Stability of trimeric DENV envelope protein at low and neutral pH: an insight from MD study.

Kshatresh Dutta Dubey, Amit Kumar Chaubey, Rajendra Prasad Ojha

Biophysics Unit, Department of Physics, DDU Gorakhpur University, 273009, India.

Biochimica et biophysica acta 2013 Jan

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Change in pH plays a crucial role in the stability and function of the dengue envelope (DENV) protein during conformational transition from dimeric (pre-fusion state) to trimeric form (post-fusion state). In the present study we have performed various molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of the trimeric DENV protein at different pH and ionic concentrations. We have used total binding energy to justify the stability of the complex using the MMPBSA method. We found a remarkable increase in the stability of the complex at neutral pH (pH~7) due to the increment of sodium ions. However, at very low pH (pH~4), the total energy of the complex becomes high enough to destabilize the complex. At a specific pH, almost at a range of 6, the stability of the complex is significantly better than the stability of the trimer at neutral pH, which connotes that the trimer is most stable at this pH (pH~6). Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Citation

Kshatresh Dutta Dubey, Amit Kumar Chaubey, Rajendra Prasad Ojha. Stability of trimeric DENV envelope protein at low and neutral pH: an insight from MD study. Biochimica et biophysica acta. 2013 Jan;1834(1):53-64