Hydrogen bond analysis of the EGFR-ErbB3 heterodimer related to non-small cell lung cancer and drug resistance

Lung cancer is the predominant cause of cancer deaths on a worldwide scale. A mutation in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) can cause non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The L858R one-point mutation in exon 21 in EGFR is the most prevalent in NSCLC. For over 60% of EGFR-muted NSCLC, another mutation T790M can cause drug resistance. In this paper, we consider EGFR and ErbB3 heterodimers involving three structures of EGFR, wild-type, with L858R mutation, and with L858R and T790M mutations. We perform molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to analyze hydrogen bonds in all three instances. The hydrogen bonds contribute to the conformational stability of the protein and molecular recognition. Several other parameters are also investigated in the present study, which reveals significant changes in the dimer at different levels of mutation. The knowledge and results obtained from this study lead to useful insight into the mechanism of NSCLC drug resistance.