AbstractAlpha-synuclein (aSyn) has implications in pathological protein aggregations observed in neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. There are currently no approved prevention and cure for these diseases. In this context, matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) provide an opportunity because MMPs are broad-spectrum proteases and cleave aSyn. Previously, we showed that allosteric communications between the two domains of MMP1 on collagen fibril and fibrin depend on substrates, MMP1 activity, and ligands. However, allosteric communications in MMP1 on aSyn-induced aggregates have not been explored. Here we report quantification of allostery using single molecule measurements of MMP1 dynamics on aSyn-induced aggregates by calculating Forster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) between two dyes attached to the catalytic and hemopexin domains of MMP1. The two domains of MMP1 prefer open conformations, with the two domains well-separated. These open conformations are inhibited by a single point mutation E219Q of MMP1 and tetracycline, an MMP inhibitor. A two-state Poisson process describes the interdomain dynamics. The best-fit parameters for a Gaussian fit to the distributions of FRET values provide the two states. The ratio of the kinetic rates between the two states comes from the ratio of fitted areas around the two states. The decay rate of an exponential fit to the correlations between FRET values provides the sum of the kinetic rates. Since a crystal structure of aSyn-bound MMP1 is not available, we performed molecular docking of MMP1 with aSyn using ClusPro. We simulated MMP1 dynamics using different docking poses and matched the experimental and simulated interdomain dynamics to determine the most appropriate pose. We performed virtual screening against the potential ligand-binding sites on the appropriate aSyn-MMP1 binding pose and showed that lead molecules differ between free MMP1 and substrate-bound MMP1. In other words, virtual screening needs to take substrates into account for substrate-specific control of MMP1 activity. Molecular understanding of interactions between MMP1 and aSyn-induced aggregates may open up the possibility of degrading pathological aggregates in neurodegeneration by targeting MMPs.SignificanceWe have quantified MMP1 interdomain dynamics on aSyn-induced aggregates by a two-state Poisson process. Histograms and correlations of FRET values determine the kinetic rates of interconversion between the two states. We quantify the conformational dynamics of the whole MMP1 and allosteric communications by the two-dimensional matrix of correlations between every pair of amino acids from experimentally-validated all-atom simulations. The two-dimensional correlations lead to a Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix and a measure of Shannon entropy describing the conformational fluctuations. As such, we address the quantification of allosteric communications, a leading challenge in defining allostery. We report that the potential ligand-binding sites and lead molecules change for MMP1 upon binding alpha-synuclein and depend on the binding pose selected. This suggests that one needs to take the substrate into account while targeting MMPs.
eFindSite: Improved prediction of ligand binding sites in protein models using meta-threading, machine learning and auxiliary ligands