American Chemical Society, Journal of Physical Chemistry B (Soft Condensed Matter and Biophysical Chemistry), 36(119), p. 11988-11997, 2015
Full text: Download
A database survey in this study revealed for the first time that there are 227 counterintuitive like-charge guanidinium pairings (Gdm(+)-Arg pairings) between ligands and receptors in the Protein Data Bank, implying the potential guanidinium-arginine binding between guanidine-containing drugs and their target proteins. On the other hand, there are 145 guanidine-containing molecules in the DrugBank, showing the prevalence of guanidinium groups in drugs. It has also been reported that the introduction of guanidinium group forming Gdm(+)-Arg pairing improved the potency of the drug by more than 8 fold in a typical case. Based on the survey, six ligand-protein complexes with typical Gdm(+)-Arg pairings were chosen for QM/MM calculations. The calculations at B97-D/6-311++g(d,p) level revealed that the interaction could be as strong as -1.0~-2.5 kcal/mol in DMSO and water, comparable to common intermolecular interactions. The calculations also unveiled that the Gdm(+)-Arg pairing interactions change from repulsive to attractive with the increase of dielectric constant, suggesting that the dielectric constant has a general stabilization effect on the Gdm(+)-Arg pairing. This study suggested that the like-charge guanidinium pairing interaction could be used not only for tuning the physical and chemical properties of drug leads, but also for improving ligand binding affinity.