are taken as viable initial conformations for the MD. The coarse-grained MC structural representation is connected to the one with atomic resolution through a "fine-graining" reconstruction algorithm. This two-stage strategy is used to select and follow the dynamics of seven different unrelated conformations of HP36. In a notable case the MD trajectory rapidly evolves towards the folded state, yielding a typical root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) of the core region of only 2.4 A from the closest NMR model (the typical RMSD over the whole structure being 4.0 A). The analysis of the various MC-MD trajectories provides valuable insight into the details of the folding and mis-folding mechanisms and particularly about the delicate influence of local and nonlocal interactions in steering the folding process.
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30
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Abstract
Homology modeling plays a central role in determining protein structure in the structural genomics project. The importance of homology modeling has been steadily increasing because of the large gap that exists between the overwhelming number of available protein sequences and experimentally solved protein structures, and also, more importantly, because of the increasing reliability and accuracy of the method. In fact, a protein sequence with over 30% identity to a known structure can often be predicted with an accuracy equivalent to a low-resolution X-ray structure. The recent advances in homology modeling, especially in detecting distant homologues, aligning sequences with template structures, modeling of loops and side chains, as well as detecting errors in a model, have contributed to reliable prediction of protein structure, which was not possible even several years ago. The ongoing efforts in solving protein structures, which can be time-consuming and often difficult, will continue to spur the development of a host of new computational methods that can fill in the gap and further contribute to understanding the relationship between protein structure and function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhexin Xiang
- Center for Molecular Modeling, Center for Information Technology, National Institutes of Health, Building 12A Room 2051, 12 South Drive, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-5624, USA.
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31
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Fogolari F, Tosatto SCE, Colombo G. A decoy set for the thermostable subdomain from chicken villin headpiece, comparison of different free energy estimators. BMC Bioinformatics 2005; 6:301. [PMID: 16354298 PMCID: PMC1351271 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2105-6-301] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2005] [Accepted: 12/14/2005] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Estimators of free energies are routinely used to judge the quality of protein structural models. As these estimators still present inaccuracies, they are frequently evaluated by discriminating native or native-like conformations from large ensembles of so-called decoy structures. RESULTS A decoy set is obtained from snapshots taken from 5 long (100 ns) molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of the thermostable subdomain from chicken villin headpiece. An evaluation of the energy of the decoys is given using: i) a residue based contact potential supplemented by a term for the quality of dihedral angles; ii) a recently introduced combination of four statistical scoring functions for model quality estimation (FRST); iii) molecular mechanics with solvation energy estimated either according to the generalized Born surface area (GBSA) or iv) the Poisson-Boltzmann surface area (PBSA) method. CONCLUSION The decoy set presented here has the following features which make it attractive for testing energy scoring functions:1) it covers a broad range of RMSD values (from less than 2.0 A to more than 12 A);2) it has been obtained from molecular dynamics trajectories, starting from different non-native-like conformations which have diverse behaviour, with secondary structure elements correctly or incorrectly formed, and in one case folding to a native-like structure. This allows not only for scoring of static structures, but also for studying, using free energy estimators, the kinetics of folding;3) all structures have been obtained from accurate MD simulations in explicit solvent and after molecular mechanics (MM) energy minimization using an implicit solvent method. The quality of the covalent structure therefore does not suffer from steric or covalent problems. The statistical and physical effective energy functions tested on the set behave differently when native simulation snapshots are included or not in the set and when averaging over the trajectory is performed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Federico Fogolari
- Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biomediche, Università di Udine, P.le Kolbe 4, 33100 Udine, Italy
| | - Silvio CE Tosatto
- Dipartimento di Biologia and CRIBI Biotech Centre, Università di Padova, Viale G. Colombo 3, 35131 Padova, Italy
| | - Giorgio Colombo
- Istituto di Chimica del Riconoscimento Molecolare, CNR, Via Mario Bianco 9, 20131 Milano, Italy
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32
