Investigating the interaction of the PKB PH domain with inositol phosphate-based compounds

Protein kinase B (PKB) plays a key role in the phosphoinositide 3-kinase pathway, one of the most frequently activated proliferation pathways in cancer. A key stage in this pathway is PKB’s translocation to the plasma membrane, which is driven by direct interaction of PKB’s pleckstrin homology (PH) domain with the inositol phosphate head-groups of phosphoinositide lipids PtdIns(3,4,5)P3 and PtdIns(3,4)P2. In this thesis a computational approach has been applied to study the interaction between PKB’s PH domain and the inositol phosphate head-groups of phosphoinositide lipids. Herein the first full set of parameters for these inositol phosphates has been generated using a clearly defined algorithmic approach. The parameters have been applied in a total of 6 μs of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to investigate the interaction between inositol phosphates and the PKB PH domain. The simulations successfully mirror, and additionally rationalise, PKB’s experimental interactions and behaviour. As well as investigating the native system, a PKB mutant that has been reported in multiple human cancers has also been explored. This PKB mutant constitutively targets the plasma membrane due to its broadened phosphoinositide selectivity. The atomic-level view available from MD simulations has helped elucidate the molecular mechanism behind this. Information obtained about the PKB PH domain’s binding interface has been used to design inositol phosphate derivatives to inhibit PKB activation. MD simulations have allowed a number of inositol phosphate derivatives to be rapidly screened for their inhibitory behaviour. The predicted behaviour of a select number of these derivatives has been further assessed using biochemical techniques. Gratifyingly, the computational and biochemical results are shown to be in good agreement.Open Acces

Structure and Property of Polymers and Biopolymers from Molecular Dynamic Simulations

Natural and synthetic polymers and biopolymers have been studied for a variety of applications in food emulsion, biopharmaceutical purification, tissue engineering, and biosensor. The structure and property of polymers and biopolymers are critically important to determine their functions. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have a unique advantage to explore the structure and property of polymers and biopolymers from the molecular level. In the dissertation, MD simulations were conducted to study the mechanisms of various biological and chemical processes controlled by polymers and biopolymers based on real-world experimental results. Seven heptapeptides have been screened from a peptide library in our earlier study of the antibody purification. They have substantial binding affinities to the Fc fragment of IgG. In Chapter 2, the binding mechanisms between seven heptapeptides and the Fc fragment have been investigated by protein-ligand docking, free energy calculation and MD simulations. It is the first time that glycan residues are found to be the binding pocket for small ligands. The novel binding pocket is different from the CBS binding site for protein A and protein G. We also found out that, the results of free energy calculations are in good agreement with the ELISA experiments. The thermos-responsive polymer, PVCL (poly(N-vinylcaprolactam)) was grafted on the surface of a membrane as the responsive hydrophobic chromatography for the protein purification in our earlier study. In Chapter 3, significant efforts have been devoted to develop the force field parameters for PVCL. The coil-to-globule conformational transition of PVCL has been successfully observed in MD simulation for the first time. The water dynamics analysis provides significant insights into the interaction between PVCL and water molecules. The novel statistical analysis of VCL ring conformations and the distribution along backbone also elucidate the steric requirement in the coil-to-globule transition. In Chapter 4, MD simulations were conducted to investigate the biocompatibility, energetics and interaction mechanisms between the PVCL polymer chains and bovine serum albumin (BSA) in 1M NaCl and aqueous solutions. Water structures surrounding the polymer chains and BSA as well as their hydrogen bonding, electrostatic and van der Waals interactions were determined. Significant insights were obtained on the effects of polymer hydration state, polymer chain length as well as the presence of salt ions on the protein­ligand interactions. A novel polymeric solid acid catalyst consisting of two polymer chains grafted on a substrate for biomass hydrolysis was successfully synthesized. A poly (styrene sulfonic acid) (PSSA) polymer chain is immobilized on a substrate and used to catalyze biomass hydrolysis. A neighboring poly (vinyl imidazolium chloride) ionic liquid (PIL) polymer chain is grafted to help solubilize lignocellulosic biomass and enhance the catalytic activity. To elucidate mechanistically the catalytic actions and further optimize its performance, interactions among the PSSA, PIL, and cellulose chains were investigated using MD simulations in Chapter 5. Moreover, the free energies surfaces for the interactions between polymer chains and cellulose substrate were determined using combined MD and Metadynamics (MTD) simulations. The research clearly demonstrate that the solvent plays a critical role in the cellulose hydrolysis reaction catalyzed by novel enzyme mimic polymeric catalysts PSSA and PIL. It is found that PSSA chain is likely to form partially dehydrated interaction with cellulose in both aqueous and [EMIM]Cl solutions. PIL plays an important role to prevent the completely dehydrated interactions and facilitate partially dehydrated interaction between PSSA and cellulose chains

The acidic domain of the endothelial membrane protein GPIHBP1 stabilizes lipoprotein lipase activity by preventing unfolding of its catalytic domain.

