NMR Summerschool Niederöblarn 2024: NOE calibration for protein-ligand structure determination

In this tutorial we will

1. determine how to calibrate NOE data to obtain distance restraints,
2. derive a ligand bio-active conformation with the software CYANA,
3. introduce the NMR² approach for protein-ligand 3D structure elucidation.

To this end we will use the software CYANA, NMR², and excel (or similar)

CYANA Setup 

Please follow the following steps carefully (exact Linux commands are given below; you may copy them to a terminal):

1. Go to your home directory (or data directory)
2. Get the data for the practical from the server (to come data.zip)
3. Unpack the input data for the practical
4. Get the demo version of CYANA for this practical (or here CYANA webpage)
5. Unpack CYANA
6. Go to the downloaded CYANA folder
7. Test whether CYANA can be started by typing, './cyana'
8. If you are a mac user you may need to remove the safety quarantine
9. Setup the CYANA environment variables
10. Go to the newly created directory 'data'
11. Test whether CYANA can be started by typing its name, 'cyana'
12. Exit from CYANA by typing 'q' or 'quit'

cd "download path"/cyana-3.98.15 
#optional 
sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine cyanaexe.macarm-gfortran

./cyana   

CYANA 3.98.15 (macarm-gfortran)

Copyright (c) 2002-22 Peter Guentert. All rights reserved.
___________________________________________________________________

    Demo license valid for specific sequences until 2024-12-31.

    Library file "/Users/julienorts/Downloads/cyana-3.98.15/lib/cyana.lib" read, 41 residue types.

Hint: More information on the CYANA commands etc. is in the CYANA 3.0 Reference Manual.

Remark: CYANA is a proprietary software. For any installation problem, contact Peter Güntert, the author of CYANA.

Molecular viewer  

You need also a molecular viewer capable of saving mol2 file

1. Download Chimera (to your personal laptop) from: Chimera

Part 1

Introduction for task 1:

Open the simulation_data.xlsx in part1/task1_to_3 directory. These are for us the experimetal data!

We will start with the structure calculation of our ligand (drug-like) molecule.

From the NOESY spectra, we obtain the cross-relaxation rates using the intensity

(volume) of the crosspeaks at a known (experimentally set) mixing time.

These are directly related to the interatomic distances, which will determine the conformation of the molecule.

Task 1 : Plot the crosspeak intensities as  function of the mixing time:

The NOESY buildup curves. "Intramolecular NOE"

In the table "Intramolecular NOE", we have the intensity at different mixing times (up to  0.1s) given at the first line.

Plot those, notice the scale, and shape.

Introduction for task 2:

The NOESY spectrum contain also diagonal crosspeaks. These correspond to the (non-equilibrium Z-) magnetisation decay of

the spin-themselfs: autorelaxation, or in other words, decay with the T₁-type (R₁-type) relaxation time (rate).

Formula!!

Task2: Plot the diagonal peak intensities as function of the mixing time:

Notice the scale and shape.

How would you obtain the R₁ relaxation rate?

Introduction for task 3:

The initial rate of the NOESY crosspeak, is directly proportional to the distance between the respective spins (protons).
The other dependency comes from the rotational correlation time of the molecule, which is dependent on temperature,
solvent viscosity, solvation shell of the molecule, shape of the molecule, and in the case of a small molecule partly
bound to a larger protein, the effective correlation time is also modulated by this partial bounding - the chemical
exchange. Therefore, it is practical to leave these dependencies aside, and calibrate the relation between the NOE
buildup rate (cross-relaxation rate) and the interproton distance using a known distance.
Fortunately, there are many proton pairs in the molecule with fixed distance, simply due to the covalent structure.

Task 3: Calibrate distances from the buildup curves.

a: Identify a suitable pair of protons (H-atoms) and measure their distance.

• Open the the ligand molecule (nutlin.pdb).
• Open the command line: Tools→ General Controls → Command Line and type
• distance @H9,H10
  This will be the reference distance r_Ref.

b: calculate the cross-relaxation rate.

In a separate column, assuming a linear buildup in time: chose now
the first mixing time to get the initial cross-relaxation rate.

Note, that this cross-relaxation rate is not normalized (it is not in [s^-1]), but since we will do the referencing using a know distance, we do not have to normalize.

c:  Calibrate the distances.

For the reference pair of protons. We have now also the reference sigma sigma_Ref.
Use the formula
    r_ij = r_Ref * (sigma_Ref/sigma_ij)^(1/6). Vogeli 2014 eq. 63b
to calculate the other distances between other atoms (in a separate column).

d: Optional Task intro:

In order to calculate the structure (conformation) of the molecule, we need to know the interatomic distances.
This is something what we have already. As these distances come with some inaccuracies, we have to input two distances -
a lower and upper bound in which we believe that the true distance resides.
For practical purpose, we just create two new columns, where the distances derived above are multiplied by factors of
0.8 and 1.2 respectively. In fact, just the upper bound will be enough in our exercises.

Task 3.d Optional

Create the lower and upper interatomic distances as separate columns.

Introduction for task 4:

There is no closed-form formula to calculate the conformation (structure) from a set of distances.
The setup starts with defining an energy penalty for every experimental distance not fulfilled by the molecular conformation. These are also called distance restraints.
Starting from one chosen conformation, and trying to minimize the structure (using steepest descent or other local method) to fulfill
the distances measured by NOE (or any other means) would fail: the structure would end-up in a local minimum. Instead we
have to search for a global minimum. A commonly used algorithm for a global minimum is called simulated annealing, where
the molecule is heated up such that high-energy barriers (due to van-der Waals clashes) can be surpassed. By a
subsequent cooling, the imposed distance restraints will drive the molecule towards the conformation with minimal
violation of the distance restraints. Many attempts will nevertheless end up in different local minima, and hence, only a
subset of resulting conformers, the lowest-energy conformers will be likely to represent the global minimum.

