Why the OPLS-AA Force Field Cannot Produce the β-Hairpin Structure of H1 Peptide in Solution When Comparing with the GROMOS 43A1 Force Field?

The Application of MD Simulation to Lead Identification, Vaccine Design, and Structural Studies in Combat against Leishmaniasis - A Review

Drug discovery, vaccine design, and protein interaction studies are rapidly moving toward the routine use of molecular dynamics simulations (MDS) and related methods. As a result of MDS, it is possible to gain insights into the dynamics and function of identified drug targets, antibody-antigen interactions, potential vaccine candidates, intrinsically disordered proteins, and essential proteins. The MDS appears to be used in all possible ways in combating diseases such as cancer, however, it has not been well documented as to how effectively it is applied to infectious diseases such as Leishmaniasis. As a result, this review aims to survey the application of MDS in combating leishmaniasis. We have systematically collected articles that illustrate the implementation of MDS in drug discovery, vaccine development, and structural studies related to Leishmaniasis. Of all the articles reviewed, we identified that only a limited number of studies focused on the development of vaccines against Leishmaniasis through MDS. Also, the PCA and FEL studies were not carried out in most of the studies. These two were globally accepted utilities to understand the conformational changes and hence it is recommended that this analysis should be taken up in similar approaches in the future.

Intramolecular H-bonds govern the recognition of a flexible peptide by an antibody

Molecular recognition is a fundamental event at the core of essentially every biological process. In particular, intermolecular H-bonds have been recognized as key stabilizing forces in antibody-antigen interactions resulting in exquisite specificity and high affinity. Although equally abundant, the role of intramolecular H-bonds is far less clear and not universally acknowledged. Herein, we have carried out a molecular-level study to dissect the contribution of intramolecular H-bonds in a flexible peptide for the recognition by an antibody. We show that intramolecular H-bonds may have a profound, multifaceted and favorable effect on the binding affinity by up to 2 kcal mol-1 of free energy. Collectively, our results suggest that antibodies are fine tuned to recognize transiently stabilized structures of flexible peptides in solution, for which intramolecular H-bonds play a key role.

β-hairpin-mediated formation of structurally distinct multimers of neurotoxic prion peptides

Protein misfolding disorders are associated with conformational changes in specific proteins, leading to the formation of potentially neurotoxic amyloid fibrils. During pathogenesis of prion disease, the prion protein misfolds into β-sheet rich, protease-resistant isoforms. A key, hydrophobic domain within the prion protein, comprising residues 109-122, recapitulates many properties of the full protein, such as helix-to-sheet structural transition, formation of fibrils and cytotoxicity of the misfolded isoform. Using all-atom, molecular simulations, it is demonstrated that the monomeric 109-122 peptide has a preference for α-helical conformations, but that this peptide can also form β-hairpin structures resulting from turns around specific glycine residues of the peptide. Altering a single amino acid within the 109-122 peptide (A117V, associated with familial prion disease) increases the prevalence of β-hairpin formation and these observations are replicated in a longer peptide, comprising residues 106-126. Multi-molecule simulations of aggregation yield different assemblies of peptide molecules composed of conformationally-distinct monomer units. Small molecular assemblies, consistent with oligomers, comprise peptide monomers in a β-hairpin-like conformation and in many simulations appear to exist only transiently. Conversely, larger assemblies are comprised of extended peptides in predominately antiparallel β-sheets and are stable relative to the length of the simulations. These larger assemblies are consistent with amyloid fibrils, show cross-β structure and can form through elongation of monomer units within pre-existing oligomers. In some simulations, assemblies containing both β-hairpin and linear peptides are evident. Thus, in this work oligomers are on pathway to fibril formation and a preference for β-hairpin structure should enhance oligomer formation whilst inhibiting maturation into fibrils. These simulations provide an important new atomic-level model for the formation of oligomers and fibrils of the prion protein and suggest that stabilization of β-hairpin structure may enhance cellular toxicity by altering the balance between oligomeric and fibrillar protein assemblies.

Combining coarse-grained protein models with replica-exchange all-atom molecular dynamics

We describe a combination of all-atom simulations with CABS, a well-established coarse-grained protein modeling tool, into a single multiscale protocol. The simulation method has been tested on the C-terminal beta hairpin of protein G, a model system of protein folding. After reconstructing atomistic details, conformations derived from the CABS simulation were subjected to replica-exchange molecular dynamics simulations with OPLS-AA and AMBER99sb force fields in explicit solvent. Such a combination accelerates system convergence several times in comparison with all-atom simulations starting from the extended chain conformation, demonstrated by the analysis of melting curves, the number of native-like conformations as a function of time and secondary structure propagation. The results strongly suggest that the proposed multiscale method could be an efficient and accurate tool for high-resolution studies of protein folding dynamics in larger systems.

