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Hu Y, Li L, Tian Y, Xiao Y, Tang J, Zeng S, Zou Z, Shang H. Design, synthesis and evaluation of novel UDCA-aminopyrimidine hybrids as ATX inhibitors for the treatment of hepatic and pulmonary fibrosis. Eur J Med Chem 2024; 264:116029. [PMID: 38091892 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2023.116029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2023] [Revised: 11/24/2023] [Accepted: 12/03/2023] [Indexed: 12/30/2023]
Abstract
To discover novel anti-fibrotic agents, a series of UDCA-aminopyrimidine hybrids were designed and synthesized as potent ATX inhibitors by molecular hybridization strategy. The ATX inhibitory activities of all synthesized compounds were evaluated using the LPC choline release assay. The preliminary structure-activity relationship was concluded. Among them, 12a and 12h exhibited the strongest ATX inhibitory activities with IC50 values of 7.62 ± 0.62 and 7.51 ± 0.72 nM respectively, which were 9-fold more effective than the positive control drug GLPG-1690. Molecular docking studies revealed that 12a and 12h occupied the hydrophobic pocket and tunnel of the ATX binding site. The cytotoxicity assay of 12a and 12h revealed that they had no obvious toxicity at concentrations up to 80 μM, therefore their anti-hepatic fibrosis and anti-pulmonary fibrosis activities were further investigated. The results suggested that 12a and 12h significantly decreased the gene and protein expression of α-SMA, COL1A1 and FN in both TGF-β1-induced HSC-LX2 and CCC-HPF-1 cells. In addition, 12a and 12h significantly inhibited cells migration in both TGF-β1-induced HSC-LX2 and CCC-HPF-1 cells. Preliminary mechanistic studies indicated that 12a and 12h exerted anti-hepatic fibrosis and anti-pulmonary fibrosis effects by inhibiting the TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway. Overall, our findings suggested that 12a and 12h might be two promising anti-fibrotic agents, or might serve as two new lead compounds for the further development of anti-fibrotic agents.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yue Hu
- Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100193, China
| | - Lingyu Li
- Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100193, China
| | - Yu Tian
- Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100193, China
| | - Yingjie Xiao
- Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100193, China
| | - Jiawei Tang
- Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100193, China
| | - Shuoyu Zeng
- Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100193, China
| | - Zhongmei Zou
- Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100193, China; State Key Laboratory of Basis and New Drug Development of Natural and Nuclear Drugs, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100050, China.
| | - Hai Shang
- Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100193, China.
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Lei H, Li Z, Li T, Wu H, Yang J, Yang X, Yang Y, Jiang N, Zhai X. Novel imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine derivatives as potent ATX allosteric inhibitors: Design, synthesis and promising in vivo anti-fibrotic efficacy in mice lung model. Bioorg Chem 2021; 120:105590. [PMID: 34998121 DOI: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2021.105590] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [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: 11/21/2021] [Revised: 12/19/2021] [Accepted: 12/27/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Aiming to develop novel allosteric autotaxin (ATX) inhibitors, hybrid strategy was utilized by assembling the benzyl carbamate fragment in PF-8380 onto the imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine skeleton of GLPG-1690. The piperazine moiety in GLPG-1690 was replaced with phenyl ring to enhance the π-π interactions with adjacent residues. In the light of FS-3 based ATX enzymatic assay, further structure-guided optimizations were implemented by exploring the substituents within the carbamate aromatic moiety and examining the effect of the 2-ethyl. Eventually, 13c bearing 1,3-benzodioxole and 2-hydroxyethyl piperazine group was identified as a powerful ATX inhibitor with an IC50 value of 2.7 nM. Subsequently, 13c was forwarded into an in vivo bleomycin-induced mice lung fibrosis model. In histopathological and immunohistochemical assays, 13c could typically alleviate the severity of fibrosis tissues and effectively reduce the deposition of fibrotic biomarker α-SMA. At a dose of 60 mg/kg, 13c was observed equivalent or even better potency than GLPG-1690 with a significant inhibition of the in vivo ATX activity. Except for the fundamental H-bond and π-π interactions, an extra H-bond between the 1,3-benzodioxole (O atom) and Phe306 offered great rationale in constraining the binding conformation of 13c. Finally, binding free energy calculation was conducted to assist in the efficient identification of allosteric ATX inhibitors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hongrui Lei
- Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design and Discovery, Ministry of Education, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, China
| | - Zhen Li
- Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design and Discovery, Ministry of Education, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, China
| | - Tong Li
- Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design and Discovery, Ministry of Education, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, China
| | - Huinan Wu
- Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design and Discovery, Ministry of Education, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, China
| | - Jing Yang
- Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design and Discovery, Ministry of Education, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, China
| | - Xinlian Yang
- Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design and Discovery, Ministry of Education, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, China
| | - Yu Yang
- Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design and Discovery, Ministry of Education, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, China
| | - Nan Jiang
- Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design and Discovery, Ministry of Education, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, China
| | - Xin Zhai
- Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design and Discovery, Ministry of Education, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, China.