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Seibert MM, Patriksson A, Hess B, van der Spoel D. Reproducible Polypeptide Folding and Structure Prediction using Molecular Dynamics Simulations. J Mol Biol 2005; 354:173-83. [PMID: 16236315 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2005.09.030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 137] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2005] [Revised: 08/26/2005] [Accepted: 09/06/2005] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
The folding of a polypeptide from an extended state to a well-defined conformation is studied using microsecond classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and replica exchange molecular dynamics (REMD) simulations in explicit solvent and in vacuo. It is shown that the solvated peptide folds many times in the REMD simulations but only a few times in the conventional simulations. From the folding events in the classical simulations we estimate an approximate folding time of 1-2 micros. The REMD simulations allow enough sampling to deduce a detailed Gibbs free energy landscape in three dimensions. The global minimum of the energy landscape corresponds to the native state of the peptide as determined previously by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments. Starting from an extended state it takes about 50 ns before the native structure appears in the REMD simulations, about an order of magnitude faster than conventional MD. The calculated melting curve is in good qualitative agreement with experiment. In vacuo, the peptide collapses rapidly to a conformation that is substantially different from the native state in solvent.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Marvin Seibert
- Department of Mathematical Sciences, Chalmers University of Technology, SE41296 Gothenberg, Sweden
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33
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Fogolari F, Tosatto SCE. Application of MM/PBSA colony free energy to loop decoy discrimination: toward correlation between energy and root mean square deviation. Protein Sci 2005; 14:889-901. [PMID: 15772305 PMCID: PMC2253447 DOI: 10.1110/ps.041004105] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
Accurate free energy estimation is needed in many predictive tasks. The molecular mechanics/Poisson-Boltzmann solvent accessible surface area (MM/PBSA) approach has proven to be accurate. However, the correlation between the estimated free energy and the distance (e.g., root mean square deviation [RMSD]) from the most stable conformation is hindered by the strong free energy dependence on minor conformational variations. In this paper, a protocol for MM/PBSA free energy estimation is designed and tested on several loop decoy sets. We show that further integration of MM/PBSA free energy estimator with the colony energy approach makes the correlation between the free energy and RMSD from the native structure apparent, for the test sets on which it could be applied. Our results suggest that (1) the MM/PBSA free energy estimator is able to detect native-like structures for most decoy sets, and (2) application of the colony energy approach greatly hampers the MM/energy strong dependence on minor conformational changes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Federico Fogolari
- Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biomediche, Università di Udine, Piazzale Kolbe 4, 33100 Udine, Italy.
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34
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Misura KMS, Baker D. Progress and challenges in high-resolution refinement of protein structure models. Proteins 2005; 59:15-29. [PMID: 15690346 DOI: 10.1002/prot.20376] [Citation(s) in RCA: 132] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Achieving atomic level accuracy in de novo structure prediction presents a formidable challenge even in the context of protein models with correct topologies. High-resolution refinement is a fundamental test of force field accuracy and sampling methodology, and its limited success in both comparative modeling and de novo prediction contexts highlights the limitations of current approaches. We constructed four tests to identify bottlenecks in our current approach and to guide progress in this challenging area. The first three tests showed that idealized native structures are stable under our refinement simulation conditions and that the refinement protocol can significantly decrease the root mean square deviation (RMSD) of perturbed native structures. In the fourth test we applied the refinement protocol to de novo models and showed that accurate models could be identified based on their energies, and in several cases many of the buried side chains adopted native-like conformations. We also showed that the differences in backbone and side-chain conformations between the refined de novo models and the native structures are largely localized to loop regions and regions where the native structure has unusual features such as rare rotamers or atypical hydrogen bonding between beta-strands. The refined de novo models typically have higher energies than refined idealized native structures, indicating that sampling of local backbone conformations and side-chain packing arrangements in a condensed state is a primary obstacle.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kira M S Misura
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington Health Sciences, Seattle, Washington 98195-7350, USA
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35
