A Benchmark Study of Protein-Fragment Complex Structure Calculations with NMR2

Protein–fragment complex structures are particularly sought after in medicinal chemistry to rationally design lead molecules. These structures are usually derived using X-ray crystallography, but the failure rate is non-neglectable. NMR is a possible alternative for the calculation of weakly interacting complexes. Nevertheless, the time-consuming protein signal assignment step remains a barrier to its routine application. NMR Molecular Replacement (NMR ²) is a versatile and rapid method that enables the elucidation of a protein–ligand complex structure. It has been successfully applied to peptides, drug-like molecules, and more recently to fragments. Due to the small size of the fragments, ca < 300 Da, solving the structures of the protein–fragment complexes is particularly challenging. Here, we present the expected performances of NMR ² when applied to protein–fragment complexes. The NMR ² approach has been benchmarked with the SERAPhic fragment library to identify the technical challenges in protein–fragment NMR structure calculation. A straightforward strategy is proposed to increase the method’s success rate further. The presented work confirms that NMR ² is an alternative method to X-ray crystallography for solving protein–fragment complex structures.