1
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Mukherjee S, Rogers A, Creech G, Hang C, Ramirez A, Dummeldinger M, Brueggemeier S, Mapelli C, Zaretsky S, Huang M, Black R, Peddicord MB, Cuniere N, Kempson J, Pawluczyk J, Allen M, Parsons R, Sfouggatakis C. Process Development of a Macrocyclic Peptide Inhibitor of PD-L1. J Org Chem 2024; 89:6651-6663. [PMID: 38663026 DOI: 10.1021/acs.joc.4c00430] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/18/2024]
Abstract
This article outlines the process development leading to the manufacture of 800 g of BMS-986189, a macrocyclic peptide active pharmaceutical ingredient. Multiple N-methylated unnatural amino acids posed challenges to manufacturing due to the lability of the peptide to cleavage during global side chain deprotection and precipitation steps. These issues were exacerbated upon scale-up, resulting in severe yield loss and necessitating careful impurity identification, understanding the root cause of impurity formation, and process optimization to deliver a scalable synthesis. A systematic study of macrocyclization with its dependence on concentration and pH is presented. In addition, a side chain protected peptide synthesis is discussed where the macrocyclic protected peptide is extremely labile to hydrolysis. A computational study explains the root cause of the increased lability of macrocyclic peptide over linear peptide to hydrolysis. A process solution involving the use of labile protecting groups is discussed. Overall, the article highlights the advancements achieved to enable scalable synthesis of an unusually labile macrocyclic peptide by solid-phase peptide synthesis. The sustainability metric indicates the final preparative chromatography drives a significant fraction of a high process mass intensity (PMI).
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Affiliation(s)
- Subha Mukherjee
- Chemical Process Development, Bristol Myers Squibb, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903, United States
| | - Amanda Rogers
- Chemical Process Development, Bristol Myers Squibb, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903, United States
| | - Gardner Creech
- Chemical Process Development, Bristol Myers Squibb, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903, United States
| | - Chao Hang
- Chemical Process Development, Bristol Myers Squibb, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903, United States
| | - Antonio Ramirez
- Chemical Process Development, Bristol Myers Squibb, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903, United States
| | - Michael Dummeldinger
- Chemical Process Development, Bristol Myers Squibb, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903, United States
| | - Shawn Brueggemeier
- Chemical Process Development, Bristol Myers Squibb, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903, United States
| | - Claudio Mapelli
- Discovery Chemistry, Bristol Myers Squibb, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, United States
| | - Serge Zaretsky
- Chemical Process Development, Bristol Myers Squibb, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903, United States
| | - Masano Huang
- Chemical Process Development, Bristol Myers Squibb, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903, United States
| | - Regina Black
- Chemical Process Development, Bristol Myers Squibb, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903, United States
| | - Michael B Peddicord
- Chemical Process Development, Bristol Myers Squibb, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903, United States
| | - Nicolas Cuniere
- Chemical Process Development, Bristol Myers Squibb, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903, United States
| | - James Kempson
- Discovery Chemistry, Bristol Myers Squibb, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, United States
| | - Joseph Pawluczyk
- Discovery Chemistry, Bristol Myers Squibb, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, United States
| | - Martin Allen
- Discovery Chemistry, Bristol Myers Squibb, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, United States
| | - Rodney Parsons
- Chemical Process Development, Bristol Myers Squibb, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903, United States
| | - Chris Sfouggatakis
- Chemical Process Development, Bristol Myers Squibb, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903, United States
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2
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Hsueh SCC, Nijland M, Aina A, Plotkin SS. Cyclization Scaffolding for Improved Vaccine Immunogen Stability: Application to Tau Protein in Alzheimer's Disease. J Chem Inf Model 2024; 64:2035-2044. [PMID: 38427576 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.3c01556] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/03/2024]
Abstract
