Strength of Hydrogen Bond Network Takes Crucial Roles in the Dissociation Process of Inhibitors from the HIV-1 Protease Binding Pocket

To understand the underlying mechanisms of significant differences in dissociation rate constant among different inhibitors for HIV-1 protease, we performed steered molecular dynamics (SMD) simulations to analyze the entire dissociation processes of inhibitors from the binding pocket of protease at atomistic details. We found that the strength of hydrogen bond network between inhibitor and the protease takes crucial roles in the dissociation process. We showed that the hydrogen bond network in the cyclic urea inhibitors AHA001/XK263 is less stable than that of the approved inhibitor ABT538 because of their large differences in the structures of the networks. In the cyclic urea inhibitor bound complex, the hydrogen bonds often distribute at the flap tips and the active site. In contrast, there are additional accessorial hydrogen bonds formed at the lateral sides of the flaps and the active site in the ABT538 bound complex, which take crucial roles in stabilizing the hydrogen bond network. In addition, the water molecule W301 also plays important roles in stabilizing the hydrogen bond network through its flexible movement by acting as a collision buffer and helping the rebinding of hydrogen bonds at the flap tips. Because of its high stability, the hydrogen bond network of ABT538 complex can work together with the hydrophobic clusters to resist the dissociation, resulting in much lower dissociation rate constant than those of cyclic urea inhibitor complexes. This study may provide useful guidelines for design of novel potent inhibitors with optimized interactions

The missing piece of the type II fatty acid synthase system from Mycobacterium tuberculosis

The Mycobacterium tuberculosis fatty acid synthase type II (FAS-II) system has the unique property of producing unusually long-chain fatty acids involved in the biosynthesis of mycolic acids, key molecules of the tubercle bacillus. The enzyme(s) responsible for dehydration of (3R)-hydroxyacyl-ACP during the elongation cycles of the mycobacterial FAS-II remained unknown. This step is classically catalyzed by FabZ- and FabA-type enzymes in bacteria, but no such proteins are present in mycobacteria. Bioinformatic analyses and an essentiality study allowed the identification of a candidate protein cluster, Rv0635-Rv0636-Rv0637. Its expression in recombinant Escherichia coli strains leads to the formation of two heterodimers, Rv0635-Rv0636 (HadAB) and Rv0636-Rv0637 (HadBC), which also occurs in Mycobacterium smegmatis, as shown by split-Trp assays. Both heterodimers exhibit the enzymatic properties expected for mycobacterial FAS-II dehydratases: a marked specificity for both long-chain (≥C12) and ACP-linked substrates. Furthermore, they function as 3-hydroxyacyl dehydratases when coupled with MabA and InhA enzymes from the M. tuberculosis FAS-II system. HadAB and HadBC are the long-sought (3R)-hydroxyacyl-ACP dehydratases. The correlation between the substrate specificities of these enzymes, the organization of the orthologous gene cluster in different Corynebacterineae, and the structure of their mycolic acids suggests distinct roles for both heterodimers during the elongation process. This work describes bacterial monofunctional (3R)-hydroxyacyl-ACP dehydratases belonging to the hydratase 2 family. Their original structure and the fact that they are essential for M. tuberculosis survival make these enzymes very good candidates for the development of antimycobacterial drugs