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Chen Y, Lei H, Li T, Cui Y, Wang X, Cao Z, Wu H, Zhai X. Design, synthesis and anti-fibrosis evaluation of imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine derivatives as potent ATX inhibitors. Bioorg Med Chem 2021; 46:116362. [PMID: 34428714 DOI: 10.1016/j.bmc.2021.116362] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2021] [Revised: 08/05/2021] [Accepted: 08/05/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
A series of imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine compounds bearing urea moiety (8-27) were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their ATX inhibitory activities in vitro by FS-3 based enzymatic assay. Delightfully, benzylamine derivatives (14-27) exhibited higher ATX inhibitory potency with IC50 value ranging from 1.72 to 497 nM superior to benzamide analogues (8-13). Remarkably, benzylamine derivative 20 bearing 4-hydroxypiperidine exerted an amazing inhibitory activity (IC50 = 1.72 nM) which exceeded the positive control GLPG1690 (IC50 = 2.90 nM). Simultaneously, the binding model of 20 with ATX was established which rationalized the well performance of 20 in enzymatic assay. Accordingly, further in vivo studies were carried out to evaluate direct anti-fibrotic effects of 20 through Masson staining. Notably, 20 effectively alleviated lung structural damage with fewer fibrotic lesions at an oral dose of 60 mg/kg, qualifying 20 as a promising ATX inhibitor for IPF treatment.
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Jia F, Lei H, Chen Y, Li T, Xing L, Cao Z, Zhai X. Structure-based linker exploration: Discovery of 1-ethyl-1H-indole analogs as novel ATX inhibitors. Bioorg Med Chem 2020; 28:115795. [PMID: 33032188 DOI: 10.1016/j.bmc.2020.115795] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [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: 09/03/2020] [Revised: 09/22/2020] [Accepted: 09/24/2020] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Aiming to develop novel ATX inhibitors, an indole-3-carboxylic acid lead Indole-1 was identified through high-throughput screening (HTS) efforts. The Indole-1 analogs 1-7 was firstly prepared which exerted mild activity comparable to Indole-1 (740 nM) in ATX enzyme assay. Further structural modification to identify type IV ATX inhibitors was proceeded through derivatization of the indole-3-carboxylic acid group. Resultantly, compounds 8-17 containing acyl hydrazone linker displayed poor activity (over 3.49 μM). Alternatively, replacing the acylhydrazone linker with urea counterpart by the amide bond reversal principle, the acquired compounds 18-22 achieved obvious improvements with submicromolar activities. Furthermore, with the aim to reducing cLogP, the thiazole ring of 18-22 was altered to the benzamide (23-32) with the urea linker unchanged. Remarkably, the benzamide derivative 24 with 4-hydroxy piperidine fragment was identified which exhibited prominent activity with IC50 value of 2.3 nM. Especially, dedicated molecular docking study was throughout the modification process which qualified 24 as optimal entity in accordance with the ATX inhibitory results.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fang Jia
- Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design and Discovery, Ministry of Education, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, PR China
| | - Hongrui Lei
- Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design and Discovery, Ministry of Education, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, PR China
| | - Yuxiang Chen
- Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design and Discovery, Ministry of Education, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, PR China
| | - Tong Li
- Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design and Discovery, Ministry of Education, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, PR China
| | - Lingyun Xing
- Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design and Discovery, Ministry of Education, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, PR China
| | - Zhi Cao
- Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design and Discovery, Ministry of Education, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, PR China
| | - Xin Zhai
- Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design and Discovery, Ministry of Education, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, PR China.
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Magkrioti C, Kaffe E, Stylianaki EA, Sidahmet C, Melagraki G, Afantitis A, Matralis AN, Aidinis V. Structure-Based Discovery of Novel Chemical Classes of Autotaxin Inhibitors. Int J Mol Sci 2020; 21:E7002. [PMID: 32977539 DOI: 10.3390/ijms21197002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2020] [Revised: 09/18/2020] [Accepted: 09/19/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Autotaxin (ATX) is a secreted glycoprotein, widely present in biological fluids, largely responsible for extracellular lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) production. LPA is a bioactive growth-factor-like lysophospholipid that exerts pleiotropic effects in almost all cell types, exerted through at least six G-protein-coupled receptors (LPAR1-6). Increased ATX expression has been detected in different chronic inflammatory diseases, while genetic or pharmacological studies have established ATX as a promising therapeutic target, exemplified by the ongoing phase III clinical trial for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. In this report, we employed an in silico drug discovery workflow, aiming at the identification of structurally novel series of ATX inhibitors that would be amenable to further optimization. Towards this end, a virtual screening protocol was applied involving the search into molecular databases for new small molecules potentially binding to ATX. The crystal structure of ATX in complex with a known inhibitor (HA-155) was used as a molecular model docking reference, yielding a priority list of 30 small molecule ATX inhibitors, validated by a well-established enzymatic assay of ATX activity. The two most potent, novel and structurally different compounds were further structurally optimized by deploying further in silico tools, resulting to the overall identification of six new ATX inhibitors that belong to distinct chemical classes than existing inhibitors, expanding the arsenal of chemical scaffolds and allowing further rational design.
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