Effective scaffolding of immunogens is crucial for generating conformationally selective antibodies through active immunization, particularly in the treatment of protein misfolding diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Previous computational work has revealed that a disorder-prone region of the tau protein, when in a stacked form, is predicted to structurally resemble a small, soluble protofibril, having conformational properties similar to those of experimental in vitro tau oligomers. Such an oligomeric structural mimic has the potential to serve as a vaccine immunogen design for Alzheimer's disease. In this study, we developed a cyclization scaffolding method in Rosetta, in which multiple cyclic peptides are stacked into a protofibril. Cyclization results in significant stabilization of protofibril-like structures by constraining the conformational space. Applying this method to the disorder-prone region of the tau fibril, we evaluated the metastability of the cyclized tau immunogen using molecular dynamics simulations, and we identified sequences of two cyclic constructs having high metastability in the protofibril. We then assessed their thermodynamic stability by computing the free energy required to separate a distal chain from the rest of the stacked structure. Our computational results, based on molecular dynamics simulations and free energy calculations, demonstrate that two cyclized constructs, cyclo-(VKSEKLDFKDRVQSKIFyN) and cyclo-(VKSEKLDFKDRVQSKIYvG) (lowercase letters indicate d-form amino acids), possess significantly increased thermodynamic stability in the protofibril over an uncyclized linear construct VKSEKLDFKDRVQSKI. The cyclization scaffolding approach proposed here holds promise as a means to effectively design immunogens for protein misfolding diseases, particularly those involving liposome-conjugated peptide constructs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shawn C C Hsueh
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z1, Canada
| | - Mark Nijland
- Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, Wageningen University, Wageningen 6708 WG, The Netherlands
| | - Adekunle Aina
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z1, Canada
| | - Steven S Plotkin
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z1, Canada
- Genome Science and Technology Program, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z1, Canada
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3
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Ramelot TA, Palmer J, Montelione GT, Bhardwaj G. Cell-permeable chameleonic peptides: Exploiting conformational dynamics in de novo cyclic peptide design. Curr Opin Struct Biol 2023; 80:102603. [PMID: 37178478 PMCID: PMC10923192 DOI: 10.1016/j.sbi.2023.102603] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2023] [Accepted: 04/05/2023] [Indexed: 05/15/2023]
Abstract
Membrane-traversing peptides offer opportunities for targeting intracellular proteins and oral delivery. Despite progress in understanding the mechanisms underlying membrane traversal in natural cell-permeable peptides, there are still several challenges to designing membrane-traversing peptides with diverse shapes and sizes. Conformational flexibility appears to be a key determinant of membrane permeability of large macrocycles. We review recent developments in the design and validation of chameleonic cyclic peptides, which can switch between alternative conformations to enable improved permeability through cell membranes, while still maintaining reasonable solubility and exposed polar functional groups for target protein binding. Finally, we discuss the principles, strategies, and practical considerations for rational design, discovery, and validation of permeable chameleonic peptides.
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Affiliation(s)
- Theresa A Ramelot
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, 12180, USA
| | - Jonathan Palmer
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA; Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA
| | - Gaetano T Montelione
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, 12180, USA.
| | - Gaurav Bhardwaj
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA; Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA.
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4
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Delaunay M, Ha-Duong T. Computational Tools and Strategies to Develop Peptide-Based Inhibitors of Protein-Protein Interactions. METHODS IN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY (CLIFTON, N.J.) 2022; 2405:205-230. [PMID: 35298816 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1855-4_11] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Protein-protein interactions play crucial and subtle roles in many biological processes and modifications of their fine mechanisms generally result in severe diseases. Peptide derivatives are very promising therapeutic agents for modulating protein-protein associations with sizes and specificities between those of small compounds and antibodies. For the same reasons, rational design of peptide-based inhibitors naturally borrows and combines computational methods from both protein-ligand and protein-protein research fields. In this chapter, we aim to provide an overview of computational tools and approaches used for identifying and optimizing peptides that target protein-protein interfaces with high affinity and specificity. We hope that this review will help to implement appropriate in silico strategies for peptide-based drug design that builds on available information for the systems of interest.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Tâp Ha-Duong
- Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, BioCIS, Châtenay-Malabry, France.
