Exploring a Potential Allosteric Inhibition Mechanism in the Motor Domain of Human Eg-5
Shanthi Nagarajan & Sugunadevi Sakkiah
To cite this article: Shanthi Nagarajan & Sugunadevi Sakkiah (2018): Exploring a Potential Allosteric Inhibition Mechanism in the Motor Domain of Human Eg-5, Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/07391102.2018.1486229
Exploring a Potential Allosteric Inhibition Mechanism in the Motor Domain of Human Eg-5
Shanthi Nagarajana, †,*, Sugunadevi Sakkiahb
a Department of Physiology & Pharmacology, Oregon Health Science University, Portland, OR 97239, USA
b Department of BioMedical Sciences, Samuel Oschin Cancer Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA
†Present address: Medicinal Chemistry Core, Oregon Health Science University, Portland, OR 97239, USA
*Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed S.N. ([email protected])
Abstract
Kinesin-5 (Eg-5), microtubule motor protein, is one of the emerging drug targets in cancer research. Several inhibitors have been reported to bind the hEg-5 ‘motor domain’ in two different locations that are potentially allosteric. Interestingly, the crystal structure of Eg-5 bound to benzimidazole unveils two chemically different allosteric pockets (PDBID: 3ZCW). The allosteric modulators inhibit Eg-5 activity by causing conformational changes that affect nucleotide turnover rate. In the present work, three allosteric inhibitors were simulated along with the substrate nucleotides (ADP and ATP) to capture conformation changes induced by the allosteric inhibitors. To analyze the allosteric inhibition mechanism, we used dynamics cross- correlation, principal component analysis (PCA), and enthalpic calculations. The loop L5 interaction is determined by the type of substrate bind at the nucleotide binding site. The SW-II flexibility increased upon dual allosteric inhibition by SB-743921 and 6a. The ionic interaction between R221-E116 is observed only in the presence of two allosteric inhibitors. Also, we noticed that the a2/a3 helical orientation is responsible for the SW-1 loop position and substrate binding. Our simulation data suggest the critical chemical features required to block the motor domain by the allosteric inhibitors. The results summarized in this work will help the researchers to design better therapeutic agents targeting hEg-5.
Keywords: Kinesin-5, Eg-5, allosteric inhibition, Ispinesib, cancer, molecular dynamics, PCA, clustering, dynamic cross-correlation, conformation dynamics
Introduction
Kinesins (BimC) are a superfamily of microtubule (MT) binding motor proteins that play a vital role during cell division (Hirokawa and Noda, 2008; Hirokawa, Noda, Tanaka, & Niwa, 2009). Kinesin-5 (Eg-5) is a member of the BimC family (Enos and Morris, 1990), which is a plus-end- directed homo-tetrameric motor protein (Kashina, Rogers, & Scholey, 1997). Proper cell division requires successful bipolar spindle formation, and association with the Eg-5 allows the sliding of microtubules (Kapitein et al., 2005). Eg-5 plays a major role in the separation of duplicate poles and to maintain the proper spindle bipolarity during cell division (Heck et al., 1993; Kashina et al., 1996; Sawin, LeGuellec, Philippe, & Mitchison, 1992; Waitzman and Rice, 2014) as well as regulate axonal growth and neuronal branching (Enos and Morris, 1990). In comparison with the conventional transport kinesins, Eg-5 is a slow mover and less processive (Kwok et al., 2006). Mutation experiments suggest that the functional Eg-5 motor domain is the requirement for successful completion of mitosis and the spindle pole body separation (Enos and Morris, 1990;
Hagan and Yanagida, 1990). ATP molecule binding and hydrolysis result in a variety of chemically linked conformational changes, which are essential to move the motor domain along the microtubule track. Parke et al. (Parke, Wojcik, Kim, & Worthylake, 2010) demonstrated that the ATP hydrolysis requires conserved water molecules present within the protein that serves as nucleophiles for catalysis. The kinesins, myosin, and G-proteins contain conserved sequence motifs corresponding to switch-I (SW-I), switch-II (SW-II) and P-loop (Parke, et al., 2010); these loops are main coordinators of nucleotide binding site (Sablin and Fletterick, 2001). SW-I region unfolds into a loop conformation when the γ-phosphate of ATP is present otherwise it remains in a helical structure (Parke, et al., 2010). Kinesin protein undergoes significant conformational changes when MT or the substrate nucleotide is bound (Rice et al., 1999). The MT binding mechanochemical cycle is as follows: (i) hydrolysis of ATP generate necessary driving force to take a step on the MT track; (ii) ADP bound kinesin weakly binds to MT; (iii) eventually, ADP leaves nucleotide binding pocket; (iv) ATP rebinding to the motor domain, SW-I loop enhances nucleotide binding and (v) the cycle repeats with the hydrolysis of newly bound ATP that generates force to move along the MT track.
