1
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Lane TR, Koebel D, Lucas E, Moyer R, Ekins S. In Vitro Characterization and Rescue of VX Metabolism in Human Liver Microsomes. Drug Metab Dispos 2024; 52:574-579. [PMID: 38594080 DOI: 10.1124/dmd.124.001695] [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] [Received: 02/19/2024] [Revised: 04/03/2024] [Accepted: 04/05/2024] [Indexed: 04/11/2024] Open
Abstract
Venomous agent X (VX) is an organophosphate acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitor, and although it is one of the most toxic AChE inhibitors known, the extent of metabolism in humans is not currently well understood. The known metabolism in humans is limited to the metabolite identification from a single victim of the Osaka poisoning in 1994, which allowed for the identification of several metabolic products. VX has been reported to be metabolized in vitro by paraoxonase-1 and phosphotriesterase, although their binding constants are many orders of magnitude above the LD50, suggesting limited physiologic relevance. Using incubation with human liver microsomes (HLMs), we have now characterized the metabolism of VX and the formation of multiple metabolites as well as identified a Food and Drug Administration-approved drug [ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA)] that enhances the metabolic rate. HLM incubation alone shows a pronounced increase in the metabolism of VX compared with buffer, suggesting that cytochrome P450-mediated metabolism of VX is occurring. We identified a biphasic decay with two distinct rates of metabolism. The enhancement of VX metabolism in multiple buffers was assessed to attempt to mitigate the effect of hydrolysis rates. The formation of VX metabolites was shown to be shifted with HLMs, suggesting a pathway enhancement over simple hydrolysis. Additionally, our investigation of hydrolysis rates in various common buffers used in biologic assays discovered dramatic differences in VX stability. The new human in vitro VX metabolic data reported points to a potential in vivo treatment strategy (EDTA) for rescue in individuals that are poisoned though enhancement of metabolism alongside existing treatments. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Venomous agent X (VX) is a potent acetylcholinesterase inhibitor and chemical weapon. To date, we do not possess a clear understanding of its metabolism in humans that would assist us in treating those exposed to it. This study now describes the human liver microsomal metabolism of VX and identifies ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, which appears to enhance the rate of metabolism. This may provide a potential treatment option for human VX poisoning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas R Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina (T.R.L., S.E.) and Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, Ohio (D.K., E.L., R.M.)
| | - David Koebel
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina (T.R.L., S.E.) and Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, Ohio (D.K., E.L., R.M.)
| | - Eric Lucas
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina (T.R.L., S.E.) and Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, Ohio (D.K., E.L., R.M.)
| | - Robert Moyer
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina (T.R.L., S.E.) and Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, Ohio (D.K., E.L., R.M.)
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina (T.R.L., S.E.) and Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, Ohio (D.K., E.L., R.M.)
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2
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Yang JJ, Goff A, Wild DJ, Ding Y, Annis A, Kerber R, Foote B, Passi A, Duerksen JL, London S, Puhl AC, Lane TR, Braunstein M, Waddell SJ, Ekins S. Computational drug repositioning identifies niclosamide and tribromsalan as inhibitors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium abscessus. Tuberculosis (Edinb) 2024; 146:102500. [PMID: 38432118 PMCID: PMC10978224 DOI: 10.1016/j.tube.2024.102500] [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] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2023] [Revised: 02/20/2024] [Accepted: 02/24/2024] [Indexed: 03/05/2024]
Abstract
Tuberculosis (TB) is still a major global health challenge, killing over 1.5 million people each year, and hence, there is a need to identify and develop novel treatments for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis). The prevalence of infections caused by nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) is also increasing and has overtaken TB cases in the United States and much of the developed world. Mycobacterium abscessus (M. abscessus) is one of the most frequently encountered NTM and is difficult to treat. We describe the use of drug-disease association using a semantic knowledge graph approach combined with machine learning models that has enabled the identification of several molecules for testing anti-mycobacterial activity. We established that niclosamide (M. tuberculosis IC90 2.95 μM; M. abscessus IC90 59.1 μM) and tribromsalan (M. tuberculosis IC90 76.92 μM; M. abscessus IC90 147.4 μM) inhibit M. tuberculosis and M. abscessus in vitro. To investigate the mode of action, we determined the transcriptional response of M. tuberculosis and M. abscessus to both compounds in axenic log phase, demonstrating a broad effect on gene expression that differed from known M. tuberculosis inhibitors. Both compounds elicited transcriptional responses indicative of respiratory pathway stress and the dysregulation of fatty acid metabolism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeremy J Yang
- School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA; Data2Discovery, Inc., Bloomington, IN, USA; Department of Internal Medicine Translational Informatics Division, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
| | - Aaron Goff
- Department of Global Health and Infection, Brighton & Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex, UK
| | - David J Wild
- School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA; Data2Discovery, Inc., Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Ying Ding
- School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA; Data2Discovery, Inc., Bloomington, IN, USA; School of Information, Dell Medical School, University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Ayano Annis
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
| | | | | | - Anurag Passi
- Department of Pediatrics, UC San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA
| | | | | | - Ana C Puhl
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC, 27606, USA
| | - Thomas R Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC, 27606, USA
| | - Miriam Braunstein
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
| | - Simon J Waddell
- Department of Global Health and Infection, Brighton & Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex, UK
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC, 27606, USA.
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3
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Ozalp MK, Vignaux PA, Puhl AC, Lane TR, Urbina F, Ekins S. Sequential Contrastive and Deep Learning Models to Identify Selective Butyrylcholinesterase Inhibitors. J Chem Inf Model 2024; 64:3161-3172. [PMID: 38532612 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.4c00397] [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: 03/28/2024]
Abstract
Butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) is a target of interest in late-stage Alzheimer's Disease (AD) where selective BChE inhibitors (BIs) may offer symptomatic treatment without the harsh side effects of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors. In this study, we explore multiple machine learning strategies to identify BIs in silico, optimizing for precision over all other metrics. We compare state-of-the-art supervised contrastive learning (CL) with deep learning (DL) and Random Forest (RF) machine learning, across single and sequential modeling configurations, to identify the best models for BChE selectivity. We used these models to virtually screen a vendor library of 5 million compounds for BIs and tested 20 of these compounds in vitro. Seven of the 20 compounds displayed selectivity for BChE over AChE, reflecting a hit rate of 35% for our model predictions, suggesting a highly efficient strategy for modeling selective inhibition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mustafa Kemal Ozalp
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Patricia A Vignaux
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Ana C Puhl
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Thomas R Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Fabio Urbina
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
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4
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Linciano P, Quotadamo A, Luciani R, Santucci M, Zorn KM, Foil DH, Lane TR, Cordeiro da Silva A, Santarem N, B Moraes C, Freitas-Junior L, Wittig U, Mueller W, Tonelli M, Ferrari S, Venturelli A, Gul S, Kuzikov M, Ellinger B, Reinshagen J, Ekins S, Costi MP. High-Throughput Phenotypic Screening and Machine Learning Methods Enabled the Selection of Broad-Spectrum Low-Toxicity Antitrypanosomatidic Agents. J Med Chem 2023; 66:15230-15255. [PMID: 37921561 PMCID: PMC10683024 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.3c01322] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2023] [Revised: 10/14/2023] [Accepted: 10/18/2023] [Indexed: 11/04/2023]
Abstract
Broad-spectrum anti-infective chemotherapy agents with activity against Trypanosomes, Leishmania, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis species were identified from a high-throughput phenotypic screening program of the 456 compounds belonging to the Ty-Box, an in-house industry database. Compound characterization using machine learning approaches enabled the identification and synthesis of 44 compounds with broad-spectrum antiparasitic activity and minimal toxicity against Trypanosoma brucei, Leishmania Infantum, and Trypanosoma cruzi. In vitro studies confirmed the predictive models identified in compound 40 which emerged as a new lead, featured by an innovative N-(5-pyrimidinyl)benzenesulfonamide scaffold and promising low micromolar activity against two parasites and low toxicity. Given the volume and complexity of data generated by the diverse high-throughput screening assays performed on the compounds of the Ty-Box library, the chemoinformatic and machine learning tools enabled the selection of compounds eligible for further evaluation of their biological and toxicological activities and aided in the decision-making process toward the design and optimization of the identified lead.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pasquale Linciano
- Department
of Life Sciences, University of Modena and
Reggio Emilia, Via Campi 103, 41125 Modena, Italy
| | - Antonio Quotadamo
- Department
of Life Sciences, University of Modena and
Reggio Emilia, Via Campi 103, 41125 Modena, Italy
| | - Rosaria Luciani
- Department
of Life Sciences, University of Modena and
Reggio Emilia, Via Campi 103, 41125 Modena, Italy
| | - Matteo Santucci
- Department
of Life Sciences, University of Modena and
Reggio Emilia, Via Campi 103, 41125 Modena, Italy
| | - Kimberley M. Zorn
- Collaborations
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Daniel H. Foil
- Collaborations
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Thomas R. Lane
- Collaborations
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Anabela Cordeiro da Silva
- Institute
for Molecular and Cell Biology, 4150-180 Porto, Portugal
- Instituto
de Investigaçao e Inovaçao em Saúde, Universidade do Porto and Institute for Molecular
and Cell Biology, 4150-180 Porto, Portugal
| | - Nuno Santarem
- Institute
for Molecular and Cell Biology, 4150-180 Porto, Portugal
- Instituto
de Investigaçao e Inovaçao em Saúde, Universidade do Porto and Institute for Molecular
and Cell Biology, 4150-180 Porto, Portugal
| | - Carolina B Moraes
- Brazilian
Biosciences National Laboratory (LNBio), Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), 13083-970 Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Lucio Freitas-Junior
- Brazilian
Biosciences National Laboratory (LNBio), Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), 13083-970 Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Ulrike Wittig
- Scientific
Databases and Visualization Group and Molecular and Cellular Modelling
Group, Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical
Studies (HITS), D-69118 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Wolfgang Mueller
- Scientific
Databases and Visualization Group and Molecular and Cellular Modelling
Group, Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical
Studies (HITS), D-69118 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Michele Tonelli
- Department
of Pharmacy, University of Genoa, Viale Benedetto XV n.3, 16132 Genoa, Italy
| | - Stefania Ferrari
- Department
of Life Sciences, University of Modena and
Reggio Emilia, Via Campi 103, 41125 Modena, Italy
| | - Alberto Venturelli
- Department
of Life Sciences, University of Modena and
Reggio Emilia, Via Campi 103, 41125 Modena, Italy
- TYDOCK
PHARMA S.r.l., Strada
Gherbella 294/b, 41126 Modena, Italy
| | - Sheraz Gul
- Fraunhofer
Translational Medicine and Pharmacology, Schnackenburgallee 114, D-22525 Hamburg, Germany
- Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Immune-Mediated Diseases
CIMD, Schnackenburgallee
114, D-22525 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Maria Kuzikov
- Fraunhofer
Translational Medicine and Pharmacology, Schnackenburgallee 114, D-22525 Hamburg, Germany
- Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Immune-Mediated Diseases
CIMD, Schnackenburgallee
114, D-22525 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Bernhard Ellinger
- Fraunhofer
Translational Medicine and Pharmacology, Schnackenburgallee 114, D-22525 Hamburg, Germany
- Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Immune-Mediated Diseases
CIMD, Schnackenburgallee
114, D-22525 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Jeanette Reinshagen
- Fraunhofer
Translational Medicine and Pharmacology, Schnackenburgallee 114, D-22525 Hamburg, Germany
- Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Immune-Mediated Diseases
CIMD, Schnackenburgallee
114, D-22525 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Maria Paola Costi
- Department
of Life Sciences, University of Modena and
Reggio Emilia, Via Campi 103, 41125 Modena, Italy
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5
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Kazakova E, Lane TR, Jones T, Puhl AC, Riabova O, Makarov V, Ekins S. 1-Sulfonyl-3-amino-1 H-1,2,4-triazoles as Yellow Fever Virus Inhibitors: Synthesis and Structure-Activity Relationship. ACS Omega 2023; 8:42951-42965. [PMID: 38024733 PMCID: PMC10653066 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.3c06106] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2023] [Revised: 10/10/2023] [Accepted: 10/12/2023] [Indexed: 12/01/2023]
Abstract
Yellow fever virus (YFV) transmitted by infected mosquitoes causes an acute viral disease for which there are no approved small-molecule therapeutics. Our recently developed machine learning models for YFV inhibitors led to the selection of a new pyrazolesulfonamide derivative RCB16003 with acceptable in vitro activity. We report that the N-phenyl-1-(phenylsulfonyl)-1H-1,2,4-triazol-3-amine class, which was recently identified as active non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors against HIV-1, can also be repositioned as inhibitors of yellow fever virus replication. As compared to other Flaviviridae or Togaviridae family viruses tested, both compounds RCB16003 and RCB16007 demonstrate selectivity for YFV over related viruses, with only RCB16007 showing some inhibition of the West Nile virus (EC50 7.9 μM, CC50 17 μM, SI 2.2). We also describe the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) in vitro and pharmacokinetics (PK) for RCB16007 in mice. This compound had previously been shown to not inhibit hERG, and we now describe that it has good metabolic stability in mouse and human liver microsomes, low levels of CYP inhibition, high protein binding, and no indication of efflux in Caco-2 cells. A single-dose oral PK study in mice has a T1/2 of 3.4 h and Cmax of 1190 ng/mL, suggesting good availability and stability. We now propose that the N-phenyl-1-(phenylsulfonyl)-1H-1,2,4-triazol-3-amine class may be prioritized for in vivo efficacy testing against YFV.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elena Kazakova
- Federal
Research Centre “Fundamentals of Biotechnology” of the
Russian Academy of Sciences (Research Centre of Biotechnology RAS), 33-2 Leninsky Prospect, 119071 Moscow, Russia
| | - Thomas R. Lane
- Collaborations
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Thane Jones
- Collaborations
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Ana C. Puhl
- Collaborations
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Olga Riabova
- Federal
Research Centre “Fundamentals of Biotechnology” of the
Russian Academy of Sciences (Research Centre of Biotechnology RAS), 33-2 Leninsky Prospect, 119071 Moscow, Russia
| | - Vadim Makarov
- Federal
Research Centre “Fundamentals of Biotechnology” of the
Russian Academy of Sciences (Research Centre of Biotechnology RAS), 33-2 Leninsky Prospect, 119071 Moscow, Russia
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
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6
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Jones T, Monakhova N, Guivel-Benhassine F, Lepioshkin A, Bruel T, Lane TR, Schwartz O, Puhl AC, Makarov V, Ekins S. Synthesis and Evaluation of 9-Aminoacridines with SARS-CoV-2 Antiviral Activity. ACS Omega 2023; 8:40817-40822. [PMID: 37929131 PMCID: PMC10620940 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.3c05900] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2023] [Accepted: 10/04/2023] [Indexed: 11/07/2023]
Abstract
There have been relatively few small molecules developed with direct activity against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Two existing antimalarial drugs, pyronaridine and quinacrine, display whole cell activity against SARS-CoV-2 in A549 + ACE2 cells (pretreatment, IC50 = 0.23 and 0.19 μM, respectively) with moderate cytotoxicity (CC50 = 11.53 and 9.24 μM, respectively). Moreover, pyronaridine displays in vitro activity against SARS-CoV-2 PLpro (IC50 = 1.8 μM). Given their existing antiviral activity, these compounds are strong candidates for repurposing against COVID-19 and prompt us to study the structure-activity relationship of the 9-aminoacridine scaffold against SARS-CoV-2 using traditional medicinal chemistry to identify promising new analogs. Our studies identified several novel analogs possessing potent in vitro activity in U2-OS ACE2 GFP 1-10 and 1-11 (IC50 < 1.0 μM) as well as moderate cytotoxicity (CC50 > 4.0 μM). Compounds such as 7g, 9c, and 7e were more active, demonstrating selectivity indices SI > 10, and 9c displayed the strongest activity (IC50 ≤ 0.42 μM, CC50 ≥ 4.41 μM, SI > 10) among them, indicating that it has potential as a new lead molecule in this series against COVID-19.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thane Jones
- Collaborations
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Natalia Monakhova
- Federal
Research Centre “Fundamentals of Biotechnology” of the
Russian Academy of Sciences (Research Centre of Biotechnology RAS), 33-2 Leninsky Prospect, Moscow 119071, Russia
| | | | - Alexander Lepioshkin
- Federal
Research Centre “Fundamentals of Biotechnology” of the
Russian Academy of Sciences (Research Centre of Biotechnology RAS), 33-2 Leninsky Prospect, Moscow 119071, Russia
| | - Timothée Bruel
- Institut
Pasteur, 28 rue du Dr Roux, Paris Cedex 15 75724, France
| | - Thomas R. Lane
- Collaborations
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Olivier Schwartz
- Institut
Pasteur, 28 rue du Dr Roux, Paris Cedex 15 75724, France
| | - Ana C. Puhl
- Collaborations
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Vadim Makarov
- Federal
Research Centre “Fundamentals of Biotechnology” of the
Russian Academy of Sciences (Research Centre of Biotechnology RAS), 33-2 Leninsky Prospect, Moscow 119071, Russia
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
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7
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Puhl AC, Lane TR, Ekins S. Learning from COVID-19: How drug hunters can prepare for the next pandemic. Drug Discov Today 2023; 28:103723. [PMID: 37482237 PMCID: PMC10994687 DOI: 10.1016/j.drudis.2023.103723] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2023] [Revised: 07/10/2023] [Accepted: 07/18/2023] [Indexed: 07/25/2023]
Abstract
Over 3 years, the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic killed nearly 7 million people and infected more than 767 million globally. During this time, our very small company was able to contribute to antiviral drug discovery efforts through global collaborations with other researchers, which enabled the identification and repurposing of multiple molecules with activity against SARS-CoV-2 including pyronaridine tetraphosphate, tilorone, quinacrine, vandetanib, lumefantrine, cetylpyridinium chloride, raloxifene, carvedilol, olmutinib, dacomitinib, crizotinib, and bosutinib. We highlight some of the key findings from this experience of using different computational and experimental strategies, and detail some of the challenges and strategies for how we might better prepare for the next pandemic so that potential antiviral treatments are available for future outbreaks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana C Puhl
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC, USA.
