Molecular dynamics simulations and the conformational mobility of blood group oligosaccharides

Molecular dynamics simulations were carried out without explicit consideration of solvent to explore the conformational mobility of blood group A and H oligosaccharides. The potential energy force field of Rasmussen and co-workers was used with the CHARMM program on a number of disaccharide and trisaccharide models composed of fucose, galactose, glucose, N-acetyl glucosamine, and N-acetyl galactosamine chosen to represent various fragments of blood group oligosaccharides. In agreement with results of earlier studies, stable chair conformations were found for each pyranoside from which no transitions were detected in simulations as long as 800 ps. Exocyclic dihedral angles, including that of C5-C6, generally show numerous transitions on a time scale of approximately 5-30 ps. The dihedral angles of some but not all glycosidic linkages of blood group oligosaccharides show transitions on the time scale of 30-50 ps, implying that the extent of internal motion in blood group oligosaccharides depends strongly on linkage stereochemistry. For certain blood group A and H oligosaccharides that show limited internal motion in these simulations, we argue that the calculations are consistent with our previous analysis of 1H nuclear Overhauser enhancement (NOE) data that imply single conformations over a wide range of temperature and solvent conditions. While the trajectories are consistent with 13C T1 values that have been interpreted as indicating rigid conformations, measurements of 13C-NOE and T1 as a function of magnetic field strength are proposed as an improved method for experimental detection of the internal motion that is suggested for certain oligosaccharides in these simulations. The results of these simulations differ substantially from those of peptides of a similar molecular weight in that the oligosaccharides show much less internal motion.