In silico study of colchicine resistance molecular mechanisms caused by tubulin structural polymorphism

PLoS One. 2019 Aug 23;14(8):e0221532. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0221532. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Starting from 1972, colchicine is known as the most useful drug for prevention of familial Mediterranean fever attacks. However, some patients do not respond to colchicine treatment, even taken in high doses. Despite the fact, that different hypotheses have been proposed, the molecular mechanisms of colchicine resistance are not completely clear. It is generally known, that colchicine binds β-tubulin and inhibits microtubules polymerization. The β-tubulin gene has SNPs, which lead to amino acid substitutions, and some of them are located in colchicine binding site (CBS). We have assumed, that this SNPs can affect tubulin-colchicine interaction and might be the reason for colchicine resistance. With this in mind, we modeled 7 amino acid substitutions in CBS, performed molecular dynamics simulations of tubulin-colchicine complex and calculated binding energies for every amino acid substitution. Thus, our study shows, that two amino acid substitutions in the β-tubulin, namely A248T and M257V, reduce binding energy for approximately 2-fold. Based on this, we assume, that these amino acid substitutions could be the reason for colchicine resistance. Thus, our study gives a new insight into colchicine resistance mechanism and provides information for designing colchicine alternatives, that could be effective for colchicine resistant patients.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Substitution
  • Colchicine / pharmacology*
  • Computer Simulation*
  • Humans
  • Molecular Dynamics Simulation
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / genetics
  • Thermodynamics
  • Tubulin / chemistry*
  • Tubulin / genetics

Substances

  • Tubulin
  • Colchicine

Grants and funding

This study was funded by Ministry of Education and Science “PhD students researches support program - 2018” (18A-1f15). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.