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Molecular dynamics simulation of solvated protein at high pressure.

We have completed a molecular dynamics simulation of protein (bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor, BPTI) in solution at high pressure (10 kbar). The structural and energetic effects of the application of high pressure to solvated protein are analyzed by comparing the results of the high-pressure simulation with a corresponding simulation at low pressure. The volume of the simulation cell containing one protein molecule plus 2943 water molecules decreases by 24.7% at high pressure. This corresponds to a compressibility for the protein solution of beta = 1.8 x 10(-2) kbar-1. The compressibility of the protein is estimated to be about one-tenth that of bulk water, while the protein hydration layer water is found to have a greater compressibility as compared to the bulk, especially for water associated with hydrophobic groups. The radius of gyration of BPTI decreases by 2% and there is a one third decrease in the protein backbone atomic fluctuations at high pressure. We have analyzed pressure effects on the hydration energy of the protein. The total hydration energy is slightly (4%) more favorable at high pressure even though the surface accessibility of the protein has decreased by a corresponding amount. Large pressure-induced changes in the structure of the hydration shell are observed. Overall, the solvation shell waters appear more ordered at high pressure; the pressure-induced ordering is greatest for nonpolar surface groups. We do not observe evidence of pressure-induced unfolding of the protein over the 100-ps duration of the high-pressure simulation. This is consistent with the results of high-pressure optical experiments on BPTI.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Aprotinin

3 Nsec molecular dynamics simulation of the protein ubiquitin and comparison with X-ray crystal and solution NMR structures.

Mainly due to computational limitations, past protein molecular dynamics simulations have rarely been extended to 300 psec; we are not aware of any published results beyond 350 psec. The present work compares a 3000 psec simulation of the protein ubiquitin with the available x-ray crystallographic and solution NMR structures. Aside from experimental structure availability, ubiquitin was studied because of its relatively small size (76 amino acids) and lack of disulfide bridges. An implicit solvent model was used except for explicit treatment of waters of crystallization. We found that the simulated average structure retains most of the character of the starting x-ray crystal structure. In two highly surface accessible regions, the simulation was not in agreement with the x-ray structure. In addition, there are six backbone-backbone hydrogen bonds that are in conflict between the solution NMR and x-ray crystallographic structures; two are bonds that the NMR does not locate, and four are ones that the two methods disagree upon the donor. Concerning these six backbone-backbone hydrogen bonds, the present simulation agrees with the solution NMR structure in five out-of-the six cases, in that if a hydrogen bond is present in the x-ray structure and not in the NMR structure, the bond breaks within 700 psec. Of the two hydrogen bonds that are found in the NMR structure and not in the x-ray structure, one forms at 1400 psec and the other forms rarely. The present results suggest that relatively long molecular dynamics simulations, that use protein x-ray crystal coordinates for the starting structure and a computationally efficient solvent representation, may be used to gain an understanding of conformational and dynamic differences between the solid-crystal and dilute-solution states.

Computer Simulation

Combined use of homo- and heteronuclear coupling constants as restraints in molecular dynamics simulations.

A penalty function for scalar coupling constants has been applied in molecular dynamics simulations as an experimental constraint. The function is based on the difference between the coupling constant calculated from the dihedral angle and the experimentally measured coupling constant. The method is illustrated on a model cyclic pentapeptide for which 3JHN-H alpha and 3JHN-C beta, both about the phi backbone dihedral angle, have been measured. The function is efficient in producing structures consistent with the scalar couplings, but removed from the conformation observed in solution. This arises from the lack of J restraints for the psi dihedral angle. Simulations with both nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) and J-coupling restraints illustrates small but significant differences from simulations using only NOEs.

Amino Acid Sequence

Molecular dynamics simulations of "loop closing" in the enzyme triose phosphate isomerase.

