Inhibitor ranking through QM based chelation calculations for virtual screening of HIV-1 RNase H inhibition

PLoS One. 2014 Jun 4;9(6):e98659. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0098659. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Quantum mechanical (QM) calculations have been used to predict the binding affinity of a set of ligands towards HIV-1 RT associated RNase H (RNH). The QM based chelation calculations show improved binding affinity prediction for the inhibitors compared to using an empirical scoring function. Furthermore, full protein fragment molecular orbital (FMO) calculations were conducted and subsequently analysed for individual residue stabilization/destabilization energy contributions to the overall binding affinity in order to better understand the true and false predictions. After a successful assessment of the methods based on the use of a training set of molecules, QM based chelation calculations were used as filter in virtual screening of compounds in the ZINC database. By this, we find, compared to regular docking, QM based chelation calculations to significantly reduce the large number of false positives. Thus, the computational models tested in this study could be useful as high throughput filters for searching HIV-1 RNase H active-site molecules in the virtual screening process.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Anti-HIV Agents / chemistry*
  • Anti-HIV Agents / pharmacology
  • Binding Sites
  • Catalytic Domain
  • Computer Simulation*
  • Drug Discovery
  • HIV-1 / drug effects*
  • HIV-1 / enzymology
  • Humans
  • Inhibitory Concentration 50
  • Models, Molecular*
  • Molecular Structure
  • Protein Binding
  • Protein Conformation
  • Quantum Theory*
  • Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors / chemistry*
  • Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors / pharmacology
  • Ribonuclease H / antagonists & inhibitors
  • Ribonuclease H / chemistry*

Substances

  • Anti-HIV Agents
  • Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors
  • Ribonuclease H

Grants and funding

Support was provided by the Danish Councils for Independent Research and the Villum Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.