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Noncovalent Interactions in the Gas Phase and Aqueous Solution: Theoretical Study
Zendlová, Lucie ; Hobza, Pavel (advisor) ; Burda, Jaroslav (referee) ; Vondrášek, Jiří (referee) ; Jurečka, Petr (referee)
EAPUr rr|lclltal \ alLlť5' 5 Conclusions :, , . In the ia) part of present work we c intera cti on b etween u d"',il ". . . thy;';; il:'::: :íJTj.:lÍ' lI jl.#.ffiJ,lil itt8:"é'siia small number or*u.",7nJ organió solvent ňr"."i", (CH3.H, solvents yů[T"i^f.completely different interactions between the bases and the b"''" p.'"{ ;' "idilnn il#} il-t ÍT:!fl,-. i: : " o:] Y" .'h:.-S,t.* tu,", ot tt," moleóule Iuórc 'u'r' u property, and the'. .'l,'..,ťff,.'*lt'Lť':.lill:ilF.S'T!,l;situated above or belolthe !Á; ;;i. ;';;lě'"o ri," olašó ň"l"-.\,," ,, unique y"J::fiffii:x::. ."n'o*ison with otr,!. .otu"nt,, uň.'r,"í'ř;;.". are the In the ib) part_of present work based on the MD, SCC_DDFTB_D and ;"",'.Y|Tť'.#1.:."ffi i"T."lrJ'".r""u.'".XincorporateJ."-oŇTduplexwe i) Replacing nucleic acid base by modified nucleobase X leads.*:'] ,o Structural changes of the centrď -uuš"-pui. Gtu.tarrangement of central modified base pairs). ónli with ttresma'lest modified nucleobase p 'r'" Á.iJ.;;*;;.í' (A-P, P-T) stay planar. In the case 'of.B-T, Á-il.;';6 in specificorientation, one of the modified nuú"JÁ""x"*íto.""a outfrom DNA duplex. ii) Incre, .,""olr'iT"i1iTi1fi" or modified nucleobase X increases rhe iii) The highest s.ďectivity among- all base ana|ogue studied wasfound for modified nu"l"obus" O In the secono pu* of...
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Structural characterization of interaction between transcription factors and DNA
Filandrová, Růžena ; Novák, Petr (advisor) ; Vondrášek, Jiří (referee) ; Wimmerová, Michaela (referee)
Structural characterization of interaction between transcription factors and DNA Mgr. Růžena Filandrová Abstract Transcription factors are proteins that mediate gene expression regulation through interactions with DNA and other factors. They allow a cell to respond to various stimuli and play a crucial role in many biological processes such as control of cell cycle progression, differentiation of cells during development or immune response. To understand these processes, the knowledge of the transcription factors 3D structure together with the mechanism of their interaction with DNA is essential. However, some of the typical features of transcription factors, such as is for example the presence of intrinsically unstructured regions, make the 3D structure determination by the commonly used high resolution methods challenging. Therefore, utilization of complementary methods like structural mass spectrometry (MS), which was used in this thesis, might prove to be beneficial to explore the structural basis of the transcription factor-DNA interaction. In first part of this work, a set of structural mass spectrometry methods with the main focus on hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS) was optimized and tested on two transcription factor-DNA complexes and their DNA binding motifs and proved to be...
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Interaction of proteins with inhibitors: quantum chemical study
Dobeš, Petr ; Hobza, Pavel (advisor) ; Vondrášek, Jiří (referee) ; Jurečka, Petr (referee)
This dissertation focuses on theoretical studies of the interaction between protein kinases and their inhibitors. Studied protein kinases, cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2) and CK2 kinase (casein kinase 2) play an important role in regulating cellular processes in eukaryotic organisms. Their abnormal function in human cells can lead to serious diseases. This process can be stopped by blocking the aberrant protein kinases using specific low molecular weight inhibitors. Inhibitors of protein kinases typically bind to the active site of the enzyme by noncovalent interactions. Theoretical description of these interactions using quantum-chemical and molecular mechanical methods can help in understanding the biophysical principles governing the binding. These, in turn, can be subsequently used for a rational drug design of more effective and more specific inhibitors. The stabilization energy of the complex of CDK2 with inhibitor roscovitine is predominantly formed by the dispersion energy. DFT methods, which do not describe the dispersion energy was thus completely inappropriate for the treatment of such a system. When an empirical term is included to correct for the description of dispersion, such methods, as e.g. the SCC-DFTB-D, can be recommended for computation of this or similar complexes. The dominant part...
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Molecular mechanisms of polymodal regulation of TRPA1 receptor
Sinica, Viktor ; Vlachová, Viktorie (advisor) ; Vondrášek, Jiří (referee) ; Holendová, Blanka (referee)
The TRPA1 channel is a universal, nociception-mediating cellular sensor activated by various environmental irritants, potentially harmful physical modalities and endogenous mediators of pathophysiological processes. The polymodality of TRPA1 channel allows the activation stimuli to further enhance or suppress each other's effect. While this modulation effect has its physiological importance in promoting the protective cellular and behavioral mechanisms, it may result into the unpleasant pain-related effects accompanying the chronical pain caused by aberrant TRPA1 channel activity. In order to effectively and selectively target the synergic properties of TRPA1 modulators, while preserving the sensitivity to the environmental threads, the knowledge of the mechanisms of polymodal regulation at the molecular level are required. This doctoral thesis aims at the elucidation of three main mechanisms of TRPA1 regulation: 1) the regulation via intracellular signaling cascades and phosphorylation, 2) the interaction with membrane phospholipids and 3) the temperature-driven gating. The results presented in the thesis show that the effects of the inflammatory mediator bradykinin are decreased by the low-frequency high-induction electromagnetic field used in magnetotherapy. We have identified a residue S602...
