Êtes-vous un étudiant de l'EPFL à la recherche d'un projet de semestre?
Travaillez avec nous sur des projets en science des données et en visualisation, et déployez votre projet sous forme d'application sur Graph Search.
The efficiency of protease inhibiting drugs is hampered by the rapid emergence of protease variants. Understanding this phenomenon requires the characterization of the salient steps of HIV-1 protease's catalytic cycle. We summarize Our investigations on the reactive geometry of the protease-substrate complex based on first principles, QM/MM and classical atomistic molecular dynamics simulations. Previous and novel analysis indicates that the reactive geometry is assisted by a mechanical coupling between the local structural fluctuations at the active site and large scale-motion of the entire protein. Additional coarse-grained modeling further allows uncovering unexpected analogies of concerted large-scale movements across members of the aspartyl-protease family. Taken together, these results may help understand some aspects of the resistance against drugs targeting HIV-1 protease.
Alexandra Krina Van Hall-Beauvais