Human hydroxymethylbilane synthase: Molecular dynamics of the pyrrole chain elongation identifies step-specific residues that cause AIP

Hydroxymethylbilane synthase (HMBS), the third enzyme in the heme biosynthetic pathway, catalyzes the head-to-tail condensation of four molecules of porphobilinogen (PBG) to form the linear tetrapyrrole 1-hydroxymethylbilane (HMB). Mutations in human HMBS (hHMBS) cause acute intermittent porphyria (AIP), an autosomal-dominant disorder characterized by life-threatening neurovisceral attacks. Although the 3D structure of hHMBS has been reported, the mechanism of the stepwise polymerization of four PBG molecules to form HMB remains unknown. Moreover, the specific roles of each of the critical active-site residues in the stepwise enzymatic mechanism and the dynamic behavior of hHMBS during catalysis have not been investigated. Here, we report atomistic studies of HMB stepwise synthesis by using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, mutagenesis, and in vitro expression analyses. These studies revealed that the hHMBS active-site loop movement and cofactor turn created space for the elongating pyrrole chain. Twenty-seven residues around the active site and water molecules interacted to stabilize the large, negatively charged, elongating polypyrrole. Mutagenesis of these active-site residues altered the binding site, hindered cofactor binding, decreased catalysis, impaired ligand exit, and/or destabilized the enzyme. Based on intermediate stages of chain elongation, R26 and R167 were the strongest candidates for proton transfer to deaminate the incoming PBG molecules. Unbiased random acceleration MD simulations identified R167 as a gatekeeper and facilitator of HMB egress through the space between the enzyme’s domains and the active-site loop. These studies identified the specific active-site residues involved in each step of pyrrole elongation, thereby providing the molecular bases of the active-site mutations causing AIP.

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Molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations of fumarate hydratase and its mutant H235N complexed with pyromellitic acid and citrate

Journal of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology ◽

10.1142/s0219720017500263 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 15 (06) ◽

pp. 1750026 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

S. Subasri ◽

Santosh Kumar Chaudhary ◽

K. Sekar ◽

Manish Kesherwani ◽

D. Velmurugan

Keyword(s):

Molecular Dynamics ◽

Active Site ◽

Model Building ◽

Hydrophobic Interactions ◽

Conformational Stability ◽

Fumarate Hydratase ◽

Md Simulations ◽

Major Effect ◽

Active Site Residues ◽

Pyromellitic Acid

Fumarase catalyzes the reversible, stereospecific hydration/dehydration of fumarate to L-malate during the Kreb’s cycle. In the crystal structure of the tetrameric fumarase, it was found that some of the active site residues S145, T147, N188 G364 and H235 had water-mediated hydrogen bonding interactions with pyromellitic acid and citrate which help to the protonation state for the conversion of fumarate to malate. When His 235 is mutated with Asn (H235N), water-mediated interactions were lost due to the shifting of active site water molecule by 0.7 Å away. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were also carried out by NAMD and analyzed using Assisted Model Building with Energy Refinement (AMBER) program to better understand the conformational stability and other aspects during the binding of pyromellitic acid and citrate with native and mutant FH. The role of hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions was also analyzed. The present study confirms that the H235N mutation has a major effect on the catalytic activity of fumarase which is evident from the biochemical studies.

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Assessing the Antimalarial Potentials of Phytochemicals: Virtual Screening, Molecular Dynamics and In-Vitro Investigations

Letters in Drug Design & Discovery ◽

10.2174/1570180815666180604085626 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. 291-300

Author(s):

Saumya K. Patel ◽

Mohd Athar ◽

Prakash C. Jha ◽

Vijay M. Khedkar ◽

Yogesh Jasrai ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Molecular Dynamics ◽

Structural Integrity ◽

Md Simulations ◽

Tylophora Indica ◽

Multidrug Resistance Protein 1 ◽

Receptor Complexes ◽

Resistance Protein ◽

Dynamics Simulations ◽

Stable Trajectory

Background: Combined in-silico and in-vitro approaches were adopted to investigate the antiplasmodial activity of Catharanthus roseus and Tylophora indica plant extracts as well as their isolated components (vinblastine, vincristine and tylophorine). Methods: We employed molecular docking to prioritize phytochemicals from a library of 26 compounds against Plasmodium falciparum multidrug-resistance protein 1 (PfMDR1). Furthermore, Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations were performed for a duration of 10 ns to estimate the dynamical structural integrity of ligand-receptor complexes. Results: The retrieved bioactive compounds viz. tylophorine, vinblastin and vincristine were found to exhibit significant interacting behaviour; as validated by in-vitro studies on chloroquine sensitive (3D7) as well as chloroquine resistant (RKL9) strain. Moreover, they also displayed stable trajectory (RMSD, RMSF) and molecular properties with consistent interaction profile in molecular dynamics simulations. Conclusion: We anticipate that the retrieved phytochemicals can serve as the potential hits and presented findings would be helpful for the designing of malarial therapeutics.

