Binding Affinity Determination in Drug Design: Insights from Lock and Key, Induced Fit, Conformational Selection, and Inhibitor Trapping Models.

Binding affinity is a fundamental parameter in drug design, describing the strength of the interaction between a molecule and its target protein. Accurately predicting binding affinity is crucial for the rapid development of novel therapeutics, the prioritization of promising candidates, and the optimization of their properties through rational design strategies. Binding affinity is determined by the mechanism of recognition between proteins and ligands. Various models, including the lock and key, induced fit, and conformational selection, have been proposed to explain this recognition process. However, current computational strategies to predict binding affinity, which are based on these models, have yet to produce satisfactory results. This article explores the connection between binding affinity and these protein-ligand interaction models, highlighting that they offer an incomplete picture of the mechanism governing binding affinity. Specifically, current models primarily center on the binding of the ligand and do not address its dissociation. In this context, the concept of ligand trapping is introduced, which models the mechanisms of dissociation. When combined with the current models, this concept can provide a unified theoretical framework that may allow for the accurate determination of the ligands' binding affinity.

Phosphorylation-dependent allosteric regulation of Cx43 gap junction inhibitor potency.

Physiological and pathological processes such as homeostasis, embryogenesis, development, tumorigenesis, and cell movement depend on the intercellular communication through gap junctions (GJIC). Connexin (Cx)-based GJ channels are formed of two apposing hemichannels in the contiguous cells and provide a direct pathway for electrical and metabolic intercellular communication. The main modulators of GJ conductance are transjunctional voltage, intracellular pH, Ca2+, Mg2+, and phosphorylation. Chemical modulators of GJIC are being used in cases of various intercellular communication-dependent diseases. In this study, we used molecular docking, dual whole-cell patch-clamp, and Western blotting to investigate the impact of connexin phosphorylation on GJ chemical gating by α-pinene and other GJ inhibitors (octanol, carbenoxolone, mefloquine, intracellular pH, glycyrrhetinic acid, and sevoflurane) in HeLa cells expressing exogenous Cx43 (full length and truncated at amino acid 258) and other connexins typical of heart and/or nervous system (Cx36, Cx40, Cx45, and Cx47), and in cells expressing endogenous Cx43 (Novikoff and U-87). We found that Ca2+-regulated kinases, such as Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent kinase II, atypical protein kinase C, cyclin-dependent kinase, and Pyk2 kinase may allosterically modulate the potency of α-pinene through phosphorylation of Cx43 C-terminus. The identified new phenomenon was Cx isoform-, inhibitor-, and cell type-dependent. Overall, these results suggest that compounds, the potency of which depends on receptor phosphorylation, might be of particular interest in developing targeted therapies for diseases accompanied by high kinase activity, such as cardiac arrhythmias, epilepsy, stroke, essential tremor, inflammation, and cancer.

Inhibitor Trapping in N-Myristoyltransferases as a Mechanism for Drug Potency.

Predicting inhibitor potency is critical in drug design and development, yet it has remained one of computational biology's biggest unresolved challenges. Here, we show that in the case of the N-myristoyltransferase (NMT), this problem could be traced to the mechanisms by which the NMT enzyme is inhibited. NMT adopts open or closed conformations necessary for orchestrating the different steps of the catalytic process. The results indicate that the potency of the NMT inhibitors is determined by their ability to stabilize the enzyme conformation in the closed state, and that in this state, the small molecules themselves are trapped and locked inside the structure of the enzyme, creating a significant barrier for their dissociation. By using molecular dynamics simulations, we demonstrate that the conformational stabilization of the protein molecule in its closed form is highly correlated with the ligands activity and can be used to predict their potency. Hence, predicting inhibitor potency in silico might depend on modeling the conformational changes of the protein molecule upon binding of the ligand rather than estimating the changes in free binding energy that arise from their interaction.

Prediction of binding modes and affinities of 4-substituted-2,3,5,6-tetrafluorobenzenesulfonamide inhibitors to the carbonic anhydrase receptor by docking and ONIOM calculations.

Inhibition activities of a series of 4-substituted-2,3,5,6-tetrafluorobenzenesulfonamides against the human carbonic anhydrase II (HCAII) enzyme have been explored by employing molecular docking and hybrid QM/MM methods. The docking protocol has been employed to assess the best pose of each ligand in the active site cavity of the enzyme, and probe the interactions with the amino acid residues. The docking calculations reveal that the inhibitor binds to the catalytic Zn(2+) site through the deprotonated sulfonamide nitrogen atom by making several hydrophobic and hydrogen bond interactions with the side chain residues depending on the substituted moiety. A cross-docking approach has been adopted prior to the hybrid QM/MM calculation to validate the docked poses. A correlation between the experimental dissociation constants and the docked free energies for the enzyme-inhibitor complexes has been established. Two-layered ONIOM calculations based on QM/MM approach have been performed to evaluate the binding efficacy of the inhibitors. The inhibitor potency has been predicted from the computed binding energies after taking into account of the electronic phenomena associated with enzyme-inhibitor interactions. Both the hybrid (B3LYP) and meta-hybrid (M06-2X) functionals are used for the description of the QM region. To improve the correlation between the experimental biological activity and the theoretical results, a three-layered ONIOM calculation has been carried out and verified for some of the selected inhibitors. The charge transfer stabilization energies are calculated via natural bond orbital analysis to recognize the donor-acceptor interaction in the binding pocket of the enzyme. The nature of binding between the inhibitors and HCAII active site is further analyzed from the electron density distribution maps.