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Computational screening of the effects of mutations on protein-protein off-rates and dissociation mechanisms by τRAMD

Abstract (Expand)

Abstract The dissociation rate, or its reciprocal, the residence time (τ), is a crucial parameter for understanding the duration and biological impact of biomolecular interactions. Accurate prediction …tions. Accurate prediction of τ is essential for understanding protein-protein interactions (PPIs) and identifying potential drug targets or modulators for tackling diseases. Conventional molecular dynamics simulation techniques are inherently constrained by their limited timescales, making it challenging to estimate residence times, which typically range from minutes to hours. Building upon its successful application in protein-small molecule systems, τ-Random Acceleration Molecular Dynamics (τRAMD) is here investigated for estimating dissociation rates of protein-protein complexes. τRAMD enables the observation of unbinding events on the nanosecond timescale, facilitating rapid and efficient computation of relative residence times. We tested this methodology for three protein-protein complexes and their extensive mutant datasets, achieving good agreement between computed and experimental data. By combining τRAMD with MD-IFP (Interaction Fingerprint) analysis, dissociation mechanisms were characterized and their sensitivity to mutations investigated, enabling the identification of molecular hotspots for selective modulation of dissociation kinetics. In conclusion, our findings underscore the versatility of τRAMD as a simple and computationally efficient approach for computing relative protein-protein dissociation rates and investigating dissociation mechanisms, thereby aiding the design of PPI modulators.

Authors: Giulia D’Arrigo, Daria B. Kokh, Ariane Nunes-Alves, Rebecca C. Wade

Date Published: 1st Dec 2024

Publication Type: Journal

A community effort in SARS‐CoV‐2 drug discovery

Abstract (Expand)

Abstract The COVID‐19 pandemic continues to pose a substantial threat to human lives and is likely to do so for years to come. Despite the availability of vaccines, searching for efficient small‐molecule …r efficient small‐molecule drugs that are widely available, including in low‐ and middle‐income countries, is an ongoing challenge. In this work, we report the results of an open science community effort, the “Billion molecules against COVID‐19 challenge”, to identify small‐molecule inhibitors against SARS‐CoV‐2 or relevant human receptors. Participating teams used a wide variety of computational methods to screen a minimum of 1 billion virtual molecules against 6 protein targets. Overall, 31 teams participated, and they suggested a total of 639,024 molecules, which were subsequently ranked to find ‘consensus compounds’. The organizing team coordinated with various contract research organizations (CROs) and collaborating institutions to synthesize and test 878 compounds for biological activity against proteases (Nsp5, Nsp3, TMPRSS2), nucleocapsid N, RdRP (only the Nsp12 domain), and (alpha) spike protein S. Overall, 27 compounds with weak inhibition/binding were experimentally identified by binding‐, cleavage‐, and/or viral suppression assays and are presented here. Open science approaches such as the one presented here contribute to the knowledge base of future drug discovery efforts in finding better SARS‐CoV‐2 treatments.

