Prediction of the Human EP1 Receptor Binding Site by Homology Modeling and Molecular Dynamics Simulation

The prostanoid receptor EP1 is a G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) known to be involved in a variety of pathological disorders such as pain, fever and inflammation. These receptors are important drug targets, but design of subtype specific agonists and antagonists has been partially hampered by the absence of three-dimensional structures for these receptors. To understand the molecular interactions of the PGE2, an endogen ligand, with the EP1 receptor, a homology model of the human EP1 receptor (hEP1R) with all connecting loops was constructed from the 2.6 Å resolution crystal structure (PDB code: 1L9H) of bovine rhodopsin. The initial model generated by MODELLER was subjected to molecular dynamics simulation to assess quality of the model. Also, a step by step ligand-supported model refinement was performed, including initial docking of PGE2 and iloprost in the putative binding site, followed by several rounds of energy minimizations and molecular dynamics simulations. Docking studies were performed for PGE2 and some other related compounds in the active site of the final hEP1 receptor model. The docking enabled us to identify key molecular interactions supported by the mutagenesis data. Also, the correlation of r2=0.81 was observed between the Ki values and the docking scores of 15 prostanoid compounds. The results obtained in this study may provide new insights toward understanding the active site conformation of the hEP1 receptor and can be used for the structure-based design of novel specific ligands

Protein-x of hepatitis B virus in interaction with CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein α (C/EBPα) - an in silico analysis approach

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Even though many functions of protein-x from the Hepatitis B virus (HBV) have been revealed, the nature of protein-x is yet unknown. This protein is well-known for its transactivation activity through interaction with several cellular transcription factors, it is also known as an oncogene. In this work, we have presented computational approaches to design a model to show the structure of protein-x and its respective binding sites associated with the CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein α (C/EBPα). C/EBPα belongs to the bZip family of transcription factors, which activates transcription of several genes through its binding sites in liver and fat cells. The C/EBPα has been shown to bind and modulate enhancer I and the enhancer II/core promoter of HBV. In this study using the bioinformatics tools we tried to present a reliable model for the protein-x interaction with C/EBPα.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The amino acid sequence of protein-x was extracted from UniProt [UniProt:Q80IU5] and the x-ray crystal structure of the partial CCAAT-enhancer α [PDB:<ext-link ext-link-id="1NWQ" ext-link-type="pdb">1NWQ</ext-link>] was retrieved from the Protein Data Bank (PDB). Similarity search for protein-x was carried out by psi-blast and bl2seq using NCBI [GenBank: <ext-link ext-link-id="BAC65106.1" ext-link-type="gen">BAC65106.1</ext-link>] and Local Meta-Threading-Server (LOMETS) was used as a threading server for determining the maximum tertiary structure similarities. Advanced MODELLER was implemented to design a comparative model, however, due to the lack of a suitable template, Quark was used for <it>ab initio </it>tertiary structure prediction.</p> <p>The PDB-blast search indicated a maximum of 23% sequence identity and 33% similarity with crystal structure of the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus leader protease Nsp1α [PDB:<ext-link ext-link-id="3IFU" ext-link-type="pdb">3IFU</ext-link>]. This meant that protein-x does not have a suitable template to predict its tertiary structure using comparative modeling tools, therefore we used QUARK as an <it>ab initio </it>3D prediction approach. Docking results from the <it>ab initio </it>tertiary structure of protein-x and crystal structure of the C/EBPα- DNA region [PDB:<ext-link ext-link-id="1NWQ" ext-link-type="pdb">1NWQ</ext-link>] illustrated the protein-binding site interactions. Indeed, the N-terminal part of 1NWQ has a high affinity for certain regions in protein-x (e.g. from Ala76 to Ser101 and Thr105 to Glu125).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In this study, we predicted the structure of protein-x of HBV in interaction with C/EBPα. The docking results showed that protein-x has an interaction synergy with C/EBPα. However, despite previous experimental data, protein-x was found to interact with DNA. This can lead to a better understanding of the function of protein-x and may provide an opportunity to use it as a therapeutic target.</p

Design, modeling, expression, and chemoselective PEGylation of a new nanosize cysteine analog of erythropoietin

