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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Human Inducible Hsp70: Structures, Dynamics, and Interdomain Communication from All-Atom Molecular Dynamics Simulations

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The 70 kDa human heat shock protein is a major molecular chaperone involved in de novo folding of proteins in vivo and refolding of proteins under stress conditions. Hsp70 is related to several "misfolding diseases" and other major pathologies, such as cancer, and is a target for new therapies. Hsp70 is comprised of two main domains: an N-terminal nucleotide binding domain (NBD) and a C-terminal substrate protein binding domain (SBD). The chaperone function of Hsp70 is based on an allosteric mechanism. Binding of ATP in NBD decreases the affinity of the substrate for SBD, and hydrolysis of ATP is promoted by binding of polypeptide segments in the SBD. No complete structure of human Hsp70 is known. Here, we report two models of human Hsp70, constructed by homology with Saccharomyces cerevisiae cochaperone protein Hsp110 (open model) and with Escherichia coli 70 kDa DnaK (closed model) and relaxed for several tens to hundreds of nanoseconds by using all-atom molecular dynamics simulations in explicit solvent. We obtain two stable states, Hsp70 with SBD open and SBD closed, which agree with experimental and structural information for ATP-Hsp70 and ADP-Hsp70, respectively. The dynamics of the transition from the open to closed states is investigated with a coarse-grained model and normal-mode analysis. The results show that the conformational change between the two states can be represented by a relatively small number of collective modes which involved major conformational changes in the two domains. These modes provide a mechanistic representation of the communication between NBD and SBD and allow us to identify subdomains and residues that appear to have a critical role in the conformational change mechanism that guides the chaperoning cycle of Hsp70.