IDENTIFICATION OF POTENTIAL SALMONELLA TYPHI BETA-LACTAMASE TEM 1 INHIBITORS USING PEPTIDOMIMETICS, VIRTUAL SCREENING, AND MOLECULAR DYNAMICS SIMULATIONS

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify a potential peptidomimetic S. typhi Beta-lactamase TEM 1 inhibitor to tackle the antibiotic resistance among S. typhi.Methods: The potential peptidomimetic inhibitor was identified by in silico docking of the small peptide WFRKQLKW with S. typhi Beta-lactamase TEM 1. The 3D coordinate geometry of the residues of small peptide interacting with the active site of the receptor was generated and mimics were identified using PEP: MMs: MIMIC server. All the identified mimics were docked at the active site of the receptor using Autodock 4.2 and the best-docked complex was selected on the basis of binding energy and number of H-bonds. The complex was then subjected to molecular dynamics simulations of 30 ns using AMBER 12 software package. The stereochemical stability of the Beta-lactamase TEM 1-WFRKQLKW complex was estimated with the help of Ramachandran plot using PROCHECK tool.Results: In the present study, a new potential peptidomimetic inhibitor (ZINC05839264) of Beta-lactamase TEM 1 has been identified based on antimicrobial peptide WFRKQLKW by virtual screening of the MMsINC database. The docking and molecular simulation studies revealed that the mimic binds more tightly to the active site of the receptor than the peptide. The Ramachandran plot also shows that the Beta-lactamase TEM 1-mimic complex is stereo chemically more stable than Beta-lactamase TEM 1-WFRKQLKW complex as more number of residues (93.6%) are falling under the core region of the plot in case of the former.Conclusion: The study shows that the peptidomimetic compound can act as a potential inhibitor of S. typhi Beta-lactamase TEM 1 and further it can be developed into more effective therapeutic to tackle the problem of antibiotic resistance

LightDock: a new multi-scale approach to protein–protein docking

Computational prediction of protein–protein complex structure by docking can provide structural and mechanistic insights for protein interactions of biomedical interest. However, current methods struggle with difficult cases, such as those involving flexible proteins, low-affinity complexes or transient interactions. A major challenge is how to efficiently sample the structural and energetic landscape of the association at different resolution levels, given that each scoring function is often highly coupled to a specific type of search method. Thus, new methodologies capable of accommodating multi-scale conformational flexibility and scoring are strongly needed. We describe here a new multi-scale protein–protein docking methodology, LightDock, capable of accommodating conformational flexibility and a variety of scoring functions at different resolution levels. Implicit use of normal modes during the search and atomic/coarse-grained combined scoring functions yielded improved predictive results with respect to state-of-the-art rigid-body docking, especially in flexible cases.B.J-G was supported by a FPI fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. This work was supported by I+D+I Research Project grants BIO2013-48213-R and BIO2016-79930-R from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. This work is partially supported by the European Union H2020 program through HiPEAC (GA 687698), by the Spanish Government through Programa Severo Ochoa (SEV-2015-0493), by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (TIN2015-65316-P) and the Departament d’Innovació, Universitats i Empresa de la Generalitat de Catalunya, under project MPEXPAR: Models de Programaciói Entorns d’Execució Paral·lels (2014-SGR-1051).Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

A Human-Derived Monoclonal Antibody Targeting Extracellular Connexin Domain Selectively Modulates Hemichannel Function

Connexin hemichannels, which are plasma membrane hexameric channels (connexons) composed of connexin protein protomers, have been implicated in a host of physiological processes and pathological conditions. A number of single point pathological mutations impart a "leaky" character to the affected hemichannels, i.e., make them more active or hyperactive, suggesting that normal physiological condition could be recovered using selective hemichannel inhibitors. Recently, a human-derived monoclonal antibody named abEC1.1 has been shown to inhibit both wild type and hyperactive hemichannels composed of human (h) connexin 26 (hCx26) subunits. The aims of this work were (1) to characterize further the ability of abEC1.1 to selectively modulate connexin hemichannel function and (2) to assess its in vitro stability in view of future translational applications. In silico analysis of abEC1.1 interaction with the hCx26 hemichannel identified critically important extracellular domain amino acids that are conserved in connexin 30 (hCx30) and connexin 32 (hCx32). Patch clamp experiments performed in HeLa DH cells confirmed the inhibition efficiency of abEC1.1 was comparable for hCx26, hCx30 and hCx32 hemichannels. Of note, even a single amino acid difference in the putative binding region reduced drastically the inhibitory effects of the antibody on all the other tested hemichannels, namely hCx30.2/31.3, hCx30.3, hCx31, hCx31.1, hCx37, hCx43 and hCx45. Plasma membrane channels composed of pannexin 1 were not affected by abEC1.1. Finally, size exclusion chromatography assays showed the antibody does not aggregate appreciably in vitro. Altogether, these results indicate abEC1.1 is a promising tool for further translational studies

Tracking global changes induced in the CD4 T-cell receptor repertoire by immunization with a complex antigen using short stretches of CDR3 protein sequence.