The human Eg-5 (hEG-5) N-terminal domain contains the motor, internal stalk domain, and coiled coils (Le Guellec, Paris, Couturier, Roghi, & Philippe, 1991). The motor domain contains conserved nucleotide and MT (Goulet et al., 2012) binding sites. In addition, there is a known allosteric pocket formed at the interface of α2/α3 helix and loop L5, this site is 10 Å away from the nucleotide binding pocket (Liu, Parameswaran, Liu, Kim, & Wojcik, 2011). The α4/α6 interface is a hallmark site for MT binding. The hEg-5 binding to MT has been demonstrated by cryo-electron microscopy (Cope, Gilbert, Rayment, Mastronarde, & Hoenger, 2010).
shows the monomeric unit of hEg-5 bound to the portion of MT composed of α- and β-tubulin heterodimers. Figure 1b shows motor domain residues (of Eg-5) that bind tubulin surface by establishing polar interactions. The MT accessible area increase when SW-II positioned near nucleotide binding pocket.
Allosteric pocket binding inhibitors such as Ispinesisb and monastrol alter the conformation dynamics of the SW-II region, α4 and neck linker results in ineffective MT binding (Kaan, Major, Tkocz, Kozielski, & Rosenfeld, 2013; Yan et al., 2004). Recently, it was reported that small molecule inhibitor binding at the α4/α6 interface pocket locks Eg-5 conformation to prevent nucleotide-dependent conformational changes required to continue catalytic cycle (Ulaganathan et al., 2013). The ispinesib binding allosteric site is well-understood pocket which formed between α2, α3 and L5, whereas, second one is less explored allosteric site at the interface of α4 and α6 helices.
View of monomeric hEg-5 bound to heterodimer of α- and β-tubulin representing the portion of microtubule (PDB: 4AQV). b) The hEg-5 residues interact with the microtubule shown in ball and stick representation. hEg-5 is an emerging target for anticancer drugs due to its important role in cell division. Several chemotherapeutics known to inhibit Eg-5 (Mayer et al., 1999) by binding at the α2/α3 site have reached phase I/II clinical trials including Ispinesib (Lad et al., 2008), SB-743921 (Holen et al., 2011), AZD4877 (Jones et al., 2013) and MK-0731 (Cox et al., 2008; Mayer, et al., 1999). Recently, by crystallographic method Ulaganathan et al. (Ulaganathan, et al., 2013) showed benzimidazole analog (BI8) binding at the two distinct allosteric pockets within the motor domain. This compound occupies α2/α3 site by partly overlapping with the ispinesib binding area. In addition, it binds to one more allosteric site located between the α4/α6 helices. This particular inhibition directly hinders SW-II dynamics and subsequent MT binding. Here, we have used an all-atom dynamics simulation approach to understand how the structural flexibility of hEg-5 is affected by substrates and allosteric ligands binding at various sites. Our results provide, a comprehensive view of conformational changes take place upon various inhibitors binding at the motor domain. Moreover, the interaction analysis outlined in this work provide suggestions to the next generation inhibitor design.
