1
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Danilack AD, Dickson CJ, Soylu C, Fortunato M, Rodde S, Munkler H, Hornak V, Duca JS. Reactivities of acrylamide warheads toward cysteine targets: a QM/ML approach to covalent inhibitor design. J Comput Aided Mol Des 2024; 38:21. [PMID: 38693331 DOI: 10.1007/s10822-024-00560-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2023] [Accepted: 03/25/2024] [Indexed: 05/03/2024]
Abstract
Covalent inhibition offers many advantages over non-covalent inhibition, but covalent warhead reactivity must be carefully balanced to maintain potency while avoiding unwanted side effects. While warhead reactivities are commonly measured with assays, a computational model to predict warhead reactivities could be useful for several aspects of the covalent inhibitor design process. Studies have shown correlations between covalent warhead reactivities and quantum mechanic (QM) properties that describe important aspects of the covalent reaction mechanism. However, the models from these studies are often linear regression equations and can have limitations associated with their usage. Applications of machine learning (ML) models to predict covalent warhead reactivities with QM descriptors are not extensively seen in the literature. This study uses QM descriptors, calculated at different levels of theory, to train ML models to predict reactivities of covalent acrylamide warheads. The QM/ML models are compared with linear regression models built upon the same QM descriptors and with ML models trained on structure-based features like Morgan fingerprints and RDKit descriptors. Experiments show that the QM/ML models outperform the linear regression models and the structure-based ML models, and literature test sets demonstrate the power of the QM/ML models to predict reactivities of unseen acrylamide warhead scaffolds. Ultimately, these QM/ML models are effective, computationally feasible tools that can expedite the design of new covalent inhibitors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aaron D Danilack
- Biomedical Research, Novartis, 181 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
| | - Callum J Dickson
- Biomedical Research, Novartis, 181 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Cihan Soylu
- Biomedical Research, Novartis, 181 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Mike Fortunato
- Biomedical Research, Novartis, 181 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Stephane Rodde
- Biomedical Research, Novartis, Novartis Campus, 4056, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Hagen Munkler
- Technical Research & Development, Novartis Pharma AG, Novartis Campus, 4056, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Viktor Hornak
- Merck Research Laboratories, 33 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Jose S Duca
- Biomedical Research, Novartis, 181 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
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2
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Patel D, Huma ZE, Duncan D. Reversible Covalent Inhibition─Desired Covalent Adduct Formation by Mass Action. ACS Chem Biol 2024; 19:824-838. [PMID: 38567529 PMCID: PMC11040609 DOI: 10.1021/acschembio.3c00805] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2023] [Revised: 03/25/2024] [Accepted: 03/27/2024] [Indexed: 04/04/2024]
Abstract
Covalent inhibition has seen a resurgence in the last several years. Although long-plagued by concerns of off-target effects due to nonspecific reactions leading to covalent adducts, there has been success in developing covalent inhibitors, especially within the field of anticancer therapy. Covalent inhibitors can have an advantage over noncovalent inhibitors since the formation of a covalent adduct may serve as an additional mode of selectivity due to the intrinsic reactivity of the target protein that is absent in many other proteins. Unfortunately, many covalent inhibitors form irreversible adducts with off-target proteins, which can lead to considerable side-effects. By designing the inhibitor to form reversible covalent adducts, one can leverage competing on/off kinetics in complex formation by taking advantage of the law of mass action. Although covalent adducts do form with off-target proteins, the reversible nature of inhibition prevents accumulation of the off-target adduct, thus limiting side-effects. In this perspective, we outline important characteristics of reversible covalent inhibitors, including examples and a guide for inhibitor development.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Dustin Duncan
- Department of Chemistry, Brock
University, St. Catharines, Ontario L2S 3A1, Canada
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3
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Awoonor-Williams E, Abu-Saleh AAAA. Molecular Insights into the Impact of Mutations on the Binding Affinity of Targeted Covalent Inhibitors of BTK. J Phys Chem B 2024; 128:2874-2884. [PMID: 38502552 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.4c00310] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/21/2024]
Abstract
Targeted covalent inhibitors (TCIs) have witnessed a significant resurgence in recent years, particularly in the kinase drug discovery field for treating diverse clinical indications. The inhibition of Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) for treating B-cell cancers is a classic example where TCIs such as ibrutinib have had breakthroughs in targeted therapy. However, selectivity remains challenging, and the emergence of resistance mutations is a critical concern for clinical efficacy. Computational methods that can accurately predict the impact of mutations on inhibitor binding affinity could prove helpful in informing targeted approaches─providing insights into drug resistance mechanisms. In addition, such systems could help guide the systematic evaluation and impact of mutations in disease models for optimal experimental design. Here, we have employed in silico physics-based methods to understand the effects of mutations on the binding affinity and conformational dynamics of select TCIs of BTK. The TCIs studied include ibrutinib, acalabrutinib, and zanubrutinib─all of which are FDA-approved drugs for treating multiple forms of leukemia and lymphoma. Our results offer useful molecular insights into the structural determinants, thermodynamics, and conformational energies that impact ligand binding for this biological target of clinical relevance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ernest Awoonor-Williams
- Department of Chemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL A1B 3X7, Canada
| | - Abd Al-Aziz A Abu-Saleh
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada
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4
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Mehta NV, Degani MS. The expanding repertoire of covalent warheads for drug discovery. Drug Discov Today 2023; 28:103799. [PMID: 37839776 DOI: 10.1016/j.drudis.2023.103799] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2023] [Revised: 10/04/2023] [Accepted: 10/10/2023] [Indexed: 10/17/2023]
Abstract
The reactive functionalities of drugs that engage in covalent interactions with the enzyme/receptor residue in either a reversible or an irreversible manner are called 'warheads'. Covalent warheads that were previously neglected because of safety concerns have recently gained center stage as a result of their various advantages over noncovalent drugs, including increased selectivity, increased residence time, and higher potency. With the approval of several covalent inhibitors over the past decade, research in this area has accelerated. Various strategies are being continuously developed to tune the characteristics of warheads to improve their potency and mitigate toxicity. Here, we review research progress in warhead discovery over the past 5 years to provide valuable insights for future drug discovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Namrashee V Mehta
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technology, Institute of Chemical Technology, Nathalal Parekh Marg, Matunga, Mumbai 400019, Maharashtra, India.
| | - Mariam S Degani
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technology, Institute of Chemical Technology, Nathalal Parekh Marg, Matunga, Mumbai 400019, Maharashtra, India.
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5
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Gayatri SK, Chhabra V, Kumar H, Sobhia ME. Identification of prospective covalent inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2 main protease using structure-based approach. J Biomol Struct Dyn 2023; 41:7913-7930. [PMID: 36200615 DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2022.2129453] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2022] [Accepted: 09/16/2022] [Indexed: 10/10/2022]
Abstract
The rapid global spread of SARS-CoV-2 has recently caused havoc and forced the world into a state of the pandemic causing respiratory, gastrointestinal, hepatic, and neurologic diseases. It persistently, through mutation, develops into new variants of the virus that have appeared over time. As main protease (Mpro) is involved in proteolysis of two overlapping polyproteins pp1a and pp1ab to produce 16 non-structural proteins having a paramount factor in the virus replication that have a cysteine-histidine catalytic dyad. A computational approach, guiding a covalent docking as it offers higher potency, long duration of action and decreased drug resistance advantages over the conventional docking of the ligands on a catalytic dyad, is applied for SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) in this manuscript to divulge better molecules. Mpro active site contains Cys145 residue which act as a nucleophile and can donate its electron to an electrophilic molecule by interacting covalently. Furthermore, the ligand-protein complexes are allowed to simulate their dynamic studies to look into their time-based interaction stability and also, a parallel study of ADME properties for the hit molecules is also performed. Important insights from the studies revealed that the interactions are persistent and molecules may be considered for further optimization in clinical investigation.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shenvi Kudchadker Gayatri
- Department of Pharmacoinformatics, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Mohali, Punjab, India
| | - Vaishnavi Chhabra
- Department of Pharmacoinformatics, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Mohali, Punjab, India
| | - Harish Kumar
- Department of Pharmacoinformatics, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Mohali, Punjab, India
| | - M Elizabeth Sobhia
- Department of Pharmacoinformatics, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Mohali, Punjab, India
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6
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Arafet K, Royo S, Schirmeister T, Barthels F, González FV, Moliner V. Impact of the Recognition Part of Dipeptidyl Nitroalkene Compounds on the Inhibition Mechanism of Cysteine Proteases Cruzain and Cathepsin L. ACS Catal 2023; 13:6289-6300. [PMID: 37180968 PMCID: PMC10167892 DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.3c01035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2023] [Revised: 04/10/2023] [Indexed: 05/16/2023]
Abstract
Cysteine proteases (CPs) are an important class of enzymes, many of which are responsible for several human diseases. For instance, cruzain of protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi is responsible for the Chagas disease, while the role of human cathepsin L is associated with some cancers or is a potential target for the treatment of COVID-19. However, despite paramount work carried out during the past years, the compounds that have been proposed so far show limited inhibitory action against these enzymes. We present a study of proposed covalent inhibitors of these two CPs, cruzain and cathepsin L, based on the design, synthesis, kinetic measurements, and QM/MM computational simulations on dipeptidyl nitroalkene compounds. The experimentally determined inhibition data, together with the analysis and the predicted inhibition constants derived from the free energy landscape of the full inhibition process, allowed describing the impact of the recognition part of these compounds and, in particular, the modifications on the P2 site. The designed compounds and, in particular, the one with a bulky group (Trp) at the P2 site show promising in vitro inhibition activities against cruzain and cathepsin L for use as a starting lead compound in the development of drugs with medical applications for the treatment of human diseases and future designs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kemel Arafet
- Dipartimento
di Scienze degli Alimenti e del Farmaco, Università degli Studi di Parma, 43124 Parma, Italy
- BioComp
Group, Institute of Advanced Materials (INAM),
Universitat Jaume I, 12071 Castelló, Spain
| | - Santiago Royo
- Departament
de Química Inorgànica i Orgànica, Universitat Jaume I, 12071 Castelló, Spain
| | - Tanja Schirmeister
- Institute
of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, 55128 Mainz, Germany
| | - Fabian Barthels
- Institute
of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, 55128 Mainz, Germany
| | - Florenci V. González
- Departament
de Química Inorgànica i Orgànica, Universitat Jaume I, 12071 Castelló, Spain
| | - Vicent Moliner
- BioComp
Group, Institute of Advanced Materials (INAM),
Universitat Jaume I, 12071 Castelló, Spain
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7
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Awoonor-Williams E, Golosov AA, Hornak V. Benchmarking In Silico Tools for Cysteine p Ka Prediction. J Chem Inf Model 2023; 63:2170-2180. [PMID: 36996330 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.3c00004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/01/2023]
Abstract
Accurate estimation of the pKa's of cysteine residues in proteins could inform targeted approaches in hit discovery. The pKa of a targetable cysteine residue in a disease-related protein is an important physiochemical parameter in covalent drug discovery, as it influences the fraction of nucleophilic thiolate amenable to chemical protein modification. Traditional structure-based in silico tools are limited in their predictive accuracy of cysteine pKa's relative to other titratable residues. Additionally, there are limited comprehensive benchmark assessments for cysteine pKa predictive tools. This raises the need for extensive assessment and evaluation of methods for cysteine pKa prediction. Here, we report the performance of several computational pKa methods, including single-structure and ensemble-based approaches, on a diverse test set of experimental cysteine pKa's retrieved from the PKAD database. The dataset consisted of 16 wildtype and 10 mutant proteins with experimentally measured cysteine pKa values. Our results highlight that these methods are varied in their overall predictive accuracies. Among the test set of wildtype proteins evaluated, the best method (MOE) yielded a mean absolute error of 2.3 pK units, highlighting the need for improvement of existing pKa methods for accurate cysteine pKa estimation. Given the limited accuracy of these methods, further development is needed before these approaches can be routinely employed to drive design decisions in early drug discovery efforts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ernest Awoonor-Williams
- Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, 181 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Andrei A Golosov
- Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, 181 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Viktor Hornak
- Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, 181 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
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8
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Bonatto V, Lameiro RF, Rocho FR, Lameira J, Leitão A, Montanari CA. Nitriles: an attractive approach to the development of covalent inhibitors. RSC Med Chem 2023; 14:201-217. [PMID: 36846367 PMCID: PMC9945868 DOI: 10.1039/d2md00204c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2022] [Accepted: 10/31/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Nitriles have broad applications in medicinal chemistry, with more than 60 small molecule drugs on the market containing the cyano functional group. In addition to the well-known noncovalent interactions that nitriles can perform with macromolecular targets, they are also known to improve drug candidates' pharmacokinetic profiles. Moreover, the cyano group can be used as an electrophilic warhead to covalently bind an inhibitor to a target of interest, forming a covalent adduct, a strategy that can present benefits over noncovalent inhibitors. This approach has gained much notoriety in recent years, mainly with diabetes and COVID-19-approved drugs. Nevertheless, the application of nitriles in covalent ligands is not restricted to it being the reactive center, as it can also be employed to convert irreversible inhibitors into reversible ones, a promising strategy for kinase inhibition and protein degradation. In this review, we introduce and discuss the roles of the cyano group in covalent inhibitors, how to tune its reactivity and the possibility of achieving selectivity only by replacing the warhead. Finally, we provide an overview of nitrile-based covalent compounds in approved drugs and inhibitors recently described in the literature.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vinícius Bonatto
- Medicinal and Biological Chemistry Group, São Carlos Institute of Chemistry, University of São Paulo Avenue Trabalhador Sancarlense, 400 13566-590 São Carlos/SP Brazil
| | - Rafael F Lameiro
- Medicinal and Biological Chemistry Group, São Carlos Institute of Chemistry, University of São Paulo Avenue Trabalhador Sancarlense, 400 13566-590 São Carlos/SP Brazil
| | - Fernanda R Rocho
- Medicinal and Biological Chemistry Group, São Carlos Institute of Chemistry, University of São Paulo Avenue Trabalhador Sancarlense, 400 13566-590 São Carlos/SP Brazil
| | - Jerônimo Lameira
- Medicinal and Biological Chemistry Group, São Carlos Institute of Chemistry, University of São Paulo Avenue Trabalhador Sancarlense, 400 13566-590 São Carlos/SP Brazil
- Institute of Biological Science, Federal University of Pará Rua Augusto Correa S/N Belém PA Brazil
| | - Andrei Leitão
- Medicinal and Biological Chemistry Group, São Carlos Institute of Chemistry, University of São Paulo Avenue Trabalhador Sancarlense, 400 13566-590 São Carlos/SP Brazil
| | - Carlos A Montanari
- Medicinal and Biological Chemistry Group, São Carlos Institute of Chemistry, University of São Paulo Avenue Trabalhador Sancarlense, 400 13566-590 São Carlos/SP Brazil
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9
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Pseudo-irreversible butyrylcholinesterase inhibitors: Structure-activity relationships, computational and crystallographic study of the N-dialkyl O-arylcarbamate warhead. Eur J Med Chem 2023; 247:115048. [PMID: 36586299 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2022.115048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2022] [Revised: 12/21/2022] [Accepted: 12/21/2022] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Alongside reversible butyrylcholinesterase inhibitors, a plethora of covalent butyrylcholinesterase inhibitors have been reported in the literature, typically pseudo-irreversible carbamates. For these latter, however, most cases lack full confirmation of their covalent mode of action. Additionally, the available reports regarding the structure-activity relationships of the O-arylcarbamate warhead are incomplete. Therefore, a follow-up on a series of pseudo-irreversible covalent carbamate human butyrylcholinesterase inhibitors and the structure-activity relationships of the N-dialkyl O-arylcarbamate warhead are presented in this study. The covalent mechanism of binding was tested by IC50 time-dependency profiles, and sequentially and increasingly confirmed by kinetic analysis, whole protein LC-MS, and crystallographic analysis. Computational studies provided valuable insights into steric constraints and identified problematic, bulky carbamate warheads that cannot reach and carbamoylate the catalytic Ser198. Quantum mechanical calculations provided further evidence that steric effects appear to be a key factor in determining the covalent binding behaviour of these carbamate cholinesterase inhibitors and their duration of action. Additionally, the introduction of a clickable terminal alkyne moiety into one of the carbamate N-substituents and in situ derivatisation with azide-containing fluorophore enabled fluorescent labelling of plasma human butyrylcholinesterase. This proof-of-concept study highlights the potential of this novel approach and for these compounds to be further developed as clickable molecular probes for investigating tissue localisation and activity of cholinesterases.
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10
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Mohapatra PK, Chopdar KS, Dash GC, Mohanty AK, Raval MK. In silico screening and covalent binding of phytochemicals of Ocimum sanctum against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID 19) main protease. J Biomol Struct Dyn 2023; 41:435-444. [PMID: 34821198 DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2021.2007170] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has compelled the scientific community to search for an effective drug that can cure or a vaccine that can prevent the disease. Alternatively, symptomatic treatment and traditional immunity boosters are prescribed. Holy Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) has been known as an ancient remedy for cure of common cold and respiratory ailment. Several reports have come on virtual screening of phytochemicals including those of Tulsi against various enzymes of the virus. We undertook in silico analysis of the ethanol extracted phytochemicals of Tulsi as inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 (2019-nCoV) main protease with an approach to look into the possibility of covalent ligand binding with the catalytic residue Cys145, which makes the report unique. The results suggest that the flavonoids and polyphenolic compounds of Tulsi, have potential to covalently bind to the catalytic residue Cys145 of main protease and irreversibly inhibit the viral enzyme. Luteolin-7-O-glucuronide is specially considered for its optimum properties, namely, low toxicity (LD50 5000 mg/kg body weight), high drug-likeness score (0.71), the active site binding free energy (ΔGbind) -19.19 kcal/mol by GBSA method and covalent binding energy -24.23 kcal/mol. Further experimental validations are required to establish the theoretical findings.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Abhay Kumar Mohanty
- AI/ML Centre of Excellence, Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, CV Raman Global University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
| | - Mukesh Kumar Raval
- School of Chemistry, Gangadhar Meher University, Sambalpur, Odisha, India
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11
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McAulay K, Bilsland A, Bon M. Reactivity of Covalent Fragments and Their Role in Fragment Based Drug Discovery. Pharmaceuticals (Basel) 2022; 15:1366. [PMID: 36355538 PMCID: PMC9694498 DOI: 10.3390/ph15111366] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2022] [Revised: 10/30/2022] [Accepted: 11/04/2022] [Indexed: 09/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Fragment based drug discovery has long been used for the identification of new ligands and interest in targeted covalent inhibitors has continued to grow in recent years, with high profile drugs such as osimertinib and sotorasib gaining FDA approval. It is therefore unsurprising that covalent fragment-based approaches have become popular and have recently led to the identification of novel targets and binding sites, as well as ligands for targets previously thought to be 'undruggable'. Understanding the properties of such covalent fragments is important, and characterizing and/or predicting reactivity can be highly useful. This review aims to discuss the requirements for an electrophilic fragment library and the importance of differing warhead reactivity. Successful case studies from the world of drug discovery are then be examined.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kirsten McAulay
- Cancer Research Horizons—Therapeutic Innovation, Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute, Garscube Estate, Switchback Road, Glasgow G61 1BD, UK
- Centre for Targeted Protein Degradation, University of Dundee, Nethergate, Dundee DD1 4HN, UK
| | - Alan Bilsland
- Cancer Research Horizons—Therapeutic Innovation, Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute, Garscube Estate, Switchback Road, Glasgow G61 1BD, UK
| | - Marta Bon
- Cancer Research Horizons—Therapeutic Innovation, Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute, Garscube Estate, Switchback Road, Glasgow G61 1BD, UK
- Exscientia, The Schrödinger Building, Oxford Science Park, Oxford OX4 4GE, UK
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12
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La Monica G, Bono A, Lauria A, Martorana A. Targeting SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease for Treatment of COVID-19: Covalent Inhibitors Structure-Activity Relationship Insights and Evolution Perspectives. J Med Chem 2022; 65:12500-12534. [PMID: 36169610 PMCID: PMC9528073 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.2c01005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 24.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
The viral main protease is one of the most attractive targets among all key enzymes involved in the SARS-CoV-2 life cycle. Covalent inhibition of the cysteine145 of SARS-CoV-2 MPRO with selective antiviral drugs will arrest the replication process of the virus without affecting human catalytic pathways. In this Perspective, we analyzed the in silico, in vitro, and in vivo data of the most representative examples of covalent SARS-CoV-2 MPRO inhibitors reported in the literature to date. In particular, the studied molecules were classified into eight different categories according to their reactive electrophilic warheads, highlighting the differences between their reversible/irreversible mechanism of inhibition. Furthermore, the analyses of the most recurrent pharmacophoric moieties and stereochemistry of chiral carbons were reported. The analyses of noncovalent and covalent in silico protocols, provided in this Perspective, would be useful for the scientific community to discover new and more efficient covalent SARS-CoV-2 MPRO inhibitors.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Antonino Lauria
- Dipartimento di Scienze e
Tecnologie Biologiche Chimiche e Farmaceutiche, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Ed. 17, I-90128 Palermo, Italy
| | - Annamaria Martorana
- Dipartimento di Scienze e
Tecnologie Biologiche Chimiche e Farmaceutiche, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Ed. 17, I-90128 Palermo, Italy
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13
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Awoonor-Williams E. Estimating the binding energetics of reversible covalent inhibitors of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease: an in silico study. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2022; 24:23391-23401. [PMID: 36128834 DOI: 10.1039/d2cp03080b] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
The main protease (Mpro) of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is an attractive therapeutic target for developing antivirals to combat COVID-19. Mpro is essential for the replication cycle of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, so inhibiting Mpro blocks a vital piece of the cell replication machinery of the virus. A promising strategy to disrupt the viral replication cycle is to design inhibitors that bind to the active site cysteine (Cys145) of the Mpro. Cysteine targeted covalent inhibitors are gaining traction in drug discovery owing to the benefits of improved potency and extended drug-target engagement. An interesting aspect of these inhibitors is that they can be chemically tuned to form a covalent, but reversible bond, with their targets of interest. Several small-molecule cysteine-targeting covalent inhibitors of the Mpro have been discovered-some of which are currently undergoing evaluation in early phase human clinical trials. Understanding the binding energetics of these inhibitors could provide new insights to facilitate the design of potential drug candidates against COVID-19. Motivated by this, we employed rigorous absolute binding free energy calculations and hybrid quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) calculations to estimate the energetics of binding of some promising reversible covalent inhibitors of the Mpro. We find that the inclusion of enhanced sampling techniques such as replica-exchange algorithm in binding free energy calculations can improve the convergence of predicted non-covalent binding free energy estimates of inhibitors binding to the Mpro target. In addition, our results indicate that binding free energy calculations coupled with multiscale simulations can be a useful approach to employ in ranking covalent inhibitors to their targets. This approach may be valuable in prioritizing and refining covalent inhibitor compounds for lead discovery efforts against COVID-19 and other coronavirus infections.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ernest Awoonor-Williams
- Department of Chemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, A1B 3X9, Canada.