| | - Thomas R Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC, USA.
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8
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Vignaux PA, Shriwas P, Revnew A, Agarwal G, Lane TR, McElroy CA, Ekins S. Human CYP2C19 Substrate and Inhibitor Characterization of Organophosphate Pesticides. Chem Res Toxicol 2023; 36:1451-1455. [PMID: 37650603 DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrestox.3c00188] [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: 09/01/2023]
Abstract
CYP2C19 is an important enzyme for organophosphate pesticide (OPP) metabolism. Because the OPPs can be both substrates and inhibitors of CYP2C19, we screened 45 OPPs for their ability to inhibit the activity of this enzyme and investigated the role of CYP2C19 in the metabolism of 22 of these molecules. We identified several nanomolar inhibitors of CYP2C19 as well as determined that thions, in general, are more potent inhibitors than oxons. We also determined that thions are readily metabolized by CYP2C19, although we saw no relationship between IC50 values and intrinsic clearance rates. This study may have implications for mitigating the risk of OPP poisoning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patricia A Vignaux
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Pratik Shriwas
- Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
| | - Andre Revnew
- Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
| | - Garima Agarwal
- Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
| | - Thomas R Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Craig A McElroy
- Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
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9
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Jones T, Tavis JE, Li Q, Riabova O, Monakhova N, Bradley DP, Lane TR, Makarov V, Ekins S. Antiviral Evaluation of Dispirotripiperazines against Hepatitis B Virus. J Med Chem 2023; 66:12459-12467. [PMID: 37611244 PMCID: PMC11017374 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.3c00974] [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] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/25/2023]
Abstract
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a hepatotropic DNA virus that replicates by reverse transcription. It chronically infects >296 million people worldwide, including ∼850,000 in the USA, and kills 820,000 annually worldwide. Current nucleos(t)ide analogue (NA) or pegylated interferon α therapies do not eradicate the virus and would benefit from a complementary antiviral drug. We performed a preliminary screen of 28 dispirotripiperazines against HBV, identifying 9 hits with EC50 of 0.7-25 μM. Compound 11826096 displays the most potent activity and represents a promising lead for future optimization. While the mechanism of action is unknown, preliminary assays limit possible targets to activities involved in RNA accumulation, translation, capsid assembly, and/or capsid stability. In addition, we built machine learning models to determine if they were able to predict the activity of this series of compounds. The novelty of these molecules indicated they were outside of the applicability domain of these models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thane Jones
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., 840 Main Campus Dr., Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - John E. Tavis
- Saint Louis University School of Medicine, 1100 S. Grand Blvd., St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Qilan Li
- Saint Louis University School of Medicine, 1100 S. Grand Blvd., St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Olga Riabova
- Research Center of Biotechnology RAS, Leninsky Prospekt 33-2, 119071, Moscow, Russia
| | - Natalia Monakhova
- Research Center of Biotechnology RAS, Leninsky Prospekt 33-2, 119071, Moscow, Russia
| | - Daniel P. Bradley
- Saint Louis University School of Medicine, 1100 S. Grand Blvd., St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Thomas R. Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., 840 Main Campus Dr., Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Vadim Makarov
- Research Center of Biotechnology RAS, Leninsky Prospekt 33-2, 119071, Moscow, Russia
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., 840 Main Campus Dr., Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC, USA
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10
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Abstract
In the early 2000s pharmaceutical drug discovery was beginning to use computational approaches for absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity (ADME/Tox, also known as ADMET) prediction. This emphasis on prediction was an effort to reduce the risk of later stage failures from ADME/Tox.Much has been written in the intervening twenty plus years and significant expenditure has occurred in companies developing these in silico capabilities which can be gleaned from publications. It is therefore an appropriate time to briefly reflect on what was proposed then and what the reality is today.20 years ago, we tended to optimise bioactivity and perhaps one ADME/Tox property at a time. Previously pharmaceutical companies needed a whole infrastructure for models - in silico and in vitro experts, IT, champions on a project team, educators and management support. Now we are in the age of generative de novo design where bioactivity and many ADME/Tox properties can be optimised and large language model technologies are available.There are also some challenges such as the focus on very large molecules which may be outside of current ADME/Tox models.We provide an opportunity to look forward with the increasing public data for ADME/Tox as well as expanded types of algorithms available.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
| | - Thomas R. Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
| | - Fabio Urbina
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
| | - Ana C. Puhl
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
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11
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Lane TR, Fu J, Sherry B, Tarbet B, Hurst BL, Riabova O, Kazakova E, Egorova A, Clarke P, Leser JS, Frost J, Rudy M, Tyler KL, Klose T, Volobueva AS, Belyaevskaya SV, Zarubaev VV, Kuhn RJ, Makarov V, Ekins S. Efficacy of an isoxazole-3-carboxamide analog of pleconaril in mouse models of Enterovirus-D68 and Coxsackie B5. Antiviral Res 2023; 216:105654. [PMID: 37327878 PMCID: PMC10527014 DOI: 10.1016/j.antiviral.2023.105654] [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] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2023] [Revised: 06/05/2023] [Accepted: 06/13/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Enteroviruses (EV) cause a number of life-threatening infectious diseases. EV-D68 is known to cause respiratory illness in children that can lead to acute flaccid myelitis. Coxsackievirus B5 (CVB5) is commonly associated with hand-foot-mouth disease. There is no antiviral treatment available for either. We have developed an isoxazole-3-carboxamide analog of pleconaril (11526092) which displayed potent inhibition of EV-D68 (IC50 58 nM) as well as other enteroviruses including the pleconaril-resistant Coxsackievirus B3-Woodruff (IC50 6-20 nM) and CVB5 (EC50 1 nM). Cryo-electron microscopy structures of EV-D68 in complex with 11526092 and pleconaril demonstrate destabilization of the EV-D68 MO strain VP1 loop, and a strain-dependent effect. A mouse respiratory model of EV-D68 infection, showed 3-log decreased viremia, favorable cytokine response, as well as statistically significant 1-log reduction in lung titer reduction at day 5 after treatment with 11526092. An acute flaccid myelitis neurological infection model did not show efficacy. 11526092 was tested in a mouse model of CVB5 infection and showed a 4-log TCID50 reduction in the pancreas. In summary, 11526092 represents a potent in vitro inhibitor of EV with in vivo efficacy in EV-D68 and CVB5 animal models suggesting it is worthy of further evaluation as a potential broad-spectrum antiviral therapeutic against EV.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas R Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Jianing Fu
- Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
| | - Barbara Sherry
- Department of Molecular Biomedical Sciences, North Carolina State University, College of Veterinary Medicine, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Bart Tarbet
- Institute for Antiviral Research, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA; Department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA
| | - Brett L Hurst
- Institute for Antiviral Research, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA; Department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA
| | - Olga Riabova
- Research Center of Biotechnology RAS, 33-1 Leninsky prospect, 119071, Moscow, Russia
| | - Elena Kazakova
- Research Center of Biotechnology RAS, 33-1 Leninsky prospect, 119071, Moscow, Russia
| | - Anna Egorova
- Research Center of Biotechnology RAS, 33-1 Leninsky prospect, 119071, Moscow, Russia
| | - Penny Clarke
- Department of Neurology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA
| | - J Smith Leser
- Department of Neurology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA
| | - Joshua Frost
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Infectious Disease, Medicine and Neurology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA
| | | | - Kenneth L Tyler
- Department of Neurology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA; Department of Veterans Affairs, Aurora, CO, USA
| | - Thomas Klose
- Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
| | | | | | - Vladimir V Zarubaev
- Saint Petersburg Pasteur Institute, 14 Mira Street, 197101, Saint Petersburg, Russia
| | - Richard J Kuhn
- Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
| | - Vadim Makarov
- Research Center of Biotechnology RAS, 33-1 Leninsky prospect, 119071, Moscow, Russia
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., Raleigh, NC, USA.
