Continuum electrostatics methods have become increasingly popular due to their ability to provide approximate descriptions of solvation energies and forces without expensive sampling required by explicit solvent models. In particular, the Poisson-Boltzmann equation (PBE) provides electrostatic potentials, solvation energies, and forces by modeling the solvent as a featureless, dielectric materi...

Peptidomimetics effective in modulating protein-protein interactions and resistant to proteolysis have potential in therapeutic applications. An appealing yet underperforming peptidomimetic strategy is to employ D-amino acids and reversed sequences to mimic a lead peptide conformation, either separately or as the combined retro-inverso peptide. In this work, we examine the conformations of inve...

The conformational preferences of benznidazole were examined through the application of DFT, PCM and QTAIM calculations, whose results were compared with crystallography data. The geometries were fully optimized with minimum potential energy surface by means of the Relaxed Potential Energy Surface Scan (RPESS) at AM1, followed by the B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) theoretical level. As a result, the s-cis...

The usefulness of targeted molecular dynamics (TMD) for the simulation of large conformational transitions is assessed in this work on the unfolding process of chymotrypsin inhibitor 2 (CI2). In TMD the force field is supplemented with a harmonic restraint which promotes either the increase of the conformational distance from the native state or the decrease of the distance from a target unfold...

Most of what we know about protein folding comes from experiments on polypeptides in dilute solutions [1–4] or from theoretical models of isolated proteins in either explicit or implicit solvent [5–12]. However, neither biological cells nor protein solutions encountered in biopharmaceutical development generally classify as dilute. Instead, they are concentrated or “crowded” with solutes such a...

In this article, we focus on simulation methodologies to obtain the critical micelle concentration (cmc) and equilibrium distribution of aggregate sizes in dilute surfactant solutions. Even though it is now relatively easy to obtain micellar aggregates in simulations starting from a fully dispersed state, several major challenges remain. In particular, the characteristic times of micelle reorga...

A model nanometer-sized hydrophobic receptor-ligand system in aqueous solution is studied by the recently developed level-set variational implicit solvent model (VISM). This approach is compared to all-atom computer simulations. The simulations reveal complex hydration effects within the (concave) receptor pocket, sensitive to the distance of the (convex) approaching ligand. The ligand induces ...

To gain insight into the free energy changes accompanying protein hydrophobic core formation, we have used computer simulations to study the formation of small clusters of nonpolar solutes in water. A barrier to association is observed at the largest solute separation that does not allow substantial solvent penetration. The barrier reflects an effective increase in the size of the cavity occupi...

We construct a variational explicit-solute implicit-solvent model for the solvation of molecules. Central in this model is an effective solvation free-energy functional that depends solely on the position of solute-solvent interface and solute atoms. The total free energy couples altogether the volume and interface energies of solutes, the solute-solvent van der Waals interactions, and the solu...