1
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Lee D, Hwang W, Byun J, Shin B. Turbocharging protein binding site prediction with geometric attention, inter-resolution transfer learning, and homology-based augmentation. BMC Bioinformatics 2024; 25:306. [PMID: 39304807 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-024-05923-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2024] [Accepted: 09/05/2024] [Indexed: 09/22/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Locating small molecule binding sites in target proteins, in the resolution of either pocket or residue, is critical in many drug-discovery scenarios. Since it is not always easy to find such binding sites using conventional methods, different deep learning methods to predict binding sites out of protein structures have been developed in recent years. The existing deep learning based methods have several limitations, including (1) the inefficiency of the CNN-only architecture, (2) loss of information due to excessive post-processing, and (3) the under-utilization of available data sources. METHODS We present a new model architecture and training method that resolves the aforementioned problems. First, by layering geometric self-attention units on top of residue-level 3D CNN outputs, our model overcomes the problems of CNN-only architectures. Second, by configuring the fundamental units of computation as residues and pockets instead of voxels, our method reduced the information loss from post-processing. Lastly, by employing inter-resolution transfer learning and homology-based augmentation, our method maximizes the utilization of available data sources to a significant extent. RESULTS The proposed method significantly outperformed all state-of-the-art baselines regarding both resolutions-pocket and residue. An ablation study demonstrated the indispensability of our proposed architecture, as well as transfer learning and homology-based augmentation, for achieving optimal performance. We further scrutinized our model's performance through a case study involving human serum albumin, which demonstrated our model's superior capability in identifying multiple binding sites of the protein, outperforming the existing methods. CONCLUSIONS We believe that our contribution to the literature is twofold. Firstly, we introduce a novel computational method for binding site prediction with practical applications, substantiated by its strong performance across diverse benchmarks and case studies. Secondly, the innovative aspects in our method- specifically, the design of the model architecture, inter-resolution transfer learning, and homology-based augmentation-would serve as useful components for future work.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Bonggun Shin
- Deargen, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
- SK Life Science, Inc., Paramus, NJ, USA.
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2
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Wahl J. PheSA: An Open-Source Tool for Pharmacophore-Enhanced Shape Alignment. J Chem Inf Model 2024; 64:5944-5953. [PMID: 39092495 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.4c00516] [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: 08/04/2024]
Abstract
PheSA is an open-source pharmacophore- and shape-based screening and molecular alignment tool that is fully open-source as part of OpenChemLib. Supporting standard ligand-based screening, flexible refinement of alignments, and receptor-guided shape docking, PheSA is a very flexible tool and can be used for different use cases in structure-based drug design. We present the algorithm and different benchmark studies that investigate the screening performance and also the quality of the generated alignments and the pose prediction performance of the receptor-guided PheSA algorithm. An important finding is the effect of the type of similarity metric used for measuring screening enrichment (symmetric Tanimoto versus asymmetric Tversky), whereby we could observe improved enrichment rates by using Tversky. PheSA exhibits enrichments on the DUD-E that are on par with commercial methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joel Wahl
- Scientific Computing Drug Discovery, Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Hegenheimermattweg 91, CH-4123 Allschwil, Switzerland
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3
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Moyano-Gómez P, Lehtonen JV, Pentikäinen OT, Postila PA. Building shape-focused pharmacophore models for effective docking screening. J Cheminform 2024; 16:97. [PMID: 39123240 PMCID: PMC11312248 DOI: 10.1186/s13321-024-00857-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2023] [Accepted: 05/12/2024] [Indexed: 08/12/2024] Open
Abstract
The performance of molecular docking can be improved by comparing the shape similarity of the flexibly sampled poses against the target proteins' inverted binding cavities. The effectiveness of these pseudo-ligands or negative image-based models in docking rescoring is boosted further by performing enrichment-driven optimization. Here, we introduce a novel shape-focused pharmacophore modeling algorithm O-LAP that generates a new class of cavity-filling models by clumping together overlapping atomic content via pairwise distance graph clustering. Top-ranked poses of flexibly docked active ligands were used as the modeling input and multiple alternative clustering settings were benchmark-tested thoroughly with five demanding drug targets using random training/test divisions. In docking rescoring, the O-LAP modeling typically improved massively on the default docking enrichment; furthermore, the results indicate that the clustered models work well in rigid docking. The C+ +/Qt5-based algorithm O-LAP is released under the GNU General Public License v3.0 via GitHub ( https://github.com/jvlehtonen/overlap-toolkit ). SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTION: This study introduces O-LAP, a C++/Qt5-based graph clustering software for generating new type of shape-focused pharmacophore models. In the O-LAP modeling, the target protein cavity is filled with flexibly docked active ligands, the overlapping ligand atoms are clustered, and the shape/electrostatic potential of the resulting model is compared against the flexibly sampled molecular docking poses. The O-LAP modeling is shown to ensure high enrichment in both docking rescoring and rigid docking based on comprehensive benchmark-testing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paola Moyano-Gómez
- MedChem.fi, Institute of Biomedicine, Integrative Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Turku, 20014, Turku, Finland
- InFLAMES Research Flagship, University of Turku, 20014, Turku, Finland
| | - Jukka V Lehtonen
- Structural Bioinformatics Laboratory, Biochemistry, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Åbo Akademi University, 20500, Turku, Finland
- InFLAMES Research Flagship, Åbo Akademi University, 20500, Turku, Finland
| | - Olli T Pentikäinen
- MedChem.fi, Institute of Biomedicine, Integrative Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Turku, 20014, Turku, Finland
- InFLAMES Research Flagship, University of Turku, 20014, Turku, Finland
- Aurlide Ltd, Lemminkäisenkatu 14A, 20520, Turku, Finland
| | - Pekka A Postila
- MedChem.fi, Institute of Biomedicine, Integrative Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Turku, 20014, Turku, Finland.
- InFLAMES Research Flagship, University of Turku, 20014, Turku, Finland.
- Aurlide Ltd, Lemminkäisenkatu 14A, 20520, Turku, Finland.
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4
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Vázquez J, García R, Llinares P, Luque FJ, Herrero E. On the relevance of query definition in the performance of 3D ligand-based virtual screening. J Comput Aided Mol Des 2024; 38:18. [PMID: 38573547 PMCID: PMC10995064 DOI: 10.1007/s10822-024-00561-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2024] [Accepted: 03/26/2024] [Indexed: 04/05/2024]
Abstract
Ligand-based virtual screening (LBVS) methods are widely used to explore the vast chemical space in the search of novel compounds resorting to a variety of properties encoded in 1D, 2D or 3D descriptors. The success of 3D-LBVS is affected by the overlay of molecular pairs, thus making selection of the template compound, search of accessible conformational space and choice of the query conformation to be potential factors that modulate the successful retrieval of actives. This study examines the impact of adopting different choices for the query conformation of the template, paying also attention to the influence exerted by the structural similarity between templates and actives. The analysis is performed using PharmScreen, a 3D LBVS tool that relies on similarity measurements of the hydrophobic/philic pattern of molecules, and Phase Shape, which is based on the alignment of atom triplets followed by refinement of the volume overlap. The study is performed for the original DUD-E+ database and a Morgan Fingerprint filtered version (denoted DUD-E+-Diverse; available in https://github.com/Pharmacelera/Query-models-to-3DLBVS ), which was prepared to minimize the 2D resemblance between template and actives. Although in most cases the query conformation exhibits a mild influence on the overall performance, a critical analysis is made to disclose factors, such as the content of structural features between template and actives and the induction of conformational strain in the template, that underlie the drastic impact of the query definition in the recovery of actives for certain targets. The findings of this research also provide valuable guidance for assisting the selection of the query definition in 3D LBVS campaigns.
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Affiliation(s)
- Javier Vázquez
- Pharmacelera, Parc Científic de Barcelona (PCB), C/ Baldiri Reixac 4-8, Barcelona, 08028, Spain.
- Departament de Nutrició, Ciències de l'Alimentació i Gastronomia, Facultat de Farmàcia i Ciències de l'Alimentació, Institut de Química Teòrica I Computacional (IQTC-UB), Institut de Biomedicina (IBUB), University of Barcelona, Av. Prat de la Riba 171 , Santa Coloma de Gramenet, -08921, Spain.