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12
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Vignaux P, Lane TR, Puhl AC, Hau RK, Wright SH, Cherrington NJ, Ekins S. Transporter Inhibition Profile for the Antivirals Tilorone, Quinacrine and Pyronaridine. ACS Omega 2023; 8:12532-12537. [PMID: 37033868 PMCID: PMC10077433 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.3c00724] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2023] [Accepted: 03/16/2023] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
Pyronaridine, tilorone and quinacrine are cationic molecules that have in vitro activity against Ebola, SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses. All three molecules have also demonstrated in vivo activity against Ebola in mice, while pyronaridine showed in vivo efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 in mice. We have recently tested these molecules and other antivirals against human organic cation transporters (OCTs) and apical multidrug and toxin extruders (MATEs). Quinacrine was found to be an inhibitor of OCT2, while tilorone and pyronaridine were less potent, and these displayed variability depending on the substrate used. To assess whether any of these three molecules have other potential interactions with additional transporters, we have now screened them at 10 μM against various human efflux and uptake transporters including P-gp, OATP1B3, OAT1, OAT3, MRP1, MRP2, MRP3, BCRP, as well as confirmational testing against OCT1, OCT2, MATE1 and MATE2K. Interestingly, in this study tilorone appears to be a more potent inhibitor of OCT1 and OCT2 than pyronaridine or quinacrine. However, both pyronaridine and quinacrine appear to be more potent inhibitors of MATE1 and MATE2K. None of the three compounds inhibited MRP1, MRP2, MRP3, OAT1, OAT3, P-gp or OATP1B3. Similarly, we previously showed that tilorone and pyronaridine do not inhibit OATP1B1 and have confirmed that quinacrine behaves similarly. In total, these observations suggest that the three compounds only appear to interact with OCTs and MATEs to differing extents, suggesting they may be involved in fewer clinically relevant drug-transporter interactions involving pharmaceutical substrates of the other major transporters tested.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patricia
A. Vignaux
- Collaborations
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Thomas R. Lane
- Collaborations
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Ana C. Puhl
- Collaborations
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Raymond K. Hau
- Department
of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, United States
| | - Stephen H. Wright
- Department
of Physiology, College of Medicine, University
of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, United
States
| | - Nathan J. Cherrington
- Department
of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, United States
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
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13
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Agarwal G, Tichenor H, Roo S, Lane TR, Ekins S, McElroy CA. Targeted Metabolomics of Organophosphate Pesticides and Chemical Warfare Nerve Agent Simulants Using High- and Low-Dose Exposure in Human Liver Microsomes. Metabolites 2023; 13:metabo13040495. [PMID: 37110155 PMCID: PMC10144572 DOI: 10.3390/metabo13040495] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2023] [Revised: 03/21/2023] [Accepted: 03/23/2023] [Indexed: 03/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Our current understanding of organophosphorus agent (pesticides and chemical warfare nerve agents) metabolism in humans is limited to the general transformation by cytochrome P450 enzymes and, to some extent, by esterases and paraoxonases. The role of compound concentrations on the rate of clearance is not well established and is further explored in the current study. We discuss the metabolism of 56 diverse organophosphorus compounds (both pesticides and chemical warfare nerve agent simulants), many of which were explored at two variable dose regimens (high and low), determining their clearance rates (Clint) in human liver microsomes. For compounds that were soluble at high concentrations, 1D-NMR, 31P, and MRM LC-MS/MS were used to calculate the Clint and the identity of certain metabolites. The determined Clint rates ranged from 0.001 to 2245.52 µL/min/mg of protein in the lower dose regimen and from 0.002 to 98.57 µL/min/mg of protein in the high dose regimen. Though direct equivalency between the two regimens was absent, we observed (1) both mono- and bi-phasic metabolism of the OPs and simulants in the microsomes. Compounds such as aspon and formothion exhibited biphasic decay at both high and low doses, suggesting either the involvement of multiple enzymes with different KM or substrate/metabolite effects on the metabolism. (2) A second observation was that while some compounds, such as dibrom and merphos, demonstrated a biphasic decay curve at the lower concentrations, they exhibited only monophasic metabolism at the higher concentration, likely indicative of saturation of some metabolic enzymes. (3) Isomeric differences in metabolism (between Z- and E- isomers) were also observed. (4) Lastly, structural comparisons using examples of the oxon group over the original phosphorothioate OP are also discussed, along with the identification of some metabolites. This study provides initial data for the development of in silico metabolism models for OPs with broad applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Garima Agarwal
- Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
| | - Hunter Tichenor
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
| | - Sarah Roo
- Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
| | - Thomas R. Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceutical Inc., Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceutical Inc., Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
| | - Craig A. McElroy
- Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
- Correspondence:
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14
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Lane TR, Harris J, Urbina F, Ekins S. Comparing LD 50/LC 50 Machine Learning Models for Multiple Species. ACS Chem Health Saf 2023. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.chas.2c00088] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/25/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Thomas R. Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Joshua Harris
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Fabio Urbina
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
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15
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Vignaux PA, Lane TR, Urbina F, Gerlach J, Puhl AC, Snyder SH, Ekins S. Validation of Acetylcholinesterase Inhibition Machine Learning Models for Multiple Species. Chem Res Toxicol 2023; 36:188-201. [PMID: 36737043 PMCID: PMC9945174 DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrestox.2c00283] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) is an important enzyme and target for human therapeutics, environmental safety, and global food supply. Inhibitors of this enzyme are also used for pest elimination and can be misused for suicide or chemical warfare. Adverse effects of AChE pesticides on nontarget organisms, such as fish, amphibians, and humans, have also occurred as a result of biomagnifications of these toxic compounds. We have exhaustively curated the public data for AChE inhibition data and developed machine learning classification models for seven different species. Each set of models were built using up to nine different algorithms for each species and Morgan fingerprints (ECFP6) with an activity cutoff of 1 μM. The human (4075 compounds) and eel (5459 compounds) consensus models predicted AChE inhibition activity using external test sets from literature data with 81% and 82% accuracy, respectively, while the reciprocal cross (76% and 82% percent accuracy) was not species-specific. In addition, we also created machine learning regression models for human and eel AChE inhibition to return a predicted IC50 value for a queried molecule. We did observe an improved species specificity in the regression models, where a human support vector regression model of human AChE inhibition (3652 compounds) predicted the IC50s of the human test set to a better extent than the eel regression model (4930 compounds) on the same test set, based on mean absolute percentage error (MAPE = 9.73% vs 13.4%). The predictive power of these models certainly benefits from increasing the chemical diversity of the training set, as evidenced by expanding our human classification model by incorporating data from the Tox21 library of compounds. Of the 10 compounds we tested that were predicted active by this expanded model, two showed >80% inhibition at 100 μM. This machine learning approach therefore offers the ability to rapidly score massive libraries of molecules against the models for AChE inhibition that can then be selected for future in vitro testing to identify potential toxins. It also enabled us to create a public website, MegaAChE, for single-molecule predictions of AChE inhibition using these models at megaache.collaborationspharma.com.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patricia A Vignaux
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Thomas R Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Fabio Urbina
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Jacob Gerlach
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Ana C Puhl
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Scott H Snyder
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
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16
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Abstract
The uptake transporter OATP1B1 (SLC01B1) is largely localized to the sinusoidal membrane of hepatocytes and is a known victim of unwanted drug-drug interactions. Computational models are useful for identifying potential substrates and/or inhibitors of clinically relevant transporters. Our goal was to generate OATP1B1 in vitro inhibition data for [3H] estrone-3-sulfate (E3S) transport in CHO cells and use it to build machine learning models to facilitate a comparison of seven different classification models (Deep learning, Adaboosted decision trees, Bernoulli naïve bayes, k-nearest neighbors (knn), random forest, support vector classifier (SVC), logistic regression (lreg), and XGBoost (xgb)] using ECFP6 fingerprints to perform 5-fold, nested cross validation. In addition, we compared models using 3D pharmacophores, simple chemical descriptors alone or plus ECFP6, as well as ECFP4 and ECFP8 fingerprints. Several machine learning algorithms (SVC, lreg, xgb, and knn) had excellent nested cross validation statistics, particularly for accuracy, AUC, and specificity. An external test set containing 207 unique compounds not in the training set demonstrated that at every threshold SVC outperformed the other algorithms based on a rank normalized score. A prospective validation test set was chosen using prediction scores from the SVC models with ECFP fingerprints and were tested in vitro with 15 of 19 compounds (84% accuracy) predicted as active (≥20% inhibition) showed inhibition. Of these compounds, six (abamectin, asiaticoside, berbamine, doramectin, mobocertinib, and umbralisib) appear to be novel inhibitors of OATP1B1 not previously reported. These validated machine learning models can now be used to make predictions for drug-drug interactions for human OATP1B1 alongside other machine learning models for important drug transporters in our MegaTrans software.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas R. Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510 Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
| | - Fabio Urbina
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510 Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
| | - Xiaohong Zhang
- Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85724, USA
| | - Margret Fye
- Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85724, USA
| | - Jacob Gerlach
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510 Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
| | - Stephen H. Wright
- Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85724, USA
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510 Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
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17
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Puhl AC, Gomes GF, Damasceno S, Godoy AS, Noske GD, Nakamura AM, Gawriljuk VO, Fernandes RS, Monakhova N, Riabova O, Lane TR, Makarov V, Veras FP, Batah SS, Fabro AT, Oliva G, Cunha FQ, Alves-Filho JC, Cunha TM, Ekins S. Pyronaridine Protects against SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Mouse. ACS Infect Dis 2022; 8:1147-1160. [PMID: 35609344 PMCID: PMC9159503 DOI: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.2c00091] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/11/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
There are currently relatively few small-molecule antiviral drugs that are either approved or emergency-approved for use against severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). One of these is remdesivir, which was originally repurposed from its use against Ebola. We evaluated three molecules we had previously identified computationally with antiviral activity against Ebola and Marburg and identified pyronaridine, which inhibited the SARS-CoV-2 replication in A549-ACE2 cells. The in vivo efficacy of pyronaridine has now been assessed in a K18-hACE transgenic mouse model of COVID-19. Pyronaridine treatment demonstrated a statistically significant reduction of viral load in the lungs of SARS-CoV-2-infected mice, reducing lung pathology, which was also associated with significant reduction in the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines/chemokine and cell infiltration. Pyronaridine inhibited the viral PLpro activity in vitro (IC50 of 1.8 μM) without any effect on Mpro, indicating a possible molecular mechanism involved in its ability to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication. We have also generated several pyronaridine analogs to assist in understanding the structure activity relationship for PLpro inhibition. Our results indicate that pyronaridine is a potential therapeutic candidate for COVID-19.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana C. Puhl
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals,
Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606,
United States
| | - Giovanni F. Gomes
- Center for Research in Inflammatory Diseases (CRID),
Ribeirao Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo,
Avenida Bandeirantes, 3900, Ribeirao Preto 14049-900, São Paulo,
Brazil
| | - Samara Damasceno
- Center for Research in Inflammatory Diseases (CRID),
Ribeirao Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo,
Avenida Bandeirantes, 3900, Ribeirao Preto 14049-900, São Paulo,
Brazil
| | - Andre S. Godoy
- Institute of Physics of Sao Carlos,
University of São Paulo, Av. Joao Dagnone, 1100 -
Jardim Santa Angelina, Sao Carlos 13563-120, Brazil
| | - Gabriela D. Noske
- Institute of Physics of Sao Carlos,
University of São Paulo, Av. Joao Dagnone, 1100 -
Jardim Santa Angelina, Sao Carlos 13563-120, Brazil
| | - Aline M. Nakamura
- Institute of Physics of Sao Carlos,
University of São Paulo, Av. Joao Dagnone, 1100 -
Jardim Santa Angelina, Sao Carlos 13563-120, Brazil
| | - Victor O. Gawriljuk
- Institute of Physics of Sao Carlos,
University of São Paulo, Av. Joao Dagnone, 1100 -
Jardim Santa Angelina, Sao Carlos 13563-120, Brazil
| | - Rafaela S. Fernandes
- Institute of Physics of Sao Carlos,
University of São Paulo, Av. Joao Dagnone, 1100 -
Jardim Santa Angelina, Sao Carlos 13563-120, Brazil
| | - Natalia Monakhova
- Research Center of Biotechnology
RAS, Leninsky prospect, 33, Building 2, 119071 Moscow,
Russia
| | - Olga Riabova
- Research Center of Biotechnology
RAS, Leninsky prospect, 33, Building 2, 119071 Moscow,
Russia
| | - Thomas R. Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals,
Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606,
United States
| | - Vadim Makarov
- Research Center of Biotechnology
RAS, Leninsky prospect, 33, Building 2, 119071 Moscow,
Russia
| | - Flavio P. Veras
- Center for Research in Inflammatory Diseases (CRID),
Ribeirao Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo,
Avenida Bandeirantes, 3900, Ribeirao Preto 14049-900, São Paulo,
Brazil
| | - Sabrina S. Batah
- Department of Pathology and Legal Medicine,
Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São
Paulo, Avenida Bandeirantes, 3900, Ribeirao Preto 14049-900, São
Paulo, Brazil
| | - Alexandre T. Fabro
- Department of Pathology and Legal Medicine,
Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São
Paulo, Avenida Bandeirantes, 3900, Ribeirao Preto 14049-900, São
Paulo, Brazil
| | - Glaucius Oliva
- Institute of Physics of Sao Carlos,
University of São Paulo, Av. Joao Dagnone, 1100 -
Jardim Santa Angelina, Sao Carlos 13563-120, Brazil
| | - Fernando Q. Cunha
- Center for Research in Inflammatory Diseases (CRID),
Ribeirao Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo,
Avenida Bandeirantes, 3900, Ribeirao Preto 14049-900, São Paulo,
Brazil
| | - José C. Alves-Filho
- Center for Research in Inflammatory Diseases (CRID),
Ribeirao Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo,
Avenida Bandeirantes, 3900, Ribeirao Preto 14049-900, São Paulo,
Brazil
| | - Thiago M. Cunha
- Center for Research in Inflammatory Diseases (CRID),
Ribeirao Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo,
Avenida Bandeirantes, 3900, Ribeirao Preto 14049-900, São Paulo,
Brazil
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals,
Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606,
United States
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18
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Lane TR, Urbina F, Rank L, Gerlach J, Riabova O, Lepioshkin A, Kazakova E, Vocat A, Tkachenko V, Cole S, Makarov V, Ekins S. Machine Learning Models for Mycobacterium tuberculosisIn Vitro Activity: Prediction and Target Visualization. Mol Pharm 2022; 19:674-689. [PMID: 34964633 PMCID: PMC9121329 DOI: 10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.1c00791] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Tuberculosis (TB) is a major global health challenge, with approximately 1.4 million deaths per year. There is still a need to develop novel treatments for patients infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). There have been many large-scale phenotypic screens that have led to the identification of thousands of new compounds. Yet, there is very limited investment in TB drug discovery which points to the need for new methods to increase the efficiency of drug discovery against Mtb. We have used machine learning approaches to learn from the public Mtb data, resulting in many data sets and models with robust enrichment and hit rates leading to the discovery of new active compounds. Recently, we have curated predominantly small-molecule Mtb data and developed new machine learning classification models with 18 886 molecules at different activity cutoffs. We now describe the further validation of these Bayesian models using a library of over 1000 molecules synthesized as part of EU-funded New Medicines for TB and More Medicines for TB programs. We highlight molecular features which are enriched in these active compounds. In addition, we provide new regression and classification models that can be used for scoring compound libraries or used to design new molecules. We have also visualized these molecules in the context of known molecular targets and identified clusters in chemical property space, which may aid in future target identification efforts. Finally, we are also making these data sets publicly available, representing a significant increase to the available Mtb inhibition data in the public domain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas R. Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510 Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
| | - Fabio Urbina
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510 Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
| | - Laura Rank
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510 Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
| | - Jacob Gerlach
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510 Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
| | - Olga Riabova
- Research Center of Biotechnology RAS, 119071 Moscow, Russia
| | | | - Elena Kazakova
- Research Center of Biotechnology RAS, 119071 Moscow, Russia
| | - Anthony Vocat
- Global Health Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne 1015, Switzerland
| | - Valery Tkachenko
- Science Data Experts, 14909 Forest Landing Cir, Rockville, MD 20850
| | | | - Vadim Makarov
- Research Center of Biotechnology RAS, 119071 Moscow, Russia
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510 Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
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19
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Abstract
A recent publication in Science has proposed that cationic amphiphilic drugs repurposed for COVID-19 typically use phosholipidosis as their antiviral mechanism of action in cells but will have no in vivo efficacy. On the contrary, our viewpoint, supported by additional experimental data for similar cationic amphiphilic drugs, indicates that many of these molecules have both in vitro and in vivo efficacy with no reported phospholipidosis, and therefore, this class of compounds should not be avoided but further explored, as we continue the search for broad spectrum antivirals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas R Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
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20
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Gawriljuk VO, Zin PPK, Puhl AC, Zorn KM, Foil DH, Lane TR, Hurst B, Tavella TA, Costa FTM, Lakshmanane P, Bernatchez J, Godoy AS, Oliva G, Siqueira-Neto JL, Madrid PB, Ekins S. Machine Learning Models Identify Inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2. J Chem Inf Model 2021; 61:4224-4235. [PMID: 34387990 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.1c00683] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
With the rapidly evolving SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, there is an urgent need for the discovery of further treatments for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Drug repurposing is one of the most rapid strategies for addressing this need, and numerous compounds have already been selected for in vitro testing by several groups. These have led to a growing database of molecules with in vitro activity against the virus. Machine learning models can assist drug discovery through prediction of the best compounds based on previously published data. Herein, we have implemented several machine learning methods to develop predictive models from recent SARS-CoV-2 in vitro inhibition data and used them to prioritize additional FDA-approved compounds for in vitro testing selected from our in-house compound library. From the compounds predicted with a Bayesian machine learning model, lumefantrine, an antimalarial was selected for testing and showed limited antiviral activity in cell-based assays while demonstrating binding (Kd 259 nM) to the spike protein using microscale thermophoresis. Several other compounds which we prioritized have since been tested by others and were also found to be active in vitro. This combined machine learning and in vitro testing approach can be expanded to virtually screen available molecules with predicted activity against SARS-CoV-2 reference WIV04 strain and circulating variants of concern. In the process of this work, we have created multiple iterations of machine learning models that can be used as a prioritization tool for SARS-CoV-2 antiviral drug discovery programs. The very latest model for SARS-CoV-2 with over 500 compounds is now freely available at www.assaycentral.org.