GPIHBP1 is a glycolipid-anchored membrane protein of capillary endothelial cells that binds lipoprotein lipase (LPL) within the interstitial space and shuttles it to the capillary lumen. The LPL•GPIHBP1 complex is responsible for margination of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins along capillaries and their lipolytic processing. The current work conceptualizes a model for the GPIHBP1•LPL interaction based on biophysical measurements with hydrogen-deuterium exchange/mass spectrometry, surface plasmon resonance, and zero-length cross-linking. According to this model, GPIHBP1 comprises two functionally distinct domains: (1) an intrinsically disordered acidic N-terminal domain; and (2) a folded C-terminal domain that tethers GPIHBP1 to the cell membrane by glycosylphosphatidylinositol. We demonstrate that these domains serve different roles in regulating the kinetics of LPL binding. Importantly, the acidic domain stabilizes LPL catalytic activity by mitigating the global unfolding of LPL's catalytic domain. This study provides a conceptual framework for understanding intravascular lipolysis and GPIHBP1 and LPL mutations causing familial chylomicronemia

EGFR Mutant Structural Database: computationally predicted 3D structures and the corresponding binding free energies with gefitinib and erlotinib

published_or_final_versio

Chromenopyrazole, a Versatile Cannabinoid Scaffold with in Vivo Activity in a Model of Multiple Sclerosis

A combination of molecular modeling and structure activity relationship studies has been used to fine-tune CB2 selectivity in the chromenopyrazole ring, a versatile CB1/CB2 cannabinoid scaffold. Thus, a series of 36 new derivatives covering a wide range of structural diversity has been synthesized, and docking studies have been performed for some of them. Biological evaluation of the new compounds includes, among others, cannabinoid binding assays, functional studies, and surface plasmon resonance measurements. The most promising compound [43 (PM226)], a selective and potent CB2 agonist isoxazole derivative, was tested in the acute phase of Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus-induced demyelinating disease (TMEV-IDD), a well established animal model of primary progressive multiple sclerosis. Compound 43 dampened neuroinflammation by reducing microglial activation in the TMEV