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5
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Li J, Kannan S, Aronica P, Brown CJ, Partridge AW, Verma CS. Molecular descriptors suggest stapling as a strategy for optimizing membrane permeability of cyclic peptides. J Chem Phys 2022; 156:065101. [DOI: 10.1063/5.0078025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Jianguo Li
- Bioinformatics Institute, A*STAR, 30 Biopolis Street, Matrix, Singapore 138671
- Singapore Eye Research Institute, Singapore 169856, Singapore
| | | | - Pietro Aronica
- Bioinformatics Institute, A*STAR, 30 Biopolis Street, Matrix, Singapore 138671
| | | | - Anthony W. Partridge
- MSD International, Translation Medicine Research Centre, 8 Biomedical Grove, #04-01/05 Neuros Building, Singapore 138665, Singapore
| | - Chandra S. Verma
- Bioinformatics Institute, A*STAR, 30 Biopolis Street, Matrix, Singapore 138671
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 117543, Singapore
- School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 637551, Singapore
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6
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Corbett KM, Ford L, Warren DB, Pouton CW, Chalmers DK. Cyclosporin Structure and Permeability: From A to Z and Beyond. J Med Chem 2021; 64:13131-13151. [PMID: 34478303 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.1c00580] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Cyclosporins are natural or synthetic undecapeptides with a wide range of actual and potential pharmaceutical applications. Several members of the cyclosporin compound family have remarkably high passive membrane permeabilities that are not well-described by simple structural metrics. Here we review experimental studies of cyclosporin structure and permeability, including cyclosporin-metal complexes. We also discuss models for the conformation-dependent permeability of cyclosporins and similar compounds. Finally, we identify current knowledge gaps in the literature and provide recommendations regarding future avenues of exploration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karen M Corbett
- Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, 381 Royal Parade, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia
| | - Leigh Ford
- Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, 381 Royal Parade, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia
| | - Dallas B Warren
- Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, 381 Royal Parade, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia
| | - Colin W Pouton
- Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, 381 Royal Parade, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia
| | - David K Chalmers
- Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, 381 Royal Parade, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia
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7
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Damjanovic J, Miao J, Huang H, Lin YS. Elucidating Solution Structures of Cyclic Peptides Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations. Chem Rev 2021; 121:2292-2324. [PMID: 33426882 DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.0c01087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Protein-protein interactions are vital to biological processes, but the shape and size of their interfaces make them hard to target using small molecules. Cyclic peptides have shown promise as protein-protein interaction modulators, as they can bind protein surfaces with high affinity and specificity. Dozens of cyclic peptides are already FDA approved, and many more are in various stages of development as immunosuppressants, antibiotics, antivirals, or anticancer drugs. However, most cyclic peptide drugs so far have been natural products or derivatives thereof, with de novo design having proven challenging. A key obstacle is structural characterization: cyclic peptides frequently adopt multiple conformations in solution, which are difficult to resolve using techniques like NMR spectroscopy. The lack of solution structural information prevents a thorough understanding of cyclic peptides' sequence-structure-function relationship. Here we review recent development and application of molecular dynamics simulations with enhanced sampling to studying the solution structures of cyclic peptides. We describe novel computational methods capable of sampling cyclic peptides' conformational space and provide examples of computational studies that relate peptides' sequence and structure to biological activity. We demonstrate that molecular dynamics simulations have grown from an explanatory technique to a full-fledged tool for systematic studies at the forefront of cyclic peptide therapeutic design.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jovan Damjanovic
- Department of Chemistry, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, United States
| | - Jiayuan Miao
- Department of Chemistry, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, United States
| | - He Huang
- Department of Chemistry, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, United States
| | - Yu-Shan Lin
- Department of Chemistry, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, United States
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8
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Jwad R, Weissberger D, Hunter L. Strategies for Fine-Tuning the Conformations of Cyclic Peptides. Chem Rev 2020; 120:9743-9789. [PMID: 32786420 DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.0c00013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 66] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Cyclic peptides are promising scaffolds for drug development, attributable in part to their increased conformational order compared to linear peptides. However, when optimizing the target-binding or pharmacokinetic properties of cyclic peptides, it is frequently necessary to "fine-tune" their conformations, e.g., by imposing greater rigidity, by subtly altering certain side chain vectors, or by adjusting the global shape of the macrocycle. This review systematically examines the various types of structural modifications that can be made to cyclic peptides in order to achieve such conformational control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rasha Jwad
- Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Al-Nahrain University, Baghdad, Iraq
| | - Daniel Weissberger
- School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia
| | - Luke Hunter
- School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia
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9
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Kamenik AS, Kraml J, Hofer F, Waibl F, Quoika PK, Kahler U, Schauperl M, Liedl KR. Macrocycle Cell Permeability Measured by Solvation Free Energies in Polar and Apolar Environments. J Chem Inf Model 2020; 60:3508-3517. [PMID: 32551643 PMCID: PMC7388155 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.0c00280] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
