American Chemical Society, Journal of Physical Chemistry B (Soft Condensed Matter and Biophysical Chemistry), 41(118), p. 11886-11894, 2014
DOI: 10.1021/jp506629y
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Human serum albumin (HSA) is a critical transport plasma protein accounting for ~60% of the total protein content in blood. Remarkably, this protein is also found to display esterase activity. In this study we apply theoretical studies to elucidate the origin of the esterase-like activity arising from the Sudlow Site I. Using MD and QM/MM calculations we investigate which active site residues are involved in the reaction, and the precise mechanistic sequence of events. Our results suggest Lys199, His242, Arg257 help give rise to the esterase activity and that the most catalytically efficient active site configuration requires that both Lys199 and Aspirin are in their neutral forms. The abundance of HSA in the body suggest the protein might be a suitable target for the computational guided design of acetyl based pro-drugs of acidic molecules that often displayed limited oral exposure due to their unmasked ionizable substituent.