Quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical molecular dynamics and free energy simulations of the thiopurine S-methyltransferase reaction with 6-mercaptopurine.

Quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) molecular dynamics simulations were performed to investigate the methylation of 6-mercaptopurine catalyzed by thiopurine S-methyltransferase. Several setups with different tautomeric forms and orientations of the substrate were considered. It is found that, with the orientation in chain A of the X-ray structure, the substrate can form an ideal near-attack configuration for the methylation reaction, which may take place after the deprotonation of the substrate by the conserved residue Asp23 through a water chain. The potential of mean force (PMF) of the methyl-transfer step for the most favorable pathway is 19.6 kcal/mol, which is in good agreement with the available experimental rate constant data.