Authors: Johannes Schimunek, Philipp Seidl, Katarina Elez, Tim Hempel, Tuan Le, Frank Noé, Simon Olsson, Lluís Raich, Robin Winter, Hatice Gokcan, Filipp Gusev, Evgeny M. Gutkin, Olexandr Isayev, Maria G. Kurnikova, Chamali H. Narangoda, Roman Zubatyuk, Ivan P. Bosko, Konstantin V. Furs, Anna D. Karpenko, Yury V. Kornoushenko, Mikita Shuldau, Artsemi Yushkevich, Mohammed Benabderrahmane, Patrick Bousquet-Melou, Ronan Bureau, Beatrice Charton, Bertrand Cirou, Gérard Gil, William J. Allen, Suman Sirimulla, Stanley Watowich, Nick Antonopoulos, Nikolaos Epitropakis, Agamemnon Krasoulis, Vassilis Pitsikalis, Stavros Theodorakis, Igor Kozlovskii, Anton Maliutin, Alexander Medvedev, Petr Popov, Mark Zaretckii, Hamid Eghbal-zadeh, Christina Halmich, Sepp Hochreiter, Andreas Mayr, Peter Ruch, Michael Widrich, Francois Berenger, Ashutosh Kumar, Yoshihiro Yamanishi, Kam Zhang, Emmanuel Bengio, Yoshua Bengio, Moksh Jain, Maksym Korablyov, Cheng-Hao Liu, Marcous Gilles, Enrico Glaab, Kelly Barnsley, Suhasini M. Iyengar, Mary Jo Ondrechen, V. Joachim Haupt, Florian Kaiser, Michael Schroeder, Luisa Pugliese, Simone Albani, Christina Athanasiou, Andrea Beccari, Paolo Carloni, Giulia D'Arrigo, Eleonora Gianquinto, Jonas Goßen, Anton Hanke, Benjamin P. Joseph, Daria B. Kokh, Sandra Kovachka, Candida Manelfi, Goutam Mukherjee, Abraham Muñiz-Chicharro, Francesco Musiani, Ariane Nunes-Alves, Giulia Paiardi, Giulia Rossetti, S. Kashif Sadiq, Francesca Spyrakis, Carmine Talarico, Alexandros Tsengenes, Rebecca Wade, Conner Copeland, Jeremiah Gaiser, Daniel R. Olson, Amitava Roy, Vishwesh Venkatraman, Travis J. Wheeler, Haribabu Arthanari, Klara Blaschitz, Marco Cespugli, Vedat Durmaz, Konstantin Fackeldey, Patrick D. Fischer, Christoph Gorgulla, Christian Gruber, Karl Gruber, Michael Hetmann, Jamie E. Kinney, Krishna M. Padmanabha Das, Shreya Pandita, Amit Singh, Georg Steinkellner, Guilhem Tesseyre, Gerhard Wagner, Zi-Fu Wang, Ryan J. Yust, Dmitry S. Druzhilovskiy, Dmitry Filimonov, Pavel V. Pogodin, Vladimir Poroikov, Anastassia V. Rudik, Leonid A. Stolbov, Alexander V. Veselovsky, Maria De Rosa, Giada De Simone, Maria R. Gulotta, Jessica Lombino, Nedra Mekni, Ugo Perricone, Arturo Casini, Amanda Embree, D. Benjamin Gordon, David Lei, Katelin Pratt, Christopher A. Voigt, Kuang-Yu Chen, Yves Jacob, Tim Krischuns, Pierre Lafaye, Agnès Zettor, M. Luis Rodríguez, Kris M. White, Daren Fearon, Frank von Delft, Martin A. Walsh, Dragos Horvath, Charles L. Brooks, Babak Falsafi, Bryan Ford, Adolfo García-Sastre, Sang Yup Lee, Nadia Naffakh, Alexandre Varnek, Guenter Klambauer, Thomas M. Hermans

Date Published: 2024

Publication Type: Journal

PfCRT mutations conferring piperaquine resistance in falciparum malaria shape the kinetics of quinoline drug binding and transport

Abstract (Expand)

The chloroquine resistance transporter (PfCRT) confers resistance to a wide range of quinoline and quinoline-like antimalarial drugs in Plasmodium falciparum , with local drug histories driving its …rum , with local drug histories driving its evolution and, hence, the drug transport specificities. For example, the change in prescription practice from chloroquine (CQ) to piperaquine (PPQ) in Southeast Asia has resulted in PfCRT variants that carry an additional mutation, leading to PPQ resistance and, concomitantly, to CQ re-sensitization. How this additional amino acid substitution guides such opposing changes in drug susceptibility is largely unclear. Here, we show by detailed kinetic analyses that both the CQ- and the PPQ-resistance conferring PfCRT variants can bind and transport both drugs. Surprisingly, the kinetic profiles revealed subtle yet significant differences, defining a threshold for in vivo CQ and PPQ resistance. Competition kinetics, together with docking and molecular dynamics simulations, show that the PfCRT variant from the Southeast Asian P . falciparum strain Dd2 can accept simultaneously both CQ and PPQ at distinct but allosterically interacting sites. Furthermore, combining existing mutations associated with PPQ resistance created a PfCRT isoform with unprecedented non-Michaelis-Menten kinetics and superior transport efficiency for both CQ and PPQ. Our study provides additional insights into the organization of the substrate binding cavity of PfCRT and, in addition, reveals perspectives for PfCRT variants with equal transport efficiencies for both PPQ and CQ.

Authors: Guillermo M. Gomez, Giulia D’Arrigo, Cecilia P. Sanchez, Fiona Berger, Rebecca C. Wade, Michael Lanzer

Date Published: 7th Jun 2023

Publication Type: Journal

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