Use of constrained synthetic amino acids in beta-helix proteins for conformational control

Sequence-based prediction of the intrinsic solubility of peptides containing non-natural amino acids

Non-natural amino acids are increasingly used as building blocks in the development of peptide-based drugs as they expand the available chemical space to tailor function, half-life and other key properties. However, while the chemical space of modified amino acids (mAAs) such as residues containing post-translational modifications (PTMs) is potentially vast, experimental methods for measuring the developability properties of mAA-containing peptides are expensive and time consuming. To facilitate developability programs through computational methods, we present CamSol-PTM, a method that enables the fast and reliable sequence-based prediction of the intrinsic solubility of mAA-containing peptides in aqueous solution at room temperature. From a computational screening of 50,000 mAA-containing variants of three peptides, we selected five different small-size mAAs for a total number of 37 peptide variants for experimental validation. We demonstrate the accuracy of the predictions by comparing the calculated and experimental solubility values. Our results indicate that the computational screening of mAA-containing peptides can extend by over four orders of magnitude the ability to explore the solubility chemical space of peptides and confirm that our method can accurately assess the solubility of peptides containing mAAs. This method is available as a web server at https://www-cohsoftware.ch.cam.ac.uk/index.php/camsolptm .

A Protocol for the Design of Protein and Peptide Nanostructure Self-Assemblies Exploiting Synthetic Amino Acids

In recent years there has been increasing interest in nanostructure design based on the self-assembly properties of proteins and polymers. Nanodesign requires the ability to predictably manipulate the properties of the self-assembly of autonomous building blocks, which can fold or aggregate into preferred conformational states. The design includes functional synthetic materials and biological macromolecules. Autonomous biological building blocks with available 3D structures provide an extremely rich and useful resource. Structural databases contain large libraries of protein molecules and their building blocks with a range of sizes, shapes, surfaces, and chemical properties. The introduction of engineered synthetic residues or short peptides into these building blocks can greatly expand the available chemical space and enhance the desired properties. Herein, we summarize a protocol for designing nanostructures consisting of self-assembling building blocks, based on our recent works. We focus on the principles of nanostructure design with naturally occurring proteins and synthetic amino acids, as well as hybrid materials made of amyloids and synthetic polymers.

Constructing Optimal Coarse-Grained Sites of Huge Biomolecules by Fluctuation Maximization

Coarse-grained (CG) models are valuable tools for the study of functions of large biomolecules on large length and time scales. The definition of CG representations for huge biomolecules is always a formidable challenge. In this work, we propose a new method called fluctuation maximization coarse-graining (FM-CG) to construct the CG sites of biomolecules. The defined residual in FM-CG converges to a maximal value as the number of CG sites increases, allowing an optimal CG model to be rigorously defined on the basis of the maximum. More importantly, we developed a robust algorithm called stepwise local iterative optimization (SLIO) to accelerate the process of coarse-graining large biomolecules. By means of the efficient SLIO algorithm, the computational cost of coarse-graining large biomolecules is reduced to within the time scale of seconds, which is far lower than that of conventional simulated annealing. The coarse-graining of two huge systems, chaperonin GroEL and lengsin, indicates that our new methods can coarse-grain huge biomolecular systems with up to 10,000 residues within the time scale of minutes. The further parametrization of CG sites derived from FM-CG allows us to construct the corresponding CG models for studies of the functions of huge biomolecular systems.

Exploring the energy landscape of a molecular engineered analog of a tumor-homing peptide

Recently a new non-coded amino acid was designed as a replacement for Arg, to protect the tumor-homing pentapeptide CREKA (Cys-Arg-Glu-Lys-Ala) from proteases. This constrained Arg analog, denoted c(5)Arg, was engineered to also promote the stability of the CREKA bioactive conformation. The conformational profile of the CREKA analog obtained by replacing Arg by c(5)Arg has been extensively investigated in this work. Two molecular dynamics simulations-based strategies have been employed: a modified simulated annealing and replica exchange. Results obtained using both techniques show that the conformational features of the new analog fulfill the purpose of its design. The new CREKA analog not only preserves the main structural attributes found for the bioactive conformation of the parent peptide but also shows lower flexibility. Moreover, the conformational profile of the mutated peptide narrows towards the most stable structures previously observed for the parent CREKA peptide.

