Optimizing Molecular Electrostatic Interactions: Binding Affinity and Specificity

Abstract

The design of molecules that bind tightly and specifically to designated target molecules is an important goal in many fields of molecular science. While the shape of the molecule to be designed is a relatively well defined problem with an intuitive answer, determination of the distribution of electrostatic charge that it should have in order to possess high affinity and/or specificity for a target is a subtle problem involving a tradeoff between an unfavorable electrostatic desolvation penalty incurred due to the removal of solvent from the interacting surfaces of the reactants, and the generally favorable intermolecular interactions made in the bound state. In this thesis, a theoretical formalism based on a continuum electrostatic approximation is developed in which charge distributions leading to optimal affinity and/or high specificity may be obtained. Methods for obtaining these charge distributions are developed in detail and analytical solutions are obtained in several special cases (where the molecules are shaped as infinite membranes, spheres, and spheroids). Their existence and non-uniqueness are also shown, and it is proven that the resulting optimized electrostatic binding free energies are favorable (negative) in many cases of physical interest. Affinity and specificity optimization is then applied to the chorismate mutase family of enzymes, including the catalytic antibody 1F7. It is shown that affinity optimization can be used to suggest better molecular inhibitors and that specificity optimization can be used to help elucidate molecular function and possibly aid in the creation of improved haptens.