Hydration structure and stability of Met-enkephalin studied by a three-dimensional reference interaction site model with a repulsive bridge correction and a thermodynamic perturbation method

We study the hydration structure and free energy of several conformations of Met-enkephalin in ambient water by employing the one-dimensional (1D) as well as three-dimensional (3D) reference interaction site model (RISM) integral equation theories, complemented by the hypernetted chain (HNC) closure with the repulsive bridge correction (RBC). The RBC contribution to the excess chemical potential of solvation is calculated by means of the thermodynamic perturbation theory (TPT), which crucially reduces computational burden and thus is especially important for a hybrid algorithm of the RISM with molecular simulation. The 3D-RISM/HNC+RBC-TPT approach provides improved prediction of the solvation thermodynamics and gives a detailed description of the solvation structure of a biomolecule. The results obtained are discussed and compared to those following from the 1D-RISM/HNC theory. The latter yields physically reasonable results for the conformational stability of biomolecules in solution, which is further improved by adding the 1D-RBC. The modified, 1D-RISM/HNC+RBC-TPT integral equation theory combined with the simulated annealing or generalized-ensemble Monte Carlo simulation methods is capable of reliable prediction of conformations of biomolecules in solution with due account for the solvent effect at the microscopic level. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(00)50845-9].