scholarly journals The Structural Versatility of the BTB Domains of KCTD Proteins and Their Recognition of the GABAB Receptor

Biomolecules ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Balasco ◽  
Giovanni Smaldone ◽  
Luigi Vitagliano
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Dynamics ◽  
Gabab Receptor ◽  
Structural Data ◽  
Md Simulations ◽  
Functional Roles ◽  
Dynamic View ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Dynamics Simulations ◽  
Structural Versatility ◽  
Btb Domains

Several recent investigations have demonstrated that members of the KCTD (Potassium Channel Tetramerization Domain) protein family are involved in fundamental processes. However, the paucity of structural data available on these proteins has frequently prevented the definition of their biochemical role(s). Fortunately, this scenario is rapidly changing as, in very recent years, several crystallographic structures have been reported. Although these investigations have provided very important insights into the function of KCTDs, they have also raised some puzzling issues. One is related to the observation that the BTB (broad-complex, tramtrack, and bric-à-brac) domain of these proteins presents a remarkable structural versatility, being able to adopt a variety of oligomeric states. To gain insights into this intriguing aspect, we performed extensive molecular dynamics simulations on several BTB domains of KCTD proteins in different oligomeric states (monomers, dimers, tetramers, and open/close pentamers). These studies indicate that KCTD-BTB domains are stable in the simulation timescales, even in their monomeric forms. Moreover, simulations also show that the dynamic behavior of open pentameric states is strictly related to their functional roles and that different KCTDs may form stable hetero-oligomers. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations also provided a dynamic view of the complex formed by KCTD16 and the GABAB2 receptor, whose structure has been recently reported. Finally, simulations carried out on the isolated fragment of the GABAB2 receptor that binds KCTD16 indicate that it is able to assume the local conformation required for the binding to KCTD.

scholarly journals Enlighten2: molecular dynamics simulations of protein–ligand systems made accessible

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (20) ◽  
pp. 5104-5106
Author(s):  
Kirill Zinovjev ◽  
Marc W van der Kamp
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Dynamics ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Structural Data ◽  
Md Simulations ◽  
Enzyme Engineering ◽  
Protein Ligand Interactions ◽  
Ligand Interactions ◽  
Dynamics Simulations ◽  
User Friendly ◽  
Dynamical Information

Abstract Motivation Experimental structural data can allow detailed insight into protein structure and protein–ligand interactions, which is crucial for many areas of bioscience, including drug design and enzyme engineering. Typically, however, little more than a static picture of protein–ligand interactions is obtained, whereas dynamical information is often required for deeper understanding and to assess the effect of mutations. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations can provide such information, but setting up and running these simulations is not straightforward and requires expert knowledge. There is thus a need for a tool that makes protein–ligand simulation easily accessible to non-expert users. Results We present Enlighten2: efficient simulation protocols for protein–ligand systems alongside a user-friendly plugin to the popular visualization program PyMOL. With Enlighten2, non-expert users can straightforwardly run and visualize MD simulations on protein–ligand models of interest. There is no need to learn new programs and all underlying tools are free and open source. Availability and implementation The Enlighten2 Python package and PyMOL plugin are free to use under the GPL3.0 licence and can be found at https://enlighten2.github.io. We also provide a lightweight Docker image via DockerHub that includes Enlighten2 with all the required utilities.

scholarly journals Cholesterol Transport in Wild-Type NPC1 and P691S: Molecular Dynamics Simulations Reveal Changes in Dynamical Behavior

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (8) ◽  
pp. 2962 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Elghobashi-Meinhardt
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Dynamics ◽  
Dynamical Behavior ◽  
Structural Data ◽  
Md Simulations ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Wild Type ◽  
Lipid Storage Disease ◽  
Signaling Mechanism ◽  
Lipid Trafficking ◽  
Dynamics Simulations

The Niemann–Pick C1 (NPC1) protein is the main protein involved in NPC disease, a fatal lysosomal lipid storage disease. NPC1, containing 1278 amino acids, is comprised of three lumenal domains (N-terminal, middle lumenal, C-terminal) and a transmembrane (TM) domain that contains a five helix bundle referred to as the sterol-sensing domain (SSD). The exact purpose of the SSD is not known, but it is believed that the SSD may bind cholesterol, either as a part of the lipid trafficking pathway or as part of a signaling mechanism. A recent cryo-EM structure has revealed an itraconazole binding site (IBS) in the SSD of human NPC1. Using this structural data, we constructed a model of cholesterol-bound wild-type (WT) and mutant P691S and performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of each cholesterol-bound protein. For WT NPC1, cholesterol migrates laterally, in the direction of the lipid bilayer. In the case of P691S, cholesterol is observed for the first time to migrate away from the SSD toward the N-terminal domain via a putative tunnel that connects the IBS with the lumenal domains. Structural features of the IBS are analyzed to identify the causes for different dynamical behavior between cholesterol-bound WT and cholesterol-bound P691S. The side chain of Ser691 in the P691S mutant introduces a hydrogen bond network that is not present in the WT protein. This change is likely responsible for the altered dynamical behavior observed in the P691S mutant and helps explain the disrupted cholesterol trafficking behavior observed in experiments.

