Pharmacophore based design of some multi-targeted compounds targeted against pathways of diabetic complications

Pharmacophore based virtual screening of cholinesterase inhibitors: search of new potential drug candidates as antialzheimer agents

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a distinctive medical condition characterized by loss of memory, orientation, and cognitive impairments, which is an exceptionally universal form of neurodegenerative disease. The statistical data suggested that it is the 3rd major cause of death in older persons. Butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors play a vital role in the treatment of AD. Coumarins, natural derivatives, are reported as cholinesterase inhibitors and emerges as a promising scaffold for design of ligands targeting enzymes and pathological alterations related to AD. In this regard, the 3D QSAR pharmacophore models were developed for coumarin scaffold containing BChE and AChE inhibitors. Several 3D QSAR pharmacophore models were developed with FAST, BEST, and CEASER methods, and finally, statistically robust models (based on correlation coefficient, cost value, and RMSE value) were selected for further analysis for both targets. The important features ((HBA 1, HBA 2, HY, RA (BChE) HBA 1, HBA 2, HY, PI, (AChE)) were identified for good inhibitory activity of coumarin derivatives. Finally, the selected models were applied to various database compounds to find potential BChE and AChE inhibitors, and we found 13 for BChE and 1 potent compound for AChE with an estimated activity of IC50 < 10 µM. Further, the Lipinski filters, and ADMET analysis supports the selected compounds to become a drug candidate. These selected BChE and AChE inhibitors can be used in the treatment of AD.

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Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40203-022-00133-1.

Pharmacophore-based drug design of AChE and BChE dual inhibitors as potential anti-Alzheimer's disease agents

For the Alzheimer's disease (AD) with complex pathogenesis, single target drugs represent one of the most effective therapeutic strategies in clinical. However, the traditional concept of "a disease, a target" is difficult to find very effective drugs, and multi-target drugs have already become new hot spot in drug development for this disease. In our present study, our efforts toward discovering new cholinesterase (ChE) inhibitors aided by computational methods will provide useful information as anti-AD agents in the future. The best 3D-QSAR acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) inhibitors pharmacophore hypotheses Hypo1 A and Hypo1 B were generated and validated by HypoGen program in Discovery Studio 2016 based on the training set of flavonoids, and then they were used as 3D query for screening the ZINC database. Next, the hit molecules were then subjected to the ADMET and molecular docking study to prioritize the compounds. Finally, 6 compounds showed good estimated activities and promising ADMET properties. The result of best compound ZINC08751495 with AChE estimate activity (0.028), BChE estimate activity (1.55), AChE fit value (9.369), BChE fit value (8.415), AChE -CDOCKER ENERGY (30.22), BChE -CDOCKER ENERGY (33.13) has the potential for further development as a supplement to treat Alzheimer's disease.

The cardioprotective effect of dexrazoxane (Cardioxane) is consistent with sequestration of poly(ADP-ribose) by self-assembly and not depletion of topoisomerase 2B

Following systematic scrutiny of the evidence in support of the hypothesis that the cardioprotective mechanism of action of dexrazoxane is mediated by a 'depletion' or 'downregulation' of Top2β protein levels in heart tissue, the author concludes that this hypothesis is untenable. In seeking to understand how dexrazoxane protects the heart, the outcomes of a customised association rule learning algorithm incorporating the use of antecedent surrogate variables (CEME, 2017 McCormack Pharma) reveal a previously unknown relationship between dexrazoxane and poly(ADP-ribose) (PAR) polymer. The author shows how this previously unknown relationship explains both acute and long-term cardioprotection in patients receiving anthracyclines. In addition, as a direct inhibitor of PAR dexrazoxane has access to the epigenome and this offers a new insight into protection by dexrazoxane against doxorubicin-induced late-onset damage [McCormack K, manuscript in preparation]. Notably, through this review article, the author illustrates the practical application of probing natural language text using an association rule learning algorithm for the discovery of new and interesting associations that, otherwise, would remain lost. Historically, the use of CEME enabled the first report of the capacity of a small molecule to catalyse the hybrid self-assembly of a nucleic acid biopolymer via canonical and non-canonical, non-covalent interactions analogous to Watson Crick and Hoogsteen base pairing, respectively.