Homology modeling of mouse NLRP3 NACHT protein domain and molecular dynamics simulation of its ATP binding properties

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (03) ◽  
pp. 2050036
Author(s):  
Hien T. T. Lai ◽  
Do Minh Ha ◽  
Duc Manh Nguyen ◽  
Toan T. Nguyen

Gout is an extremely painful form of inflammatory arthritis, caused by the formation of monosodium urate (MSU) crystals in the joints. MSU crystals are one of the triggers for the activation of nucleotide-binding domain (NOD)-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome (NACHT, LRR and PYD domains-containing protein), which in turn induces caspase-1 activation and a nonspecific immune responses that cause inflammation. Further structural studies and ligand designs are needed to block the interaction of NLRP3 with MSU or allow the interaction without activating caspase-1. This would facilitate the screening of new drugs for the treatment of gout. Using computational methods for homology modeling and molecular dynamics simulations, the structural model of mouse NLRP3 protein with its domains, three potential structural models were consistently constructed and tested to find the most stable structural model. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) — an activator of NACHT (the central domain of mouse NLRP3 protein) — was docked and simulated. Ligand effects to activate as well as limit this protein were analyzed. This study provides insights to deeper understanding about gout development pathway via the NLRP3 protein.

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sugunadevi Sakkiah ◽  
Wenjing Guo ◽  
Bohu Pan ◽  
Zuowei Ji ◽  
Gokhan Yavas ◽  
...  

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). As of October 21, 2020, more than 41.4 million confirmed cases and 1.1 million deaths have been reported. Thus, it is immensely important to develop drugs and vaccines to combat COVID-19. The spike protein present on the outer surface of the virion plays a major role in viral infection by binding to receptor proteins present on the outer membrane of host cells, triggering membrane fusion and internalization, which enables release of viral ssRNA into the host cell. Understanding the interactions between the SARS-CoV-2 trimeric spike protein and its host cell receptor protein, angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), is important for developing drugs and vaccines to prevent and treat COVID-19. Several crystal structures of partial and mutant SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins have been reported; however, an atomistic structure of the wild-type SARS-CoV-2 trimeric spike protein complexed with ACE2 is not yet available. Therefore, in our study, homology modeling was used to build the trimeric form of the spike protein complexed with human ACE2, followed by all-atom molecular dynamics simulations to elucidate interactions at the interface between the spike protein and ACE2. Molecular Mechanics Poisson-Boltzmann Surface Area (MMPBSA) and in silico alanine scanning were employed to characterize the interacting residues at the interface. Twenty interacting residues in the spike protein were identified that are likely to be responsible for tightly binding to ACE2, of which five residues (Val445, Thr478, Gly485, Phe490, and Ser494) were not reported in the crystal structure of the truncated spike protein receptor binding domain (RBD) complexed with ACE2. These data indicate that the interactions between ACE2 and the tertiary structure of the full-length spike protein trimer are different from those between ACE2 and the truncated monomer of the spike protein RBD. These findings could facilitate the development of drugs and vaccines to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection and combat COVID-19.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Ali Al-Karmalawy ◽  
Radwan Alnajjar ◽  
Mohammed Dahab ◽  
Ahmed Metwaly ◽  
Ibrahim Eissa

Background: Drug repurposing is the fastest effective method to provide treatment for coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Drugs that targeting a closely related virus with similar genetic material such as hepatitis C virus (HCV) and more specifically targeting a similar viral protease would be an excellent choice. Methods: In this study, we carried out a virtual screening for fifteen anti HCV drugs against COVID-19 main protease using computational molecular docking techniques. Moreover, Velpatasvir (4) and Sofosbuvir (13) drugs were further evaluated through molecular dynamics simulations followed by calculating the binding free energy using the molecular mechanics generalised born/solvent accessibility (MM-GBSA) approach. Results: The binding affinity descending order was N3 natural inhibitor (1), Velpatasvir (4), Sofosbuvir (13), Ombitasvir (3), Glecaprevir (2), Asunaprevir (8), Paritaprevir (10), Grazoprevir (11), Elbasvir (6), Ledipasvir (5), Daclatasvir (7), Pibrentasvir (9), Simeprevir (12), Dasabuvir (14), Taribavirin (16) and finally Ribavirin (15). Molecular dynamics simulation reveals that Sofosbuvir (13) has exciting properties and it was stable within the active site; it also showed good MM-GBSA compared to the natural inhibitor N3. Conclusion: Our results could be auspicious for fast repurposing of the examined drugs either alone or in combinations with each other for the treatment of the COVID-19. Furthermore, this work provides a clear spot on the structure-activity relationship (SAR) for targeting the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) main protease and helps the design and synthesis of new drugs in the future targeting it as well.