NCAD, a database integrating the intrinsic conformational preferences of non-coded amino acids

Peptides and proteins find an ever-increasing number of applications in the biomedical and materials engineering fields. The use of non-proteinogenic amino acids endowed with diverse physicochemical and structural features opens the possibility to design proteins and peptides with novel properties and functions. Moreover, non-proteinogenic residues are particularly useful to control the three-dimensional arrangement of peptidic chains, which is a crucial issue for most applications. However, information regarding such amino acids--also called non-coded, non-canonical, or non-standard--is usually scattered among publications specialized in quite diverse fields as well as in patents. Making all these data useful to the scientific community requires new tools and a framework for their assembly and coherent organization. We have successfully compiled, organized, and built a database (NCAD, Non-Coded Amino acids Database) containing information about the intrinsic conformational preferences of non-proteinogenic residues determined by quantum mechanical calculations, as well as bibliographic information about their synthesis, physical and spectroscopic characterization, conformational propensities established experimentally, and applications. The architecture of the database is presented in this work together with the first family of non-coded residues included, namely, alpha-tetrasubstituted alpha-amino acids. Furthermore, the NCAD usefulness is demonstrated through a test-case application example.

Conformational preferences of 1-amino-2-phenylcyclohexanecarboxylic acid, a phenylalanine cyclohexane analogue

The intrinsic conformational preferences of the restricted phenylalanine analogue generated by including the alpha and beta carbon atoms into a cyclohexane ring (1-amino-2-phenylcyclohexanecarboxylic acid, c(6)Phe) have been determined using quantum mechanical calculations. Specifically, the conformational profile of the N-acetyl-N'-methylamide derivative of the c(6)Phe stereoisomers exhibiting either a cis or a trans relative orientation between the amino and phenyl substituents has been analyzed in different environments (gas phase, chloroform, and aqueous solutions). Calculations were performed using B3LYP, MP2, and HF methods combined with the 6-31+G(d,p) and 6-311++G(d,p) basis sets, and a self-consistent reaction-field (SCRF) method was applied to analyze the influence of the solvent. The amino acids investigated can be viewed as constrained phenylalanine analogues with a rigidly oriented aromatic side chain that may interact with the peptide backbone not only sterically but also electronically through the aromatic pi orbitals. Their conformational propensities have been found to be strongly influenced by the specific orientation of the aromatic substituent in each stereoisomer and the conformation adopted by the cyclohexane ring, as well as by the environment.

Stimuli-responsive properties of peptide-based copolymers studied via directional growth of self-assembled patterns on solid substrate

We studied the self-assembly of peptide-based ABA and CBC triblock-copolymers (obtained by bacterial expression) containing random coiled hydrophilic central B blocks flanked with helical A or C blocks. The A and C blocks were of different compositions with respect to the fraction of lysine residues which provided a higher pH sensitivity of the copolymer solutions. The interchain interactions of the copolymers driven by external stimuli (pH and temperature) were explored in the process of macromolecular self-assembling in the thin films of the copolymer solutions deposited on the solid substrate. The interactions involved in the macromolecular association affected the morphology of the developed patterns. The polypeptide of the B block was not involved in the formation of the secondary structures, while the A and C blocks demonstrated helical folding responsible for the intermolecular association. The mechanism of the responsive behavior of the copolymers is based on the reversible assembling of the helices into coiled-coil structures upon the change of pH or temperature. It was found that at low pH values, when electrostatic repulsion was strong and the A/C blocks unfolded, assembling yielded fractal dendrites. Increasing the pH resulted in the recovery of the helical conformation of the A/C blocks and caused a transition from the fractal to compact structures. An elevation of temperature resulted in the disruption of the dendritic structures. The reported here approach to the evaluation of the intermolecular interactions, based on the analysis of the dendritic patterns, provides a rapid and simple method for the characterization of complex processes of self-assembling biomacromolecules.

Protein segments with conformationally restricted amino acids can control supramolecular organization at the nanoscale

Nanotechnology aims to design supramolecular systems able to perform complex functions. The selection of suitable building blocks and the control over their physicochemical properties play key roles in the chances of success. Here we summarize ideas that motivated our recent investigations focusing on the contribution of our results to the conformational control of the building blocks. We combined the structural versatility of naturally occurring polypeptides, the conformational features of a particular constrained class of non-natural restricted amino acids and the increasing computing power of modern molecular simulations to select and re-design protein fragments capable of forming fibril-like nanostructures . Proteins adopting a β-helical conformation were used as scaffolds. Massive molecular dynamics simulations were used to detect the most flexible segments in each scaffold that preclude the formation of the nanostructure. Non-proteinogenic α-tetrasubstituted amino acids containing cyclic side chains (1-aminocycloalkanecarboxylic acids, Acn c) were engineered to shift the population toward rigidified conformations of the selected fragments. Biasing the population away from conformational flexibility proved essential to the design of stable nanostructures.

