Computerized Molecular Modeling for Discovering Promising Glycosaminoglycan Oligosaccharides that Modulate Protein Function

Methods Mol Biol. 2022:2303:513-537. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1398-6_41.

Abstract

Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are a class of highly negatively charged polysaccharides that plays a major role in various biological processes through their interaction with hundreds of proteins. A major challenge in understanding the specific protein-GAG interaction is their structural diversity and complexity. Recently, computational approaches have been used extensively in addressing this challenge. In this chapter, we present a generally-applicable methodology termed Combinatorial Virtual Library Screening (CVLS) that can identify potential high-affinity, high-specificity sequence(s) binding to a suitable GAG-binding protein from large GAG combinatorial libraries of various lengths and structural patterns.

Keywords: Affinity and Specificity; Genetic Algorithm (GA); Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs); Heparin/Heparan Sulfate; Molecular Docking; Protein-GAG Interaction; Virtual Screening (VS).

Publication types

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

MeSH terms

  • Glycosaminoglycans
  • Models, Molecular
  • Oligosaccharides / chemistry*
  • Proteins

Substances

  • Glycosaminoglycans
  • Oligosaccharides
  • Proteins