Structure, Thermodynamics, and Folding Pathways for a Tryptophan Zipper as a Function of Local Rigidification.

We investigate how the underlying potential energy landscape for a tryptophan zipper changes as indole rings, peptide bonds, termini, and trigonal planar centers are systematically grouped into local rigid bodies. The local rigid body framework results in a substantial computational speedup by effectively reducing the total number of degrees of freedom. Benchmarks are presented for the thermodynamics and folding mechanism. In general, the melting transition, as well as the precise sequence of folding events, is accurately reproduced with conservative local rigidification. However, aggressive rigidification leads to increased topological frustration and a concomitant slowing down of the global kinetics. Our results suggest that an optimal choice of local rigidification, and perhaps a hierarchical approach, could be very useful for investigating complex pathways in biomolecules.

Analysis of the Contrasting Pathogenicities Induced by the D222G Mutation in 1918 and 2009 Pandemic Influenza A Viruses.

In 2009, the D222G mutation in the hemagglutinin (HA) glycoprotein of pandemic H1N1 influenza A virus was found to correlate with fatal and severe human infections. Previous static structural analysis suggested that, unlike the H1N1 viruses prevalent in 1918, the mutation did not compromise binding to human α2,6-linked glycan receptors, allowing it to transmit efficiently. Here we investigate the interconversion mechanism between two predicted binding modes in both 2009 and 1918 HAs, introducing a highly parallel intermediate network search scheme to construct kinetically relevant pathways efficiently. Accumulated mutations at positions 183 and 224 that alter the size of the binding pocket are identified with the fitness of the 2009 pandemic virus carrying the D222G mutation. This result suggests that the pandemic H1N1 viruses could gain binding affinity to the α2,3-linked glycan receptors in the lungs, usually associated with highly pathogenic avian influenza, without compromising viability.

Energy landscapes of a hairpin peptide including NMR chemical shift restraints.

Methods recently introduced to improve the efficiency of protein structure prediction simulations by adding a restraint potential to a molecular mechanics force field introduce additional input parameters that can affect the performance. Here we investigate the changes in the energy landscape as the relative weight of the two contributions, force field and restraint potential, is systematically altered, for restraint functions constructed from calculated nuclear magnetic resonance chemical shifts. Benchmarking calculations were performed on a 12-residue peptide, tryptophan zipper 1, which features both secondary structure (a ß-hairpin) and specific packing of tryptophan sidechains. Basin-hopping global optimization was performed to assess the efficiency with which lowest-energy structures are located, and the discrete path sampling approach was employed to survey the energy landscapes between unfolded and folded structures. We find that inclusion of the chemical shift restraints improves the efficiency of structure prediction because the energy landscape becomes more funnelled and the proportion of local minima classified as native increases. However, the funnelling nature of the landscape is reduced as the relative contribution of the chemical shift restraint potential is increased past an optimal value.

Proton transfer pathways, energy landscape, and kinetics in creatine-water systems.

We study the exchange processes of the metabolite creatine, which is present in both tumorous and normal tissues and has NH2 and NH groups that can transfer protons to water. Creatine produces chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) contrast in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The proton transfer pathway from zwitterionic creatine to water is examined using a kinetic transition network constructed from the discrete path sampling approach and an approximate quantum-chemical energy function, employing the self-consistent-charge density-functional tight-binding (SCC-DFTB) method. The resulting potential energy surface is visualized by constructing disconnectivity graphs. The energy landscape consists of two distinct regions corresponding to the zwitterionic creatine structures and deprotonated creatine. The activation energy that characterizes the proton transfer from the creatine NH2 group to water was determined from an Arrhenius fit of rate constants as a function of temperature, obtained from harmonic transition state theory. The result is in reasonable agreement with values obtained in water exchange spectroscopy (WEX) experiments.

A conformational factorisation approach for estimating the binding free energies of macromolecules.

