Exploring Protein-Ligand Interaction: Key Insights for Drug Discovery

A special issue of Biomedicines (ISSN 2227-9059). This special issue belongs to the section "Drug Discovery, Development and Delivery".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2025 | Viewed by 839

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
“Ilie Murgulescu” Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania
Interests: ligand–biomacromolecule interaction; protein aggregation; thermal denaturation; microcalorimetry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
“Ilie Murgulescu” Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania
Interests: chemical kinetics; complex reactions; nonuniform binding and reactivity; thermal analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Protein functional properties depend on their structure and are influenced by multiple factors such as pH, temperature, salts, sugars, metals and interactions with various ligands. The misfolding or unfolding of proteins leads to aggregates associated with numerous neurodegenerative and metabolic disorders. The extensive research into protein aggregation processes may offer significant insight into the key mechanisms of cellular malfunction caused by aggregation, opening new pathways for drug development. The interactions between natural and synthetic ligands/drugs, and organic/inorganic nanoparticles with proteins may lead to: (i) alteration of the biological and pharmacological activities of ligands/drugs, their delivery to cells and tissues, and their potential antioxidant capacity; (ii) partial modifications of protein physiological functions, with loss of their native structure and even inactivation. A thorough research of protein–ligand systems is needed to understand the role of both components.

This Special Issue is devoted to new contributions into protein–ligand interactions studied under physiological and/or pathological conditions using both experimental and theoretical approaches. Experimental and computational techniques such as (but not restricted to) spectroscopic, calorimetric, microscopic, molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations may be taken into consideration. Such studies are essential for understanding biological control mechanisms and provide an experimental and theoretical basis for the discovery, design and development of new drugs and novel therapeutic strategies.

Dr. Aurica Precupas
Dr. Vlad T. Popa
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • protein
  • ligand
  • bio(macro)molecule
  • drug
  • interaction
  • binding
  • spectroscopy
  • calorimetry
  • molecular docking
  • molecular dynamics simulation

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

11 pages, 2504 KiB  
Article
Resveratrol Effect on α-Lactalbumin Thermal Stability
by Aurica Precupas, Daniela Gheorghe, Anca Ruxandra Leonties and Vlad Tudor Popa
Biomedicines 2024, 12(10), 2176; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines12102176 - 25 Sep 2024
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Abstract
The effect of resveratrol (RESV) on α-lactalbumin (α-LA) thermal stability was evaluated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), circular dichroism (CD) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements. Complementary information offered by molecular docking served to identify the binding site of the ligand on the [...] Read more.
The effect of resveratrol (RESV) on α-lactalbumin (α-LA) thermal stability was evaluated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), circular dichroism (CD) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements. Complementary information offered by molecular docking served to identify the binding site of the ligand on the native structure of protein and the type of interacting forces. DSC thermograms revealed a double-endotherm pattern with partial overlapping of the two components. The most relevant effect of RESV is manifested in the narrowing of the protein thermal fingerprint: the first process (peak temperature T1) is shifted to higher temperatures while the second one (peak temperature T2) to lower values. The CD data indicated partial conformational changes in the protein non-α-helix domain at T1, resulting in a β-sheet richer intermediate (BSRI) with an unaffected, native-like α-helix backbone. The RESV influence on this process may be defined as slightly demoting, at least within DSC conditions (linear heating rate of 1 K min−1). On further heating, unfolding of the α-helix domain takes place at T2, with RESV acting as a promoter of the process. Long time incubation at 333 K produced the same type of BSRI: no significant effect of RESV on the secondary structure content was detected by CD spectroscopy. Nevertheless, the size distribution of the protein population obtained from DLS measurements revealed the free (non-bound) RESV action manifested in the developing of larger size aggregates. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploring Protein-Ligand Interaction: Key Insights for Drug Discovery)
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