Identification of Transient Allosteric Cryptic Pockets in Human HMGB1 (PDB: 2YRQ) via High-Throughput Multiverse Conformational Sampling
Human High Mobility Group Box 1 (HMGB1, PDB: 2YRQ) is a critical proinflammatory cytokine and a pivotal downstream therapeutic target in neurodegenerative disorders, particularly within the circPTK2-HMGB1 regulatory axis in Parkinson's disease (PD). Despite its pathological significance, HMGB1 is conventionally considered "undruggable" due to the lack of static, deep active binding sites in its crystal/NMR structures. In this work, we employ the LSI Tool™, a novel high-throughput conformational sampling platform integrated with patented hardware-aware GPU acceleration algorithms, to explore the dynamic conformational ensemble of HMGB1 under physiological thermal fluctuations (310.15 K). Operating at an extraordinary sampling throughput exceeding 399,000+ Frames Per Second (FPS, where 1 FPS = 1 fs physical time propagation) on a single mid-range consumer-grade GPU, the engine achieved multi-nanosecond trajectory exploration across parallel Multiverse execution branches. Our dynamic ensemble analysis identified three highly converged, transient allosteric "cryptic pockets" (Sites A, B, and C) located at the tandem HMG-box domain interfaces. Spatial clustering revealed sub-Angstrom Euclidean centroid convergence (Δd < 0.2 Å) across independent Multiverse sampling runs. These transient pockets represent high-value druggable envelopes for small-molecule allosteric modulators aimed at blocking extracellular HMGB1-TLR4/RAGE signaling. This pre-print serves as a formal priority disclosure for the spatial coordinates, gating residues, and dynamic conformational snapshots of HMGB1 for targeted lead discovery.
Authors
- Tung-Hsiang Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-1469-9395)
Institutions
- Taipei Medical University (TW)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
- Published
- 2026-07-28
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21635617
- Primary Topic
- Advanced Glycation End Products research
- Type
- preprint