title: A fast pairwise evaluation of molecular surface area.
abstract: A fast and general analytical approach was developed for the calculation of the approximate van der Waals and solvent-accessible surface areas. The method is based on three basic ideas: the use of the Lorentz transformation formula, a rigid-geometry approximation, and a single fitting parameter that can be refitted on the fly during a simulation. The Lorentz transformation equation is used for the summation of the areas of an atom buried by its neighboring contacting atoms, and implies that a sum of the buried pairwise areas cannot be larger than the surface area of the isolated spherical atom itself. In a rigid-geometry approximation we numerically calculate and keep constant the surface of each atom buried by the atoms involved in 1-2 and 1-3 interactions. Only the contributions from the nonbonded atoms (1-4 and higher interactions) are considered in terms of the pairwise approximation. The accuracy and speed of the method is competitive with other pairwise algorithms. A major strength of the method is the ease of parametrization.
authors.affiliation: Biotechnology Research Institute, National Research Council of Canada, 6100 Royalmount Avenue, Montreal, Quebec, H4P 2R2, Canada.
authors.forename: Vladislav
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Vasilyev
authors.forename: Enrico O
authors.initials: EO
authors.lastname: Purisima