1
|
Grotsch K, Sadybekov AV, Hiller S, Zaidi S, Eremin D, Le A, Liu Y, Smith EC, Illiopoulis-Tsoutsouvas C, Thomas J, Aggarwal S, Pickett JE, Reyes C, Picazo E, Roth BL, Makriyannis A, Katritch V, Fokin VV. Virtual Screening of a Chemically Diverse "Superscaffold" Library Enables Ligand Discovery for a Key GPCR Target. ACS Chem Biol 2024; 19:866-874. [PMID: 38598723 DOI: 10.1021/acschembio.3c00602] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/12/2024]
Abstract
The advent of ultra-large libraries of drug-like compounds has significantly broadened the possibilities in structure-based virtual screening, accelerating the discovery and optimization of high-quality lead chemotypes for diverse clinical targets. Compared to traditional high-throughput screening, which is constrained to libraries of approximately one million compounds, the ultra-large virtual screening approach offers substantial advantages in both cost and time efficiency. By expanding the chemical space with compounds synthesized from easily accessible and reproducible reactions and utilizing a large, diverse set of building blocks, we can enhance both the diversity and quality of the discovered lead chemotypes. In this study, we explore new chemical spaces using reactions of sulfur(VI) fluorides to create a combinatorial library consisting of several hundred million compounds. We screened this virtual library for cannabinoid type II receptor (CB2) antagonists using the high-resolution structure in conjunction with a rationally designed antagonist, AM10257. The top-predicted compounds were then synthesized and tested in vitro for CB2 binding and functional antagonism, achieving an experimentally validated hit rate of 55%. Our findings demonstrate the effectiveness of reliable reactions, such as sulfur fluoride exchange, in diversifying ultra-large chemical spaces and facilitate the discovery of new lead compounds for important biological targets.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Katharina Grotsch
- Department of Chemistry, the Bridge Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90089, California, United States
- Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90089, California, United States
| | - Anastasiia V Sadybekov
- Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90089, California, United States
| | - Sydney Hiller
- Department of Chemistry, the Bridge Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90089, California, United States
- Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90089, California, United States
| | - Saheem Zaidi
- Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90089, California, United States
| | - Dmitry Eremin
- Department of Chemistry, the Bridge Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90089, California, United States
- Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90089, California, United States
| | - Austen Le
- Department of Chemistry, the Bridge Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90089, California, United States
| | - Yongfeng Liu
- Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 27599, North Carolina, United States
- Psychoactive Drug Screening Program, National Institute of Mental Health, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 27599, North Carolina, United States
| | - Evan Carlton Smith
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Center for Drug Discovery, Boston 02115, Massachusetts, United States
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Northeastern University, Boston 02115, Massachusetts, United States
| | - Christos Illiopoulis-Tsoutsouvas
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Center for Drug Discovery, Boston 02115, Massachusetts, United States
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Northeastern University, Boston 02115, Massachusetts, United States
| | - Joice Thomas
- Department of Chemistry, the Bridge Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90089, California, United States
- Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90089, California, United States
| | - Shubhangi Aggarwal
- Department of Chemistry, the Bridge Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90089, California, United States
- Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90089, California, United States
| | - Julie E Pickett
- Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 27599, North Carolina, United States
- Psychoactive Drug Screening Program, National Institute of Mental Health, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 27599, North Carolina, United States
| | - Cesar Reyes
- Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90089, California, United States
| | - Elias Picazo
- Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90089, California, United States
| | - Bryan L Roth
- Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 27599, North Carolina, United States
- Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 27599, North Carolina, United States
- Psychoactive Drug Screening Program, National Institute of Mental Health, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 27599, North Carolina, United States
| | - Alexandros Makriyannis
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Center for Drug Discovery, Boston 02115, Massachusetts, United States
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Northeastern University, Boston 02115, Massachusetts, United States
| | - Vsevolod Katritch
- Department of Chemistry, the Bridge Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90089, California, United States
- Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90089, California, United States
| | - Valery V Fokin
- Department of Chemistry, the Bridge Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90089, California, United States
- Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90089, California, United States
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Abstract