scholarly journals Enlighten2: Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Protein-Ligand Systems Made Accessible

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirill Zinovjev ◽  
Marc W. van der Kamp
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Dynamics ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Structural Data ◽  
Md Simulations ◽  
Enzyme Engineering ◽  
Protein Ligand Interactions ◽  
Ligand Interactions ◽  
Dynamics Simulations ◽  
User Friendly ◽  
Dynamical Information

<div>Motivation: Experimental structural data can allow detailed insight into protein structure and protein-ligand interactions, which is crucial for many areas of bioscience, including drug design and enzyme engineering. Typically, however, little more than a static picture of protein-ligand interactions is obtained, whereas dynamical information is often required for deeper understanding and to assess the effect of mutations. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations can provide such information, but setting up and running these simulations is not straightforward and requires expert knowledge. There is thus a need for a tool that makes protein-ligand simulation easily accessible to non-expert users.</div><div>Results: We present Enlighten2: efficient simulation protocols for protein-ligand systems alongside a user-friendly plugin to the popular visualization program PyMOL. With Enlighten2, non-expert users can straightforwardly run and visualize MD simulations on protein-ligand models of interest. There is no need to learn new programs and all underlying tools are free and open source.</div><div>Availability: The Enlighten2 Python package and PyMOL plugin are free to use under the GPL3.0 licence and can be found at https://enlighten2.github.io. We also provide a lightweight Docker image via DockerHub that includes Enlighten2 with all the required utilities.</div>

scholarly journals Enlighten2: Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Protein-Ligand Systems Made Accessible

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirill Zinovjev ◽  
Marc W. van der Kamp
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Dynamics ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Structural Data ◽  
Md Simulations ◽  
Enzyme Engineering ◽  
Protein Ligand Interactions ◽  
Ligand Interactions ◽  
Dynamics Simulations ◽  
User Friendly ◽  
Dynamical Information

<div>Motivation: Experimental structural data can allow detailed insight into protein structure and protein-ligand interactions, which is crucial for many areas of bioscience, including drug design and enzyme engineering. Typically, however, little more than a static picture of protein-ligand interactions is obtained, whereas dynamical information is often required for deeper understanding and to assess the effect of mutations. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations can provide such information, but setting up and running these simulations is not straightforward and requires expert knowledge. There is thus a need for a tool that makes protein-ligand simulation easily accessible to non-expert users.</div><div>Results: We present Enlighten2: efficient simulation protocols for protein-ligand systems alongside a user-friendly plugin to the popular visualization program PyMOL. With Enlighten2, non-expert users can straightforwardly run and visualize MD simulations on protein-ligand models of interest. There is no need to learn new programs and all underlying tools are free and open source.</div><div>Availability: The Enlighten2 Python package and PyMOL plugin are free to use under the GPL3.0 licence and can be found at https://enlighten2.github.io. We also provide a lightweight Docker image via DockerHub that includes Enlighten2 with all the required utilities.</div>

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

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). </P><P> 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. </P><P> 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. </P><P> 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.

scholarly journals Unveiling Carbon Dioxide and Ethanol Diffusion in Carbonated Water-Ethanol Mixtures by Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 1711
Author(s):  
Mohamed Ahmed Khaireh ◽  
Marie Angot ◽  
Clara Cilindre ◽  
Gérard Liger-Belair ◽  
David A. Bonhommeau
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Molecular Dynamics ◽  
Diffusion Coefficients ◽  
Hydrodynamic Radius ◽  
Md Simulations ◽  
Molecular Models ◽  
Experimental Values ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Co2 ◽  
Dynamics Simulations ◽  
Apparent Disagreement

