Conformation of tetragastrin in DMSO. Monte Carlo simulation taking account of solvent effects.

A conformation analysis of tetrapeptide in DMSO was carried out by the Monte Carlo simulation including the solvent effects in the energy function. The lowest energy conformations in the zwitterionic and cationic states are a similar compact form, in which the two aromatic rings are close to each other. The distance distributions between the specified atoms in the molecule show that most conformations in the local energy minima are similar to this folded conformation, although there is another type of conformation of interest, which has an extended form with the two separate aromatic rings. Such results are consistent with the NMR and CD experiments, and suggest that the compact form of tetragastrin is essential as a biological active conformation. The folded structure is stabilized by the solute-solvent interaction. In particular, the nonbonding interactions between the solute and solvent molecules cause a folding effect on the molecular conformation in total. This study is a first case taking account of the solvent effect into the conformation analysis of tetragastrin.