We present a conformational factorization approach. The theory is based on a superposition partition function, decomposed as a sum over contributions from local minima. The factorisation greatly reduces the number of minima that need to be considered, by employing the same local configurations for groups that are sufficiently distant from the binding site. The theory formalises the conditions required to analyse how our definition of the binding site region affects the free energy difference between the apo and holo states. We employ basin-hopping parallel tempering to sample minima that contribute significantly to the partition function, and calculate the binding free energies within the harmonic normal mode approximation. A further significant gain in efficiency is achieved using a recently developed local rigid body framework in both the sampling and the normal mode analysis, which reduces the number of degrees of freedom. We benchmark this approach for human aldose reductase (PDB code 2INE). When varying the size of the rigid region, the free energy difference converges for factorisation of groups at a distance of 14 Å from the binding site, which corresponds to 80% of the protein being locally rigidified.

A Local Rigid Body Framework for Global Optimization of Biomolecules.

We present a local rigid body framework for simulations of biomolecules. In this framework, arbritrary sets of atoms may be treated as rigid bodies. Such groupings reduce the number of degrees of freedom, which can result in a significant reduction of computational time. As benchmarks, we consider global optimization for the tryptophan zipper (trpzip 1, 1LE0; using the CHARMM force field) and chignolin (1UAO; using the AMBER force field). We use a basin-hopping algorithm to find the global minima and compute the mean first encounter time from random starting configurations with and without the local rigid body framework. Minimal groupings are used, where only peptide bonds, termini, and side chain rings are considered rigid. Finding the global minimum is 4.2 and 2.5 times faster, respectively, for trpzip 1 and chignolin, within the local rigid body framework. We further compare O(10(5)) low-lying local minima to the fully relaxed unconstrained representation for trpzip 1 at different levels of rigidification. The resulting Pearson correlation coefficients, and thus the apparent intrinsic rigidity of the various groups, appear in the following order: side chain rings > termini > trigonal planar centers ≥ peptide bonds ≫ side chains. This approach is likely to be even more beneficial for structure prediction in larger biomolecules.

Virulence-associated substitution D222G in the hemagglutinin of 2009 pandemic influenza A(H1N1) virus affects receptor binding.

The clinical impact of the 2009 pandemic influenza A(H1N1) virus (pdmH1N1) has been relatively low. However, amino acid substitution D222G in the hemagglutinin of pdmH1N1 has been associated with cases of severe disease and fatalities. D222G was introduced in a prototype pdmH1N1 by reverse genetics, and the effect on virus receptor binding, replication, antigenic properties, and pathogenesis and transmission in animal models was investigated. pdmH1N1 with D222G caused ocular disease in mice without further indications of enhanced virulence in mice and ferrets. pdmH1N1 with D222G retained transmissibility via aerosols or respiratory droplets in ferrets and guinea pigs. The virus displayed changes in attachment to human respiratory tissues in vitro, in particular increased binding to macrophages and type II pneumocytes in the alveoli and to tracheal and bronchial submucosal glands. Virus attachment studies further indicated that pdmH1N1 with D222G acquired dual receptor specificity for complex α2,3- and α2,6-linked sialic acids. Molecular dynamics modeling of the hemagglutinin structure provided an explanation for the retention of α2,6 binding. Altered receptor specificity of the virus with D222G thus affected interaction with cells of the human lower respiratory tract, possibly explaining the observed association with enhanced disease in humans.

Thermodynamics and kinetics of aggregation for the GNNQQNY peptide.

The energy landscape of the monomer and dimer are explored for the amyloidogenic heptapeptide GNNQQNY from the N-terminal prion-determining domain of the yeast protein Sup35. The peptide is modeled by a united-atom potential and an implicit solvent representation. Replica exchange molecular dynamics is used to explore the conformational space, and discrete path sampling is employed to investigate the pathways that interconvert the most populated minima on the free energy surfaces. For the monomer, we find a rapid fluctuation between four different conformations, where a geometry intermediate between compact and extended structures is the most thermodynamically favorable. The GNNQQNY dimer forms three stable sheet structures, namely in-register parallel, off-register parallel, and antiparallel. The antiparallel dimer is stabilized by strong electrostatic interactions resulting from interpeptide hydrogen bonds, which restrict its conformational flexibility. The in-register parallel dimer, which is close to the amyloid beta-sheet structure, has fewer interpeptide hydrogen bonds, making hydrophobic interactions more important and increasing the conformational entropy compared to the antiparallel sheet. The estimated two-state rate constants indicate that the formation of dimers from monomers is fast and that the dimers are kinetically stable against dissociation at room temperature. Interconversions between the different dimers are feasible processes and are more likely than dissociation.