Archive for November 27th, 2021

Biotin’s biggest lesson is the importance of nonclassical H-bonds in protein−ligand complexes.

Saturday, November 27th, 2021

The title comes from the abstract of an article[1] analysing why Biotin (vitamin B7) is such a strong and effective binder to proteins, with a free energy of (non-covalent) binding approaching 21 kcal/mol. The author argues that an accumulation of both CH-π and CH-O together with more classical hydrogen bonds and augmented by a sulfur centered hydrogen bond, oxyanion holes and water solvation, accounts for this large binding energy.

(more…)

References

  1. D.B. McConnell, "Biotin’s Lessons in Drug Design", Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, vol. 64, pp. 16319-16327, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.1c00975