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Fan H, Mark AE. Mimicking the action of folding chaperones in molecular dynamics simulations: Application to the refinement of homology-based protein structures. Protein Sci 2004; 13:992-9. [PMID: 15010545 PMCID: PMC2280060 DOI: 10.1110/ps.03449904] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2003] [Revised: 11/26/2003] [Accepted: 11/26/2003] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
A novel method for the refinement of misfolded protein structures is proposed in which the properties of the solvent environment are oscillated in order to mimic some aspects of the role of molecular chaperones play in protein folding in vivo. Specifically, the hydrophobicity of the solvent is cycled by repetitively altering the partial charges on solvent molecules (water) during a molecular dynamics simulation. During periods when the hydrophobicity of the solvent is increased, intramolecular hydrogen bonding and secondary structure formation are promoted. During periods of increased solvent polarity, poorly packed regions of secondary structures are destabilized, promoting structural rearrangement. By cycling between these two extremes, the aim is to minimize the formation of long-lived intermediates. The approach has been applied to the refinement of structural models of three proteins generated by using the ROSETTA procedure for ab initio structure prediction. A significant improvement in the deviation of the model structures from the corresponding experimental structures was observed. Although preliminary, the results indicate computationally mimicking some functions of molecular chaperones in molecular dynamics simulations can promote the correct formation of secondary structure and thus be of general use in protein folding simulations and in the refinement of structural models of small- to medium-size proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hao Fan
- Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute, Department of Biophysical Chemistry, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands
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36
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Lu H, Skolnick J. Application of statistical potentials to protein structure refinement from low resolution ab initio models. Biopolymers 2004; 70:575-84. [PMID: 14648767 DOI: 10.1002/bip.10537] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
Recently ab initio protein structure prediction methods have advanced sufficiently so that they often assemble the correct low resolution structure of the protein. To enhance the speed of conformational search, many ab initio prediction programs adopt a reduced protein representation. However, for drug design purposes, better quality structures are probably needed. To achieve this refinement, it is natural to use a more detailed heavy atom representation. Here, as opposed to costly implicit or explicit solvent molecular dynamics simulations, knowledge-based heavy atom pair potentials were employed. By way of illustration, we tried to improve the quality of the predicted structures obtained from the ab initio prediction program TOUCHSTONE by three methods: local constraint refinement, reduced predicted tertiary contact refinement, and statistical pair potential guided molecular dynamics. Sixty-seven predicted structures from 30 small proteins (less than 150 residues in length) representing different structural classes (alpha, beta, alpha;/beta) were examined. In 33 cases, the root mean square deviation (RMSD) from native structures improved by more than 0.3 A; in 19 cases, the improvement was more than 0.5 A, and sometimes as large as 1 A. In only seven (four) cases did the refinement procedure increase the RMSD by more than 0.3 (0.5) A. For the remaining structures, the refinement procedures changed the structures by less than 0.3 A. While modest, the performance of the current refinement methods is better than the published refinement results obtained using standard molecular dynamics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hui Lu
- Laboratory of Computational Genomics, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, 975 N Warson St., St. Louis, MO 63132, USA
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37
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Fan H, Mark AE. Refinement of homology-based protein structures by molecular dynamics simulation techniques. Protein Sci 2004; 13:211-20. [PMID: 14691236 PMCID: PMC2286528 DOI: 10.1110/ps.03381404] [Citation(s) in RCA: 134] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/20/2003] [Revised: 09/10/2003] [Accepted: 09/10/2003] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
The use of classical molecular dynamics simulations, performed in explicit water, for the refinement of structural models of proteins generated ab initio or based on homology has been investigated. The study involved a test set of 15 proteins that were previously used by Baker and coworkers to assess the efficiency of the ROSETTA method for ab initio protein structure prediction. For each protein, four models generated using the ROSETTA procedure were simulated for periods of between 5 and 400 nsec in explicit solvent, under identical conditions. In addition, the experimentally determined structure and the experimentally derived structure in which the side chains of all residues had been deleted and then regenerated using the WHATIF program were simulated and used as controls. A significant improvement in the deviation of the model structures from the experimentally determined structures was observed in several cases. In addition, it was found that in certain cases in which the experimental structure deviated rapidly from the initial structure in the simulations, indicating internal strain, the structures were more stable after regenerating the side-chain positions. Overall, the results indicate that molecular dynamics simulations on a tens to hundreds of nanoseconds time scale are useful for the refinement of homology or ab initio models of small to medium-size proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hao Fan
- Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute (GBB), Department of Biophysical Chemistry, University of Groningen, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands
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38
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Gohlke H, Kiel C, Case DA. Insights into protein-protein binding by binding free energy calculation and free energy decomposition for the Ras-Raf and Ras-RalGDS complexes. J Mol Biol 2003; 330:891-913. [PMID: 12850155 DOI: 10.1016/s0022-2836(03)00610-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 976] [Impact Index Per Article: 46.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Absolute binding free energy calculations and free energy decompositions are presented for the protein-protein complexes H-Ras/C-Raf1 and H-Ras/RalGDS. Ras is a central switch in the regulation of cell proliferation and differentiation. In our study, we investigate the capability of the molecular mechanics (MM)-generalized Born surface area (GBSA) approach to estimate absolute binding free energies for the protein-protein complexes. Averaging gas-phase energies, solvation free energies, and entropic contributions over snapshots extracted from trajectories of the unbound proteins and the complexes, calculated binding free energies (Ras-Raf: -15.0(+/-6.3)kcal mol(-1); Ras-RalGDS: -19.5(+/-5.9)kcal mol(-1)) are in fair agreement with experimentally determined values (-9.6 kcal mol(-1); -8.4 kcal mol(-1)), if appropriate ionic strength is taken into account. Structural determinants of the binding affinity of Ras-Raf and Ras-RalGDS are identified by means of free energy decomposition. For the first time, computationally inexpensive generalized Born (GB) calculations are applied in this context to partition solvation free energies along with gas-phase energies between residues of both binding partners. For selected residues, in addition, entropic contributions are estimated by classical statistical mechanics. Comparison of the decomposition results with experimentally determined binding free energy differences for alanine mutants of interface residues yielded correlations with r(2)=0.55 and 0.46 for Ras-Raf and Ras-RalGDS, respectively. Extension of the decomposition reveals residues as far apart as 25A from the binding epitope that can contribute significantly to binding free energy. These "hotspots" are found to show large atomic fluctuations in the unbound proteins, indicating that they reside in structurally less stable regions. Furthermore, hotspot residues experience a significantly larger-than-average decrease in local fluctuations upon complex formation. Finally, by calculating a pair-wise decomposition of interactions, interaction pathways originating in the binding epitope of Raf are found that protrude through the protein structure towards the loop L1. This explains the finding of a conformational change in this region upon complex formation with Ras, and it may trigger a larger structural change in Raf, which is considered to be necessary for activation of the effector by Ras.
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Affiliation(s)
- Holger Gohlke
- Department of Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
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39
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Fogolari F, Brigo A, Molinari H. Protocol for MM/PBSA molecular dynamics simulations of proteins. Biophys J 2003; 85:159-66. [PMID: 12829472 PMCID: PMC1303073 DOI: 10.1016/s0006-3495(03)74462-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 140] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2002] [Accepted: 03/10/2003] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Continuum solvent models have been employed in past years for understanding processes such as protein folding or biomolecular association. In the last decade, several attempts have been made to merge atomic detail molecular dynamics simulations with solvent continuum models. Among continuum models, the Poisson-Boltzmann solvent accessible surface area model is one of the oldest and most fundamental. Notwithstanding its wide usage for simulation of biomolecular electrostatic potential, the Poisson-Boltzmann equation has been very seldom used to obtain solvation forces for molecular dynamics simulation. We propose here a fast and reliable methodology to implement continuum forces in standard molecular mechanics and dynamics algorithms. Results for a totally unrestrained 1 ns molecular dynamics simulation of a small protein are quantitatively similar to results obtained by explicit solvent molecular dynamics simulations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Federico Fogolari
- Dipartimento Scientifico e Tecnologico, Università di Verona, 37134 Verona, Italy.
