Evaluation of the influence of the internal aqueous solvent structure on electrostatic interactions at the protein-solvent interface by nonlocal continuum electrostatic approach

Alexander Rubinstein, Simon Sherman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

The dielectric properties of the polar solvent on the protein-solvent interface at small intercharge distances are still poorly explored. To deconvolute this problem and to evaluate the pair-wise electrostatic interaction (PEI) energies of the point charges located at the protein-solvent interface we used a nonlocal (NL) electrostatic approach along with a static NL dielectric response function of water. The influence of the aqueous solvent microstructure (determined by a strong nonelectrostatic correlation effect between water dipoles within the orientational Debyc polarization mode) on electrostatic interactions at the interface was studied in our work. It was shown that the PEI energies can be significantly higher than the energies evaluated by the classical (local) consideration, treating water molecules as belonging to the bulk solvent with a high dielectric constant. Our analysis points to the existence of a rather extended, effective low-dielectric interfacial water shell on the protein surface. The main dielectric properties of this shell (effective thickness together with distance- and orientation-dependent dielectric permittivity function) were evaluated. The dramatic role of this shell was demonstrated when estimating the protein association rate constants.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)149-164
Number of pages16
JournalBiopolymers
Volume87
Issue number2-3
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 15 2007

Keywords

  • Interfacial water
  • Mesoscopic solvent structure
  • Nonlocal electrostatics
  • Protein-protein recognition
  • Protein-solvent interface
  • Solvent permittivity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biophysics
  • Biochemistry
  • Biomaterials
  • Organic Chemistry

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