In silico molecular engineering for a targeted replacement in a tumor-homing peptide

A new amino acid has been designed as a replacement for arginine (Arg, R) to protect the tumor-homing pentapeptide CREKA (Cys-Arg-Glu-Lys-Ala) from proteases. This amino acid, denoted (Pro)hArg, is characterized by a proline skeleton bearing a specifically oriented guanidinium side chain. This residue combines the ability of Pro to induce turn-like conformations with the Arg side-chain functionality. The conformational profile of the CREKA analogue incorporating this Arg substitute has been investigated by a combination of simulated annealing and molecular dynamics. Comparison of the results with those previously obtained for the natural CREKA shows that (Pro)hArg significantly reduces the conformational flexibility of the peptide. Although some changes are observed in the backbone...backbone and side-chain...side-chain interactions, the modified peptide exhibits a strong tendency to accommodate turn conformations centered at the (Pro)hArg residue and the overall shape of the molecule in the lowest energy conformations characterized for the natural and the modified peptides exhibit a high degree of similarity. In particular, the turn orients the backbone such that the Arg, Glu, and Lys side chains face the same side of the molecule, which is considered important for bioactivity. These results suggest that replacement of Arg by (Pro)hArg in CREKA may be useful in providing resistance against proteolytic enzymes while retaining conformational features which are essential for tumor-homing activity.

Conformational preferences of beta- and gamma-aminated proline analogues

Quantum mechanical calculations have been used to investigate how the incorporation of an amino group to the Cbeta- or Cgamma-positions of the pyrrolidine ring affects the intrinsic conformational properties of the proline. Specifically, a conformational study of the N-acetyl-N'-methylamide derivatives of four isomers of aminoproline, which differ not only in the beta- or gamma-position of the substituent but also in its cis or trans relative disposition, has been performed. To further understand the role of the intramolecular hydrogen bonds between the backbone carbonyl groups and the amino side group, a conformational study was also performed on the corresponding four analogues of (dimethylamino)proline. In addition, the effects of solvation on aminoproline and (dimethylamino)proline dipeptides have been evaluated using a self-consistent reaction field model, and considering four different solvents (carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, methanol and water). Results indicate that the incorporation of the amino substituent into the pyrrolidine ring affects the conformational properties, with backbone...side chain intramolecular hydrogen bonds detected when it is incorporated in a cis relative disposition. In general, the incorporation of the amino side group tends to stabilize those structures where the peptide bond involving the pyrrolidine nitrogen is arranged in cis. The aminoproline isomer with the substituent attached to the Cgamma-position with a cis relative disposition is the most stable in the gas phase and in chloroform, methanol and water solutions. Replacement of the amino side group by the dimethylamino substituent produces significant changes in the potential energy surfaces of the four investigated (dimethylamino)proline-containing dipeptides. Thus, these changes affect not only the number of minima, which increases considerably, but also the backbone and pseudorotational preferences. In spite of these effects, comparison of the conformational preferences, i.e., the more favored conformers, calculated for different isomers of aminoproline and (dimethylamino)proline dipeptides showed a high degree of consistency for the two families of compounds.

Structural analysis of a beta-helical protein motif stabilized by targeted replacements with conformationally constrained amino acids

Here we study conformational stabilization induced in a beta-helical nanostructure by position-specific mutations. The nanostructure is constructed through the self-assembly of the beta-helical building block excised from E. coli galactoside acetyltransferase (PDB code 1krr , chain A; residues 131-165). The mutations involve substitutions by cyclic, conformationally constrained amino acids. Specifically, a complete structural analysis of the Pro-Xaa-Val sequence [with Xaa being Gly, Ac 3c (1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid) and Ac 5c (1-aminocyclopentane-1-carboxylic acid)], corresponding to the 148-150 loop region in the wild-type (Gly) and mutated (Ac 3c and Ac 5c) 1krr , has been performed using Molecular Dynamics simulations and X-ray crystallography. Simulations have been performed for the wild-type and mutants of three different systems, namely the building block, the nanoconstruct and the isolated Pro-Xaa-Val tripeptide. Furthermore, the crystalline structures of five peptides of Pro-Xaa-Val or Xaa-Val sequences have been solved by X-ray diffraction analysis and compared with theoretical predictions. Both the theoretical and crystallographic studies indicate that the Pro-Ac n c-Val sequences exhibit a high propensity to adopt turn-like conformations, and this propensity is little affected by the chemical environment. Overall, the results indicate that replacement of Gly149 by Ac 3c or Ac 5c significantly reduce the conformational flexibility of the target site enhancing the structural specificity of the building block and the nanoconstruct derived from the 1krr beta-helical motif.

