Department of Chemistry, Bar Ilan University , Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel.
J Chem Inf Model. 2014 Jan 27;54(1):96-107. doi: 10.1021/ci400352t. Epub 2013 Dec 13.
DNA is an important target for the treatment of multiple pathologies, most notably cancer. In particular, DNA intercalators have often been used as anticancer drugs. However, despite their relevance to drug discovery, only a few systematic computational studies were performed on DNA-intercalator complexes. In this work we have analyzed ligand binding sites preferences in 63 high resolution DNA-intercalator complexes available in the PDB and found that ligands bind preferentially between G and C and between the C and A base pairs (70% and 11%, respectively). Next, we examined the ability of AUTODOCK to accurately dock ligands into preformed intercalation sites. Following the optimization of the docking protocol, AUTODOCK was able to generate conformations with RMSD values <2.00 Å with respect to crystal structures in ∼80% of the cases while focusing on the preformed binding site (small grid box) or on the entire DNA structure (large grid box). In addition, a top ranked conformation with an RMSD < 2.00 Å was identified in 75% and 60% of the cases using small and large docking boxes, respectively. Moreover, under the large docking box setting AUTODOCK was able to successfully distinguish between the intercalation site and the minor groove site. However, in all cases the crystal structures and poses tightly clustered around it had a lower score than the best scoring poses suggesting a potential scoring problem with AUTODOCK. A close examination of all cases where the top ranked pose had an RMSD value >2.00 Å suggests that AUTODOCK may overemphasize the hydrogen bonding term. A decision tree was built to identify ligands which are likely to be accurately docked based on their characteristics. This analysis revealed that AUTODOCK performs best for intercalators characterized by a large number of aromatic rings, low flexibility, high molecular weight, and a small number of hydrogen bond acceptors. Finally, for canonical B-DNA structures (where preformed sites are unavailable), we demonstrated that intercalation sites could be formed by inserting an anthracene moiety between the (anticipated) site-flanking base pairs and by relaxing the structure using either energy minimization or preferably molecular dynamics simulations. Such sites were suitable for the docking of different intercalators by AUTODOCK.
DNA 是治疗多种疾病(尤其是癌症)的重要靶点。特别是,DNA 嵌入剂通常被用作抗癌药物。然而,尽管它们与药物发现有关,但只有少数系统的计算研究是针对 DNA 嵌入剂复合物进行的。在这项工作中,我们分析了 PDB 中 63 个高分辨率 DNA 嵌入剂复合物中的配体结合位点偏好,发现配体优先结合在 G 和 C 以及 C 和 A 碱基对之间(分别为 70%和 11%)。接下来,我们检查了 AUTODOCK 准确将配体对接入预先形成的嵌入位点的能力。在优化对接方案后,AUTODOCK 能够在大约 80%的情况下生成相对于晶体结构 RMSD 值<2.00 Å的构象,同时专注于预先形成的结合位点(小网格盒)或整个 DNA 结构(大网格盒)。此外,在使用小和大对接盒的情况下,分别有 75%和 60%的情况下确定了具有 RMSD<2.00 Å的排名最高的构象。此外,在大对接盒设置下,AUTODOCK 能够成功区分嵌入位点和小沟位点。然而,在所有情况下,晶体结构及其紧密围绕的构象的得分都低于最佳得分构象,这表明 AUTODOCK 可能存在潜在的评分问题。对所有 RMSD 值>2.00 Å的排名最高的构象进行仔细检查表明,AUTODOCK 可能过分强调氢键项。构建了决策树来根据配体的特征识别可能准确对接的配体。该分析表明,AUTODOCK 对具有大量芳环、低柔性、高分子量和少量氢键受体的嵌入剂表现最佳。最后,对于规范的 B-DNA 结构(其中不存在预先形成的位点),我们证明可以通过将蒽部分插入(预期的)位点侧翼碱基对之间并使用能量最小化或优选分子动力学模拟来形成嵌入位点。AUTODOCK 可以在这些位点上对接不同的嵌入剂。