Mechanism of Ligand Binding to Theophylline RNA Aptamer
Studying RNA-ligand interactions and quantifying their binding thermodynamics and kinetics are of particular relevance in the field of drug discovery. Here, we combined biochemical binding assays and accelerated molecular simulations to investigate ligand binding and dissociation in RNA using the th...
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Published in | Journal of chemical information and modeling Vol. 64; no. 3; pp. 1017 - 1029 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
United States
American Chemical Society
12.02.2024
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Studying RNA-ligand interactions and quantifying their binding thermodynamics and kinetics are of particular relevance in the field of drug discovery. Here, we combined biochemical binding assays and accelerated molecular simulations to investigate ligand binding and dissociation in RNA using the theophylline-binding RNA as a model system. All-atom simulations using a Ligand Gaussian accelerated Molecular Dynamics method (LiGaMD) have captured repetitive binding and dissociation of theophylline and caffeine to RNA. Theophylline’s binding free energy and kinetic rate constants align with our experimental data, while caffeine’s binding affinity is over 10,000 times weaker, and its kinetics could not be determined. LiGaMD simulations allowed us to identify distinct low-energy conformations and multiple ligand binding pathways to RNA. Simulations revealed a “conformational selection” mechanism for ligand binding to the flexible RNA aptamer, which provides important mechanistic insights into ligand binding to the theophylline-binding model. Our findings suggest that compound docking using a structural ensemble of representative RNA conformations would be necessary for structure-based drug design of flexible RNA. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 1549-9596 1549-960X 1549-960X |
DOI: | 10.1021/acs.jcim.3c01454 |