Protein-protein interactions: impact of solvent and effects of fluorination

Proteins have an indispensable role in the cell. They carry out a wide variety of structural, catalytic and signaling functions in all known biological systems. To perform their biological functions, proteins establish interactions with other bioorganic molecules including other proteins. Therefore, protein-protein interactions is one of the central topics in molecular biology. My thesis is devoted to three different topics in the field of protein-protein interactions. The first one focuses on solvent contribution to protein interfaces as it is an important component of protein complexes. The second topic discloses the structural and functional potential of fluorine's unique properties, which are attractive for protein design and engineering not feasible within the scope of canonical amino acids. The last part of this thesis is a study of the impact of charged amino acid residues within the hydrophobic interface of a coiled-coil system, which is one of the well-established model systems for protein-protein interactions studies. I. The majority of proteins interact in vivo in solution, thus studies of solvent impact on protein-protein interactions could be crucial for understanding many processes in the cell. However, though solvent is known to be very important for protein-protein interactions in terms of structure, dynamics and energetics, its effects are often disregarded in computational studies because a detailed solvent description requires complex and computationally demanding approaches. As a consequence, many protein residues, which establish water-mediated interactions, are neither considered in an interface definition. In the previous work carried out in our group the protein interfaces database (SCOWLP) has been developed. This database takes into account interfacial solvent and based on this classifies all interfacial protein residues of the PDB into three classes based on their interacting properties: dry (direct interaction), dual (direct and water-mediated interactions), and wet spots (residues interacting only through one water molecule). To define an interaction SCOWLP considers a donor–acceptor distance for hydrogen bonds of 3.2 Å, for salt bridges of 4 Å, and for van der Waals contacts the sum of the van der Waals radii of the interacting atoms. In previous studies of the group, statistical analysis of a non-redundant protein structure dataset showed that 40.1% of the interfacial residues participate in water-mediated interactions, and that 14.5% of the total residues in interfaces are wet spots. Moreover, wet spots have been shown to display similar characteristics to residues contacting water molecules in cores or cavities of proteins. The goals of this part of the thesis were: 1. to characterize the impact of solvent in protein-protein interactions 2. to elucidate possible effects of solvent inclusion into the correlated mutations approach for protein contacts prediction To study solvent impact on protein interfaces a molecular dynamics (MD) approach has been used. This part of the work is elaborated in section 2.1 of this thesis. We have characterized properties of water-mediated protein interactions at residue and solvent level. For this purpose, an MD analysis of 17 representative complexes from SH3 and immunoglobulin protein families has been performed. We have shown that the interfacial residues interacting through a single water molecule (wet spots) are energetically and dynamically very similar to other interfacial residues. At the same time, water molecules mediating protein interactions have been found to be significantly less mobile than surface solvent in terms of residence time. Calculated free energies indicate that these water molecules should significantly affect formation and stability of a protein-protein complex. The results obtained in this part of the work also suggest that water molecules in protein interfaces contribute to the conservation of protein interactions by allowing more sequence variability in the interacting partners, which has important implications for the use of the correlated mutations concept in protein interactions studies. This concept is based on the assumption that interacting protein residues co-evolve, so that a mutation in one of the interacting counterparts is compensated by a mutation in the other. The study presented in section 2.2 has been carried out to prove that an explicit introduction of solvent into the correlated mutations concept indeed yields qualitative improvement of existing approaches. For this, we have used the data on interfacial solvent obtained from the SCOWLP database (the whole PDB) to construct a “wet” similarity matrix. This matrix has been used for prediction of protein contacts together with a well-established “dry” matrix. We have analyzed two datasets containing 50 domains and 10 domain pairs, and have compared the results obtained by using several combinations of both “dry” and “wet” matrices. We have found that for predictions for both intra- and interdomain contacts the introduction of a combination of a “dry” and a “wet” similarity matrix improves the predictions in comparison to the “dry” one alone. Our analysis opens up the idea that the consideration of water may have an impact on the improvement of the contact predictions obtained by correlated mutations approaches. There are two principally novel aspects in this study in the context of the used correlated mutations methodology : i) the first introduction of solvent explicitly into the correlated mutations approach; ii) the use of the definition of protein-protein interfaces, which is essentially different from many other works in the field because of taking into account physico-chemical properties of amino acids and not being exclusively based on distance cut-offs. II. The second part of the thesis is focused on properties of fluorinated amino acids in protein environments. In general, non-canonical amino acids with newly designed side-chain functionalities are powerful tools that can be used to improve structural, catalytic, kinetic and thermodynamic properties of peptides and proteins, which otherwise are not feasible within the use of canonical amino acids. In this context fluorinated amino acids have increasingly gained in importance in protein chemistry because of fluorine's unique properties: high electronegativity and a small atomic size. Despite the wide use of fluorine in drug design, properties of fluorine in protein environments have not been yet extensively studied. The aims of this part of the dissertation were: 1. to analyze the basic properties of fluorinated amino acids such as electrostatic and geometric characteristics, hydrogen bonding abilities, hydration properties and conformational preferences (section 3.1) 2. to describe the behavior of fluorinated amino acids in systems emulating protein environments (section 3.2, section 3.3) First, to characterize fluorinated amino acids side chains we have used fluorinated ethane derivatives as their simplified models and applied a quantum mechanics approach. Properties such as charge distribution, dipole moments, volumes and size of the fluoromethylated groups within the model have been characterized. Hydrogen bonding properties of these groups have been compared with the groups typically presented in natural protein environments. We have shown that hydrogen and fluorine atoms within these fluoromethylated groups are weak hydrogen bond donors and acceptors. Nevertheless they should not be disregarded for applications in protein engineering. Then, we have implemented four fluorinated L-amino acids for the AMBER force field and characterized their conformational and hydration properties at the MD level. We have found that hydrophobicity of fluorinated side chains grows with the number of fluorine atoms and could be explained in terms of high electronegativity of fluorine atoms and spacial demand of fluorinated side-chains. These data on hydration agrees with the results obtained in the experimental work performed by our collaborators. We have rationally engineered systems that allow us to study fluorine properties and extract results that could be extrapolated to proteins. For this, we have emulated protein environments by introducing fluorinated amino acids into a parallel coiled-coil and enzyme-ligand chymotrypsin systems. The results on fluorination effect on coiled-coil dimerization and substrate affinities in the chymotrypsin active site obtained by MD, molecular docking and free energy calculations are in strong agreement with experimental data obtained by our collaborators. In particular, we have shown that fluorine content and position of fluorination can considerably change the polarity and steric properties of an amino acid side chain and, thus, can influence the properties that a fluorinated amino acid reveals within a native protein environment. III. Coiled-coils typically consist of two to five right-handed α-helices that wrap around each other to form a left-handed superhelix. The interface of two α-helices is usually represented by hydrophobic residues. However, the analysis of protein databases revealed that in natural occurring proteins up to 20% of these positions are populated by polar and charged residues. The impact of these residues on stability of coiled-coil system is not clear. MD simulations together with free energy calculations have been utilized to estimate favourable interaction partners for uncommon amino acids within the hydrophobic core of coiled-coils (Chapter 4). Based on these data, the best hits among binding partners for one strand of a coiled-coil bearing a charged amino acid in a central hydrophobic core position have been selected. Computational data have been in agreement with the results obtained by our collaborators, who applied phage display technology and CD spectroscopy. This combination of theoretical and experimental approaches allowed to get a deeper insight into the stability of the coiled-coil system. To conclude, this thesis widens existing concepts of protein structural biology in three areas of its current importance. We expand on the role of solvent in protein interfaces, which contributes to the knowledge of physico-chemical properties underlying protein-protein interactions. We develop a deeper insight into the understanding of the fluorine's impact upon its introduction into protein environments, which may assist in exploiting the full potential of fluorine's unique properties for applications in the field of protein engineering and drug design. Finally we investigate the mechanisms underlying coiled-coil system folding. The results presented in the thesis are of definite importance for possible applications (e.g. introduction of solvent explicitly into the scoring function) into protein folding, docking and rational design methods. The dissertation consists of four chapters: ● Chapter 1 contains an introduction to the topic of protein-protein interactions including basic concepts and an overview of the present state of research in the field. ● Chapter 2 focuses on the studies of the role of solvent in protein interfaces. ● Chapter 3 is devoted to the work on fluorinated amino acids in protein environments. ● Chapter 4 describes the study of coiled-coils folding properties. The experimental parts presented in Chapters 3 and 4 of this thesis have been performed by our collaborators at FU Berlin. Sections 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2 and Chapter 4 have been submitted/published in peer-reviewed international journals. Their organization follows a standard research article structure: Abstract, Introduction, Methodology, Results and discussion, and Conclusions. Section 3.3, though not published yet, is also organized in the same way. The literature references are summed up together at the end of the thesis to avoid redundancy within different chapters

