Derivation of a scoring function for crystal structure prediction.

The ever increasing number of experimentally resolved crystal structures supports the possibility of fully empirical crystal structure prediction for small organic molecules. Empirical methods promise to be significantly more efficient than methods that attempt to solve the same problem from first principles. However, the transformation from data to empirical knowledge and further to functional algorithms is not trivial and the usefulness of the result depends strongly on the quantity and the quality of the data. In this work, a simple scoring function is parameterized to discriminate between the correct structure and a set of decoys for a large number of different molecular systems. The method is fully automatic and has the advantage that the complete scoring function is parametrized at once, leading to a self-consistent set of parameters. The obtained scoring function is tested on an independent set of crystal structures taken from the P1 and P1; space groups. With the trained scoring function and FlexCryst, a program for small-molecule crystal structure prediction, it is shown that approximately 73% of the 239 tested molecules in space group P1 are predicted correctly. For the more complex space group P1;, the success rate is 26%. Comparison with force-field potentials indicates the physical content of the obtained scoring function, a result of direct importance for protein threading where such database-based potentials are being applied.

Computer simulations of protein folding by targeted molecular dynamics.

We have performed 128 folding and 45 unfolding molecular dynamics runs of chymotrypsin inhibitor 2 (CI2) with an implicit solvation model for a total simulation time of 0.4 microseconds. Folding requires that the three-dimensional structure of the native state is known. It was simulated at 300 K by supplementing the force field with a harmonic restraint which acts on the root-mean-square deviation and allows to decrease the distance to the target conformation. High temperature and/or the harmonic restraint were used to induce unfolding. Of the 62 folding simulations started from random conformations, 31 reached the native structure, while the success rate was 83% for the 66 trajectories which began from conformations unfolded by high-temperature dynamics. A funnel-like energy landscape is observed for unfolding at 475 K, while the unfolding runs at 300 K and 375 K as well as most of the folding trajectories have an almost flat energy landscape for conformations with less than about 50% of native contacts formed. The sequence of events, i.e., secondary and tertiary structure formation, is similar in all folding and unfolding simulations, despite the diversity of the pathways. Previous unfolding simulations of CI2 performed with different force fields showed a similar sequence of events. These results suggest that the topology of the native state plays an important role in the folding process.

Exhaustive docking of molecular fragments with electrostatic solvation.

A new method is presented for docking molecular fragments to a rigid protein with evaluation of the binding energy. Polar fragments are docked with at least one hydrogen bond with the protein while apolar fragments are positioned in the hydrophobic pockets. The electrostatic contribution to the binding energy, which consists of screened intermolecular energy and protein and fragment desolvation terms, is evaluated efficiently by a numerical approach based on the continuum dielectric approximation. The latter is also used to predetermine the hydrophobic pockets of the protein by rolling a low dielectric sphere over the protein surface and calculating the electrostatic desolvation of the protein and van der Waals interaction energy. The method was implemented in the program SEED (solvation energy for exhaustive docking). The SEED continuum electrostatic approach has been successfully validated by a comparison with finite difference solutions of the Poisson equation for more than 2,500 complexes of small molecules with thrombin and the monomer of HIV-1 aspartic proteinase. The fragments docked by SEED in the active site of thrombin reproduce the structural features of the interaction patterns between known inhibitors and thrombin. Moreover, the combinatorial connection of these fragments yields a number of compounds that are very similar to potent inhibitors of thrombin. Proteins 1999;37:88-105.

Computational ligand design.

A variety of computational tools that are used to assist drug design are reviewed. Particular emphasis is given to the limitations and merits of different methodologies. Recently, a number of general methods have been proposed for clustering compounds in classes of drug-like and non-drug-like molecules. The usefulness of this classification for drug design is discussed. The estimation of (relative) binding affinities is from a theoretical point of view the most challenging part of ligand design. We review three methods for the estimation of binding energies. Firstly, quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR) are presented. These have gained significantly from recent developments of experimental techniques for combinatorial synthesis and high-throughput screening as well as the use of powerful computational procedures like genetic algorithms and neural networks for the derivation of models. Secondly, empirical energy functions are shown to lead to more general models than standard QSAR, since they are fitted to a variety of complexes. They have been used recently with considerable success. Thirdly, we briefly outline free energy calculations based on molecular dynamics simulations, the method with the most sound theoretical foundation. Recent developments are reestablishing the interest in this approach. In the last part of this review structure-based ligand design programs are described. These are closely related to docking, with the difference that in design, unlike in most docking procedures, ligands are built on a fragment-by-fragment basis. Finally, a short description of our approach to computational combinatorial ligand design is given.