| | - Ricardo García
- Pharmacelera, Parc Científic de Barcelona (PCB), C/ Baldiri Reixac 4-8, Barcelona, 08028, Spain
| | - Paula Llinares
- Pharmacelera, Parc Científic de Barcelona (PCB), C/ Baldiri Reixac 4-8, Barcelona, 08028, Spain
- Departament de Nutrició, Ciències de l'Alimentació i Gastronomia, Facultat de Farmàcia i Ciències de l'Alimentació, Institut de Química Teòrica I Computacional (IQTC-UB), Institut de Biomedicina (IBUB), University of Barcelona, Av. Prat de la Riba 171 , Santa Coloma de Gramenet, -08921, Spain
| | - F Javier Luque
- Departament de Nutrició, Ciències de l'Alimentació i Gastronomia, Facultat de Farmàcia i Ciències de l'Alimentació, Institut de Química Teòrica I Computacional (IQTC-UB), Institut de Biomedicina (IBUB), University of Barcelona, Av. Prat de la Riba 171 , Santa Coloma de Gramenet, -08921, Spain
| | - Enric Herrero
- Pharmacelera, Parc Científic de Barcelona (PCB), C/ Baldiri Reixac 4-8, Barcelona, 08028, Spain
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5
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Jobe A, Vijayan R. Orphan G protein-coupled receptors: the ongoing search for a home. Front Pharmacol 2024; 15:1349097. [PMID: 38495099 PMCID: PMC10941346 DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2024.1349097] [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: 12/04/2023] [Accepted: 02/15/2024] [Indexed: 03/19/2024] Open
Abstract
G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) make up the largest receptor superfamily, accounting for 4% of protein-coding genes. Despite the prevalence of such transmembrane receptors, a significant number remain orphans, lacking identified endogenous ligands. Since their conception, the reverse pharmacology approach has been used to characterize such receptors. However, the multifaceted and nuanced nature of GPCR signaling poses a great challenge to their pharmacological elucidation. Considering their therapeutic relevance, the search for native orphan GPCR ligands continues. Despite limited structural input in terms of 3D crystallized structures, with advances in machine-learning approaches, there has been great progress with respect to accurate ligand prediction. Though such an approach proves valuable given that ligand scarcity is the greatest hurdle to orphan GPCR deorphanization, the future pairings of the remaining orphan GPCRs may not necessarily take a one-size-fits-all approach but should be more comprehensive in accounting for numerous nuanced possibilities to cover the full spectrum of GPCR signaling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amie Jobe
- Department of Biology, College of Science, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
| | - Ranjit Vijayan
- Department of Biology, College of Science, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
- The Big Data Analytics Center, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
- Zayed Bin Sultan Center for Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
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6
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Serafim MSM, Kronenberger T, Rocha REO, Rosa ADRA, Mello TLG, Poso A, Ferreira RS, Abrahão JS, Kroon EG, Mota BEF, Maltarollo VG. Aminopyrimidine Derivatives as Multiflavivirus Antiviral Compounds Identified from a Consensus Virtual Screening Approach. J Chem Inf Model 2024; 64:393-411. [PMID: 38194508 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.3c01505] [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: 01/11/2024]
Abstract
Around three billion people are at risk of infection by the dengue virus (DENV) and potentially other flaviviruses. Worldwide outbreaks of DENV, Zika virus (ZIKV), and yellow fever virus (YFV), the lack of antiviral drugs, and limitations on vaccine usage emphasize the need for novel antiviral research. Here, we propose a consensus virtual screening approach to discover potential protease inhibitors (NS3pro) against different flavivirus. We employed an in silico combination of a hologram quantitative structure-activity relationship (HQSAR) model and molecular docking on characterized binding sites followed by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, which filtered a data set of 7.6 million compounds to 2,775 hits. Lastly, docking and MD simulations selected six final potential NS3pro inhibitors with stable interactions along the simulations. Five compounds had their antiviral activity confirmed against ZIKV, YFV, DENV-2, and DENV-3 (ranging from 4.21 ± 0.14 to 37.51 ± 0.8 μM), displaying aggregator characteristics for enzymatic inhibition against ZIKV NS3pro (ranging from 28 ± 7 to 70 ± 7 μM). Taken together, the compounds identified in this approach may contribute to the design of promising candidates to treat different flavivirus infections.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mateus Sá Magalhães Serafim
- Departamento de Microbiologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG 31270-901, Brazil
| | - Thales Kronenberger
- Institute of Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical/Medicinal Chemistry and Tübingen Center for Academic Drug Discovery (TüCAD2), Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 8, Tübingen 72076, Germany
- Excellence Cluster "Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections" (CMFI), Tübingen 72076, Germany
- School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio 70211, Finland
| | - Rafael Eduardo Oliveira Rocha
- Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG 31270-901, Brazil
| | - Amanda Del Rio Abreu Rosa
- Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG 31270-901, Brazil
| | - Thaysa Lara Gonçalves Mello
- Departamento de Produtos Farmacêuticos, Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG 31270-901, Brazil
| | - Antti Poso
- Institute of Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical/Medicinal Chemistry and Tübingen Center for Academic Drug Discovery (TüCAD2), Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 8, Tübingen 72076, Germany
- School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio 70211, Finland
- Department of Medical Oncology and Pneumology, University Hospital of Tübingen, Tübingen 70211, Germany
| | - Rafaela Salgado Ferreira
- Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG 31270-901, Brazil
| | - Jonatas Santos Abrahão
- Departamento de Microbiologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG 31270-901, Brazil
| | - Erna Geessien Kroon
- Departamento de Microbiologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG 31270-901, Brazil
| | - Bruno Eduardo Fernandes Mota
- Departamento de Análises Clínicas e Toxicológicas, Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG 31270-901, Brazil
| | - Vinícius Gonçalves Maltarollo
- Departamento de Produtos Farmacêuticos, Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG 31270-901, Brazil
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7
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Dai R, Bao X, Zhang Y, Huang Y, Zhu H, Yang K, Wang B, Wen H, Li W, Liu J. Hot-Spot Residue-Based Virtual Screening of Novel Selective Estrogen-Receptor Degraders for Breast Cancer Treatment. J Chem Inf Model 2023; 63:7588-7602. [PMID: 37994801 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.3c01503] [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: 11/24/2023]
Abstract
The estrogen-receptor alfa (ERα) is considered pivotal for breast cancer treatment. Although selective estrogen-receptor degraders (SERDs) have been developed to induce ERα degradation and antagonism, their agonistic effect on the uterine tissue and poor pharmacokinetic properties limit further application of ERα; thus, discovering novel SERDs is necessary. The ligand preferentially interacts with several key residues of the protein (defined as hot-spot residues). Improving the interaction with hot-spot residues of ERα offers a promising avenue for obtaining novel SERDs. In this study, pharmacophore modeling, molecular mechanics/generalized Born surface area (MM/GBSA), and amino-acid mutation were combined to determine several hot-spot residues. Focusing on the interaction with these hot-spot residues, hit fragments A1-A3 and A9 were virtually screened from two fragment libraries. Finally, these hit fragments were linked to generate compounds B1-B3, and their biological activities were evaluated. Remarkably, compound B1 exhibited potent antitumor activity against MCF-7 cells (IC50 = 4.21 nM), favorable ERα binding affinity (Ki = 14.6 nM), and excellent ERα degradative ability (DC50 = 9.7 nM), which indicated its potential to evolve as a promising SERD for breast cancer treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rupeng Dai
- School of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Xueting Bao
- School of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Ying Zhang
- School of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Yan Huang
- School of Artificial Intelligence and Information Technology, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Haohao Zhu
- The Affiliated Mental Health Center of Jiangnan University, Wuxi Central Rehabilitation Hospital, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214151, China
| | - Kundi Yang
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056, United States
| | - Bo Wang
- School of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Hongmei Wen
- School of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Wei Li
- School of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Jian Liu
- School of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, China
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8
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Mind the Gap—Deciphering GPCR Pharmacology Using 3D Pharmacophores and Artificial Intelligence. Pharmaceuticals (Basel) 2022; 15:ph15111304. [DOI: 10.3390/ph15111304] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2022] [Revised: 10/15/2022] [Accepted: 10/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are amongst the most pharmaceutically relevant and well-studied protein targets, yet unanswered questions in the field leave significant gaps in our understanding of their nuanced structure and function. Three-dimensional pharmacophore models are powerful computational tools in in silico drug discovery, presenting myriad opportunities for the integration of GPCR structural biology and cheminformatics. This review highlights success stories in the application of 3D pharmacophore modeling to de novo drug design, the discovery of biased and allosteric ligands, scaffold hopping, QSAR analysis, hit-to-lead optimization, GPCR de-orphanization, mechanistic understanding of GPCR pharmacology and the elucidation of ligand–receptor interactions. Furthermore, advances in the incorporation of dynamics and machine learning are highlighted. The review will analyze challenges in the field of GPCR drug discovery, detailing how 3D pharmacophore modeling can be used to address them. Finally, we will present opportunities afforded by 3D pharmacophore modeling in the advancement of our understanding and targeting of GPCRs.
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9
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Identification of Putative Plant-Based ALR-2 Inhibitors to Treat Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy. Curr Issues Mol Biol 2022; 44:2825-2841. [PMID: 35877418 PMCID: PMC9319673 DOI: 10.3390/cimb44070194] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2022] [Revised: 06/15/2022] [Accepted: 06/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is a common diabetes complication (DM). Aldose reductase -2 (ALR-2) is an oxidoreductase enzyme that is most extensively studied therapeutic target for diabetes-related complications that can be inhibited by epalrestat, which has severe adverse effects; hence the discovery of potent natural inhibitors is desired. In response, a pharmacophore model based on the properties of eplarestat was generated. The specified pharmacophore model searched the NuBBEDB database of natural compounds for prospective lead candidates. To assess the drug-likeness and ADMET profile of the compounds, a series of in silico filtering procedures were applied. The compounds were then put through molecular docking and interaction analysis. In comparison to the reference drug, four compounds showed increased binding affinity and demonstrated critical residue interactions with greater stability and specificity. As a result, we have identified four potent inhibitors: ZINC000002895847, ZINC000002566593, ZINC000012447255, and ZINC000065074786, that could be used as pharmacological niches to develop novel ALR-2 inhibitors.