We present molecular dynamics simulations on the active site region of dimeric triose phosphate isomerase (TIM) using the co-ordinates of native chicken muscle TIM as a starting point and performing simulations with no substrate, with dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP), the natural substrate, and with dihydroxyacetone sulfate (DHAS), a substrate analog. Whereas most of the protein moves less than 1 A during the simulation, some residues in the active site loop move more than 8 A during the 10.5 picoseconds of dynamics for each of the simulations. Most interestingly, the nature of the loop motion depends on the substrate, with the largest motion found in the presence of DHAP, and only in the presence of DHAP does the loop move to "close off" the active site pocket. The final structure found for the DHAP-chicken TIM complex is qualitatively similar to that described by Alber et al. for DHAP-yeast TIM. Simulations on the monomeric protein gives insight into why the molecule is active only as a dimer.

Acetone

Molecular dynamics simulations of cyclosporin A: the crystal structure and dynamic modelling of a structure in apolar solution based on NMR data.

The conformation of the immunosuppressive drug cyclosporin A (CPA), both in apolar solution and in crystalline state, has been studied by computer simulation techniques. Three molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have been performed: one modelling the crystal structure and two modelling the structure in apolar solution, using a restrained MD approach in which data from nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and infrared (IR) spectroscopy are taken into account. The simulation of the crystalline state (MDC) concerns a system of 4 unit cells containing 16 cyclosporin A molecules and 22 water molecules, which is simulated using crystalline periodic boundary conditions. The simulations modelling the apolar solvent conformation (MDS) concern one isolated cyclosporin A molecule. In these simulations an extra term in the interatomic potential function is used, which forces the molecule to satisfy a set of 57 atom-atom distance constraints originating from nuclear Overhauser effects (NOEs) obtained from NMR spectroscopy and one distance constraint deduced from IR spectroscopy. From a comparison of the results of the crystal simulation to those of the X-ray experiment in terms of structure, atomic fluctuations, hydrogen bond pattern, etc., it is concluded that the force field that is used yields an adequate representation of crystalline cyclosporin A. Secondly, it is shown that the dynamic modelling technique that is used to obtain a structure in a polar solution from NMR distance information works well. Starting from initial conformations which have a root mean square difference of 0.14 nm both distance restrained MD simulations converge to the same final solution structure. A comparison of the crystal structure of cyclosporin A and the one in apolar solution shows that there are significant differences. The overall difference in atomic positions is 0.09 nm for the C alpha atoms and 0.17 nm for all atoms. In apolar solution, the molecule is slightly more bent and the side chains of 1 MeBmt and 10 MeLeu adopt a different conformation.

Computer Simulation

Mass-weighted molecular dynamics simulation and conformational analysis of polypeptide.

Atomic motions in protein molecules have been studied by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations; dynamics simulation methods have also been employed in conformational studies of polypeptide molecules. It was found that when atomic masses are weighted, the molecular dynamics method can significantly increase the sampling of dihedral conformation space in such studies, compared to a conventional MD simulation of the same total simulation time length. Herein the theoretical study of molecular conformation sampling by the molecular dynamics-based simulation method in which atomic masses are weighted is reported in detail; moreover, a numerical scheme for analyzing the extensive conformational sampling in the simulation of a tetrapeptide amide molecule is presented. From numerical analyses of the mass-weighted molecular dynamics trajectories of backbone dihedral angles, low-resolution structures covering the entire backbone dihedral conformation space of the molecule were determined, and the distribution of rotationally stable conformations in this space were analyzed quantitatively. The theoretical analyses based on the computer simulation and numerical analytical methods suggest that distinctive regimes in the conformational space of the peptide molecule can be identified.

Amino Acid Sequence

Mass-weighted molecular dynamics simulation of cyclic polypeptides.

A modified molecular dynamics (MD) method in which atomic masses are weighted was developed previously for studying the conformational flexibility of neuroregulating tetrapeptide Phe-Met-Arg-Phe-amide (FMRF-amide). The method has now been applied to longer and constrained molecules, namely a disulfide-linked cyclic hexapeptide, c[CYFQNC], and its linear and "pseudo-cyclic" analogues. The sampling of dehedral conformational space of teh linear hexapeptide in mass-weighted MD simulations was found to be improved significantly over conventional MD simulations, as in the case of the shorter FMRF-amide molecule studied previously. In the cyclic hexapeptide, the internal constraint of the molecule due to the intramolecular disulfide bond (hence the absence of free terminals in the molecule) does not adversely affect the significant improvement of conformational sampling in mass-weighted MD simulations over normal MD simulations. The pseudo-cyclic polypeptide is identical to the linear CYFQNC molecule in amino acid sequence (i.e., side chains of the cysteine residues are reduced), but the positions of its two terminal heavy atoms were held fixed in space such that the molecule has a nearly cyclic conformation. For this molecule, the mass-weighted MD simulation generated a wide range of polypeptide backbone conformations covering the internal dihedral degrees of freedom; moreover, the physical space of the pseudo-cyclic structure was also sampled in a complete revolution of the entire molecular fragment about the two fixed termini during the simulation. These characteristics suggest that mass-weighted MD can also be an extremely useful method for conformational analyses of constrained molecules and, in particular, for modeling loops on protein surfaces.