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40
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Gohlke H, Case DA. Converging free energy estimates: MM-PB(GB)SA studies on the protein-protein complex Ras-Raf. J Comput Chem 2003; 25:238-50. [PMID: 14648622 DOI: 10.1002/jcc.10379] [Citation(s) in RCA: 675] [Impact Index Per Article: 32.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
Estimating protein-protein interaction energies is a very challenging task for current simulation protocols. Here, absolute binding free energies are reported for the complex H-Ras/C-Raf1 using the MM-PB(GB)SA approach, testing the internal consistency and model dependence of the results. Averaging gas-phase energies (MM), solvation free energies as determined by Generalized Born models (GB/SA), and entropic contributions calculated by normal mode analysis for snapshots obtained from 10 ns explicit-solvent molecular dynamics in general results in an overestimation of the binding affinity when a solvent-accessible surface area-dependent model is used to estimate the nonpolar solvation contribution. Applying the sum of a cavity solvation free energy and explicitly modeled solute-solvent van der Waals interaction energies instead provides less negative estimates for the nonpolar solvation contribution. When the polar contribution to the solvation free energy is determined by solving the Poisson-Boltzmann equation (PB) instead, the calculated binding affinity strongly depends on the atomic radii set chosen. For three GB models investigated, different absolute deviations from PB energies were found for the unbound proteins and the complex. As an alternative to normal-mode calculations, quasiharmonic analyses have been performed to estimate entropic contributions due to changes of solute flexibility upon binding. However, such entropy estimates do not converge after 10 ns of simulation time, indicating that sampling issues may limit the applicability of this approach. Finally, binding free energies estimated from snapshots of the unbound proteins extracted from the complex trajectory result in an underestimate of binding affinity. This points to the need to exercise caution in applying the computationally cheaper "one-trajectory-alternative" to systems where there may be significant changes in flexibility and structure due to binding. The best estimate for the binding free energy of Ras-Raf obtained in this study of -8.3 kcal mol(-1) is in good agreement with the experimental result of -9.6 kcal mol(-1), however, further probing the transferability of the applied protocol that led to this result is necessary.
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Affiliation(s)
- Holger Gohlke
- Department of Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 N. Torrey Pines Rd., La Jolla, California 92037, USA
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41
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Abstract
Physical energy scoring functions based on implicit solvation models are tested by evaluating predictions from the most recent CASP4 competition. The best performing scoring functions are identified along with the best protocol for preparing structures before energies are evaluated. Ranking of structures with the best scoring functions is compared across CASP4 targets to establish when physical scoring functions can be expected to reliably distinguish structures that are most similar to the native fold in a set of misfolded or unfolded protein conformations. The results are used to interpret previous studies where scoring functions were tested on the standard decoy sets by Park, Levitt, and Baker. We show that the best physical scoring functions can be applied successfully in automated consensus scoring applications where a single best conformation has to be selected from a set of structures from different sources. Finally, the potential for better protein structure scoring functions is discussed with a suggestion for an empirically parameterized linear combination of energy components.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Feig
- Department of Molecular Biology, TPC6, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037, USA
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42
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Fogolari F, Brigo A, Molinari H. The Poisson-Boltzmann equation for biomolecular electrostatics: a tool for structural biology. J Mol Recognit 2002; 15:377-92. [PMID: 12501158 DOI: 10.1002/jmr.577] [Citation(s) in RCA: 301] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
Electrostatics plays a fundamental role in virtually all processes involving biomolecules in solution. The Poisson-Boltzmann equation constitutes one of the most fundamental approaches to treat electrostatic effects in solution. The theoretical basis of the Poisson-Boltzmann equation is reviewed and a wide range of applications is presented, including the computation of the electrostatic potential at the solvent-accessible molecular surface, the computation of encounter rates between molecules in solution, the computation of the free energy of association and its salt dependence, the study of pKa shifts and the combination with classical molecular mechanics and dynamics. Theoretical results may be used for rationalizing or predicting experimental results, or for suggesting working hypotheses. An ever-increasing body of successful applications proves that the Poisson-Boltzmann equation is a useful tool for structural biology and complementary to other established experimental and theoretical methodologies.
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Affiliation(s)
- F Fogolari
- Dipartimento Scientifico Tecnologico, Università degli Studi di Verona, Cá Vignal 1, Strada Le Grazie 15, 37134 Verona, Italy.
