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Title: Cross‐Linked Poly‐4‐Acrylomorpholine: A Flexible and Reversibly Compressible Aligning Gel for Anisotropic NMR Analysis of Peptides and Small Molecules in Water
Abstract

Determination of the solution conformation of both small organic molecules and peptides in water remains a substantial hurdle in using NMR solution conformations to guide drug design due to the lack of easy to use alignment media. Herein we report the design of a flexible compressible chemically cross‐linked poly‐4‐acrylomorpholine gel that can be used for the alignment of both small molecules and cyclic peptides in water. To test the new gel, residual dipolar couplings (RDCs) andJ‐coupling constants were used in the configurational analysis of strychnine hydrochloride, a molecule that has been studied extensively in organic solvents as well as a small cyclic peptide that is known to form an α‐helix in water. The conformational ensembles for each molecule with the best fit to the data are reported. Identification of minor conformers in water that cannot easily be determined by conventional NOE measurements will facilitate the use of RDC experiments in structure‐based drug design.

 
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NSF-PAR ID:
10302561
Author(s) / Creator(s):
 ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  
Publisher / Repository:
Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Volume:
60
Issue:
50
ISSN:
1433-7851
Page Range / eLocation ID:
p. 26314-26319
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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  1. Abstract

    Determination of the solution conformation of both small organic molecules and peptides in water remains a substantial hurdle in using NMR solution conformations to guide drug design due to the lack of easy to use alignment media. Herein we report the design of a flexible compressible chemically cross‐linked poly‐4‐acrylomorpholine gel that can be used for the alignment of both small molecules and cyclic peptides in water. To test the new gel, residual dipolar couplings (RDCs) andJ‐coupling constants were used in the configurational analysis of strychnine hydrochloride, a molecule that has been studied extensively in organic solvents as well as a small cyclic peptide that is known to form an α‐helix in water. The conformational ensembles for each molecule with the best fit to the data are reported. Identification of minor conformers in water that cannot easily be determined by conventional NOE measurements will facilitate the use of RDC experiments in structure‐based drug design.

     
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    Version: 2.0

    Changes versus version 1.0 are the addition of the free energy of folding, adsorption, and pairing calculations (Sim_Figure-7) and shifting of the figure numbers to accommodate this addition.


    Conventions Used in These Files
    ===============================

    Structure Files
    ----------------
    - graph_*.psf or sol_*.psf (original NAMD (XPLOR?) format psf file including atom details (type, charge, mass), as well as definitions of bonds, angles, dihedrals, and impropers for each dipeptide.)

    - graph_*.pdb or sol_*.pdb (initial coordinates before equilibration)
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    Force Field Parameters
    ----------------------
    CHARMM format parameter files:
    - par_all36m_prot.prm (CHARMM36m FF for proteins)
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    Template NAMD Configuration Files
    ---------------------------------
    These contain the most commonly used simulation parameters. They are called by the other NAMD configuration files (which are in the namd/ subdirectory):
    - template_min.namd (minimization)
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    - template_abf.namd (for adaptive biasing force)

    Minimization
    -------------
    - namd/min_*.0.namd

    Equilibration
    -------------
    - namd/eq_*.0.namd

    Adaptive biasing force calculations
    -----------------------------------
    - namd/eabfZRest7_graph_chp1404.0.namd
    - namd/eabfZRest7_graph_chp1404.1.namd (continuation of eabfZRest7_graph_chp1404.0.namd)

    Log Files
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    For each NAMD configuration file given in the last two sections, there is a log file with the same prefix, which gives the text output of NAMD. For instance, the output of namd/eabfZRest7_graph_chp1404.0.namd is eabfZRest7_graph_chp1404.0.log.

    Simulation Output
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    The simulation output files (which match the names of the NAMD configuration files) are in the output/ directory. Files with the extensions .coor, .vel, and .xsc are coordinates in NAMD binary format, velocities in NAMD binary format, and extended system information (including cell size) in text format. Files with the extension .dcd give the trajectory of the atomic coorinates over time (and also include system cell information). Due to storage limitations, large DCD files have been omitted or replaced with new DCD files having the prefix stride50_ including only every 50 frames. The time between frames in these files is 50 * 50000 steps/frame * 4 fs/step = 10 ns. The system cell trajectory is also included for the NPT runs are output/eq_*.xst.

