Dissociation Process of a MDM2/p53 Complex Investigated by Parallel Cascade Selection Molecular Dynamics and the Markov State Model

J Phys Chem B. 2019 Mar 21;123(11):2469-2478. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.8b10309. Epub 2019 Jan 30.

Abstract

Recently, we efficiently generated dissociation pathways of a protein-ligand complex without applying force bias with parallel cascade selection molecular dynamics (PaCS-MD) and showed that PaCS-MD in combination with the Markov state model (MSM) yielded a binding free energy comparable to experimental values. In this work, we applied the same procedure to a complex of MDM2 protein and the transactivation domain of p53 protein (TAD-p53), the latter of which is known to be very flexible in the unbound state. Using 30 independent MD simulations in PaCS-MD, we successfully generated 25 dissociation pathways of the complex, which showed complete or partial unfolding of the helical region of TAD-p53 during the dissociation process within an average simulation time of 154.8 ± 46.4 ns. The standard binding free energy obtained in combination with one-dimensional-, three-dimensional (3D)- or Cα-MSM was in good agreement with those determined experimentally. Using 3D-MSM based on the center of mass position of TAD-p53 relative to MDM2, the dissociation rate constant was calculated, which was comparable to those measured experimentally. Cα-MSM based on all Cα coordinates of TAD-p53 reproduced the experimentally measured standard binding free energy, and dissociation and association rate constants. We conclude that the combination of PaCS-MD and MSM offers an efficient computational procedure to calculate binding free energies and kinetic rates.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Binding Sites
  • Humans
  • Markov Chains
  • Molecular Dynamics Simulation
  • Protein Binding
  • Protein Conformation, alpha-Helical
  • Protein Domains
  • Protein Unfolding
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-mdm2 / chemistry
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-mdm2 / metabolism*
  • Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / chemistry
  • Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / metabolism*
  • Xenopus Proteins / chemistry
  • Xenopus Proteins / metabolism*
  • Xenopus laevis / metabolism*

Substances

  • TP53 protein, human
  • Tumor Suppressor Protein p53
  • Xenopus Proteins
  • MDM2 protein, Xenopus
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-mdm2