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Important Role for Phylogenetically Invariant PP2Acα Active Site and C-Terminal Residues Revealed by Mutational Analysis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Genetics ◽

10.1093/genetics/156.1.21 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 156 (1) ◽

pp. 21-29 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

David R H Evans ◽

Brian A Hemmings

Keyword(s):

Protein Interactions ◽

Active Site ◽

Protein Function ◽

Mutational Analysis ◽

Yeast Cells ◽

Temperature Sensitive ◽

Active Site Residues ◽

Catalytic Function

Abstract PP2A is a central regulator of eukaryotic signal transduction. The human catalytic subunit PP2Acα functionally replaces the endogenous yeast enzyme, Pph22p, indicating a conservation of function in vivo. Therefore, yeast cells were employed to explore the role of invariant PP2Ac residues. The PP2Acα Y127N substitution abolished essential PP2Ac function in vivo and impaired catalysis severely in vitro, consistent with the prediction from structural studies that Tyr-127 mediates substrate binding and its side chain interacts with the key active site residues His-118 and Asp-88. The V159E substitution similarly impaired PP2Acα catalysis profoundly and may cause global disruption of the active site. Two conditional mutations in the yeast Pph22p protein, F232S and P240H, were found to cause temperature-sensitive impairment of PP2Ac catalytic function in vitro. Thus, the mitotic and cell lysis defects conferred by these mutations result from a loss of PP2Ac enzyme activity. Substitution of the PP2Acα C-terminal Tyr-307 residue by phenylalanine impaired protein function, whereas the Y307D and T304D substitutions abolished essential function in vivo. Nevertheless, Y307D did not reduce PP2Acα catalytic activity significantly in vitro, consistent with an important role for the C terminus in mediating essential protein-protein interactions. Our results identify key residues important for PP2Ac function and characterize new reagents for the study of PP2A in vivo.

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ADP-Ribose-1"-Monophosphatase: a Conserved Coronavirus Enzyme That Is Dispensable for Viral Replication in Tissue Culture

Journal of Virology ◽

10.1128/jvi.79.20.12721-12731.2005 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 79 (20) ◽

pp. 12721-12731 ◽

Cited By ~ 99

Author(s):

Ákos Putics ◽

Witold Filipowicz ◽

Jonathan Hall ◽

Alexander E. Gorbalenya ◽

John Ziebuhr

Keyword(s):

Active Site ◽

Biological Significance ◽

Virus Titer ◽

Site Directed Mutagenesis ◽

Replicase Gene ◽

Active Site Residues ◽

Nonstructural Proteins ◽

Trna Splicing

ABSTRACT Replication of the ∼30-kb plus-strand RNA genome of coronaviruses and synthesis of an extensive set of subgenome-length RNAs are mediated by the replicase-transcriptase, a membrane-bound protein complex containing several cellular proteins and up to 16 viral nonstructural proteins (nsps) with multiple enzymatic activities, including protease, polymerase, helicase, methyltransferase, and RNase activities. To get further insight into the replicase gene-encoded functions, we characterized the coronavirus X domain, which is part of nsp3 and has been predicted to be an ADP-ribose-1"-monophosphate (Appr-1"-p) processing enzyme. Bacterially expressed forms of human coronavirus 229E (HCoV-229E) and severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus X domains were shown to dephosphorylate Appr-1"-p, a side product of cellular tRNA splicing, to ADP-ribose in a highly specific manner. The enzyme had no detectable activity on several other nucleoside phosphates. Guided by the crystal structure of AF1521, an X domain homolog from Archaeoglobus fulgidus, potential active-site residues of the HCoV-229E X domain were targeted by site-directed mutagenesis. The data suggest that the HCoV-229E replicase polyprotein residues, Asn 1302, Asn 1305, His 1310, Gly 1312, and Gly 1313, are part of the enzyme's active site. Characterization of an Appr-1"-pase-deficient HCoV-229E mutant revealed no significant effects on viral RNA synthesis and virus titer, and no reversion to the wild-type sequence was observed when the mutant virus was passaged in cell culture. The apparent dispensability of the conserved X domain activity in vitro indicates that coronavirus replicase polyproteins have evolved to include nonessential functions. The biological significance of the novel enzymatic activity in vivo remains to be investigated.

