Przemysław Czeleń

Structural and energetic heterogeneities of canonical and oxidized central guanine triad of B-DNA telomeric fragments

The intermolecular interaction energies in central guanine triad of telomeric B-DNA were estimated based on ab initio quantum chemistry calculations on the MP2/aDZ level of theory. The source of structural information was molecular dynamics simulation of both canonical (AGGGTT) and oxidized (AG8oxoGGTT) telomere units. Our calculations demonstrate that significant stiffness of central triad occurs if 8oxoG is present. The origin of such feature is mainly due to the increase of stacking interactions of 8oxoG with neighbouring guanine molecules and stronger hydrogen bonding formation of 8oxoG with cytosine if compared with canonical guanine. Another interesting observation is the context independence of stacking interactions of 8oxoG. Unlike to 5′-G2/G3-3′ and 5′-G3/G4-3′ sequences which are energetically different, 5′-G2/8oxoG3-3′ and 5′-8oxoG3/G4-3′ sequences are almost iso-energetic.

Molecular dynamics study on inhibition mechanism of CDK-2 and GSK-3β by CHEMBL272026 molecule

Abstract CDK-2 and GSK-3β are kinases that exhibit a high level of similarity in the context of amino acid sequence and structural properties of the active site. Both considered enzymes fulfill an important role in the regulation of cell cycle, and disorders in their proper functioning can trigger many serious diseases, even cancer. Identification of potential inhibitors with selective properties is not a trivial task. The potential group of compounds with such properties comprises indirubin derivatives and their analogs. The ligand molecule was docked to two enzymes, namely CDK-2 and GSK-3β, with the use of AutoDock Vina package. The stability of obtained complexes was evaluated with the use of molecular dynamics simulations realized with the use of AMBER11. Both complexes obtained during docking stage are stabilized by network of hydrogen bonds containing similar number of interactions. However, the time evolution of these systems shows significant discrepancies in terms of stability of these interactions and conformational flexibility of ligand molecule. Differences observed for dynamics and structural properties also confirm the values of binding affinity for examined systems. CHEMBL272026 molecule exhibits binding properties toward both considered kinases. However, binding affinity values and examined interactions denoted for both complexes show significant discrepancies in stability of both systems, indicating the higher inhibiting properties toward CDK-2 active site. The discovery of inhibitors with selective potential is an important task, and investigating the mechanism of kinases inhibition may reveal factors responsible for the increase in selective properties what can contribute to the development of new groups of compounds.

Physical nature of intermolecular interactions inside Sir2 homolog active site: molecular dynamics and ab initio study.

In the present study, we analyze the interactions of NAD+-dependent deacetylase (Sir2 homolog yeast Hst2) with carba-nicotinamide-adenine-dinucleotide (ADP-HPD). For the Sir2 homolog, a yeast Hst2 docking procedure was applied. The structure of the protein–ADP-HPD complex obtained during the docking procedure was used as a starting point for molecular dynamics simulation. The intermolecular interaction energy partitioning was performed for protein–ADP-HPD complex resulting from molecular dynamics simulation. The analysis was performed for ADP-HPD and 15 amino acids forming a deacetylase binding pocket. Although the results indicate that the first-order electrostatic interaction energy is substantial, the presence of multiple hydrogen bonds in investigated complexes can lead to significant value of induction component.

Understanding the action of indolizines as biologically active moieties: a Molecular Dynamics study.

BACKGROUND Indolizines represent a class of heteroaromatic compounds, of pharmacological importance, containing two condensed 5- and 6-memebered rings bridged by a nitrogen atom. Despite indolizine is an important medicinal moiety, a detailed view on the mechanism of action of biologically active indolizines is unavailable. OBJECTIVE The study of ligand-enzyme affinity is of high interest; description of characteristics (energetic and geometric ones) of ligand binding to the active sites of an enzyme could be useful in understanding the action mechanism of a given ligand on the concerned enzyme. METHOD After conducting a QSAR study, to predict IC50 (on 15-LO protein from soybeans) of indolizine derivatives and a docking study of indolizines on Beta lactamase and Nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase proteins [1], a molecular dynamics analysis was performed on one of the indolizine derivatives, complexed to the above proteins. RESULTS The performed molecular dynamics study led to the identification of interactions responsible for the stabilization of complexes of the chosen ligand (i.e., indolizine derivative) with the considered enzymes and the specificity of the ligand interaction as well. The structural data and enthalpy values clearly indicate the differences in the behavior of ligand at the active sites of the three investigated enzymes. Among the studied proteins, the hydrophobicity of the active site of Nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase seems to be the main factor in promoting the interaction enzyme-ligand, much more manifested in this case, in comparison to the other two proteins Beta lactamase and Nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase. CONCLUSION The present paper discusses a possible mechanism of interaction of an indolizine derivative with three enzyme proteins, providing information for future work in this topic.

Potential inhibitory effect of indolizine derivatives on the two enzymes: nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase and beta lactamase, a molecular dynamics study

Nicotinamide phosphoribosyl-transferases (NAMPT) are enzymes that play a role in targeting cancer metabolism, while beta lactamases are involved in bacterial resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics. Many protein inhibitors exhibit such property which is often correlated with their cellular potency. In order to understand such a phenomenon, the present article conducts an analysis of the dynamic behavior of complexes formed by the inhibitors, that is indolizine derivatives, with the studied enzymes. Both docking and molecular dynamics led to identification of their interactions and showed the mechanism of inhibition of the two studied enzymes. The differences in the behavior of ligand at the active sites of beta lactamases and nicotinamide phosphoribosyl-transferases are indicated by structural and enthalpy values.

Inhibition mechanism of CDK-2 and GSK-3β by a sulfamoylphenyl derivative of indoline—a molecular dynamics study

A good understanding of the inhibition mechanism of enzymes exhibiting high levels of similarity is the first step to the discovery of new drugs with selective potential. Examples of such proteins include glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3β) and cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK-2). This article reports the mechanism of such enzyme inhibition as analyzed by an indoline sulfamylophenyl derivative (CHEMBL410072). Previous work has shown that such compounds exhibit selective properties towards their biological targets. This study used a combined procedure involving docking and molecular dynamics simulations, which allowed identification of interactions responsible for stabilization of complexes, and analysis of the dynamic stability of the systems obtained. The initial data obtained during the molecular docking stage show that the ligand molecule exhibits a similar affinity towards both active sites, which was confirmed by quantification of identified interactions and energy values. However, the data do not cover dynamic aspects of the considered systems. Molecular dynamics simulations realized for both complexes indicate significant dissimilarities in dynamics properties of both side chains of the considered ligands, especially in the case of the part containing the sulfamide group. Such increased mobility of the analyzed systems disrupts the stability of binding in the stabilized complex with GSK-3β protein, which finally affects also the binding affinity of the ligand molecule towards this enzyme.