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10
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Wang H, Mulgaonkar N, Pérez LM, Fernando S. ELIXIR-A: An Interactive Visualization Tool for Multi-Target Pharmacophore Refinement. ACS OMEGA 2022; 7:12707-12715. [PMID: 35474832 PMCID: PMC9025992 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.1c07144] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2021] [Accepted: 03/24/2022] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
Pharmacophore modeling is an important step in computer-aided drug design for identifying interaction points between the receptor and ligand complex. Pharmacophore-based models can be used for de novo drug design, lead identification, and optimization in virtual screening as well as for multi-target drug design. There is a need to develop a user-friendly interface to filter the pharmacophore points resulting from multiple ligand conformations. Here, we present ELIXIR-A, a Python-based pharmacophore refinement tool, to help refine the pharmacophores between multiple ligands from multiple receptors. Furthermore, the output can be easily used in virtual pharmacophore-based screening platforms, thereby contributing to the development of drug discovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haoqi Wang
- Biological
and Agricultural Engineering Department, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, United States
| | - Nirmitee Mulgaonkar
- Biological
and Agricultural Engineering Department, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, United States
| | - Lisa M. Pérez
- High
Performance Research Computing, Texas A&M
University, College
Station, Texas 77843, United States
| | - Sandun Fernando
- Biological
and Agricultural Engineering Department, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, United States
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11
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Kumar SP, Dixit NY, Patel CN, Rawal RM, Pandya HA. PharmRF: A machine-learning scoring function to identify the best protein-ligand complexes for structure-based pharmacophore screening with high enrichments. J Comput Chem 2022; 43:847-863. [PMID: 35301752 DOI: 10.1002/jcc.26840] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2021] [Revised: 02/14/2022] [Accepted: 02/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Structure-based pharmacophore models are often developed by selecting a single protein-ligand complex with good resolution and better binding affinity data which prevents the analysis of other structures having a similar potential to act as better templates. PharmRF is a pharmacophore-based scoring function for selecting the best crystal structures with the potential to attain high enrichment rates in pharmacophore-based virtual screening prospectively. The PharmRF scoring function is trained and tested on the PDBbind v2018 protein-ligand complex dataset and employs a random forest regressor to correlate protein pocket descriptors and ligand pharmacophoric elements with binding affinity. PharmRF score represents the calculated binding affinity which identifies high-affinity ligands by thorough pruning of all the PDB entries available for a particular protein of interest with a high PharmRF score. Ligands with high PharmRF scores can provide a better basis for structure-based pharmacophore enumerations with a better enrichment rate. Evaluated on 10 protein-ligand systems of the DUD-E dataset, PharmRF achieved superior performance (average success rate: 77.61%, median success rate: 87.16%) than Vina docking score (75.47%, 79.39%). PharmRF was further evaluated using the CASF-2016 benchmark set yielding a moderate correlation of 0.591 with experimental binding affinity, similar in performance to 25 scoring functions tested on this dataset. Independent assessment of PharmRF on 8 protein-ligand systems of LIT-PCBA dataset exhibited average and median success rates of 57.55% and 74.72% with 4 targets attaining success rate > 90%. The PharmRF scoring model, scripts, and related resources can be accessed at https://github.com/Prasanth-Kumar87/PharmRF.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sivakumar Prasanth Kumar
- Institute of Defence Studies and Research, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, India.,Department of Life Sciences, University School of Sciences, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, India.,Department of Botany, Bioinformatics, and Climate Change Impacts Management, University School of Sciences, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, India
| | - Nandan Y Dixit
- Department of Botany, Bioinformatics, and Climate Change Impacts Management, University School of Sciences, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, India
| | - Chirag N Patel
- Department of Botany, Bioinformatics, and Climate Change Impacts Management, University School of Sciences, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, India
| | - Rakesh M Rawal
- Institute of Defence Studies and Research, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, India.,Department of Life Sciences, University School of Sciences, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, India
| | - Himanshu A Pandya
- Institute of Defence Studies and Research, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, India.,Department of Life Sciences, University School of Sciences, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, India.,Department of Botany, Bioinformatics, and Climate Change Impacts Management, University School of Sciences, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, India
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12
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Tyagi R, Singh A, Chaudhary KK, Yadav MK. Pharmacophore modeling and its applications. Bioinformatics 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-323-89775-4.00009-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
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13
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Radaeva M, Ton AT, Hsing M, Ban F, Cherkasov A. Drugging the 'undruggable'. Therapeutic targeting of protein-DNA interactions with the use of computer-aided drug discovery methods. Drug Discov Today 2021; 26:2660-2679. [PMID: 34332092 DOI: 10.1016/j.drudis.2021.07.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2021] [Revised: 06/22/2021] [Accepted: 07/17/2021] [Indexed: 02/09/2023]
Abstract
Transcription factors (TFs) act as major oncodrivers in many cancers and are frequently regarded as high-value therapeutic targets. The functionality of TFs relies on direct protein-DNA interactions, which are notoriously difficult to target with small molecules. However, this prior view of the 'undruggability' of protein-DNA interfaces has shifted substantially in recent years, in part because of significant advances in computer-aided drug discovery (CADD). In this review, we highlight recent examples of successful CADD campaigns resulting in drug candidates that directly interfere with protein-DNA interactions of several key cancer TFs, including androgen receptor (AR), ETS-related gene (ERG), MYC, thymocyte selection-associated high mobility group box protein (TOX), topoisomerase II (TOP2), and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3). Importantly, these findings open novel and compelling avenues for therapeutic targeting of over 1600 human TFs implicated in many conditions including and beyond cancer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mariia Radaeva
- Vancouver Prostate Centre and the Department of Urologic Sciences, University of British Columbia, 2660 Oak Street, Vancouver, BC V6H 3Z6, Canada
| | - Anh-Tien Ton
- Vancouver Prostate Centre and the Department of Urologic Sciences, University of British Columbia, 2660 Oak Street, Vancouver, BC V6H 3Z6, Canada
| | - Michael Hsing
- Vancouver Prostate Centre and the Department of Urologic Sciences, University of British Columbia, 2660 Oak Street, Vancouver, BC V6H 3Z6, Canada
| | - Fuqiang Ban
- Vancouver Prostate Centre and the Department of Urologic Sciences, University of British Columbia, 2660 Oak Street, Vancouver, BC V6H 3Z6, Canada
| | - Artem Cherkasov
- Vancouver Prostate Centre and the Department of Urologic Sciences, University of British Columbia, 2660 Oak Street, Vancouver, BC V6H 3Z6, Canada.
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14
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Gallego V, Naveiro R, Roca C, Ríos Insua D, Campillo NE. AI in drug development: a multidisciplinary perspective. Mol Divers 2021; 25:1461-1479. [PMID: 34251580 PMCID: PMC8342381 DOI: 10.1007/s11030-021-10266-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2021] [Accepted: 06/29/2021] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
The introduction of a new drug to the commercial market follows a complex and long process that typically spans over several years and entails large monetary costs due to a high attrition rate. Because of this, there is an urgent need to improve this process using innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI). Different AI tools are being applied to support all four steps of the drug development process (basic research for drug discovery; pre-clinical phase; clinical phase; and postmarketing). Some of the main tasks where AI has proven useful include identifying molecular targets, searching for hit and lead compounds, synthesising drug-like compounds and predicting ADME-Tox. This review, on the one hand, brings in a mathematical vision of some of the key AI methods used in drug development closer to medicinal chemists and, on the other hand, brings the drug development process and the use of different models closer to mathematicians. Emphasis is placed on two aspects not mentioned in similar surveys, namely, Bayesian approaches and their applications to molecular modelling and the eventual final use of the methods to actually support decisions. Promoting a perfect synergy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Víctor Gallego
- Institute of Mathematical Sciences (ICMAT-CSIC), Nicolás Cabrera 13-15, 28049, Madrid, Spain
| | - Roi Naveiro
- Institute of Mathematical Sciences (ICMAT-CSIC), Nicolás Cabrera 13-15, 28049, Madrid, Spain
| | - Carlos Roca
- AItenea Biotech S.L. Parque Científico de Madrid, Faraday, 7, 28049, Madrid, Spain
| | - David Ríos Insua
- ICMAT-CSIC and Dept. of Statistics and OR, U. Compl. Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Nuria E Campillo
- CIB-Margarita Salas (CSIC), Ramiro de Maeztu, 9, 28040, Madrid, Spain.
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15
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MUHAMMED MT, AKI-YALCIN E. Pharmacophore Modeling in Drug Discovery: Methodology and Current Status. JOURNAL OF THE TURKISH CHEMICAL SOCIETY, SECTION A: CHEMISTRY 2021. [DOI: 10.18596/jotcsa.927426] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022] Open
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16
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Artificial intelligence in drug design: algorithms, applications, challenges and ethics. FUTURE DRUG DISCOVERY 2021. [DOI: 10.4155/fdd-2020-0028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The discovery paradigm of drugs is rapidly growing due to advances in machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). This review covers myriad faces of AI and ML in drug design. There is a plethora of AI algorithms, the most common of which are summarized in this review. In addition, AI is fraught with challenges that are highlighted along with plausible solutions to them. Examples are provided to illustrate the use of AI and ML in drug discovery and in predicting drug properties such as binding affinities and interactions, solubility, toxicology, blood–brain barrier permeability and chemical properties. The review also includes examples depicting the implementation of AI and ML in tackling intractable diseases such as COVID-19, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Ethical considerations and future perspectives of AI are also covered in this review.