Computer-aided drug discovery has been around for decades, although the past few years have seen a tectonic shift towards embracing computational technologies in both academia and pharma. This shift is largely defined by the flood of data on ligand properties and binding to therapeutic targets and their 3D structures, abundant computing capacities and the advent of on-demand virtual libraries of drug-like small molecules in their billions. Taking full advantage of these resources requires fast computational methods for effective ligand screening. This includes structure-based virtual screening of gigascale chemical spaces, further facilitated by fast iterative screening approaches. Highly synergistic are developments in deep learning predictions of ligand properties and target activities in lieu of receptor structure. Here we review recent advances in ligand discovery technologies, their potential for reshaping the whole process of drug discovery and development, as well as the challenges they encounter. We also discuss how the rapid identification of highly diverse, potent, target-selective and drug-like ligands to protein targets can democratize the drug discovery process, presenting new opportunities for the cost-effective development of safer and more effective small-molecule treatments.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Anastasiia V Sadybekov
- Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Center for New Technologies in Drug Discovery and Development, Bridge Institute, Michelson Center for Convergent Biosciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Vsevolod Katritch
- Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
- Center for New Technologies in Drug Discovery and Development, Bridge Institute, Michelson Center for Convergent Biosciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
- Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Sadybekov AA, Sadybekov AV, Liu Y, Iliopoulos-Tsoutsouvas C, Huang XP, Pickett J, Houser B, Patel N, Tran NK, Tong F, Zvonok N, Jain MK, Savych O, Radchenko DS, Nikas SP, Petasis NA, Moroz YS, Roth BL, Makriyannis A, Katritch V. Synthon-based ligand discovery in virtual libraries of over 11 billion compounds. Nature 2022; 601:452-459. [PMID: 34912117 PMCID: PMC9763054 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04220-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 129] [Impact Index Per Article: 64.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2021] [Accepted: 11/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
Structure-based virtual ligand screening is emerging as a key paradigm for early drug discovery owing to the availability of high-resolution target structures1-4 and ultra-large libraries of virtual compounds5,6. However, to keep pace with the rapid growth of virtual libraries, such as readily available for synthesis (REAL) combinatorial libraries7, new approaches to compound screening are needed8,9. Here we introduce a modular synthon-based approach-V-SYNTHES-to perform hierarchical structure-based screening of a REAL Space library of more than 11 billion compounds. V-SYNTHES first identifies the best scaffold-synthon combinations as seeds suitable for further growth, and then iteratively elaborates these seeds to select complete molecules with the best docking scores. This hierarchical combinatorial approach enables the rapid detection of the best-scoring compounds in the gigascale chemical space while performing docking of only a small fraction (<0.1%) of the library compounds. Chemical synthesis and experimental testing of novel cannabinoid antagonists predicted by V-SYNTHES demonstrated a 33% hit rate, including 14 submicromolar ligands, substantially improving over a standard virtual screening of the Enamine REAL diversity subset, which required approximately 100 times more computational resources. Synthesis of selected analogues of the best hits further improved potencies and affinities (best inhibitory constant (Ki) = 0.9 nM) and CB2/CB1 selectivity (50-200-fold). V-SYNTHES was also tested on a kinase target, ROCK1, further supporting its use for lead discovery. The approach is easily scalable for the rapid growth of combinatorial libraries and potentially adaptable to any docking algorithm.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Arman A. Sadybekov
- Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, Bridge Institute, USC Michelson Center for Convergent Biosciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA,Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
| | - Anastasiia V. Sadybekov
- Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, Bridge Institute, USC Michelson Center for Convergent Biosciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA,Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
| | - Yongfeng Liu
- Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA,Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | | | - Xi-Ping Huang
- Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA,National Institute of Mental Health Psychoactive Drug Screening Program, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Julie Pickett
- Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA,National Institute of Mental Health Psychoactive Drug Screening Program, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Blake Houser
- Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
| | - Nilkanth Patel
- Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, Bridge Institute, USC Michelson Center for Convergent Biosciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
| | - Ngan K. Tran
- Center for Drug Discovery and Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Fei Tong
- Center for Drug Discovery and Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Nikolai Zvonok
- Center for Drug Discovery and Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Manish K Jain
- Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Olena Savych
- Enamine Ltd, 78 Chervonotkatska Street, 02094, Ukraine
| | - Dmytro S. Radchenko
- Enamine Ltd, 78 Chervonotkatska Street, 02094, Ukraine,Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Volodymyrska Street 60, Kyiv 01601, Ukraine
| | - Spyros P. Nikas
- Center for Drug Discovery and Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Nicos A. Petasis
- Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
| | - Yurii S. Moroz
- Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Volodymyrska Street 60, Kyiv 01601, Ukraine,Chemspace LLC, 85 Chervonotkatska Street, 02094, Ukraine
| | - Bryan L. Roth
- Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA,Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA,National Institute of Mental Health Psychoactive Drug Screening Program, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA,Corresponding authors: Bryan L. Roth (), Alexandros Makriyannis (), Vsevolod Katritch ()
| | - Alexandros Makriyannis
- Center for Drug Discovery, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA. .,Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA.