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Affiliation(s)
- Victor O Gawriljuk
- São Carlos Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo, Av. João Dagnone, 1100-Santa Angelina, São Carlos, São Paulo 13563-120, Brazil
| | - Phyo Phyo Kyaw Zin
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Ana C Puhl
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Kimberley M Zorn
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Daniel H Foil
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Thomas R Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Brett Hurst
- Institute for Antiviral Research, Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84322-5600, United States.,Department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences, Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84322-4815, United States
| | - Tatyana Almeida Tavella
- Laboratory of Tropical Diseases-Prof. Dr. Luiz Jacinto da Silva, Department of Genetics, Evolution, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Campinas-UNICAMP, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Fabio Trindade Maranhão Costa
- Laboratory of Tropical Diseases-Prof. Dr. Luiz Jacinto da Silva, Department of Genetics, Evolution, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Campinas-UNICAMP, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Premkumar Lakshmanane
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill North Carolina 27599, United States
| | - Jean Bernatchez
- Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, San Diego, California 92093, United States
| | - Andre S Godoy
- São Carlos Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo, Av. João Dagnone, 1100-Santa Angelina, São Carlos, São Paulo 13563-120, Brazil
| | - Glaucius Oliva
- São Carlos Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo, Av. João Dagnone, 1100-Santa Angelina, São Carlos, São Paulo 13563-120, Brazil
| | - Jair L Siqueira-Neto
- Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, San Diego, California 92093, United States
| | - Peter B Madrid
- SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Avenue, Menlo Park, California 94025, United States
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
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21
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Gawriljuk VO, Foil DH, Puhl AC, Zorn KM, Lane TR, Riabova O, Makarov V, Godoy AS, Oliva G, Ekins S. Development of Machine Learning Models and the Discovery of a New Antiviral Compound against Yellow Fever Virus. J Chem Inf Model 2021; 61:3804-3813. [PMID: 34286575 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.1c00460] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Yellow fever (YF) is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes. Large epidemics of YF occur when the virus is introduced into heavily populated areas with high mosquito density and low vaccination coverage. The lack of a specific small molecule drug treatment against YF as well as for homologous infections, such as zika and dengue, highlights the importance of these flaviviruses as a public health concern. With the advancement in computer hardware and bioactivity data availability, new tools based on machine learning methods have been introduced into drug discovery, as a means to utilize the growing high throughput screening (HTS) data generated to reduce costs and increase the speed of drug development. The use of predictive machine learning models using previously published data from HTS campaigns or data available in public databases, can enable the selection of compounds with desirable bioactivity and absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion profiles. In this study, we have collated cell-based assay data for yellow fever virus from the literature and public databases. The data were used to build predictive models with several machine learning methods that could prioritize compounds for in vitro testing. Five molecules were prioritized and tested in vitro from which we have identified a new pyrazolesulfonamide derivative with EC50 3.2 μM and CC50 24 μM, which represents a new scaffold suitable for hit-to-lead optimization that can expand the available drug discovery candidates for YF.
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Affiliation(s)
- Victor O Gawriljuk
- São Carlos Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo, Av. João Dagnone, 1100 - Santa Angelina, São Carlos, São Paulo 13563-120, Brazil
| | - Daniel H Foil
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Ana C Puhl
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Kimberley M Zorn
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Thomas R Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Olga Riabova
- Research Center of Biotechnology RAS, Leninsky Prospekt 33-2, 119071 Moscow, Russia
| | - Vadim Makarov
- Research Center of Biotechnology RAS, Leninsky Prospekt 33-2, 119071 Moscow, Russia
| | - Andre S Godoy
- São Carlos Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo, Av. João Dagnone, 1100 - Santa Angelina, São Carlos, São Paulo 13563-120, Brazil
| | - Glaucius Oliva
- São Carlos Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo, Av. João Dagnone, 1100 - Santa Angelina, São Carlos, São Paulo 13563-120, Brazil
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
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Abstract
The growing quantity of public and private data sets focused on small molecules screened against biological targets or whole organisms provides a wealth of drug discovery relevant data. This is matched by the availability of machine learning algorithms such as Support Vector Machines (SVM) and Deep Neural Networks (DNN) that are computationally expensive to perform on very large data sets with thousands of molecular descriptors. Quantum computer (QC) algorithms have been proposed to offer an approach to accelerate quantum machine learning over classical computer (CC) algorithms, however with significant limitations. In the case of cheminformatics, which is widely used in drug discovery, one of the challenges to overcome is the need for compression of large numbers of molecular descriptors for use on a QC. Here, we show how to achieve compression with data sets using hundreds of molecules (SARS-CoV-2) to hundreds of thousands of molecules (whole cell screening data sets for plague and M. tuberculosis) with SVM and the data reuploading classifier (a DNN equivalent algorithm) on a QC benchmarked against CC and hybrid approaches. This study illustrates the steps needed in order to be "quantum computer ready" in order to apply quantum computing to drug discovery and to provide the foundation on which to build this field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kushal Batra
- Computer Science, NC State University, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
| | - Kimberley M. Zorn
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
| | - Daniel H. Foil
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
| | - Eni Minerali
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
| | - Victor O. Gawriljuk
- São Carlos Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo, Av. João Dagnone, 1100 - Santa Angelina, São Carlos - SP, 13563-120, Brazil
| | - Thomas R. Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
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23
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Donlin MJ, Lane TR, Riabova O, Lepioshkin A, Xu E, Lin J, Makarov V, Ekins S. Discovery of 5-Nitro-6-thiocyanatopyrimidines as Inhibitors of Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii. ACS Med Chem Lett 2021; 12:774-781. [PMID: 34055225 DOI: 10.1021/acsmedchemlett.1c00038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2021] [Accepted: 03/31/2021] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Opportunistic infections from pathogenic fungi present a major challenge to healthcare because of a very limited arsenal of antifungal drugs, an increasing population of immunosuppressed patients, and increased prevalence of resistant clinical strains due to overuse of the few available antifungals. Cryptococcal meningitis is a life-threatening opportunistic fungal infection caused by one of two species in the Cryptococcus genus, Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii. Eighty percent of cryptococcosis diseases are caused by C. neoformans that is endemic in the environment. The standard of care is limited to old antifungals, and under a high standard of care, mortality remains between 10 and 30%. We have identified a series of 5-nitro-6-thiocyanatopyrimidine antifungal drug candidates using in vitro and computational machine learning approaches. These compounds can inhibit C. neoformans growth at submicromolar levels, are effective against fluconazole-resistant C. neoformans and a clinical strain of C. gattii, and are not antagonistic with currently approved antifungals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maureen J. Donlin
- Edward A. Doisy Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63104, United States
- Institute for Drug and Biotherapeutic Development, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri 63103, United States
| | - Thomas R. Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Olga Riabova
- Department of Biology, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri 63103, United States
| | - Alexander Lepioshkin
- Department of Biology, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri 63103, United States
| | - Evan Xu
- Edward A. Doisy Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63104, United States
| | - Jeffrey Lin
- Department of Biology, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri 63103, United States
| | - Vadim Makarov
- Research Center of Biotechnology RAS, 119071 Moscow, Russia
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
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24
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Miller SR, Lane TR, Zorn KM, Ekins S, Wright SH, Cherrington NJ. Multiple Computational Approaches for Predicting Drug Interactions with Human Equilibrative Nucleoside Transporter 1. Drug Metab Dispos 2021; 49:479-489. [PMID: 33980604 DOI: 10.1124/dmd.121.000423] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2021] [Accepted: 04/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
Equilibrativenucleoside transporters (ENTs) participate in the pharmacokinetics and disposition of nucleoside analog drugs. Understanding drug interactions with the ENTs may inform and facilitate the development of new drugs, including chemotherapeutics and antivirals that require access to sanctuary sites such as the male genital tract. This study created three-dimensional pharmacophores for ENT1 and ENT2 substrates and inhibitors using Kt and IC50 data curated from the literature. Substrate pharmacophores for ENT1 and ENT2 are distinct, with partial overlap of hydrogen bond donors, whereas the inhibitor pharmacophores predominantly feature hydrogen bond acceptors. Mizoribine and ribavirin mapped to the ENT1 substrate pharmacophore and proved to be substrates of the ENTs. The presence of the ENT-specific inhibitor 6-S-[(4-nitrophenyl)methyl]-6-thioinosine (NBMPR) decreased mizoribine accumulation in ENT1 and ENT2 cells (ENT1, ∼70% decrease, P = 0.0046; ENT2, ∼50% decrease, P = 0.0012). NBMPR also decreased ribavirin accumulation in ENT1 and ENT2 cells (ENT1: ∼50% decrease, P = 0.0498; ENT2: ∼30% decrease, P = 0.0125). Darunavir mapped to the ENT1 inhibitor pharmacophore and NBMPR did not significantly influence darunavir accumulation in either ENT1 or ENT2 cells (ENT1: P = 0.28; ENT2: P = 0.53), indicating that darunavir's interaction with the ENTs is limited to inhibition. These computational and in vitro models can inform compound selection in the drug discovery and development process, thereby reducing time and expense of identification and optimization of ENT-interacting compounds. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: This study developed computational models of human equilibrative nucleoside transporters (ENTs) to predict drug interactions and validated these models with two compounds in vitro. Identification and prediction of ENT1 and ENT2 substrates allows for the determination of drugs that can penetrate tissues expressing these transporters.
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Affiliation(s)
- Siennah R Miller
- College of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology (S.R.M., N.J.C.), and College of Medicine, Department of Physiology (S.H.W.), University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona; and Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina (T.R.L., K.M.Z., S.E.)
| | - Thomas R Lane
- College of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology (S.R.M., N.J.C.), and College of Medicine, Department of Physiology (S.H.W.), University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona; and Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina (T.R.L., K.M.Z., S.E.)
| | - Kimberley M Zorn
- College of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology (S.R.M., N.J.C.), and College of Medicine, Department of Physiology (S.H.W.), University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona; and Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina (T.R.L., K.M.Z., S.E.)
| | - Sean Ekins
- College of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology (S.R.M., N.J.C.), and College of Medicine, Department of Physiology (S.H.W.), University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona; and Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina (T.R.L., K.M.Z., S.E.)
| | - Stephen H Wright
- College of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology (S.R.M., N.J.C.), and College of Medicine, Department of Physiology (S.H.W.), University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona; and Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina (T.R.L., K.M.Z., S.E.)
| | - Nathan J Cherrington
- College of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology (S.R.M., N.J.C.), and College of Medicine, Department of Physiology (S.H.W.), University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona; and Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina (T.R.L., K.M.Z., S.E.)