The clonal theory of adaptive immunity proposes that immunological responses are encoded by increases in the frequency of lymphocytes carrying antigen-specific receptors. In this study, we measure the frequency of different T-cell receptors (TcR) in CD4 + T cell populations of mice immunized with a complex antigen, killed Mycobacterium tuberculosis, using high throughput parallel sequencing of the TcRβ chain. Our initial hypothesis that immunization would induce repertoire convergence proved to be incorrect, and therefore an alternative approach was developed that allows accurate stratification of TcR repertoires and provides novel insights into the nature of CD4 + T-cell receptor recognition

Computational Modeling of Designed Ankyrin Repeat Protein Complexes with their Targets

Recombinant therapeutic proteins are playing an ever-increasing role in the clinic. High-affinity binding candidates can be produced in a high-throughput manner through the process of selection and evolution from large libraries, but the structures of the complexes with target protein can only be determined for a small number of them in a costly, low-throughput manner, typically by x-ray crystallography. Reliable modeling of complexes would greatly help to understand their mode of action and improve them by further engineering, for example, by designing bi-paratopic binders. Designed ankyrin repeat proteins (DARPins) are one such class of antibody mimetics that have proven useful in the clinic, in diagnostics and research. Here we have developed a standardized procedure to model DARPin–target complexes that can be used to predict the structures of unknown complexes. It requires only the sequence of a DARPin and a structure of the unbound target. The procedure includes homology modeling of the DARPin, modeling of the flexible parts of a target, rigid body docking to ensembles of the target and docking with a partially flexible backbone. For a set of diverse DARPin–target complexes tested it generated a single model of the complex that well approximates the native state of the complex. We provide a protocol that can be used in a semi-automated way and with tools that are freely available. The presented concepts should help to accelerate the development of novel bio-therapeutics for scaffolds with similar properties

Structural Basis for the Recognition in an Idiotype-Anti-Idiotype Antibody Complex Related to Celiac Disease

Anti-idiotype antibodies have potential therapeutic applications in many fields, including autoimmune diseases. Herein we report the isolation and characterization of AIM2, an anti-idiotype antibody elicited in a mouse model upon expression of the celiac disease-specific autoantibody MB2.8 (directed against the main disease autoantigen type 2 transglutaminase, TG2). To characterize the interaction between the two antibodies, a 3D model of the MB2.8-AIM2 complex has been obtained by molecular docking. Analysis and selection of the different obtained docking solutions was based on the conservation within them of the inter-residue contacts. The selected model is very well representative of the different solutions found and its stability is confirmed by molecular dynamics simulations. Furthermore, the binding mode it adopts is very similar to that observed in most of the experimental structures available for idiotype-anti-idiotype antibody complexes. In the obtained model, AIM2 is directed against the MB2.8 CDR region, especially on its variable light chain. This makes the concurrent formation of the MB2.8-AIM2 complex and of the MB2.8-TG2 complex incompatible, thus explaining the experimentally observed inhibitory effect on the MB2.8 binding to TG2

Mutation of Trp131residue of Hiv-1 Integrase to T131f and Studying its Interactions with Ledgf/P75

Ubc13, an ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme (Ubc), requires the presence of an Ubc variant (Uev) for polyubiquitination. MMS2 (methyl methane sulfonate) and Uev1A has similar sequence homology. The difference in these two variants is 12 Amino acid residues. But these 12 amino acids residues are dictating two different pathways in which one path way leads to innate immunity (Uev1a with UBC13) and other leads to DNA Repair pathway (MMS2 with UBC13). Generating mutations in MMS2 and analyzing the MMS2 mutants with UBC13, followed by ubiquitin assays will help us to understand which amino acid residue is important for the pathway specificity

Mutation of Trp131residue of Hiv-1 Integrase to T131f and Studying its Interactions with Ledgf/P75

Ubc13, an ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme (Ubc), requires the presence of an Ubc variant (Uev) for polyubiquitination. MMS2 (methyl methane sulfonate) and Uev1A has similar sequence homology. The difference in these two variants is 12 Amino acid residues. But these 12 amino acids residues are dictating two different pathways in which one path way leads to innate immunity (Uev1a with UBC13) and other leads to DNA Repair pathway (MMS2 with UBC13). Generating mutations in MMS2 and analyzing the MMS2 mutants with UBC13, followed by ubiquitin assays will help us to understand which amino acid residue is important for the pathway specificity

Can We Improve Vaccine Efficacy by Targeting T and B Cell Repertoire Convergence?

Traditional vaccine development builds on the assumption that healthy individuals have virtually unlimited antigen recognition repertoires of receptors in B cells and T cells [the B cell receptor (BCR) and TCR respectively]. However, there are indications that there are “holes” in the breadth of repertoire diversity, where no or few B or T cell are able to bind to a given antigen. Repertoire diversity may in these cases be a limiting factor for vaccine efficacy. Assuming that it is possible to predict which B and T cell receptors will respond to a given immunogen, vaccine strategies could be optimized and personalized. In addition, vaccine testing could be simplified if we could predict responses through sequencing BCR and TCRs. Bulk sequencing has shown putatively specific converging sequences after infection or vaccination. However, only single cell technologies have made it possible to capture the sequence of both heavy and light chains of a BCR or the alpha and beta chains the TCR. This has enabled the cloning of receptors and the functional validation of a predicted specificity. This review summarizes recent evidence of converging sequences in infectious diseases. Current and potential future applications of single cell technology in immune repertoire analysis are then discussed. Finally, possible short- and long- term implications for vaccine research are highlighted