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Exploiting correlated molecular-dynamics networks to counteract enzyme activity–stability trade-off

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1812204115 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 115 (52) ◽

pp. E12192-E12200 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Haoran Yu ◽

Paul A. Dalby

Keyword(s):

Molecular Dynamics ◽

Molecular Dynamics Simulations ◽

Active Site ◽

Dynamic Networks ◽

Aromatic Aldehydes ◽

Active Site Residues ◽

Trade Off ◽

Highly Correlated ◽

Dynamics Simulations ◽

The Impact

The directed evolution of enzymes for improved activity or substrate specificity commonly leads to a trade-off in stability. We have identified an activity–stability trade-off and a loss in unfolding cooperativity for a variant (3M) of Escherichia coli transketolase (TK) engineered to accept aromatic substrates. Molecular dynamics simulations of 3M revealed increased flexibility in several interconnected active-site regions that also form part of the dimer interface. Mutating the newly flexible active-site residues to regain stability risked losing the new activity. We hypothesized that stabilizing mutations could be targeted to residues outside of the active site, whose dynamics were correlated with the newly flexible active-site residues. We previously stabilized WT TK by targeting mutations to highly flexible regions. These regions were much less flexible in 3M and would not have been selected a priori as targets using the same strategy based on flexibility alone. However, their dynamics were highly correlated with the newly flexible active-site regions of 3M. Introducing the previous mutations into 3M reestablished the WT level of stability and unfolding cooperativity, giving a 10.8-fold improved half-life at 55 °C, and increased midpoint and aggregation onset temperatures by 3 °C and 4.3 °C, respectively. Even the activity toward aromatic aldehydes increased up to threefold. Molecular dynamics simulations confirmed that the mutations rigidified the active-site via the correlated network. This work provides insights into the impact of rigidifying mutations within highly correlated dynamic networks that could also be useful for developing improved computational protein engineering strategies.

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Protein-ligand dissociation rate constant from all-atom simulation

10.21203/rs.3.rs-816562/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ekaterina Maximova ◽

Eugene Postnikov ◽

Anastasia Lavrova ◽

Vladimir Farafonov ◽

Dmitry Nerukh

Keyword(s):

Molecular Dynamics ◽

Rate Constant ◽

Md Simulations ◽

Dissociation Rate ◽

Dissociation Rate Constant ◽

Zero Force ◽

Ligand Dissociation ◽

Random Acceleration

Abstract Dissociation of a ligand isoniazid from a protein catalase was investigated using all-atom Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations. Random Acceleration MD (τ-RAMD) was used where a random artificial force applied to the ligand facilitates its dissociation. We have suggested an approach to extrapolate such obtained dissociation times to the zero-force limit that was never attempted before, thus allowing direct comparison with experimentally measured values. We have found that our calculated dissociation time was equal to 36.1 seconds with statistically significant values distributed in the interval 0.2-72.0 s, that quantitatively matches the experimental value of 50 ± 8 seconds despite the extrapolation over nine orders of magnitude in time.

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An Analysis Based on Molecular Docking and Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study of Bromelain as Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Variants

Frontiers in Pharmacology ◽

10.3389/fphar.2021.717757 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Trina Ekawati Tallei ◽

Fatimawali ◽

Afriza Yelnetty ◽

Rinaldi Idroes ◽

Diah Kusumawaty ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Molecular Dynamics ◽

Molecular Docking ◽

Molecular Dynamics Simulation ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Md Simulations ◽

Inhibitory Effect ◽

Dynamics Simulation ◽

Novel Coronavirus

The rapid spread of a novel coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2 has compelled the entire world to seek ways to weaken this virus, prevent its spread and also eliminate it. However, no drug has been approved to treat COVID-19. Furthermore, the receptor-binding domain (RBD) on this viral spike protein, as well as several other important parts of this virus, have recently undergone mutations, resulting in new virus variants. While no treatment is currently available, a naturally derived molecule with known antiviral properties could be used as a potential treatment. Bromelain is an enzyme found in the fruit and stem of pineapples. This substance has been shown to have a broad antiviral activity. In this article, we analyse the ability of bromelain to counteract various variants of the SARS-CoV-2 by targeting bromelain binding on the side of this viral interaction with human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2) using molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation approaches. We have succeeded in making three-dimensional configurations of various RBD variants using protein modelling. Bromelain exhibited good binding affinity toward various variants of RBDs and binds right at the binding site between RBDs and hACE2. This result is also presented in the modelling between Bromelain, RBD, and hACE2. The molecular dynamics (MD) simulations study revealed significant stability of the bromelain and RBD proteins separately up to 100 ns with an RMSD value of 2 Å. Furthermore, despite increases in RMSD and changes in Rog values of complexes, which are likely due to some destabilized interactions between bromelain and RBD proteins, two proteins in each complex remained bonded, and the site where the two proteins bind remained unchanged. This finding indicated that bromelain could have an inhibitory effect on different SARS-CoV-2 variants, paving the way for a new SARS-CoV-2 inhibitor drug. However, more in vitro and in vivo research on this potential mechanism of action is required.