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25
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Puhl AC, Fritch EJ, Lane TR, Tse LV, Yount BL, Sacramento CQ, Fintelman-Rodrigues N, Tavella TA, Maranhão Costa FT, Weston S, Logue J, Frieman M, Premkumar L, Pearce KH, Hurst BL, Andrade CH, Levi JA, Johnson NJ, Kisthardt SC, Scholle F, Souza TML, Moorman NJ, Baric RS, Madrid PB, Ekins S. Repurposing the Ebola and Marburg Virus Inhibitors Tilorone, Quinacrine, and Pyronaridine: In Vitro Activity against SARS-CoV-2 and Potential Mechanisms. ACS Omega 2021; 6:7454-7468. [PMID: 33778258 PMCID: PMC7992063 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.0c05996] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2020] [Accepted: 03/02/2021] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
Severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a newly identified virus that has resulted in over 2.5 million deaths globally and over 116 million cases globally in March, 2021. Small-molecule inhibitors that reverse disease severity have proven difficult to discover. One of the key approaches that has been widely applied in an effort to speed up the translation of drugs is drug repurposing. A few drugs have shown in vitro activity against Ebola viruses and demonstrated activity against SARS-CoV-2 in vivo. Most notably, the RNA polymerase targeting remdesivir demonstrated activity in vitro and efficacy in the early stage of the disease in humans. Testing other small-molecule drugs that are active against Ebola viruses (EBOVs) would appear a reasonable strategy to evaluate their potential for SARS-CoV-2. We have previously repurposed pyronaridine, tilorone, and quinacrine (from malaria, influenza, and antiprotozoal uses, respectively) as inhibitors of Ebola and Marburg viruses in vitro in HeLa cells and mouse-adapted EBOV in mice in vivo. We have now tested these three drugs in various cell lines (VeroE6, Vero76, Caco-2, Calu-3, A549-ACE2, HUH-7, and monocytes) infected with SARS-CoV-2 as well as other viruses (including MHV and HCoV 229E). The compilation of these results indicated considerable variability in antiviral activity observed across cell lines. We found that tilorone and pyronaridine inhibited the virus replication in A549-ACE2 cells with IC50 values of 180 nM and IC50 198 nM, respectively. We used microscale thermophoresis to test the binding of these molecules to the spike protein, and tilorone and pyronaridine bind to the spike receptor binding domain protein with K d values of 339 and 647 nM, respectively. Human Cmax for pyronaridine and quinacrine is greater than the IC50 observed in A549-ACE2 cells. We also provide novel insights into the mechanism of these compounds which is likely lysosomotropic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana C. Puhl
- Collaborations
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Ethan J. Fritch
- Department
of Microbiology and Immunology, University
of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States
| | - Thomas R. Lane
- Collaborations
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Longping V. Tse
- Department
of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina
School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States
| | - Boyd L. Yount
- Department
of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina
School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States
| | - Carolina Q. Sacramento
- Laboratório
de Imunofarmacologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (IOC), Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21040-900, Brazil
- Centro
De Desenvolvimento Tecnológico Em Saúde (CDTS), Fiocruz, Rio de
Janeiro 21040-900, Brazil
| | - Natalia Fintelman-Rodrigues
- Laboratório
de Imunofarmacologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (IOC), Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21040-900, Brazil
- Centro
De Desenvolvimento Tecnológico Em Saúde (CDTS), Fiocruz, Rio de
Janeiro 21040-900, Brazil
| | - Tatyana Almeida Tavella
- Laboratory
of Tropical Diseases—Prof. Dr. Luiz Jacinto da Silva, Department
of Genetics, Evolution, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Campinas-UNICAMP, Campinas, São Paulo 13083-970, Brazil
| | - Fabio Trindade Maranhão Costa
- Laboratory
of Tropical Diseases—Prof. Dr. Luiz Jacinto da Silva, Department
of Genetics, Evolution, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Campinas-UNICAMP, Campinas, São Paulo 13083-970, Brazil
| | - Stuart Weston
- Department
of Microbiology and Immunology, University
of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, United States
| | - James Logue
- Department
of Microbiology and Immunology, University
of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, United States
| | - Matthew Frieman
- Department
of Microbiology and Immunology, University
of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, United States
| | - Lakshmanane Premkumar
- Department
of Microbiology and Immunology, University
of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States
| | - Kenneth H. Pearce
- Center
for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, Chemical Biology
and Medicinal Chemistry, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States
- UNC
Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States
| | - Brett L. Hurst
- Institute
for Antiviral Research, Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84322, United States
- Department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences, Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84322, United States
| | - Carolina Horta Andrade
- Laboratory
of Tropical Diseases—Prof. Dr. Luiz Jacinto da Silva, Department
of Genetics, Evolution, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Campinas-UNICAMP, Campinas, São Paulo 13083-970, Brazil
- LabMol—Laboratory of Molecular Modeling
and Drug Design, Faculdade
de Farmácia, Universidade Federal
de Goiás, Goiânia,
GO 74605-170, Brazil
| | - James A. Levi
- Department of Biological Sciences, North
Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United States
| | - Nicole J. Johnson
- Department of Biological Sciences, North
Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United States
| | - Samantha C. Kisthardt
- Department of Biological Sciences, North
Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United States
| | - Frank Scholle
- Department of Biological Sciences, North
Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United States
| | - Thiago Moreno L. Souza
- Laboratório
de Imunofarmacologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (IOC), Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21040-900, Brazil
- Centro
De Desenvolvimento Tecnológico Em Saúde (CDTS), Fiocruz, Rio de
Janeiro 21040-900, Brazil
| | - Nathaniel John Moorman
- Department
of Microbiology and Immunology, University
of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States
- Center
for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, Chemical Biology
and Medicinal Chemistry, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States
- Rapidly Emerging Antiviral Drug Discovery
Initiative, University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, Chapel
Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States
| | - Ralph S. Baric
- Department
of Microbiology and Immunology, University
of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States
- Department
of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina
School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States
- Rapidly Emerging Antiviral Drug Discovery
Initiative, University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, Chapel
Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States
| | - Peter B. Madrid
- SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Avenue, Menlo Park, California 94025, United States
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
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26
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Zorn KM, Sun S, McConnon CL, Ma K, Chen EK, Foil DH, Lane TR, Liu LJ, El-Sakkary N, Skinner DE, Ekins S, Caffrey CR. A Machine Learning Strategy for Drug Discovery Identifies Anti-Schistosomal Small Molecules. ACS Infect Dis 2021; 7:406-420. [PMID: 33434015 PMCID: PMC7887754 DOI: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.0c00754] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
![]()
Schistosomiasis is a chronic and
painful disease of poverty caused
by the flatworm parasite Schistosoma. Drug discovery
for antischistosomal compounds predominantly employs in vitro whole organism (phenotypic) screens against two developmental stages
of Schistosoma mansoni, post-infective larvae (somules)
and adults. We generated two rule books and associated scoring systems
to normalize 3898 phenotypic data points to enable machine learning.
The data were used to generate eight Bayesian machine learning models
with the Assay Central software according to parasite’s developmental
stage and experimental time point (≤24, 48, 72, and >72
h).
The models helped predict 56 active and nonactive compounds from commercial
compound libraries for testing. When these were screened against S. mansoni in vitro, the prediction accuracy for active
and inactives was 61% and 56% for somules and adults, respectively;
also, hit rates were 48% and 34%, respectively, far exceeding the
typical 1–2% hit rate for traditional high throughput screens.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kimberley M. Zorn
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Shengxi Sun
- Center for Discovery and Innovation in Parasitic Diseases, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0021, United States
| | - Cecelia L. McConnon
- Center for Discovery and Innovation in Parasitic Diseases, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0021, United States
| | - Kelley Ma
- Center for Discovery and Innovation in Parasitic Diseases, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0021, United States
| | - Eric K. Chen
- Center for Discovery and Innovation in Parasitic Diseases, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0021, United States
| | - Daniel H. Foil
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Thomas R. Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Lawrence J. Liu
- Center for Discovery and Innovation in Parasitic Diseases, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0021, United States
| | - Nelly El-Sakkary
- Center for Discovery and Innovation in Parasitic Diseases, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0021, United States
| | - Danielle E. Skinner
- Center for Discovery and Innovation in Parasitic Diseases, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0021, United States
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Conor R. Caffrey
- Center for Discovery and Innovation in Parasitic Diseases, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0021, United States
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Vignaux PA, Minerali E, Lane TR, Foil DH, Madrid PB, Puhl AC, Ekins S. The Antiviral Drug Tilorone Is a Potent and Selective Inhibitor of Acetylcholinesterase. Chem Res Toxicol 2021; 34:1296-1307. [PMID: 33400519 DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrestox.0c00466] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) is an important drug target in neurological disorders like Alzheimer's disease, Lewy body dementia, and Parkinson's disease dementia as well as for other conditions like myasthenia gravis and anticholinergic poisoning. In this study, we have used a combination of high-throughput screening, machine learning, and docking to identify new inhibitors of this enzyme. Bayesian machine learning models were generated with literature data from ChEMBL for eel and human AChE inhibitors as well as butyrylcholinesterase inhibitors (BuChE) and compared with other machine learning methods. High-throughput screens for the eel AChE inhibitor model identified several molecules including tilorone, an antiviral drug that is well-established outside of the United States, as a newly identified nanomolar AChE inhibitor. We have described how tilorone inhibits both eel and human AChE with IC50's of 14.4 nM and 64.4 nM, respectively, but does not inhibit the closely related BuChE IC50 > 50 μM. We have docked tilorone into the human AChE crystal structure and shown that this selectivity is likely due to the reliance on a specific interaction with a hydrophobic residue in the peripheral anionic site of AChE that is absent in BuChE. We also conducted a pharmacological safety profile (SafetyScreen44) and kinase selectivity screen (SelectScreen) that showed tilorone (1 μM) only inhibited AChE out of 44 toxicology target proteins evaluated and did not appreciably inhibit any of the 485 kinases tested. This study suggests there may be a potential role for repurposing tilorone or its derivatives in conditions that benefit from AChE inhibition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patricia A Vignaux
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Eni Minerali
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Thomas R Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Daniel H Foil
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Peter B Madrid
- SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Avenue, Menlo Park, California 94025, United States
| | - Ana C Puhl
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
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Lane TR, Foil DH, Minerali E, Urbina F, Zorn KM, Ekins S. Bioactivity Comparison across Multiple Machine Learning Algorithms Using over 5000 Datasets for Drug Discovery. Mol Pharm 2020; 18:403-415. [PMID: 33325717 DOI: 10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.0c01013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Machine learning methods are attracting considerable attention from the pharmaceutical industry for use in drug discovery and applications beyond. In recent studies, we and others have applied multiple machine learning algorithms and modeling metrics and, in some cases, compared molecular descriptors to build models for individual targets or properties on a relatively small scale. Several research groups have used large numbers of datasets from public databases such as ChEMBL in order to evaluate machine learning methods of interest to them. The largest of these types of studies used on the order of 1400 datasets. We have now extracted well over 5000 datasets from CHEMBL for use with the ECFP6 fingerprint and in comparison of our proprietary software Assay Central with random forest, k-nearest neighbors, support vector classification, naïve Bayesian, AdaBoosted decision trees, and deep neural networks (three layers). Model performance was assessed using an array of fivefold cross-validation metrics including area-under-the-curve, F1 score, Cohen's kappa, and Matthews correlation coefficient. Based on ranked normalized scores for the metrics or datasets, all methods appeared comparable, while the distance from the top indicated that Assay Central and support vector classification were comparable. Unlike prior studies which have placed considerable emphasis on deep neural networks (deep learning), no advantage was seen in this case. If anything, Assay Central may have been at a slight advantage as the activity cutoff for each of the over 5000 datasets representing over 570,000 unique compounds was based on Assay Central performance, although support vector classification seems to be a strong competitor. We also applied Assay Central to perform prospective predictions for the toxicity targets PXR and hERG to further validate these models. This work appears to be the largest scale comparison of these machine learning algorithms to date. Future studies will likely evaluate additional databases, descriptors, and machine learning algorithms and further refine the methods for evaluating and comparing such models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas R Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Daniel H Foil
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Eni Minerali
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Fabio Urbina
- Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-7545, United States
| | - Kimberley M Zorn
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
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Puhl AC, Fritch EJ, Lane TR, Tse LV, Yount BL, Sacramento CQ, Tavella TA, Costa FTM, Weston S, Logue J, Frieman M, Premkumar L, Pearce KH, Hurst BL, Andrade CH, Levi JA, Johnson NJ, Kisthardt SC, Scholle F, Souza TML, Moorman NJ, Baric RS, Madrid P, Ekins S. Repurposing the Ebola and Marburg Virus Inhibitors Tilorone, Quinacrine and Pyronaridine: In vitro Activity Against SARS-CoV-2 and Potential Mechanisms. bioRxiv 2020:2020.12.01.407361. [PMID: 33299990 PMCID: PMC7724658 DOI: 10.1101/2020.12.01.407361] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 is a newly identified virus that has resulted in over 1.3 M deaths globally and over 59 M cases globally to date. Small molecule inhibitors that reverse disease severity have proven difficult to discover. One of the key approaches that has been widely applied in an effort to speed up the translation of drugs is drug repurposing. A few drugs have shown in vitro activity against Ebola virus and demonstrated activity against SARS-CoV-2 in vivo . Most notably the RNA polymerase targeting remdesivir demonstrated activity in vitro and efficacy in the early stage of the disease in humans. Testing other small molecule drugs that are active against Ebola virus would seem a reasonable strategy to evaluate their potential for SARS-CoV-2. We have previously repurposed pyronaridine, tilorone and quinacrine (from malaria, influenza, and antiprotozoal uses, respectively) as inhibitors of Ebola and Marburg virus in vitro in HeLa cells and of mouse adapted Ebola virus in mouse in vivo . We have now tested these three drugs in various cell lines (VeroE6, Vero76, Caco-2, Calu-3, A549-ACE2, HUH-7 and monocytes) infected with SARS-CoV-2 as well as other viruses (including MHV and HCoV 229E). The compilation of these results indicated considerable variability in antiviral activity observed across cell lines. We found that tilorone and pyronaridine inhibited the virus replication in A549-ACE2 cells with IC 50 values of 180 nM and IC 50 198 nM, respectively. We have also tested them in a pseudovirus assay and used microscale thermophoresis to test the binding of these molecules to the spike protein. They bind to spike RBD protein with K d values of 339 nM and 647 nM, respectively. Human C max for pyronaridine and quinacrine is greater than the IC 50 hence justifying in vivo evaluation. We also provide novel insights into their mechanism which is likely lysosomotropic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana C. Puhl
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
| | - Ethan James Fritch
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill NC 27599, USA
| | - Thomas R. Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
| | - Longping V. Tse
- Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill NC 27599, USA
| | - Boyd L. Yount
- Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill NC 27599, USA
| | - Carol Queiroz Sacramento
- Laboratório de Imunofarmacologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (IOC), Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
- Centro De Desenvolvimento Tecnológico Em Saúde (CDTS), Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
| | - Tatyana Almeida Tavella
- Laboratory of Tropical Diseases - Prof. Dr. Luiz Jacinto da Silva, Department of Genetics, Evolution, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Campinas-UNICAMP, Campinas, SP, Brazil
| | - Fabio Trindade Maranhão Costa
- Laboratory of Tropical Diseases - Prof. Dr. Luiz Jacinto da Silva, Department of Genetics, Evolution, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Campinas-UNICAMP, Campinas, SP, Brazil
| | - Stuart Weston
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - James Logue
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - Matthew Frieman
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - Lakshmanane Premkumar
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill NC 27599, USA
| | - Kenneth H. Pearce
- Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA
- UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA
| | - Brett L. Hurst
- Institute for Antiviral Research, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA
- Department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA
| | - Carolina Horta Andrade
- Laboratory of Tropical Diseases - Prof. Dr. Luiz Jacinto da Silva, Department of Genetics, Evolution, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Campinas-UNICAMP, Campinas, SP, Brazil
- LabMol - Laboratory of Molecular Modeling and Drug Design, Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, GO, 74605-170, Brazil
| | - James A. Levi
- Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Nicole J. Johnson
- Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Samantha C. Kisthardt
- Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Frank Scholle
- Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Thiago Moreno L. Souza
- Laboratório de Imunofarmacologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (IOC), Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
- Centro De Desenvolvimento Tecnológico Em Saúde (CDTS), Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
| | - Nathaniel John Moorman
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill NC 27599, USA
- Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA
- Rapidly Emerging Antiviral Drug Discovery Initiative, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Ralph S. Baric
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill NC 27599, USA
- Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill NC 27599, USA
- Rapidly Emerging Antiviral Drug Discovery Initiative, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Peter Madrid
- SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Avenue, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
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Zorn KM, Foil DH, Lane TR, Hillwalker W, Feifarek DJ, Jones F, Klaren WD, Brinkman AM, Ekins S. Comparing Machine Learning Models for Aromatase (P450 19A1). Environ Sci Technol 2020; 54:15546-15555. [PMID: 33207874 PMCID: PMC8194505 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.0c05771] [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] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
Aromatase, or cytochrome P450 19A1, catalyzes the aromatization of androgens to estrogens within the body. Changes in the activity of this enzyme can produce hormonal imbalances that can be detrimental to sexual and skeletal development. Inhibition of this enzyme can occur with drugs and natural products as well as environmental chemicals. Therefore, predicting potential endocrine disruption via exogenous chemicals requires that aromatase inhibition be considered in addition to androgen and estrogen pathway interference. Bayesian machine learning methods can be used for prospective prediction from the molecular structure without the need for experimental data. Herein, the generation and evaluation of multiple machine learning models utilizing different sources of aromatase inhibition data are described. These models are applied to two test sets for external validation with molecules relevant to drug discovery from the public domain. In addition, the performance of multiple machine learning algorithms was evaluated by comparing internal five-fold cross-validation statistics of the training data. These methods to predict aromatase inhibition from molecular structure, when used in concert with estrogen and androgen machine learning models, allow for a more holistic assessment of endocrine-disrupting potential of chemicals with limited empirical data and enable the reduction of the use of hazardous substances.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kimberley M. Zorn
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Daniel H. Foil
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Thomas R. Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Wendy Hillwalker
- Global Product Safety, SC Johnson and Son, Inc., Racine, WI, USA
| | | | - Frank Jones
- Global Product Safety, SC Johnson and Son, Inc., Racine, WI, USA
| | | | | | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC, USA
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31
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Puhl AC, Lane TR, Vignaux PA, Zorn KM, Capodagli GC, Neiditch MB, Freundlich JS, Ekins S. Computational Approaches to Identify Molecules Binding to Mycobacterium tuberculosis KasA. ACS Omega 2020; 5:29935-29942. [PMID: 33251429 PMCID: PMC7689923 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.0c04271] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2020] [Accepted: 10/07/2020] [Indexed: 05/05/2023]
Abstract
Tuberculosis is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and is a deadly disease resulting in the deaths of approximately 1.5 million people with 10 million infections reported in 2018. Recently, a key condensation step in the synthesis of mycolic acids was shown to require β-ketoacyl-ACP synthase (KasA). A crystal structure of KasA with the small molecule DG167 was recently described, which provided a starting point for using computational structure-based approaches to identify additional molecules binding to this protein. We now describe structure-based pharmacophores, docking and machine learning studies with Assay Central as a computational tool for the identification of small molecules targeting KasA. We then tested these compounds using nanoscale differential scanning fluorimetry and microscale thermophoresis. Of note, we identified several molecules including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs sildenafil and flubendazole with K d values between 30-40 μM. This may provide additional starting points for further optimization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana C. Puhl
- Collaborations
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Thomas R. Lane
- Collaborations
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Patricia A. Vignaux
- Collaborations
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Kimberley M. Zorn
- Collaborations
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Glenn C. Capodagli
- Department
of Microbiology, Biochemistry, and Molecular Genetics, Rutgers University − New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey 07103, United States
| | - Matthew B. Neiditch
- Department
of Microbiology, Biochemistry, and Molecular Genetics, Rutgers University − New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey 07103, United States
| | - Joel S. Freundlich
- Department
of Pharmacology, Physiology, and Neuroscience, Rutgers University − New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey 07103, United States
- Division
of Infectious Disease, Department of Medicine and the Ruy V. Lourenço
Center for the Study of Emerging and Re-emerging Pathogens, Rutgers University - New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey 07103, United States
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
- . Tel.: +1 215-687-1320
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32
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Zorn KM, Foil DH, Lane TR, Hillwalker W, Feifarek DJ, Jones F, Klaren WD, Brinkman AM, Ekins S. Comparison of Machine Learning Models for the Androgen Receptor. Environ Sci Technol 2020; 54:13690-13700. [PMID: 33085465 PMCID: PMC8243727 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.0c03984] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/08/2023]
Abstract
The androgen receptor (AR) is a target of interest for endocrine disruption research, as altered signaling can affect normal reproductive and neurological development for generations. In an effort to prioritize compounds with alternative methodologies, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) used in vitro data from 11 assays to construct models of AR agonist and antagonist signaling pathways. While these EPA ToxCast AR models require in vitro data to assign a bioactivity score, Bayesian machine learning methods can be used for prospective prediction from molecule structure alone. This approach was applied to multiple types of data corresponding to the EPA's AR signaling pathway with proprietary software, Assay Central. The training performance of all machine learning models, including six other algorithms, was evaluated by internal 5-fold cross-validation statistics. Bayesian machine learning models were also evaluated with external predictions of reference chemicals to compare prediction accuracies to published results from the EPA. The machine learning model group selected for further studies of endocrine disruption consisted of continuous AC50 data from the February 2019 release of ToxCast/Tox21. These efforts demonstrate how machine learning can be used to predict AR-mediated bioactivity and can also be applied to other targets of endocrine disruption.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kimberley M. Zorn
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Daniel H. Foil
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Thomas R. Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Wendy Hillwalker
- Global Product Safety, SC Johnson and Son, Inc., Racine, WI, USA
| | | | - Frank Jones
- Global Product Safety, SC Johnson and Son, Inc., Racine, WI, USA
| | | | | | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC, USA
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33
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Zorn KM, Foil DH, Lane TR, Russo DP, Hillwalker W, Feifarek DJ, Jones F, Klaren WD, Brinkman AM, Ekins S. Machine Learning Models for Estrogen Receptor Bioactivity and Endocrine Disruption Prediction. Environ Sci Technol 2020; 54:12202-12213. [PMID: 32857505 PMCID: PMC8194504 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.0c03982] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/08/2023]
Abstract
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) periodically releases in vitro data across a variety of targets, including the estrogen receptor (ER). In 2015, the EPA used these data to construct mathematical models of ER agonist and antagonist pathways to prioritize chemicals for endocrine disruption testing. However, mathematical models require in vitro data prior to predicting estrogenic activity, but machine learning methods are capable of prospective prediction from the molecular structure alone. The current study describes the generation and evaluation of Bayesian machine learning models grouped by the EPA's ER agonist pathway model using multiple data types with proprietary software, Assay Central. External predictions with three test sets of in vitro and in vivo reference chemicals with agonist activity classifications were compared to previous mathematical model publications. Training data sets were subjected to additional machine learning algorithms and compared with rank normalized scores of internal five-fold cross-validation statistics. External predictions were found to be comparable or superior to previous studies published by the EPA. When assessing six additional algorithms for the training data sets, Assay Central performed similarly at a reduced computational cost. This study demonstrates that machine learning can prioritize chemicals for future in vitro and in vivo testing of ER agonism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kimberley M Zorn
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Daniel H Foil
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Thomas R Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Daniel P Russo
- Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey 08102, United States
| | - Wendy Hillwalker
- Global Product Safety, SC Johnson and Son, Inc., Racine, Wisconsin 53404, United States
| | - David J Feifarek
- Global Product Safety, SC Johnson and Son, Inc., Racine, Wisconsin 53404, United States
| | - Frank Jones
- Global Product Safety, SC Johnson and Son, Inc., Racine, Wisconsin 53404, United States
| | - William D Klaren
- Global Product Safety, SC Johnson and Son, Inc., Racine, Wisconsin 53404, United States
| | - Ashley M Brinkman
- Global Product Safety, SC Johnson and Son, Inc., Racine, Wisconsin 53404, United States
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
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Lane TR, Dyall J, Mercer L, Goodin C, Foil DH, Zhou H, Postnikova E, Liang JY, Holbrook MR, Madrid PB, Ekins S. Repurposing Pyramax®, quinacrine and tilorone as treatments for Ebola virus disease. Antiviral Res 2020; 182:104908. [PMID: 32798602 PMCID: PMC7425680 DOI: 10.1016/j.antiviral.2020.104908] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2020] [Revised: 07/03/2020] [Accepted: 08/04/2020] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
We have recently identified three molecules (tilorone, quinacrine and pyronaridine tetraphosphate) which all demonstrated efficacy in the mouse model of infection with mouse-adapted Ebola virus (EBOV) model of disease and had similar in vitro inhibition of an Ebola pseudovirus (VSV-EBOV-GP), suggesting they interfere with viral entry. Using a machine learning model to predict lysosomotropism these compounds were evaluated for their ability to possess a lysosomotropic mechanism in vitro. We now demonstrate in vitro that pyronaridine tetraphosphate is an inhibitor of Lysotracker accumulation in lysosomes (IC50 = 0.56 μM). Further, we evaluated antiviral synergy between pyronaridine and artesunate (Pyramax®), which are used in combination to treat malaria. Artesunate was not found to have lysosomotropic activity in vitro and the combination effect on EBOV inhibition was shown to be additive. Pyramax® may represent a unique example of the repurposing of a combination product for another disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas R Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC, 27606, USA
| | - Julie Dyall
- Integrated Research Facility, Division of Clinical Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Frederick, MD, USA
| | - Luke Mercer
- Cambrex, 3501 Tricenter Blvd, Suite C, Durham, NC, 27713, USA
| | - Caleb Goodin
- Cambrex, 3501 Tricenter Blvd, Suite C, Durham, NC, 27713, USA
| | - Daniel H Foil
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC, 27606, USA
| | - Huanying Zhou
- Integrated Research Facility, Division of Clinical Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Frederick, MD, USA
| | | | - Janie Y Liang
- Integrated Research Facility, Division of Clinical Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Frederick, MD, USA
| | - Michael R Holbrook
- Integrated Research Facility, Division of Clinical Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Frederick, MD, USA
| | - Peter B Madrid
- SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Avenue, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC, 27606, USA.
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Lane TR, Massey C, Comer JE, Freiberg AN, Zhou H, Dyall J, Holbrook MR, Anantpadma M, Davey RA, Madrid PB, Ekins S. Pyronaridine tetraphosphate efficacy against Ebola virus infection in guinea pig. Antiviral Res 2020; 181:104863. [PMID: 32682926 PMCID: PMC8194506 DOI: 10.1016/j.antiviral.2020.104863] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2020] [Revised: 06/15/2020] [Accepted: 06/16/2020] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
The recent outbreaks of the Ebola virus (EBOV) in Africa have brought global visibility to the shortage of available therapeutic options to treat patients infected with this or closely related viruses. We have recently computationally identified three molecules which have all demonstrated statistically significant efficacy in the mouse model of infection with mouse adapted Ebola virus (ma-EBOV). One of these molecules is the antimalarial pyronaridine tetraphosphate (IC50 range of 0.82-1.30 μM against three strains of EBOV and IC50 range of 1.01-2.72 μM against two strains of Marburg virus (MARV)) which is an approved drug in the European Union and used in combination with artesunate. To date, no small molecule drugs have shown statistically significant efficacy in the guinea pig model of EBOV infection. Pharmacokinetics and range-finding studies in guinea pigs directed us to a single 300 mg/kg or 600 mg/kg oral dose of pyronaridine 1hr after infection. Pyronaridine resulted in statistically significant survival of 40% at 300 mg/kg and protected from a lethal challenge with EBOV. In comparison, oral favipiravir (300 mg/kg dosed once a day) had 43.5% survival. All animals in the vehicle treatment group succumbed to disease by study day 12 (100% mortality). The in vitro metabolism and metabolite identification of pyronaridine and another of our EBOV active molecules, tilorone, suggested significant species differences which may account for the efficacy or lack thereof, respectively in guinea pig. In summary, our studies with pyronaridine demonstrates its utility for repurposing as an antiviral against EBOV and MARV.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas R. Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
| | - Christopher Massey
- Institutional Office of Regulated Nonclinical Studies, University of Texas Medical Branch, 301 University Blvd., Galveston, TX 77555, USA
| | - Jason E. Comer
- Institutional Office of Regulated Nonclinical Studies, University of Texas Medical Branch, 301 University Blvd., Galveston, TX 77555, USA
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Medical Branch, 301 University Blvd., Galveston, TX 77555, USA
- Sealy Institute for Vaccine Sciences, University of Texas Medical Branch, 301 University Blvd., Galveston, TX 77555, USA
| | - Alexander N. Freiberg
- Sealy Institute for Vaccine Sciences, University of Texas Medical Branch, 301 University Blvd., Galveston, TX 77555, USA
- Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, 301 University Blvd., Galveston, TX 77555, USA
| | - Huanying Zhou
- Integrated Research Facility, Division of Clinical Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Frederick, MD, USA
| | - Julie Dyall
- Integrated Research Facility, Division of Clinical Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Frederick, MD, USA
| | - Michael R. Holbrook
- Integrated Research Facility, Division of Clinical Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Frederick, MD, USA
| | - Manu Anantpadma
- Texas Biomedical Research Institute, San Antonio, TX 78227, USA
| | - Robert A. Davey
- Texas Biomedical Research Institute, San Antonio, TX 78227, USA
| | - Peter B. Madrid
- SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Avenue, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
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Lane TR, Ekins S. Toward the Target: Tilorone, Quinacrine, and Pyronaridine Bind to Ebola Virus Glycoprotein. ACS Med Chem Lett 2020; 11:1653-1658. [PMID: 32832035 DOI: 10.1021/acsmedchemlett.0c00298] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2020] [Accepted: 07/23/2020] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Pyronaridine, tilorone, and quinacrine were recently identified by a machine learning model and demonstrated in vitro and in vivo activity against Ebola virus (EBOV) and represent viable candidates for drug repurposing. The target for these molecules was previously unknown. These drugs have now been docked into the crystal structure of the ebola glycoprotein and then experimentally validated in vitro using microscale thermophoresis to generate K d values for tilorone (0.73 μM), pyronaridine (7.34 μM), and quinacrine (7.55 μM). These molecules were shown to bind with a higher affinity than the previously reported toremifene (16 μM). These three structures provide more insight into the structural diversity of ebola glycoprotein inhibitors which can be utilized in the discovery and design of additional inhibitors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas R. Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
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Anderson E, Havener TM, Zorn KM, Foil DH, Lane TR, Capuzzi SJ, Morris D, Hickey AJ, Drewry DH, Ekins S. Synergistic drug combinations and machine learning for drug repurposing in chordoma. Sci Rep 2020; 10:12982. [PMID: 32737414 PMCID: PMC7395084 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-70026-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2020] [Accepted: 07/20/2020] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Chordoma is a devastating rare cancer that affects one in a million people. With a mean-survival of just 6 years and no approved medicines, the primary treatments are surgery and radiation. In order to speed new medicines to chordoma patients, a drug repurposing strategy represents an attractive approach. Drugs that have already advanced through human clinical safety trials have the potential to be approved more quickly than de novo discovered medicines on new targets. We have taken two strategies to enable this: (1) generated and validated machine learning models of chordoma inhibition and screened compounds of interest in vitro. (2) Tested combinations of approved kinase inhibitors already being individually evaluated for chordoma. Several published studies of compounds screened against chordoma cell lines were used to generate Bayesian Machine learning models which were then used to score compounds selected from the NIH NCATS industry-provided assets. Out of these compounds, the mTOR inhibitor AZD2014, was the most potent against chordoma cell lines (IC50 0.35 µM U-CH1 and 0.61 µM U-CH2). Several studies have shown the importance of the mTOR signaling pathway in chordoma and suggest it as a promising avenue for targeted therapy. Additionally, two currently FDA approved drugs, afatinib and palbociclib (EGFR and CDK4/6 inhibitors, respectively) demonstrated synergy in vitro (CI50 = 0.43) while AZD2014 and afatanib also showed synergy (CI50 = 0.41) against a chordoma cell in vitro. These findings may be of interest clinically, and this in vitro- and in silico approach could also be applied to other rare cancers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edward Anderson
- UNC Catalyst for Rare Diseases, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Tammy M Havener
- UNC Catalyst for Rare Diseases, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Kimberley M Zorn
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Daniel H Foil
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Thomas R Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Stephen J Capuzzi
- UNC Catalyst for Rare Diseases, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Dave Morris
- UNC Catalyst for Rare Diseases, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Anthony J Hickey
- UNC Catalyst for Rare Diseases, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
- RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
| | - David H Drewry
- Structural Genomics Consortium, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
| | - Sean Ekins
- UNC Catalyst for Rare Diseases, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC, USA.