Materials and Methods
Protein Structure Preparation
Five different simulations were carried out to investigate how the Eg-5 motor domain conformational dynamics is altered by the substrate or allosteric inhibitors in their respective binding pockets (Fig. 2a). The simulation setup included ATP, ADP, ADP.Ispinesib, ADP.SB- 743921 and ADP.6a, the 2D structure of these molecules are shown in Figure 2b. The initial protein coordinates corresponding to Eg-5.ATP.Mg2+ (PDBID:3HQD)(Parke, et al., 2010) and Eg-5.ADP.Mg2+ (PDBID:1II6)(Turner et al., 2001) were used to simulate substrates behavior. The SW-II loop was missing in one crystal structure (PDB ID: 1II6), hence the loop was modeled based on the 3HQD structure. View of ligand binding sites in the hEg-5 motor domain. a. the hEg-5 showing substrate (ADP and Mg2+) and allosteric (ispinesib and BI8) sites. b. 2D structure of substrates and allosteric inhibitors used in this study.
To model Eg-5.ispinesib.ADP.Mg2+ complex PDBID:4AP0 (Talapatra, Schuttelkopf, & Kozielski, 2012) was used, the missing residues were modeled based on the ispinesib analog SB- 743921 bound structure 4AS7 (Talapatra, Anthony, Mackay, & Kozielski, 2013). The dual allosteric site inhibition (fig. 2a) of benzimidazole-based compound 6a (4E) was modeled based on the recently reported crystal structure 3ZCW (Ulaganathan, et al., 2013). The 3ZCW structure has 15 missing residues at α6 which is right behind the second allosteric pocket. Therefore, we modeled the portion connecting α6 with core β-sheets and other missing residues based on crystal structure 3HQD using the Modeller 9.11 program (Sali and Blundell, 1993).
Compound 6a and BI8 are from same congeneric series, 6a was modeled based on the crystal pose of BI8 occupying two allosteric pockets using Discovery Studio Visualizer 3.5 (www.accelrys.com). Compound 6a is reported to be a potent inhibitor in the temperature- dependent circular dichroism experiment than BI8 (Sheth et al., 2010) therefore we are interested in modeling this inhibitor. The dual allosteric inhibition by SB-743921 and 6a was modeled as above mentioned where L5 site 6a is replaced by SB-743921 extracted from PDBID:4AS7 (Talapatra, et al., 2013).
Molecular Dynamics Simulation Setup
Equilibration and production runs were carried out using CUDA accelerated NAMD 2.10 program (Phillips et al., 2005), simulation trajectory was analyzed using CHARMM 38 (Brooks et al., 2009) and VMD (Humphrey, Dalke, & Schulten, 1996) packages. Simulation setup includes ATP, ADP and Mg2+ ion along with explicit TIP3 water molecules and neutralizing ions, to mimic infinite size periodic boundary conditions were used. The simulation system preparation include addition of hydrogens, solvation, and periodic boundary condition was defined using the CHARMM-GUI (Jo, Kim, Iyer, & Im, 2008) interface. Molecular dynamics simulation performed under the following conditions. Long-range electrostatics was treated with the Particle Mesh Ewald (PME) method with the order set to 6. Force switching function used to smooth out Lennard-Jones interaction between 10.0 to 12.0 Å, non-bonded list generation was limited to 16 Å. Hydrogen bond distances were constrained to force filed specification using SHAKE (Ryckaert, Ciccotti, & Berendsen, 1977) method. The temperature and pressure were maintained by the Langevin thermostat and Langevin barostat at 300 K and 1 atm, respectively. The systems were subjected to minimization for 10000 cycles using conjugate gradient and line search algorithm. Following that restrained equilibration was performed with NVT ensemble, harmonic restraints of 5.0 kcal/mol/Å was applied to backbone atoms. Following that 250 ps equilibration run was performed, eventually, all the restraints were removed to continue in production phase using NPT ensemble for 30 ns. Both the equilibration and production runs were performed with an integration time step of 2 fs. To simulate SB-743921 and 6a system the production run was extended to make sure the α3 helix orientation change at loop L5 Site. Initial atom velocities were assigned according to the Maxwell distribution; the snapshots were saved at every 5 ps.
