title: In silico Exploration of the Conformational Universe of GPCRs.
abstract: The structural plasticity of G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) leads to a conformational universe going from inactive to active receptor states with several intermediate states. Many of them have not been captured yet and their role for GPCR activation is not well understood. The study of this conformational space and the transition dynamics between different receptor populations is a major challenge in molecular biophysics. The rational design of effector molecules that target such receptor populations allows fine-tuning receptor signalling with higher specificity to produce drugs with safer therapeutic profiles. In this minireview, we outline highly conserved receptor regions which are considered determinant for the establishment of distinct receptor states. We then discuss in-silico approaches such as dimensionality reduction methods and Markov State Models to explore the GPCR conformational universe and exploit the obtained conformations through structure-based drug design.
authors: Pharmacoinformatics group, Research Programme on Biomedical Informatics (GRIB), Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)-Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), Parc de Recerca Biomèdica de Barcelona (PRBB), Dr. Aiguader, 88, 08003, Barcelona, Spain.
authors: Ismael
authors: I
authors: Rodríguez-Espigares
authors: Department of Synthesis and Chemical Technology of Pharmaceutical Substances with Computer Modeling Lab, Faculty of Pharmacy with Division for Medical Analytics, Medical University of Lublin, 4A Chodźki St., PL-20059, Lublin, Poland.|School of Pharmacy, University of Eastern Finland, Yliopistonranta 1, P.O. Box 1627, FI-70211, Kuopio, Finland.
authors: Agnieszka A
authors: AA
authors: Kaczor
authors: Pharmacoinformatics group, Research Programme on Biomedical Informatics (GRIB), Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)-Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), Parc de Recerca Biomèdica de Barcelona (PRBB), Dr. Aiguader, 88, 08003, Barcelona, Spain. jana.selent@upf.edu.
authors: Jana
authors: J
authors: Selent
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D062105:Molecular Docking Simulation; D056004:Molecular Dynamics Simulation; D011485:Protein Binding; D011487:Protein Conformation; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled / Q000737:chemistry*; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled
keywords: Conformation analysis; Drug design; Membrane proteins; Molecular dynamics; Signal transduction