PMFF: Development of a Physics-Based Molecular Force Field for Protein Simulation and Ligand Docking.

The physics-based molecular force field (PMFF) was developed by integrating a set of potential energy functions in which each term in an intermolecular potential energy function is derived based on experimental values, such as the dipole moments, lattice energy, proton transfer energy, and X-ray crystal structures. The term "physics-based" is used to emphasize the idea that the experimental observables that are considered to be the most relevant to each term are used for the parameterization rather than parameterizing all observables together against the target value. PMFF uses MM3 intramolecular potential energy terms to describe intramolecular interactions and includes an implicit solvation model specifically developed for the PMFF. We evaluated the PMFF in three ways. We concluded that the PMFF provides reliable information based on the structure in a biological system and interprets the biological phenomena accurately by providing more accurate evidence of the biological phenomena.

Calculation of the solvation free energy of neutral and ionic molecules in diverse solvents.

The solvation free energy density (SFED) model was modified to extend its applicability and predictability. The parametrization process was performed with a large, diverse set of solvation free energies that included highly polar and ionic molecules. The mean absolute error for 1200 solvation free energies of the 379 neutral molecules in 9 organic solvents and water was 0.40 kcal/mol, and for 90 hydration free energies of ions was 1.7 kcal/mol. Overall, the calculated solvation free energies of a wide range of solute functional groups in diverse solvents were consistent with experimental data.

A partition coefficient calculation method with the SFED model.

The Solvation Free Energy Density (SFED) model, a solvation model proposed by No et al. was modified to give better solvation free energies of the molecules having high polarizable groups. The SFED at a point around the molecule was represented by a linear combination of four basis functions, the contribution from the cavitation free energy of a solvent, and a constant. As an application of the SFED model, the linear expansion coefficients of the Hydration Free Energy Density (HFED) and the 1-Octanol Free Energy Density (1-OFED) were determined. Both calculated hydration free energy and 1-octanol solvation free energy of selected 95 organic molecules agreed well with experimental values. The standard errors were 0.47 and 0.39 kcal/mol, respectively. 1-Octanol/water partition coefficients (P) of the molecules were calculated from the difference of the HFE and 1-OFE of the molecules. At the same time, the logP density (LPD) of a molecule was represented by the same basis functional form with the SFED model. The logP of a molecule can be obtained by the integration of the LPD of the molecule. The coefficients of the basis functions were determined by using experimental logP as constraints through an optimization procedure. Both logPs calculated from the free energy difference and from the LPD agreed well with the experimental data. The absolute mean errors were obtained as 0.34 and 0.32, respectively.

Small cavitands specifically binding a water molecule.

[structure: see text] Three new C(2v) cavitands based on resorcin[4]arene bind water specifically at low temperature in CD(2)Cl(2) or CDCl(3) due to their complementarity to water as well as the solvophobic interaction. The averaged DeltaH(o) and DeltaS(o) values are -2.3 kcal mol(-1) and -128 cal mol(-1) K(-1), which gave the averaged -DeltaG(o) of 1.9 kcal mol(-1) at -50 degrees C in water saturated CD(2)Cl(2).