| 1. |
- Eriksson, Olle, 1954-, et al.
(author)
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Women with Premenstrual Dysphoria Lack the Seemingly Normal Premenstrual Right-Sided Relative Dominance of 5-HTP-Derived Serotonergic Activity in the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortices - A Possible Cause of Disabling Mood Symptoms.
- 2016
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In: PloS one. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 11:9
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- To investigate potential quantitative and qualitative differences in brain serotonergic activity between women with Premenstrual Dysphoria (PMD) and asymptomatic controls.Serotonin-augmenting drugs alleviate premenstrual mood symptoms in the majority of women with PMD while serotonin-depleting diets worsen PMD symptoms, both indicating intrinsic differences in brain serotonergic activity in women with PMD compared to asymptomatic women.Positron-emission tomography with the immediate precursor of serotonin, 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP), radiolabelled by 11C in the beta-3 position, was performed in the follicular and luteal phases for 12 women with PMD and 8 control women. Brain radioactivity-a proxy for serotonin precursor uptake and synthesis-was measured in 9 regions of interest (ROIs): the right and left sides of the medial prefrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, putamen and caudate nucleus, and the single "whole brain".There were no significant quantitative differences in brain 5-HTP-derived activity between the groups in either of the menstrual phases for any of the 9 ROIs. However, multivariate analysis revealed a significant quantitative and qualitative difference between the groups. Asymptomatic control women showed a premenstrual right sided relative increase in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex 5-HTP derived activity, whereas PMD women displayed the opposite (p = 0.0001). Menstrual phase changes in this asymmetry (premenstrual-follicular) correlated with changes in self ratings of 'irritability' for the entire group (rs = -0.595, p = 0.006). The PMD group showed a strong inverse correlation between phase changes (premenstrual-follicular) in plasma levels of estradiol and phase changes in the laterality (dx/sin) of radiotracer activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal ROI (rs = -0.635; 0.027). The control group showed no such correlation.Absence of increased premenstrual right-sided relative 5-HTP-derived activity of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortices was found to strongly correlate to premenstrual irritability. A causal relationship here seems plausible, and the findings give further support to an underlying frontal brain disturbance in hormonally influenced serotonergic activity in women with PMD. Because of the small number of subjects in the study, these results should be considered preliminary, requiring verification in larger studies.
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| 2. |
- Zagorodskikh, Sergey, et al.
(author)
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An experimental and theoretical study of core-valence double ionization of acetaldehyde (ethanal)
- 2016
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In: Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics - PCCP. - : Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). - 1463-9076 .- 1463-9084. ; 18:4, s. 2535-2547
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Core-valence double ionisation spectra of acetaldehyde (ethanal) are presented at photon energies above the carbon and oxygen 1s ionisation edges, measured by a versatile multi-electron coincidence spectroscopy technique. We use this molecule as a testbed for analyzing core-valence spectra by means of quantum chemical calculations of transition energies. These theoretical approaches range from two simple models, one based on orbital energies corrected by core valence interaction and one based on the equivalent core approximation, to a systematic series of quantum chemical electronic structure methods of increasing sophistication. The two simple models are found to provide a fast orbital interpretation of the spectra, in particular in the low energy parts, while the coverage of the full spectrum is best fulfilled by correlated models. CASPT2 is the most sophisticated model applied, but considering precision as well as computational costs, the single and double excitation configuration interaction model seems to provide the best option to analyze core-valence double hole spectra.
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| 3. |
- Balamurugan, Kanagasabai, et al.
