Alvizo Oscar, Allen Benjamin D, Mayo Stephen L
Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics Option, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
Biotechniques. 2007 Jan;42(1):31, 33, 35 passim. doi: 10.2144/000112336.
Natural evolution has produced an astounding array of proteins that perform the physical and chemical functions required for life on Earth. Although proteins can be reengineered to provide altered or novel functions, the utility of this approach is limited by the difficulty of identifying protein sequences that display the desired properties. Recently, advances in the field of computational protein design (CPD) have shown that molecular simulation can help to predict sequences with new and improved functions. In the past few years, CPD has been used to design protein variants with optimized specificity of binding to DNA, small molecules, peptides, and other proteins. Initial successes in enzyme design highlight CPD's unique ability to design function de novo. The use of CPD for the engineering of potential therapeutic agents has demonstrated its strength in real-life applications.
自然进化产生了一系列令人惊叹的蛋白质，它们执行着地球上生命所需的物理和化学功能。尽管蛋白质可以通过重新设计来提供改变后的或新的功能，但这种方法的实用性受到难以识别具有所需特性的蛋白质序列的限制。最近，计算蛋白质设计（CPD）领域的进展表明，分子模拟有助于预测具有新的和改进功能的序列。在过去几年中，CPD已被用于设计与DNA、小分子、肽和其他蛋白质结合具有优化特异性的蛋白质变体。酶设计方面的初步成功凸显了CPD从头设计功能的独特能力。将CPD用于潜在治疗药物的工程设计已证明其在实际应用中的优势。