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43
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Flohil JA, Vriend G, Berendsen HJC. Completion and refinement of 3-D homology models with restricted molecular dynamics: application to targets 47, 58, and 111 in the CASP modeling competition and posterior analysis. Proteins 2002; 48:593-604. [PMID: 12211026 DOI: 10.1002/prot.10105] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
A method is presented to refine models built by homology by the use of restricted molecular dynamics (MD) techniques. The basic idea behind this method is the use of structure validation software to determine for each residue the likelihood that it is modeled correctly. This information is used to determine constraints and restraints in an MD simulation including explicit solvent molecules, which is used for model refinement. The procedure is based on the idea that residues that the validation software identifies as correctly positioned should be strongly constrained or restrained in the MD simulations, whereas residues that are likely to be positioned wrongly should move freely. Two different protocols are compared: one (applied to CASP3 target T58) using full structural constraints with separate optimization of each short fragment and the other (applied to T47) allowing some freedom using harmonic restraining potentials, with automatic optimization of the whole molecule. Structures along the MD trajectory that scored best in structural checks were selected for the construction of models that appeared to be successful in the CASP3 competition. Model refinement with MD in general leads to a model that is less like the experimental structure (Levitt et al. Nature Struct Biol 1999;6:108-111). Actually, refined T47 was slightly improved compared to the starting model; changes in model T58 led not to further enhancement. After the X-ray structure of the modeled proteins became known, the procedure was evaluated for two targets (T47 and the CASP4 target T111) by comparing a long simulation in water with the experimental target structures. It was found that structural improvements could be obtained on a nanosecond time scale by allowing appropriate freedom in the simulation. Structural checks applied to fast fluctuations do not appear to be informative for the correctness of the structure. However, both a simple hydrogen bond count and a simple compactness measure, if averaged over times of typically 300 ps, correlate well with structural correctness and we suggest that criteria based on these properties may be used in computational folding strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- J A Flohil
- Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute (GBB), Department of Biophysical Chemistry, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
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44
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Vugmeyster L, Trott O, McKnight CJ, Raleigh DP, Palmer AG. Temperature-dependent dynamics of the villin headpiece helical subdomain, an unusually small thermostable protein. J Mol Biol 2002; 320:841-54. [PMID: 12095260 DOI: 10.1016/s0022-2836(02)00537-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 62] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
(15)N spin relaxation experiments were used to measure the temperature-dependence of protein backbone conformational fluctuations in the thermostable helical subdomain, HP36, of the F-actin-binding headpiece domain of chicken villin. HP36 is the smallest domain of a naturally occurring protein that folds cooperatively to a compact native state. Spin-lattice, spin-spin, and heteronuclear nuclear Overhauser effect relaxation data for backbone amide (15)N spins were collected at five temperatures in the range of 275-305 K. The data were analyzed using a model-free formalism to determine generalized order parameters, S, that describe the distribution of N-H bond vector orientations in a molecular reference frame. A novel parameter, Lambda=dln(1-S)/dln T is introduced to characterize the temperature-dependence of S. An average value of Lambda=4.5 is obtained for residues in helical conformations in HP36. This value of Lambda is not reproduced by model potential energy functions commonly used to parameterize S. The maximum entropy principle was used to derive a new model potential function that reproduces both S and Lambda. Contributions to the entropy, S(r), and heat capacity, C(r)(p), from reorientational conformational fluctuations were analyzed using this potential energy function. Values of S(r) show a qualitative dependence on S similar to that obtained for the diffusion-in-a-cone model; however, quantitative differences of up to 0.5k, in which k is the Boltzmann constant, are observed. Values of C(r)(p) approach zero for small values of S and approach k for large values of S; the largest values of C(r)(p) are predicted to occur for intermediate values of S. The results suggest that backbone dynamics, as probed by relaxation measurements, make very little contribution to the heat capacity difference between folded and unfolded states for HP36.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liliya Vugmeyster
- Department of Chemistry, SUNY Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794-3400, USA
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45
