Structural dynamics and allostery of Rab proteins: strategies for drug discovery and design. 2021

Ammu Prasanna Kumar, and Chandra S Verma, and Suryani Lukman
Department of Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Rab proteins represent the largest family of the Rab superfamily guanosine triphosphatase (GTPase). Aberrant human Rab proteins are associated with multiple diseases, including cancers and neurological disorders. Rab subfamily members display subtle conformational variations that render specificity in their physiological functions and can be targeted for subfamily-specific drug design. However, drug discovery efforts have not focused much on targeting Rab allosteric non-nucleotide binding sites which are subjected to less evolutionary pressures to be conserved, hence are likely to offer subfamily specificity and may be less prone to undesirable off-target interactions and side effects. To discover druggable allosteric binding sites, Rab structural dynamics need to be first incorporated using multiple experimentally and computationally obtained structures. The high-dimensional structural data may necessitate feature extraction methods to identify manageable representative structures for subsequent analyses. We have detailed state-of-the-art computational methods to (i) identify binding sites using data on sequence, shape, energy, etc., (ii) determine the allosteric nature of these binding sites based on structural ensembles, residue networks and correlated motions and (iii) identify small molecule binders through structure- and ligand-based virtual screening. To benefit future studies for targeting Rab allosteric sites, we herein detail a refined workflow comprising multiple available computational methods, which have been successfully used alone or in combinations. This workflow is also applicable for drug discovery efforts targeting other medically important proteins. Depending on the structural dynamics of proteins of interest, researchers can select suitable strategies for allosteric drug discovery and design, from the resources of computational methods and tools enlisted in the workflow.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000495 Allosteric Site A site on an enzyme which upon binding of a modulator, causes the enzyme to undergo a conformational change that may alter its catalytic or binding properties. Allosteric Sites,Site, Allosteric,Sites, Allosteric
D000818 Animals Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA. Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D015195 Drug Design The molecular designing of drugs for specific purposes (such as DNA-binding, enzyme inhibition, anti-cancer efficacy, etc.) based on knowledge of molecular properties such as activity of functional groups, molecular geometry, and electronic structure, and also on information cataloged on analogous molecules. Drug design is generally computer-assisted molecular modeling and does not include PHARMACOKINETICS, dosage analysis, or drug administration analysis. Computer-Aided Drug Design,Computerized Drug Design,Drug Modeling,Pharmaceutical Design,Computer Aided Drug Design,Computer-Aided Drug Designs,Computerized Drug Designs,Design, Pharmaceutical,Drug Design, Computer-Aided,Drug Design, Computerized,Drug Designs,Drug Modelings,Pharmaceutical Designs
D055808 Drug Discovery The process of finding chemicals for potential therapeutic use. Drug Prospecting,Discovery, Drug,Prospecting, Drug
D019295 Computational Biology A field of biology concerned with the development of techniques for the collection and manipulation of biological data, and the use of such data to make biological discoveries or predictions. This field encompasses all computational methods and theories for solving biological problems including manipulation of models and datasets. Bioinformatics,Molecular Biology, Computational,Bio-Informatics,Biology, Computational,Computational Molecular Biology,Bio Informatics,Bio-Informatic,Bioinformatic,Biologies, Computational Molecular,Biology, Computational Molecular,Computational Molecular Biologies,Molecular Biologies, Computational
D020691 rab GTP-Binding Proteins A large family of MONOMERIC GTP-BINDING PROTEINS that play a key role in cellular secretory and endocytic pathways. Rab GTPase,rab G-Proteins,rab GTP-Binding Protein,rab GTPases,G-Proteins, rab,GTP-Binding Protein, rab,GTP-Binding Proteins, rab,GTPase, Rab,GTPases, rab,Protein, rab GTP-Binding,rab G Proteins,rab GTP Binding Protein,rab GTP Binding Proteins

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