Simulation studies of polypeptoids using replica exchange with dynamical scaling and dihedral biasing.

Cyclophilins are proteins that catalyze X-proline cis-trans interconversion, where X represents any amino acid. Its mechanism of action has been investigated over the past years but still generates discussion, especially because until recently structures of the ligand in the cis and trans conformations for the same system were lacking. X-ray crystallographic structures for the complex cyclophilin A and HIV-1 capsid mutants with ligands in the cis and trans conformations suggest a mechanism where the N-terminal portion of the ligand rotates during the cis-trans isomerization. However, a few years before, a C-terminal rotating ligand was proposed to explain NMR solution data. In the present study we use molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to generate a trans structure starting from the cis structure. From simulations starting from the cis and trans structures obtained through the rotational pathways, the seeming contradiction between the two sets of experimental data could be resolved. The simulated N-terminal rotated trans structure shows good agreement with the equivalent crystal structure and, moreover, is consistent with the NMR data. These results illustrate the use of MD simulation at atomic resolution to model structural transitions and to interpret experimental data.

Abstract2‐Formylthiophene‐N‐acetylhydrazone (Hait) and 2‐thiophenecarboxaldehyde‐2‐thienylhydrazone (Htit) in the cis and trans conformations were investigated in the gas‐phase by density functional method using B3LYP as the functional set and 6‐311++G(d,p) as the basis set. The cis and trans structures were fully optimized in the C1 and Cs symmetries. Transition states were also modeled for the cis–trans isomerization of the title compounds and the barriers to internal rotation were calculated. This work reports the structural, energetics, and spectroscopic parameters of all the optimized geometries. Some of the structural parameters are in good agreement with experimental literature data. The computed parameters for these compounds are also in good agreement with a related molecule, namely, acetohydrazide. For both Hait and Htit, the trans conformers are more stable than the cis conformers and the energy barriers are larger compared with the energy differences between the cis and trans conformers. This accounts for Hait and Htit existing mostly in the trans conformation. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heteroatom Chem 20:144–150, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/hc.20526

Computational investigation of structural and electronic properties of cis and trans structures of fluvoxamine as a nano-drug

Structural parameters, derived from X-ray crystallographic data, have been compiled for amino acid and linear peptide derivatives which contain the N-terminal tert-butoxycarbonyl (Boc) group or its next higher homolog, the tert-amyloxycarbonyl group. The comparison of the geometry of the urethane group in Boc-derivatives with that of the peptide group shows small differences in bond angles about the trigonal carbon, because of altered interactions when a C alpha H group of a peptide unti is replaced by an ester oxygen. In contrast to the strong preference of the peptide bond for the trans form (except when it precedes proline), the urethane amide bond adopts both the cis and trans conformations in crystals. The cis urethane conformation is preferred in crystals of compounds with a tertiary nitrogen (such as Boc-Pro) or in structures stabilized by strong intermolecular interactions. Conformational energy computations on Boc-amino acid N'-methylamides indicate that the trans and cis conformations of the urethane amide bone have nearly equal energies (even for amino acids other than proline), in contrast to the peptide bond, for which the trans conformation has a much lower energy. The computed increase of the cis content in Boc-amino acid derivatives (as compared with the corresponding N-acetyl derivatives) is consistent with the observed distributions of conformations in crystal structures and with n.m.r. studies in solution. Usually, the substitution of a Boc for an N-acetyl end group does not alter the conformational preferences (as indicated by phi, psi values and relative energies) of the amino acid residue which follows the end group when the amide bond is trans. Particular conformations, however, can be stabilized by strong attractive interactions between some side chains (e.g. that of phenylalanine) the the bulky Boc end group.