(author)
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Effect of Alzheimer Familial Chromosomal Mutations on the Amyloid Fibril Interaction with Different PET Tracers : Insight from Molecular Modeling Studies
- 2017
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In: ACS Chemical Neuroscience. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1948-7193. ; 8:12, s. 2655-2666
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder. Along with an increasing number of elderly worldwide, it poses a great challenge for the society and health care. Although sporadic AD is the common form of AD, 2-3% of the AD cases are expected to be due to mutations in the fi region of the amyloid precursor protein, which is referred to as autosomal dominant AD (ADAD). These mutations may cause changes in the secondary structure of the amyloid fi fibrils and may alter the fibrillization rate leading to changes in the disease development and could also affect the binding to tracers used in diagnosis. In particular, from some recent clinical studies using PET tracers for detection of fibrillar amyloids, it is evident that in ADAD patients with Arctic mutation no amyloid plaque binding can be detected with the "C Pittsburgh Compound B (C-11-PIB). However, for in vitro conditions, significant binding of H-3-PIB has been reported for the amyloid fibrils carrying the Arctic mutation. The aim of the present study is to investigate if there is any mutation specific binding of commonly used amyloid tracers, namely, florbetaben, florbetapir, FPIB, AZD4694, and AZD2184, by means of molecular modeling techniques. Other than Arctic, ADAD mutations, such as the Dutch, Italian, Iowa, and Flemish mutations, are considered in this study. We report that all tracers except florbetapir show reduced binding affinity toward amyloid beta fibrils with the Arctic mutation when compared to the native type. Moreover, florbetapir is the only tracer that binds to all mutants with increased affinity when compared to the native fibril. The results obtained from these studies could increase the understanding of the structural changes caused by mutation and concomitant changes in the interaction pattern of the PET tracers with the mutated variants, which in turn can be useful in selecting the appropriate tracers for the purpose of diagnosis as well as for designing new tracers with desirable properties.
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| 4. |
- Guanglin, Kuang, et al.
(author)
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Theoretical study of the binding profile of an allosteric modulator NS-1738 with a chimera structure of the alpha 7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor
- 2016
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In: Physical Chemistry, Chemical Physics - PCCP. - : Royal Society of Chemistry. - 1463-9076 .- 1463-9084. ; 18:40, s. 28003-28009
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Potentiation of the function of the alpha 7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (alpha 7-nAChR) is believed to provide a possible way for the treatment of cholinergic system dysfunctions such as Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. Positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) are able to augment the peak current response of the endogenous agonist of alpha 7-nAChR by binding to some allosteric sites. In this study, the binding profile of a potent type I PAM, NS-1738, with a chimera structure (termed alpha 7-AChBP) constructed from the extracellular domain of alpha 7-nAChR and an acetylcholine binding protein was investigated with molecular docking, molecular dynamics simulation, and free energy calculation methods. We found that NS-1738 could bind to three allosteric sites of alpha 7-AChBP, namely, the top pocket, the vestibule pocket and the agonist sub-pocket. NS-1738 has moderate binding affinities (-6.76 to -9.15 kcal mol(-1)) at each allosteric site. The urea group is critical for binding and can form hydrogen-bond interactions with the protein. The bulky trifluoromethyl group also has a great impact on the binding modes and binding affinities. We believe that our study provides valuable insight into the binding profiles of type I PAMs with alpha 7-nAChR and is helpful for the development of novel PAMs.
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| 5. |
- Kuang, Guanglin, et al.
(author)
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Characterization of the binding mode of the PET tracer [18F]ASEM to a chimera structure of the α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor
- 2017
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In: RSC Advances. - : Royal Society of Chemistry. - 2046-2069. ; 7:32, s. 19787-19793
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7-nAChR) is assumed to be implicated in a variety of neurological disorders, such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The progress of these disorders can be studied through imaging α7-nAChR with positron emission tomography (PET). [18F]ASEM is a novel and potent α7-nAChR PET radioligand showing great promise in recent tests. However, the mechanism of the molecular interaction between [18F]ASEM and α7-nAChR is still unclear. In this paper, the binding profile of [18F]ASEM to a chimera structure of α7-nAChR was investigated with molecular docking, molecular dynamics, and metadynamics simulation methods. We found that [18F]ASEM binds at the same site as the crystallized agonist epibatidine but with a different binding mode. The dibenzo[b,d]thiophene ring has a different orientation compared to the pyridine ring of epibatidine and has van der Waals interactions with residues from loop C on one side and π-π stacking interaction with Trp53 on the other side. The conformation of Trp53 was found to have a great impact on the binding of [18F]ASEM. Six binding modes in terms of the side chain dihedral angles χ1 and χ2 of Trp53 were discovered by metadynamics simulation. In the most stable binding mode, Trp53 adopts a different conformation from that in the crystalline structure and has a rather favorable π-π stacking interaction with [18F]ASEM. We believe that these discoveries can be valuable for the development of novel PET radioligands.
