Volume 91, Issue 2 pp. 209-217
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Milestoning simulation of ligand dissociation from the glycogen synthase kinase 3β

Samith Rathnayake

Samith Rathnayake

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, United States

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Brajesh Narayan

Brajesh Narayan

School of Physics, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin, Ireland

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Ron Elber

Ron Elber

Department of Chemistry, Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Science, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States

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Chung F. Wong

Corresponding Author

Chung F. Wong

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, United States

Correspondence

Chung F. Wong, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Missouri-St. Louis, 1 University Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63121, United States.

Email: [email protected]

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First published: 14 September 2022

Funding information: National Institutes of Health, Grant/Award Numbers: GM59796, CA224033; Welch Foundation, Grant/Award Number: F-1896; Thomas Preston PhD Scholarship Fund; National Science Foundation, Grant/Award Number: CNS-1429294

Abstract

As drug-binding kinetics has become an important factor to be considered in modern drug discovery, this work evaluated the ability of the Milestoning method in computing the absolute dissociation rate of a ligand from the serine–threonine kinase, glycogen synthase kinase 3β, which is a target for designing drugs to treat diseases such as neurodegenerative disorders and diabetes. We found that the Milestoning method gave good agreement with experiment with modest computational costs. Although the time scale for dissociation lasted tens of seconds, the collective molecular dynamics simulations total less than 1μs. Computing the committor function helped to identify the transition states (TSs), in which the ligand moved substantially away from the binding pocket. The glycine-rich loop with a serine residue attaching to its tips was found to undergo large movement from the bound to the TSs and might play a role in controlling drug-dissociation kinetics.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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