Coarse-Grained Protein Model Coupled with a Coarse-Grained Water Model:  Molecular Dynamics Study of Polyalanine-Based Peptides

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 2146-2161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Han ◽  
Yun-Dong Wu
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (Suppl_1) ◽  
pp. S11-S11
Author(s):  
Marine Bozdaganyan

Background: Human skin can inhibit chemical penetration which limits the clinical applications of transdermal drug delivery. The stratum corneum (SC) is the primary barrier and organized in lamellar membranes containing the lipids of ceramides (CER), free fatty acids (FFA), and cholesterol (CHOL). One of the most widely used ways to overcome the SC is the addition of chemical penetration enhancers (CPEs) to active ingredients. There are various methods, which have been employed to explore the mechanisms by which CPEs with drugs can change the morphology of SC including transmission electron microscopy. Here, we propose to use multiscale coarse-grained (CG) molecular dynamics (MD) simulations for the interpretation of the images of the SC from the electron microscopy experiments. Methods: We utilized the MARTINI force field for the CG simulations. We employed the mixed-lipid bilayer model of SC consisting of CER, CHOL, and FFA in a 1:1:1 molar ratio assembled with CHARMM-GUI web-service. The systems of the SC model membrane and various enhancers were simulated in the NPT ensemble with the polarizable water model and the reaction field approach for the long-range electrostatics with the usage of Gromacs 2019.4 software. Results: The membrane model was validated with standard characteristics: thickness, diffusion of the lipids, order parameters, and density profiles. After, we have added CPEs and active ingredients to the systems: menthol and osthole as control simulations, ethanol with linoleic acid and lidocaine as test simulations. We have observed the membrane desegregation in the case of menthol and osthole formulations similar to the published results while the permeation of lidocaine with ethanol and linoleic acid did not cause the disruption of the membranes but increased its fluidity and permeability properties. Conclusion: The method of multiscale coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations can be utilized for the prediction and interpretation of morphology change of SC in addition to various substances.


2011 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Masumoto ◽  
Y. Iida

Abstract The purpose of this work is to develop a new analytical method for simulating the microscopic mechanical property of the cross-linked polymer system using the coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation. This new analytical method will be utilized for the molecular designing of the tire rubber compound to improve the tire performances such as rolling resistance and wet traction. First, we evaluate the microscopic dynamic viscoelastic properties of the cross-linked polymer using coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation. This simulation has been conducted by the coarse-grained molecular dynamics program in the OCTA) (http://octa.jp/). To simplify the problem, we employ the bead-spring model, in which a sequence of beads connected by springs denotes a polymer chain. The linear polymer chains that are cross-linked by the cross-linking agents express the three-dimensional cross-linked polymer network. In order to obtain the microscopic dynamic viscoelastic properties, oscillatory deformation is applied to the simulation cell. By applying the time-temperature reduction law to this simulation result, we can evaluate the dynamic viscoelastic properties in the wide deformational frequency range including the rubbery state. Then, the stress is separated into the nonbonding stress and the bonding stress. We confirm that the contribution of the nonbonding stress is larger at lower temperatures. On the other hand, the contribution of the bonding stress is larger at higher temperatures. Finally, analyzing a change of microscopic structure in dynamic oscillatory deformation, we determine that the temperature/frequency dependence of bond stress response to a dynamic oscillatory deformation depends on the temperature dependence of the average bond length in the equilibrium structure and the temperature/frequency dependence of bond orientation. We show that our simulation is a useful tool for studying the microscopic properties of a cross-linked polymer.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florencia Klein ◽  
Daniela Cáceres-Rojas ◽  
Monica Carrasco ◽  
Juan Carlos Tapia ◽  
Julio Caballero ◽  
...  

