Communication: Chemical functionality of interfacial water enveloping nanoscale structural defects in proteins

Artificial Intelligence Steering Molecular Therapy in the Absence of Information on Target Structure and Regulation

Protein associations are at the core of biological activity, and the drug-based disruption of dysfunctional associations poses a major challenge to targeted therapy. The problem becomes daunting when the structure and regulated modulation of the complex are unknown. To address the challenge, we leverage an artificial intelligence platform that learns from structural and epistructural data and infers regulation-susceptible regions that also generate interfacial tension between protein and water, thereby promoting protein associations. The input consists of sequence-derived 1D-features. The network is configured with evolutionarily coupled residues and taught to search for phosphorylation-modulated binding epitopes. The discovery platform is benchmarked against a PDB-derived testing set and validated against experimental data on a therapeutic disruptor designed according to the inferred epitope for a large deregulated complex known to be recruited in heart failure. Thus, dysfunctional "molecular brakes" of cardiac contractility get released through a therapeutic intervention guided by artificial intelligence.

Fast Screening of Inhibitor Binding/Unbinding Using Novel Software Tool CaverDock

Protein tunnels and channels are attractive targets for drug design. Drug molecules that block the access of substrates or release of products can be efficient modulators of biological activity. Here, we demonstrate the applicability of a newly developed software tool CaverDock for screening databases of drugs against pharmacologically relevant targets. First, we evaluated the effect of rigid and flexible side chains on sets of substrates and inhibitors of seven different proteins. In order to assess the accuracy of our software, we compared the results obtained from CaverDock calculation with experimental data previously collected with heat shock protein 90α. Finally, we tested the virtual screening capabilities of CaverDock with a set of oncological and anti-inflammatory FDA-approved drugs with two molecular targets—cytochrome P450 17A1 and leukotriene A4 hydrolase/aminopeptidase. Calculation of rigid trajectories using four processors took on average 53 min per molecule with 90% successfully calculated cases. The screening identified functional tunnels based on the profile of potential energies of binding and unbinding trajectories. We concluded that CaverDock is a sufficiently fast, robust, and accurate tool for screening binding/unbinding processes of pharmacologically important targets with buried functional sites. The standalone version of CaverDock is available freely at https://loschmidt.chemi.muni.cz/caverdock/ and the web version at https://loschmidt.chemi.muni.cz/caverweb/.

Protein structural defects enable pharmaceutical targeting while functionalizing the M2 proton channel

The influenza M2 (22-46) proton channel is therapeutically targetable and a prototype for proton transport across membranes. Conduction initiation, requiring a hydronium formed with exceptionally high pKa, remains nebulous. We tackle the problem by focusing on the dynamic interplay between protein structure and solvent interface. We identify two packing defects in the protein subunits that predict exactly the low and high-affinity drug-binding sites. The latter defect frustrates water coordination, enhancing water basicity and stabilizing the nearby hydronium that forms upon proton penetration in the channel. Thus, the trigger of proton conduction is directly related to the high-affinity binding site. The findings, in quantitative agreement with affinity measurements, are consistent with the targetable functional nature of protein packing defects. These findings enable the design of proton-conducting biomimetic materials, where the epistructure may be engineered to tune the basicity of interfacial water.

Acid-base chemistry of frustrated water at protein interfaces

Water molecules at a protein interface are often frustrated in hydrogen-bonding opportunities due to subnanoscale confinement. As shown, this condition makes them behave as a general base that may titrate side-chain ammonium and guanidinium cations. Frustration-based chemistry is captured by a quantum mechanical treatment of proton transference and shown to remove same-charge uncompensated anticontacts at the interface found in the crystallographic record and in other spectroscopic information on the aqueous interface. Such observations are untenable within classical arguments, as hydronium is a stronger acid than ammonium or guanidinium. Frustration enables a directed Grotthuss mechanism for proton transference stabilizing same-charge anticontacts.

Drug leads for interactive protein targets with unknown structure

The disruption of protein-protein interfaces (PPIs) remains a challenge in drug discovery. The problem becomes daunting when the structure of the target protein is unknown and is even further complicated when the interface is susceptible to disruptive phosphorylation. Based solely on protein sequence and information about phosphorylation-susceptible sites within the PPI, a new technology has been developed to identify drug leads to inhibit protein associations. Here we reveal this technology and contrast it with current structure-based technologies for the generation of drug leads. The novel technology is illustrated by a patented invention to treat heart failure. The success of this technology shows that it is possible to generate drug leads in the absence of target structure.

Structure and dynamics of H2O vis-á-vis phenylalanine recognition at a DPPC lipid membrane via interfacial H-bond types: insights from polarized FT-IRRAS and ADMP simulations

Preferential and enantioselective interactions of L-/D-Phenylalanine (L-Phe and D-Phe) and butoxycarbonyl-protected L-/D-Phenylalanine (LPA and DPA) as guest with 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (L-DPPC) as host were tapped by using real time Fourier transform infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (FT-IRRAS). Polarization-modulated FT-IRRAS of DPPC monolayers above the phenylalanine modified subphases depicted fine structure/conformation differences under considerations of controlled 2D surface pressure. Selective molecular recognition of D-enantiomer over L-enantiomer driven by the DPPC head group via H-bonding and electrostatic interactions was evident spectroscopically. Accordingly, binding constants (K) of 145, 346, 28, and 56 M(-1) for LPA, DPA, L-Phe, and D-Phe, respectively, were estimated. The real time FT-IRRAS water bands were strictly conformation sensitive. The effect of micro-solvation on the structure and stability of the 1:1 diastereomeric L-lipid⋯, LPA/DPA and L-lipid⋯, (L/D)-Phe adducts was investigated with the aid of Atom-centered Density Matrix Propagation (ADMP), a first principle quantum mechanical molecular dynamics approach. The phosphodiester fragment was the primary site of hydration where specific solvent interactions were simulated through single- and triple- "water-phosphate" interactions, as water cluster's "tetrahedral dice" to a "trimeric motif" transformation as a partial de-clusterization was evident. Under all the hydration patterns considered in both static and dynamic descriptions of density functional theory, L-lipid/D-amino acid enantiomer adducts continued to be stable structures while in dynamic systems, water rearranged without getting "squeezed-out" in the process of recognition. In spite of the challenging computational realm of this multiscale problem, the ADMP simulated molecular interactions complying with polarized vibrational spectroscopy unraveled a novel route to chiral recognition and interfacial water structure.

Packing defects functionalize soluble proteins

This work explores the participation of protein packing defects, the so-called dehydrons, in biochemical events. We delineate the enabling role of dehydrons as activators of nucleophilic groups. This activation results from the induction of chemical basicity in interfacial water molecules, promoting deprotonation of adjacent nucleophiles. Through multiple steering molecular dynamics with pulling along the proton-displacement coordinate, we show that nucleophilic groups are functionally enabled by nearby dehydrons that promote proton transference. The computations are validated against experimentally determined pKa decreases at functional sites and biochemical probes of deregulated catalytic activity arising from dehydron-generating mutations.