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Nguyen DH, Colvin ME, Yeh Y, Feeney RE, Fink WH. The dynamics, structure, and conformational free energy of proline-containing antifreeze glycoprotein. Biophys J 2002; 82:2892-905. [PMID: 12023212 PMCID: PMC1302077 DOI: 10.1016/s0006-3495(02)75630-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent NMR studies of the solution structure of the 14-amino acid antifreeze glycoprotein AFGP-8 have concluded that the molecule lacks long-range order. The implication that an apparently unstructured molecule can still have a very precise function as a freezing inhibitor seems startling at first consideration. To gain insight into the nature of conformations and motions in AFGP-8, we have undertaken molecular dynamics simulations augmented with free energy calculations using a continuum solvation model. Starting from 10 different NMR structures, 20 ns of dynamics of AFGP were explored. The dynamics show that AFGP structure is composed of four segments, joined by very flexible pivots positioned at alanine 5, 8, and 11. The dynamics also show that the presence of prolines in this small AFGP structure facilitates the adoption of the poly-proline II structure as its overall conformation, although AFGP does adopt other conformations during the course of dynamics as well. The free energies calculated using a continuum solvation model show that the lowest free energy conformations, while being energetically equal, are drastically different in conformations. In other words, this AFGP molecule has many structurally distinct and energetically equal minima in its energy landscape. In addition, conformational, energetic, and hydrogen bond analyses suggest that the intramolecular hydrogen bonds between the N-acetyl group and the protein backbone are an important integral part of the overall stability of the AFGP molecule. The relevance of these findings to the mechanism of freezing inhibition is discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dat H Nguyen
- Department of Chemistry, University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA
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46
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Frank BS, Vardar D, Buckley DA, McKnight CJ. The role of aromatic residues in the hydrophobic core of the villin headpiece subdomain. Protein Sci 2002; 11:680-7. [PMID: 11847290 PMCID: PMC2373478 DOI: 10.1110/ps.22202] [Citation(s) in RCA: 83] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2001] [Revised: 11/27/2001] [Accepted: 12/03/2001] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
Abstract
Small autonomously folding proteins are of interest as model systems to study protein folding, as the same molecule can be used for both experimental and computational approaches. The question remains as to how well these minimized peptide model systems represent larger native proteins. For example, is the core of a minimized protein tolerant to mutation like larger proteins are? Also, do minimized proteins use special strategies for specifying and stabilizing their folded structure? Here we examine these questions in the 35-residue autonomously folding villin headpiece subdomain (VHP subdomain). Specifically, we focus on a cluster of three conserved phenylalanine (F) residues F47, F51, and F58, that form most of the hydrophobic core. These three residues are oriented such that they may provide stabilizing aromatic-aromatic interactions that could be critical for specifying the fold. Circular dichroism and 1D-NMR spectroscopy show that point mutations that individually replace any of these three residues with leucine were destabilized, but retained the native VHP subdomain fold. In pair-wise replacements, the double mutant that retains F58 can adopt the native fold, while the two double mutants that lack F58 cannot. The folding of the double mutant that retains F58 demonstrates that aromatic-aromatic interactions within the aromatic cluster are not essential for specifying the VHP subdomain fold. The ability of the VHP subdomain to tolerate mutations within its hydrophobic core indicates that the information specifying the three dimensional structure is distributed throughout the sequence, as observed in larger proteins. Thus, the VHP subdomain is a legitimate model for larger, native proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin S Frank
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02118, USA
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47
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Lee MR, Duan Y, Kollman PA. State of the art in studying protein folding and protein structure prediction using molecular dynamics methods. J Mol Graph Model 2002; 19:146-9. [PMID: 11381525 DOI: 10.1016/s1093-3263(00)00126-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
This study presents an overview of the state of the art in using molecular dynamics methods to simulate protein folding and in the end game of protein structure prediction. In principle, these methods should allow the highest level of detail possible and the highest accuracy, but they are limited by both the accuracy of the force field used in the simulation and the sampling possible in the available computer time. We describe current capabilities in running the simulations longer and more efficiently.