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A Possible Mechanism of Graphene Oxide to Enhance Thermostability of D-Psicose 3-Epimerase Revealed by Molecular Dynamics Simulations

International Journal of Molecular Sciences ◽

10.3390/ijms221910813 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 22 (19) ◽

pp. 10813

Author(s):

Congcong Li ◽

Zhongkui Lu ◽

Min Wang ◽

Siao Chen ◽

Lu Han ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Molecular Dynamics ◽

Thermal Stability ◽

Graphene Oxide ◽

Md Simulations ◽

Strong Interactions ◽

Limiting Factor ◽

Active Site Residues ◽

Detailed Mechanism ◽

Dynamics Simulations ◽

Thermal Stability Of

Thermal stability is a limiting factor for effective application of D-psicose 3-epimerase (DPEase) enzyme. Recently, it was reported that the thermal stability of DPEase was improved by immobilizing enzymes on graphene oxide (GO) nanoparticles. However, the detailed mechanism is not known. In this study, we investigated interaction details between GO and DPEase by performing molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The results indicated that the domain (K248 to D268) of DPEase was an important anchor for immobilizing DPEase on GO surface. Moreover, the strong interactions between DPEase and GO can prevent loop α1′-α1 and β4-α4 of DPEase from the drastic fluctuation. Since these two loops contained active site residues, the geometry of the active pocket of the enzyme remained stable at high temperature after the DPEase was immobilized by GO, which facilitated efficient catalytic activity of the enzyme. Our research provided a detailed mechanism for the interaction between GO and DPEase at the nano–biology interface.

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Protonation States of the Key Active Site Residues and Structural Dynamics of theglmSRiboswitch As Revealed by Molecular Dynamics

The Journal of Physical Chemistry B ◽

10.1021/jp9109699 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 114 (26) ◽

pp. 8701-8712 ◽

Cited By ~ 46

Author(s):

Pavel Banáš ◽

Nils G. Walter ◽

Jiří Šponer ◽

Michal Otyepka

Keyword(s):

Molecular Dynamics ◽

Structural Dynamics ◽

Active Site ◽

Active Site Residues

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Molecular dynamics study of active-site interactions with tetracoordinate transients in acetylcholinesterase and its mutants

Biochemical Journal ◽

10.1042/bj3530645 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 353 (3) ◽

pp. 645-653 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Istvan J. ENYEDY ◽

Ildiko M. KOVACH ◽

Akos BENCSURA

Keyword(s):

Molecular Dynamics ◽

Glutamic Acid ◽

Active Site ◽

Indole Ring ◽

Active Site Residues ◽

Parallel Simulations ◽

Electrostatic Stabilization ◽

Carbenium Ion ◽

Dynamics Simulations

The role of active-site residues in the dealkylation reaction in the PSCS diastereomer of 2-(3,3-dimethylbutyl)methylphosphonofluoridate (soman)-inhibited Torpedo californicaacetylcholinesterase (AChE) was investigated by full-scale molecular dynamics simulations using CHARMM: > 400ps equilibration was followed by 150–200ps production runs with the fully solvated tetracoordinate phosphonate adduct of the wild-type, Trp84Ala and Gly199Gln mutants of AChE. Parallel simulations were carried out with the tetrahedral intermediate formed between serine-200 Oγ of AChE and acetylcholine. We found that the NεH in histidine H+-440 is positioned to protonate the oxygen in choline and thus promote its departure. In contrast, NεH in histidine H+-440 is not aligned for a favourable proton transfer to the pinacolyl O to promote dealkylation, but electrostatic stabilization by histidine H+-440 of the developing anion on the phosphonate monoester occurs. Destabilizing interactions between residues and the alkyl fragment of the inhibitor enforce methyl migration from Cβ to Cα concerted with C—O bond breaking in soman-inhibited AChE. Tryptophan-84, phenyalanine-331 and glutamic acid-199 are within 3.7–3.9 Å (1 Å=10-10 m) from a methyl group in Cβ, 4.5–5.1 Å from Cβ and 4.8–5.8 Å from Cα, and can better stabilize the developing carbenium ion on Cβ than on Cα. The Trp84Ala mutation eliminates interactions between the incipient carbenium ion and the indole ring, but also reduces its interactions with phenylalanine-331 and aspartic acid-72. Tyrosine-130 promotes dealkylation by interacting with the indole ring of tryptophan-84. Glutamic acid-443 can influence the orientation of active-site residues through tyrosine-421, tyrosine-442 and histidine-440 in soman-inhibited AChE, and thus facilitate dealkylation.

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