Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 7, 2026

Synthesizing Amino Acids Modified with Reactive Carbonyls in Silico to Assess Structural Effects Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations
Published on: April 26, 2024
Molecular dynamics simulations of the enzyme catechol-O-methyltransferase: methodological issues
A Bunker1, Pt Männistö, J-F St Pierre
1Drug Discovery and Development Technology Center, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki, Finland. alex.bunker@helsinki.fi
Abstract:
Results from extensive 70 ns all-atom molecular dynamics simulations of catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) enzyme are reported. The simulations were performed with explicit TIP3P water and Mg2+ ions. Four different crystal structures of COMT, with and without different ligands, were used. These simulations are among the most extensive of their kind and as such served as a stability test for such simulations. On the methodological side we found that the initial energy minimization procedure may be a crucial step: particular hydrogen bonds may break, and this can initiate an irreversible loss of protein structure that becomes observable in longer time scales of the order of tens of nanoseconds. This has important implications for both molecular dynamics and quantum mechanics-molecular mechanics simulations.
Related Concept Videos
Introduction to Mechanisms of Enzyme Catalysis
Introduction to Mechanisms of Enzyme Catalysis
Introduction to Enzyme Kinetics
The experimenter can then plot the initial reaction rate or velocity (Vo) of a given trial against the substrate concentration ([S]) to obtain a graph of the reaction properties. For many enzymatic reactions involving a...
Enzyme Kinetics
Scientists typically study enzyme kinetics with a fixed amount of enzyme in the controlled environment of a test tube. When more reactant, or substrate, is...
Reaction Mechanisms: Rate-limiting Step Approximation
Determination of Michaelis Constant and Maximum Elimination Rate
These parameters can be estimated by analyzing plasma concentration data post-drug administration. A notable example of this application is phenytoin, a drug with capacity-limited kinetics. It's recommended that phenytoin should be administered at two...
