Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA.
Chem Biol Drug Des. 2021 Jun;97(6):1194-1209. doi: 10.1111/cbdd.13841. Epub 2021 Apr 4.
Dopamine transporter (DAT) and sigma-1 receptor (σ1R) are potential therapeutic targets to reduce the psychostimulant effects induced by methamphetamine (METH). Interaction of σ1R with DAT could modulate the binding of METH, but the molecular basis of the association of the two transmembrane proteins and how their interactions mediate the binding of METH to DAT or σ1R remain unclear. Here, we characterize the protein-ligand and protein-protein interactions at a molecular level by various theoretical approaches. The present results show that METH adopts a different binding pose in the binding pocket of σ1R and is more likely to act as an agonist. The relatively lower binding affinity of METH to σ1R supports the role of antagonists as inhibitors that protect against METH-induced effects. We demonstrate that σ1R could bind to Drosophila melanogaster DAT (dDAT) through interactions with either the transmembrane helix α12 or α5 of dDAT. Our results showed that the truncated σ1R displays stronger association with dDAT than the full-length σ1R. Although different helix-helix interactions between σ1R and dDAT lead to distinct effects on the dynamics of individual protein, both associations attenuate the binding affinity of METH to dDAT, particularly in the interactions with the helix α5 of dDAT. Together, the present study provides the first computational investigation on the molecular mechanism of coupling METH binding and the association of σ1R with dDAT.
多巴胺转运蛋白(DAT)和 sigma-1 受体(σ1R)是减少甲基苯丙胺(METH)引起的精神兴奋剂作用的潜在治疗靶点。σ1R 与 DAT 的相互作用可以调节 METH 的结合,但这两种跨膜蛋白的结合的分子基础以及它们的相互作用如何介导 METH 与 DAT 或 σ1R 的结合仍不清楚。在这里,我们通过各种理论方法在分子水平上表征了蛋白-配体和蛋白-蛋白相互作用。目前的结果表明,METH 在 σ1R 的结合口袋中采用了不同的结合构象,更有可能作为激动剂。METH 与 σ1R 的相对较低的结合亲和力支持拮抗剂作为抑制剂的作用,可防止 METH 引起的作用。我们证明,σ1R 可以通过与 dDAT 的跨膜螺旋 α12 或 α5 的相互作用与果蝇多巴胺转运蛋白(dDAT)结合。我们的结果表明,与全长 σ1R 相比,截断的 σ1R 与 dDAT 显示出更强的结合。尽管 σ1R 和 dDAT 之间不同的螺旋-螺旋相互作用导致对单个蛋白动力学的不同影响,但这两种结合都削弱了 METH 与 dDAT 的结合亲和力,尤其是在与 dDAT 的螺旋 α5 的相互作用中。总的来说,本研究首次对 METH 结合和 σ1R 与 dDAT 结合的偶联的分子机制进行了计算研究。