    Scripts
    -------
    Files with the .sh extension can be found throughout. These usually provide the highest level control for submission of simulations and analysis. Look to these as a guide to what is happening. If there are scripts with step1_*.sh and step2_*.sh, they are intended to be run in order, with step1_*.sh first.


    CONTENTS
    ========

    The directory contents are as follows. The directories Sim_Figure-1 and Sim_Figure-8 include README.txt files that describe the files and naming conventions used throughout this data set.

    Sim_Figure-1: Simulations of N-acetylated C-amidated amino acids (Ac-X-NHMe) at the graphite–water interface.

    Sim_Figure-2: Simulations of different peptide designs (including acyclic, disulfide cyclized, and N-to-C cyclized) at the graphite–water interface.

    Sim_Figure-3: MM-GBSA calculations of different peptide sequences for a folded conformation and 5 misfolded/unfolded conformations.

    Sim_Figure-4: Simulation of four peptide molecules with the sequence cyc(GTGSGTG-GPGG-GCGTGTG-SGPG) at the graphite–water interface at 370 K.

    Sim_Figure-5: Simulation of four peptide molecules with the sequence cyc(GTGSGTG-GPGG-GCGTGTG-SGPG) at the graphite–water interface at 295 K.

    Sim_Figure-5_replica: Temperature replica exchange molecular dynamics simulations for the peptide cyc(GTGSGTG-GPGG-GCGTGTG-SGPG) with 20 replicas for temperatures from 295 to 454 K.

    Sim_Figure-6: Simulation of the peptide molecule cyc(GTGSGTG-GPGG-GCGTGTG-SGPG) in free solution (no graphite).

    Sim_Figure-7: Free energy calculations for folding, adsorption, and pairing for the peptide CHP1404 (sequence: cyc(GTGSGTG-GPGG-GCGTGTG-SGPG)). For folding, we calculate the PMF as function of RMSD by replica-exchange umbrella sampling (in the subdirectory Folding_CHP1404_Graphene/). We make the same calculation in solution, which required 3 seperate replica-exchange umbrella sampling calculations (in the subdirectory Folding_CHP1404_Solution/). Both PMF of RMSD calculations for the scrambled peptide are in Folding_scram1404/. For adsorption, calculation of the PMF for the orientational restraints and the calculation of the PMF along z (the distance between the graphene sheet and the center of mass of the peptide) are in Adsorption_CHP1404/ and Adsorption_scram1404/. The actual calculation of the free energy is done by a shell script ("doRestraintEnergyError.sh") in the 1_free_energy/ subsubdirectory. Processing of the PMFs must be done first in the 0_pmf/ subsubdirectory. Finally, files for free energy calculations of pair formation for CHP1404 are found in the Pair/ subdirectory.

    Sim_Figure-8: Simulation of four peptide molecules with the sequence cyc(GTGSGTG-GPGG-GCGTGTG-SGPG) where the peptides are far above the graphene–water interface in the initial configuration.

    Sim_Figure-9: Two replicates of a simulation of nine peptide molecules with the sequence cyc(GTGSGTG-GPGG-GCGTGTG-SGPG) at the graphite–water interface at 370 K.

    Sim_Figure-9_scrambled: Two replicates of a simulation of nine peptide molecules with the control sequence cyc(GGTPTTGGGGGGSGGPSGTGGC) at the graphite–water interface at 370 K.

    Sim_Figure-10: Adaptive biasing for calculation of the free energy of the folded peptide as a function of the angle between its long axis and the zigzag directions of the underlying graphene sheet.

     

    This material is based upon work supported by the US National Science Foundation under grant no. DMR-1945589. A majority of the computing for this project was performed on the Beocat Research Cluster at Kansas State University, which is funded in part by NSF grants CHE-1726332, CNS-1006860, EPS-1006860, and EPS-0919443. This work used the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE), which is supported by National Science Foundation grant number ACI-1548562, through allocation BIO200030. 
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