The relation of surface polarity and conformational preferences is decisive for cell permeability and thus bioavailability of macrocyclic drugs. Here, we employ grid inhomogeneous solvation theory (GIST) to calculate solvation free energies for a series of six macrocycles in water and chloroform as a measure of passive membrane permeability. We perform accelerated molecular dynamics simulations to capture a diverse structural ensemble in water and chloroform, allowing for a direct profiling of solvent-dependent conformational preferences. Subsequent GIST calculations facilitate a quantitative measure of solvent preference in the form of a transfer free energy, calculated from the ensemble-averaged solvation free energies in water and chloroform. Hence, the proposed method considers how the conformational diversity of macrocycles in polar and apolar solvents translates into transfer free energies. Following this strategy, we find a striking correlation of 0.92 between experimentally determined cell permeabilities and calculated transfer free energies. For the studied model systems, we find that the transfer free energy exceeds the purely water-based solvation free energies as a reliable estimate of cell permeability and that conformational sampling is imperative for a physically meaningful model. We thus recommend this purely physics-based approach as a computational tool to assess cell permeabilities of macrocyclic drug candidates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna S Kamenik
- Institute of General, Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry and Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck (CMBI), University of Innsbruck, Innrain 80-82, Innsbruck A-6020 Austria
| | - Johannes Kraml
- Institute of General, Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry and Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck (CMBI), University of Innsbruck, Innrain 80-82, Innsbruck A-6020 Austria
| | - Florian Hofer
- Institute of General, Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry and Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck (CMBI), University of Innsbruck, Innrain 80-82, Innsbruck A-6020 Austria
| | - Franz Waibl
- Institute of General, Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry and Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck (CMBI), University of Innsbruck, Innrain 80-82, Innsbruck A-6020 Austria
| | - Patrick K Quoika
- Institute of General, Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry and Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck (CMBI), University of Innsbruck, Innrain 80-82, Innsbruck A-6020 Austria
| | - Ursula Kahler
- Institute of General, Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry and Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck (CMBI), University of Innsbruck, Innrain 80-82, Innsbruck A-6020 Austria
| | - Michael Schauperl
- Institute of General, Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry and Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck (CMBI), University of Innsbruck, Innrain 80-82, Innsbruck A-6020 Austria
| | - Klaus R Liedl
- Institute of General, Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry and Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck (CMBI), University of Innsbruck, Innrain 80-82, Innsbruck A-6020 Austria
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10
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Appavoo SD, Huh S, Diaz DB, Yudin AK. Conformational Control of Macrocycles by Remote Structural Modification. Chem Rev 2019; 119:9724-9752. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.8b00742] [Citation(s) in RCA: 58] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Solomon D. Appavoo
- Davenport Research Laboratories, Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 Saint George Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3H6
| | - Sungjoon Huh
- Davenport Research Laboratories, Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 Saint George Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3H6
| | - Diego B. Diaz
- Davenport Research Laboratories, Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 Saint George Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3H6
| | - Andrei K. Yudin
- Davenport Research Laboratories, Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 Saint George Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3H6
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11
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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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12
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Cummings AE, Miao J, Slough DP, McHugh SM, Kritzer JA, Lin YS. β-Branched Amino Acids Stabilize Specific Conformations of Cyclic Hexapeptides. Biophys J 2019; 116:433-444. [PMID: 30661666 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2018.12.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2018] [Revised: 11/19/2018] [Accepted: 12/13/2018] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Cyclic peptides (CPs) are a promising class of molecules for drug development, particularly as inhibitors of protein-protein interactions. Predicting low-energy structures and global structural ensembles of individual CPs is critical for the design of bioactive molecules, but these are challenging to predict and difficult to verify experimentally. In our previous work, we used explicit-solvent molecular dynamics simulations with enhanced sampling methods to predict the global structural ensembles of cyclic hexapeptides containing different permutations of glycine, alanine, and valine. One peptide, cyclo-(VVGGVG) or P7, was predicted to be unusually well structured. In this work, we synthesized P7, along with a less well-structured control peptide, cyclo-(VVGVGG) or P6, and characterized their global structural ensembles in water using NMR spectroscopy. The NMR data revealed a structural ensemble similar to the prediction for P7 and showed that P6 was indeed much less well-structured than P7. We then simulated and experimentally characterized the global structural ensembles of several P7 analogs and discovered that β-branching at one critical position within P7 is important for overall structural stability. The simulations allowed deconvolution of thermodynamic factors that underlie this structural stabilization. Overall, the excellent correlation between simulation and experimental data indicates that our simulation platform will be a promising approach for designing well-structured CPs and also for understanding the complex interactions that control the conformations of constrained peptides and other macrocycles.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jiayuan Miao
- Department of Chemistry, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts
| | - Diana P Slough
- Department of Chemistry, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts
| | - Sean M McHugh
- Department of Chemistry, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts
| | - Joshua A Kritzer
- Department of Chemistry, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts.