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Interactions of Proteins with Nucleic Acids: from Structure to Specificity
Jakubec, Dávid ; Vondrášek, Jiří (advisor) ; Šponer, Jiří (referee) ; Zagrovic, Bojan (referee)
Sequence-specific interactions between proteins and nucleic acids play an essential role in the cell biology. While several molecular mechanisms contributing to the binding speci- ficity have been identified empirically, no general protein-DNA recognition code has been described to date. In this thesis, I explore selected characteristics of protein-DNA inter- actions using computational methods. First, the pairwise interactions between the basic biomolecular building blocks-amino acids and nucleotides-are investigated. It is shown that several statistically enriched, biologically relevant interaction motifs correspond to the most energetically favorable configurations of the respective binding partners. In ad- dition, a relationship between the physico-chemical properties of the amino acid residues found at the protein-DNA interface and the local geometric features of the DNA helix is presented. Next, the applicability of molecular dynamics-based setups to the description of binding equilibria in protein-DNA systems is investigated. Discrepancies are observed between the description offered by the computer simulations and experimental results, as well as between the results obtained using two molecular mechanical force fields. Finally, the more general evolutionary aspects of protein organization...
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The role of DNA minor groove deformation in specific recognition of DNA by proteins
Faltejsková, Kateřina ; Vondrášek, Jiří (advisor) ; Lepšík, Martin (referee)
The specific recognition of the DNA is crucial for the correct functioning of the cell. Although its mechanisms are extensively studied, the actual process is not yet fully understood, partly due to the variance observed in readout mechanisms so far. In this work, a particular type of specific recognition is examined: the shape readout in the DNA minor groove. Based on a sta- tistical analysis of three-dimensional structures of protein-DNA complexes acquired from the Protein Data Bank, I propose a previously unrecorded readout mechanism of widened minor grooves by hydrophobic amino acids. In addition, the effect of DNA sequence on the topography of the contacted locus, the preferred secondary structures and the interaction between the protein and DNA are explored, as well as the relative information amount of examined features concerning the DNA deformation. 1
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The influence of non-domain regions' composition on the activity of multi-domain protein kinases
Hamalčík, Jan ; Vondrášek, Jiří (advisor) ; Novotný, Marian (referee)
Kinases are among the most studied proteins, as they are important in many cellular processes. Today's research shows that their activity is not only dependent on the composition of the domains, but on the non-domain regions as well. This thesis tried to comprehend the influence of the link- ers' composition on the function of multi-domain protein kinases in general. This was done by clustering human two-domain protein kinases with one protein kinase domain by the averaged physicochemical attributes of their inter-domain regions. The uniqueness of Gene Ontology terms and Enzyme Commission numbers within these clusters of proteins with different archi- tectures was then investigated. However, due to multiple missteps, no such influence has been witnessed. 1
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Conformational Behaviour of Small Peptide Fragments Studied by the Quantum Chemical Methods
Kalvoda, Tadeáš ; Rulíšek, Lubomír (advisor) ; Vondrášek, Jiří (referee)
To what extent conformational preference of short peptide sequences within proteins determine their three-dimensional structure? Large-scale quantum chemical calculations coupled with modern solvation methods represent unique set of tools to elucidate key determinants of the biomolecular structure ab initio. Full conformational sampling was performed on model systems representing short peptide fragments. The computed data reveal some of the underlying physico-chemical principles determining the spatial structure of proteins, and provide very important data for finding and tuning the optimal algorithm that may provide a full coverage of (ideally all) low-energy conformers. Keywords: Conformational space, peptide fragments, protein structure, solvation methods, Ramachandran plot, DFT-D3 methods
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Analysis of Zika and Dengue virus proteases
Novotný, Pavel ; Konvalinka, Jan (advisor) ; Vondrášek, Jiří (referee)
in English Zika and Dengue flaviviruses are transmitted by mosquitoes in human populations living in tropical areas. They cause fevers which in the case of Dengue can lead to life threatening haemorrhagic form. There is a possible relationship between pregnant women being infected by Zika virus and higher risk of microcephaly in new-borns. The infection is currently treated mainly symptomatically. However, there is an effort to develop compounds which block viral life cycle and viral spread through organism. Viral enzymes, such as flaviviral proteases, are regarded as suitable targets for this effort. These serine proteases with chymotrypsin fold are heterodimers which consist of flaviviral non- structural proteins NS2B and NS3. NS3 domain also contains a helicase, which can be removed by gene recombination for study purposes. NS2B is a transmembrane protein, but only a hydrophilic 40 amino acid peptide is important for the interaction with NS3 domain. This peptide has a chaperon function and participates in substrate binding to the active site. In this study, six variants of recombinant proteins containing activating peptide of NS2B and protease domain of NS3 were expressed and purified. Four variants were characterized in enzymologic studies including testing of possible inhibitors. A dipeptide...
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