Computational search for aflatoxin binding proteins

Ying Wang, Jinfeng Liu, Lujia Zhang, Xiao He, John Z.H. Zhang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Aflatoxin is one of the mycotoxins that contaminate various food products. Among various aflatoxin types (B1, B2, G1, G2 and M1), aflatoxin B1 is the most important and the most toxic one. In this study, through computational screening, we found that several proteins may bind specifically with different type of aflatoxins. Combination of theoretical methods including target fishing, molecular docking, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, MM/PBSA calculation were utilized to search for new aflatoxin B1 binding proteins. A recently developed method for calculating entropic contribution to binding free energy called interaction entropy (IE) was employed to compute the binding free energy between the protein and aflatoxin B1. Through comprehensive comparison, three proteins, namely, trihydroxynaphthalene reductase, GSK-3b, and Pim-1 were eventually selected as potent aflatoxin B1 binding proteins. GSK-3b and Pim-1 are drug targets of cancers or neurological diseases. GSK-3b is the strongest binder for aflatoxin B1.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1-8
Number of pages8
JournalChemical Physics Letters
Volume685
DOIs
StatePublished - 2017

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Physics and Astronomy
  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

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