1
|
Rosignoli S, di Paola L, Paiardini A. PyPCN: protein contact networks in PyMOL. Bioinformatics 2023; 39:btad675. [PMID: 37941462 PMCID: PMC10641099 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btad675] [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] [Received: 04/27/2023] [Revised: 09/25/2023] [Accepted: 11/03/2023] [Indexed: 11/10/2023] Open
Abstract
MOTIVATION Protein contact networks (PCNs) represent the 3D structure of a protein using network formalism. Inter-residue contacts are described as binary adjacency matrices, which are derived from the graph representation of residues (as α-carbons, β-carbons or centroids) and Euclidean distances according to defined thresholds. Functional characterization algorithms are computed on binary adjacency matrices to unveil allosteric, dynamic, and interaction mechanisms in proteins. Such strategies are usually applied in a combinatorial manner, although rarely in seamless and user-friendly implementations. RESULTS PyPCN is a plugin for PyMOL wrapping more than twenty PCN algorithms and metrics in an easy-to-use graphical user interface, to support PCN analysis. The plugin accepts 3D structures from the Protein Data Bank, user-provided PDBs, or precomputed adjacency matrices. The results are directly mapped to 3D protein structures and organized into interactive diagrams for their visualization. A dedicated graphical user interface combined with PyMOL visual support makes analysis more intuitive and easier, extending the applicability of PCNs. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION https://github.com/pcnproject/PyPCN.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Serena Rosignoli
- Department of Biochemical Sciences “A. Rossi Fanelli”, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
| | - Luisa di Paola
- Unit of Chemical-Physics Fundamentals in Chemical Engineering, Department of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, 00128 Rome, Italy
| | - Alessandro Paiardini
- Department of Biochemical Sciences “A. Rossi Fanelli”, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Sun J, Kulandaisamy A, Ru J, Gromiha MM, Cribbs AP. TMKit: a Python interface for computational analysis of transmembrane proteins. Brief Bioinform 2023; 24:bbad288. [PMID: 37594311 PMCID: PMC10516361 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbad288] [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: 04/17/2023] [Revised: 07/07/2023] [Accepted: 07/18/2023] [Indexed: 08/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Transmembrane proteins are receptors, enzymes, transporters and ion channels that are instrumental in regulating a variety of cellular activities, such as signal transduction and cell communication. Despite tremendous progress in computational capacities to support protein research, there is still a significant gap in the availability of specialized computational analysis toolkits for transmembrane protein research. Here, we introduce TMKit, an open-source Python programming interface that is modular, scalable and specifically designed for processing transmembrane protein data. TMKit is a one-stop computational analysis tool for transmembrane proteins, enabling users to perform database wrangling, engineer features at the mutational, domain and topological levels, and visualize protein-protein interaction interfaces. In addition, TMKit includes seqNetRR, a high-performance computing library that allows customized construction of a large number of residue connections. This library is particularly well suited for assigning correlation matrix-based features at a fast speed. TMKit should serve as a useful tool for researchers in assisting the study of transmembrane protein sequences and structures. TMKit is publicly available through https://github.com/2003100127/tmkit and https://tmkit-guide.herokuapp.com/doc/overview.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jianfeng Sun
- Nuffield Department of Orthopedics, Rheumatology, and Musculoskeletal Sciences, Botnar Research Centre, University of Oxford, Headington, Oxford OX3 7LD, UK
| | - Arulsamy Kulandaisamy
- Department of Biotechnology, Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta School of BioSciences, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, Tamil Nadu, India
| | - Jinlong Ru
- Chair of Prevention of Microbial Diseases, School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technical University of Munich, 85354 Freising, Germany
| | - M Michael Gromiha
- Department of Biotechnology, Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta School of BioSciences, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, Tamil Nadu, India
| | - Adam P Cribbs
- Nuffield Department of Orthopedics, Rheumatology, and Musculoskeletal Sciences, Botnar Research Centre, University of Oxford, Headington, Oxford OX3 7LD, UK
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Lomoio U, Puccio B, Tradigo G, Guzzi PH, Veltri P. SARS-CoV-2 protein structure and sequence mutations: Evolutionary analysis and effects on virus variants. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0283400. [PMID: 37471335 PMCID: PMC10358949 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0283400] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2023] [Accepted: 07/04/2023] [Indexed: 07/22/2023] Open
Abstract
The structure and sequence of proteins strongly influence their biological functions. New models and algorithms can help researchers in understanding how the evolution of sequences and structures is related to changes in functions. Recently, studies of SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S) protein structures have been performed to predict binding receptors and infection activity in COVID-19, hence the scientific interest in the effects of virus mutations due to sequence, structure and vaccination arises. However, there is the need for models and tools to study the links between the evolution of S protein sequence, structure and functions, and virus transmissibility and the effects of vaccination. As studies on S protein have been generated a large amount of relevant information, we propose in this work to use Protein Contact Networks (PCNs) to relate protein structures with biological properties by means of network topology properties. Topological properties are used to compare the structural changes with sequence changes. We find that both node centrality and community extraction analysis can be used to relate protein stability and functionality with sequence mutations. Starting from this we compare structural evolution to sequence changes and study mutations from a temporal perspective focusing on virus variants. Finally by applying our model to the Omicron variant we report a timeline correlation between Omicron and the vaccination campaign.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ugo Lomoio