| | - Yu-Shan Lin
- Department of Chemistry, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts.
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13
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Awasthi S, Nair NN. Exploring high‐dimensional free energy landscapes of chemical reactions. WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS-COMPUTATIONAL MOLECULAR SCIENCE 2018. [DOI: 10.1002/wcms.1398] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Shalini Awasthi
- Department of Chemistry Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur Uttar Pradesh India
| | - Nisanth N. Nair
- Department of Chemistry Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur Uttar Pradesh India
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14
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Jusot M, Stratmann D, Vaisset M, Chomilier J, Cortés J. Exhaustive Exploration of the Conformational Landscape of Small Cyclic Peptides Using a Robotics Approach. J Chem Inf Model 2018; 58:2355-2368. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.8b00375] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Maud Jusot
- Sorbonne Université, MNHN, CNRS, IRD, Institut de Minéralogie, de Physique des Matériaux et de Cosmochimie, IMPMC, 75005 Paris, France
- LAAS-CNRS, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, 31400 Toulouse, France
| | - Dirk Stratmann
- Sorbonne Université, MNHN, CNRS, IRD, Institut de Minéralogie, de Physique des Matériaux et de Cosmochimie, IMPMC, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Marc Vaisset
- LAAS-CNRS, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, 31400 Toulouse, France
| | - Jacques Chomilier
- Sorbonne Université, MNHN, CNRS, IRD, Institut de Minéralogie, de Physique des Matériaux et de Cosmochimie, IMPMC, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Juan Cortés
- LAAS-CNRS, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, 31400 Toulouse, France
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15
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Slough DP, McHugh SM, Lin YS. Understanding and designing head-to-tail cyclic peptides. Biopolymers 2018; 109:e23113. [PMID: 29528114 PMCID: PMC6135719 DOI: 10.1002/bip.23113] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2017] [Revised: 02/23/2018] [Accepted: 02/26/2018] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
Abstract
Cyclic peptides (CPs) are an exciting class of molecules with a variety of applications. However, design strategies for CP therapeutics, for example, are generally limited by a poor understanding of their sequence-structure relationships. This knowledge gap often leads to a trial-and-error approach for designing CPs for a specific purpose, which is both costly and time-consuming. Herein, we describe the current experimental and computational efforts in understanding and designing head-to-tail CPs along with their respective challenges. In addition, we provide several future directions in the field of computational CP design to improve its accuracy, efficiency and applicability. These advances, combined with experimental techniques, shall ultimately provide a better understanding of these interesting molecules and a reliable working platform to rationally design CPs with desired characteristics.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Yu-Shan Lin
- Department of Chemistry, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, 02155, United States
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16
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Kamenik AS, Lessel U, Fuchs JE, Fox T, Liedl KR. Peptidic Macrocycles - Conformational Sampling and Thermodynamic Characterization. J Chem Inf Model 2018; 58:982-992. [PMID: 29652495 PMCID: PMC5974701 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.8b00097] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Macrocycles are of considerable interest as highly specific drug candidates, yet they challenge standard conformer generators with their large number of rotatable bonds and conformational restrictions. Here, we present a molecular dynamics-based routine that bypasses current limitations in conformational sampling and extensively profiles the free energy landscape of peptidic macrocycles in solution. We perform accelerated molecular dynamics simulations to capture a diverse conformational ensemble. By applying an energetic cutoff, followed by geometric clustering, we demonstrate the striking robustness and efficiency of the approach in identifying highly populated conformational states of cyclic peptides. The resulting structural and thermodynamic information is benchmarked against interproton distances from NMR experiments and conformational states identified by X-ray crystallography. Using three different model systems of varying size and flexibility, we show that the method reliably reproduces experimentally determined structural ensembles and is capable of identifying key conformational states that include the bioactive conformation. Thus, the described approach is a robust method to generate conformations of peptidic macrocycles and holds promise for structure-based drug design.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna S Kamenik
