摘要
Sphingomyelin synthase （SMS） produces sphingomyelin and diacylglycerol from ceramide and phosphatidyl- choline. It plays an important role in cell survival and apoptosis, inflammation, and lipid homeostasis, and therefore has been noticed in recent years as a novel potential drug target. In this study, we combined homology modeling, molecular docking, molecular dynamics simulation, and normal mode analysis to derive a three-dimensional struc- ture of human sphingomyelin synthase （hSMS 1） in complex with sphingomyelin. Our model provides a reasonable explanation on the catalytic mechanism of hSMS 1. It can also explain the high selectivity of hSMS 1 towards phos- phocholine and sphingomyelin as well as some other known experimental results about hSMS1. Moreover, we also derived a complex model of D609, the only known small-molecule inhibitor of hSMS 1 so far. Our hSMS 1 model may serve as a reasonable structural basis for the discovery of more effective small-molecule inhibitors of hSMS 1.
Sphingomyelin synthase （SMS） produces sphingomyelin and diacylglycerol from ceramide and phosphatidyl- choline. It plays an important role in cell survival and apoptosis, inflammation, and lipid homeostasis, and therefore has been noticed in recent years as a novel potential drug target. In this study, we combined homology modeling, molecular docking, molecular dynamics simulation, and normal mode analysis to derive a three-dimensional struc- ture of human sphingomyelin synthase （hSMS 1） in complex with sphingomyelin. Our model provides a reasonable explanation on the catalytic mechanism of hSMS 1. It can also explain the high selectivity of hSMS 1 towards phos- phocholine and sphingomyelin as well as some other known experimental results about hSMS1. Moreover, we also derived a complex model of D609, the only known small-molecule inhibitor of hSMS 1 so far. Our hSMS 1 model may serve as a reasonable structural basis for the discovery of more effective small-molecule inhibitors of hSMS 1.
基金
Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China （Nos.30973641, 20902013）, a special research fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education from the Chinese Ministry of Education （No. 20090071110054） and an open grant from the State Key Laboratory of Bio-organic and Natural Products Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
