Fast Conformation Search of Macrocyclic Peptides Using a Combination of Digital Annealer and REST2

Abstract

Cyclization generally stabilizes the bioactive conformation of the peptide and increases its affinity for the target. However, since cyclic peptides frequently adopt multiple conformations in solution, the structural information is not fully understood in experiments, and the relationship between structure and function is not well understood. We demonstrate the practical possibilities of using a combination of a special purpose computing engine (Digital Annealer) and REST2 (replica exchange with solute tempering) simulation in "ab initio" structure prediction of macrocyclic peptides.