Exploiting Free-Energy Minima to Design Novel EphA2 Protein-Protein Antagonists: From Simulation to Experiment and Return

Chemistry. 2016 Jun 6;22(24):8048-52. doi: 10.1002/chem.201600993. Epub 2016 May 3.

Abstract

The free-energy surface (FES) of protein-ligand binding contains information useful for drug design. Here we show how to exploit a free-energy minimum of a protein-ligand complex identified by metadynamics simulations to design a new EphA2 antagonist with improved inhibitory potency.

Keywords: computational chemistry; drug design; metadynamics; steroids; surface plasmon resonance.

MeSH terms

  • Binding Sites
  • Drug Design*
  • Humans
  • Kinetics
  • Ligands
  • Molecular Docking Simulation
  • Protein Binding
  • Protein Structure, Tertiary
  • Receptor, EphA2 / antagonists & inhibitors
  • Receptor, EphA2 / metabolism*
  • Surface Plasmon Resonance
  • Thermodynamics

Substances

  • Ligands
  • Receptor, EphA2