Archive for November 27th, 2021

Biotin’s biggest lesson is the importance of nonclassical H-bonds in protein−ligand complexes.

Saturday, November 27th, 2021

The title comes from the abstract of an article[cite]10.1021/acs.jmedchem.1c00975[/cite] analysing why Biotin (vitamin B7) is such a strong and effective binder to proteins, with a free energy of (non-covalent) binding approaching 21 kcal/mol. The author argues that an accumulation of both CH-π and CH-O together with more classical hydrogen bonds and augmented by a sulfur centered hydrogen bond, oxyanion holes and water solvation, accounts for this large binding energy.

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