The role of loop closure propensity in the refolding of Rop protein probed by molecular dynamics simulations

Rop protein is a homo-dimer of helix-turn-helix and has relatively slow folding and unfolding rates compared to other dimeric proteins of similar size. Fluorescence studies cited in literature suggest that mutation of turn residues D30-A31 to G30-G31 (Gly₂) increases its folding and unfolding rates considerably. A further increase in number of glycines in the turn region results in decrease of folding rates compared to Gly₂ mutant. To understand the effect of glycine mutation on folding/unfolding rates of Rop and the conformational nature of turn region involved in formation of early folding species, we performed molecular dynamics simulations of turn peptides, ²⁵KLNELDADEQ³⁴ (DA peptide), ²⁵KLNELGGDEQ³⁴ (G₂ peptide), ²⁵KLNELGGGDEQ³⁵ (G₃ peptide) and ²⁵KLNELGGGEQ³⁴ (G₃(') peptide) from Rop at 300 K. Further Wt-Rop and mutant G₂-Rop monomers and dimers were also studied separately by molecular dynamics simulations. Our results show that glycine based peptides (G(n) peptides) have a higher loop closure propensity compared to DA. Comparison of monomeric and dimeric Rop simulations suggests that dimeric Rop necessarily requires α(L) conformation to be sampled at D30/G30 position in the turn region. Since glycine (at position 30) can readily adopt α(L) conformation, G(n) loop plays a dual role in both facilitating loop closure as well as facilitating reorganization/packing of helices required for structural adjustment during dimer formation in the folding of Rop. Based on our simulation results and available literature, we suggest a tentative kinetic model for Rop folding which allows us to estimate the contribution of loop closure propensity to the overall folding rates.

Assessment of Common Simulation Protocols for Simulations of Nanopores, Membrane Proteins, and Channels

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation has become a common technique to study biological systems. Transport of small molecules through carbon nanotubes and membrane proteins has been an intensely studied topic, and MD simulations have been able to provide valuable predictions, many of which have later been experimentally proven. Simulations of such systems pose challenges, and unexpected problems in commonly used protocols and methods have been found in the past few years. The two main reasons why some were not found before are that most of these newly discovered errors do not lead to unstable simulations. Furthermore, some of them manifest themselves only after relatively long simulation times. We assessed the reliability of the most common simulations protocols by MD and stochastic dynamics (SD) or Langevin dynamics, simulations of an alpha hemolysin nanochannel embedded in a palmitoyloleoylphosphatidylcholine (POPC) lipid bilayer. Our findings are that (a) reaction field electrostatics should not be used in simulations of such systems, (b) local thermostats should be preferred over global ones since the latter may lead to an unphysical temperature distribution,

Comparison of Secondary Structure Formation Using 10 Different Force Fields in Microsecond Molecular Dynamics Simulations

We have compared molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of a β-hairpin forming peptide derived from the protein Nrf2 with 10 biomolecular force fields using trajectories of at least 1 μs. The total simulation time was 37.2 μs. Previous studies have shown that different force fields, water models, simulation methods, and parameters can affect simulation outcomes. The MD simulations were done in explicit solvent with a 16-mer Nrf2 β-hairpin forming peptide using Amber ff99SB-ILDN, Amber ff99SB*-ILDN, Amber ff99SB, Amber ff99SB*, Amber ff03, Amber ff03*, GROMOS96 43a1p, GROMOS96 53a6, CHARMM27, and OPLS-AA/L force fields. The effects of charge-groups, terminal capping, and phosphorylation on the peptide folding were also examined. Despite using identical starting structures and simulation parameters, we observed clear differences among the various force fields and even between replicates using the same force field. Our simulations show that the uncapped peptide folds into a native-like β-hairpin structure at 310 K when Amber ff99SB-ILDN, Amber ff99SB*-ILDN, Amber ff99SB, Amber ff99SB*, Amber ff03, Amber ff03*, GROMOS96 43a1p, or GROMOS96 53a6 were used. The CHARMM27 simulations were able to form native hairpins in some of the elevated temperature simulations, while the OPLS-AA/L simulations did not yield native hairpin structures at any temperatures tested. Simulations that used charge-groups or peptide capping groups were not largely different from their uncapped counterparts with single atom charge-groups. On the other hand, phosphorylation of the threonine residue located at the β-turn significantly affected the hairpin formation. To our knowledge, this is the first study comparing such a large set of force fields with respect to β-hairpin folding. Such a comprehensive comparison will offer useful guidance to others conducting similar types of simulations.