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Abstract
Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is one the most unpredictable adverse reactions to xenobiotics in humans and the leading cause of postmarketing withdrawals of approved drugs. To date, these drugs have been collated by the FDA to form the DILIRank database, which classifies DILI severity and potential. These classifications have been used by various research groups in generating computational predictions for this type of liver injury. Recently, groups from Pfizer and AstraZeneca have collated DILI in vitro data and physicochemical properties for compounds that can be used along with data from the FDA to build machine learning models for DILI. In this study, we have used these data sets, as well as the Biopharmaceutics Drug Disposition Classification System data set, to generate Bayesian machine learning models with our in-house software, Assay Central. The performance of all machine learning models was assessed through both the internal 5-fold cross-validation metrics and prediction accuracy of an external test set of compounds with known hepatotoxicity. The best-performing Bayesian model was based on the DILI-concern category from the DILIRank database with an ROC of 0.814, a sensitivity of 0.741, a specificity of 0.755, and an accuracy of 0.746. A comparison of alternative machine learning algorithms, such as k-nearest neighbors, support vector classification, AdaBoosted decision trees, and deep learning methods, produced similar statistics to those generated with the Bayesian algorithm in Assay Central. This study demonstrates machine learning models grouped in a tool called MegaTox that can be used to predict early-stage clinical compounds, as well as recent FDA-approved drugs, to identify potential DILI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eni Minerali
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Daniel H Foil
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Kimberley M Zorn
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Thomas R Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States
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Ekins S, Lane TR, Madrid PB. Tilorone: a Broad-Spectrum Antiviral Invented in the USA and Commercialized in Russia and beyond. Pharm Res 2020; 37:71. [PMID: 32215760 PMCID: PMC7100484 DOI: 10.1007/s11095-020-02799-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2020] [Accepted: 03/10/2020] [Indexed: 12/05/2022]
Abstract
For the last 50 years we have known of a broad-spectrum agent tilorone dihydrochloride (Tilorone). This is a small-molecule orally bioavailable drug that was originally discovered in the USA and is currently used clinically as an antiviral in Russia and the Ukraine. Over the years there have been numerous clinical and non-clinical reports of its broad spectrum of antiviral activity. More recently we have identified additional promising antiviral activities against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Chikungunya, Ebola and Marburg which highlights that this old drug may have other uses against new viruses. This may in turn inform the types of drugs that we need for virus outbreaks such as for the new coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Tilorone has been long neglected by the west in many respects but it deserves further reassessment in light of current and future needs for broad-spectrum antivirals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC27606, USA.
| | - Thomas R Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC27606, USA
| | - Peter B Madrid
- SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Avenue, Menlo Park, California, 94025, USA
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40
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Lane TR, Massey C, Comer JE, Anantpadma M, Freundlich JS, Davey RA, Madrid PB, Ekins S. Repurposing the antimalarial pyronaridine tetraphosphate to protect against Ebola virus infection. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2019; 13:e0007890. [PMID: 31751347 PMCID: PMC6894882 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0007890] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2019] [Revised: 12/05/2019] [Accepted: 10/29/2019] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent outbreaks of the Ebola virus (EBOV) have focused attention on the dire need for antivirals to treat these patients. We identified pyronaridine tetraphosphate as a potential candidate as it is an approved drug in the European Union which is currently used in combination with artesunate as a treatment for malaria (EC50 between 420 nM—1.14 μM against EBOV in HeLa cells). Range-finding studies in mice directed us to a single 75 mg/kg i.p. dose 1 hr after infection which resulted in 100% survival and statistically significantly reduced viremia at study day 3 from a lethal challenge with mouse-adapted EBOV (maEBOV). Further, an EBOV window study suggested we could dose pyronaridine 2 or 24 hrs post-exposure to result in similar efficacy. Analysis of cytokine and chemokine panels suggests that pyronaridine may act as an immunomodulator during an EBOV infection. Our studies with pyronaridine clearly demonstrate potential utility for its repurposing as an antiviral against EBOV and merits further study in larger animal models with the added benefit of already being used as a treatment against malaria. To date there is no approved drug for Ebola Virus infection. Our approach has been to assess drugs that are already approved for other uses in various countries. Using computational models, we have previously identified three such drugs and demonstrated their activity against the Ebola virus in vitro. We now report on the in vitro absorption, metabolism, distribution, excretion and pharmacokinetic properties of one of these molecules, namely the antimalarial pyronaridine. We justify efficacy testing in the mouse model of ebola infection. We also demonstrate that a single dose of this drug is 100% effective against the virus. This study provides important preclinical evaluation of this already approved drug and justifies its selection for larger animal efficacy studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas R. Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Raleigh, NC, United States of America
| | - Christopher Massey
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, United States of America
| | - Jason E. Comer
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, United States of America
- Institutional Office of Regulated Nonclinical Studies, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, United States of America
- Sealy Center for Vaccine Development, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, United States of America
| | - Manu Anantpadma
- Department of Virology and Immunology, Texas Biomedical Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, United States of America
| | - Joel S. Freundlich
- Departments of Pharmacology, Physiology, and Neuroscience & Medicine, Center for Emerging and Reemerging Pathogens, Rutgers University–New Jersey Medical School, NJ, United States of America
| | - Robert A. Davey
- Department of Virology and Immunology, Texas Biomedical Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, United States of America
| | | | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Raleigh, NC, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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41
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Ekins S, Puhl AC, Zorn KM, Lane TR, Russo DP, Klein JJ, Hickey AJ, Clark AM. Exploiting machine learning for end-to-end drug discovery and development. Nat Mater 2019; 18:435-441. [PMID: 31000803 PMCID: PMC6594828 DOI: 10.1038/s41563-019-0338-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 219] [Impact Index Per Article: 43.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2018] [Accepted: 03/07/2019] [Indexed: 05/20/2023]
Abstract
A variety of machine learning methods such as naive Bayesian, support vector machines and more recently deep neural networks are demonstrating their utility for drug discovery and development. These leverage the generally bigger datasets created from high-throughput screening data and allow prediction of bioactivities for targets and molecular properties with increased levels of accuracy. We have only just begun to exploit the potential of these techniques but they may already be fundamentally changing the research process for identifying new molecules and/or repurposing old drugs. The integrated application of such machine learning models for end-to-end (E2E) application is broadly relevant and has considerable implications for developing future therapies and their targeting.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Raleigh, NC, USA.
| | - Ana C Puhl
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Raleigh, NC, USA
| | | | - Thomas R Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Daniel P Russo
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Raleigh, NC, USA
- The Rutgers Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, Camden, NJ, USA
| | | | - Anthony J Hickey
- RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
- UNC Catalyst for Rare Diseases, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Alex M Clark
- Molecular Materials Informatics, Inc., Montreal, Quebec, Canada
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42
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Abstract
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes over a million deaths every year and has a huge economic impact in many countries. The first class of drugs approved were nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors. A newer generation of reverse transcriptase inhibitors have become susceptible to drug resistant strains of HIV, and hence, alternatives are urgently needed. We have recently pioneered the use of Bayesian machine learning to generate models with public data to identify new compounds for testing against different disease targets. The current study has used the NIAID ChemDB HIV, Opportunistic Infection and Tuberculosis Therapeutics Database for machine learning studies. We curated and cleaned data from HIV-1 wild-type cell-based and reverse transcriptase (RT) DNA polymerase inhibition assays. Compounds from this database with ≤1 μM HIV-1 RT DNA polymerase activity inhibition and cell-based HIV-1 inhibition are correlated (Pearson r = 0.44, n = 1137, p < 0.0001). Models were trained using multiple machine learning approaches (Bernoulli Naive Bayes, AdaBoost Decision Tree, Random Forest, support vector classification, k-Nearest Neighbors, and deep neural networks as well as consensus approaches) and then their predictive abilities were compared. Our comparison of different machine learning methods demonstrated that support vector classification, deep learning, and a consensus were generally comparable and not significantly different from each other using 5-fold cross validation and using 24 training and test set combinations. This study demonstrates findings in line with our previous studies for various targets that training and testing with multiple data sets does not demonstrate a significant difference between support vector machine and deep neural networks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kimberley M Zorn
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc. , Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510 , Raleigh , North Carolina 27606 , United States
| | - Thomas R Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc. , Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510 , Raleigh , North Carolina 27606 , United States
| | - Daniel P Russo
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc. , Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510 , Raleigh , North Carolina 27606 , United States.,The Rutgers Center for Computational and Integrative Biology , Camden , New Jersey 08102 , United States
| | - Alex M Clark
- Molecular Materials Informatics, Inc. , 2234 Duvernay Street , Montreal , Quebec H3J2Y3 , Canada
| | - Vadim Makarov
- Bach Institute of Biochemistry , Research Center of Biotechnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences , Leninsky Prospekt 33-2 , Moscow 119071 , Russia
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc. , Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510 , Raleigh , North Carolina 27606 , United States
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43
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Wang PF, Neiner A, Lane TR, Zorn KM, Ekins S, Kharasch ED. Halogen Substitution Influences Ketamine Metabolism by Cytochrome P450 2B6: In Vitro and Computational Approaches. Mol Pharm 2019; 16:898-906. [PMID: 30589555 DOI: 10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.8b01214] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
Ketamine is analgesic at anesthetic and subanesthetic doses, and it has been used recently to treat depression. Biotransformation mediates ketamine effects, influencing both systemic elimination and bioactivation. CYP2B6 is the major catalyst of hepatic ketamine N-demethylation and metabolism at clinically relevant concentrations. Numerous CYP2B6 substrates contain halogens. CYP2B6 readily forms halogen-protein (particularly Cl-π) bonds, which influence substrate selectivity and active site orientation. Ketamine is chlorinated, but little is known about the metabolism of halogenated analogs. This investigation evaluated halogen substitution effects on CYP2B6-catalyzed ketamine analogs N-demethylation in vitro and modeled interactions with CYP2B6 using various computational approaches. Ortho phenyl ring halogen substituent changes caused substantial (18-fold) differences in Km, on the order of Br (bromoketamine, 10 μM) < Cl < F < H (deschloroketamine, 184 μM). In contrast, Vmax varied minimally (83-103 pmol/min/pmol CYP). Thus, apparent substrate binding affinity was the major consequence of halogen substitution and the major determinant of N-demethylation. Docking poses of ketamine and analogs were similar, sharing a π-stack with F297. Libdock scores were deschloroketamine < bromoketamine < ketamine < fluoroketamine. A Bayesian log Km model generated with Assay Central had a ROC of 0.86. The probability of activity at 15 μM for ketamine and analogs was predicted with this model. Deschloroketamine scores corresponded to the experimental Km, but the model was unable to predict activity with fluoroketamine. The binding pocket of CYP2B6 also suggested a hydrophobic component to substrate docking, on the basis of a strong linear correlation ( R2 = 0.92) between lipophilicity ( Alog P) and metabolism (log Km) of ketamine and analogs. This property may be the simplest design criteria to use when considering similar compounds and CYP2B6 affinity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pan-Fen Wang
- Department of Anesthesiology , Duke University School of Medicine , Durham , North Carolina 27710 , United States
| | - Alicia Neiner
- Department of Anesthesiology , Washington University in St. Louis , St. Louis , Missouri 63130 , United States
| | - Thomas R Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc. , Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510 , Raleigh , North Carolina 27606 , United States
| | - Kimberley M Zorn
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc. , Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510 , Raleigh , North Carolina 27606 , United States
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc. , Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510 , Raleigh , North Carolina 27606 , United States
| | - Evan D Kharasch
- Department of Anesthesiology , Duke University School of Medicine , Durham , North Carolina 27710 , United States
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44
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Mori G, Orena BS, Franch C, Mitchenall LA, Godbole AA, Rodrigues L, Aguilar-Pérez C, Zemanová J, Huszár S, Forbak M, Lane TR, Sabbah M, Deboosere N, Frita R, Vandeputte A, Hoffmann E, Russo R, Connell N, Veilleux C, Jha RK, Kumar P, Freundlich JS, Brodin P, Aínsa JA, Nagaraja V, Maxwell A, Mikušová K, Pasca MR, Ekins S. The EU approved antimalarial pyronaridine shows antitubercular activity and synergy with rifampicin, targeting RNA polymerase. Tuberculosis (Edinb) 2018; 112:98-109. [PMID: 30205975 DOI: 10.1016/j.tube.2018.08.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [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: 01/09/2018] [Revised: 08/03/2018] [Accepted: 08/05/2018] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
The search for compounds with biological activity for many diseases is turning increasingly to drug repurposing. In this study, we have focused on the European Union-approved antimalarial pyronaridine which was found to have in vitro activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MIC 5 μg/mL). In macromolecular synthesis assays, pyronaridine resulted in a severe decrease in incorporation of 14C-uracil and 14C-leucine similar to the effect of rifampicin, a known inhibitor of M. tuberculosis RNA polymerase. Surprisingly, the co-administration of pyronaridine (2.5 μg/ml) and rifampicin resulted in in vitro synergy with an MIC 0.0019-0.0009 μg/mL. This was mirrored in a THP-1 macrophage infection model, with a 16-fold MIC reduction for rifampicin when the two compounds were co-administered versus rifampicin alone. Docking pyronaridine in M. tuberculosis RNA polymerase suggested the potential for it to bind outside of the RNA polymerase rifampicin binding pocket. Pyronaridine was also found to have activity against a M. tuberculosis clinical isolate resistant to rifampicin, and when combined with rifampicin (10% MIC) was able to inhibit M. tuberculosis RNA polymerase in vitro. All these findings, and in particular the synergistic behavior with the antitubercular rifampicin, inhibition of RNA polymerase in combination in vitro and its current use as a treatment for malaria, may suggest that pyronaridine could also be used as an adjunct for treatment against M. tuberculosis infection. Future studies will test potential for in vivo synergy, clinical utility and attempt to develop pyronaridine analogs with improved potency against M. tuberculosis RNA polymerase when combined with rifampicin.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giorgia Mori
