title: Protein-ligand interaction energies with dispersion corrected density functional theory and high-level wave function based methods.
abstract: With dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT-D3) intermolecular interaction energies for a diverse set of noncovalently bound protein-ligand complexes from the Protein Data Bank are calculated. The focus is on major contacts occurring between the drug molecule and the binding site. Generalized gradient approximation (GGA), meta-GGA, and hybrid functionals are used. DFT-D3 interaction energies are benchmarked against the best available wave function based results that are provided by the estimated complete basis set (CBS) limit of the local pair natural orbital coupled-electron pair approximation (LPNO-CEPA/1) and compared to MP2 and semiempirical data. The size of the complexes and their interaction energies (ΔE(PL)) varies between 50 and 300 atoms and from -1 to -65 kcal/mol, respectively. Basis set effects are considered by applying extended sets of triple- to quadruple-ζ quality. Computed total ΔE(PL) values show a good correlation with the dispersion contribution despite the fact that the protein-ligand complexes contain many hydrogen bonds. It is concluded that an adequate, for example, asymptotically correct, treatment of dispersion interactions is necessary for the realistic modeling of protein-ligand binding. Inclusion of the dispersion correction drastically reduces the dependence of the computed interaction energies on the density functional compared to uncorrected DFT results. DFT-D3 methods provide results that are consistent with LPNO-CEPA/1 and MP2, the differences of about 1-2 kcal/mol on average (<5% of ΔE(PL)) being on the order of their accuracy, while dispersion-corrected semiempirical AM1 and PM3 approaches show a deviating behavior. The DFT-D3 results are found to depend insignificantly on the choice of the short-range damping model. We propose to use DFT-D3 as an essential ingredient in a QM/MM approach for advanced virtual screening approaches of protein-ligand interactions to be combined with similarly "first-principle" accounts for the estimation of solvation and entropic effects.
authors.affiliation: Organisch-Chemisches Institut, Universität Münster, Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Antony
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Grimme
authors.forename: Dimitrios G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Liakos
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Neese
mesh_terms: D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D008024:Ligands; D008958:Models, Molecular; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D011789:Quantum Theory
chemical_list: D008024:Ligands; D011506:Proteins