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14
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Horton JR, Pathuri S, Wong K, Ren R, Rueda L, Fosbenner DT, Heerding DA, McCabe MT, Pappalardi MB, Zhang X, King BW, Cheng X. Structural characterization of dicyanopyridine containing DNMT1-selective, non-nucleoside inhibitors. Structure 2022; 30:793-802.e5. [PMID: 35395178 PMCID: PMC9177618 DOI: 10.1016/j.str.2022.03.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2022] [Revised: 02/24/2022] [Accepted: 03/11/2022] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
DNMT1 maintains the parental DNA methylation pattern on newly replicated hemimethylated DNA. The failure of this maintenance process causes aberrant DNA methylation that affects transcription and contributes to the development and progression of cancers such as acute myeloid leukemia. Here, we structurally characterized a set of newly discovered DNMT1-selective, reversible, non-nucleoside inhibitors that bear a core 3,5-dicyanopyridine moiety, as exemplified by GSK3735967, to better understand their mechanism of inhibition. All of the dicyanopydridine-containing inhibitors examined intercalate into the hemimethylated DNA between two CpG base pairs through the DNA minor groove, resulting in conformational movement of the DNMT1 active-site loop. In addition, GSK3735967 introduces two new binding sites, where it interacts with and stabilizes the displaced DNMT1 active-site loop and it occupies an open aromatic cage in which trimethylated histone H4 lysine 20 is expected to bind. Our work represents a substantial step in generating potent, selective, and non-nucleoside inhibitors of DNMT1.
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Affiliation(s)
- John R Horton
- Department of Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Sarath Pathuri
- Department of Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Kristen Wong
- Cancer Epigenetics Research Unit, Oncology, GlaxoSmithKline, Collegeville, PA 19426, USA
| | - Ren Ren
- Department of Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Lourdes Rueda
- Cancer Epigenetics Research Unit, Oncology, GlaxoSmithKline, Collegeville, PA 19426, USA
| | - David T Fosbenner
- Cancer Epigenetics Research Unit, Oncology, GlaxoSmithKline, Collegeville, PA 19426, USA
| | - Dirk A Heerding
- Cancer Epigenetics Research Unit, Oncology, GlaxoSmithKline, Collegeville, PA 19426, USA
| | - Michael T McCabe
- Cancer Epigenetics Research Unit, Oncology, GlaxoSmithKline, Collegeville, PA 19426, USA
| | - Melissa B Pappalardi
- Cancer Epigenetics Research Unit, Oncology, GlaxoSmithKline, Collegeville, PA 19426, USA
| | - Xing Zhang
- Department of Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Bryan W King
- Cancer Epigenetics Research Unit, Oncology, GlaxoSmithKline, Collegeville, PA 19426, USA.
| | - Xiaodong Cheng
- Department of Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
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15
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Ezebuo FC, Uzochukwu IC. Drug repurposing for schistosomiasis: molecular docking and dynamics investigations. J Biomol Struct Dyn 2022; 40:995-1009. [DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2020.1820382] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Fortunatus C. Ezebuo
- Department of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria
| | - Ikemefuna C. Uzochukwu
- Department of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria
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16
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Stein A, Hilken née Thomopoulou P, Frias C, Hopff SM, Varela P, Wilke N, Mariappan A, Neudörfl JM, Fedorov AY, Gopalakrishnan J, Gigant B, Prokop A, Schmalz HG. B-nor-methylene Colchicinoid PT-100 Selectively Induces Apoptosis in Multidrug-Resistant Human Cancer Cells via an Intrinsic Pathway in a Caspase-Independent Manner. ACS OMEGA 2022; 7:2591-2603. [PMID: 35097257 PMCID: PMC8792921 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.1c04659] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2021] [Accepted: 12/31/2021] [Indexed: 05/14/2023]
Abstract
Colchicine, the main active alkaloid from Colchicum autumnale L., is a potent tubulin binder and represents an interesting lead structure for the development of potential anticancer chemotherapeutics. We report on the synthesis and investigation of potentially reactive colchicinoids and their surprising biological activities. In particular, the previously undescribed colchicinoid PT-100, a B-ring contracted 6-exo-methylene colchicinoid, exhibits extraordinarily high antiproliferative and apoptosis-inducing effects on various types of cancer cell lines like acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Nalm6), acute myeloid leukemia (HL-60), Burkitt-like lymphoma (BJAB), human melanoma (MelHO), and human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF7) cells at low nanomolar concentrations. Apoptosis induction proved to be especially high in multidrug-resistant Nalm6-derived cancer cell lines, while healthy human leukocytes and hepatocytes were not affected by the concentration range studied. Furthermore, caspase-independent initiation of apoptosis via an intrinsic pathway was observed. PT-100 also shows strong synergistic effects in combination with vincristine on BJAB and Nalm6 cells. Cocrystallization of PT-100 with tubulin dimers revealed its (noncovalent) binding to the colchicine-binding site of β-tubulin at the interface to the α-subunit. A pronounced effect of PT-100 on the cytoskeleton morphology was shown by fluorescence microscopy. While the reactivity of PT-100 as a weak Michael acceptor toward thiols was chemically proven, it remains unclear whether this contributes to the remarkable biological properties of this unusual colchicinoid.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andreas Stein
- Department
of Chemistry, University of Cologne, 50939 Cologne, Germany
| | | | - Corazon Frias
- Department
of Paediatric Oncology, Children’s
Hospital Cologne, 50735 Cologne, Germany
| | - Sina M. Hopff
- Department
of Paediatric Oncology, Children’s
Hospital Cologne, 50735 Cologne, Germany
| | - Paloma Varela
- Université
Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, Institute for Integrative Biology of the
Cell (I2BC), 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette cedex, France
| | - Nicola Wilke
- Department
of Paediatric Oncology, Children’s
Hospital Cologne, 50735 Cologne, Germany
| | - Arul Mariappan
- Laboratory
for Centrosome and Cytoskeleton Biology, Institute of Human Genetics, Heinrich-Heine-University, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
| | | | - Alexey Yu Fedorov
- Department
of Organic Chemistry, N.I. Lobachevsky State
University of Nizhny Novgorod, 603950 Nizhny Novgorod, Russian
Federation
| | - Jay Gopalakrishnan
- Laboratory
for Centrosome and Cytoskeleton Biology, Institute of Human Genetics, Heinrich-Heine-University, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Benoît Gigant
- Université
Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, Institute for Integrative Biology of the
Cell (I2BC), 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette cedex, France
| | - Aram Prokop
- Department
of Paediatric Oncology, Children’s
Hospital Cologne, 50735 Cologne, Germany
- Department
of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Helios
Clinic Schwerin, 19055 Schwerin, Germany
- MSH
Medical School Hamburg, Am Kaiserkai 1, 20457 Hamburg, Germany
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17
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Abstract
Covalent drugs offer higher efficacy and longer duration of action than their noncovalent counterparts. Significant advances in computational methods for modeling covalent drugs are poised to shift the paradigm of small molecule therapeutics within the next decade. This viewpoint discusses the advantages of a two-state model for ranking reversible and irreversible covalent ligands and of more complex models for dissecting reaction mechanisms. The relation between these models highlights the complexity and diversity of covalent drug binding and provides opportunities for mechanism-based rational design.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yun Lyna Luo
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona, California 91709, United States
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18
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Awoonor-Williams E, Rowley CN. Modeling the Binding and Conformational Energetics of a Targeted Covalent Inhibitor to Bruton's Tyrosine Kinase. J Chem Inf Model 2021; 61:5234-5242. [PMID: 34590480 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.1c00897] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Targeted covalent inhibitors (TCIs) bind to their targets in both covalent and noncovalent modes, providing exceptionally high affinity and selectivity. These inhibitors have been effectively employed as inhibitors of protein kinases, with Taunton and coworkers (Nat. Chem. Biol. 2015, 11, 525-531) reporting a notable example of a TCI with a cyanoacrylamide warhead that forms a covalent thioether linkage to an active-site cysteine (Cys481) of Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK). The specific mechanism of the binding and the relative importance of the covalent and noncovalent interactions is difficult to determine experimentally, and established simulation methods for calculating the absolute binding affinity of an inhibitor cannot describe the covalent bond-forming steps. Here, an integrated approach using alchemical free-energy perturbation and QM/MM molecular dynamics methods was employed to model the complete Gibbs energy profile for the covalent inhibition of BTK by a cyanoacrylamide TCI. These calculations provide a rigorous and complete absolute Gibbs energy profile of the covalent modification binding process. Following a classic thiol-Michael addition mechanism, the target cysteine is deprotonated to form a nucleophilic thiolate, which then undergoes a facile conjugate addition to the electrophilic functional group to form a bond with the noncovalently bound ligand. This model predicts that the formation of the covalent linkage is highly exergonic relative to the noncovalent binding alone. Nevertheless, noncovalent interactions between the ligand and individual amino acid residues in the binding pocket of the enzyme are also essential for ligand binding, particularly van der Waals dispersion forces, which have a larger contribution to the binding energy than the covalent component in absolute terms. This model also shows that the mechanism of covalent modification of a protein occurs through a complex series of steps and that entropy, conformational flexibility, noncovalent interactions, and the formation of covalent linkage are all significant factors in the ultimate binding affinity of a covalent drug to its target.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ernest Awoonor-Williams
- Department of Chemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland A1B 3X9, Canada
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19
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Silva LR, Guimarães AS, do Nascimento J, do Santos Nascimento IJ, da Silva EB, McKerrow JH, Cardoso SH, da Silva-Júnior EF. Computer-aided design of 1,4-naphthoquinone-based inhibitors targeting cruzain and rhodesain cysteine proteases. Bioorg Med Chem 2021; 41:116213. [PMID: 33992862 DOI: 10.1016/j.bmc.2021.116213] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2021] [Revised: 04/23/2021] [Accepted: 05/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
Chagas disease and Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) are caused by Trypanosoma cruzi and T. brucei parasites, respectively. Cruzain (CRZ) and Rhodesain (RhD) are cysteine proteases that share 70% of identity and play vital functions in these parasites. These macromolecules represent promising targets for designing new inhibitors. In this context, 26 CRZ and 5 RhD 3D-structures were evaluated by molecular redocking to identify the most accurate one to be utilized as a target. Posteriorly, a virtual screening of a library containing 120 small natural and nature-based compounds was performed on both of them. In total, 14 naphthoquinone-based analogs were identified, synthesized, and biologically evaluated. In total, five compounds were active against RhD, being three of them also active on CRZ. A derivative of 1,4-naphthoquinonepyridin-2-ylsulfonamide was found to be the most active molecule, exhibiting IC50 values of 6.3 and 1.8 µM for CRZ and RhD, respectively. Dynamic simulations at 100 ns demonstrated good stability and do not alter the targets' structures. MM-PBSA calculations revealed that it presents a higher affinity for RhD (-25.3 Kcal mol-1) than CRZ, in which van der Waals interactions were more relevant. A mechanistic hypothesis (via C3-Michael-addition reaction) involving a covalent mode of inhibition for this compound towards RhD was investigated by covalent molecular docking and DFT B3LYP/6-31 + G* calculations, exhibiting a low activation energy (ΔG‡) and providing a stable product (ΔG), with values of 7.78 and - 39.72 Kcal mol-1, respectively; similar to data found in the literature. Nevertheless, a reversibility assay by dilution revealed that JN-11 is a time-dependent and reversible inhibitor. Finally, this study applies modern computer-aided techniques to identify promising inhibitors from a well-known chemical class of natural products. Then, this work could inspire other future studies in the field, being useful for designing potent naphthoquinones as RhD inhibitors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leandro Rocha Silva
- Chemistry and Biotechnology Institute, Federal University of Alagoas, Campus A.C. Simões, Lourival Melo Mota Avenue, Maceió 57072-970, Brazil; Laboratory of Organic and Medicinal Synthesis, Federal University of Alagoas, Campus Arapiraca, Manoel Severino Barbosa Avenue, Arapiraca 57309-005, Brazil
| | - Ari Souza Guimarães
- Chemistry and Biotechnology Institute, Federal University of Alagoas, Campus A.C. Simões, Lourival Melo Mota Avenue, Maceió 57072-970, Brazil; Laboratory of Organic and Medicinal Synthesis, Federal University of Alagoas, Campus Arapiraca, Manoel Severino Barbosa Avenue, Arapiraca 57309-005, Brazil
| | - Jadiely do Nascimento
- Laboratory of Organic and Medicinal Synthesis, Federal University of Alagoas, Campus Arapiraca, Manoel Severino Barbosa Avenue, Arapiraca 57309-005, Brazil
| | - Igor José do Santos Nascimento
- Chemistry and Biotechnology Institute, Federal University of Alagoas, Campus A.C. Simões, Lourival Melo Mota Avenue, Maceió 57072-970, Brazil
| | - Elany Barbosa da Silva
- Center for Discovery and Innovation in Parasitic Diseases, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - James H McKerrow
- Center for Discovery and Innovation in Parasitic Diseases, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Sílvia Helena Cardoso
- Laboratory of Organic and Medicinal Synthesis, Federal University of Alagoas, Campus Arapiraca, Manoel Severino Barbosa Avenue, Arapiraca 57309-005, Brazil
| | - Edeildo Ferreira da Silva-Júnior
- Chemistry and Biotechnology Institute, Federal University of Alagoas, Campus A.C. Simões, Lourival Melo Mota Avenue, Maceió 57072-970, Brazil.