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17
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Zhang X, Wang Y, Li X, Wu J, Zhao L, Li W, Liu J. Dynamics-Based Discovery of Novel, Potent Benzoic Acid Derivatives as Orally Bioavailable Selective Estrogen Receptor Degraders for ERα+ Breast Cancer. J Med Chem 2021; 64:7575-7595. [PMID: 34056898 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.1c00280] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
The estrogen receptor α (ERα) is identified as an effective target for the treatment of ERα+ breast cancer; thus, discovery of novel selective estrogen receptor degraders (SERDs) are developed as an effective method to overcome the resistance of breast cancer. Herein, the hot-spot residues for protein-ligand interaction between SERDs and ERα are analyzed by molecular dynamic simulation technology, focusing on the hot-spot residues for four series of designed and synthesized SERDs. SAR studies revealed that while the acrylic acid moiety of AZD9496 is scaffold hopping into benzoic acid, compound D24 exhibits potent binding affinity with ERα, good degradation efficacy of ERα, and inhibitory effect against the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. Besides, D24 also displays good antitumor efficacy in the MCF-7 human breast cancer xenograft model in vivo, favorable pharmacokinetic properties, excellent druggability, and good safety property, making D24 as a promising drug candidate of SERD for further evaluation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaomeng Zhang
- School of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, China.,R&D Center, Nanjing Sanhome Pharmaceutical Company Ltd., Nanjing 211135, China
| | - Yazhou Wang
- R&D Center, Nanjing Sanhome Pharmaceutical Company Ltd., Nanjing 211135, China
| | - Xue Li
- R&D Center, Nanjing Sanhome Pharmaceutical Company Ltd., Nanjing 211135, China
| | - Jie Wu
- R&D Center, Nanjing Sanhome Pharmaceutical Company Ltd., Nanjing 211135, China
| | - Liwen Zhao
- R&D Center, Nanjing Sanhome Pharmaceutical Company Ltd., Nanjing 211135, China
| | - Wei Li
- School of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Jian Liu
- School of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, China
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18
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Saeed M, Saeed A, Alam MJ, Alreshidi M. Receptor-Based Pharmacophore Modeling in the Search for Natural Products for COVID-19 M pro. Molecules 2021; 26:1549. [PMID: 33799871 PMCID: PMC8000608 DOI: 10.3390/molecules26061549] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2021] [Revised: 03/08/2021] [Accepted: 03/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Considering the urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic, we developed a receptor-based pharmacophore model for identifying FDA-approved drugs and hits from natural products. The COVID-19 main protease (Mpro) was selected for the development of the pharmacophore model. The model consisted of a hydrogen bond acceptor, donor, and hydrophobic features. These features demonstrated good corroboration with a previously reported model that was used to validate the present model, showing an RMSD value of 0.32. The virtual screening was carried out using the ZINC database. A set of 208,000 hits was extracted and filtered using the ligand pharmacophore mapping, applying the lead-like properties. Lipinski's filter and the fit value filter were used to minimize hits to the top 2000. Simultaneous docking was carried out for 200 hits for natural drugs belonging to the FDA-approved drug database. The top 28 hits from these experiments, with promising predicted pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties, are reported here. To optimize these hits as Mpro inhibitors and potential treatment options for COVID-19, bench work investigations are needed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohd Saeed
- Department of Biology, College of Sciences, University of Ha’il, Hail 2440, Saudi Arabia; (M.J.A.); (M.A.)
| | - Amir Saeed
- Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, University of Ha’il, Hail 2440, Saudi Arabia;
| | - Md Jahoor Alam
- Department of Biology, College of Sciences, University of Ha’il, Hail 2440, Saudi Arabia; (M.J.A.); (M.A.)
| | - Mousa Alreshidi
- Department of Biology, College of Sciences, University of Ha’il, Hail 2440, Saudi Arabia; (M.J.A.); (M.A.)
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19
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Wang R, Cong Y, Li M, Bao J, Qi Y, Zhang JZH. Molecular Mechanism of Selective Binding of NMS-P118 to PARP-1 and PARP-2: A Computational Perspective. Front Mol Biosci 2020; 7:50. [PMID: 32373627 PMCID: PMC7179655 DOI: 10.3389/fmolb.2020.00050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2020] [Accepted: 03/13/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
The nuclear protein poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) inhibitors have been proven effective to potentiate both chemotherapeutic agents and radiotherapy. However, a major problem of most current PARP inhibitors is their lack of selectivity for PARP-1 and its closest isoform PARP-2. NMS-P118 is a highly selective PARP inhibitor that binds PARP-1 stronger than PARP-2 and has many advantages such as excellent pharmacokinetic profiles. In this study, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of NMS-P118 in complex with PARP-1 and PARP-2 were performed to understand the molecular mechanism of its selectivity. Alanine scanning together with free energy calculation using MM/GBSA and interaction entropy reveal key residues that are responsible for the selectivity. Although the conformation of the binding pockets and NMS-P118 are very similar in PARP-1 and PARP-2, most of the hot-spot residues in PARP-1 have stronger binding free energy than the corresponding residues in PARP-2. Detailed analysis of the binding energy shows that the 4′4-difluorocyclohexyl ring on NMS-P118 form favorable hydrophobic interaction with Y889 in PARP-1. In addition, the H862 residue in PARP-1 has stronger binding free energy than H428 in PARP-2, which is due to shorter distance and stronger hydrogen bonds. Moreover, the negatively charged E763 residue in PARP-1 forms stronger electrostatic interaction energy with the positively charged NMS-P118 than the Q332 residue in PARP-2. These results rationalize the selectivity of NMS-P118 and may be useful for designing novel selective PARP inhibitors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ran Wang
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Chemical Process, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Molecular Therapeutics and New Drug Development, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University at Shanghai, Shanghai, China
| | - Yalong Cong
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Chemical Process, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Molecular Therapeutics and New Drug Development, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University at Shanghai, Shanghai, China
| | - Mengxin Li
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Chemical Process, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Molecular Therapeutics and New Drug Development, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University at Shanghai, Shanghai, China
| | - Jinxiao Bao
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Chemical Process, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Molecular Therapeutics and New Drug Development, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University at Shanghai, Shanghai, China
| | - Yifei Qi
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Chemical Process, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Molecular Therapeutics and New Drug Development, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University at Shanghai, Shanghai, China.,NYU-ECNU Center for Computational Chemistry at NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China
| | - John Z H Zhang
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Chemical Process, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Molecular Therapeutics and New Drug Development, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University at Shanghai, Shanghai, China.,NYU-ECNU Center for Computational Chemistry at NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China.,Department of Chemistry, New York University, New York, NY, United States.,Collaborative Innovation Center of Extreme Optics, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, China
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20
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Cong Y, Huang K, Li Y, Zhong S, Zhang JZH, Duan L. Entropic effect and residue specific entropic contribution to the cooperativity in streptavidin-biotin binding. NANOSCALE 2020; 12:7134-7145. [PMID: 32191786 DOI: 10.1039/c9nr08380d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed employing the polarized protein-specific charge (PPC) to explore the origin of the cooperativity in streptavidin-biotin systems (wild type, two single mutations and one double-mutation). The results of the experiment found that the existence of cooperativity is mainly the result of the entropic effect. In this study, the entropic contribution to the binding free energy was calculated using the recently developed interaction entropy (IE) method, and computational results are in excellent agreement with the experimental observations and are further verified by the calculation of the thermodynamic integration. Comparison of different force fields in terms of predicted binding strength ordering, cooperativity of energy and the stability of hydrogen bonding suggests that the PPC force field combined IE method is a suitable choice. In addition, the IE method enables us to obtain the residue-specific entropic contributions to the streptavidin-biotin binding affinity and identify ten hot-spot residues providing the dominant contribution to the cooperative binding. Importantly, the overall cooperativity obtained from the ten residues also comes mainly from the entropic effect in our study. The calculation of the potential of mean force shows that the unbinding of streptavidin-biotin is a multi-step process, and each step corresponds to the formation and rupture of the hydrogen bond network. And S45A mutation may increase the rigidity of the linker region, making the flap region relatively difficult to open. The present study provides significant molecular insight into the binding cooperativity of the streptavidin-biotin complex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yalong Cong
- School of Physics and Electronics, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250014, China.