Dynamics covariance matrix and clustering
The covariance matrix was calculated using CARMA(Glykos, 2006) package to show significant protein motions. The main objective of this study is attributed to display meaningful motion upon various ligand binding. Covariance between residues i and j based on Cα atoms was computed for entire simulation trajectories. Prior to Cij calculation global rotations and translations were removed and all the frames after 2 ns were superposed, covariance matrix was generated based on the Cα atoms. The normalized covariance (or cross-correlation) matrix elements Cij represents correlation and anti-correlation motions, Cij, are defined by:
The positive correlation (+1) indicates strong correlation in the atom i and j movement, whereas negative correlation (-1) denotes that the atoms move in opposite direction. Principal component analysis of molecular dynamics trajectories is one of the best-understood methods for separation of biologically relevant large-scale motion from trivial short-scale motions along simulation trajectories (Amadei, Linssen, & Berendsen, 1993). Here we use dihedral principal component analysis (dPCA) (Mu, Nguyen, & Stock, 2005) based on ϕ and ψ angles of protein backbone atoms to group internal motions. Firstly, dihedral covariance matrix established using CARMA package, here internal coordinates were used to access dihedral angles, therefore, no special requirements to remove overall translation and rotation of trajectories. The covariance matrix represents correlated internal motions, diagonalization of the covariance matrix of atomic fluctuations yields eigenvectors and eigenvalues representing modes of collective motions and their amplitudes, respectively. Finally, the principal component analysis carried out for the first three eigenvectors to represent predominant motions from the trajectories.
Results and Discussion
The objective of this work is to identify the conformation changes take place at the hEg-5 motor domain as a result of allosteric inhibition. The simulation systems include substrates and allosteric inhibitors. Conformational dynamics observed for the ATP or ADP (substrate only) simulations considered as substrate specific, and additional dynamics observed by allosteric inhibition is treated as allosteric specific. Separation of substrate and inhibitor specific conformational dynamics can help to understand the underlying mechanism of allosteric inhibition as well as to design better drug candidates. Here, we analyzed five sets of hEg-5 complex systems in the presence of explicit water molecules. As a check on the simulation stability, we used root mean square deviation (RMSD) to demonstrate the systems convergence. The RMSD values plotted against the simulation time for the entire protein, Cα fluctuation plateaued within 10 – 15 ns indicated that the systems have converged adequately (Figure 3a). The ADP molecule stays in a position for up 15 ns, after that slightly diffuse from the pocket which could be an indication of nucleotide turnover time. The simulation involving ADP.SB-743921.6a required additional convergence since SB-743921 modeled on the benzimidazole bound structure (PDB: 3ZCW). During the first 25 ns simulation, the L5 loop move closer to α2 resulting in a helical rotation. The converged structure is a representation of SB-743921 bound at the α2/α3 and 6a at the α4/α6 site, for which no crystal structure is available yet. The hEg-5 protein has several loops that are functionally important including the p-loop, SW-I, and SW-II. In general, protein secondary structural elements such as α-helices and β-sheets do not show much movement result in lower fluctuation (Figure 3b), whereas higher root mean square fluctuations (RMSF) values (> 1.0 Å) are generally observed for loops. The loop L5 (residues 121 to 131) is predicted to be flexible in the presence of ADP, where the flexibility is limited when ATP or allosteric ligands bind. Consistent with the above interpretation allosteric inhibitors may inhibit conformation changes associated with ATP turnover by reducing the flexibility of L5 region. From the simulation data, it was observed that the α0 helix is less flexible when ATP is bound. The amide nitrogen of ASN29 in α0 helix donates hydrogen bond to the ribose ring oxygen of ATP, which increase rigidity and result in less fluctuation. When ADP occupies the binding site, the molecule is positioned slightly upward due to the missing γ- phosphate group so that the ribose ring and ASN29 cannot interact, that allows α0 helical fluctuation. Similarly, SW-II is less flexible upon ATP binding as GLY268 nitrogen and γ- phosphate oxygen form a hydrogen bond. This interaction may assist to position the SW-II loop to facilitate MT binding otherwise it can cause steric hindrance. a. Root mean square deviation calculated for Cα atoms of the hEg-5 motor domain residues. b. Root mean square fluctuation of hEg-5 residues in the presence of substrate or inhibitors. c. Representation of secondary structure elements present in the motor domain.