Amino Acid Sequence

Molecular dynamics simulations of phospholipases A2.

An extensive molecular dynamics study of phospholipases A2 from pancreatic bovine and Crotalus atrox venom has shown that the well-conserved homologous core of the phospholipases A2, including the so called catalytic network, is very stable during the course of the calculations. The fluctuations which occur are located in segments which have significantly different three-dimensional conformations in the two phospholipases A2 studied, suggesting that a particularly stable core conformation gives rise to a large homologous family of similar three-dimensional structure. The calcium ion, which exhibits a crucial structural role in the monomeric phospholipases A2, appears not to be required to stabilize the C.atrox dimer. Moreover, the behaviour of the dimeric structure during the dynamics raises the question of a possible dissociation of the two subunits into functional monomers.

Animals

A new horizon in the phosphorylated sites of AGA: the structural impact of C163S mutation in aspartylglucosaminuria through molecular dynamics simulation.

Aspartylglucosaminuria (AGU) is a lysosomal storage disorder caused by insufficient aspartylglucosaminidase (AGA) activity leading to chronic neurodegeneration. We utilized the PhosphoSitePlus tool to identify the AGA protein's phosphorylation sites. The phosphorylation was induced on the specific residue of the three-dimensional AGA protein, and the structural changes upon phosphorylation were studied via molecular dynamics simulation. Furthermore, the structural behaviour of C163S mutation and C163S mutation with adjacent phosphorylation was investigated. We have examined the structural impact of phosphorylated forms and C163S mutation in AGA. Molecular dynamics simulations (200 ns) exposed patterns of deviation, fluctuation, and change in compactness of Y178 phosphorylated AGA protein (Y178-p), T215 phosphorylated AGA protein (T215-p), T324 phosphorylated AGA protein (T324-p), C163S mutant AGA protein (C163S), and C163S mutation with Y178 phosphorylated AGA protein (C163S-Y178-p). Y178-p, T215-p, and C163S mutation demonstrated an increase in intramolecular hydrogen bonds, leading to greater compactness of the AGA forms. Principle component analysis (PCA) and Gibbs free energy of the phosphorylated/C163S mutation structures exhibit transition in motion/orientation than Wild type (WT). T215-p may be more dominant among these than the other studied phosphorylated forms. It might contribute to hydrolyzing L-asparagine functioning as an asparaginase, thereby regulating neurotransmitter activity. This study revealed structural insights into the phosphorylation of Y178, T215, and T324 in AGA protein. Additionally, it exposed the structural changes of the C163S mutation and C163S-Y178-p of AGA protein. This research will shed light on a better understanding of AGA's phosphorylated mechanism.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

Molecular Dynamics Simulation

FOCUS: a program for analyzing molecular dynamics simulations, featuring digital signal-processing techniques.

FOCUS is a program for analyzing molecular dynamics simulations. It enables the researcher to monitor structural and energetic properties during the trajectory, and to calculate the corresponding statistical averages, correlation functions and Fourier transforms. In addition to these conventional methods, the program also utilizes novel methods based on digital signal-processing techniques to characterize the various motions. The characteristic frequencies in the system are revealed by the frequency distribution function g(v), which is calculated from the Fourier transform of the atomic coordinates. A filtering technique is employed to remove uninteresting motion (e.g., high-frequency bond stretching) while retaining and focusing on important motion (e.g., low-frequency conformational motion). The filtering technique enables fast display of slow events without getting a blurry or jittery picture due to the high-frequency motions. Another new way for analyzing the motion is by extracting "characteristic modes" and associated frequencies. This yields a pictorial description of the oscillatory motions in a manner analogous to normal mode analysis.

