Designing "high-affinity, high-specificity" glycosaminoglycan sequences through computerized modeling

Methods Mol Biol. 2015:1229:289-314. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-1714-3_24.

Abstract

The prediction of high-affinity and/or high-specificity protein-glycosaminoglycan (GAG) interactions is an inherently difficult task, due to several factors including the shallow nature of the typical GAG-binding site and the inherent size, flexibility, diversity, and polydisperse nature of the GAG molecules. Here, we present a generally applicable methodology termed Combinatorial Library Virtual Screening (CVLS) that can identify potential high-affinity, high-specificity protein-GAG interactions from very large GAG combinatorial libraries and a suitable GAG-binding protein. We describe the CVLS approach along with the rationale behind it and provide validation for the method using the well-known antithrombin-thrombin-heparin system.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Carbohydrate Sequence
  • Computational Biology / methods*
  • Computer Simulation*
  • Disaccharides / chemistry
  • Glycosaminoglycans / chemistry*
  • Heparin / chemistry
  • Heparitin Sulfate / chemistry
  • Models, Molecular*
  • Molecular Dynamics Simulation
  • Monosaccharides / chemistry
  • Reproducibility of Results

Substances

  • Disaccharides
  • Glycosaminoglycans
  • Monosaccharides
  • Heparin
  • Heparitin Sulfate