Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP)-based pharmacophore model development and its application in designing antitumor inhibitors

Structure-Based Pharmacophore Modeling, Virtual Screening, Molecular Docking and Biological Evaluation for Identification of Potential Poly (ADP-Ribose) Polymerase-1 (PARP-1) Inhibitors

Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) plays critical roles in many biological processes and is considered as a potential target for anticancer therapy. Although some PARP-1 inhibitors have been reported, their clinical application in cancer therapy is limited by some shortcomings such as weak affinity, low selectivity and adverse side effects. To identify highly potent and selective PARP-1 inhibitors, an integrated protocol that combines pharmacophore mapping, virtual screening and molecular docking was constructed. It was then used as a screening query to identify potent leads with unknown scaffolds from an in-house database. Finally, four retrieved compounds were selected for biological evaluation. Biological testing indicated that the four compounds showed strong inhibitory activities on the PARP-1 (IC50 < 0.2 μM). MTT assay confirmed that compounds 1-4 inhibited the growth of human lung cancer A549 cells in a dose-dependent manner. The obtained compounds from this study may be potential leads for PARP-1 inhibition in the treatment of cancer.