Shift of the special pair redox potential: electrostatic energy computations of mutants of the reaction center from Rhodobacter sphaeroides.

Shifts of the special pair redox potential of the photosynthetic reaction center of Rhodobacter sphaeroides are considered for several point mutations [Lin. X., Murchison, H. A., Nagarijan, V., Parson, W. W., Allen, J. P., & Williams, J. C. (1994) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 91, 10265-10269] in the neighborhood of the special pair. The shifts are calculated from electrostatic energies by solving Poisson's equation for energy-minimized structures of the reaction center. Different conditions for the evaluation of the electrostatic energy are probed. To test the influence of the hydrogen bonding at the acetyl groups of the special pair, the orientation and torsion potential of the acetyl groups are varied. The calculated shifts of the midpoint potential of double and triple mutants can approximately be obtained from the corresponding shifts of the single point mutations. The calculated shifts agree with the measured values for all single and double mutants considered. However, a clear decision between different acetyl group conformations was only possible for the mutants HF(L168) and HF(L168) + LH(L131) where the calculated shifts of the redox potential agree with experiments only if the acetyl oxygen atom at DM points toward the Mg2+ ion of DL. This is corroborated by computations of the interaction energy of the acetyl group at DM, which adopts a lower value in the wild-type reaction center if its oxygen atom is bonded to the Mg2+ ion of DL.

HLA antigens and asthma in Greeks.

HLA-A and -B antigens were determined in a group of 76 Greek asthmatic patients: 35 children (1.5-15 years) and 41 adults (18-73 years). The results were compared to those of 400 healthy unrelated controls from the same population. The standard NIH lymphocytotoxicity test was applied. When all 76 patients were compared to the controls, a statistically significant lower frequency of HLA-B5 and -B35 antigens was noted. When adults were analysed alone, an increased frequency of HLA-B8 was found. On the other hand, in the asthmatic children sub-group, the HLA-A10 antigen was significantly higher and the HLA-B5 was significantly lower than in the controls. These data imply that different HLA antigens may be involved in the pathogenesis of several clinical forms of asthma and that, in order to study the role of immunogenetic factor(s) in the pathogenesis of this disease, more adequate grouping criteria are needed.

Use of ion-selective electrodes in kinetic flow injection: determination of phenolic and hydrazino drugs with 1-fluoro-2,4-dinitrobenzene using a fluoride-selective electrode.

A flow injection (FI) kinetic potentiometric method for the determination of phenolic (acetaminophen and isoxsuprine) and hydrazino (isoniazid) drugs is described. This work shows the usefulness of ion-selective electrodes as detectors in FI systems, not only for direct ion determination but also in routine kinetic analysis. The method is based on the reaction of 1-fluoro-2,4-dinitrobenzene (FDNB) with the analytes in a weakly alkaline medium, which proceeds through the liberation of fluoride from the reagent. The slow reactions with phenols are catalysed by micelles of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide. The reaction rate is monitored with a fluoride-selective electrode in a wall-jet configuration and is used to construct a calibration graph of antilog(delta E/S)-1 versus c (where E = potential, s = slope of the electrode and c = concentration), using the fixed-time approach. The response time and the long-term stability of the electrode were found to be adequate for such kinetic determinations. The proposed method overcomes problems associated with end-point spectrophotometric methods using FDNB and allows measurements in highly coloured or turbid solutions. The optimized method has a linear concentration range of 1 x 10(-4)-50 x 10(-4) mol dm-3, a measurement throughput of 20 or 40 per hour and the precision ranges from 1.8 to 3.6% relative standard deviation (n = 3). Results obtained for commercial pharmaceutical formulations compare favourably with those given by reference methods.