A systematic methodology for defining coarse-grained sites in large biomolecules

Coarse-grained (CG) models of biomolecules have recently attracted considerable interest because they enable the simulation of complex biological systems on length-scales and timescales that are inaccessible for atomistic molecular dynamics simulation. A CG model is defined by a map that transforms an atomically detailed configuration into a CG configuration. For CG models of relatively small biomolecules or in cases that the CG and all-atom models have similar resolution, the construction of this map is relatively straightforward and can be guided by chemical intuition. However, it is more challenging to construct a CG map when large and complex domains of biomolecules have to be represented by relatively few CG sites. This work introduces a new and systematic methodology called essential dynamics coarse-graining (ED-CG). This approach constructs a CG map of the primary sequence at a chosen resolution for an arbitrarily complex biomolecule. In particular, the resulting ED-CG method variationally determines the CG sites that reflect the essential dynamics characterized by principal component analysis of an atomistic molecular dynamics trajectory. Numerical calculations illustrate this approach for the HIV-1 CA protein dimer and ATP-bound G-actin. Importantly, since the CG sites are constructed from the primary sequence of the biomolecule, the resulting ED-CG model may be better suited to appropriately explore protein conformational space than those from other CG methods at the same degree of resolution.

The energy landscape of a selective tumor-homing pentapeptide

Recently, a potentially powerful strategy based on phage-display libraries has been presented to target tumors via homing peptides attached to nanoparticles. The Cys-Arg-Glu-Lys-Ala (CREKA) peptide sequence has been identified as a tumor-homing peptide that binds to clotted plasmas proteins present in tumor vessels and interstitium. The aim of this work consists of mapping the conformational profile of CREKA to identify the bioactive conformation. For this purpose, a conformational search procedure based on modified simulated annealing combined with molecular dynamics was applied to three systems that mimic the experimentally used conditions: (i) the free peptide; (ii) the peptide attached to a nanoparticle; and (iii) the peptide inserted in a phage display protein. In addition, the free peptide was simulated in an ionized aqueous solution environment, which mimics the ionic strength of the physiological medium. Accessible minima of all simulated systems reveal a multiple interaction pattern involving the ionized side chains of Arg, Glu, and Lys, which induces a beta-turn motif in the backbone observed in all simulated CREKA systems.

Application of 1-aminocyclohexane carboxylic acid to protein nanostructure computer design

Conformationally restricted amino acids are promising candidates to serve as basic pieces in redesigned protein motifs which constitute the basic modules in synthetic nanoconstructs. Here we study the ability of constrained cyclic amino acid 1-aminocyclohexane-1-carboxylic acid (Ac6c) to stabilize highly regular beta-helical motifs excised from naturally occurring proteins. Calculations indicate that the conformational flexibility observed in both the ring and the main chain is significantly higher than that detected for other 1-aminocycloalkane-1-carboxylic acids (Acnc, where n refers to the size of the ring) with smaller cycles. Incorporation of Ac6c into the flexible loops of beta-helical motifs indicates that the stability of such excised building blocks as well as the nanoassemblies derived from them is significantly enhanced. Thus, the intrinsic Ac6c tendency to adopt folded conformations combined with the low structural strain of the cyclohexane ring confers the ability to both self-adapt to the beta-helix motif and to stabilize the overall structure by absorbing part of its conformational fluctuations. Comparison with other Acnc residues indicates that the ability to adapt to the targeted position improves considerably with the ring size, i.e., when the rigidity introduced by the strain of the ring decreases.

1-amino-2-phenylcyclopentane-1-carboxylic acid: a conformationally restricted phenylalanine analogue

DFT calculations at the B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) level have been used to investigate the intrinsic conformational preferences of 1-amino-2-phenylcyclopentane-1-carboxylic acid (c5Phe), a constrained analogue of phenylalanine in which the alpha and beta carbons are included in a cyclopentane ring. Specifically, the N-acetyl-N'-methylamide derivatives of the cis and trans stereoisomers, where cis and trans refer to the relative position between the amino group and the phenyl ring, have been calculated. Solvent effects have been examined using a self-consistent reaction field (SCRF) method. Results indicate that the conformational space of the cis stereoisomer is much more restricted than that of the trans derivative both in the gas phase and in solution.

