Cirqueira Leonardo, Stock Letícia, Treptow Werner
Laboratório de Biologia Teórica e Computacional (LBTC), Universidade de Brasília, DF CEP 70904-970, Brazil.
Comput Struct Biotechnol J. 2022 Sep 1;20:4885-4891. doi: 10.1016/j.csbj.2022.08.049. eCollection 2022.
In the category of functional low-affinity interactions, small ligands may interact with multiple protein sites in a highly degenerate manner. Better conceived as a partition phenomenon at the molecular interface of proteins, such low-affinity interactions appear to be hidden to our current experimental resolution making their structural and functional characterization difficult in the low concentration regime of physiological processes. Characterization of the partition phenomenon under higher chemical forces could be a relevant strategy to tackle the problem provided the results can be scaled back to the low concentration range. Far from being trivial, such scaling demands a concentration-dependent understanding of self-interactions of the ligands, structural perturbations of the protein, among other molecular effects. Accordingly, we elaborate a novel and detailed concentration-dependent thermodynamic analysis of the partition process of small ligands aiming at characterizing the stability and structure of the dilute phenomenon from high concentrations. In analogy to an "aggregate" binding constant of a small molecule over multiple sites of a protein receptor, the model defines the stability of the process as a macroscopic equilibrium constant for the partition number of ligands that can be used to analyze biochemical and functional data of two-component systems driven by low-affinity interactions. Acquisition of such modeling-based structural information is expected to be highly welcome by revealing more traceable protein-binding spots for non-specific ligands.
在功能性低亲和力相互作用类别中,小分子配体可能以高度简并的方式与多个蛋白质位点相互作用。这类低亲和力相互作用更宜被视为蛋白质分子界面处的一种分配现象,在我们当前的实验分辨率下似乎难以察觉,这使得在生理过程的低浓度范围内对其进行结构和功能表征变得困难。如果能够将结果外推至低浓度范围,那么在更高化学力下对分配现象进行表征可能是解决该问题的一种有效策略。这种外推绝非易事,它需要对配体的自相互作用、蛋白质的结构扰动以及其他分子效应有浓度依赖性的理解。因此,我们针对小分子配体的分配过程展开了一种新颖且详细的浓度依赖性热力学分析,旨在从高浓度情况表征稀释现象的稳定性和结构。类似于小分子在蛋白质受体多个位点上的“聚集”结合常数,该模型将该过程的稳定性定义为配体分配数的宏观平衡常数,可用于分析由低亲和力相互作用驱动的双组分系统的生化和功能数据。通过揭示更多非特异性配体的可追踪蛋白质结合位点,预计这种基于建模的结构信息将备受欢迎。