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21
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Schaller D, Šribar D, Noonan T, Deng L, Nguyen TN, Pach S, Machalz D, Bermudez M, Wolber G. Next generation 3D pharmacophore modeling. WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS-COMPUTATIONAL MOLECULAR SCIENCE 2020. [DOI: 10.1002/wcms.1468] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- David Schaller
- Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry Freie Universität Berlin Berlin Germany
| | - Dora Šribar
- Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry Freie Universität Berlin Berlin Germany
| | - Theresa Noonan
- Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry Freie Universität Berlin Berlin Germany
| | - Lihua Deng
- Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry Freie Universität Berlin Berlin Germany
| | - Trung Ngoc Nguyen
- Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry Freie Universität Berlin Berlin Germany
| | - Szymon Pach
- Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry Freie Universität Berlin Berlin Germany
| | - David Machalz
- Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry Freie Universität Berlin Berlin Germany
| | - Marcel Bermudez
- Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry Freie Universität Berlin Berlin Germany
| | - Gerhard Wolber
- Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry Freie Universität Berlin Berlin Germany
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22
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Lee JY, Krieger JM, Li H, Bahar I. Pharmmaker: Pharmacophore modeling and hit identification based on druggability simulations. Protein Sci 2019; 29:76-86. [PMID: 31576621 PMCID: PMC6933858 DOI: 10.1002/pro.3732] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2019] [Revised: 09/16/2019] [Accepted: 09/17/2019] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Recent years have seen progress in druggability simulations, that is, molecular dynamics simulations of target proteins in solutions containing drug‐like probe molecules to characterize their drug‐binding abilities, if any. An important consecutive step is to analyze the trajectories to construct pharmacophore models (PMs) to use for virtual screening of libraries of small molecules. While considerable success has been observed in this type of computer‐aided drug discovery, a systematic tool encompassing multiple steps from druggability simulations to pharmacophore modeling, to identifying hits by virtual screening of libraries of compounds, has been lacking. We address this need here by developing a new tool, Pharmmaker, building on the DruGUI module of our ProDy application programming interface. Pharmmaker is composed of a suite of steps: (Step 1) identification of high affinity residues for each probe molecule type; (Step 2) selecting high affinity residues and hot spots in the vicinity of sites identified by DruGUI; (Step 3) ranking of the interactions between high affinity residues and specific probes; (Step 4) obtaining probe binding poses and corresponding protein conformations by collecting top‐ranked snapshots; and (Step 5) using those snapshots for constructing PMs. The PMs are then used as filters for identifying hits in structure‐based virtual screening. Pharmmaker, accessible online at http://prody.csb.pitt.edu/pharmmaker/, can be used in conjunction with other tools available in ProDy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ji Young Lee
- Department of Computational and Systems Biology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
| | - James M Krieger
- Department of Computational and Systems Biology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
| | - Hongchun Li
- Department of Computational and Systems Biology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
| | - Ivet Bahar
- Department of Computational and Systems Biology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
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23
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Horvath D, Marcou G, Varnek A. Generative Topographic Mapping of the Docking Conformational Space. Molecules 2019; 24:molecules24122269. [PMID: 31216756 PMCID: PMC6631714 DOI: 10.3390/molecules24122269] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2019] [Revised: 06/14/2019] [Accepted: 06/15/2019] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Following previous efforts to render the Conformational Space (CS) of flexible compounds by Generative Topographic Mapping (GTM), this polyvalent mapping technique is here adapted to the docking problem. Contact fingerprints (CF) characterize ligands from the perspective of the binding site by monitoring protein atoms that are “touched” by those of the ligand. A “Contact” (CF) map was built by GTM-driven dimensionality reduction of the CF vector space. Alternatively, a “Hybrid” (Hy) map used a composite descriptor of CFs concatenated with ligand fragment descriptors. These maps indirectly represent the active site and integrate the binding information of multiple ligands. The concept is illustrated by a docking study into the ATP-binding site of CDK2, using the S4MPLE program to generate thousands of poses for each ligand. Both maps were challenged to (1) Discriminate native from non-native ligand poses, e.g., create RMSD-landscapes “colored” by the conformer ensemble of ligands of known binding modes in order to highlight “native” map zones (poses with RMSD to PDB structures < 2Å). Then, projection of poses of other ligands on such landscapes might serve to predict those falling in native zones as being well-docked. (2) Distinguish ligands–characterized by their ensemble of conformers–by their potency, e.g., testing the hypotheses whether zones privileged by potent binders are clearly separated from the ones preferred by decoys on the maps. Hybrid maps were better in both challenges and outperformed the classical energy and individual contact satisfaction scores in discriminating ligands by potency. Moreover, the intuitive visualization and analysis of docking CS may, as already mentioned, have several applications–from highlighting of key contacts to monitoring docking calculation convergence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dragos Horvath
- Laboratoire de Chemoinformatique, UMR7140 CNRS/Univ. of Strasbourg, 1, rue Blaise Pascal, 67000 Strasbourg, France.
| | - Gilles Marcou
- Laboratoire de Chemoinformatique, UMR7140 CNRS/Univ. of Strasbourg, 1, rue Blaise Pascal, 67000 Strasbourg, France.
| | - Alexandre Varnek
- Laboratoire de Chemoinformatique, UMR7140 CNRS/Univ. of Strasbourg, 1, rue Blaise Pascal, 67000 Strasbourg, France.
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24
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Tran-Nguyen VK, Da Silva F, Bret G, Rognan D. All in One: Cavity Detection, Druggability Estimate, Cavity-Based Pharmacophore Perception, and Virtual Screening. J Chem Inf Model 2019; 59:573-585. [PMID: 30563339 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.8b00684] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Discovering the very first ligands of pharmacologically important targets in a fast and cost-efficient manner is an important issue in drug discovery. In the absence of structural information on either endogenous or synthetic ligands, computational chemists classically identify the very first hits by docking compound libraries to a binding site of interest, with well-known biases arising from the usage of scoring functions. We herewith propose a novel computational method tailored to ligand-free protein structures and consisting in the generation of simple cavity-based pharmacophores to which potential ligands could be aligned by the use of a smooth Gaussian function. The method, embedded in the IChem toolkit, automatically detects ligand-binding cavities, then predicts their structural druggability, and last creates a structure-based pharmacophore for predicted druggable binding sites. A companion tool (Shaper2) was designed to align ligands to cavity-derived pharmacophoric features. The proposed method is as efficient as state-of-the-art virtual screening methods (ROCS, Surflex-Dock) in both posing and virtual screening challenges. Interestingly, IChem-Shaper2 is clearly orthogonal to these latter methods in retrieving unique chemotypes from high-throughput virtual screening data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Viet-Khoa Tran-Nguyen
- Laboratoire d'Innovation Thérapeutique , UMR 7200 CNRS-Université de Strasbourg , 67400 Illkirch , France
| | - Franck Da Silva
- Laboratoire d'Innovation Thérapeutique , UMR 7200 CNRS-Université de Strasbourg , 67400 Illkirch , France
| | - Guillaume Bret
- Laboratoire d'Innovation Thérapeutique , UMR 7200 CNRS-Université de Strasbourg , 67400 Illkirch , France
| | - Didier Rognan
- Laboratoire d'Innovation Thérapeutique , UMR 7200 CNRS-Université de Strasbourg , 67400 Illkirch , France
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25
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Kumar SP. Receptor pharmacophore ensemble (REPHARMBLE): a probabilistic pharmacophore modeling approach using multiple protein-ligand complexes. J Mol Model 2018; 24:282. [PMID: 30220049 DOI: 10.1007/s00894-018-3820-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2018] [Accepted: 09/03/2018] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
Ensemble methods are gaining more importance in structure-based approaches as single protein-ligand complexes strongly influence the outcomes of virtual screening. Structure-based pharmacophore modeling based on a single protein-ligand complex with complex feature combinations is often limited to certain chemical classes. The REPHARMBLE (receptor pharmacophore ensemble) approach presented here examines the ability of an ensemble of selected protein-ligand complexes to populate pharmacophore space in the ligand binding site, rigorously assesses the importance of pharmacophore features using Poisson statistic and information theory-based entropy calculations, and generates pharmacophore models with high probabilities. In addition, an ensemble scoring function that combines all the resultant high-scoring pharmacophore models to score molecules is derived. The REPHARMBLE approach was evaluated on ten DUD-E benchmark datasets and afforded good screening performance, as measured by receiver operating characteristic, enrichment factor and Güner-Henry score. Although one of the high-scoring models achieved superior statistical results in each dataset, the ensemble scoring function balanced the shortcomings of each model and passed with close performance measures. This approach offers a reliable way of choosing the best-scoring features to build four-feature pharmacophore queries and customize a target-biased 'pharmacophore ensemble' scoring function for subsequent virtual screening.
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26
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Macalino SJY, Basith S, Clavio NAB, Chang H, Kang S, Choi S. Evolution of In Silico Strategies for Protein-Protein Interaction Drug Discovery. Molecules 2018; 23:E1963. [PMID: 30082644 PMCID: PMC6222862 DOI: 10.3390/molecules23081963] [Citation(s) in RCA: 62] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2018] [Revised: 08/03/2018] [Accepted: 08/04/2018] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
The advent of advanced molecular modeling software, big data analytics, and high-speed processing units has led to the exponential evolution of modern drug discovery and better insights into complex biological processes and disease networks. This has progressively steered current research interests to understanding protein-protein interaction (PPI) systems that are related to a number of relevant diseases, such as cancer, neurological illnesses, metabolic disorders, etc. However, targeting PPIs are challenging due to their "undruggable" binding interfaces. In this review, we focus on the current obstacles that impede PPI drug discovery, and how recent discoveries and advances in in silico approaches can alleviate these barriers to expedite the search for potential leads, as shown in several exemplary studies. We will also discuss about currently available information on PPI compounds and systems, along with their usefulness in molecular modeling. Finally, we conclude by presenting the limits of in silico application in drug discovery and offer a perspective in the field of computer-aided PPI drug discovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephani Joy Y Macalino
- College of Pharmacy and Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 03760, Korea.
| | - Shaherin Basith
- College of Pharmacy and Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 03760, Korea.
| | - Nina Abigail B Clavio
- College of Pharmacy and Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 03760, Korea.
| | - Hyerim Chang
- College of Pharmacy and Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 03760, Korea.
| | - Soosung Kang
- College of Pharmacy and Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 03760, Korea.
| | - Sun Choi
- College of Pharmacy and Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 03760, Korea.