- Department of Surgical and Medical Sciences, University of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy
| | - Barbara Puccio
- Department of Surgical and Medical Sciences, University of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy
| | | | - Pietro Hiram Guzzi
- Department of Surgical and Medical Sciences, University of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy
| | | |
Collapse
|
4
|
Guzzi PH, di Paola L, Puccio B, Lomoio U, Giuliani A, Veltri P. Computational analysis of the sequence-structure relation in SARS-CoV-2 spike protein using protein contact networks. Sci Rep 2023; 13:2837. [PMID: 36808182 PMCID: PMC9936485 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-30052-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2022] [Accepted: 02/15/2023] [Indexed: 02/19/2023] Open
Abstract
The structure of proteins impacts directly on the function they perform. Mutations in the primary sequence can provoke structural changes with consequent modification of functional properties. SARS-CoV-2 proteins have been extensively studied during the pandemic. This wide dataset, related to sequence and structure, has enabled joint sequence-structure analysis. In this work, we focus on the SARS-CoV-2 S (Spike) protein and the relations between sequence mutations and structure variations, in order to shed light on the structural changes stemming from the position of mutated amino acid residues in three different SARS-CoV-2 strains. We propose the use of protein contact network (PCN) formalism to: (i) obtain a global metric space and compare various molecular entities, (ii) give a structural explanation of the observed phenotype, and (iii) provide context dependent descriptors of single mutations. PCNs have been used to compare sequence and structure of the Alpha, Delta, and Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variants, and we found that omicron has a unique mutational pattern leading to different structural consequences from mutations of other strains. The non-random distribution of changes in network centrality along the chain has allowed to shed light on the structural (and functional) consequences of mutations.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Pietro Hiram Guzzi
- Department of Surgical and Medical Sciences, Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy.
| | - Luisa di Paola
- grid.9657.d0000 0004 1757 5329Unit of Chemical-Physics Fundamentals in Chemical Engineering, Department of Engineering, Universita Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, via Alvaro del Portillo 21, 00128 Rome, Italy
| | - Barbara Puccio
- grid.411489.10000 0001 2168 2547Department of Surgical and Medical Sciences, Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy
| | - Ugo Lomoio
- grid.411489.10000 0001 2168 2547Department of Surgical and Medical Sciences, Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy
| | - Alessandro Giuliani
- grid.416651.10000 0000 9120 6856Environment and Health Department, Istituto Superiore di Sanita, Rome, Italy
| | - Pierangelo Veltri
- grid.411489.10000 0001 2168 2547Department of Surgical and Medical Sciences, Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy ,grid.7778.f0000 0004 1937 0319Department of Computer, Modeling, Electronics and System Engineering, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Structural analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein variants through graph embedding. NETWORK MODELING AND ANALYSIS IN HEALTH INFORMATICS AND BIOINFORMATICS 2023; 12:3. [PMID: 36506261 PMCID: PMC9718452 DOI: 10.1007/s13721-022-00397-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2022] [Revised: 10/21/2022] [Accepted: 11/16/2022] [Indexed: 12/03/2022]
Abstract
Since December 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has affected almost all countries. The unprecedented spreading of this virus has led to the insurgence of many variants that impact protein sequence and structure that need continuous monitoring and analysis of the sequences to understand the genetic evolution and to prevent possible dangerous outcomes. Some variants causing the modification of the structure of the proteins, such as the Spike protein S, need to be monitored. Protein contact networks (PCNs) have been recently proposed as a modelling framework for protein structures. In such a framework, the protein structure is represented as an unweighted graph whose nodes are the central atoms of the backbones (C- α ), and edges connect two atoms falling in the spatial distance between 4 and 7 Å. PCN may also be a data-rich representation since we may add to each node/atom biological and topological information. Such formalism enables the possibility of using algorithms from graph theory to analyze the graph. In particular, we refer to graph embedding methods enabling the analysis of such graphs with deep learning methods. In this work, we explore the possibility of embedding PCN using Graph Neural Networks and then analyze in the embedded space each residue to distinguish mutated residues from non-mutated ones. In particular, we analyzed the structure of the Spike protein of the coronavirus. First, we obtained the PCNs of the Spike protein for the wild-type, α , β , and δ variants. Then we used the GraphSage embedding algorithm to obtain an unsupervised embedding. Then we analyzed the point of mutation in the embedded space. Results show the characteristics of the mutation point in the embedding space.
