Effect of a -4-aminopiperidine-3-carboxylic acid (-APiC) residue on mixed-helical folding of unnatural peptides.

The α/β-peptide 11/9-helix and the β-peptide 12/10-helix belong to "mixed" helices, in which two types of hydrogen bonds with opposite directionality alternate along the helical axis. -2-Aminocyclohexanecarboxylic acid (-ACHC) is known to promote these mixed helices and stabilize the helical propensity more than other acyclic β-residues. Application of a mixed-helical backbone still requires sufficient solubility in aqueous solution.

Side chain-specific 11/9-helix propensity of α/β-peptides with alternating residue types.

The 11/9-helix is among the most stable and non-traditional helical structures for α/β-peptides with alternating residue types. The effect of side chain groups of α-residues and β-residues on the 11/9-helix propensity was examined under various solvent conditions. An α-amino acid residue with one of the four representative side chain groups was incorporated into the central position of an α/β-pentapeptide backbone.

[Difficulties in Caring for Psychiatric Patient as Experienced by Non-Psychiatric Nurses].

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify non-psychiatric nurses' difficulties in caring for patients with mental illness.

Methods: Data were collected from eighteen general medical-surgical nurses working at a university hospital in Seoul, Korea. This study involved two focus group discussions and three in-depth individual interviews.

L-Methionine Production.

L-Methionine has been used in various industrial applications such as the production of feed and food additives and has been used as a raw material for medical supplies and drugs. It functions not only as an essential amino acid but also as a physiological effector, for example, by inhibiting fat accumulation and enhancing immune response. Producing methionine from fermentation is beneficial in that microorganisms can produce L-methionine selectively using eco-sustainable processes.

Stabilization of 11/9-helical α/β-peptide foldamers in protic solvents.

α/β-Peptides with alternating α-amino acid and cis-2-aminocyclohexanecarboxylic acid (cis-ACHC) residues adopt 11/9-helical conformations, the folding propensity of which decreases as the solvent polarity increases. We report a new cis-ACHC analogue, cis-2-amino-cis-4-methylcyclohexanecarboxylic acid, which significantly stabilizes the 11/9-helix propensity in protic solvents.

Force Field for Peptides and Proteins based on the Classical Drude Oscillator.

Presented is a polarizable force field based on a classical Drude oscillator framework, currently implemented in the programs CHARMM and NAMD, for modeling and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation studies of peptides and proteins. Building upon parameters for model compounds representative of the functional groups in proteins, the development of the force field focused on the optimization of the parameters for the polypeptide backbone and the connectivity between the backbone and side chains. Optimization of the backbone electrostatic parameters targeted quantum mechanical conformational energies, interactions with water, molecular dipole moments and polarizabilities and experimental condensed phase data for short polypeptides such as (Ala).

Molecular details of the activation of the μ opioid receptor.

Molecular details of μ opioid receptor activations were obtained using molecular dynamics simulations of the receptor in the presence of three agonists, three antagonists, and a partial agonist and on the constitutively active T279K mutant. Agonists have a higher probability of direct interactions of their basic nitrogen (N) with Asp147 as compared with antagonists, indicating that direct ligand-Asp147 interactions modulate activation. Medium-size substituents on the basic N of antagonists lead to steric interactions that perturb N-Asp147 interactions, while additional favorable interactions occur with larger basic N substituents, such as in N-phenethylnormorphine, restoring N-Asp147 interactions, leading to agonism.

Synthesis, modeling, and pharmacological evaluation of UMB 425, a mixed μ agonist/δ antagonist opioid analgesic with reduced tolerance liabilities.

Opioid narcotics are used for the treatment of moderate-to-severe pain and primarily exert their analgesic effects through μ receptors. Although traditional μ agonists can cause undesired side effects, including tolerance, addition of δ antagonists can attenuate said side effects. Herein, we report 4a,9-dihydroxy-7a-(hydroxymethyl)-3-methyl-2,3,4,4a,5,6-hexahydro-1H-4,12-methanobenzofuro[3,2-e]isoquinolin-7(7aH)-one (UMB 425) a 5,14-bridged morphinan-based orvinol precursor synthesized from thebaine.