| | - Vsevolod Katritch
- Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. .,Department of Chemistry, Bridge Institute, USC Michelson Center for Convergent Biosciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Sadybekov AA, Brouillette RL, Marin E, Sadybekov AV, Luginina A, Gusach A, Mishin A, Besserer-Offroy É, Longpré JM, Borshchevskiy V, Cherezov V, Sarret P, Katritch V. Structure-Based Virtual Screening of Ultra-Large Library Yields Potent Antagonists for a Lipid GPCR. Biomolecules 2020; 10:E1634. [PMID: 33287369 PMCID: PMC7761830 DOI: 10.3390/biom10121634] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2020] [Revised: 12/01/2020] [Accepted: 12/01/2020] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Cysteinyl leukotriene G protein-coupled receptors, CysLT1R and CysLT2R, regulate bronchoconstrictive and pro-inflammatory effects and play a key role in allergic disorders, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. CysLT1R antagonists have been widely used to treat asthma disorders, while CysLT2R is a potential target against uveal melanoma. However, very few selective antagonist chemotypes for CysLT receptors are available, and the design of such ligands has proved to be challenging. To overcome this obstacle, we took advantage of recently solved crystal structures of CysLT receptors and an ultra-large Enamine REAL library, representing a chemical space of 680 M readily available compounds. Virtual ligand screening employed 4D docking models comprising crystal structures of CysLT1R and CysLT2R and their corresponding ligand-optimized models. Functional assessment of the candidate hits yielded discovery of five novel antagonist chemotypes with sub-micromolar potencies and the best Ki = 220 nM at CysLT1R. One of the hits showed inverse agonism at the L129Q constitutively active mutant of CysLT2R, with potential utility against uveal melanoma.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Arman A. Sadybekov
- Michelson Center for Convergent Biosciences, Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA;
- Department of Chemistry, Bridge Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA; (A.V.S.); (V.C.)
| | - Rebecca L. Brouillette
- Department of Pharmacology-Physiology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Institut de Pharmacologie de Sherbrooke, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC J1H 5N4, Canada; (R.L.B.); (É.B.-O.); (J.-M.L.); (P.S.)
| | - Egor Marin
- Research Center for Molecular Mechanisms of Aging and Age-Related Diseases, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, 141701 Dolgoprudny, Russia; (E.M.); (A.L.); (A.G.); (A.M.); (V.B.)
| | - Anastasiia V. Sadybekov
- Department of Chemistry, Bridge Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA; (A.V.S.); (V.C.)
| | - Aleksandra Luginina
- Research Center for Molecular Mechanisms of Aging and Age-Related Diseases, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, 141701 Dolgoprudny, Russia; (E.M.); (A.L.); (A.G.); (A.M.); (V.B.)
| | - Anastasiia Gusach
- Research Center for Molecular Mechanisms of Aging and Age-Related Diseases, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, 141701 Dolgoprudny, Russia; (E.M.); (A.L.); (A.G.); (A.M.); (V.B.)
| | - Alexey Mishin
- Research Center for Molecular Mechanisms of Aging and Age-Related Diseases, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, 141701 Dolgoprudny, Russia; (E.M.); (A.L.); (A.G.); (A.M.); (V.B.)
| | - Élie Besserer-Offroy
- Department of Pharmacology-Physiology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Institut de Pharmacologie de Sherbrooke, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC J1H 5N4, Canada; (R.L.B.); (É.B.-O.); (J.-M.L.); (P.S.)
- Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3G 1Y6, Canada
| | - Jean-Michel Longpré
- Department of Pharmacology-Physiology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Institut de Pharmacologie de Sherbrooke, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC J1H 5N4, Canada; (R.L.B.); (É.B.-O.); (J.-M.L.); (P.S.)
| | - Valentin Borshchevskiy
- Research Center for Molecular Mechanisms of Aging and Age-Related Diseases, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, 141701 Dolgoprudny, Russia; (E.M.); (A.L.); (A.G.); (A.M.); (V.B.)
- Institute of Biological Information Processing (IBI-7: Structural Biochemistry), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52425 Jülich, Germany
- JuStruct: Jülich Center for Structural Biology, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52425 Jülich, Germany
| | - Vadim Cherezov
- Department of Chemistry, Bridge Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA; (A.V.S.); (V.C.)
- Research Center for Molecular Mechanisms of Aging and Age-Related Diseases, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, 141701 Dolgoprudny, Russia; (E.M.); (A.L.); (A.G.); (A.M.); (V.B.)
| | - Philippe Sarret
- Department of Pharmacology-Physiology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Institut de Pharmacologie de Sherbrooke, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC J1H 5N4, Canada; (R.L.B.); (É.B.-O.); (J.-M.L.); (P.S.)
| | - Vsevolod Katritch
- Michelson Center for Convergent Biosciences, Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA;
- Department of Chemistry, Bridge Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA; (A.V.S.); (V.C.)
| |
Collapse
|