Reza Ahangari Cohan1, Armin Madadkar-Sobhani2,3, Hossein Khanahmad1, Farzin Roohvand4, Mohammad Reza Aghasadeghi4, Mohammad Hossein Hedayati5, Zahra Barghi5, Mehdi Shafiee Ardestani4, Davoud Nouri Inanlou1, Dariush Norouzian11Research and Development Department, Production and Research Complex, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran; 2Department of Bioinformatics, Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran; 3Department of Life Sciences, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Barcelona, Spain; 4Hepatitis and AIDS Department, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran; 5Quality Control Department, Production and Research Complex, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, IranBackground: Recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) is considered to be one of the most pivotal pharmaceutical drugs in the market because of its clinical application in the treatment of anemia-associated disorders worldwide. However, like other therapeutic proteins, it does not have suitable pharmacokinetic properties for it to be administrated at least two to three times per week. Chemoselective cysteine PEGylation, employing molecular dynamics and graphics in in silico studies, can be considered to overcome such a problem.Methods: A special kind of EPO analog was elicited based on a literature review, homology modeling, molecular dynamic simulation, and factors affecting the PEGylation reaction. Then, cDNA of the selected analog was generated by site-directed mutagenesis and subsequently cloned into the expression vector. The construct was transfected to Chinese hamster ovary/dhfr- cells, and highly expressed clones were selected via methotrexate amplification. Ion-immobilized affinity and size exclusion (SE) chromatography techniques were used to purify the expressed analog. Thereafter, chemoselective PEGylation was performed and a nanosize PEGylated EPO was obtained through dialysis. The in vitro biologic assay and in vivo pharmacokinetic parameters were studied. Finally, E31C analog Fourier transform infrared, analytical SE-high-performance liquid chromatography, zeta potential, and size before and after PEGylation were characterized.Results: The findings indicate that a novel nanosize EPO31-PEG has a five-fold longer terminal half-life in rats with similar biologic activity compared with unmodified rhEPO in proliferation cell assay. The results also show that EPO31-PEG size and charge versus unmodified protein was increased in a nanospectrum, and this may be one criterion of EPO biologic potency enhancement.Discussion: This kind of novel engineered nanosize PEGylated EPO has remarkable advantages over rhEPO.Keywords: nanoPEGylated EPO, cysteine PEGylation, pharmacokinetic propert

Anti-tumor activity of new quinoline derivatives in human breast cancer T47D cells

New cytotoxic quinoline derivatives were designed, synthesized and evaluated in vitro as anti-tumor agents in comparison to available drugs including Adriamycin (ADR), Vincristin (VCR), Etoposide (VP16) and Tamoxifen (TAM). Human breast cancer T47D cells were cultured in RPMI 1640 complete culture medium and exposed for 48 h to different concentrations of newly synthesized quinoline derivatives SRA-HX-(1-3) and SRA-BQ and also to ADR, VCR, VP16 and TAM. A dose-dependent decrease in cell proliferation was observed following exposure to almost all synthesized quinolines. The highest cytotoxicity was seen at 1�10-4M concentration of SRA-HX-3 that was near to growth inhibitory effect of ADR (1�10-6M) and significantly (p&lt;0.002) greater than VCR, VP16 and TAM (each at 1�10-6M). The other 3 compounds (1�10-4M) had similar activity to VCR that was less than ADR and significantly (p&lt;0.002) greater than VP16 and TAM. Therefore, new cytotoxic quinolines are potentially good candidates for further investigation as anti-tumor compounds. © 2006 Academic Journals Inc., USA

Monte Carlo Techniques for Drug Design: The Success Case of PELE

This chapter summarizes the most representative software packages that readily allow running Monte Carlo (MC) simulations in relevant scenarios for drug design. It explores in detail the Protein Energy Landscape Exploration (PELE) program, providing first the main characteristics of the technique, followed by an analysis of the different application studies in mapping protein‐ligand interactions. The ligand, formed by a rigid core and a set of rotatable side chains, is perturbed by translating and rotating it. PELE creates a list of perturbation poses, and then chooses the one with the lowest system energy. PELE was originally designed to map ligand migration pathways: its first applications aimed at finding exit pathways starting from ligand‐bound crystallographic structures. Additional applied studies have centered on modeling enzymatic mechanisms and engineering; the same techniques applied in mapping protein‐drug interactions can be used in the study of substrate recognition by enzymes.Along the development of PELE in the last years, we gratefully acknowledge financial support from the European Union (in particular from the ERC program) and from the Catalan and Spanish Governments. In addition we want to thank all present and past members from the EAPM lab. at BSC for their dedication and work.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Structural Insight into Anaphase Promoting Complex 3 Structure and Docking with a Natural Inhibitory Compound

Background: Anaphase promoting complex (APC) is the biggest Cullin-RING E3 ligase and is very important in cell cycle control; many anti-cancer agents target this. APC controls the onset of chromosome separation and mitotic exit through securin and cyclin B degradation, respectively. Its APC3 subunit identifies the APC activators-Cdh1 and Cdc20. Materials and Methods: The structural model of the APC3 subunit of APC was developed by means of computational techniques; the binding of a natural inhibitory compound to APC3 was also investigated. Results: It was found that APC3 structure consists of numerous helices organized in anti-parallel and the overall model is superhelical of tetratrico-peptide repeat (TPR) domains. Furthermore, binding pocket of the natural inhibitory compound as APC3 inhibitor was shown. Conclusion: The findings are beneficial to understand the mechanism of the APC activation and design inhibitory compounds