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20
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Zanetti-Polzi L, Smith MD, Chipot C, Gumbart JC, Lynch DL, Pavlova A, Smith JC, Daidone I. Tuning Proton Transfer Thermodynamics in SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease: Implications for Catalysis and Inhibitor Design. J Phys Chem Lett 2021; 12:4195-4202. [PMID: 33900080 PMCID: PMC8097931 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c00425] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2021] [Accepted: 04/21/2021] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
The catalytic reaction in SARS-CoV-2 main protease is activated by a proton transfer (PT) from Cys145 to His41. The same PT is likely also required for the covalent binding of some inhibitors. Here we use a multiscale computational approach to investigate the PT thermodynamics in the apo enzyme and in complex with two potent inhibitors, N3 and the α-ketoamide 13b. We show that with the inhibitors the free energy cost to reach the charge-separated state of the active-site dyad is lower, with N3 inducing the most significant reduction. We also show that a few key sites (including specific water molecules) significantly enhance or reduce the thermodynamic feasibility of the PT reaction, with selective desolvation of the active site playing a crucial role. The approach presented is a cost-effective procedure to identify the enzyme regions that control the activation of the catalytic reaction and is thus also useful to guide the design of inhibitors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Zanetti-Polzi
- Center
S3, CNR Institute of Nanoscience, Via Campi 213/A, I-41125 Modena, Italy
| | - Micholas Dean Smith
- Department
of Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular Biology, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 309 Ken and Blaire Mossman Bldg., 1311 Cumberland
Avenue, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, United States
| | - Chris Chipot
- UMR 7019, Université de Lorraine, Laboratoire
International Associé CNRS, 54506 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France
- University
of Illinois at Urbana−Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
| | - James C. Gumbart
- School
of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia 30332, United States
| | - Diane L. Lynch
- School
of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia 30332, United States
| | - Anna Pavlova
- School
of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia 30332, United States
| | - Jeremy C. Smith
- Department
of Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular Biology, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 309 Ken and Blaire Mossman Bldg., 1311 Cumberland
Avenue, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, United States
- UT/ORNL
Center for Molecular Biophysics, Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, United States
| | - Isabella Daidone
- Department
of Physical and Chemical Sciences, University
of L’Aquila, Via
Vetoio, I-67010 L’Aquila, Italy
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21
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Awoonor-Williams E, Abu-Saleh AAAA. Covalent and non-covalent binding free energy calculations for peptidomimetic inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 main protease. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2021; 23:6746-6757. [PMID: 33711090 DOI: 10.1039/d1cp00266j] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/18/2023]
Abstract
COVID-19, the disease caused by the newly discovered coronavirus-SARS-CoV-2, has created a global health, social, and economic crisis. As of mid-January 2021, there are over 90 million confirmed cases and more than 2 million reported deaths due to COVID-19. Currently, there are very limited therapeutics for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19. For this reason, it is important to find drug targets that will lead to the development of safe and effective therapeutics against the disease. The main protease (Mpro) of the virus is an attractive target for the development of effective antiviral therapeutics because it is required for proteolytic cleavage of viral polyproteins. Furthermore, the Mpro has no human homologues, so drugs designed to bind to this target directly have less risk for off-target effects. Recently, several high-resolution crystallographic structures of the Mpro in complex with inhibitors have been determined-to guide drug development and to spur efforts in structure-based drug design. One of the primary objectives of modern structure-based drug design is the accurate prediction of receptor-ligand binding affinities for rational drug design and discovery. Here, we perform rigorous alchemical absolute binding free energy calculations and QM/MM calculations to give insight into the total binding energy of two recently crystallized inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro, namely, N3 and α-ketoamide 13b. The total binding energy consists of both covalent and non-covalent binding components since both compounds are covalent inhibitors of the Mpro. Our results indicate that the covalent and non-covalent binding free energy contributions of both inhibitors to the Mpro target differ significantly. The N3 inhibitor has more favourable non-covalent interactions, particularly hydrogen bonding, in the binding site of the Mpro than the α-ketoamide inhibitor. Also, the Gibbs energy of reaction for the Mpro-N3 covalent adduct is greater than the Gibbs reaction energy for the Mpro-α-ketoamide covalent adduct. These differences in the covalent and non-covalent binding free energy contributions for both inhibitors could be a plausible explanation for their in vitro differences in antiviral activity. Our findings are consistent with the reversible and irreversible character of both inhibitors as reported by experiment and highlight the importance of both covalent and non-covalent binding free energy contributions to the absolute binding affinity of a covalent inhibitor towards its target. This information could prove useful in the rational design, discovery, and evaluation of potent SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibitors for targeted antiviral therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ernest Awoonor-Williams
- Department of Chemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL A1B 3X9, Canada.
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22
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Voice AT, Tresadern G, Twidale RM, van Vlijmen H, Mulholland AJ. Mechanism of covalent binding of ibrutinib to Bruton's tyrosine kinase revealed by QM/MM calculations. Chem Sci 2021; 12:5511-5516. [PMID: 33995994 PMCID: PMC8097726 DOI: 10.1039/d0sc06122k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Ibrutinib is the first covalent inhibitor of Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) to be used in the treatment of B-cell cancers. Understanding the mechanism of covalent inhibition will aid in the design of safer and more selective covalent inhibitors that target BTK. The mechanism of covalent inhibition in BTK has been uncertain because there is no appropriate residue nearby that can act as a base to deprotonate the cysteine thiol prior to covalent bond formation. We investigate several mechanisms of covalent modification of C481 in BTK by ibrutinib using combined quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) molecular dynamics reaction simulations. The lowest energy pathway involves direct proton transfer from C481 to the acrylamide warhead in ibrutinib, followed by covalent bond formation to form an enol intermediate. There is a subsequent rate-limiting keto-enol tautomerisation step (ΔG ‡ = 10.5 kcal mol-1) to reach the inactivated BTK/ibrutinib complex. Our results represent the first mechanistic study of BTK inactivation by ibrutinib to consider multiple mechanistic pathways. These findings should aid in the design of covalent drugs that target BTK and other similar targets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Angus T Voice
- Centre for Computational Chemistry, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol Cantock's Close Bristol BS8 1TS UK
| | - Gary Tresadern
- Computational Chemistry, Janssen Research & Development, Janssen Pharmaceutica N. V. Turnhoutseweg 30 B-2340 Beerse Belgium
| | - Rebecca M Twidale
- Centre for Computational Chemistry, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol Cantock's Close Bristol BS8 1TS UK
| | - Herman van Vlijmen
- Computational Chemistry, Janssen Research & Development, Janssen Pharmaceutica N. V. Turnhoutseweg 30 B-2340 Beerse Belgium
| | - Adrian J Mulholland
- Centre for Computational Chemistry, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol Cantock's Close Bristol BS8 1TS UK
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23
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Pavlova A, Lynch DL, Daidone I, Zanetti-Polzi L, Smith MD, Chipot C, Kneller DW, Kovalevsky A, Coates L, Golosov AA, Dickson CJ, Velez-Vega C, Duca JS, Vermaas JV, Pang YT, Acharya A, Parks JM, Smith JC, Gumbart JC. Inhibitor binding influences the protonation states of histidines in SARS-CoV-2 main protease. Chem Sci 2021; 12:1513-1527. [PMID: 35356437 PMCID: PMC8899719 DOI: 10.1039/d0sc04942e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2020] [Accepted: 11/25/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
The main protease (Mpro) of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is an attractive target for antiviral therapeutics. Recently, many high-resolution apo and inhibitor-bound structures of Mpro, a cysteine protease, have been determined, facilitating structure-based drug design. Mpro plays a central role in the viral life cycle by catalyzing the cleavage of SARS-CoV-2 polyproteins. In addition to the catalytic dyad His41–Cys145, Mpro contains multiple histidines including His163, His164, and His172. The protonation states of these histidines and the catalytic nucleophile Cys145 have been debated in previous studies of SARS-CoV Mpro, but have yet to be investigated for SARS-CoV-2. In this work we have used molecular dynamics simulations to determine the structural stability of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro as a function of the protonation assignments for these residues. We simulated both the apo and inhibitor-bound enzyme and found that the conformational stability of the binding site, bound inhibitors, and the hydrogen bond networks of Mpro are highly sensitive to these assignments. Additionally, the two inhibitors studied, the peptidomimetic N3 and an α-ketoamide, display distinct His41/His164 protonation-state-dependent stabilities. While the apo and the N3-bound systems favored Nδ (HD) and Nϵ (HE) protonation of His41 and His164, respectively, the α-ketoamide was not stably bound in this state. Our results illustrate the importance of using appropriate histidine protonation states to accurately model the structure and dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro in both the apo and inhibitor-bound states, a necessary prerequisite for drug-design efforts. The main protease (Mpro) of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is an attractive target for antiviral therapeutics.![]()
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24
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Modeling Covalent Protein-Ligand Interactions. SYSTEMS MEDICINE 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-12-801238-3.11519-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
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25
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Meng F, Liang Z, Zhao K, Luo C. Drug design targeting active posttranslational modification protein isoforms. Med Res Rev 2020; 41:1701-1750. [PMID: 33355944 DOI: 10.1002/med.21774] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2020] [Revised: 11/29/2020] [Accepted: 12/03/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Modern drug design aims to discover novel lead compounds with attractable chemical profiles to enable further exploration of the intersection of chemical space and biological space. Identification of small molecules with good ligand efficiency, high activity, and selectivity is crucial toward developing effective and safe drugs. However, the intersection is one of the most challenging tasks in the pharmaceutical industry, as chemical space is almost infinity and continuous, whereas the biological space is very limited and discrete. This bottleneck potentially limits the discovery of molecules with desirable properties for lead optimization. Herein, we present a new direction leveraging posttranslational modification (PTM) protein isoforms target space to inspire drug design termed as "Post-translational Modification Inspired Drug Design (PTMI-DD)." PTMI-DD aims to extend the intersections of chemical space and biological space. We further rationalized and highlighted the importance of PTM protein isoforms and their roles in various diseases and biological functions. We then laid out a few directions to elaborate the PTMI-DD in drug design including discovering covalent binding inhibitors mimicking PTMs, targeting PTM protein isoforms with distinctive binding sites from that of wild-type counterpart, targeting protein-protein interactions involving PTMs, and hijacking protein degeneration by ubiquitination for PTM protein isoforms. These directions will lead to a significant expansion of the biological space and/or increase the tractability of compounds, primarily due to precisely targeting PTM protein isoforms or complexes which are highly relevant to biological functions. Importantly, this new avenue will further enrich the personalized treatment opportunity through precision medicine targeting PTM isoforms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fanwang Meng
- Drug Discovery and Design Center, the Center for Chemical Biology, State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.,Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
| | - Zhongjie Liang
- Center for Systems Biology, Department of Bioinformatics, School of Biology and Basic Medical Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
| | - Kehao Zhao
- School of Pharmacy, Key Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology and Drug Evaluation (Yantai University), Ministry of Education, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Drug Delivery System and Biotech Drugs in Universities of Shandong, Yantai University, Yantai, China
| | - Cheng Luo
- Drug Discovery and Design Center, the Center for Chemical Biology, State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
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26
