Structure and dynamics studies of sterol 24-C-methyltransferase with mechanism based inactivators for the disruption of ergosterol biosynthesis

Mol Biol Rep. 2014 Jul;41(7):4279-93. doi: 10.1007/s11033-014-3299-y. Epub 2014 Feb 27.

Abstract

The enzyme sterol 24-C-methyltransferase (SMT) belongs to the family of transferases, specifically to the one-carbon transferring methyltransferases. SMT has been found playing a major role during the production of steroids, especially for the biosynthesis of ergosterol, which is the major membrane sterol in leishmania parasites, causing leishmaniasis. However, SMT and ergosterol are not found in mammals, so, an extensive study has been carried out over the susceptible SMT protein, which is found to be highly conserved among all the Leishmania species and holds a significant anti-leishmanial drug target. To date, there is no computational data available for SMT, due to its highly unexplored profile. In this work, a complete set of structural attributes have been examined through the available computational procedures, along with an attempt to characterize the most capable modeling server available. The exploration ranges from physicochemical characterization, pairwise alignment, secondary structure prediction, to active site detection. With this information, a docking study was carried out to find the compound that best binds into the active site. Moreover, molecular dynamics simulation was conducted to examine the stability of the homology modeled protein and the ligand-enzyme complex. The results indicate that the ligand-enzyme complex is more stable.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Antiprotozoal Agents / chemistry*
  • Coenzymes / chemistry
  • Coenzymes / metabolism
  • Enzyme Inhibitors / chemistry*
  • Glutathione / chemistry
  • Glutathione / metabolism
  • Isoenzymes / antagonists & inhibitors
  • Isoenzymes / chemistry
  • Isoenzymes / metabolism
  • Leishmania infantum / chemistry*
  • Leishmania infantum / enzymology
  • Ligands
  • Methyltransferases / antagonists & inhibitors
  • Methyltransferases / chemistry*
  • Methyltransferases / metabolism
  • Molecular Docking Simulation
  • Molecular Dynamics Simulation
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Protein Structure, Tertiary
  • Protozoan Proteins / antagonists & inhibitors
  • Protozoan Proteins / chemistry*
  • Protozoan Proteins / metabolism
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae / chemistry
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae / enzymology
  • Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
  • Species Specificity
  • Structure-Activity Relationship
  • Thermodynamics

Substances

  • Antiprotozoal Agents
  • Coenzymes
  • Enzyme Inhibitors
  • Isoenzymes
  • Ligands
  • Protozoan Proteins
  • Methyltransferases
  • delta 24-sterol methyltransferase
  • Glutathione