CHARMM: the biomolecular simulation program.

CHARMM (Chemistry at HARvard Molecular Mechanics) is a highly versatile and widely used molecular simulation program. It has been developed over the last three decades with a primary focus on molecules of biological interest, including proteins, peptides, lipids, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, and small molecule ligands, as they occur in solution, crystals, and membrane environments. For the study of such systems, the program provides a large suite of computational tools that include numerous conformational and path sampling methods, free energy estimators, molecular minimization, dynamics, and analysis techniques, and model-building capabilities. The CHARMM program is applicable to problems involving a much broader class of many-particle systems. Calculations with CHARMM can be performed using a number of different energy functions and models, from mixed quantum mechanical-molecular mechanical force fields, to all-atom classical potential energy functions with explicit solvent and various boundary conditions, to implicit solvent and membrane models. The program has been ported to numerous platforms in both serial and parallel architectures. This article provides an overview of the program as it exists today with an emphasis on developments since the publication of the original CHARMM article in 1983.

Atomic-level accuracy in simulations of large protein crystals.

Proper treatment of long-range Coulombic forces presents a major obstacle to providing realistic molecular dynamics simulations of macromolecules. Traditional approximations made to lessen computational cost ultimately lead to unrealistic behavior. The particle mesh Ewald method accommodates long-range Coulombic forces accurately and efficiently by use of fast Fourier transform techniques. We report a 1-ns simulation of bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor in a crystal unit cell using the particle mesh Ewald methodology. We find an rms backbone deviation from the x-ray structure (0.33 A) that is lower than that observed between bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor in different crystal forms and much lower than those of previous simulations. These results bridge the gap between structures obtained from molecular simulation and those from experiment.

Molecular modeling studies suggest that zinc ions inhibit HIV-1 protease by binding at catalytic aspartates.

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 protease is inhibited in vitro by zinc ions at neutral pH. The binding site of these ions is not known; however, experimental data suggest that binding may occur in the active site. To examine the possibility of zinc binding in the active site, molecular dynamics simulations in the presence and absence of zinc have been carried out to 200 psec. The results are compared with the 2.8-A crystallographic structures of a synthetic HIV-1 protease, and a zinc binding site at the catalytic aspartate residues (Asp-25, Asp-25') is proposed. Molecular dynamics simulations show that the zinc ion remains stably bound in this region, coordinating the carboxylate side chains of both aspartate residues. Interaction with zinc does not disrupt the dimeric structure of the protein or significantly alter the structure of the active site. These data are consistent with experimental studies of HIV-1 protease inhibition by zinc and give strong evidence that this is the binding site that leads to inactivation.

Molecular dynamics simulation of HIV-1 protease in a crystalline environment and in solution.

Simulations of the unbound form of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 protease have been carried out to 200 ps in a crystalline environment and in solution. Solution simulations were performed with and without charge-balancing counterions. The results are compared with the 2.8-A crystallographic structure of Wlodawer et al. [(1989) Science 245, 616], and a proposed model for the solution structure which involves local refolding of the flap regions is presented. The simulations suggest the crystal packing environment of the protease dimer stabilizes the flaps in an extended conformation. Solvation of the dimer leads to local refolding of the flaps which contract toward the active site, forming increased overlap and stronger intersubunit hydrogn bonding at the tips. The degree to which the flaps overlap in solution is observed to depend on the charge state of the system.