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| 6. |
- Murugan, N. Arul, et al.
(author)
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The Culprit Is in the Cave : The Core Sites Explain the Binding Profiles of Amyloid-Specific Tracers
- 2016
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In: Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1948-7185 .- 1948-7185. ; 7:17, s. 3313-3321
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The design of molecular probes and tracer molecules with specificity toward amyloid beta (A beta) fibrils is of paramount importance for the selective diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. This requires a detailed understanding of the binding sites in amyloid targets, their number, and their binding mechanism for various tracer molecules. We adopt an integrated approach including molecular docking, molecular dynamics, and generalized Born-based free energy calculations to investigate site-specific interactions of different amyloid binding molecules. Our study reproduces the experimental results on the relative binding affinity of the tracers and amyloid binders and explains the feature of "multiple binding sites" in amyloid targets as probed by competition binding experiments. A major outcome of this study is that it is the core sites of the Afi fibrils that are responsible for the experimentally reported binding profiles of tracers in amyloid targets rather than the surface sites that received much focus in earlier investigations.
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| 7. |
- Natarajan Arul, Murugan, et al.
(author)
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Cross-interaction of tau PET tracers with monoamine oxidase B : evidence from in silico modelling and in vivo imaging
- 2019
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In: European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. - : Springer. - 1619-7070 .- 1619-7089. ; 46:6, s. 1369-1382
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- PurposeSeveral tracers have been designed for tracking the abnormal accumulation of tau pathology in vivo. Recently, concerns have been raised about the sources of off-target binding for these tracers; inconclusive data propose binding for some tracers to monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B).MethodsMolecular docking and dynamics simulations were used to estimate the affinity and free energy for the binding of several tau tracers (FDDNP, THK523, THK5105, THK5317, THK5351, T807 [aka AV-1451, flortaucipir], T808, PBB3, RO-948, MK-6240, JNJ-311 and PI-2620) to MAO-B. These values were then compared with those for safinamide (MAO-B inhibitor). PET imaging was used with the tau tracer [F-18]THK5317 and the MAO-B tracer [C-11]DED in five patients with Alzheimer's disease to investigate the MAO-B binding component of this first generation tau tracer in vivo.ResultsThe computational modelling studies identified a binding site for all the tau tracers on MAO-B; this was the same site as that for safinamide. The binding affinity and free energy of binding for the tau tracers to MAO-B was substantial and in a similar range to those for safinamide. The most recently developed tau tracers MK-6240, JNJ-311 and PI-2620 appeared, in silico, to have the lowest relative affinity for MAO-B. The in vivo investigations found that the regional distribution of binding for [F-18]THK5317 was different from that for [C-11]DED, although areas of suspected off-target [F-18]THK5317 binding were detected. The binding relationship between [F-18]THK5317 and [C-11]DED depended on the availability of the MAO-B enzyme.ConclusionsThe developed tau tracers show in silico and in vivo evidence of cross-interaction with MAO-B; the MAO-B component of the tracer binding was dependent on the regional concentration of the enzyme.
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| 8. |
- Natarajan Arul, Murugan, et al.
(author)
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Different Positron Emission Tomography Tau Tracers Bind to Multiple Binding Sites on the Tau Fibril : Insight from Computational Modeling
- 2018
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In: ACS Chemical Neuroscience. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1948-7193. ; 9:7, s. 1757-1767
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Using the recently reported cryo-EM structure for the tau fibril [Fitzpatrick et al. (2017) Nature 547, 185-190], which is a potential target concerning Alzheimer's disease, we present the first molecular modeling studies on its interaction with various positron emission tomography (PET) tracers. Experimentally, based on the binding assay studies, at least three different high affinity binding sites have been reported for tracers in the tau fibril. Herein, through integrated modeling using molecular docking, molecular dynamics, and binding free energy calculations, we provide insight into the binding patterns of various tracers to the tau fibril. We suggest that there are four different high affinity binding sites available for many of the studied tracers showing varying binding affinity to different binding sites. Thus, PBB3 binds most strongly to site 4, and interestingly, this site is not a preferable site for any other tracers. For THIC5351, our data show that it strongly binds to sites 3 and 1, the former one being more preferable. We also find that MK6240 and T807 bind to site 1 specifically. The modeling data also give some insight into whether a tracer bound to a specific site can be replaced by others or not. For example, the displacement of T807 by PBB3 as reported experimentally can also be explained and attributed to the larger binding affinity of the latter compound in all binding sites. The binding free energy results explain very well the small binding affinity of THK523 compared to all the aryl quinoline moieties containing THK tracers. The ability of certain tau tracers, like FDDNP and THK523, to bind to amyloid fibrils has also been investigated. Furthermore, such off-target interaction of tau tracers with amyloid beta fibrils has been validated using a quantum mechanical fragmentation approach.
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| 9. |
- Zhou, Yang, 1986-, et al.
(author)
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Enhanced Sampling Simulations of Ligand Unbinding Kinetics Controlled by Protein Conformational Changes
- 2019
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In: Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling. - : AMER CHEMICAL SOC. - 1549-9596 .- 1549-960X. ; 59:9, s. 3910-3918
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Understanding unbinding kinetics of protein-ligand systems is of great importance for the design of ligands with desired specificity and safety. In recent years, enhanced sampling techniques have emerged as effective tools for studying unbinding kinetics of protein-ligand systems at the atomistic level. However, in many protein-ligand systems, the ligand unbinding processes are strongly coupled to protein conformational changes and the disclosure of the hidden degrees of freedom closely related to the protein conformational changes so that sampling is enhanced over these degrees of freedom remains a great challenge. Here, we show how potential-scaled molecular dynamics (sMD) and infrequent metadynamics (InMetaD) simulation techniques can be combined to successfully reveal the unbinding mechanism of 3-(1,4-diazabicyclo[3.2.2]nonan-4-yl)-6-[F-18]fluorodibenzo[b,d]thiophen e 5,5-dioxide ([F-18]ASEM) from a chimera structure of the alpha 7-nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. By using sMD simulations, we disclosed that the "close to "open" conformational change of loop C plays a key role in the ASEM unbinding process. By carrying out InMetaD simulations with this conformational change taken into account as an additional collective variable, we further captured the key states in the unbinding process and clarified the unbinding mechanism of ASEM from the protein. Our work indicates that combining sMD and InMetaD simulation techniques can be an effective approach for revealing the unbinding mechanism of a protein-ligand system where protein conformational changes control the unbinding process.
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| 10. |
- Zou, Rongfeng, et al.
(author)
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Free Energy Profile for Penetration of Pittsburgh Compound-B into the Amyloid beta Fibril
- 2019
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In: ACS Chemical Neuroscience. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1948-7193. ; 10:3, s. 1783-1790
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The amyloid beta (A beta) fibril is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and has therefore served as an important target for early diagnosis of AD. The Pittsburgh Compound-B (PiB) is one of the most famous positron emission tomography (PET) tracers commonly used for in vivo detection of A beta fibrils. Many theoretical studies have predicted the existence of various core binding sites with different microenvironments for probes binding to the A beta fibril. However, little attention has been devoted to how the probes actually penetrate into the different core binding sites. In this study, an integrated molecular modeling scheme is used to study the penetration of PiB into the core binding sites of the A beta(1-42) fibril structure recently obtained by cryogenic electron microscopy. We find that there are two core binding sites for PiB with dramatic differences in cavity size and microenvironment properties, and furthermore that the penetration of PiB into site-1 is energetically prohibitive, whereas the penetration into site 2 is much more favorable. Therefore, the binding capacity at site-2 may be larger than that at site-1 despite its lower binding affinity. Our results thus suggest that site-2 may be a major binding site for PiB binding to A beta fibril and emphasize the importance to adopt a full dynamical picture when studying tracer fibril binding problems in general, something that in turn can be used to guide the development of tracers with higher affinity and selectivity for the A beta fibril.
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