The diffusion of carbon dioxide (CO2) and ethanol (EtOH) is a fundamental transport process behind the formation and growth of CO2 bubbles in sparkling beverages and the release of organoleptic compounds at the liquid free surface. In the present study, CO2 and EtOH diffusion coefficients are computed from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and compared with experimental values derived from the Stokes-Einstein (SE) relation on the basis of viscometry experiments and hydrodynamic radii deduced from former nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements. These diffusion coefficients steadily increase with temperature and decrease as the concentration of ethanol rises. The agreement between theory and experiment is suitable for CO2. Theoretical EtOH diffusion coefficients tend to overestimate slightly experimental values, although the agreement can be improved by changing the hydrodynamic radius used to evaluate experimental diffusion coefficients. This apparent disagreement should not rely on limitations of the MD simulations nor on the approximations made to evaluate theoretical diffusion coefficients. Improvement of the molecular models, as well as additional NMR measurements on sparkling beverages at several temperatures and ethanol concentrations, would help solve this issue.

scholarly journals Studies of Conformational Changes of Tubulin Induced by Interaction with Kinesin Using Atomistic Molecular Dynamics Simulations

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (13) ◽  
pp. 6709
Author(s):  
Xiao-Xuan Shi ◽  
Peng-Ye Wang ◽  
Hong Chen ◽  
Ping Xie
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Dynamics ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Binding Energy ◽  
Molecular Dynamics Simulations ◽  
Conformational Changes ◽  
Weak Interactions ◽  
Molecular Motor ◽  
Structural Data ◽  
Calculated Binding Energy ◽  
Dynamics Simulations

The transition between strong and weak interactions of the kinesin head with the microtubule, which is regulated by the change of the nucleotide state of the head, is indispensable for the processive motion of the kinesin molecular motor on the microtubule. Here, using all-atom molecular dynamics simulations, the interactions between the kinesin head and tubulin are studied on the basis of the available high-resolution structural data. We found that the strong interaction can induce rapid large conformational changes of the tubulin, whereas the weak interaction cannot. Furthermore, we found that the large conformational changes of the tubulin have a significant effect on the interaction of the tubulin with the head in the weak-microtubule-binding ADP state. The calculated binding energy of the ADP-bound head to the tubulin with the large conformational changes is only about half that of the tubulin without the conformational changes.

Mechanism of stacking fault annihilation in 3C-SiC epitaxially grown on Si(001) by molecular dynamics simulations

CrystEngComm ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrey Sarikov ◽  
Anna Marzegalli ◽  
Luca Barbisan ◽  
Massimo Zimbone ◽  
Corrado Bongiorno ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Dynamics ◽  
Molecular Dynamics Simulations ◽  
Stacking Faults ◽  
Md Simulations ◽  
Stacking Fault ◽  
Dynamics Simulations

In this work, annihilation mechanism of stacking faults (SFs) in epitaxial 3C-SiC layers grown on Si(001) substrates is studied by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The evolution of SFs located in...

scholarly journals Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Crystal Nucleation near Interfaces in Incompatible Polymer Blends

Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 347
Author(s):  
Wenlin Zhang ◽  
Lingyi Zou
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Dynamics ◽  
Polymer Blends ◽  
Md Simulations ◽  
Nucleation And Growth ◽  
Crystal Nucleation ◽  
Crystalline Order ◽  
Mobile Species ◽  
Deep Supercooling ◽  
Crystallizable Polymer ◽  
Dynamics Simulations

We apply molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to investigate crystal nucleation in incompatible polymer blends under deep supercooling conditions. Simulations of isothermal nucleation are performed for phase-separated blends with different degrees of incompatibility. In weakly segregated blends, slow and incompatible chains in crystallizable polymer domains can significantly hinder the crystal nucleation and growth. When a crystallizable polymer is blended with a more mobile species in interfacial regions, enhanced molecular mobility leads to the fast growth of crystalline order. However, the incubation time remains the same as that in pure samples. By inducing anisotropic alignment near the interfaces of strongly segregated blends, phase separation also promotes crystalline order to grow near interfaces between different polymer domains.

scholarly journals Molecular dynamics simulations and CD spectroscopy reveal hydration-induced unfolding of the intrinsically disordered LEA proteins COR15A and COR15B from Arabidopsis thaliana

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (37) ◽  
pp. 25806-25816 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Navarro-Retamal ◽  
Anne Bremer ◽  
Jans Alzate-Morales ◽  
Julio Caballero ◽  
Dirk K. Hincha ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Molecular Dynamics ◽  
Arabidopsis Thaliana ◽  
Molecular Dynamics Simulations ◽  
Md Simulations ◽  
Cd Spectroscopy ◽  
Lea Proteins ◽  
Intrinsically Disordered ◽  
Dynamics Simulations ◽  
Crowded Environment

Unfolding of intrinsically unstructured full-length LEA proteins in a differentially crowded environment can be modeled by 30 ns MD simulations in accordance with experimental data.

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