The phenomenological behavior of the Widom line above the vapor− liquid critical point for the Lennard-Jones (LJ) potential is investigated using four accurate equations of state (EoS) and a comparison with molecular dynamics (MD) simulation data. This involved calculating the supercritical maximum values of the isochoric heat capacity (C V ), isobaric heat capacity (C p ), isothermal compressibility (β T ), and thermal expansion coefficient (α p ). All LJ EoS predict the pressure (p)− temperature (T) Widom line behavior. In contrast, the T−density (ρ) Widom line behavior, observed in MD simulations, is not predicted by any LJ EoS. The calculations highlight the important role of β T in determining the range of p and T for which Widom line behavior is observed. Analysis of MD data for the supercritical maximum/minimum of C V and C p suggests the extension of a Clausius−Clapeyron-type relationship from the triple point to the supercritical region. This provides a new description of the Widom line as the near critical part of this larger curve for which other thermodynamic functions also have maximum values.
Within the last two decades, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronaviruses 1 and 2 (SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2) have caused two major outbreaks. For reasons yet to be fully understood the COVID-19 outbreak caused by SARS-CoV-2 has been significantly more widespread than the 2003 SARS epidemic caused by SARS-CoV-1, despite striking similarities between the two viruses. One of the most variable genes differentiating SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 is the S gene that encodes the spike glycoprotein. This protein mediates a crucial step in the infection, i.e., host cell recognition and viral entry, which starts with binding to the host cell angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) protein for both viruses. Recent structural and functional studies have shed light on the differential binding behavior of the SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins. In particular, cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) studies show that ACE2 binding is preceded by a large-scale conformational change in the spike protein to expose the receptor binding domain (RBD) to its binding partner. Unfortunately, these studies do not provide detailed information on the dynamics of this activation process. Here, we have used an extensive set of unbiased and biased microsecond-timescale all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 spike protein ectodomains in explicit solvent to determine the differential behavior of spike protein activation in the two viruses. Our results based on nearly 50 microseconds of equilibrium and nonequilibrium MD simulations indicate that the active form of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is considerably more stable than the active SARS-CoV-1 spike protein. Unlike the active SARS-CoV-2 spike, the active SARS-CoV-1 spike spontaneously undergoes a large-scale conformational transition to a pseudo-inactive state, which occurs in part due to interactions between the N-terminal domain (NTD) and RBD that are absent in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Steered MD (SMD) simulations indicate that the energy barriers between active and inactive states are comparatively lower for the SARS-CoV-1 spike protein. Based on these results, we hypothesize that the greater propensity of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to remain in the active conformation contributes to the higher transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 in comparison to SARS-CoV-1. These results strongly suggest that the differential binding behavior of the active SARS-CoV-1 and 2 spike proteins is not merely due to differences in their RBDs as other domains of the spike protein such as the NTD could play a crucial role in the effective binding process, which involves the prebinding activation. Therefore, our hypothesis predicts that mutations in regions such as the NTD, which is not directly involved in binding, may lead to a change in the effective binding behavior of the coronavirus.
The controlled formation of nanoparticles with optimum characteristics and functional aspects has proven successful via peptide-mediated nanoparticle synthesis. However, the effects of peptide sequence and binding motif on surface features...
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