In practice, we have to input the knowledge about the covalent (bonding) structure of the molecule, and the distance
restraints. The bonding structure can be as simple as the chain of aminoacids, as the standard programs would have
libraries of the actual atomic bonding (topology) for those. For an unknown molecule, we have to supply a full topology
ourselves. These would be different for different programs.

We will use program specialized structure calculation from NMR restraints: CYANA by Prof. Dr. Peter Günter.

CYANA can obtain the bonding topology from a .mol2 molecular structure file, converting it into its own (library)
format, a .lib file. This library file with contain information about one molecule, but since biopolymers - proteins
contain chain (sequence) of building blocks like aminoacid residues of nucleotides, there has to be also information
about the sequence of those building block. In our case it contains only one record: the name of our ligand molecule.

We will use a ready .lib file in our exercise.
We complete the information by a  .seq file with a "sequence" containing only one line the name and number of the residue (MOL 999)

The other information: the  distance restraints are obtained by CYANA from a separate text file, where
the pairs of atoms are identified by three and three columns, and the distance in Ånsgrom.

ResidueNumber1 residueName1 atomName1 residueNumber2 residueName2 atomName2  distance.

In our first calculation of a single molecule (residue), obviously only the atomName1 and atomNam2 would be different.

Further instructions for CYANA are read from the .cya file.

Task 4: Calculate the structure of the ligand molecule.

• In the task_4_to_5 directory,
  create a text file using a text editor, the ".upl" file (mol.upl).
  This name is used in the instruction file for CYANA, the reg.cya file in this exercise.
• To do that, copy the "Intermolecular NOE" table - the first column contains the 6 columns needed for identification of the atom pair.
• The seventh column has to be the distance calculated above.

Note that the atom numbers and names have to exactly match the MOL.lib file.
Note also, that the distance has to be in a numerical format using "dot" as a decimal separator  and not a "comma"!

Navigate to the task_4_to_5 directory in the terminal (command line) and start the CYANA:

$ cyana

In the cyana prompt, call the instruction in req.cya (leaving out the .cya) to perform the structure calculation:

cyana> reg

In less than a minute, the calculation is ready.
We have now the structure file: demo.pdb
and the overview file about the calculation: demo.ovw

Close CYANA 
cyana> exit

Introduction for task 5:

From the theoretical introduction about NOE, we know that the existence of crosspeak between two spins does not have to

be caused by the direct through-space transfer of magnetisation between them.

Instead, magnetisation transfer via an third nucleus can occur. This is called spin diffusion.

Task 5: Interpret overview file (violations ?)

1. Open the overview file in the text editor or a text viewer (less demo.ovw).
   Find the statement "Restraints violated" and identify into which atoms it belong.
2. Look at structure using chimera.
   1. for clarity, select only the first structure:
      select -> chain -> A demo.pdb #0.1
      select -> Invert (all models)
      actions -> Atoms/Bonds -> delete 
3. Explain the violation.
   Is such a problem more likely for atoms short or long apart?
4. Plot normalized buildup curves
   Calculate normalized NOESY buildup curves, by dividing them by the diagonal peaks (for now, use the first table of the
   diagonal peaks). Plot the buildup curves and comment on their shape. Can you explain the changed shapes?
   Can you see the case(s) with spin diffusion more clearly?

Task 6: Remove spin diffusion and repeat the calculation

1. Copy the calc_ligand_structure into a new one.
   cp -r task_4_to_5 task_4_to_5_noSD 
2. Open the mol.upl In the text editor, delete the line with the  problematic restrain.
3. Repeat the structure calculation in CYANA:
   cyana> reg

Compare the structures 

Task 7 (optional)

Instead of the first mixing time in  Task 1,

choose the last mixing time and proceed all the way to calculate the structure in CYANA.

Note the differences in extracted distances and in the resulting structures.

Part 2

In this short exercise, we will calculate the protein structure using ready distances stored in the final_protein.upl
file. We do not need any extra library file, as this time, the sequence file (demoShort.seq) contains only standard
aminoacid residues.

• In the part2 directory, execute
  cyana reg.cya

Look at the structures using chimera molecular viewer.

Part 3

Calculate the structure of the protein-ligand complex.

1. Prepare the intermolecular distance restraints. For that, follow the same steps as in
   Task 3, but for the Table: "Intermolecular NOE". Use the same same pair of atoms for calibration of the distances.
2. In the part3 directory, place the the distances into intermolecular.upl
3. Copy the also the  mol.upl file here from the Task 4 (part1/task4_to_5).
4. One option is to combine these files:

   cat final_protein.upl mol.upl intermolecular.upl > complex.upl

• calculate the structure:
  cyana reg.cya
• check the resulting structure using chimera
  for clarity, select only the first structure (as in Task 5)
  
  

Note! if using VMD as a molecular viewer, it will refuse to recognize large parts of the secondary structure!
Try to explain what can be causing it.
Check the median of the distance restraints placed into .upl
It should be around 4.2 for intramolecular distances, and 4.4 for the intermolecular distances.
What do you get? discuss.

NMR² 

NMR² runs via the platform SAMSON.

1. Register and install SAMSON
2. Request the NMR² application

solutions