scholarly journals New CHARMM force field parameters for dehydrated amino acid residues, the key to lantibiotic molecular dynamics simulations

RSC Advances ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (89) ◽  
pp. 48621-48631 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanor R. Turpin ◽  
Sam Mulholland ◽  
Andrew M. Teale ◽  
Boyan B. Bonev ◽  
Jonathan D. Hirst
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Dynamics ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Force Field ◽  
Molecular Dynamics Simulations ◽  
Amino Acid Residues ◽  
Charmm Force Field ◽  
Force Field Parameters ◽  
Dynamics Simulations

scholarly journals SLC6A14, a Pivotal Actor on Cancer Stage: When Function Meets Structure

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (9) ◽  
pp. 928-938 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Palazzolo ◽  
Chiara Paravicini ◽  
Tommaso Laurenzi ◽  
Sara Adobati ◽  
Simona Saporiti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Dynamics ◽  
Amino Acids ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Molecular Dynamics Simulations ◽  
Electrostatic Interactions ◽  
Amino Acid Residues ◽  
Dibasic Amino Acid ◽  
Novel Target ◽  
Function Relationship ◽  
Dynamics Simulations

SLC6A14 (ATB0,+) is a sodium- and chloride-dependent neutral and dibasic amino acid transporter that regulates the distribution of amino acids across cell membranes. The transporter is overexpressed in many human cancers characterized by an increased demand for amino acids; as such, it was recently acknowledged as a novel target for cancer therapy. The knowledge on the molecular mechanism of SLC6A14 transport is still limited, but some elegant studies on related transporters report the involvement of the 12 transmembrane α-helices in the transport mechanism, and describe structural rearrangements mediated by electrostatic interactions with some pivotal gating residues. In the present work, we constructed a SLC6A14 model in outward-facing conformation via homology modeling and used molecular dynamics simulations to predict amino acid residues critical for substrate recognition and translocation. We docked the proteinogenic amino acids and other known substrates in the SLC6A14 binding site to study both gating regions and the exposed residues involved in transport. Interestingly, some of these residues correspond to those previously identified in other LeuT-fold transporters; however, we could also identify a novel relevant residue with such function. For the first time, by combined approaches of molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations, we highlight the potential role of these residues in neutral amino acid transport. This novel information unravels new aspects of the human SLC6A14 structure–function relationship and may have important outcomes for cancer treatment through the design of novel inhibitors of SLC6A14-mediated transport.

A test of improved force field parameters for urea: molecular-dynamics simulations of urea crystals

2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (8) ◽  
pp. 3455-3466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gül Altınbaş Özpınar ◽  
Frank R. Beierlein ◽  
Wolfgang Peukert ◽  
Dirk Zahn ◽  
Timothy Clark
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Dynamics ◽  
Force Field ◽  
Molecular Dynamics Simulations ◽  
Force Field Parameters ◽  
Dynamics Simulations

scholarly journals Pyranose Ring Puckering Thermodynamics for Glycan Monosaccharides Associated with Vertebrate Proteins

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 473
Author(s):  
Olgun Guvench ◽  
Devon Martin ◽  
Megan Greene
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Dynamics ◽  
Force Field ◽  
Molecular Dynamics Simulations ◽  
Biomolecular Dynamics ◽  
Explicit Solvent ◽  
Conformational Properties ◽  
Adaptive Biasing ◽  
Charmm Force Field ◽  
Ring Puckering ◽  
Dynamics Simulations

The conformational properties of carbohydrates can contribute to protein structure directly through covalent conjugation in the cases of glycoproteins and proteoglycans and indirectly in the case of transmembrane proteins embedded in glycolipid-containing bilayers. However, there continue to be significant challenges associated with experimental structural biology of such carbohydrate-containing systems. All-atom explicit-solvent molecular dynamics simulations provide a direct atomic resolution view of biomolecular dynamics and thermodynamics, but the accuracy of the results depends on the quality of the force field parametrization used in the simulations. A key determinant of the conformational properties of carbohydrates is ring puckering. Here, we applied extended system adaptive biasing force (eABF) all-atom explicit-solvent molecular dynamics simulations to characterize the ring puckering thermodynamics of the ten common pyranose monosaccharides found in vertebrate biology (as represented by the CHARMM carbohydrate force field). The results, along with those for idose, demonstrate that the CHARMM force field reliably models ring puckering across this diverse set of molecules, including accurately capturing the subtle balance between 4C1 and 1C4 chair conformations in the cases of iduronate and of idose. This suggests the broad applicability of the force field for accurate modeling of carbohydrate-containing vertebrate biomolecules such as glycoproteins, proteoglycans, and glycolipids.

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