Electrostatic component of binding energy: Interpreting predictions from poisson-boltzmann equation and modeling protocols.

Macromolecular interactions are essential for understanding numerous biological processes and are typically characterized by the binding free energy. Important component of the binding free energy is the electrostatics, which is frequently modeled via the solutions of the Poisson-Boltzmann Equations (PBE). However, numerous works have shown that the electrostatic component (ΔΔGelec ) of binding free energy is very sensitive to the parameters used and modeling protocol. This prompted some researchers to question the robustness of PBE in predicting ΔΔGelec . We argue that the sensitivity of the absolute ΔΔGelec calculated with PBE using different input parameters and definitions does not indicate PBE deficiency, rather this is what should be expected. We show how the apparent sensitivity should be interpreted in terms of the underlying changes in several numerous and physical parameters. We demonstrate that PBE approach is robust within each considered force field (CHARMM-27, AMBER-94, and OPLS-AA) once the corresponding structures are energy minimized. This observation holds despite of using two different molecular surface definitions, pointing again that PBE delivers consistent results within particular force field. The fact that PBE delivered ΔΔGelec values may differ if calculated with different modeling protocols is not a deficiency of PBE, but natural results of the differences of the force field parameters and potential functions for energy minimization. In addition, while the absolute ΔΔGelec values calculated with different force field differ, their ordering remains practically the same allowing for consistent ranking despite of the force field used.