The Coarse-Grained OPEP Force Field for Non-Amyloid and Amyloid Proteins

Coarse-grained protein models with various levels of granularity and degrees of freedom offer the possibility to explore many phenomena including folding, assembly, and recognition in terms of dynamics and thermodynamics that are inaccessible to all-atom representations in explicit aqueous solution. Here, we present a refined version of the coarse-grained optimized potential for efficient protein structure prediction (OPEP) based on a six-bead representation. The OPEP version 4.0 parameter set, which uses a new analytical formulation for the nonbonded interactions and adds specific side-chain-side-chain interactions for alpha-helix, is subjected to three tests. First, we show that molecular dynamics simulations at 300 K preserve the experimental rigid conformations of 17 proteins with 37-152 amino acids within a root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) of 3.1 angstrom after 30 ns. Extending the simulation time to 100 ns for five proteins does not change the RMSDs. Second, replica exchange molecular dynamics (REMD) simulations recover the NMR structures of three prototypical beta-hairpin and alpha-helix peptides and the NMR three-stranded beta-sheet topology of a 37-residue WW domain, starting from randomly chosen states. Third, REMD simulations on the cc beta peptide show a temperature transition from a three-stranded coiled coil to amyloid-like aggregates consistent with experiments, while simulations on low molecular weight aggregates of the prion protein helix 1 do not. Overall, these studies indicate the effectiveness of our OPEP4 coarse-grained model for protein folding and aggregation, and report two future directions for improvement.