Studying early structural changes in SOS1 mediated KRAS activation mechanism

KRAS activation is known to be modulated by a guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF), namely, Son of Sevenless1 (SOS1). SOS1 facilitates the exchange of GDP to GTP thereby leading to activation of KRAS. The binding of GDP/GTP to KRAS at the REM/allosteric site of SOS1 regulates the activation of KRAS at CDC25/ catalytic site by facilitating its exchange. Different aspects of the allosteric activation of KRAS through SOS1 are still being explored. To understand the SOS1 mediated activation of KRAS, molecular dynamics simulations for a total of nine SOS1 complexes (KRAS-SOS1-KRAS) were performed. These nine systems comprised different combinations of KRAS-bound nucleotides (GTP/GDP) at REM and CDC25 sites of SOS1. Various conformational and thermodynamic parameters were analyzed for these simulation systems. MMPBSA free energy analysis revealed that binding at CDC25 site of SOS1 was significantly low for GDP-bound KRAS as compared to that of GTP-bound KRAS. It was observed that presence of either GDP/GTP bound KRAS at the REM site of SOS1 affected the activation related changes in the KRAS present at CDC25 site. The conformational changes at the catalytic site of SOS1 resulting from GDP/GTP-bound KRAS at the allosteric changes may hint at KRAS activation through different pathways (slow/fast/rare). The allosteric effect on activation of KRAS at CDC25 site may be due to conformations adopted by switch-I, switch-II, beta2 regions of KRAS at REM site. The effect of structural rear-rangements occurring at allosteric KRAS may have led to increased interactions between SOS1 and KRAS at both the sites. The SOS1 residues involved in these important interactions with KRAS at the REM site were R694, S732 and K735. Whereas the ones interacting with KRAS at CDC25 site were S807, W809 and K814. This may suggest the crucial role of these residues in guiding the allosteric activation of KRAS at CDC25 site. The conformational shifts observed in the switch-I, switch-II and alpha3 regions of KRAS at CDC25 site may be attributed to be a part of allosteric activation. The binding affinities, interacting residues and conformational dynamics may provide an insight into development of inhibitors targeting the SOS1 mediated KRAS activation.