Correlation dynamics
residual correlation heat map calculated for various hEg-5 motor domain simulations. Where the red colored region corresponds to the positive correlation between two residues reflecta a motion along the same direction and the blue color represent the negative value indicates the opposite direction. The amount of coupled residues vary depending on the type of inhibitors bound to the motor domain, the total number of highly correlated residues ranked as follows ADP.Ispinesib > ATP > ADP > ADP.6a > ADP.SB743921.6a. Fully closed active site formed upon ATP binding, when ispinesib bind loop L11 fold backward to close the α4/α6 site result in a distinct protein conformation. In this simulation, overall residual dynamics is affected resulting in less concentrated residue-residue coupling. Other simulations with ADP- like conformation increase residue-residue contact, therefore, more red color regions in the heat- map. It is noteworthy the ADP simulation reveal several positively correlated residue pattern in contrast to the ATP simulation. From the visualization of the ADP simulation trajectories, the SW-II region moved closer to the α4/α6 site. This is mainly due to the absence of the γ- phosphate that allows SW-II to flex. As SW-II becomes part of the α4/α6 site causing nearby residues interact stronger reflect in higher residual correlation as shown in the boxed region of figure 4. In the presence of ATP, no distinct α4/α6 site was formed as indicated in the dashed box. In the same way, ADP also allows the SW-I to adopt coil structure, therefore, increasing positive correlation motion versus the loop formation when ATP is present.
Residual correlation heat map calculated for Eg-5 motor domain simulations. The boxed region covers concentrated residues form α4/α6 site, value 1, 0 and -1 indicate positive-, no-and negative-correlation, respectively.
L5, SW-I, and SW-II conformational dynamics In the course of a molecular dynamics simulation, numerous conformations were generated to any given system. To analyze these simulations sophisticated statistical tools are required to distinguish the functionally relevant dynamics from the pool of conformations trajectory. Here we used dihedral principal component (dPCA)(Frickenhaus, Kannan, & Zacharias, 2009) clustering technique due to its effectiveness in considering the influence of protein backbone dihedral (ϕ,ψ) distribution. To ensure adequate conformational sampling we used simulation trajectories discarding first 2 ns from the production run. Functionally important collective motions and amplitudes were clustered based on the first three components of dPCA. Global conformational dynamics can be visualized by whole protein clustering however, it can overshadow the critical dynamics caused by the presence of small loops. Therefore, we selected L5, SW-I and SW-II regions to highlight the conformational dynamics in relation to various ligands binding. The dPCA clustering results are summarized in The dPCA clusters obtained for the L5, SW-I and SW-II regions.
L5 (117-134) is a long and conserved loop among kinesins (Larson, Naber, Cooke, Pate, & Rice, 2010), located near to the phosphate group coordinating P-loop and SW-I. The functional role of the L5 loop is not known, Parks et al. (Behnke-Parks et al., 2011) report suggest that the L5 creates a hydrophobic cleft along with α2 and α3 helix when the inhibitor is present. Moreover, these authors proposed that the L5 regulates the rate of conformational change of the nucleotide binding site elements. From the simulations, it is noted that L5 adopts one major conformation in the presence of ATP, where the number of clusters increased when ADP is present. The ADP molecule diffuse from the binding pocket that result in L5 flexibility as shown in RMSF analysis and increased number of clusters.