Acetamides

Molecular docking, molecular dynamics simulation, and enzyme inhibitory studies of vitamin K family members on aldose reductase.

Aldose reductase (AR) is a key enzyme in the polyol pathway and plays a major role in the progression of secondary complications of diabetes. Despite extensive efforts to develop natural and synthetic aldose reductase inhibitors (ARIs), most candidates have shown limited clinical efficacy, highlighting the need for more potent and selective inhibitors. In this study, we have systematically evaluated the inhibitory potential of vitamin K family members (vitamin K1, vitamin K2, and vitamin K3) using molecular docking, protein-ligand interaction analysis, molecular dynamics simulations, and enzyme kinetics. Docking analysis predicted that vitamin K2 has the highest binding affinity for AR. Subsequent molecular dynamics simulations revealed that both vitamin K1 and vitamin K2 formed stable complexes with the protein, exhibiting comparable RMSD (∼0.5 Å difference), similar RMSF profiles, and reduced radius of gyration, indicating compact and stable binding. Interaction analysis demonstrated that ligand binding is predominantly driven by hydrophobic interactions, with vitamin K2 forming a higher number of hydrophobic contacts, while vitamin K1 exhibited slightly more hydrogen bonding. Molecular Mechanics/Generalized Born Surface Area (MM/GBSA) results further supports stronger binding of vitamin K2 (-56 kcal/mol) compared to vitaminK1 (-51 kcal/mol). Consistent with these findings, enzyme kinetics showed a slightly lower Ki value for vitamin K2 than vitamin K1. In contrast, vitamin K3 failed to maintain stable binding and moved out of the active site during simulation. Overall, the study highlights that hydrophobic interaction-driven stabilization plays a key role in ligand binding, and identifies vitamin K1 and vitamin K2 as promising inhibitors against AR, with vitamin K2 exhibiting more favourable hydrophobic interactions and binding stability.

Aldose Reductase

Anisotropy and anharmonicity of atomic fluctuations in proteins: analysis of a molecular dynamics simulation.

Positional probability density functions (pdf) for the atomic fluctuations are determined from a molecular dynamics simulation for hen egg-white lysozyme. Most atoms are found to have motions that are highly anisotropic but only slightly anharmonic. The largest deviations from harmonic motion are in the direction of the largest rms fluctuations in the local principal axis frame. Backbone atoms tend to be more nearly harmonic than sidechain atoms. The atoms with the largest anharmonicities tend to have pdfs with multiple peaks, each of which is close to harmonic. Several model pdfs are evaluated on the basis of how well they fit probability densities from the dynamics simulations when parameterized in terms of the moments of the distribution. Gram-Charlier and Edgeworth perturbation expansions, which have been successful in describing the motions of small molecules in crystals, are shown to be inadequate for the distributions found in the dynamics of proteins. Multipeaked distribution functions are found to be more appropriate.

Animals

Molecular dynamics simulation in vacuo and in solution of cyclolinopeptide A: a conformational study.

The conformation of cyclolinopeptide A [c-(Pro-Pro-Phe-Phe-Leu-Ile-Ile-Leu-Val)], a naturally occurring peptide with remarkable cytoprotective activity, has been investigated by means of molecular dynamics simulations in various molecular environments. Structural and dynamical properties have been analyzed and compared with those experimentally determined. A detailed analysis of hydrogen bonds is reported.

Amino Acid Sequence

Conformational regions of Boc-Ala-Aib-Ala-OMe. Sampling with molecular dynamics simulations using time averaging of distance restraints.

The method of time averaging of distance restraints in molecular dynamics simulations is applied to Boc-Ala-Aib-Ala-OMe in order to demonstrate the improved sampling properties of this method compared to conventional distance restraining. Two conformational regions, beta-turn type II and gamma-turn, are seen during MD runs at a simulation temperature of 500 K, while in simulations with conventional distance restraining, no conformational transitions could be observed for temperatures up to 1000 K.