Collapse
|
6
|
Hosseinzadeh MM, Cannataro M, Guzzi PH, Dondi R. Temporal networks in biology and medicine: a survey on models, algorithms, and tools. NETWORK MODELING AND ANALYSIS IN HEALTH INFORMATICS AND BIOINFORMATICS 2022; 12:10. [PMID: 36618274 PMCID: PMC9803903 DOI: 10.1007/s13721-022-00406-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2022] [Revised: 12/16/2022] [Accepted: 12/17/2022] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
The use of static graphs for modelling and analysis of biological and biomedical data plays a key role in biomedical research. However, many real-world scenarios present dynamic behaviours resulting in both node and edges modification as well as feature evolution. Consequently, ad-hoc models for capturing these evolutions along the time have been introduced, also referred to as dynamic, temporal, time-varying graphs. Here, we focus on temporal graphs, i.e., graphs whose evolution is represented by a sequence of time-ordered snapshots. Each snapshot represents a graph active in a particular timestamp. We survey temporal graph models and related algorithms, presenting fundamentals aspects and the recent advances. We formally define temporal graphs, focusing on the problem setting and we present their main applications in biology and medicine. We also present temporal graph embedding and the application to recent problems such as epidemic modelling. Finally, we further state some promising research directions in the area. Main results of this study include a systematic review of fundamental temporal network problems and their algorithmic solutions considered in the literature, in particular those having application in computational biology and medicine. We also include the main software developed in this context.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Mario Cannataro
- Department of Surgical and Medical Sciences and Data Analytics Research Center, University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy
| | - Pietro Hiram Guzzi
- Department of Surgical and Medical Sciences and Data Analytics Research Center, University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy
| | - Riccardo Dondi
- Department of Literature, Philosophy, Communication Studies, University of Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
The Importance of Charge Transfer and Solvent Screening in the Interactions of Backbones and Functional Groups in Amino Acid Residues and Nucleotides. Int J Mol Sci 2022; 23:ijms232113514. [PMID: 36362296 PMCID: PMC9654426 DOI: 10.3390/ijms232113514] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2022] [Revised: 10/26/2022] [Accepted: 10/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Quantum mechanical (QM) calculations at the level of density-functional tight-binding are applied to a protein–DNA complex (PDB: 2o8b) consisting of 3763 atoms, averaging 100 snapshots from molecular dynamics simulations. A detailed comparison of QM and force field (Amber) results is presented. It is shown that, when solvent screening is taken into account, the contributions of the backbones are small, and the binding of nucleotides in the double helix is governed by the base–base interactions. On the other hand, the backbones can make a substantial contribution to the binding of amino acid residues to nucleotides and other residues. The effect of charge transfer on the interactions is also analyzed, revealing that the actual charge of nucleotides and amino acid residues can differ by as much as 6 and 8% from the formal integer charge, respectively. The effect of interactions on topological models (protein -residue networks) is elucidated.