The geometrical structure, electronic and optical properties, electronic absorption spectra, vibrational frequencies, natural charge distribution, MEP analysis and thermodynamic properties of the trans and cis structures of the drug thiothixene were investigated using density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TDDFT) methods with the B3LYP hybrid functional and 6-311 + G(d,p) basis set. The results of the calculations demonstrate that the cis structure of thiothixene has appropriate quantum properties that can act as an active medicine. The relative energies of trans and cis structures of thiothixene shows that the cis structure is more stable than the trans structure, with a small energy difference. TDDFT calculations show that the cis structure of thiothixene has the best absorption properties. The calculated NLO properties show that the NLO properties of the cis structure of thiothixene are higher than the trans structure, and the fact that the chemical hardness of the cis structure is lower than that of the trans structure that indicates that the reactivity and charge transfer of the cis isomer of thiothixene is higher than that of trans thiothixene. The molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) maps of both structures of thiothixene demonstrate that the oxygen atoms of the molecule are appropriate areas for electrophilic reactions. The vibrational frequencies of the two conformations of thiothixene demonstrate that both structures of thiothixene have almost similar modes of vibrations. The calculated thermodynamic parameters show that these quantities increase with enhancing temperature due to the enhancement of molecular vibrational intensities with temperature. Graphical abstract Trans/Cis isomerization of thiothixene drug.

Structural mechanism governing cis and trans isomeric states and an intramolecular switch for cis/trans isomerization of a non-proline peptide bond observed in crystal structures of scorpion toxins.

We report that the cis/trans ratio of the proline peptide bond can be strongly influenced by the chirality of the acyl residue preceding proline. Acyl moieties derived from (2S)-2,6-dimethyl-3-oxo-3,4-dihydro-2H-1,4-benzoxazine-2-carboxylic acid (8) and (2R)-3-methoxy-2-methyl-2-(4-methyl-2-nitrophenoxy)-3-oxopropanoic acid (5) in acyl-Pro molecules influence isomerization of the proline peptide bond constraining the omega dihedral angle to the trans orientation. Structures of benzyl (2S)-1-([(2S)-2,6-dimethyl-3-oxo-3,4-dihydro-2H-1,4-benzoxazin-2-yl]carbonyl)-2-pyrrolidinecarboxylate (3) derived from 2D (1)H NMR conformational analysis and crystallographic data exhibit only the trans conformation of proline peptide bond. On the other hand the diastereomer 4, which contains an (R) acyl moiety, exhibits two sets of signals in (1)H NMR spectra. The signals were assigned to trans (72%) and cis (28%) conformers. Crystallographic analysis of 4 showed that only the cis conformation is present in the crystalline state. The (1)H NMR chemical shift pattern of three sets of signals observed in 2 was observed also in benzyl (2S)-1-[(2R/S)-3-methoxy-2-methyl-2-(4-methyl-2-nitrophenoxy)-3-oxopropanoyl]-2-pyrrolidinecarboxylate. (R)-Carboxylic acid 5, after coupling with (S)-ProOBn, yielded benzyl (2S)-1-[(2R)-3-methoxy-2-methyl-2-(4-methyl-2-nitrophenoxy)-3-oxopropanoyl]-2-pyrrolidinecarboxylate (6), which in DMSO-d(6) exhibited only the trans conformation of the proline peptide bond. These results suggest that in these particular cases acyl-Pro peptide bond isomerization is strongly influenced by the stereochemistry of the acyl residue preceding proline. (2S)-2,6-Dimethyl-3-oxo-3,4-dihydro-2H-1,4-benzoxazine-2-carboxylic acid (8) and (2R)-3-methoxy-2-methyl-2-(4-methyl-2-nitrophenoxy)-3-oxopropanoic acid (5) are promising chiral peptidomimetic building blocks that can be used as acyl moieties to force the proline peptide bond into the trans conformation in a variety of acyl-Pro molecules.

Discovery of amide-bridged pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidines as tumor targeted classical antifolates with selective uptake by folate receptor α and inhibition of de novo purine nucleotide biosynthesis

The nonempirical valence‐bond method as well as the molecular orbital method are applied to investigate the structures of N2O2 and (CHO)2. Results show that in either molecule the σ‐component tends toward a trans conformation, whereas, the π‐component tends toward a cis conformation. Moreover, even if there are some long‐range bonding overlaps in the cis structure, the bonding energy cannot counteract the increased Coulombic repulsive energy compared with the trans structure. In other words, for a cis conformation, there is a competition between the Coulombic destabilization and the π electronic stabilization. The latter is more preferable to a cis conformation of N2O2, while the Coulombic repulsive interaction should be responsible for the trans conformation of (CHO)2. The nonempirical vB calculations show that the π delocalization energy in N2O2 is negligible, while the value in (CHO)2 is about 4.5 kcal/mol. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

