Interactions between procyanidin oligomers and the active form of matrix metalloproteinase‐7: A theoretical insight

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the sites and modes of interaction of the most common oligomers of B‐type procyanidins (PCs) with the active form of the matrix metalloproteinase‐7 (MMP‐7) and some molecular properties of the PCs by using theoretical methods. These data may provide useful insights into the ability of PCs to act as selective MMP‐7 inhibitors. Some stereoisomers that predominated in the analyzed PCs (PB2, PC1, tetramer) could act as selective inhibitors of MMP‐7 due to their interaction with amino acids of the subsites S2 and/or S1′ in the active site, and with some specific amino acids of MMP‐7 that bind to cholesterol sulfate to promote proteolysis of the cell membrane. Hydrogen bonding was the main interaction of PB2 and PC1 with MMP‐7, while in the tetramer, the van der Waals interactions prevailed. The determination of molecular properties such as chemical reactivity and stability by the highest occupied molecular orbital and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital gap, revealed that oligomers of PCs acquired very stable poses in their docking with MMP‐7. Polarizability seems to be an important factor for PCs with large molecular volume (PC1, tetramer) to establish contact with amino acids of narrow subsites in the active site (S2, S1′) and amino acids located outside the active site.