The loop L5 stays closer to α3 in the presence of ATP whereas, moves about 5 Å away when ADP is bound as shown in figure 5. From the simulation we propose that the L5 loop establish new interactions while moving closer to α3 that might cause the helical rotation (data not shown) to accommodate substrate ATP, this observation is in agreement with previously reported L5 conformation latch concept (Behnke-Parks, et al., 2011). Simulations involving allosteric inhibitors result in two clusters, however, the cluster population significantly varies. In case of ADP.SB-743921-6a simulation first cluster with 62.8% population indicates strong interaction with SB-743921 that cause conformational rigidity to loop L5. In the presence of 6a at the α3/α2 interface, the cluster population reduced to 49%. From the above interpretation, we propose L5 dynamics can be considered as important criteria for small-molecule inhibitor designing.
Cartoon-ribbon view of loop L5 (117-134) cluster calculated for ATP (red) and ADP (green) simulations. In the presence of ATP, the L5 loop stays closer to the α3 helix and moves away when ADP is present.
The SW-I (229-235) loop conformations result in two clusters of ATP or other inhibitors and three clusters for ADP simulation (table 1). In case of ATP simulation SW-I establish a stable loop interaction with γ-phosphate resulting in less number of clusters, whereas, allosteric inhibitors contribute to direct or indirect interactions with the SW-I loop causes rigidity. Lack of
γ-phosphate or allosteric inhibitors in ADP simulation allows the SW-I move often, therefore, three clusters are formed. The SW-II (267-278) region is predicted to remain flexible during dual inhibition by ADP.SB-743921.6a, results in four cluster. While all other simulations report two clusters indicating conformational rigidity, the presence of SB-743921 along with 6a increase the SW-II loop conformational diversity.
Switching salt-bridge interactions Three different salt-bridge pairs formed depending on the type of substrate or inhibitor is bound to the motor domain. The positively charged ARG221 (from α3) is held by ionic interaction by three negatively charged residues include GLU116 (α2), GLU162 (β4), and ASP265 (β7) positioned in three different directions as shown in the figure 6a. The salt-bridge formation between ARG221-GLU162 occurs when simply ADP is present or along with Ispinesib (Figure 6b-f), other simulations failed to show this interaction. The ADP.SB-743921.6a simulation is expected to produce similar results as that of the Ispinesib, but in the presence of 6a at the α4/α6 site, this interaction was not observed. The second salt-bridge between ARG221–GLU116 is predicted as long as the ADP stays in the pocket for 15 ns (figure 6b), after that interaction was not observed as the distance increase. This interaction gets stronger when 6a is present in the α4/α6 site resulting in a stable salt-bridge formation (see Figure 6e&f). In the presence of Ispinisib, the inhibitor prevents loop L5 moving closer to the α2 helix, resulting in weak salt- bridge formation. When substrate ATP is present no interaction between ARG221–GLU116 was observed as α2 and α3 oriented parallel to each other. The residue ARG221 was predicted to constantly interact with ASP265 in the ATP bound simulation system. From the visual analysis, it appears that SW-I loop conformation favors this interaction formation as arginine placed near to ASP265. Besides, we speculate that this interaction may prevent aspartate residue moving
closer to the negatively charged γ- and β-phosphate that leads to a repulsive force. To further support this notion this interaction is not seen in other simulations include ADP at the nucleotide binding site. Distance measurements for important predicted salt-bridge interactions. a. Representation of charged residues in the Eg-5 motor domain. b-f. Histograms of the salt-bridge distance measurements.
Role of α2/α3 in controlling SW-I dynamics
The pseudo-angle is a measure of the angle between three different points of a protein rather than three atoms. Pseudo-angle coordinates specified upon the first point is N-ter residues of α2, the second point is centric of C-ter of α2 and N-ter of α3 and the third point is C-ter of α3 as shown in the Figure 7a. The ATP-included simulation predicts a pseudo-angle (θ) that is < 38° due to the closeness of the two helixes (Figure 7b). The α2/α3 position could be responsible for SW-I orientation when these helixes approach parallel to each other SW-I is converted into the loop from the coiled structure. The SW-I loop conformation has been reported to aid ATP binding by forming a closed nucleotide-binding site(Parke, et al., 2010). When small molecules bind at the interface of α2/α3 helical movement is restricted due to the newly established interactions, and result in an acute angle formation at ~45° angle. Additionally, 6a binding at the α2/α3 site allows the inhibitor to form two stable hydrogen bonds with SW-I that can keep this loop in a coiled conformation that may affect the nucleotide turnover rate. For drug designers, it is an interesting observation that the molecules with a moiety to mimic this interaction with SW-I can affect substrate exchange a) Cartoon representation of α2/α3 and the coordinates used for angle measurement. b) Pseudo-angle plotted as a function of simulation time.
