Improved Estimation of Protein-Ligand Binding Free Energy by Using the Ligand-Entropy and Mobility of Water Molecules

We previously developed the direct interaction approximation (DIA) method to estimate the protein-ligand binding free energy (ΔG). The DIA method estimates the ΔG value based on the direct van der Waals and electrostatic interaction energies between the protein and the ligand. In the current study, the effect of the entropy of the ligand was introduced with protein dynamic properties by molecular dynamics simulations, and the interaction between each residue of the protein and the ligand was also weighted considering the hydration of each residue. The molecular dynamics simulation of the apo target protein gave the hydration effect of each residue, under the assumption that the residues, which strongly bind the water molecules, are important in the protein-ligand binding. These two effects improved the reliability of the DIA method. In fact, the parameters used in the DIA became independent of the target protein. The averaged error of ΔG estimation was 1.3 kcal/mol and the correlation coefficient between the experimental ΔG value and the calculated ΔG value was 0.75.