Collapse
|
8
|
Petrizzelli F, Biagini T, Bianco SD, Liorni N, Napoli A, Castellana S, Mazza T. Connecting the dots: A practical evaluation of web-tools for describing protein dynamics as networks. FRONTIERS IN BIOINFORMATICS 2022; 2:1045368. [PMID: 36438625 PMCID: PMC9689706 DOI: 10.3389/fbinf.2022.1045368] [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: 09/15/2022] [Accepted: 10/05/2022] [Indexed: 01/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Protein Structure Networks (PSNs) are a well-known mathematical model for estimation and analysis of the three-dimensional protein structure. Investigating the topological architecture of PSNs may help identify the crucial amino acid residues for protein stability and protein-protein interactions, as well as deduce any possible mutational effects. But because proteins go through conformational changes to give rise to essential biological functions, this has to be done dynamically over time. The most effective method to describe protein dynamics is molecular dynamics simulation, with the most popular software programs for manipulating simulations to infer interaction networks being RING, MD-TASK, and NAPS. Here, we compare the computational approaches used by these three tools-all of which are accessible as web servers-to understand the pathogenicity of missense mutations and talk about their potential applications as well as their advantages and disadvantages.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Francesco Petrizzelli
- Bioinformatics Laboratory, Fondazione IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy
| | - Tommaso Biagini
- Bioinformatics Laboratory, Fondazione IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy
| | - Salvatore Daniele Bianco
- Bioinformatics Laboratory, Fondazione IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy,Department of Experimental Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Niccolò Liorni
- Bioinformatics Laboratory, Fondazione IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy,Department of Experimental Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Alessandro Napoli
- Bioinformatics Laboratory, Fondazione IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy
| | - Stefano Castellana
- Bioinformatics Laboratory, Fondazione IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy
| | - Tommaso Mazza
- Bioinformatics Laboratory, Fondazione IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy,*Correspondence: Tommaso Mazza,
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
In-Silico Characterization of von Willebrand Factor Bound to FVIII. APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/app12157855] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
Factor VIII belongs to the coagulation cascade and is expressed as a long pre-protein (mature form, 2351 amino acids long). FVIII is deficient or defective in hemophilic A patients, who need to be treated with hemoderivatives or recombinant FVIII substitutes, i.e., biologic drugs. The interaction between FVIII and von Willebrand factor (VWF) influences the pharmacokinetics of FVIII medications. In vivo, full-length FVIII (FL-FVIII) is secreted in a plasma-inactive form, which includes the B domain, which is then proteolyzed by thrombin protease activity, leading to an inactive plasma intermediate. In this work, we analyzed through a computational approach the binding of VWF with two structure models of FVIII (secreted full-length with B domain, and B domain-deleted FVIII). We included in our analysis the atomic model of efanesoctocog alfa, a novel and investigational recombinant FVIII medication, in which the VWF is covalently linked to FVIII. We carried out a structural analysis of VWF/FVIII interfaces by means of protein–protein docking, PISA (Proteins, Interfaces, Structures and Assemblies), and protein contact networks (PCN) analyses. Accordingly, our computational approaches to previously published experimental data demonstrated that the domains A3-C1 of B domain-deleted FVIII (BDD-FVIII) is the preferential binding site for VWF. Overall, our computational approach applied to topological analysis of protein–protein interface can be aimed at the rational design of biologic drugs other than FVIII medications.
Collapse
|
10
|
A Statistical Journey through the Topological Determinants of the β2 Adrenergic Receptor Dynamics. ENTROPY 2022; 24:e24070998. [PMID: 35885221 PMCID: PMC9318934 DOI: 10.3390/e24070998] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2022] [Revised: 07/12/2022] [Accepted: 07/15/2022] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Activation of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) is mediated by molecular switches throughout the transmembrane region of the receptor. In this work, we continued along the path of a previous computational study wherein energy transport in the β2 Adrenergic Receptor (β2-AR) was examined and allosteric switches were identified in the molecular structure through the reorganization of energy transport networks during activation. In this work, we further investigated the allosteric properties of β2-AR, using Protein Contact Networks (PCNs). In this paper, we report an extensive statistical analysis of the topological and structural properties of β2-AR along its molecular dynamics trajectory to identify the activation pattern of this molecular system. The results show a distinct character to the activation that both helps to understand the allosteric switching previously identified and confirms the relevance of the network formalism to uncover relevant functional features of protein molecules.
Collapse
|