2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 2954-2962
Author(s):  
Vishnudatt Pandey ◽  
Gargi Tiwari ◽  
Rajendra Prasad Ojha

HIV-I cellular infection triggered by CD4 receptor protein and viral envelop glycoprotein gp120 binding event. CD4:gp120 surface is directed by the contact points of a hydrophobic gp120 cavity capped by Phe43CD4 and ionic bonds residues Arg59CD4 and Asp368gp120. The binding sites originated by gp120 and CD4 interaction leads to the entry of HIV-I into the host membrane, where, gp120 and a CD4 binding site becomes the main mark for plenty of drug uncovering program. Here, we took the crystal structure of small-molecule of gp120 in a complex that concurrently pursues both of the hotspots of gp120 binding sites. All ligands in our study are small molecules that are able to obstruct the protein-protein interactions between CD4 and gp120. This study aims at the thermodynamical insights of the ligand binding in CD4 binding sites using Molecular Dynamics Simulations Study and calculation of binding free energy. The physical of binding of drugs distinctly indicates a hydrophobic and electrostatics interaction motivated binding of ligands which explicitly mark CD4 binding sites.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 784-795
Author(s):  
Krisnna M.A. Alves ◽  
Fábio José Bonfim Cardoso ◽  
Kathia M. Honorio ◽  
Fábio A. de Molfetta

Background:: Leishmaniosis is a neglected tropical disease and glyceraldehyde 3- phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) is a key enzyme in the design of new drugs to fight this disease. Objective:: The present study aimed to evaluate potential inhibitors of GAPDH enzyme found in Leishmania mexicana (L. mexicana). Methods: A search for novel antileishmanial molecules was carried out based on similarities from the pharmacophoric point of view related to the binding site of the crystallographic enzyme using the ZINCPharmer server. The molecules selected in this screening were subjected to molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations. Results:: Consensual analysis of the docking energy values was performed, resulting in the selection of ten compounds. These ligand-receptor complexes were visually inspected in order to analyze the main interactions and subjected to toxicophoric evaluation, culminating in the selection of three compounds, which were subsequently submitted to molecular dynamics simulations. The docking results showed that the selected compounds interacted with GAPDH from L. mexicana, especially by hydrogen bonds with Cys166, Arg249, His194, Thr167, and Thr226. From the results obtained from molecular dynamics, it was observed that one of the loop regions, corresponding to the residues 195-222, can be related to the fitting of the substrate at the binding site, assisting in the positioning and the molecular recognition via residues responsible for the catalytic activity. Conclusion:: he use of molecular modeling techniques enabled the identification of promising compounds as inhibitors of the GAPDH enzyme from L. mexicana, and the results obtained here can serve as a starting point to design new and more effective compounds than those currently available.


Author(s):  
Toshihiro Kaneko ◽  
Kenji Yasuoka ◽  
Ayori Mitsutake ◽  
Xiao Cheng Zeng

Multicanonical molecular dynamics simulations are applied, for the first time, to study the liquid-solid and solid-solid transitions in Lennard-Jones (LJ) clusters. The transition temperatures are estimated based on the peak position in the heat capacity versus temperature curve. For LJ31, LJ58 and LJ98, our results on the solid-solid transition temperature are in good agreement with previous ones. For LJ309, the predicted liquid-solid transition temperature is also in agreement with previous result.


RSC Advances ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 5507-5515
Author(s):  
Liang Song ◽  
Feng-Qi Zhao ◽  
Si-Yu Xu ◽  
Xue-Hai Ju

The bimolecular and fused ring compounds are found in the high-temperature pyrolysis of NONA using ReaxFF molecular dynamics simulations.


2017 ◽  
Vol 890 ◽  
pp. 252-259
Author(s):  
Le Wang ◽  
Guan Cheng Jiang ◽  
Xin Lin ◽  
Xian Min Zhang ◽  
Qi Hui Jiang

Molecular dynamics simulations are used to study the dissociation inhibiting mechanism of lecithin for structure I hydrates. Adsorption characteristics of lecithin and PVP (poly (N-vinylpyrrolidine)) on the hydrate surfaces were performed in the NVT ensemble at temperatures of 277K and the hydrate dissociation process were simulated in the NPT ensemble at same temperature. The results show that hydrate surfaces with lecithin is more stable than the ones with PVP for the lower potential energy. The conformation of lecithin changes constantly after the balanced state is reached while the PVP molecular dose not. Lecithin molecule has interaction with lecithin nearby and hydrocarbon-chains of lecithin molecules will form a network to prevent the diffusion of water and methane molecules, which will narrow the available space for hydrate methane and water movement. Compared with PVP-hydrate simulation, analysis results (snapshots and mass density profile) of the dissociation simulations show that lecithin-hydrate dissociates more slowly.


1994 ◽  
Vol 373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger E. Stoller

AbstractA series of high-energy, up to 20 keV, displacement cascades in iron have been investigated for times up to 200 ps at 100 K using the method of molecular dynamics simulation. Thesimulations were carried out using the MOLDY code and a modified version of the many-bodyinteratomic potential developed by Finnis and Sinclair. The paper focuses on those results obtained at the highest energies, 10 and 20 keV. The results indicate that the fraction of the Frenkel pairs surviving in-cascade recombination remains fairly high in iron and that the fraction of the surviving point defects that cluster is lower than in materials such as copper. In particular, vacancy clustering appears to be inhibited in iron. Some of the interstitial clusters were observed to exhibit an unexpectedly complex, three-dimensional morphology. The observations are discussed in terms of their relevance to microstructural evolution and mechanical property changes in irradiated iron-based alloys.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document