Testing β-helix terminal coils stability by targeted substitutions with non-proteogenic amino acids: A molecular dynamics study

The search for new building block templates useful for nanostructures design, targets protein motifs with a wide range of structures. Stabilizing these building blocks when extracted from their natural environment becomes a fundamental goal in order to successfully control their assembly. Targeted replacements of natural residues by conformationally constrained amino acids were shown to be a successful strategy to achieve such stabilization. In this work, the effect of replacing natural amino acids by non-proteogenic residues in a beta-helix building block has been evaluated using extensive molecular dynamics simulations. Here, we focus on systematic substitutions of valine residues present in beta-sheet segments of a beta-helical building block excised from Escherichia coli galactoside acetyltransferase, residues 131-165. Four different types of non-proteogenic amino acids have been considered for substitution: (i) one dehydroamino acid, (ii) two d-amino acids, (iii) one beta-amino acid and (iv) two alpha,alpha-dialkylamino acids. Our results indicate that the ability of non-proteogenic amino acids to stabilize small building block motifs is site-dependent. We conclude that if the replacement does not alter the energy balance between attractive non-covalent interactions and steric hindrance, synthetic residues are suitable candidates to nucleate beta-helix formation.

Stability of tubular structures based on beta-helical proteins: self-assembled versus polymerized nanoconstructs and wild-type versus mutated sequences

In this work we used atomistic molecular dynamics simulations to examine different aspects of tubular nanostructures constructed using protein building blocks with a beta-helical conformation. Initially, we considered two different natural protein building blocks, which were extracted from the protein data base, to compare the relative stabilities of the nanotubes obtained made of self-assembled and covalently linked repeats. Results show nanotubes constructed by linking building blocks through covalent bonds are very stable suggesting that the basic principles of polymer physics are valid when the repeating units are made of large fragments of proteins. In contrast, the stability of self-assembled nanostructures strongly depends on the attractive nonbonding interactions associated to building blocks aligned in a complementary manner. On the other hand, we investigated the ability of a conformationally constrained synthetic amino acid to enhance the stability of both self-assembled and polymerized nanotubes when it is used to substitute natural residues. Specifically, we considered 1-aminocyclopentane-1-caboxylic acid, which involves strong stereochemical constraints produced by the cyclopentane side chain. We found that the incorporation of this amino acid within the more flexible regions of the beta-helical building blocks is an excellent strategy to enhance the stability of the nanotubes. Thus, when a single mutation is performed in the loop region of the beta-helix, the bend architecture of the whole loop is stabilized since the conformational mobility is reduced not only at the mutated position but also at the adjacent positions.

Coarse-grained representation of beta-helical protein building blocks

A general strategy to develop coarse-grained models of beta-helical protein fragments is presented. The procedure has been applied to a building block formed by a two-turn repeat motif from E. coli galactoside acetyltransferase, which is able to provide a very stable self-assembled tubular nanoconstruct upon stacking of its replicas. For this purpose, first, we have developed a computational scheme to sample very efficiently the configurational space of the building block. This method, which is inspired by a strategy recently designed to study amorphous polymers and by an advanced Monte Carlo algorithm, provides a large ensemble of uncorrelated configurations at a very reasonable computational cost. The atomistic configurations provided by this method have been used to obtain a coarse-grained model that describes the amino acids with fewer particles than those required for full atomistic detail, i.e., two, three, or four depending on the chemical nature of the amino acid. Coarse-grained potentials have been developed considering the following types of interactions: (i) electrostatic and van der Waals interactions between residues i and i + n with n >/= 2; (ii) interactions between residues i and i + 1; and (c) intra-residue interactions. The reliability of the proposed model has been tested by comparing the atomistic and coarse-grained energies calculated for a large number of independent configurations of the beta-helical building block.

Conformations of proline analogues having double bonds in the ring

The intrinsic conformational preferences of proline analogues having double bonds between carbon atoms in their rings have been investigated using quantum mechanical calculations at the B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p) level. For this purpose, the potential energy surface of the N-acety-N'-methylamide derivatives of three dehydroprolines (proline analogues unsaturated at alpha,beta; beta,gamma; and gamma,delta) and pyrrole (proline analogue with unsaturations at both alpha,beta and gamma,delta) have been explored, and the results are compared with those obtained for the derivative of the nonmodified proline. We found that the double bonds affect the ring puckering and the geometric internal parameters, even though the backbone conformation was influenced the most. Results indicate that the formation of double bonds between carbon atoms in the pyrrolidine ring should be considered as an effective procedure to restrict the conformational flexibility of prolines. Interestingly, we also found that the N-acetyl-N'-methylamide derivative of pyrrole shows a high probability of having a cis peptide bond preceding the proline analogue.