Molecular Associations

Abstract

It can be easily imagined that the computational difficulties in protein studies increase dramatically when their environment is taken into consideration, as compared with their study as isolated systems. Proteins may be in a (biological/industrial) solvent environment, which may affect their structure (Brooks III and Case 1993, Daggett and Levitt 1993), and in interaction with other systems. Foremost among such interactions are those involved in the intercellular communication and the various responses (such as the immune response) of biologically active cells, which are controlled by interactions with membrane receptors (Barinaga 1992 and Sezerman et al. 1993), and the antigen-antibody (Ag-Ab) binding. The common characteristic of all these cases is the existence of molecular associations, which are the result of the molecular recognition process (Jaenicke 1987). The study of these interactions, already of interest per se, has the added significance of extremely important practical applications, such as the rational design of vaccines and drugs, as discussed in Chapter 12.