Prodrugs of fumarate esters for the treatment of psoriasis and multiple sclerosis—a computational approach

Computational repositioning of dimethyl fumarate for treating alcoholic liver disease

Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is a chronic alcohol-induced disorder of the liver for which there are few effective therapies for severe forms of ALD and for those who do not achieve alcohol abstinence. In this study, we used a systematic drug-repositioning bioinformatics approach querying a large compendium of gene-expression profiles to identify candidate U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)–approved drugs to treat ALD. One of the top compounds predicted to be therapeutic for ALD by our approach was dimethyl fumarate (DMF), an nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (NRF2) inducer. We experimentally validated DMF in liver cells and in vivo. Our work demonstrates that DMF is able to significantly upregulate the NRF2 protein level, increase NRF2 phosphorylation, and promote NRF2 nuclear localization in liver cells. DMF also reduced the reactive oxygen species (ROS) level, lipid peroxidation, and ferroptosis. Furthermore, DMF treatment could prevent ethanol-induced liver injury in ALD mice. Our results provide evidence that DMF might serve as a therapeutic option for ALD in humans, and support the use of computational repositioning to discover therapeutic options for ALD.

Computationally designed prodrugs of statins based on Kirby's enzyme model

DFT calculations at B3LYP/6-31G(d,p) for intramolecular proton transfer in Kirby's enzyme models 1-7 demonstrated that the reaction rate is dependent on the distance between the two reacting centers, rGM, and the hydrogen bonding angle, α, and the rate of the reaction is linearly correlated with rGM and α. Based on these calculation results three simvastatin prodrugs were designed with the potential to provide simvastatin with higher bioavailability. For example, based on the calculated log EM for the three proposed prodrugs, the interconversion of simvastatin prodrug ProD 3 to simvastatin is predicted to be about 10 times faster than that of either simvastatin prodrug ProD 1 or simvastatin ProD 2. Hence, the rate by which the prodrug releases the statin drug can be determined according to the structural features of the promoiety (Kirby's enzyme model).