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27
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Proschak E, Stark H, Merk D. Polypharmacology by Design: A Medicinal Chemist's Perspective on Multitargeting Compounds. J Med Chem 2018; 62:420-444. [PMID: 30035545 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.8b00760] [Citation(s) in RCA: 276] [Impact Index Per Article: 46.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Multitargeting compounds comprising activity on more than a single biological target have gained remarkable relevance in drug discovery owing to the complexity of multifactorial diseases such as cancer, inflammation, or the metabolic syndrome. Polypharmacological drug profiles can produce additive or synergistic effects while reducing side effects and significantly contribute to the high therapeutic success of indispensable drugs such as aspirin. While their identification has long been the result of serendipity, medicinal chemistry now tends to design polypharmacology. Modern in vitro pharmacological methods and chemical probes allow a systematic search for rational target combinations and recent innovations in computational technologies, crystallography, or fragment-based design equip multitarget compound development with valuable tools. In this Perspective, we analyze the relevance of multiple ligands in drug discovery and the versatile toolbox to design polypharmacology. We conclude that despite some characteristic challenges remaining unresolved, designed polypharmacology holds enormous potential to secure future therapeutic innovation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ewgenij Proschak
- Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry , Goethe University Frankfurt , Max-von-Laue-Strasse 9 , D-60438 Frankfurt , Germany
| | - Holger Stark
- Institute of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry , Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf , Universitaetsstrasse 1 , D-40225 , Duesseldorf , Germany
| | - Daniel Merk
- Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry , Goethe University Frankfurt , Max-von-Laue-Strasse 9 , D-60438 Frankfurt , Germany.,Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences , Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich , Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 4 , CH-8093 Zürich , Switzerland
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A Component Formula of Chinese Medicine for Hypercholesterolemia Based on Virtual Screening and Biology Network. EVIDENCE-BASED COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE 2018; 2018:1854972. [PMID: 30050582 PMCID: PMC6046189 DOI: 10.1155/2018/1854972] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2017] [Revised: 05/18/2018] [Accepted: 06/04/2018] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
Hypercholesterolemia is a risk factor to atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease II. The abnormal rise of cholesterol in plasma is the main symptom. Cholesterol synthesis pathway is an important pathway of the origin of cholesterol, which is an essential pathway for the therapy of hypercholesterolemia. The 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase (HMG-CoA reductase), squalene synthase (SQS), and sterol regulatory element binding protein-2 (SREBP-2) are closely connected with the synthesis of cholesterol. The inhibition of these targets can reduce the cholesterol in plasma. This study aimed to build a component formula including three Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM) components with the inhibition activity of these targets by using virtual screening and biological network. Structure-based pharmacophore models of HMG-CoA reductase and SQS and ligand-based pharmacophore model of SREBP-2 were constructed to screen the Traditional Chinese Medicine Database (TCMD). Molecular docking was used for further screening of components of HMG-CoA reductase and SQS. Then, metabolic network was constructed to elucidate the comprehensive interaction of three targets for lipid metabolism. Finally, three potential active compounds were obtained, which are poncimarin, hexahydrocurcumin, and forsythoside C. The source plants of the compounds were also taken into account, which should have known action of lowering hyperlipidemia. The lipid-lowering effect of hexahydrocurcumin was verified by experiment in vitro. The components that originated from TCMs with lipid-lowering efficacy made up a formula with a synergistic effect through the computer aid drug design methods. The research provides a fast and efficient method to build TCM component formula and it may inspire the study of the explanation of TCM formula mechanism.
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Liu X, Peng L, Zhou Y, Zhang Y, Zhang JZH. Computational Alanine Scanning with Interaction Entropy for Protein–Ligand Binding Free Energies. J Chem Theory Comput 2018; 14:1772-1780. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.7b01295] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Xiao Liu
- State Key Laboratory for Precision Spectroscopy, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Molecular Therapeutics & New Drug Development, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
| | - Long Peng
- State Key Laboratory for Precision Spectroscopy, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Molecular Therapeutics & New Drug Development, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
| | - Yifan Zhou
- State Key Laboratory for Precision Spectroscopy, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Molecular Therapeutics & New Drug Development, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
| | - Youzhi Zhang
- State Key Laboratory for Precision Spectroscopy, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Molecular Therapeutics & New Drug Development, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
| | - John Z. H. Zhang
- State Key Laboratory for Precision Spectroscopy, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Molecular Therapeutics & New Drug Development, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
- NYU-ECNU Center for Computational Chemistry at NYU Shanghai, Shanghai 200062, China
- Department of Chemistry, New York University, New York, New York 10003, United States
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Extreme Optics, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, Shanxi 030006, China
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30
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Affiliation(s)
- Norbert Handler
- RD&C Research, Development & Consulting GmbH; Neuwaldegger Strasse 35/2/3 Vienna 1170 Austria
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31
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Abstract
Accurate modeling of protein ligand binding is an important step in structure-based drug design, is a useful starting point for finding new lead compounds or drug candidates. The 'Lock and Key' concept of protein-ligand binding has dominated descriptions of these interactions, and has been effectively translated to computational molecular docking approaches. In turn, molecular docking can reveal key elements in protein-ligand interactions-thereby enabling design of potent small molecule inhibitors directed against specific targets. However, accurate predictions of binding pose and energetic remain challenging problems. The last decade has witnessed more sophisticated molecular docking approaches to modeling protein-ligand binding and energetics. However, the complexities that confront accurate modeling of binding phenomena remain formidable. Subtle recognition and discrimination patterns governed by three-dimensional features and microenvironments of the active site play vital roles in consolidating the key intermolecular interactions that mediates ligand binding. Herein, we briefly review contemporary approaches and suggest that future approaches treat protein-ligand docking problems in the context of a 'combination lock' system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ashutosh Tripathi
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine, College of Medicine, Texas A&M Health Sciences Center, College Station, Texas, USA
| | - Vytas A Bankaitis
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine, College of Medicine, Texas A&M Health Sciences Center, College Station, Texas, USA.,Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, A&M Health Sciences Center, Texas, USA.,Department of Chemistry, A&M Health Sciences Center, Texas, USA
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Abstract
Due to increasing interest in peptides as signaling modulators and drug candidates, several methods for peptide docking to their target proteins are under active development. The "blind" docking problem, where the peptide-binding site on the protein surface is unknown, presents one of the current challenges in the field. AnchorDock protocol was developed by Ben-Shimon and Niv to address this challenge.This protocol narrows the docking search to the most relevant parts of the conformational space. This is achieved by pre-folding the free peptide and by computationally detecting anchoring spots on the surface of the unbound protein. Multiple flexible simulated annealing molecular dynamics (SAMD) simulations are subsequently carried out, starting from pre-folded peptide conformations, constrained to the various precomputed anchoring spots.Here, AnchorDock is demonstrated using two known protein-peptide complexes. A PDZ-peptide complex provides a relatively easy case due to the relatively small size of the protein, and a typical peptide conformation and binding region; a more challenging example is a complex between USP7N-term and a p53-derived peptide, where the protein is larger, and the peptide conformation and a binding site are generally assumed to be unknown. AnchorDock returned native-like solutions ranked first and third for the PDZ and USP7 complexes, respectively. We describe the procedure step by step and discuss possible modifications where applicable.
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Jha T, Adhikari N, Halder AK, Saha A. Ligand- and Structure-Based Drug Design of Non-Steroidal Aromatase Inhibitors (NSAIs) in Breast Cancer. Oncology 2017. [DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-0549-5.ch004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Aromatase is a multienzyme complex overexpressed in breast cancer and responsible for estrogen production. It is the potential target for designing anti-breast cancer drugs. Ligand and Structure-Based Drug Designing approaches (LBDD and SBDD) are involved in development of active and more specific Nonsteroidal Aromatase Inhibitors (NSAIs). Different LBDD and SBDD approaches are presented here to understand their utility in designing novel NSAIs. It is observed that molecules should possess a five or six membered heterocyclic nitrogen containing ring to coordinate with heme portion of aromatase for inhibition. Moreover, one or two hydrogen bond acceptor features, hydrophobicity, and steric factors may play crucial roles for anti-aromatase activity. Electrostatic, van der Waals, and p-p interactions are other important factors that determine binding affinity of inhibitors. HQSAR, LDA-QSAR, GQSAR, CoMFA, and CoMSIA approaches, pharmacophore mapping followed by virtual screening, docking, and dynamic simulation may be effective approaches for designing new potent anti-aromatase molecules.
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Improved pose and affinity predictions using different protocols tailored on the basis of data availability. J Comput Aided Mol Des 2016; 30:817-828. [DOI: 10.1007/s10822-016-9982-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2016] [Accepted: 09/28/2016] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
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Ngo T, Kufareva I, Coleman JL, Graham RM, Abagyan R, Smith NJ. Identifying ligands at orphan GPCRs: current status using structure-based approaches. Br J Pharmacol 2016; 173:2934-51. [PMID: 26837045 PMCID: PMC5341249 DOI: 10.1111/bph.13452] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2015] [Revised: 11/18/2015] [Accepted: 01/29/2016] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
GPCRs are the most successful pharmaceutical targets in history. Nevertheless, the pharmacology of many GPCRs remains inaccessible as their endogenous or exogenous modulators have not been discovered. Tools that explore the physiological functions and pharmacological potential of these 'orphan' GPCRs, whether they are endogenous and/or surrogate ligands, are therefore of paramount importance. Rates of receptor deorphanization determined by traditional reverse pharmacology methods have slowed, indicating a need for the development of more sophisticated and efficient ligand screening approaches. Here, we discuss the use of structure-based ligand discovery approaches to identify small molecule modulators for exploring the function of orphan GPCRs. These studies have been buoyed by the growing number of GPCR crystal structures solved in the past decade, providing a broad range of template structures for homology modelling of orphans. This review discusses the methods used to establish the appropriate signalling assays to test orphan receptor activity and provides current examples of structure-based methods used to identify ligands of orphan GPCRs. Linked Articles This article is part of a themed section on Molecular Pharmacology of G Protein-Coupled Receptors. To view the other articles in this section visit http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.v173.20/issuetoc.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tony Ngo
- Molecular Cardiology and Biophysics Division, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia
- St. Vincent's Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia
| | - Irina Kufareva
- Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA
| | - James Lj Coleman
- Molecular Cardiology and Biophysics Division, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia
- St. Vincent's Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia
| | - Robert M Graham
- Molecular Cardiology and Biophysics Division, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia
- St. Vincent's Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia
| | - Ruben Abagyan
- Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA
| | - Nicola J Smith
- Molecular Cardiology and Biophysics Division, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia.
- St. Vincent's Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia.