In this paper, we introduce a parallel continuous simulated tempering (PCST) method for enhanced sampling in studying large complex systems. It mainly inherits the continuous simulated tempering (CST) method in our previous studies [C. Zhang and J. Ma, J. Chem. Phys. 130, 194112 (2009); C. Zhang and J. Ma, J. Chem. Phys. 132, 244101 (2010)], while adopts the spirit of parallel tempering (PT), or replica exchange method, by employing multiple copies with different temperature distributions. Differing from conventional PT methods, despite the large stride of total temperature range, the PCST method requires very few copies of simulations, typically 2-3 copies, yet it is still capable of maintaining a high rate of exchange between neighboring copies. Furthermore, in PCST method, the size of the system does not dramatically affect the number of copy needed because the exchange rate is independent of total potential energy, thus providing an enormous advantage over conventional PT methods in studying very large systems. The sampling efficiency of PCST was tested in two-dimensional Ising model, Lennard-Jones liquid and all-atom folding simulation of a small globular protein trp-cage in explicit solvent. The results demonstrate that the PCST method significantly improves sampling efficiency compared with other methods and it is particularly effective in simulating systems with long relaxation time or correlation time. We expect the PCST method to be a good alternative to parallel tempering methods in simulating large systems such as phase transition and dynamics of macromolecules in explicit solvent.

A proline residue flanked by two polar residues is a highly conserved sequence motif in the Ca2+- and carbohydrate-binding site of C-type animal lectins. Crystal structures of several C-type lectins have shown that the two flanking residues are only observed to act as Ca2+ ligands when the peptide bond preceding the proline residue is in the cis conformation. In contrast, structures of the apo- and one-ion forms of mannose-binding proteins (MBPs) reveal that, when the Ca2+-binding site is empty, the peptide bond preceding the proline can adopt either the cis or trans conformation, and distinct structures in adjacent regions are associated with the two proline isomers. In this work, measurements of Ca2+-induced changes in intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence, and fluorescence energy transfer from tryptophan to Tb3+, reveal a slow conformational change in rat liver MBP (MBP-C) accompanying the binding of either Ca2+ or Tb3+. The Ca2+-induced increase in intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence shows biphasic kinetics: a burst phase with a rate constant greater than 1 s(-1) is followed by a slow phase with a single-exponential rate constant ranging from 0.01 to 0.05 s(-1) (36 degrees C) that depends on the concentration of Ca2+. Likewise, addition of EGTA to Ca2+-bound or Tb3+-bound MBP-C causes a decrease in intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence with biphasic kinetics consisting of a burst phase with a rate constant greater than 1 s(-1), followed by a slow phase with a single-exponential rate constant of 0.065 s(-1). In contrast, Tb3+ fluorescence produced by resonant energy transfer from MBP-C decreases in a single kinetic phase with a rate constant greater than 1 s(-1), implying that the slow change in tryptophan fluorescence monitors a conformational change that is not limited in rate by ion dissociation. The rate constants of the slow phases accompanying Ca2+ binding and release are strongly affected by temperature and are weakly accelerated by the prolyl isomerase cyclophilin. These data strongly suggest that the binding of either Ca2+ or Tb3+ to MBP-C is coupled to a conformational change that involves the cis-trans isomerization of a peptide bond. Fitting of the data to kinetic models indicates that, in the absence of Ca2+, the proline in approximately 80% of the molecules is in the trans conformation. The slow kinetics associated with cis-trans proline isomerization may be exploited by endocytic receptors to facilitate sorting of carbohydrate-bearing ligands from the receptor in the endosome.