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Bianco G, Goodsell DS, Forli S. Selective and Effective: Current Progress in Computational Structure-Based Drug Discovery of Targeted Covalent Inhibitors. Trends Pharmacol Sci 2020; 41:1038-1049. [PMID: 33153778 PMCID: PMC7669701 DOI: 10.1016/j.tips.2020.10.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2020] [Revised: 10/09/2020] [Accepted: 10/12/2020] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Targeted covalent inhibitors are currently showing great promise for systems that are normally difficult to target with small molecule therapies. This renewed interest has spurred the refinement of existing computational methods as well as the designof new ones, expanding the toolbox for discovery and optimization of selectiveand effective covalent inhibitors. Commonly applied approaches are covalentdocking methods that predict the conformation of the covalent complex with known residues. More recently, a new predictive method, reactive docking, was developed, building on the growing corpus of data generated by large proteomics experiments. This method was successfully used in several 'inverse drug discovery' programs that use high-throughput techniques to isolate effective compounds based on screening of entire compound libraries based on desired phenotypes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giulia Bianco
- Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - David S Goodsell
- Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Research Collaboratory for Structure Bioinformatics Protein Data Bank, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
| | - Stefano Forli
- Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
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27
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Arafet K, Serrano-Aparicio N, Lodola A, Mulholland AJ, González FV, Świderek K, Moliner V. Mechanism of inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 M pro by N3 peptidyl Michael acceptor explained by QM/MM simulations and design of new derivatives with tunable chemical reactivity. Chem Sci 2020; 12:1433-1444. [PMID: 34163906 PMCID: PMC8179034 DOI: 10.1039/d0sc06195f] [Citation(s) in RCA: 82] [Impact Index Per Article: 20.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
The SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) is essential for replication of the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, and one of the main targets for drug design. Here, we simulate the inhibition process of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro with a known Michael acceptor (peptidyl) inhibitor, N3. The free energy landscape for the mechanism of the formation of the covalent enzyme-inhibitor product is computed with QM/MM molecular dynamics methods. The simulations show a two-step mechanism, and give structures and calculated barriers in good agreement with experiment. Using these results and information from our previous investigation on the proteolysis reaction of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro, we design two new, synthetically accessible N3-analogues as potential inhibitors, in which the recognition and warhead motifs are modified. QM/MM modelling of the mechanism of inhibition of Mpro by these novel compounds indicates that both may be promising candidates as drug leads against COVID-19, one as an irreversible inhibitor and one as a potential reversible inhibitor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kemel Arafet
- Departament de Química Física i Analítica, Universitat Jaume I 12071 Castelló Spain
| | | | - Alessio Lodola
- Dipartimento di Scienze degli Alimenti e del Farmaco, Università degli Studi di Parma Italy
| | - Adrian J Mulholland
- Centre for Computational Chemistry, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol UK
| | - Florenci V González
- Departament de Química Inorgànica i Orgànica, Universitat Jaume I 12071 Castelló Spain
| | - Katarzyna Świderek
- Departament de Química Física i Analítica, Universitat Jaume I 12071 Castelló Spain
| | - Vicent Moliner
- Departament de Química Física i Analítica, Universitat Jaume I 12071 Castelló Spain
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28
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Zanetti-Polzi L, Smith MD, Chipot C, Gumbart JC, Lynch DL, Pavlova A, Smith JC, Daidone I. Tuning Proton Transfer Thermodynamics in SARS-Cov-2 Main Protease: Implications for Catalysis and Inhibitor Design. CHEMRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR CHEMISTRY 2020:13200227. [PMID: 33200115 PMCID: PMC7668740 DOI: 10.26434/chemrxiv.13200227] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Revised: 11/06/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
In this comutational work a hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics approach, the MD-PMM approach, is used to investigate the proton transfer reaction the activates the catalytic activity of SARS-CoV-2 main protease. The proton transfer thermodynamics is investigated for the apo ensyme (i.e., without any bound substrate or inhibitor) and in the presence of a inhibitor, N3, which was previously shown to covalently bind SARS-CoV-2 main protease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Zanetti-Polzi
- Center S3, CNR Institute of Nanoscience, Via Campi 213/A, I-41125 Modena, Italy
| | - Micholas Dean Smith
- Department of Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular Biology, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. 309 Ken and Blaire Mossman Bldg. 1311 Cumberland Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37996, United States
| | - Chris Chipot
- UMR 7019, Universite de Lorraine, Laboratoire International Associe CNRS
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, IL, 61801, United States
| | - James C Gumbart
- School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta GA 30332, United States
| | - Diane L Lynch
- School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta GA 30332, United States
| | - Anna Pavlova
- School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta GA 30332, United States
| | - Jeremy C Smith
- UT/ORNL Center for Molecular Biophysics, Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, TN 37831, United States
- Department of Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular Biology, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. 309 Ken and Blaire Mossman Bldg. 1311 Cumberland Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37996, United States
| | - Isabella Daidone
- Department of Physical and Chemical Sciences, University of L'Aquila, Via Vetoio, I-67010 L'Aquila, Italy
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29
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Petri L, Egyed A, Bajusz D, Imre T, Hetényi A, Martinek T, Ábrányi-Balogh P, Keserű GM. An electrophilic warhead library for mapping the reactivity and accessibility of tractable cysteines in protein kinases. Eur J Med Chem 2020; 207:112836. [PMID: 32971426 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2020.112836] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2019] [Revised: 09/03/2020] [Accepted: 09/07/2020] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Targeted covalent inhibitors represent a viable strategy to block protein kinases involved in different disease pathologies. Although a number of computational protocols have been published for identifying druggable cysteines, experimental approaches are limited for mapping the reactivity and accessibility of these residues. Here, we present a ligand based approach using a toolbox of fragment-sized molecules with identical scaffold but equipped with diverse covalent warheads. Our library represents a unique opportunity for the efficient integration of warhead-optimization and target-validation into the covalent drug development process. Screening this probe kit against multiple kinases could experimentally characterize the accessibility and reactivity of the targeted cysteines and helped to identify suitable warheads for designed covalent inhibitors. The usefulness of this approach has been confirmed retrospectively on Janus kinase 3 (JAK3). Furthermore, representing a prospective validation, we identified Maternal embryonic leucine zipper kinase (MELK), as a tractable covalent target. Covalently labelling and biochemical inhibition of MELK would suggest an alternative covalent strategy for MELK inhibitor programs.
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Affiliation(s)
- László Petri
- Medicinal Chemistry Research Group, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Magyar Tudósok Krt 2, H-1117, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Attila Egyed
- Medicinal Chemistry Research Group, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Magyar Tudósok Krt 2, H-1117, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Dávid Bajusz
- Medicinal Chemistry Research Group, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Magyar Tudósok Krt 2, H-1117, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Tímea Imre
- MS Metabolomics Research Group, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Magyar Tudósok Krt 2, H-1117, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Anasztázia Hetényi
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Szeged, Dóm Tér 8, H-6720, Szeged, Hungary
| | - Tamás Martinek
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Szeged, Dóm Tér 8, H-6720, Szeged, Hungary
| | - Péter Ábrányi-Balogh
- Medicinal Chemistry Research Group, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Magyar Tudósok Krt 2, H-1117, Budapest, Hungary
| | - György M Keserű
- Medicinal Chemistry Research Group, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Magyar Tudósok Krt 2, H-1117, Budapest, Hungary.
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30
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Lence E, Maneiro M, Sanz‐Gaitero M, Raaij MJ, Thompson P, Hawkins AR, González‐Bello C. Self‐Immolation of a Bacterial Dehydratase Enzyme by its Epoxide Product. Chemistry 2020; 26:8035-8044. [DOI: 10.1002/chem.202000759] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2020] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Emilio Lence
- Centro Singular de Investigación en Química Biolóxica e, Materiais Moleculares (CiQUS)Departamento de Química OrgánicaUniversidade de Santiago de Compostela Jenaro de la Fuente s/n 15782 Santiago de Compostela Spain
| | - María Maneiro
- Centro Singular de Investigación en Química Biolóxica e, Materiais Moleculares (CiQUS)Departamento de Química OrgánicaUniversidade de Santiago de Compostela Jenaro de la Fuente s/n 15782 Santiago de Compostela Spain
| | - Marta Sanz‐Gaitero
- Departamento de Estructura de MacromoléculasCentro Nacional de Biotecnología (CSIC) Campus Cantoblanco 28049 Madrid Spain
| | - Mark J. Raaij
- Departamento de Estructura de MacromoléculasCentro Nacional de Biotecnología (CSIC) Campus Cantoblanco 28049 Madrid Spain
| | - Paul Thompson
- Newcastle University Biosciences InstituteThe Medical SchoolNewcastle University Framlington Place Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4HH UK
| | - Alastair R. Hawkins
- Newcastle University Biosciences InstituteThe Medical SchoolNewcastle University Framlington Place Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4HH UK
| | - Concepción González‐Bello
- Centro Singular de Investigación en Química Biolóxica e, Materiais Moleculares (CiQUS)Departamento de Química OrgánicaUniversidade de Santiago de Compostela Jenaro de la Fuente s/n 15782 Santiago de Compostela Spain
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31
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Harris RC, Liu R, Shen J. Predicting Reactive Cysteines with Implicit-Solvent-Based Continuous Constant pH Molecular Dynamics in Amber. J Chem Theory Comput 2020; 16:3689-3698. [PMID: 32330035 PMCID: PMC7772776 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.0c00258] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Cysteines existing in the deprotonated thiolate form or having a tendency to become deprotonated are important players in enzymatic and cellular redox functions and frequently exploited in covalent drug design; however, most computational studies assume cysteines as protonated. Thus, developing an efficient tool that can make accurate and reliable predictions of cysteine protonation states is timely needed. We recently implemented a generalized Born (GB) based continuous constant pH molecular dynamics (CpHMD) method in Amber for protein pKa calculations on CPUs and GPUs. Here we benchmark the performance of GB-CpHMD for predictions of cysteine pKa's and reactivities using a data set of 24 proteins with both down- and upshifted cysteine pKa's. We found that 10 ns single-pH or 4 ns replica-exchange CpHMD titrations gave root-mean-square errors of 1.2-1.3 and correlation coefficients of 0.8-0.9 with respect to experiment. The accuracy of predicting thiolates or reactive cysteines at physiological pH with single-pH titrations is 86 or 81% with a precision of 100 or 90%, respectively. This performance well surpasses the traditional structure-based methods, particularly a widely used empirical pKa tool that gives an accuracy less than 50%. We discuss simulation convergence, dependence on starting structures, common determinants of the pKa downshifts and upshifts, and the origin of the discrepancies from the structure-based calculations. Our work suggests that CpHMD titrations can be performed on a desktop computer equipped with a single GPU card to predict cysteine protonation states for a variety of applications, from understanding biological functions to covalent drug design.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert C Harris
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, United States
| | - Ruibin Liu
- ComputChem LLC, Baltimore, Maryland 21202, United States
| | - Jana Shen
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, United States
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32
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Small-molecule covalent bond formation at tyrosine creates a binding site and inhibits activation of Ral GTPases. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:7131-7139. [PMID: 32179690 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1913654117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Ral (Ras-like) GTPases are directly activated by oncogenic Ras GTPases. Mutant K-Ras (G12C) has enabled the development of covalent K-Ras inhibitors currently in clinical trials. However, Ral, and the overwhelming majority of mutant oncogenic K-Ras, are devoid of a druggable pocket and lack an accessible cysteine for the development of a covalent inhibitor. Here, we report that covalent bond formation by an aryl sulfonyl fluoride electrophile at a tyrosine residue (Tyr-82) inhibits guanine exchange factor Rgl2-mediated nucleotide exchange of Ral GTPase. A high-resolution 1.18-Å X-ray cocrystal structure shows that the compound binds to a well-defined binding site in RalA as a result of a switch II loop conformational change. The structure, along with additional high-resolution crystal structures of several analogs in complex with RalA, confirm the importance of key hydrogen bond anchors between compound sulfone oxygen atoms and Ral backbone nitrogen atoms. Our discovery of a pocket with features found on known druggable sites and covalent modification of a bystander tyrosine residue present in Ral and Ras GTPases provide a strategy that could lead to therapeutic agent targeting oncogenic Ras mutants that are devoid of a cysteine nucleophile.