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Wieder M, Perricone U, Seidel T, Langer T. Pharmacophore Models Derived from Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Protein-Ligand Complexes: A Case Study. Nat Prod Commun 2016. [DOI: 10.1177/1934578x1601101019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
A single, merged pharmacophore hypothesis is derived combining 2000 pharmacophore models obtained during a 20 ns molecular dynamics simulation of a protein-ligand complex with one pharmacophore model derived from the initial PDB structure. This merged pharmacophore model contains all features that are present during the simulation and statistical information about the dynamics of the pharmacophore features. Based on the dynamics of the pharmacophore features we derive two distinctive feature patterns resulting in two different pharmacophore models for the analyzed system – the first model consists of features that are obtained from the PDB structure and the second uses two features that can only be derived from the molecular dynamics simulation. Both models can distinguish between active and decoy molecules in virtual screening. Our approach represents an objective way to add/remove features in pharmacophore models and can be of interest for the investigation of any naturally occurring system that relies on ligand-receptor interactions for its biological activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marcus Wieder
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Department of Computational Biological Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Ugo Perricone
- Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche Chimiche e Farmaceutiche “STEBICEF”, Università di Palermo, Palermo, Italy
| | - Thomas Seidel
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Thierry Langer
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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37
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Comparing pharmacophore models derived from crystal structures and from molecular dynamics simulations. MONATSHEFTE FUR CHEMIE 2016; 147:553-563. [PMID: 27069282 PMCID: PMC4785218 DOI: 10.1007/s00706-016-1674-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2015] [Accepted: 01/14/2016] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
Abstract
ABSTRACT Pharmacophore modeling is a widely used technique in computer-aided drug discovery. Structure-based pharmacophore models of a ligand in complex with a protein have proven to be useful for supporting in silico hit discovery, hit to lead expansion, and lead optimization. As a structure-based approach it depends on the correct interpretation of ligand-protein interactions. There are legitimate concerns about the fidelity of the bound ligand and about non-physiological contacts with parts of the crystal and the solvent effects that influence the protein structure. A possible way to refine the structure of a protein-ligand system is to use the final structure of a given MD simulation. In this study we compare pharmacophore models built using the initial protein-ligand structure obtained from the protein data bank (PDB) with pharmacophore models built with the final structure of a molecular dynamics simulation. We show that the pharmacophore models differ in feature number and feature type and that the pharmacophore models built from the last structure of a MD simulation shows in some cases better ability to distinguish between active and decoy ligand structures. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
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38
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Johnson DK, Karanicolas J. Ultra-High-Throughput Structure-Based Virtual Screening for Small-Molecule Inhibitors of Protein-Protein Interactions. J Chem Inf Model 2016; 56:399-411. [PMID: 26726827 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.5b00572] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Protein-protein interactions play important roles in virtually all cellular processes, making them enticing targets for modulation by small-molecule therapeutics: specific examples have been well validated in diseases ranging from cancer and autoimmune disorders, to bacterial and viral infections. Despite several notable successes, however, overall these remain a very challenging target class. Protein interaction sites are especially challenging for computational approaches, because the target protein surface often undergoes a conformational change to enable ligand binding: this confounds traditional approaches for virtual screening. Through previous studies, we demonstrated that biased "pocket optimization" simulations could be used to build collections of low-energy pocket-containing conformations, starting from an unbound protein structure. Here, we demonstrate that these pockets can further be used to identify ligands that complement the protein surface. To do so, we first build from a given pocket its "exemplar": a perfect, but nonphysical, pseudoligand that would optimally match the shape and chemical features of the pocket. In our previous studies, we used these exemplars to quantitatively compare protein surface pockets to one another. Here, we now introduce this exemplar as a template for pharmacophore-based screening of chemical libraries. Through a series of benchmark experiments, we demonstrate that this approach exhibits comparable performance as traditional docking methods for identifying known inhibitors acting at protein interaction sites. However, because this approach is predicated on ligand/exemplar overlays, and thus does not require explicit calculation of protein-ligand interactions, exemplar screening provides a tremendous speed advantage over docking: 6 million compounds can be screened in about 15 min on a single 16-core, dual-GPU computer. The extreme speed at which large compound libraries can be traversed easily enables screening against a "pocket-optimized" ensemble of protein conformations, which in turn facilitates identification of more diverse classes of active compounds for a given protein target.
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Affiliation(s)
- David K Johnson
- Center for Computational Biology, and ‡Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Kansas , 2030 Becker Drive, Lawrence, Kansas 66045-7534, United States
| | - John Karanicolas
- Center for Computational Biology, and ‡Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Kansas , 2030 Becker Drive, Lawrence, Kansas 66045-7534, United States
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39
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Sarvagalla S, Cheung CHA, Tsai JY, Hsieh HP, Coumar MS. Disruption of protein–protein interactions: hot spot detection, structure-based virtual screening and in vitro testing for the anti-cancer drug target – survivin. RSC Adv 2016. [DOI: 10.1039/c5ra22927h] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Hot spot detection at the protein–protein interaction interface using computational tools helped to identify indinavir as survivin inhibitor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sailu Sarvagalla
- Centre for Bioinformatics
- School of Life Sciences
- Pondicherry University
- Puducherry 605014
- India
| | - Chun Hei Antonio Cheung
- Department of Pharmacology
- College of Medicine
- National Cheng Kung University
- Tainan
- Republic of China
| | - Ju-Ya Tsai
- Department of Pharmacology
- College of Medicine
- National Cheng Kung University
- Tainan
- Republic of China
| | - Hsing Pang Hsieh
- Institute of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Research
- National Health Research Institutes
- Miaoli County 350
- Republic of China
| | - Mohane Selvaraj Coumar
- Centre for Bioinformatics
- School of Life Sciences
- Pondicherry University
- Puducherry 605014
- India
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40
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Prathipati P, Mizuguchi K. Integration of Ligand and Structure Based Approaches for CSAR-2014. J Chem Inf Model 2015; 56:974-87. [PMID: 26492437 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.5b00477] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/17/2023]
Abstract
The prediction of binding poses and affinities is an area of active interest in computer-aided drug design (CADD). Given the documented limitations with either ligand or structure based approaches, we employed an integrated approach and developed a rapid protocol for binding mode and affinity predictions. This workflow was applied to the three protein targets of Community Structure-Activity Resource-2014 (CSAR-2014) exercise: Factor Xa (FXa), Spleen Tyrosine Kinase (SYK), and tRNA (guanine-N(1))-methyltransferase (TrmD). Our docking and scoring workflow incorporates compound clustering and ligand and protein structure based pharmacophore modeling, followed by local docking, minimization, and scoring. While the former part of the protocol ensures high-quality ligand alignments and mapping, the subsequent minimization and scoring provides the predicted binding modes and affinities. We made blind predictions of docking pose for 1, 5, and 14 ligands docked into 1, 2, and 12 crystal structures of FXa, SYK, and TrmD, respectively. The resulting 174 poses were compared with cocrystallized structures (1, 5, and 14 complexes) made available at the end of CSAR. Our predicted poses were related to the experimentally determined structures with a mean root-mean-square deviation value of 3.4 Å. Further, we were able to classify high and low affinity ligands with the area under the curve values of 0.47, 0.60, and 0.69 for FXa, SYK, and TrmD, respectively, indicating the validity of our approach in at least two of the three systems. Detailed critical analysis of the results and CSAR methodology ranking procedures suggested that a straightforward application of our workflow has limitations, as some of the performance measures do not reflect the actual utility of pose and affinity predictions in the biological context of individual systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philip Prathipati
- National Institutes of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition , 7-6-8 Saito-Asagi, Ibaraki City, Osaka 567-0085, Japan
| | - Kenji Mizuguchi
- National Institutes of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition , 7-6-8 Saito-Asagi, Ibaraki City, Osaka 567-0085, Japan
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41
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Kelley BP, Brown SP, Warren GL, Muchmore SW. POSIT: Flexible Shape-Guided Docking For Pose Prediction. J Chem Inf Model 2015; 55:1771-80. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.5b00142] [Citation(s) in RCA: 85] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Brian P. Kelley
- OpenEye Scientific Software, 9 Bisbee Court, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87508, United States
- Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Inc, 250 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Scott P. Brown
- Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc, 84 Waterford Drive, Marlborough, Massachusetts 01752, United States
- Global
Pharmaceutical Research Division, AbbVie, 10 Waukegan Road, North Chicago, Illinois 60064, United States
| | - Gregory L. Warren
- OpenEye Scientific Software, 9 Bisbee Court, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87508, United States
| | - Steven W. Muchmore
- Global
Pharmaceutical Research Division, AbbVie, 10 Waukegan Road, North Chicago, Illinois 60064, United States
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42
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Johnson DK, Karanicolas J. Selectivity by small-molecule inhibitors of protein interactions can be driven by protein surface fluctuations. PLoS Comput Biol 2015; 11:e1004081. [PMID: 25706586 PMCID: PMC4338137 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004081] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2014] [Accepted: 12/10/2014] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Small-molecules that inhibit interactions between specific pairs of proteins have long represented a promising avenue for therapeutic intervention in a variety of settings. Structural studies have shown that in many cases, the inhibitor-bound protein adopts a conformation that is distinct from its unbound and its protein-bound conformations. This plasticity of the protein surface presents a major challenge in predicting which members of a protein family will be inhibited by a given ligand. Here, we use biased simulations of Bcl-2-family proteins to generate ensembles of low-energy conformations that contain surface pockets suitable for small molecule binding. We find that the resulting conformational ensembles include surface pockets that mimic those observed in inhibitor-bound crystal structures. Next, we find that the ensembles generated using different members of this protein family are overlapping but distinct, and that the activity of a given compound against a particular family member (ligand selectivity) can be predicted from whether the corresponding ensemble samples a complementary surface pocket. Finally, we find that each ensemble includes certain surface pockets that are not shared by any other family member: while no inhibitors have yet been identified to take advantage of these pockets, we expect that chemical scaffolds complementing these “distinct” pockets will prove highly selective for their targets. The opportunity to achieve target selectivity within a protein family by exploiting differences in surface fluctuations represents a new paradigm that may facilitate design of family-selective small-molecule inhibitors of protein-protein interactions. Despite intense interest and considerable effort, there are few examples of small molecules that directly inhibit protein-protein interactions. Crystal structures of early successes have highlighted the plasticity of the protein surface, as some inhibitor-bound proteins are captured in conformations that are distinct from both their unbound and their protein-bound conformations. The lack of a single well-defined structure presents a challenge for predicting the members of a protein family to which a given compound will show activity (ligand selectivity). Here we generate ensembles of conformations from simulation, and show that we can predict ligand selectivity based on which family members sample conformations complementary to the ligand. This approach may present a new avenue for designing highly-selective inhibitors of protein-protein interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- David K. Johnson
- Center for Computational Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States of America
| | - John Karanicolas
- Center for Computational Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States of America
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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Jha T, Adhikari N, Halder AK, Saha A. Ligand- and Structure-Based Drug Design of Non-Steroidal Aromatase Inhibitors (NSAIs) in Breast Cancer. QUANTITATIVE STRUCTURE-ACTIVITY RELATIONSHIPS IN DRUG DESIGN, PREDICTIVE TOXICOLOGY, AND RISK ASSESSMENT 2015. [DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8136-1.ch011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
Aromatase is a multienzyme complex overexpressed in breast cancer and responsible for estrogen production. It is the potential target for designing anti-breast cancer drugs. Ligand and Structure-Based Drug Designing approaches (LBDD and SBDD) are involved in development of active and more specific Nonsteroidal Aromatase Inhibitors (NSAIs). Different LBDD and SBDD approaches are presented here to understand their utility in designing novel NSAIs. It is observed that molecules should possess a five or six membered heterocyclic nitrogen containing ring to coordinate with heme portion of aromatase for inhibition. Moreover, one or two hydrogen bond acceptor features, hydrophobicity, and steric factors may play crucial roles for anti-aromatase activity. Electrostatic, van der Waals, and p-p interactions are other important factors that determine binding affinity of inhibitors. HQSAR, LDA-QSAR, GQSAR, CoMFA, and CoMSIA approaches, pharmacophore mapping followed by virtual screening, docking, and dynamic simulation may be effective approaches for designing new potent anti-aromatase molecules.