Amino Acid Sequence

Molecular dynamics simulation of the DNA triplex d(TC)5.d(GA)5.d(C+T)5.

A molecular dynamics simulation of the DNA triple helix d(TC)5.d(GA)5.d(C+T)5 is described (C+ represents a protonated cytosine residue). The simulation has been performed using the program AMBER 3.1 and includes counterions and explicit solvent under periodic boundary conditions. Both the dynamic and time-averaged behaviour of the system has been analysed. Considerable deviations from the fibre-diffraction model for DNA triple helix structure are observed, including the repuckering of the purine strand sugars that has been identified in some nuclear magnetic resonance (n.m.r.) studies. The simulation suggests that this conformational change may be driven by the possibility of improved interactions between the phosphate groups of this strand and both the solvent and counterions. Several examples of a particular conformational transition are observed, involving correlated changes in the backbone angles alpha and gamma. These transitions provide a possible explanation for some unusual n.m.r. data that have been reported. The structure of the triple helix major groove also suggests an explanation for the observed stabilization of DNA triplexes by polyvalent cations, and their ability to interact with drugs that bind in the minor groove of DNA duplexes.

Base Sequence

Molecular dynamics simulations of ribonuclease T1: comparison of the free enzyme and the 2' GMP-enzyme complex.

Molecular dynamics simulations were performed on free RNase T1 and the 2'GMP-RNase T1 complex in vacuum and with water in the active site along with crystallographically identified waters, allowing analysis of both active site and overall structural and dynamics changes due to the presence of 2'GMP. Differences in the active site include a closing in the presence of 2'GMP, which is accompanied by a decrease in mobility of active site residues. The functional relevance of the active site fluctuations is discussed. 2'GMP alters the motion of Tyr-45, suggesting a role for that residue in providing a hydrophobic environment for the protein-nucleic acid interactions responsible for the specificity of RNase T1. The presence of 2'GMP causes a structural change of the C-terminus of the alpha-helix, indicating the transmission of structural changes from the active site through the protein matrix. Overall fluctuations of both the free and 2'GMP enzyme forms are in good agreement with X-ray temperature factors. The motion of Trp-59 is influenced by 2'GMP, indicating differences in enzyme dynamics away from the active site, with the calculated changes following those previously seen in time-resolved fluorescence experiments.

Binding Sites

Molecular dynamics simulations of a monofucosylated biantennary glycan of the N-acetyllactosamine type: the human lactotransferrin glycan.

Molecular dynamics simulations were carried out to explore the conformational flexibility of the antennae of N-linked glycans. They were performed over 200 ps in vacuo on the complete disialylated monofucosylated biantennary glycan of the N-acetyllactosaminic type. Starting from a bird-conformation, the 3-D-structure evolved through 9 successive transitional states to a new, compact and energetically favorable conformation which had never been previously described. In this conformation, both antennae are organized in two coplanar loops rolled in a contrary direction and oriented perpendicularly to the plane of the di-N-acetyl chitobiose residue leading to a 'lobster conformation'. All the glycosidic linkages of the disialylated monofucosylated biantennary glycan, except the Fuc(alpha 1-6)GlcNAc(beta 1-), were modified by a phase transition. Particularly, the Man(beta 1-4) GlcNAc(beta 1-) linkage, which was previously described by NMR and X-ray diffraction as a rigid one, was involved in numerous conformational changes during 83 ps, even before the first transition phase. The freedom of mobility of the torsional angles of the Man(alpha 1-6)Man(beta 1-) linkage was limited, under these simulation conditions, to the angle psi which took three values: 30 degrees, 90 degrees and 180 degrees. Moreover, from 150 ps up to the end of the simulation, the value of the torsional angle omega of the NeuAc(alpha 2-6)Gal(beta 1-) linkage of the alpha-1,6-antenna continuously swung between 60 degrees and -60 degrees. Finally, we observed that the values of the torsional angles of the three linkages: NeuAc(alpha 2-6)Gal(beta 1-), Gal(beta 1-4)GlcNAc(beta 1-) and GlcNAc(beta 1-2)Man(beta 1-) of each of the two antennae were different, demonstrating their asymmetric conformation.

Amino Sugars