All-Atom Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) and LIMP-2 Reveal That PEG Penetrates Deep into the Proposed CD36 Cholesterol-Transport Tunnel.

ABSTRACT: Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is the most prominent clinically administered synthetic polymer. For example, over 300 million people have been administered PEGylated liposome vaccines for SARS-CoV-2. PEG is used in mammals because it has low affinity for most proteins and vice versa. However, this makes it difficult to study the few interactions with proteins that PEG has. On the atomistic level, there are two PEG-protein structures: (1) PEG-LIMP-2 and (2) PEG-αPEG. In the first structure, two monomers of a 1.5 kDa PEG polymer (PEG2) had electron density deep in the postulated cholesterol transport tunnel of LIMP-2, a lysosomal cholesterol transport protein and member of the CD36 super family of proteins. It is unclear how PEG entered this tunnel. In the second structure, PEG wrapped around a s

SUBMITTER: Dalhaimer P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9096817 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature