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The prediction of pKa shifts of ionizable groups in proteins is of great relevance for a number of important biological phenomena. We present an implementation of the MM-GBSA approach, which combines molecular mechanical (MM) and generalized Born (GB) continuum solvent energy terms, to the calculation of pKa values of a panel of nine proteins, including 69 individual comparisons with experiment. While applied so far mainly to the calculation of biomolecular binding free energies, we show that this method can also be used for the estimation of protein pKa shifts, with an accuracy around 1 pKa unit, even for strongly shifted residues. Our analysis reveals that the nonelectrostatic terms that are part of the MM-GBSA free energy expression are important contributors to improved prediction accuracy. This suggests that most of the previous approaches that focus only on electrostatic interactions could be improved by adding other nonpolar energy terms to their free energy expression. Interestingly, our method yields best accuracy at protein dielectric constants of eint = 2–4, which is in contrast to previous approaches that peak at higher eint ≥ 8. An important component of our procedure is an intermediate minimization step of each protonation state involving different rotamers and tautomers as a way to explicitly model protein relaxation upon (de)protonation. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem 25: 1865–1872, 2004

2,3-Oxidosqualene cyclases (OSC) are key enzymes in sterol biosynthesis. They catalyze the stereoselective cyclization and skeletal rearrangement of (3S)-2,3-oxidosqualene to lanosterol in mammals and fungi and to cycloartenol in algae and higher plants. Sequence information and proposed mechanism of 2,3-oxidosqualene cyclases are closely related to those of squalene-hopene cyclases (SHC), which represent functional analogs of OSCs in bacteria. SHCs catalyze the cationic cyclization cascade converting the linear triterpene squalene to fused ring compounds called hopanoids. High stereoselectivity and precision of the skeletal rearrangements has aroused the interest of researchers for nearly half a century, and valuable data on studying mechanistic details in the complex enzyme-catalyzed cyclization cascade has been collected. Today, interest in cyclases is still unbroken, because OSCs became targets for the development of antifungal and hypocholesterolemic drugs. However, due to the large size and membrane-bound nature of OSCs, three-dimensional structural information is still not available, thus preventing a complete understanding of the atomic details of the catalytic mechanism. In this work, we discuss results gained from homology modeling of human OSC based on structural information of SHC from Alicyclobacillus acidocaldarius and propose a structural model of human OSC. The model is in accordance with previously performed experimental studies with mechanism-based suicide inhibitors and mutagenesis experiments with altered activity and product specificity. Structural insight should strongly stimulate structure-based design of antifungal or cholesterol-lowering drugs.

A method for the mapping of surface cavities in proteins is presented. Cavities were defined by a grid-based accessibility measure, where a protein atom was considered to form part of the cavity surface if its accessibility value was below a critical threshold. Surfaces were calculated by the Connolly algorithm. To each surface point, one of five generalized atom types and an accessibility value were assigned. Based on this surface description, topological correlation vectors were generated and projected onto the plane by means of linear and nonlinear mapping techniques. The method was successfully applied to represent relationships among a diverse set of aspartic, serine, and metalloproteinases. ©1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 20: 336–347, 1999