NMR biomolecular structure calculations exploit simulated annealing methods for conformational sampling and require a relatively high level of redundancy in the experimental restraints to determine quality three-dimensional structures. Recent advances in generalized Born (GB) implicit solvent models should make it possible to combine information from both experimental measurements and accurate empirical force fields to improve the quality of NMR-derived structures. In this paper, we study the influence of implicit solvent on the refinement of protein NMR structures and identify an optimal protocol of utilizing these improved force fields. To do so, we carry out structure refinement experiments for model proteins with published NMR structures using full NMR restraints and subsets of them. We also investigate the application of advanced sampling techniques to NMR structure refinement. Similar to the observations of Xia et al. (J.Biomol. NMR 2002, 22, 317-331), we find that the impact of implicit solvent is rather small when there is a sufficient number of experimental restraints (such as in the final stage of NMR structure determination), whether implicit solvent is used throughout the calculation or only in the final refinement step. The application of advanced sampling techniques also seems to have minimal impact in this case. However, when the experimental data are limited, we demonstrate that refinement with implicit solvent can substantially improve the quality of the structures. In particular, when combined with an advanced sampling technique, the replica exchange (REX) method, near-native structures can be rapidly moved toward the native basin. The REX method provides both enhanced sampling and automatic selection of the most native-like (lowest energy) structures. An optimal protocol based on our studies first generates an ensemble of initial structures that maximally satisfy the available experimental data with conventional NMR software using a simplified force field and then refines these structures with implicit solvent using the REX method. We systematically examine the reliability and efficacy of this protocol using four proteins of various sizes ranging from the 56-residue B1 domain of Streptococcal protein G to the 370-residue Maltose-binding protein. Significant improvement in the structures was observed in all cases when refinement was based on low-redundancy restraint data. The proposed protocol is anticipated to be particularly useful in early stages of NMR structure determination where a reliable estimate of the native fold from limited data can significantly expedite the overall process. This refinement procedure is also expected to be useful when redundant experimental data are not readily available, such as for large multidomain biomolecules and in solid-state NMR structure determination.

A theoretical study of the structural and electronic properties of trans and cis structures of chlorprothixene as a nano-drug

This study was initiated to determine whether the intestinal H+/peptide symporter PEPT1 differentiates between the peptide bond conformers of substrates. We synthesized a modified dipeptide where the peptide bond is replaced by the isosteric thioxo peptide bond. The Ala-Pro derivative Ala-psi[CS-N]-Pro exists as a mixture of cis and trans conformation in aqueous solution and is characterized by a low cis/trans isomerization rate. The compound was recognized by PEPT1 with high affinity. The Ki value of Ala-psi[CS-N]-Pro for the inhibition of the uptake of radiolabeled glycylsarcosine in Caco-2 cells was 0.30 +/- 0.02 mM, determined in solution with 96% trans conformation. In contrast, the Ki value was 0.51 +/- 0.02 mM when uptake media with 62% trans conformer were used. We conclude that only the trans conformer interacts with the transport system. From our data, a significant affinity of the cis conformer at PEPT1 cannot be derived. In a second approach, conformer-specific uptake of Ala-psi[CS-N]-Pro was studied by analyzing the intracellular content of Caco-2 cells following transport as well as the composition of the extracellular medium using capillary electrophoresis. The percentage of trans conformer that was 62% in the uptake medium increased to 92% inside the cells. This is the first direct evidence that an H+/peptide cotransport system selectively binds and transports the trans conformer of a peptide derivative.

Conventional simulations of complex systems, which have many degrees of freedom, are hampered by multiple-minima problem. One way to overcome the multiple-minima problem is to perform a simulation in a generalized ensemble where each state is weighted by an artificial, non-Boltzmann weight factor so that a random walk in potential energy space may be realized. Three of well-known generalized-ensemble algorithms are multicanonical, simulated-tempering, and replica exchange method. In previous works, the methods combined with simulated-tempering and replica-exchange method, the one-dimensional replica-exchange simulated-tempering and simulated-tempering replica-exchange method, were developed. For the former method, the weight factor of the one-dimensional simulated-tempering is determined by a short replica-exchange simulation and multiple histogram reweighting techniques. For the latter method, the production run is a replica-exchange simulation with a few replicas not in the canonical ensembles but in the simulated-tempering ensembles. In this article, the general formulation of the multidimensional replica-exchange simulated-tempering and simulated-tempering replica exchange method is reviewed.