Method for calculating the interaction (Van der Waals) potential among the cylindrical polypeptides that carry helically arranged point charges on their surfaces

摘要

We proposed a geometrical method to calculate the interaction potential among the cylindrical circular polypeptides that constitute the ion selective channel pore on the excitable biological membrane. An ion channel pore is composed of 5 to 6 subunits each of which is further constituted from 6 polypeptides. They carry negative electrical potentials on their surfaces with helical arrangement. When the channel transits between open and closed formation, the polypeptide deforms so as to minimize the potential field of an entire molecule of the channel. The present paper introduced a geometric method to characterize interaction among the helically distributed point charges on the polypeptides. We introduced the Van der Waals potential for characterizing the interaction among the channel composer cylindrical polypeptides.