Interaction analysis of HIV-1 antibody 2G12 and Man9GlcNAc2 ligand: Theoretical calculations by fragment molecular orbital and MD methods

In HIV-1 infection, human antibody 2G12 is capable of recognizing the high-mannose glycans on the HIV-1 surface glycoprotein, gp120. To investigate the ligand binding mechanisms of antibody 2G12 with glycans aiming for the contribution to the medications, we carried out classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and ab initio fragment molecular orbital (FMO) calculations on the antibody 2G12 complex with its high-mannose ligand. We found that Mannose D1 of the ligand had the largest binding affinity with the antibody, which was well consistent with experimental reports. Furthermore, significant roles of Mannose 4 and 4′ in the ligand binding were theoretically indicated.