<p>Although molecular dynamics simulations allow for the study of interactions among virtually all biomolecular entities, metal ions still pose significant challenges to achieve an accurate structural and dynamical description of many biological assemblies. This is particularly the case for coarse-grained (CG) models. Although the reduced computational cost of CG methods often makes them the technique of choice for the study of large biomolecular systems, the parameterization of metal ions is still very crude or simply not available for the vast majority of CG- force fields. Here, we show that incorporating statistical data retrieved from the Protein Data Bank (PDB) to set specific Lennard-Jones interactions can produce structurally accurate CG molecular dynamics simulations. Using this simple approach, we provide a set of interaction parameters for Calcium, Magnesium, and Zinc ions, which cover more than 80% of the metal-bound structures reported on the PDB. Simulations performed using the SIRAH force field on several proteins and DNA systems show that using the present approach it is possible to obtain non-bonded interaction parameters that obviate the use of topological constraints. </p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lim Heo ◽  
Collin Arbour ◽  
Michael Feig

Protein structures provide valuable information for understanding biological processes. Protein structures can be determined by experimental methods such as X-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, or cryogenic electron microscopy. As an alternative, in silico methods can be used to predict protein structures. Those methods utilize protein structure databases for structure prediction via template-based modeling or for training machine-learning models to generate predictions. Structure prediction for proteins distant from proteins with known structures often results in lower accuracy with respect to the true physiological structures. Physics-based protein model refinement methods can be applied to improve model accuracy in the predicted models. Refinement methods rely on conformational sampling around the predicted structures, and if structures closer to the native states are sampled, improvements in the model quality become possible. Molecular dynamics simulations have been especially successful for improving model qualities but although consistent refinement can be achieved, the improvements in model qualities are still moderate. To extend the refinement performance of a simulation-based protocol, we explored new schemes that focus on an optimized use of biasing functions and the application of increased simulation temperatures. In addition, we tested the use of alternative initial models so that the simulations can explore conformational space more broadly. Based on the insight of this analysis we are proposing a new refinement protocol that significantly outperformed previous state-of-the-art molecular dynamics simulation-based protocols in the benchmark tests described here. <br>


Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 1051
Author(s):  
Edgardo Becerra ◽  
Giovanny Aguilera-Durán ◽  
Laura Berumen ◽  
Antonio Romo-Mancillas ◽  
Guadalupe García-Alcocer

Multidrug resistance protein-4 (MRP4) belongs to the ABC transporter superfamily and promotes the transport of xenobiotics including drugs. A non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (nsSNPs) in the ABCC4 gene can promote changes in the structure and function of MRP4. In this work, the interaction of certain endogen substrates, drug substrates, and inhibitors with wild type-MRP4 (WT-MRP4) and its variants G187W and Y556C were studied to determine differences in the intermolecular interactions and affinity related to SNPs using protein threading modeling, molecular docking, all-atom, coarse grained, and umbrella sampling molecular dynamics simulations (AA-MDS and CG-MDS, respectively). The results showed that the three MRP4 structures had significantly different conformations at given sites, leading to differences in the docking scores (DS) and binding sites of three different groups of molecules. Folic acid (FA) had the highest variation in DS on G187W concerning WT-MRP4. WT-MRP4, G187W, Y556C, and FA had different conformations through 25 ns AA-MD. Umbrella sampling simulations indicated that the Y556C-FA complex was the most stable one with or without ATP. In Y556C, the cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and ceefourin-1 binding sites are located out of the entrance of the inner cavity, which suggests that both cAMP and ceefourin-1 may not be transported. The binding site for cAMP and ceefourin-1 is quite similar and the affinity (binding energy) of ceefourin-1 to WT-MRP4, G187W, and Y556C is greater than the affinity of cAMP, which may suggest that ceefourin-1 works as a competitive inhibitor. In conclusion, the nsSNPs G187W and Y556C lead to changes in protein conformation, which modifies the ligand binding site, DS, and binding energy.


Soft Matter ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Kantardjiev

We carried out a series of coarse-grained molecular dynamics liposome-copolymer simulations with varying extent of copolymer concentration in an attempt to understand the effect of copolymer structure and concentration on vesicle self-assembly and stability.


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