Optimization of the additive CHARMM all-atom protein force field targeting improved sampling of the backbone φ, ψ and side-chain χ(1) and χ(2) dihedral angles.

While the quality of the current CHARMM22/CMAP additive force field for proteins has been demonstrated in a large number of applications, limitations in the model with respect to the equilibrium between the sampling of helical and extended conformations in folding simulations have been noted. To overcome this, as well as make other improvements in the model, we present a combination of refinements that should result in enhanced accuracy in simulations of proteins. The common (non Gly, Pro) backbone CMAP potential has been refined against experimental solution NMR data for weakly structured peptides, resulting in a rebalancing of the energies of the α-helix and extended regions of the Ramachandran map, correcting the α-helical bias of CHARMM22/CMAP.

(Ala)(4)-X-(Ala)4 as a model system for the optimization of the χ1 and χ2 amino acid side-chain dihedral empirical force field parameters.

Amino acid side-chain fluctuations play an essential role in the structure and function of proteins. Accordingly, in theoretical studies of proteins, it is important to have an accurate description of their conformational properties. Recently, new side-chain torsion parameters were introduced into the CHARMM and Amber additive force fields and evaluated based on the conformational properties of the individual side-chains using protein simulations in explicit solvent.

Deconstructing 14-phenylpropyloxymetopon: minimal requirements for binding to mu opioid receptors.

A series of phenylpropyloxyethylamines and cinnamyloxyethylamines were synthesized as deconstructed analogs of 14-phenylpropyloxymetopon and analyzed for opioid receptor binding affinity. Using the Conformationally Sampled Pharmacophore modeling approach, we discovered a series of compounds lacking a tyrosine mimetic, historically considered essential for μ opioid binding. Based on the binding studies, we have identified the optimal analogs to be N-methyl-N-phenylpropyl-2-(3-phenylpropoxy)ethanamine, with 1520 nM, and 2-(cinnamyloxy)-N-methyl-N-phenethylethanamine with 1680 nM affinity for the μ opioid receptor.

Intrinsic energy landscapes of amino acid side-chains.

Amino acid side-chain conformational properties influence the overall structural and dynamic properties of proteins and, therefore, their biological functions. In this study, quantum mechanical (QM) potential energy surfaces for the rotation of side-chain χ(1) and χ(2) torsions in dipeptides in the alphaR, beta, and alphaL backbone conformations were calculated. The QM energy surfaces provide a broad view of the intrinsic conformational properties of each amino acid side-chain.

Decoding the signaling of a GPCR heteromeric complex reveals a unifying mechanism of action of antipsychotic drugs.

Atypical antipsychotic drugs, such as clozapine and risperidone, have a high affinity for the serotonin 5-HT(2A) G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), the 2AR, which signals via a G(q) heterotrimeric G protein. The closely related non-antipsychotic drugs, such as ritanserin and methysergide, also block 2AR function, but they lack comparable neuropsychological effects. Why some but not all 2AR inhibitors exhibit antipsychotic properties remains unresolved.

Computational ligand-based rational design: Role of conformational sampling and force fields in model development.

A significant number of drug discovery efforts are based on natural products or high throughput screens from which compounds showing potential therapeutic effects are identified without knowledge of the target molecule or its 3D structure. In such cases computational ligand-based drug design (LBDD) can accelerate the drug discovery processes. LBDD is a general approach to elucidate the relationship of a compound's structure and physicochemical attributes to its biological activity.

Consensus 3D model of μ-opioid receptor ligand efficacy based on a quantitative Conformationally Sampled Pharmacophore.

Despite being studied for over 30 years, a consensus structure-activity relationship (SAR) that encompasses the full range peptidic and nonpeptidic μ-opioid receptor ligands is still not available. To achieve a consensus SAR the Conformationally Sampled Pharmacophore (CSP) method was applied to develop a predictive model of the efficacy of μ-opioid receptor ligands. Emphasis was placed on predicting the efficacy of a wide range of agonists, partial agonists, and antagonists as well as understanding their mode of interaction with the receptor.