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology "Lazzaro Spallanzani", University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
| | - Beatrice Silvia Orena
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology "Lazzaro Spallanzani", University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
| | - Clara Franch
- Department of Biological Chemistry, John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7UH, UK
| | - Lesley A Mitchenall
- Department of Biological Chemistry, John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7UH, UK
| | - Adwait Anand Godbole
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India
| | - Liliana Rodrigues
- Departamento de Microbiología, Facultad de Medicina, and BIFI, Universidad de Zaragoza, and IIS-Aragón, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain; CIBER Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBERES), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain; Fundación ARAID, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Clara Aguilar-Pérez
- Departamento de Microbiología, Facultad de Medicina, and BIFI, Universidad de Zaragoza, and IIS-Aragón, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain; CIBER Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBERES), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain
| | - Júlia Zemanová
- Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Mlynská dolina, Ilkovičova 6, 84215, Bratislava, Slovakia
| | - Stanislav Huszár
- Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Mlynská dolina, Ilkovičova 6, 84215, Bratislava, Slovakia
| | - Martin Forbak
- Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Mlynská dolina, Ilkovičova 6, 84215, Bratislava, Slovakia
| | - Thomas R Lane
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
| | - Mohamad Sabbah
- Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Rd, Cambridge, CB2 1EW, UK
| | - Nathalie Deboosere
- Univ Lille, CNRS, INSERM, CHU Lille, Institut Pasteur de Lille, U1019 - UMR 8204 - CIIL - Center for Infection and Immunity of Lille, 1 rue du Professeur Calmette, 59000 Lille, France
| | - Rosangela Frita
- Univ Lille, CNRS, INSERM, CHU Lille, Institut Pasteur de Lille, U1019 - UMR 8204 - CIIL - Center for Infection and Immunity of Lille, 1 rue du Professeur Calmette, 59000 Lille, France
| | - Alexandre Vandeputte
- Univ Lille, CNRS, INSERM, CHU Lille, Institut Pasteur de Lille, U1019 - UMR 8204 - CIIL - Center for Infection and Immunity of Lille, 1 rue du Professeur Calmette, 59000 Lille, France
| | - Eik Hoffmann
- Univ Lille, CNRS, INSERM, CHU Lille, Institut Pasteur de Lille, U1019 - UMR 8204 - CIIL - Center for Infection and Immunity of Lille, 1 rue du Professeur Calmette, 59000 Lille, France
| | - Riccardo Russo
- Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Medicine and the Ruy V. Lourenço Center for the Study of Emerging and Re-emerging Pathogens, Rutgers University - New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ 07103, USA
| | - Nancy Connell
- Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Medicine and the Ruy V. Lourenço Center for the Study of Emerging and Re-emerging Pathogens, Rutgers University - New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ 07103, USA
| | - Courtney Veilleux
- Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Medicine and the Ruy V. Lourenço Center for the Study of Emerging and Re-emerging Pathogens, Rutgers University - New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ 07103, USA
| | - Rajiv K Jha
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India
| | - Pradeep Kumar
- Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Medicine and the Ruy V. Lourenço Center for the Study of Emerging and Re-emerging Pathogens, Rutgers University - New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ 07103, USA
| | - Joel S Freundlich
- Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Medicine and the Ruy V. Lourenço Center for the Study of Emerging and Re-emerging Pathogens, Rutgers University - New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ 07103, USA; Department of Pharmacology, Physiology, and Neuroscience, Rutgers University - New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, 07103, USA
| | - Priscille Brodin
- Univ Lille, CNRS, INSERM, CHU Lille, Institut Pasteur de Lille, U1019 - UMR 8204 - CIIL - Center for Infection and Immunity of Lille, 1 rue du Professeur Calmette, 59000 Lille, France
| | - Jose Antonio Aínsa
- Departamento de Microbiología, Facultad de Medicina, and BIFI, Universidad de Zaragoza, and IIS-Aragón, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain; CIBER Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBERES), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain
| | - Valakunja Nagaraja
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India; Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore 560064, India
| | - Anthony Maxwell
- Department of Biological Chemistry, John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7UH, UK
| | - Katarína Mikušová
- Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Mlynská dolina, Ilkovičova 6, 84215, Bratislava, Slovakia
| | - Maria Rosalia Pasca
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology "Lazzaro Spallanzani", University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
| | - Sean Ekins
- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 840 Main Campus Drive, Lab 3510, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA; Collaborative Drug Discovery, 1633 Bayshore Highway, Suite 342, Burlingame, CA 94403, USA.
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Lane TR, Fuchs E, Slep KC. Structure of the ACF7 EF-Hand-GAR Module and Delineation of Microtubule Binding Determinants. Structure 2017; 25:1130-1138.e6. [PMID: 28602822 DOI: 10.1016/j.str.2017.05.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [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: 12/23/2016] [Revised: 04/14/2017] [Accepted: 05/10/2017] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Spectraplakins are large molecules that cross-link F-actin and microtubules (MTs). Mutations in spectraplakins yield defective cell polarization, aberrant focal adhesion dynamics, and dystonia. We present the 2.8 Å crystal structure of the hACF7 EF1-EF2-GAR MT-binding module and delineate the GAR residues critical for MT binding. The EF1-EF2 and GAR domains are autonomous domains connected by a flexible linker. The EF1-EF2 domain is an EFβ-scaffold with two bound Ca2+ ions that straddle an N-terminal α helix. The GAR domain has a unique α/β sandwich fold that coordinates Zn2+. While the EF1-EF2 domain is not sufficient for MT binding, the GAR domain is and likely enhances EF1-EF2-MT engagement. Residues in a conserved basic patch, distal to the GAR domain's Zn2+-binding site, mediate MT binding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas R Lane
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA; Molecular and Cellular Biophysics Program, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Elaine Fuchs
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065, USA; Robin Chemers Neustein Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065, USA
| | - Kevin C Slep
- Molecular and Cellular Biophysics Program, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA; Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
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Guntas G, Lewis SM, Mulvaney KM, Cloer EW, Tripathy A, Lane TR, Major MB, Kuhlman B. Engineering a genetically encoded competitive inhibitor of the KEAP1-NRF2 interaction via structure-based design and phage display. Protein Eng Des Sel 2015; 29:1-9. [PMID: 26489878 DOI: 10.1093/protein/gzv055] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [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: 09/21/2015] [Accepted: 09/24/2015] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
In its basal state, KEAP1 binds the transcription factor NRF2 (Kd = 5 nM) and promotes its degradation by ubiquitylation. Changes in the redox environment lead to modification of key cysteines within KEAP1, resulting in NRF2 protein accumulation and the transcription of genes important for restoring the cellular redox state. Using phage display and a computational loop grafting protocol, we engineered a monobody (R1) that is a potent competitive inhibitor of the KEAP1-NRF2 interaction. R1 bound to KEAP1 with a Kd of 300 pM and in human cells freed NRF2 from KEAP1 resulting in activation of the NRF2 promoter. Unlike cysteine-reactive small molecules that lack protein specificity, R1 is a genetically encoded, reversible inhibitor designed specifically for KEAP1. R1 should prove useful for studying the role of the KEAP1-NRF2 interaction in several disease states. The structure-based phage display strategy employed here is a general approach for engineering high-affinity binders that compete with naturally occurring interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Kathleen M Mulvaney
- Department of Cell Biology and Physiology Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, 120 Mason Farm Road, Genetic Medicine Building 3010, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7260, USA
| | - Erica W Cloer
- Department of Cell Biology and Physiology Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, 120 Mason Farm Road, Genetic Medicine Building 3010, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7260, USA
| | | | | | - Michael B Major
- Department of Cell Biology and Physiology Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, 120 Mason Farm Road, Genetic Medicine Building 3010, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7260, USA
| | - Brian Kuhlman
- Department of Cell Biology and Physiology Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, 120 Mason Farm Road, Genetic Medicine Building 3010, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7260, USA
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Taylor PB, Stewart FP, Dunnington DJ, Quinn ST, Schulz CK, Vaidya KS, Kurali E, Lane TR, Xiong WC, Sherrill TP, Snider JS, Terpstra ND, Hertzberg RP. Automated assay optimization with integrated statistics and smart robotics. J Biomol Screen 2000; 5:213-26. [PMID: 10992042 DOI: 10.1177/108705710000500404] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The transition from manual to robotic high throughput screening (HTS) in the last few years has made it feasible to screen hundreds of thousands of chemical entities against a biological target in less than a month. This rate of HTS has increased the visibility of bottlenecks, one of which is assay optimization. In many organizations, experimental methods are generated by therapeutic teams associated with specific targets and passed on to the HTS group. The resulting assays frequently need to be further optimized to withstand the rigors and time frames inherent in robotic handling. Issues such as protein aggregation, ligand instability, and cellular viability are common variables in the optimization process. The availability of robotics capable of performing rapid random access tasks has made it possible to design optimization experiments that would be either very difficult or impossible for a person to carry out. Our approach to reducing the assay optimization bottleneck has been to unify the highly specific fields of statistics, biochemistry, and robotics. The product of these endeavors is a process we have named automated assay optimization (AAO). This has enabled us to determine final optimized assay conditions, which are often a composite of variables that we would not have arrived at by examining each variable independently. We have applied this approach to both radioligand binding and enzymatic assays and have realized benefits in both time and performance that we would not have predicted a priori. The fully developed AAO process encompasses the ability to download information to a robot and have liquid handling methods automatically created. This evolution in smart robotics has proven to be an invaluable tool for maintaining high-quality data in the context of increasing HTS demands.
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Affiliation(s)
- P B Taylor
- Department of Screening Sciences, SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, King of Prussia, PA, USA
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Morisseau C, Derbel M, Lane TR, Stoutamire D, Hammock BD. Differential induction of hepatic drug-metabolizing enzymes by fenvaleric acid in male rats. Toxicol Sci 1999; 52:148-53. [PMID: 10630566 DOI: 10.1093/toxsci/52.2.148] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Racemic fenvaleric acid [2-(4-chlorophenyl)-3-methyl-butanoic acid], the principal metabolite of fenvalerate, was administrated orally at 0.75, 1.5, and 3.0 mmol/kg body weight/day to Fisher-344 male rats for 7 days. Both pure enantiomers of fenvaleric acid were administered at 1.5 mmol/kg body weight/day; the clofibric acid at the same concentration was used as a positive control. Hepatic enzyme activities were measured. Results obtained clearly show that fenvaleric acid induced numerous hepatic drug metabolism enzymes in F344 rats. The (R) enantiomer of this compound induces a proliferation of peroxisomes, whereas the (S) enantiomer induces CYP2B and mEH activities. Therefore, high exposure to pyrethroid insecticides could interact with the normal metabolism of drugs or xenobiotics.
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Affiliation(s)
- C Morisseau
- Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis 95616, USA
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Thomas BA, Church WB, Lane TR, Hammock BD. Homology model of juvenile hormone esterase from the crop pest, Heliothis virescens. Proteins 1999; 34:184-96. [PMID: 10022354] [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] [Grants] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/10/2023]
Abstract
Juvenile Hormone Esterase (JHE) plays an essential role in the development of insects since it is partially responsible for clearing juvenile hormone (JH), one of the hormones that is responsible for insect metamorphosis. JHE is a 60 kDa enzyme that selectively hydrolyzes the alpha/beta unsaturated ester of JH. Because of its pivotal role in insect development, we have targeted JHE for use as a biopesticide. In this study, we have constructed a homology-based molecular model of JHE from the agricultural crop pest, Heliothis virescens. JHE is a member of the alpha/beta hydrolase fold family of enzymes and was built according to two structures in the same family: acetylcholinesterase from Torpedo californica and lipase from Geotrichum candidum. Analysis of the active site region reveals extensive conservation between JHE and its templates. A surprise was the presence of a conserved Ser near the catalytic triad. Docking of JH III into the active site has provided insight into protein-substrate interactions that are corroborated by experimental observation. The model is being used as a predictive basis to design biopesticides. In this regard, we have identified a site on the protein surface that is suggestive of a recognition site for the putative JHE receptor.
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Affiliation(s)
- B A Thomas
- Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis 95616, USA
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Abstract
By examining F1 progeny of mutagenized Caenorhabditis elegans larvae, we recovered several dominant mutations which affect muscle structure. Five of these new mutations resulted in phenotypes unlike the previously recognized unc-54 and unc-15 dominant alleles. Mapping studies placed all five mutations in the same small region of linkage group V. Polarized light, fluorescence and electron microscopic studies showed that a prominent feature of the disorganized myofilament lattice is the abnormal placement of thin filaments within the body wall muscle cells. Pharyngeal musculature is also affected by three of the mutations when homozygous. Of the five mutations only three are homozygous viable. All three of these have unusually high intragenic reversion rates either spontaneously (approximately 10(-6)) or after ethyl methanesulfonate mutagenesis (2 X 10(-5)), suggesting that reversion occurs through loss of function mutations. No unlinked suppressor mutations were found. The dominance of the mutations, the effect on thin filaments and the reversion properties suggested that these new dominant mutations lie in a gene or genes specifying a structural component of the thin filament. The positioning of a set of three actin sequences in the same region (Files et al., 1983) led us to speculate that these mutations lie in actin genes.
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