Improved Force Fields for Peptide Nucleic Acids with Optimized Backbone Torsion Parameters

J Chem Theory Comput. 2018 Jul 10;14(7):3603-3620. doi: 10.1021/acs.jctc.8b00291. Epub 2018 Jun 6.

Abstract

Peptide nucleic acids are promising nucleic acid analogs for antisense therapies as they can form stable duplex and triplex structures with DNA and RNA. Computational studies of PNA-containing duplexes and triplexes are an important component for guiding their design, yet existing force fields have not been well validated and parametrized with modern computational capabilities. We present updated CHARMM and Amber force fields for PNA that greatly improve the stability of simulated PNA-containing duplexes and triplexes in comparison with experimental structures and allow such systems to be studied on microsecond time scales. The force field modifications focus on reparametrized PNA backbone torsion angles to match high-level quantum mechanics reference energies for a model compound. The microsecond simulations of PNA-PNA, PNA-DNA, PNA-RNA, and PNA-DNA-PNA complexes also allowed a comprehensive analysis of hydration and ion interactions with such systems.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • DNA / chemistry
  • Hydrogen Bonding
  • Molecular Dynamics Simulation
  • Nucleic Acid Conformation
  • Peptide Nucleic Acids / chemistry*
  • RNA / chemistry

Substances

  • Peptide Nucleic Acids
  • RNA
  • DNA