Pinpointing the Molecular Basis for Metal Ion Effects on Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor-1 (PAI-1)

Plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1 (PAI-1) specifically inhibits the proteases tissue type plasminogen activator and urokinase plasminogen activator to control the activation of fibrinolysis. Vitronectin interacts with PAI-1 primarily through the somatomedin B (SMB) domain to stabilize and localize PAI-1 to sites of injury. Our laboratory observed that transition metals such as copper2+ have VN dependent, reciprocal effects on how long PAI-1 remains active. We aim to determine the molecular basis for effects of copper2+ on PAI-1 activity. We employed a computational algorithm (MUG) to predict metal binding clusters, and introduced mutations hypothesized to create metal binding deficiency. We compared mutants to wild-type by: measurement of stability kinetics, thermodynamic parameters using isothermal titration calorimetry, and protein dynamics using hydrogen deuterium exchange. Active PAI-1 binds copper2+ in the low nanomolar range, while latent binds an order of magnitude weaker. In a mutant lacking the N-terminal histidines of PAI-1, we observed reduced copper2+ binding, but this does not abolish accelerated transition to the latent form. PAI-1 mutants lacking the carboxylate containing resides in the gate region, as well as a histidine of s4B proximal to the flexible joint region require more copper2+ than wild-type to promote accelerated latency formation, making these residues candidates for further metal binding characterization. SMB-PAI-1 complex binds copper2+ with comparable affinity and stoichiometry as PAI-1 alone. Finally, the SMB domain stabilizes PAI-1 by localized effects on dynamics in the same regions that are affected by copper2+. Thus, binding of SMB does not sterically interfere with copper binding to PAI-1, but rather negates copper2+ effects directly through changes in dynamics

Computational Study on Protein Arginine methyl-transferases (PRMTs)

Protein arginine methyltransferases (PRMTs) are essential epigenetic players in living cells. The dysregulation of PRMTs is closely related to many diseases, including cancer. Based on previously reported PRMT1 inhibitors bearing the diamidine pharmacophore, a combinatorial high throughput screening strategy led to compound K313, which possesses a biochemical IC50 value of 0.84 µM against PRMT1. Histone code is the post-translational modification patterns appear at histone, which regulates transcription and many other cellular events. H4R3 is one of the important substrates for both PRMT1 and PRMT5. PRMTs are important in establishing histone code. They are also regulated by the histone code. In this study, we explored the mechanism of how the post-translational modifications on H4 tail peptide affect the activity of PRMTs

Functional monolithic platforms for antibody purification

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Química SustentávelFundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - contracts PEst-C/EQB/LA0006/2011, MIT-Pt/BS-CTRM/0051/2008, PTDC/EBB-BIO/102163/2008, PTDC/EBBBIO/ 098961/2008, PTDC/EBB-BIO/118317/2010 and doctoral grant SFRH/ BD/62475/2009, and Fundação Calouste Gulbenkia