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44
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Cukuroglu E, Engin HB, Gursoy A, Keskin O. Hot spots in protein–protein interfaces: Towards drug discovery. PROGRESS IN BIOPHYSICS AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2014; 116:165-73. [DOI: 10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2014.06.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 113] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2014] [Revised: 05/30/2014] [Accepted: 06/12/2014] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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45
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Westermaier Y, Barril X, Scapozza L. Virtual screening: an in silico tool for interlacing the chemical universe with the proteome. Methods 2014; 71:44-57. [PMID: 25193260 DOI: 10.1016/j.ymeth.2014.08.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2014] [Revised: 07/16/2014] [Accepted: 08/02/2014] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
In silico screening both in the forward (traditional virtual screening) and reverse sense (inverse virtual screening (IVS)) are helpful techniques for interlacing the chemical universe of small molecules with the proteome. The former, which is using a protein structure and a large chemical database, is well-known by the scientific community. We have chosen here to provide an overview on the latter, focusing on validation and target prioritization strategies. By comparing it to complementary or alternative wet-lab approaches, we put IVS in the broader context of chemical genomics, target discovery and drug design. By giving examples from the literature and an own example on how to validate the approach, we provide guidance on the issues related to IVS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yvonne Westermaier
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Geneva, University of Lausanne, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland; Computational Biology & Drug Design Group, Departament de Fisicoquímica, Facultat de Farmàcia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Institut de Biomedicina de la Universitat de Barcelona (IBUB), Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Xavier Barril
- Computational Biology & Drug Design Group, Departament de Fisicoquímica, Facultat de Farmàcia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Institut de Biomedicina de la Universitat de Barcelona (IBUB), Barcelona, Spain; Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Leonardo Scapozza
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Geneva, University of Lausanne, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland.
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Hu B, Lill MA. PharmDock: a pharmacophore-based docking program. J Cheminform 2014; 6:14. [PMID: 24739488 PMCID: PMC4012150 DOI: 10.1186/1758-2946-6-14] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2014] [Accepted: 04/04/2014] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Protein-based pharmacophore models are enriched with the information of potential interactions between ligands and the protein target. We have shown in a previous study that protein-based pharmacophore models can be applied for ligand pose prediction and pose ranking. In this publication, we present a new pharmacophore-based docking program PharmDock that combines pose sampling and ranking based on optimized protein-based pharmacophore models with local optimization using an empirical scoring function. Results Tests of PharmDock on ligand pose prediction, binding affinity estimation, compound ranking and virtual screening yielded comparable or better performance to existing and widely used docking programs. The docking program comes with an easy-to-use GUI within PyMOL. Two features have been incorporated in the program suite that allow for user-defined guidance of the docking process based on previous experimental data. Docking with those features demonstrated superior performance compared to unbiased docking. Conclusion A protein pharmacophore-based docking program, PharmDock, has been made available with a PyMOL plugin. PharmDock and the PyMOL plugin are freely available from http://people.pharmacy.purdue.edu/~mlill/software/pharmdock.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bingjie Hu
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy, Purdue University, 575 Stadium Mall Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA
| | - Markus A Lill
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy, Purdue University, 575 Stadium Mall Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA
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Structure-based design of small-molecule protein–protein interaction modulators: the story so far. Future Med Chem 2014; 6:343-57. [DOI: 10.4155/fmc.13.204] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
As the pivotal role of protein–protein interactions in cell growth, transcriptional activity, intracellular trafficking, signal transduction and pathological conditions has been assessed, experimental and in silico strategies have been developed to design protein–protein interaction modulators. State-of-the-art structure-based design methods, mainly pharmacophore modeling and docking, which have succeeded in the identification of enzyme inhibitors, receptor agonists and antagonists, and new tools specifically conceived to target protein–protein interfaces (e.g., hot-spot and druggable pocket prediction methods) have been applied in the search for small-molecule protein–protein interaction modulators. Many successful applications of structure-based design approaches that, despite the challenge of targeting protein–protein interfaces with small molecules, have led to the identification of micromolar and submicromolar hits are reviewed here.
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From Three-Dimensional GPCR Structure to Rational Ligand Discovery. ADVANCES IN EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY 2014; 796:129-57. [DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-7423-0_7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
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Drwal MN, Agama K, Pommier Y, Griffith R. Development of purely structure-based pharmacophores for the topoisomerase I-DNA-ligand binding pocket. J Comput Aided Mol Des 2013; 27:1037-49. [PMID: 24293134 PMCID: PMC7578780 DOI: 10.1007/s10822-013-9695-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2013] [Accepted: 11/26/2013] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Purely structure-based pharmacophores (SBPs) are an alternative method to ligand-based approaches and have the advantage of describing the entire interaction capability of a binding pocket. Here, we present the development of SBPs for topoisomerase I, an anticancer target with an unusual ligand binding pocket consisting of protein and DNA atoms. Different approaches to cluster and select pharmacophore features are investigated, including hierarchical clustering and energy calculations. In addition, the performance of SBPs is evaluated retrospectively and compared to the performance of ligand- and complex-based pharmacophores. SBPs emerge as a valid method in virtual screening and a complementary approach to ligand-focussed methods. The study further reveals that the choice of pharmacophore feature clustering and selection methods has a large impact on the virtual screening hit lists. A prospective application of the SBPs in virtual screening reveals that they can be used successfully to identify novel topoisomerase inhibitors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Malgorzata N Drwal
- Department of Pharmacology, School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia
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Joung JY, Lee HY, Park J, Lee JY, Chang BH, No KT, Nam KY, Hwang JS. Identification of novel rab27a/melanophilin blockers by pharmacophore-based virtual screening. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 2013; 172:1882-97. [PMID: 24293275 DOI: 10.1007/s12010-013-0615-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2013] [Accepted: 10/30/2013] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Melanocytes are unique cells that produce specific melanin-containing intracellular organelles called melanosomes. Melanosomes are transported from the perinuclear area of melanocytes toward the plasma membrane as they become more melanized in order to increase skin pigmentation. In this vesicular trafficking of melanosomes, Rab27a, melanophilin, and myosin Va play crucial roles in linking melanosomes to actin-based motors. To identify novel compounds to inhibit binding interface between Rab27a and melanophilin, a pharmacophore model was built based on a modeled 3D structure of the protein complex that describes the essential binding residues in the intermolecular interaction. A pharmacophore model was employed to screen a chemical library database. Finally, 25 virtual hits were selected for biological evaluations. The biological activities of 11 analogues were evaluated in a second assay. Two compounds were identified as having concentration-dependent inhibitory activity. By analyzing structure-activity relationships of derivatives of BMD-20, two hydroxyl functional groups were found to be critical for blocking the intermolecular binding between Rab27a and melanophilin.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jong Young Joung
- Bioinformatics and Molecular Design Research Center, Seoul, 120-749, Republic of Korea
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