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Affiliation(s)
- M R Lee
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of CA, San Francisco, CA, USA
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48
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Vorobjev YN, Hermans J. Free energies of protein decoys provide insight into determinants of protein stability. Protein Sci 2001; 10:2498-506. [PMID: 11714917 PMCID: PMC2374037 DOI: 10.1110/ps.15501] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2001] [Revised: 08/29/2001] [Accepted: 09/06/2001] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
We have calculated the stability of decoy structures of several proteins (from the CASP3 models and the Park and Levitt decoy set) relative to the native structures. The calculations were performed with the force field-consistent ES/IS method, in which an implicit solvent (IS) model is used to calculate the average solvation free energy for snapshots from explicit simulations (ESs). The conformational free energy is obtained by adding the internal energy of the solute from the ESs and an entropic term estimated from the covariance positional fluctuation matrix. The set of atomic Born radii and the cavity-surface free energy coefficient used in the implicit model has been optimized to be consistent with the all-atom force field used in the ESs (cedar/gromos with simple point charge (SPC) water model). The decoys are found to have a consistently higher free energy than that of the native structure; the gap between the native structure and the best decoy varies between 10 and 15 kcal/mole, on the order of the free energy difference that typically separates the native state of a protein from the unfolded state. The correlation between the free energy and the extent to which the decoy structures differ from the native (as root mean square deviation) is very weak; hence, the free energy is not an accurate measure for ranking the structurally most native-like structures from among a set of models. Analysis of the energy components shows that stability is attained as a result of three major driving forces: (1) minimum size of the protein-water surface interface; (2) minimum total electrostatic energy, which includes solvent polarization; and (3) minimum protein packing energy. The detailed fit required to optimize the last term may underlie difficulties encountered in recovering the native fold from an approximate decoy or model structure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Y N Vorobjev
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-7260, USA
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Lee MR, Tsai J, Baker D, Kollman PA. Molecular dynamics in the endgame of protein structure prediction. J Mol Biol 2001; 313:417-30. [PMID: 11800566 DOI: 10.1006/jmbi.2001.5032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 104] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
In order adequately to sample conformational space, methods for protein structure prediction make necessary simplifications that also prevent them from being as accurate as desired. Thus, the idea of feeding them, hierarchically, into a more accurate method that samples less effectively was introduced a decade ago but has not met with more than limited success in a few isolated instances. Ideally, the final stages should be able to identify the native state, show a good correlation with native similarity in order to add value to the selection process, and refine the structures even further. In this work, we explore the possibility of using state-of-the-art explicit solvent molecular dynamics and implicit solvent free energy calculations to accomplish all three of those objectives on 12 small, single-domain proteins, four each of alpha, beta and mixed topologies. We find that this approach is very successful in ranking the native and also enhances the structure selection of predictions generated from the Rosetta method.
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Affiliation(s)
- M R Lee
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA.
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Lee MR, Kollman PA. Free-energy calculations highlight differences in accuracy between X-ray and NMR structures and add value to protein structure prediction. Structure 2001; 9:905-16. [PMID: 11591346 DOI: 10.1016/s0969-2126(01)00660-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND While X-ray crystallography structures of proteins are considerably more reliable than those from NMR spectroscopy, it has been difficult to assess the inherent accuracy of NMR structures, particularly the side chains. RESULTS For 15 small single-domain proteins, we used a molecular mechanics-/dynamics-based free-energy approach to investigate native, decoy, and fully extended alpha conformations. Decoys were all less energetically favorable than native conformations in nine of the ten X-ray structures and in none of the five NMR structures, but short 150 ps molecular dynamics simulations on the experimental structures caused them to have the lowest predicted free energy in all 15 proteins. In addition, a strong correlation exists (r(2) = 0.86) between the predicted free energy of unfolding, from native to fully extended conformations, and the number of residues. CONCLUSIONS This work suggests that the approximate treatment of solvent used in solving NMR structures can lead NMR model conformations to be less reliable than crystal structures. This conclusion was reached because of the considerably higher calculated free energies and the extent of structural deviation during aqueous dynamics simulations of NMR models compared to those determined by X-ray crystallography. Also, the strong correlation found between protein length and predicted free energy of unfolding in this work suggests, for the first time, that a free-energy function can allow for identification of the native state based on calculations on an extended state and in the absence of an experimental structure.
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Affiliation(s)
- M R Lee
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco, 94131, USA.
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