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The influence of the system separation into the QM and MM parts on the result of quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) modeling of acetylcholine hydrolysis in the acetylcholinesterase active site was considered. The minimum acceptable quantum subsystem that provides an adequate description of the enzymatic reaction energy profile was identified. The computed energy profiles were analyzed and possible inaccuracies in QM/MM calculations were estimated. The fairly high tetrahedral intermediate stability was demonstrated, which is in a good agreement with the newest experimental observations.

The minimum energy reaction profiles corresponding to two possible reaction mechanisms of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) hydrolysis in myosin are computed in this work within the framework of the quantum mechanics–molecular mechanics (QM/MM) method by using the same partitioning of the model system to the QM and MM parts and the same computational protocol. On the first reaction route, one water molecule performs nucleophilic attack at the phosphorus center Pγ from ATP while the second water molecule in the closed protein cleft serves as a catalytic base assisted by the Glu residue from the myosin salt bridge. According to the present QM/MM calculations consistent with the results of kinetic studies this reaction pathway is characterized by a low activation energy barrier about 10 kcal/mol. The computed activation energy barrier for the second mechanism, which assumes the penta-coordinated oxyphosphorane transition state upon involvement of single water molecule in the reaction, is considerably higher than that for the two-water mechanism.

Deamidation of asparagine residues represents one of the main routes for the post-translational modification of protein sequences. We computed the estimates of the free energy barriers for three stages of the deamidation process, deprotonation, cyclization, and deamination, of the conversion of asparagine to the succinimide intermediate within the fully solvated model with explicit water molecules. The Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics in the Gaussian and Plane Wave (GPW) approximation as implemented in the CP2K quantum chemistry package was utilized to sample the configurational space. By applying the metadynamics technique, the estimates of the free energy barriers were obtained for three separated stages of the reaction. In agreement with the experimental kinetic measurements, the estimated activation barriers do not exceed 21 kcal/mol. We demonstrate that the use of fully solvated models is the critical issue in theoretical studies of these reactions. We also conclude that more extensive sampling is necessary to obtain full free energy profiles and accurate barriers for the reaction stages.

The free energy profiles for proton transfer along the oriented water file inside the gramicidin A channel were calculated. An original implementation of the rigid-body molecular dynamics method was used for describing the peptide groups of the channel and outer water molecules. The inner water wire was simulated using the PM6 force field parameters, which adequately describe the formation and cleavage of chemical and hydrogen bonds in water molecules. Different mechanisms of proton transfer through the gramicidin A channel were considered, namely, proton H+ translocation, transfer of the anion defect OH−, and reorientation of the water file inside the channel. To facilitate parallel calculations of trajectories, the reaction coordinate was divided into segments, and the results were combined by the weighted histogram analysis method. The first two processes, H+ and OH− transfers, were shown to be barrierless. Only the stage of reorientation of the water file inside the channel has an energy barrier.

We describe a new implementation of the molecular dynamics method aimed at simulation of the properties of biomolecular systems in which chemical reactions are possible. The quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical method based on the effective fragment potential theory is used for calculating the energies and forces along trajectories. Due to specific features of the effective fragment theory, the behavior of the molecular mechanical subsystem is described by rigid body dynamics. The method has been applied to simulation of proton transfer along the chain of water molecules inside the gramicidin channel.

Opening the Arg-Glu salt bridge in myosin, which presumably succeeds the myosin-catalyzed hydrolysis of adenosine triphosphate, was modeled computationally on the basis of the structures corresponding to the enzyme-substrate and enzyme-product complexes found in the quantum mechanics-molecular mechanics simulations. According to the calculations of the potential of mean force, opening the bridge is considerably facilitated upon termination of the chemical reaction, but does not promote egress of inorganic phosphate by the back-door mechanism.

The results of potential of mean force (PMF) calculations for the distinct stages of proton conduction through the gramicidin A channel, including proton migration, reorientation of the water file and negative ion defect migration, are presented. The negative ion defect migration mechanism was hypothesized in experimental studies but was not considered previously in molecular dynamics simulations. The model system consisted of the peptide chains constructed on the base of the structure PDBID:1JNO, the inner file of nine water molecules and external clusters of water molecules placed at both ends of the channel. Potential energy functions were computed with the CHARMM/PM6/TIP3P parameters. The results obtained for proton migration and water file reorientation are basically consistent with those reported previously by Pomes and Roux (Biophys J 82:2304, 2002) within the similar approach. For the newly considered mechanism of negative ion defect migration from the channel center to the end of the water file we obtain the energy 3.8 kcal mol(-1) which is not considerably different from the activation energy of water reorientation, 5.4 kcal mol(-1). Therefore this mechanism may principally compete for the rate-limiting step in proton conduction in gramicidin.

Based on molecular dynamics simulations of nanocars with fullerene wheels on the surface of an Au (110) gold crystal, estimates of diffusion coefficients are reported.