The Role of Carbohydrates on Protein Function: The Case of PGHSs

Abstract

It is estimated that about half of all existing proteins are glycosylated. When bound to proteins, carbohydrates are able to affect several properties of such molecules, including physicochemical and biological properties, and therefore they became essential for understanding its function and its theraupeutical modulation. One of many strategies to obtain information on the role of a glycoprotein`s saccharidic moiety involves the tridimensional study of such macromolecules. This can be achieved using molecular modeling, specifically, molecular dynamics simulations. Therefore, our research group has been dedicated to the development and validation of low computational cost approaches, based on free of charge tools, capable of contribute to the understanding of biological phenomena. These procedures are presented next, using Prostaglandin Endoperoxide Synthase 1 and 2 as example.