1. Accurate Evaluation on the Interactions of SARS-CoV-2 with Its Receptor ACE2 and Antibodies CR3022/CB6*
- Author
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Yue Wen Yin, Yu-qiang Ma, Hong-ming Ding, Yan Jing Sheng, and Song Di Ni
- Subjects
biology ,Binding free energy ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,Chemistry ,Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) ,FOS: Physical sciences ,General Physics and Astronomy ,Biomolecules (q-bio.BM) ,02 engineering and technology ,Alanine scanning ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,01 natural sciences ,Molecular mechanics ,Quantitative Biology - Biomolecules ,Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph) ,FOS: Biological sciences ,0103 physical sciences ,biology.protein ,Biophysics ,Physics - Biological Physics ,Antibody ,010306 general physics ,0210 nano-technology ,Receptor - Abstract
The spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become a global health crisis. The binding affinity of SARS-CoV-2 (in particular the receptor binding domain, RBD) to its receptor angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and the antibodies is of great importance in understanding the infectivity of COVID-19 and evaluating the candidate therapeutic for COVID-19. In this work, we propose a new method based on molecular mechanics/Poisson-Boltzmann surface area (MM/PBSA) to accurately calculate the free energy of SARS-CoV-2 RBD binding to ACE2 and antibodies. The calculated binding free energy of SARS-CoV-2 RBD to ACE2 is -13.3 kcal/mol, and that of SARS-CoV RBD to ACE2 is -11.4 kcal/mol, which agrees well with experimental result (-11.3 kcal/mol and -10.1 kcal/mol, respectively). Moreover, we take two recently reported antibodies as the example, and calculate the free energy of antibodies binding to SARS-CoV-2 RBD, which is also consistent with the experimental findings. Further, within the framework of the modified MM/PBSA, we determine the key residues and the main driving forces for the SARS-CoV-2 RBD/CB6 interaction by the computational alanine scanning method. The present study offers a computationally efficient and numerically reliable method to evaluate the free energy of SARS-CoV-2 binding to other proteins, which may stimulate the development of the therapeutics against the COVID-19 disease in real applications., 18 pages, 5 figures
- Published
- 2021