The prediction of the binding affinity between a protein and ligands is one of the most challenging issues for computational biochemistry and drug discovery. While the enthalpic contribution to binding is routinely available with molecular mechanics methods, the entropic contribution is more difficult to estimate. We describe and apply a relatively simple and intuitive calculation procedure for estimating the free energy of binding for 53 protein-ligand complexes formed by 17 proteins of known three-dimensional structure and characterized by different active site polarity. HINT, a software model based on experimental LogP(o/w) values for small organic molecules, was used to evaluate and score all atom-atom hydropathic interactions between the protein and the ligands. These total scores (H(TOTAL)), which have been previously shown to correlate with DeltaG(interaction) for protein-protein interactions, correlate with DeltaG(binding) for protein-ligand complexes in the present study with a standard error of +/-2.6 kcal mol(-1) from the equation DeltaG(binding) = -0.001 95 H(TOTAL) - 5.543. A more sophisticated model, utilizing categorized (by interaction class) HINT scores, produces a superior standard error of +/-1.8 kcal mol(-1). It is shown that within families of ligands for the same protein binding site, better models can be obtained with standard errors approaching +/-1.0 kcal mol(-1). Standardized methods for preparing crystallographic models for hydropathic analysis are also described. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between the ionization state of the ligands and the pH conditions under which the binding measurements are made. Sources and potential remedies of experimental and modeling errors affecting prediction of DeltaG(binding) are discussed.

The enormous success of structural biology challenges the physical scientist. Can biophysical studies provide a truly deeper understanding of how a protein works than can be obtained from static structures and qualitative analysis of biochemical data? We address this question in a case study by presenting the key concepts and experimental results that have led to our current understanding of cooperative oxygen binding by hemoglobin, the paradigm of structure function relations in multisubunit proteins. We conclude that the underlying simplicity of the two-state allosteric mechanism could not have been demonstrated without novel physical experiments and a rigorous quantitative analysis.

The vitamin B(6)-derived pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP) is the cofactor of enzymes catalyzing a large variety of chemical reactions mainly involved in amino acid metabolism. These enzymes have been divided in five families and fold types on the basis of evolutionary relationships and protein structural organization. Almost 1.5% of all genes in prokaryotes code for PLP-dependent enzymes, whereas the percentage is substantially lower in eukaryotes. Although about 4% of enzyme-catalyzed reactions catalogued by the Enzyme Commission are PLP-dependent, only a few enzymes are targets of approved drugs and about twenty are recognised as potential targets for drugs or herbicides. PLP-dependent enzymes for which there are already commercially available drugs are DOPA decarboxylase (involved in the Parkinson disease), GABA aminotransferase (epilepsy), serine hydroxymethyltransferase (tumors and malaria), ornithine decarboxylase (African sleeping sickness and, potentially, tumors), alanine racemase (antibacterial agents), and human cytosolic branched-chain aminotransferase (pathological states associated to the GABA/glutamate equilibrium concentrations). Within each family or metabolic pathway, the enzymes for which drugs have been already approved for clinical use are discussed first, reporting the enzyme structure, the catalytic mechanism, the mechanism of enzyme inactivation or modulation by substrate-like or transition state-like drugs, and on-going research for increasing specificity and decreasing side-effects. Then, PLP-dependent enzymes that have been recently characterized and proposed as drug targets are reported. Finally, the relevance of recent genomic analysis of PLP-dependent enzymes for the selection of drug targets is discussed.

To understand why the classical two-state allosteric model of Monod, Wyman, and Changeux explains cooperative oxygen binding by hemoglobin but does not explain changes in oxygen affinity by allosteric inhibitors, we have investigated the kinetic properties of unstable conformations transiently trapped by encapsulation in silica gels. Conformational trapping reveals that after nanosecond photodissociation of carbon monoxide a large fraction of the subunits of the T quaternary structure has kinetic properties almost identical to those of subunits of the R quaternary structure. Addition of allosteric inhibitors reduces both the fraction of R-like subunits and the oxygen affinity of the T quaternary structure. These kinetic and equilibrium results are readily explained by a recently proposed generalization of the Monod-Wyman-Changeux model in which a preequilibrium between two functionally different tertiary, rather than quaternary, conformations plays the central role.T he two-state allosteric model of Monod, Wyman, and Changeux (1) represented a conceptual breakthrough in explaining the cooperative and regulated behavior of multisubunit proteins, with application to a wide range of biological systems (2-5). Monod, Wyman, and Changeux proposed that ligands control protein function by altering a preexisting equilibrium between high (R) and low (T) reactivity conformations that differ in intersubunit bonding (quaternary structure) and not by inducing conformational changes that are propagated to neighboring subunits as in a sequential model (6, 7). Enzyme activation, for example, results from preferential binding of ligands to the R quaternary structure, whereas inhibitors preferentially bind to T. However, a long-known serious deficiency in the application of the Monod-Wyman-Changeux (MWC) model to hemoglobin, the paradigm of allosteric proteins, is that inhibitors may also change oxygen (O 2 ) affinity without a change in quaternary structure (8-11). To understand this phenomenon, we have investigated the ligand binding kinetics and equilibria of hemoglobin encapsulated in silica gels in either the T or R quaternary structure (Fig. 1).Previous studies of hemoglobin encapsulated in silica gels showed greatly simplified equilibrium properties, compared with those in solution, because quaternary conformational changes are markedly slowed by the constraints of the surrounding cross-linked polymer (12-16). In sharp contrast to hemoglobin free in solution, O 2 binding to gel-encapsulated hemoglobin, like O 2 binding to the hemoglobin crystal (17-19), is noncooperative (Fig. 2). Encapsulation as the fully deoxygenated molecule traps hemoglobin in the low-affinity T quaternary structure, whereas encapsulation as the fully oxygenated molecule traps hemoglobin in the high-affinity R structure (12). Moreover, the affinity of the deoxy-encapsulated molecule is lowered by inhibitor ligands (called negative heterotropic allosteric effectors) such as protons, chloride ions, inositol hexaphosphate, and bezafibrate (Fig. 2) in the ...