Discovery of novel wee1 inhibitors via structure-based virtual screening and biological evaluation

Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry Approaches Toward WEE1 Kinase Inhibitors and Its Degraders

WEE1 is a checkpoint kinase critical for mitotic events, especially in cell maturation and DNA repair. Most cancer cells' progression and survival are linked with elevated levels of WEE1 kinase. Thus, WEE1 kinase has become a new promising druggable target. A few classes of WEE1 inhibitors are designed by rationale or structure-based techniques and optimization approaches to identify selective acting anticancer agents. The discovery of the WEE1 inhibitor AZD1775 further emphasized WEE1 as a promising anticancer target. Therefore, the current review provides a comprehensive data on medicinal chemistry, synthetic approaches, optimization methods, and the interaction profile of WEE1 kinase inhibitors. In addition, WEE1 PROTAC degraders and their synthetic procedures, including a list of noncoding RNAs necessary for regulation of WEE1, are also highlighted. From the standpoint of medicinal chemistry, the contents of this compilation serve as an exemplar for the further design, synthesis, and optimization of promising WEE1-targeted anticancer agents.

Discovery of novel inhibitors against main protease (Mpro) of SARS-CoV-2 via virtual screening and biochemical evaluation

SARS-CoV-2 is the pathogen that caused the global COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. Promising progress has been made in developing vaccines and antiviral drugs. Antivirals medicines are necessary complements of vaccines for post-infection treatment. The main protease (Mpro) is an extremely important protease in the reproduction process of coronaviruses which cleaves pp1ab over more than 11 cleavage sites. In this work, two active main protease inhibitors were found via docking-based virtual screening and bioassay. The IC₅₀ of compound VS10 was 0.20 μM, and the IC₅₀ of compound VS12 was 1.89 μM. The finding in this work can be helpful to understand the interactions of main protease and inhibitors. The active candidates could be potential lead compounds for future drug design.

Structure-activity relationships of Wee1 inhibitors: A review

Wee1 kinase plays an important role in regulating G2/M checkpoint and S phase, and the inhibition of it will lead to mitotic catastrophe in cancer cells with p53 mutation or deletion. Therefore, the mechanism of Wee1 kinase in cancer treatment and the development of its inhibitors have become a research hotspot. However, although a variety of Wee1 inhibitors with different scaffolds and considerable activity have been successfully identified, so far no one has systematically summarized the structure-activity relationships (SARs) of Wee1 inhibitors. Previous reviews mainly focused on its mechanism and clinical application. To facilitate the rational design and development of Wee1 inhibitors in the future, this paper systematically summarizes its structural types, SARs and binding modes according to the Wee1 inhibitors reported in scientific journals, and also summarizes the regulatory effect of Wee1 kinase on cell cycle and the progress of its inhibitors in clinical application.

Discovery of novel natural compound inhibitors targeting estrogen receptor α by an integrated virtual screening strategy

Estrogen receptor (ER) is a nuclear hormone receptor and plays an important role in mediating the cellular effects of estrogen. ER can be classified into two receptors: estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) and beta (ERβ), and the former is expressed in 50~80% of breast tumors and has been extensively investigated in breast cancer for decades. Excessive exposure to estrogen can obviously stimulate the growth of breast cancers primarily mediated by ERα, and thus anti-estrogen therapies by small molecules are of concern to clinicians and pharmaceutical industry in the treatment of ERα-positive breast cancers. Although a series of estrogen receptor modulators have been developed, these drugs can lead to resistance and side effects. Therefore, the development of small molecule inhibitors with high target specificity has been intensified. In this pursuit, an integrated computer-aided virtual screening technique, including molecular docking and pharmacophore model screening, was used to screen traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) databases. The compounds with high docking scores and fit values were subjected to ADME (adsorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion) and toxicity prediction, and ten hits were identified as potential inhibitors targeting ERα. Molecular docking was used to investigate the binding modes between ERα and three most potent hits, and molecular dynamic simulations were chosen to explore the stability of these complexes. The rank of the predicted binding free energies evaluated by MM/GBSA is consistent with the docking score. These novel scaffolds discovered in the present study can be used as critical starting point in the drug discovery process for treating ERα-positive breast cancer. Graphical abstract .

The compromise of virtual screening and its impact on drug discovery

Introduction: Docking and structure-based virtual screening (VS) have been standard approaches in structure-based design for over two decades. However, our understanding of the limitations, potential, and strength of these techniques has enhanced, raising expectations. Areas covered: Based on a survey of reports in the past five years, we assess whether VS: (1) predicts binding poses in agreement with crystallographic data (when available); (2) is a superior screening tool, as often claimed; (3) is successful in identifying chemical scaffolds that can be starting points for subsequent lead optimization cycles. Data shows that knowledge of the target and its chemotypes in postprocessing lead to viable hits in early drug discovery endeavors. Expert opinion: VS is capable of accurate placements in the pocket for the most part, but does not consistently score screening collections accurately. What matters is capitalization on available resources to get closer to a viable lead or optimizable series. Integration of approaches, subjective hit selection guided by knowledge of the receptor or endogenous ligand, libraries driven by experimental guides, validation studies to identify the best docking/scoring that reproduces experimental findings, constraints regarding receptor-ligand interactions, thoroughly designed methodologies, and predefined cutoff scoring criteria strengthen VS's position in pharmaceutical research.