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33
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Silva JRA, Cianni L, Araujo D, Batista PHJ, de Vita D, Rosini F, Leitão A, Lameira J, Montanari CA. Assessment of the Cruzain Cysteine Protease Reversible and Irreversible Covalent Inhibition Mechanism. J Chem Inf Model 2020; 60:1666-1677. [PMID: 32126170 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.9b01138] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Reversible and irreversible covalent ligands are advanced cysteine protease inhibitors in the drug development pipeline. K777 is an irreversible inhibitor of cruzain, a necessary enzyme for the survival of the Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi) parasite, the causative agent of Chagas disease. Despite their importance, irreversible covalent inhibitors are still often avoided due to the risk of adverse effects. Herein, we replaced the K777 vinyl sulfone group with a nitrile moiety to obtain a reversible covalent inhibitor (Neq0682) of cysteine protease. Then, we used advanced experimental and computational techniques to explore details of the inhibition mechanism of cruzain by reversible and irreversible inhibitors. The isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) analysis shows that inhibition of cruzain by an irreversible inhibitor is thermodynamically more favorable than by a reversible one. The hybrid Quantum Mechanics/Molecular Mechanics (QM/MM) and Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations were used to explore the mechanism of the reaction inhibition of cruzain by K777 and Neq0682. The calculated free energy profiles show that the Cys25 nucleophilic attack and His162 proton transfer occur in a single step for a reversible inhibitor and two steps for an irreversible covalent inhibitor. The hybrid QM/MM calculated free energies for the inhibition reaction correspond to -26.7 and -5.9 kcal mol-1 for K777 and Neq0682 at the MP2/MM level, respectively. These results indicate that the ΔG of the reaction is very negative for the process involving K777, consequently, the covalent adduct cannot revert to a noncovalent protein-ligand complex, and its binding tends to be irreversible. Overall, the present study provides insights into a covalent inhibition mechanism of cysteine proteases.
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Affiliation(s)
- José Rogério A Silva
- Laboratório de Planejamento e Desenvolvimento de Fármacos. Instituto de Ciências Exatas e Naturais, Universidade Federal do Pará, Rua Augusto Corrêa 01, CEP 66075-110, Belém, Pará, Brazil
| | - Lorenzo Cianni
- Medicinal Chemistry Group, Institute of Chemistry of São Carlos, University of São Paulo, Avenue Trabalhador Sancarlense 400, 23566-590, São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Deborah Araujo
- Medicinal Chemistry Group, Institute of Chemistry of São Carlos, University of São Paulo, Avenue Trabalhador Sancarlense 400, 23566-590, São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Pedro Henrique Jatai Batista
- Medicinal Chemistry Group, Institute of Chemistry of São Carlos, University of São Paulo, Avenue Trabalhador Sancarlense 400, 23566-590, São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Daniela de Vita
- Medicinal Chemistry Group, Institute of Chemistry of São Carlos, University of São Paulo, Avenue Trabalhador Sancarlense 400, 23566-590, São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Fabiana Rosini
- Medicinal Chemistry Group, Institute of Chemistry of São Carlos, University of São Paulo, Avenue Trabalhador Sancarlense 400, 23566-590, São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Andrei Leitão
- Medicinal Chemistry Group, Institute of Chemistry of São Carlos, University of São Paulo, Avenue Trabalhador Sancarlense 400, 23566-590, São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Jerônimo Lameira
- Laboratório de Planejamento e Desenvolvimento de Fármacos. Instituto de Ciências Exatas e Naturais, Universidade Federal do Pará, Rua Augusto Corrêa 01, CEP 66075-110, Belém, Pará, Brazil
| | - Carlos A Montanari
- Medicinal Chemistry Group, Institute of Chemistry of São Carlos, University of São Paulo, Avenue Trabalhador Sancarlense 400, 23566-590, São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil
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34
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Inakollu VS, Geerke DP, Rowley CN, Yu H. Polarisable force fields: what do they add in biomolecular simulations? Curr Opin Struct Biol 2020; 61:182-190. [PMID: 32044671 DOI: 10.1016/j.sbi.2019.12.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2019] [Revised: 12/18/2019] [Accepted: 12/19/2019] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
The quality of biomolecular simulations critically depends on the accuracy of the force field used to calculate the potential energy of the molecular configurations. Currently, most simulations employ non-polarisable force fields, which describe electrostatic interactions as the sum of Coulombic interactions between fixed atomic charges. Polarisation of these charge distributions is incorporated only in a mean-field manner. In the past decade, extensive efforts have been devoted to developing simple, efficient, and yet generally applicable polarisable force fields for biomolecular simulations. In this review, we summarise the latest developments in accounting for key biomolecular interactions with polarisable force fields and applications to address challenging biological questions. In the end, we provide an outlook for future development in polarisable force fields.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vs Sandeep Inakollu
- School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia; Molecular Horizons, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522 Australia; Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia
| | - Daan P Geerke
- AIMMS Division of Molecular and Computational Toxicology, Department of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1108, 1081 HZ Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
| | - Christopher N Rowley
- Department of Chemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
| | - Haibo Yu
- School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia; Molecular Horizons, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522 Australia; Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia.
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35
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da Costa CHS, Bonatto V, Dos Santos AM, Lameira J, Leitão A, Montanari CA. Evaluating QM/MM Free Energy Surfaces for Ranking Cysteine Protease Covalent Inhibitors. J Chem Inf Model 2020; 60:880-889. [PMID: 31944110 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.9b00847] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
One tactic for cysteine protease inhibition is to form a covalent bond between an electrophilic atom of the inhibitor and the thiol of the catalytic cysteine. In this study, we evaluate the reaction free energy obtained from a hybrid quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) free energy profile as a predictor of affinity for reversible, covalent inhibitors of rhodesain. We demonstrate that the reaction free energy calculated with the PM6/MM potential is in agreement with the experimental data and suggest that the free energy profile for covalent bond formation in a protein environment may be a useful tool for the inhibitor design.
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Affiliation(s)
- Clauber H S da Costa
- Laboratório de Planejamento e Desenvolvimento de Fármacos , Universidade Federal do Pará , Rua Augusto Correa S/N , 66075-110 Belém , PA , Brazil
| | - Vinícius Bonatto
- Grupo de Quı́mica Medicinal do Instituto de Quı́mica de São Carlos da , Universidade de São Paulo, NEQUIMED/IQSC/USP , 13566-590 São Carlos , SP , Brazil
| | - Alberto M Dos Santos
- Laboratório de Planejamento e Desenvolvimento de Fármacos , Universidade Federal do Pará , Rua Augusto Correa S/N , 66075-110 Belém , PA , Brazil
| | - Jerônimo Lameira
- Laboratório de Planejamento e Desenvolvimento de Fármacos , Universidade Federal do Pará , Rua Augusto Correa S/N , 66075-110 Belém , PA , Brazil.,Grupo de Quı́mica Medicinal do Instituto de Quı́mica de São Carlos da , Universidade de São Paulo, NEQUIMED/IQSC/USP , 13566-590 São Carlos , SP , Brazil
| | - Andrei Leitão
- Grupo de Quı́mica Medicinal do Instituto de Quı́mica de São Carlos da , Universidade de São Paulo, NEQUIMED/IQSC/USP , 13566-590 São Carlos , SP , Brazil
| | - Carlos A Montanari
- Grupo de Quı́mica Medicinal do Instituto de Quı́mica de São Carlos da , Universidade de São Paulo, NEQUIMED/IQSC/USP , 13566-590 São Carlos , SP , Brazil
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36
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Lodola A, Callegari D, Scalvini L, Rivara S, Mor M. Design and SAR Analysis of Covalent Inhibitors Driven by Hybrid QM/MM Simulations. Methods Mol Biol 2020; 2114:307-337. [PMID: 32016901 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0282-9_19] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) hybrid technique is emerging as a reliable computational method to investigate and characterize chemical reactions occurring in enzymes. From a drug discovery perspective, a thorough understanding of enzyme catalysis appears pivotal to assist the design of inhibitors able to covalently bind one of the residues belonging to the enzyme catalytic machinery. Thanks to the current advances in computer power, and the availability of more efficient algorithms for QM-based simulations, the use of QM/MM methodology is becoming a viable option in the field of covalent inhibitor design. In the present review, we summarized our experience in the field of QM/MM simulations applied to drug design problems which involved the optimization of agents working on two well-known drug targets, namely fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). In this context, QM/MM simulations gave valuable information in terms of geometry (i.e., of transition states and metastable intermediates) and reaction energetics that allowed to correctly predict inhibitor binding orientation and substituent effect on enzyme inhibition. What is more, enzyme reaction modelling with QM/MM provided insights that were translated into the synthesis of new covalent inhibitor featured by a unique combination of intrinsic reactivity, on-target activity, and selectivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alessio Lodola
- Drug Design and Discovery Group, Department of Food and Drug, University of Parma, Parma, Italy.
