González-Fernández C, Basauri A, Fallanza M, Bringas E, Oostenbrink C, Ortiz I. Fighting Against Bacterial Lipopolysaccharide-Caused Infections through Molecular Dynamics Simulations: A Review.
J Chem Inf Model 2021;
61:4839-4851. [PMID:
34559524 PMCID:
PMC8549069 DOI:
10.1021/acs.jcim.1c00613]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
![]()
Lipopolysaccharide
(LPS) is the primary component of the outer
leaflet of Gram-negative bacterial outer membranes. LPS elicits an
overwhelming immune response during infection, which can lead to life-threatening
sepsis or septic shock for which no suitable treatment is available
so far. As a result of the worldwide expanding multidrug-resistant
bacteria, the occurrence and frequency of sepsis are expected to increase;
thus, there is an urge to develop novel strategies for treating bacterial
infections. In this regard, gaining an in-depth understanding about
the ability of LPS to both stimulate the host immune system and interact
with several molecules is crucial for fighting against LPS-caused
infections and allowing for the rational design of novel antisepsis
drugs, vaccines and LPS sequestration and detection methods. Molecular
dynamics (MD) simulations, which are understood as being a computational
microscope, have proven to be of significant value to understand LPS-related
phenomena, driving and optimizing experimental research studies. In
this work, a comprehensive review on the methods that can be combined
with MD simulations, recently applied in LPS research, is provided.
We focus especially on both enhanced sampling methods, which enable
the exploration of more complex systems and access to larger time
scales, and free energy calculation approaches. Thereby, apart from
outlining several strategies for surmounting LPS-caused infections,
this work reports the current state-of-the-art of the methods applied
with MD simulations for moving a step forward in the development of
such strategies.
Collapse