5yd4

Publication Abstract from PubMed

Molecular recognition is a fundamental event at the core of essentially every biological process. In particular, intermolecular H-bonds have been recognized as key stabilizing forces in antibody-antigen interactions resulting in exquisite specificity and high affinity. Although equally abundant, the role of intramolecular H-bonds is far less clear and not universally acknowledged. Herein, we have carried out a molecular-level study to dissect the contribution of intramolecular H-bonds in a flexible peptide for the recognition by an antibody. We show that intramolecular H-bonds may have a profound, multifaceted and favorable effect on the binding affinity by up to 2 kcal mol-1 of free energy. Collectively, our results suggest that antibodies are fine tuned to recognize transiently stabilized structures of flexible peptides in solution, for which intramolecular H-bonds play a key role.

Intramolecular H-bonds govern the recognition of a flexible peptide by an antibody.,Miyanabe K, Akiba H, Kuroda D, Nakakido M, Kusano-Arai O, Iwanari H, Hamakubo T, Caaveiro JMM, Tsumoto K J Biochem. 2018 Jul 1;164(1):65-76. doi: 10.1093/jb/mvy032. PMID:29924367^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.