| | - Donatella Callegari
- Drug Design and Discovery Group, Department of Food and Drug, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
| | - Laura Scalvini
- Drug Design and Discovery Group, Department of Food and Drug, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
| | - Silvia Rivara
- Drug Design and Discovery Group, Department of Food and Drug, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
| | - Marco Mor
- Drug Design and Discovery Group, Department of Food and Drug, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
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37
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Abstract
Quantum mechanics (QM) methods provide a fine description of receptor-ligand interactions and of chemical reactions. Their use in drug design and drug discovery is increasing, especially for complex systems including metal ions in the binding sites, for the design of highly selective inhibitors, for the optimization of bi-specific compounds, to understand enzymatic reactions, and for the study of covalent ligands and prodrugs. They are also used for generating molecular descriptors for predictive QSAR/QSPR models and for the parameterization of force fields. Thanks to the continuous increase of computational power offered by GPUs and to the development of sophisticated algorithms, QM methods are becoming part of the standard tools used in computer-aided drug design (CADD). We present the most used QM methods and software packages, and we discuss recent representative applications in drug design and drug discovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin Kotev
- Global Research Informatics/Cheminformatics and Drug Design, Evotec (France) SAS, Toulouse, France
| | - Laurie Sarrat
- Global Research Informatics/Cheminformatics and Drug Design, Evotec (France) SAS, Toulouse, France
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38
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Lameira J, Bonatto V, Cianni L, Dos Reis Rocho F, Leitão A, Montanari CA. Predicting the affinity of halogenated reversible covalent inhibitors through relative binding free energy. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2019; 21:24723-24730. [PMID: 31680132 DOI: 10.1039/c9cp04820k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/28/2023]
Abstract
Nitrile reversible covalent inhibitors of human cathepsin L (hCatL) bind covalently to the side chain of the catalytic Cys25 residue in the S1 pocket to form thioimidates. Predicting the binding of reversible covalent inhibitors is essential for their practical application in drug design. In this report, five nitrile-based inhibitors coded Neq0570, Neq0710, Neq0802, Neq0803 and Neq0804 had their hCatL inhibition constants, Ki, determined. These analogs of the prototypical Neq0570 are halogenated reversible covalent inhibitors of hCatL, which bear a halogen atom in the meta position of the P3 benzyl ring that can form a halogen bond with the Gly61 of the hCatL. To describe halogen bonding interaction in an inhibitor-hCatL complex, we applied an extra point (EP) of charge to represent the anisotropic distribution of charge on the iodine, bromine and chlorine atoms. Besides, we have used alchemical free energy calculations for evaluating the overall relative binding free energies of these inhibitors using a two-state binding model: noncovalent and covalent bond states. Our results show that free energy perturbation (FEP) can predict the hCatL binding affinities of halogenated reversible covalent inhibitors in close agreement with experiments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jerônimo Lameira
- On leave from Laboratório de Planejamento e Desenvolvimento de Fármacos, Universidade Federal do Pará, Rua Augusto Correa S/N, 66075-110, Belém, PA, Brazil.
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39
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Voice A, Tresadern G, van Vlijmen H, Mulholland A. Limitations of Ligand-Only Approaches for Predicting the Reactivity of Covalent Inhibitors. J Chem Inf Model 2019; 59:4220-4227. [PMID: 31498988 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.9b00404] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Covalent inhibition has undergone a resurgence and is an important modern-day drug design and chemical biology approach. To avoid off-target interactions and to fine-tune reactivity, the ability to accurately predict reactivity is vitally important for the design and development of safer and more effective covalent drugs. Several ligand-only metrics have been proposed that promise quick and simple ways of determining covalent reactivity. In particular, we examine proton affinity and reaction energies calculated with the density functional B3LYP-D3/6-311+G**//B3LYP-D3/6-31G* method to assess the reactivity of a series of α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds that form covalent adducts with cysteine. We demonstrate that while these metrics correlate well with experiment for a diverse range of small reactive molecules these approaches fail for predicting the reactivity of drug-like compounds. We conclude that ligand-only metrics such as proton affinity and reaction energies do not capture determinants of reactivity in situ and fail to account for important factors such as conformation, solvation, and intermolecular interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Angus Voice
- Centre for Computational Chemistry, School of Chemistry , University of Bristol , Bristol BS8 1TS , United Kingdom
| | - Gary Tresadern
- Computational Chemistry, Janssen Research & Development , Janssen Pharmaceutica N. V. , Turnhoutseweg 30 , B-2340 Beerse , Belgium
| | - Herman van Vlijmen
- Computational Chemistry, Janssen Research & Development , Janssen Pharmaceutica N. V. , Turnhoutseweg 30 , B-2340 Beerse , Belgium
| | - Adrian Mulholland
- Centre for Computational Chemistry, School of Chemistry , University of Bristol , Bristol BS8 1TS , United Kingdom
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Awoonor-Williams E, Isley WC, Dale SG, Johnson ER, Yu H, Becke AD, Roux B, Rowley CN. Quantum Chemical Methods for Modeling Covalent Modification of Biological Thiols. J Comput Chem 2019; 41:427-438. [PMID: 31512279 DOI: 10.1002/jcc.26064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2019] [Revised: 07/24/2019] [Accepted: 08/16/2019] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Targeted covalent inhibitor drugs require computational methods that go beyond simple molecular-mechanical force fields in order to model the chemical reactions that occur when they bind to their targets. Here, several semiempirical and density-functional theory (DFT) methods are assessed for their ability to describe the potential energy surface and reaction energies of the covalent modification of a thiol by an electrophile. Functionals such as PBE and B3LYP fail to predict a stable enolate intermediate. This is largely due to delocalization error, which spuriously stabilizes the prereaction complex, in which excess electron density is transferred from the thiolate to the electrophile. Functionals with a high-exact exchange component, range-separated DFT functionals, and variationally optimized exact exchange (i.e., the LC-B05minV functional) correct this issue to various degrees. The large gradient behavior of the exchange enhancement factor is also found to significantly affect the results, leading to the improved performance of PBE0. While ωB97X-D and M06-2X were reasonably accurate, no method provided quantitative accuracy for all three electrophiles, making this a very strenuous test of functional performance. Additionally, one drawback of M06-2X was that molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using this functional were only stable if a fine integration grid was used. The low-cost semiempirical methods, PM3, AM1, and PM7, provide a qualitatively correct description of the reaction mechanism, although the energetics is not quantitatively reliable. As a proof of concept, the potential of mean force for the addition of methylthiolate to methylvinyl ketone was calculated using quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical MD in an explicit polarizable aqueous solvent. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ernest Awoonor-Williams
- Department of Chemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
| | - William C Isley
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
| | - Stephen G Dale
- Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
| | - Erin R Johnson
- Department of Chemistry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
| | - Haibo Yu
- School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Axel D Becke
- Department of Chemistry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
| | - Benoît Roux
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
| | - Christopher N Rowley
- Department of Chemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
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Adeniji EA, Olotu FA, Soliman MES. Exploring the Lapse in Druggability: Sequence Analysis, Structural Dynamics and Binding Site Characterization of K-RasG12C Variant, a Feasible Oncotherapeutics Target. Anticancer Agents Med Chem 2019; 18:1540-1550. [PMID: 30019652 DOI: 10.2174/1871520618666180718110231] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2017] [Revised: 01/28/2018] [Accepted: 07/04/2018] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The difficulty in druggability of K-Ras variant has presented a challenge in the treatment of cancer diseases associated with its dysfunctionality. Despite the identification of different binding sites, limited information exists in the literature about their characteristics. Therefore, identification, crossvalidation and characterization of its druggable sites would aid the design of chemical compounds that will arrest its dysfunctionality related oncogenesis. OBJECTIVE This study entails the identification, cross-validation and characterization of K-Ras G12C variant's binding sites for potential druggability, coupled with the elucidation of alterations in 3D conformations and dynamics. METHOD Molecular dynamics simulation was carried out on the inactive, the active and the hyperactive K-RasG12Cvariant using the amber software package. The SiteMap software was employed in identifying and characterizing the druggable binding sites while the validation of the binding sites was carried out with the SiteHound and MetaPocket servers. RESULTS Four druggable binding sites were identified, validated and characterized based on physicochemical attributes such as size, volume, degree of enclosure or exposure, degree of contact, hydrophobic/hydrophilic character, hydrophobic/hydrophilic balance and hydrogen-bonding features. Conformational studies also revealed that the K-Ras variant exhibited notable structural instability, increased flexibility and a strongly anticorrelated movement compared to the inactive and active wildtype forms. CONCLUSION The attributes of the characterized druggable sites will be useful in designing site-specific K-Ras inhibitors for the treatment of K-Ras variant associated cancer diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emmanuel A Adeniji
- Molecular Bio-Computation and Drug Design Laboratory, School of Health Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville Campus, Durban 4001, South Africa
| | - Fisayo A Olotu
- Molecular Bio-Computation and Drug Design Laboratory, School of Health Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville Campus, Durban 4001, South Africa
| | - Mahmoud E S Soliman
- Molecular Bio-Computation and Drug Design Laboratory, School of Health Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville Campus, Durban 4001, South Africa
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Scalise M, Console L, Galluccio M, Pochini L, Tonazzi A, Giangregorio N, Indiveri C. Exploiting Cysteine Residues of SLC Membrane Transporters as Targets for Drugs. SLAS DISCOVERY 2019; 24:867-881. [PMID: 31251685 DOI: 10.1177/2472555219856601] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
The observation that cysteine is the top gainer amino acid during evolution attracted the attention of scientists dealing with protein chemistry. The thiol group of cysteine, indeed, is a potential site for several types of reactions with variable specificity and strength. This feature proved to be promising also in the field of membrane transporters that represent boundary proteins fundamental for cell homeostasis. These proteins are classified, according to the driving force for transport, in primary or secondary active transporters. Another frequently used classification is nowadays based on phylogenesis. Two major groups are identified that take into account both criteria: the ABC and the SLC transporters, the second being much more numerous. The cellular localization of the transporters makes them very attractive for drug design. Moreover, the presence of at least one cysteine residue in all the annotated SLC transporters, so far, highlights the possibility of using the thiol (SH) residue for covalent drug targeting. Even if a delay exists in this research field due to the scarce knowledge of structure/function relationships, the setup of novel experimental tools for studying SLC proteins of plasma and organelle membranes opens an important perspective in pharmacology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mariafrancesca Scalise
- Department DiBEST (Biologia, Ecologia e Scienze della Terra) Unit of Biochemistry and Molecular Biotechnology, University of Calabria, Arcavacata di Rende, Italy
| | - Lara Console
- Department DiBEST (Biologia, Ecologia e Scienze della Terra) Unit of Biochemistry and Molecular Biotechnology, University of Calabria, Arcavacata di Rende, Italy
| | - Michele Galluccio
- Department DiBEST (Biologia, Ecologia e Scienze della Terra) Unit of Biochemistry and Molecular Biotechnology, University of Calabria, Arcavacata di Rende, Italy
| | - Lorena Pochini
- Department DiBEST (Biologia, Ecologia e Scienze della Terra) Unit of Biochemistry and Molecular Biotechnology, University of Calabria, Arcavacata di Rende, Italy
| | - Annamaria Tonazzi
- CNR Institute of Biomembranes, Bioenergetics and Molecular Biotechnology (IBIOM), Bari, Italy
| | - Nicola Giangregorio
- CNR Institute of Biomembranes, Bioenergetics and Molecular Biotechnology (IBIOM), Bari, Italy
| | - Cesare Indiveri
- Department DiBEST (Biologia, Ecologia e Scienze della Terra) Unit of Biochemistry and Molecular Biotechnology, University of Calabria, Arcavacata di Rende, Italy
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Dai S, Zhou Z, Chen Z, Xu G, Chen Y. Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptors (FGFRs): Structures and Small Molecule Inhibitors. Cells 2019; 8:E614. [PMID: 31216761 PMCID: PMC6627960 DOI: 10.3390/cells8060614] [Citation(s) in RCA: 166] [Impact Index Per Article: 33.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2019] [Revised: 06/11/2019] [Accepted: 06/12/2019] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFRs) are a family of receptor tyrosine kinases expressed on the cell membrane that play crucial roles in both developmental and adult cells. Dysregulation of FGFRs has been implicated in a wide variety of cancers, such as urothelial carcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, ovarian cancer and lung adenocarcinoma. Due to their functional importance, FGFRs have been considered as promising drug targets for the therapy of various cancers. Multiple small molecule inhibitors targeting this family of kinases have been developed, and some of them are in clinical trials. Furthermore, the pan-FGFR inhibitor erdafitinib (JNJ-42756493) has recently been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of metastatic or unresectable urothelial carcinoma (mUC). This review summarizes the structure of FGFR, especially its kinase domain, and the development of small molecule FGFR inhibitors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuyan Dai
- NHC Key Laboratory of Cancer Proteomics & Laboratory of Structural Biology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410008, Hunan, China.
| | - Zhan Zhou
- NHC Key Laboratory of Cancer Proteomics & Laboratory of Structural Biology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410008, Hunan, China.
| | - Zhuchu Chen
- NHC Key Laboratory of Cancer Proteomics & Laboratory of Structural Biology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410008, Hunan, China.
| | - Guangyu Xu
- Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Traditional Chinese Medicine Research (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, Hunan, China.
| | - Yongheng Chen
- NHC Key Laboratory of Cancer Proteomics & Laboratory of Structural Biology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410008, Hunan, China.
