Paper Citing NAMD - Abstract
Giannozzi, Paolo; Jansen, Karl; La Penna, Giovanni; Minicozzi, Velia; Morante, Silvia; Rossi, Giancarlo; Stellato, Francesco
Zn induced structural aggregation patterns of beta-amyloid peptides by first-principle simulations and XAS measurements
METALLOMICS, 4:156-165, 2012
We show in this paper that in the presence of Zn ions a peculiar structural aggregation pattern of beta-amyloid peptides in which metal ions are sequentially coordinated to either three or four histidines of nearby peptides is favored. To stabilize this configuration a deprotonated imidazole ring from one of the histidines forms a bridge connecting two adjacent Zn ions. Though present in zeolite imidazolate frameworks, remarkably in biological compounds this peculiar Zn-imidazolate-Zn topology is only found in enzymes belonging to the Cu,Zn-superoxide dismutase family in the form of an imidazolate bridging Cu and Zn. The results we present are obtained by combining X-ray absorption spectroscopy experimental data with detailed first-principle molecular dynamics simulations.
