Conformational structure of the MOG-derived peptide 101–108 in solution

One of the most important targets in the autoimmune attack in experimental autoimmune encephalomyielitis is the myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG). The complex with demyelinating 8-18C5 antibody was recently resolved by X-ray crystallography, showing a remarkable adhesion of the 101–108 MOG subsequence to the heavy chain of the autoantibody. In this study, we have determined, using replica exchange molecular dynamics methods, the structure of the MOG-derived peptide 101–108 in solution at ambient conditions. According to the simulation, the peptide exhibits, with significant probability, a distorted β-turn structure highly similar to that of the corresponding subsequence in the crystal in complex with 8-18C5 antibody. Such results are found to be fully consistent with circular dichroism spectra of the peptide in solution, suggesting the use of the MOG-derived 101–108 peptide as a potential lead compound for designing decoy targets for the autoimmune attack in multiple sclerosis.