skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Insights into the structural function of the complex of HIV-1 protease with TMC-126: molecular dynamics simulations and free-energy calculations

Journal Article · · Journal of Molecular Modeling

The binding properties of the protein-inhibitor complex of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) protease with the inhibitor TMC-126 are investigated by combining computational alanine scanning (CAS) mutagenesis with binding free-energy decomposition (BFED). The calculated results demonstrate that the flap region (residues 38-58) and the active site region (residues 23-32) in HIV-1 protease contribute 63.72% of the protease to the binding of the inhibitor. In particular, the mechanisms for the interactions of key residues of these species are fully explored and analyzed. Interestingly, the regression analyses show that both CAS and BFED based on the generalized Born model yield similar results, with a correlation coefficient of 0.94. However, compared to CAS, BFED is faster and can decompose the per-residue binding free-energy contributions into backbone and sidechain contributions. The results obtained in this study are useful for studying the binding mechanism between receptor and ligand and for designing potent inhibitors that can combat diseases.

Research Organization:
National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Pittsburgh, PA, and Morgantown, WV (United States). In-house Research
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)
OSTI ID:
1044176
Report Number(s):
NETL-PUB-125; TRN: US201214%%355
Journal Information:
Journal of Molecular Modeling, Vol. 18, Issue 5; ISSN 1610--2940
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English