Ab Initio potential grid based docking: From High Performance Computing to In Silico Screening

We present a new and completely parallel method for protein ligand docking. The potential of the docking target structure is obtained directly from the electron density derived through an ab initio computation. A large subregion of the crystal structure of Isocitrate Lyase, was selected as docking target. To allow the full ab initio treatment of this region special care was taken to assign optimal basis functions. The electrostatic potential is tested by docking a small charged molecule (succinate) into the binding site. The ab initio grid yields a superior result by producing the best binding orientation and position, and by recognizing it as the best. In contrast the same docking procedure, but using a classical point‐charge based potential, produces a number of additional incorrect binding poses, and does not recognize the correct pose as the best solution.