- Institute of General, Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry, Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck , University of Innsbruck , 6020 Innsbruck , Austria
| | - Uta Lessel
- Medicinal Chemistry , Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG , 88397 Biberach , Germany
| | - Julian E Fuchs
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry , Boehringer Ingelheim RCV GmbH & Co KG , 1120 Vienna , Austria
| | - Thomas Fox
- Medicinal Chemistry , Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG , 88397 Biberach , Germany
| | - Klaus R Liedl
- Institute of General, Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry, Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck , University of Innsbruck , 6020 Innsbruck , Austria
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17
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Slough DP, McHugh SM, Cummings AE, Dai P, Pentelute BL, Kritzer JA, Lin YS. Designing Well-Structured Cyclic Pentapeptides Based on Sequence-Structure Relationships. J Phys Chem B 2018; 122:3908-3919. [PMID: 29589926 PMCID: PMC6071411 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.8b01747] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Cyclic peptides are a promising class of molecules for unique applications. Unfortunately, cyclic peptide design is severely limited by the difficulty in predicting the conformations they will adopt in solution. In this work, we use explicit-solvent molecular dynamics simulations to design well-structured cyclic peptides by studying their sequence-structure relationships. Critical to our approach is an enhanced sampling method that exploits the essential transitional motions of cyclic peptides to efficiently sample their conformational space. We simulated a range of cyclic pentapeptides from all-glycine to a library of cyclo-(X1X2AAA) peptides to map their conformational space and determine cooperative effects of neighboring residues. By combining the results from all cyclo-(X1X2AAA) peptides, we developed a scoring function to predict the structural preferences for X1-X2 residues within cyclic pentapeptides. Using this scoring function, we designed a cyclic pentapeptide, cyclo-(GNSRV), predicted to be well structured in aqueous solution. Subsequent circular dichroism and NMR spectroscopy revealed that this cyclic pentapeptide is indeed well structured in water, with a nuclear Overhauser effect and J-coupling values consistent with the predicted structure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diana P. Slough
- Department of Chemistry, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA
| | - Sean M. McHugh
- Department of Chemistry, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA
| | | | - Peng Dai
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
| | - Bradley L. Pentelute
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
| | - Joshua A. Kritzer
- Department of Chemistry, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA
| | - Yu -Shan Lin
- Department of Chemistry, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA
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18
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Stephens TC, Lodi M, Steer AM, Lin Y, Gill MT, Unsworth WP. Synthesis of Cyclic Peptide Mimetics by the Successive Ring Expansion of Lactams. Chemistry 2017; 23:13314-13318. [PMID: 28722215 DOI: 10.1002/chem.201703316] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2017] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
A successive ring-expansion protocol is reported that enables the controlled insertion of natural and non-natural amino acid fragments into lactams. Amino acids can be installed into macrocycles via an operationally simple and scalable iterative procedure, without the need for high dilution. This method is expected to be of broad utility, especially for the synthesis of medicinally important cyclic peptide mimetics.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Mahendar Lodi
- Department of Chemistry, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, UK
| | - Andrew M Steer
- Department of Chemistry, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, UK
| | - Yun Lin
- Department of Chemistry, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, UK
| | - Matthew T Gill
- Department of Chemistry, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, UK
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