We report a new method for X-ray density ligand fitting and refinement that is suitable for a wide variety of small-molecule ligands, including macrocycles. The approach (called “xGen”) augments a force field energy calculation with an electron density fitting restraint that yields an energy reward during the restrained conformational search. The resulting conformer pools balance goodness-of-fit with ligand strain. Real-space refinement from pre-existing ligand coordinates of 150 macrocycles resulted in occupancy-weighted conformational ensembles that exhibited low strain energy. The xGen ensembles improved upon electron density fit compared with the PDB reference coordinates without making use of atom-specific B-factors. Similarly, on nonmacrocycles, de novo fitting produced occupancy-weighted ensembles of many conformers that were generally better-quality density fits than the deposited primary/alternate conformational pairs. The results suggest ubiquitous low-energy ligand conformational ensembles in X-ray diffraction data and provide an alternative to using B-factors as model parameters.
It feels like only yesterday that we announced the arrival of StarDrop 8. And here we are again. Though this time, that’s rather the point. Discovery teams need to iterate quickly, moving from hypothesis…
Download the guide and learn what generative chemistry is, where it fits in the discovery workflow, and best practices to avoid common pitfalls.
