A semiempirical approach to ligand-binding affinities: Dependence on the Hamiltonian and corrections.

• We present a combination of semiempirical quantum-mechanical (SQM) calculations in the conductor-like screening model with the MM/GBSA (molecular-mechanics with generalized Born and surface-area solvation) method for ligand-binding affinity calculations. We test three SQM Hamiltonians, AM1, RM1, and PM6, as well as hydrogen-bond corrections and two different dispersion corrections. As test cases, we use the binding of seven biotin analogues to avidin, nine inhibitors to factor Xa, and nine phenol-derivatives to ferritin. The results vary somewhat for the three test cases, but a dispersion correction is mandatory to reproduce experimental estimates. On average, AM1 with the DH2 hydrogen-bond and dispersion corrections gives the best results, which are similar to those of standard MM/GBSA calculations for the same systems. The total time consumption is only 1.3-1.6 times larger than for MM/GBSA. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Kemi -- Teoretisk kemi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Chemical Sciences -- Theoretical Chemistry (hsv//eng)

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art (subject category)

ref (subject category)