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Zhang H, Jiang W, Chatterjee P, Luo Y. Ranking Reversible Covalent Drugs: From Free Energy Perturbation to Fragment Docking. J Chem Inf Model 2019; 59:2093-2102. [PMID: 30763080 PMCID: PMC6610880 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.8b00959] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
Abstract
Reversible covalent inhibitors have drawn increasing attention in drug design, as they are likely more potent than noncovalent inhibitors and less toxic than covalent inhibitors. Despite those advantages, the computational prediction of reversible covalent binding presents a formidable challenge because the binding process consists of multiple steps and quantum mechanics (QM) level calculation is needed to estimate the covalent binding free energy. It has been shown that the dissociation rates and the equilibrium dissociation constants vary significantly even with similar warheads, due to noncovalent interactions. We have previously used a simplistic two-state model for predicting the relative binding selectivity of reversible covalent inhibitors ( J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139 , 17945 ). Here we go beyond binding selectivity and demonstrate that it is possible to use free energy perturbation (FEP) molecular dynamics (MD) to calculate the overall reversible covalent binding using a specially designed thermodynamic cycle. We show that FEP can predict the varying binding free energies of the analogs sharing a common warhead. More importantly, our results revealed that the chemical modification away from warhead alters the binding affinity at both noncovalent and covalent binding states, and the computational prediction can be improved by considering the binding free energy of both states. Furthermore, we explored the possibility of using a more rapid computational method, site-identification by ligand competitive saturation (SILCS), to rank the same set of reversible covalent inhibitors. We found that the fragment docking to a set of precomputed fragment maps produces a reasonable ranking. In conclusion, two independent approaches provided consistent results that the covalent binding state is suitable for the initial ranking of the reversible covalent drug candidates. For lead-optimization, the FEP approach designed here can provide more rigorous and detailed information regarding how much the covalent and noncovalent binding states are contributing to the overall binding affinity, thus offering a new avenue for fine-tuning the noncovalent interactions for optimizing reversible covalent drugs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Han Zhang
- Western University of Health Sciences, College of Pharmacy, Pomona CA 91766
| | - Wenjuan Jiang
- Western University of Health Sciences, College of Pharmacy, Pomona CA 91766
| | - Payal Chatterjee
- Western University of Health Sciences, College of Pharmacy, Pomona CA 91766
| | - Yun Luo
- Western University of Health Sciences, College of Pharmacy, Pomona CA 91766
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Ghosh AK, Samanta I, Mondal A, Liu WR. Covalent Inhibition in Drug Discovery. ChemMedChem 2019; 14:889-906. [PMID: 30816012 DOI: 10.1002/cmdc.201900107] [Citation(s) in RCA: 148] [Impact Index Per Article: 29.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2019] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Although covalent inhibitors have been used as therapeutics for more than a century, there has been general resistance in the pharmaceutical industry against their further development due to safety concerns. This inclination has recently been reverted after the development of a wide variety of covalent inhibitors to address human health conditions along with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of several covalent therapeutics for use in humans. Along with this exciting resurrection of an old drug discovery concept, this review surveys enzymes that can be targeted by covalent inhibitors for the treatment of human diseases. We focus on protein kinases, RAS proteins, and a few other enzymes that have been studied extensively as targets for covalent inhibition, with the aim to address challenges in designing effective covalent drugs and to provide suggestions in the area that have yet to be explored.
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Affiliation(s)
- Avick Kumar Ghosh
- Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, Corner of Ross and Spence Streets, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
| | - Indranil Samanta
- Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, Corner of Ross and Spence Streets, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
| | - Anushree Mondal
- Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, Corner of Ross and Spence Streets, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
| | - Wenshe Ray Liu
- Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, Corner of Ross and Spence Streets, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
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Vasudevan A, Argiriadi MA, Baranczak A, Friedman MM, Gavrilyuk J, Hobson AD, Hulce JJ, Osman S, Wilson NS. Covalent binders in drug discovery. PROGRESS IN MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY 2019; 58:1-62. [PMID: 30879472 DOI: 10.1016/bs.pmch.2018.12.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Covalent modulation of protein function can have multiple utilities including therapeutics, and probes to interrogate biology. While this field is still viewed with scepticism due to the potential for (idiosyncratic) toxicities, significant strides have been made in terms of understanding how to tune electrophilicity to selectively target specific residues. Progress has also been made in harnessing the potential of covalent binders to uncover novel biology and to provide an enhanced utility as payloads for Antibody Drug Conjugates. This perspective covers the tenets and applications of covalent binders.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Julia Gavrilyuk
- AbbVie Stemcentrx, LLC, South San Francisco, CA, United States
| | | | | | - Sami Osman
- AbbVie Bioresearch Center, Worcester, MA, United States
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Horton JR, Woodcock CB, Chen Q, Liu X, Zhang X, Shanks J, Rai G, Mott BT, Jansen DJ, Kales SC, Henderson MJ, Cyr M, Pohida K, Hu X, Shah P, Xu X, Jadhav A, Maloney DJ, Hall MD, Simeonov A, Fu H, Vertino PM, Cheng X. Structure-Based Engineering of Irreversible Inhibitors against Histone Lysine Demethylase KDM5A. J Med Chem 2018; 61:10588-10601. [PMID: 30392349 PMCID: PMC6467790 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.8b01219] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
The active sites of hundreds of human α-ketoglutarate (αKG) and Fe(II)-dependent dioxygenases are exceedingly well preserved, which challenges the design of selective inhibitors. We identified a noncatalytic cysteine (Cys481 in KDM5A) near the active sites of KDM5 histone H3 lysine 4 demethylases, which is absent in other histone demethylase families, that could be explored for interaction with the cysteine-reactive electrophile acrylamide. We synthesized analogs of a thienopyridine-based inhibitor chemotype, namely, 2-((3-aminophenyl)(2-(piperidin-1-yl)ethoxy)methyl)thieno[3,2- b]pyridine-7-carboxylic acid (N70) and a derivative containing a (dimethylamino)but-2-enamido)phenyl moiety (N71) designed to form a covalent interaction with Cys481. We characterized the inhibitory and binding activities against KDM5A and determined the cocrystal structures of the catalytic domain of KDM5A in complex with N70 and N71. Whereas the noncovalent inhibitor N70 displayed αKG-competitive inhibition that could be reversed after dialysis, inhibition by N71 was dependent on enzyme concentration and persisted even after dialysis, consistent with covalent modification.
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Affiliation(s)
- John R. Horton
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030, United States
- Department of Biochemistry, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States
| | - Clayton B. Woodcock
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030, United States
| | - Qin Chen
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030, United States
| | - Xu Liu
- Department of Biochemistry, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States
| | - Xing Zhang
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030, United States
| | - John Shanks
- Department of Biochemistry, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States
| | - Ganesha Rai
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, 9800 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, Maryland 20850, United States
| | - Bryan T. Mott
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, 9800 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, Maryland 20850, United States
| | - Daniel J. Jansen
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, 9800 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, Maryland 20850, United States
| | - Stephen C. Kales
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, 9800 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, Maryland 20850, United States
| | - Mark J. Henderson
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, 9800 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, Maryland 20850, United States
| | - Matthew Cyr
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, 9800 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, Maryland 20850, United States
| | - Katherine Pohida
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, 9800 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, Maryland 20850, United States
| | - Xin Hu
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, 9800 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, Maryland 20850, United States
| | - Pranav Shah
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, 9800 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, Maryland 20850, United States
| | - Xin Xu
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, 9800 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, Maryland 20850, United States
| | - Ajit Jadhav
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, 9800 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, Maryland 20850, United States
| | - David J. Maloney
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, 9800 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, Maryland 20850, United States
| | - Matthew D. Hall
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, 9800 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, Maryland 20850, United States
| | - Anton Simeonov
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, 9800 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, Maryland 20850, United States
| | - Haian Fu
- Departments of Pharmacology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States
- Hematology and Medical Oncology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States
- Emory Chemical Biology Discovery Center, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States
- The Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States
| | - Paula M. Vertino
- The Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States
| | - Xiaodong Cheng
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030, United States
- Department of Biochemistry, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States
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Covalent simulations of covalent/irreversible enzyme inhibition in drug discovery: a reliable technical protocol. Future Med Chem 2018; 10:2265-2275. [DOI: 10.4155/fmc-2017-0304] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Aim: Irreversible covalent inhibition of biological targets in disease pathogenesis is an emerging field in drug design. Computational techniques have assumed a critical role in understanding covalent enzyme inhibition. However, a gap currently exists with regards to the reliability and reproducibility of currently available protocols available in literature and open scientific forums. Methodology/results: Appropriate ligand and protein target are selected, docked covalently or noncovalently using respective docking tools. Both components are subjected to premolecular dynamic preparations. This was followed by parameterization of the ligand, protein and covalent complex, respectively. The production runs were initiated and the resulting trajectories are saved and analyzed. Conclusion: This protocol is reliable and reproducible, hence would advance the development of irreversible covalent inhibitors toward disease treatment.
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Guedes IA, Pereira FSS, Dardenne LE. Empirical Scoring Functions for Structure-Based Virtual Screening: Applications, Critical Aspects, and Challenges. Front Pharmacol 2018; 9:1089. [PMID: 30319422 PMCID: PMC6165880 DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2018.01089] [Citation(s) in RCA: 144] [Impact Index Per Article: 24.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2018] [Accepted: 09/07/2018] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Structure-based virtual screening (VS) is a widely used approach that employs the knowledge of the three-dimensional structure of the target of interest in the design of new lead compounds from large-scale molecular docking experiments. Through the prediction of the binding mode and affinity of a small molecule within the binding site of the target of interest, it is possible to understand important properties related to the binding process. Empirical scoring functions are widely used for pose and affinity prediction. Although pose prediction is performed with satisfactory accuracy, the correct prediction of binding affinity is still a challenging task and crucial for the success of structure-based VS experiments. There are several efforts in distinct fronts to develop even more sophisticated and accurate models for filtering and ranking large libraries of compounds. This paper will cover some recent successful applications and methodological advances, including strategies to explore the ligand entropy and solvent effects, training with sophisticated machine-learning techniques, and the use of quantum mechanics. Particular emphasis will be given to the discussion of critical aspects and further directions for the development of more accurate empirical scoring functions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Isabella A Guedes
- Grupo de Modelagem Molecular em Sistemas Biológicos, Laboratório Nacional de Computação Científica, Petrópolis, Brazil
| | - Felipe S S Pereira
- Grupo de Modelagem Molecular em Sistemas Biológicos, Laboratório Nacional de Computação Científica, Petrópolis, Brazil
| | - Laurent E Dardenne
- Grupo de Modelagem Molecular em Sistemas Biológicos, Laboratório Nacional de Computação Científica, Petrópolis, Brazil
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50
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Awoonor-Williams E, Rowley CN. How Reactive are Druggable Cysteines in Protein Kinases? J Chem Inf Model 2018; 58:1935-1946. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.8b00454] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Ernest Awoonor-Williams
- Department of Chemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL A1B 3X9, Canada
| | - Christopher N. Rowley
- Department of Chemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL A1B 3X9, Canada
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