The 6a binding to Eg-5 The compound 6a is a potent benzimidazole analog as revealed by temperature-dependent circular dichroism (TdCD) experiment (Sheth, et al., 2010). Interestingly, this series of compounds bind with two allosteric sites of the Eg-5 motor domain (Sheth, et al., 2010; Ulaganathan, et al., 2013). Here, we present the first attempt to visualize 6a dynamics from both the α2/α3 and α4/α6 pockets. Despite these pockets being chemically diverse, benzimidazole compounds are capable of binding at both the allosteric pockets. From the simulation data, it is predicted that the α2/α3 site bound 6a is not flexible as the one bound at the α4/α6 site. Figure 8 (panels a-c) describe the two important dihedral values plotted as a function of simulation time. Both the dihedrals are stable in the α2/α3 site due to tight interactions by the residues that result in lesser dihedral sampling, whereas, in the α4/α6 site 6a is slightly flexible. Importantly, the C- N-C-C dihedral adopts two major conformations as a result of changing mode of interaction during 20-30 ns simulation time (Figure. 8c). When 6a binds to the α4/α6 site, SW-II moves closer to the ligand, the sulfonamide nitrogen from 6a acts as a hydrogen bond donor to the SER269 hydroxyl oxygen. The dihedral changes referred to above can be related to SW-II position, as outlined before SW-II form wraps around nucleotide binding pocket when ATP is present but not when ADP is present. Figure 8d shows the relative distance measurements between SW-II (265-270) and the β-phosphate of substrate nucleotides. In 6a simulations, SW-II has already lost interaction with ADP and attracted by the hydrophobic trifluoro-methyl group of 6a bound at the α4/α6 site. Due to these interactions, SW-II positioned away from the nucleotide binding pocket. Based on the simulation data we predicted that the 6a binding could stabilize the SW-II position that hinders MT binding as well as affects substrate turnover rate resulting in impaired motor function a. Representation of 6a in 2D with the dihedral specification. b.&c. dihedral values plotted as a function of simulation time. d) Distance calculated between β-phosphate of substrate and mass center of SW-II loop residues (265:270).
Conclusions
Mitotic kinesin Eg-5 is a motor protein, move unidirectionally on microtubules to perform intracellular transportation or cell division. Due to its importance hEg-5 protein has emerged as a key target for cancer drug development. Here, we described the results from the molecular dynamics simulations conducted for various allosteric inhibitors in the presence of substrates. The results of simulations suggest the mechanism of allosteric inhibition and the involvement of the loop L5 that acts as a conformational latch as previously shown by crystallography (Behnke- Parks, et al., 2011). In addition, the role of allosteric inhibitors that prevent MT binding by SW-I and SW-II dynamics described.The simulations suggest that the benzimidazole compound 6a binding at both the allosteric sites (α2/α3 and α4/α6) may not be effective compared to dual inhibition by SB-743921 (ispinesib analog) (α2/α3) and 6a (α4/α6). Design of selective small molecule inhibitors advanced by the better understanding of protein-inhibitor interaction at the molecular level. The findings summarized in this report are likely to inform the design of the better inhibitors that target Eg-5 motor domain.
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Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank Dr. David Dawson and Dr. Michael Chapman for providing access to computer clusters.
Author Contributions
S.N. conceived the idea and conducted experiments, S.N. and S.S wrote main manuscript. Both authors reviewed the manuscript.
Additional Information
The authors declare no competing financial interests.