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Rapid Discovery of Aspartyl Protease Inhibitors Using an Anchoring Approach.

ABSTRACT: Pharmacophore searches that include anchors, fragments contributing above average to receptor binding, combined with one-step syntheses are a powerful approach for the fast discovery of novel bioactive molecules. Here, we are presenting a pipeline for the rapid and efficient discovery of aspartyl protease inhibitors. First, we hypothesized that hydrazine could be a multi-valent warhead to interact with the active site Asp carboxylic acids. We incorporated the hydrazine anchor in a multicomponent reaction and created a large virtual library of hydrazine derivatives synthetically accessible in one-step. Next, we performed anchor-based pharmacophore screening of the libraries and resynthesized top-ranked compounds. The inhibitory potency of the molecules was finally assessed by an enzyme activity assay and the binding mode confirmed by several soaked crystal structures supporting the validity of the hypothesis and approach. The herein reported pipeline of tools will be of general value for the rapid generation of receptor binders beyond Asp proteases.

SUBMITTER: Konstantinidou M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7317454 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Rapid Discovery of Aspartyl Protease Inhibitors Using an Anchoring Approach.

Konstantinidou Markella M Magari Francesca F Sutanto Fandi F Haupenthal Jörg J Jumde Varsha R VR Ünver M Yagiz MY Heine Andreas A Camacho Carlos Jamie CJ Hirsch Anna K H AKH Klebe Gerhard G Dömling Alexander A

ChemMedChem 20200318 8

Pharmacophore searches that include anchors, fragments contributing above average to receptor binding, combined with one-step syntheses are a powerful approach for the fast discovery of novel bioactive molecules. Here, we are presenting a pipeline for the rapid and efficient discovery of aspartyl protease inhibitors. First, we hypothesized that hydrazine could be a multi-valent warhead to interact with the active site Asp carboxylic acids. We incorporated the hydrazine anchor in a multicomponent ...[more]

PMID: 32187447

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Project description:BackgroundSchistosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease caused by trematodes of the genus Schistosoma, with a limited treatment, mainly based on the use of praziquantel (PZQ). Currently, several aspartic proteases genes have already been identified within the genome of Schistosoma species. At least one enzyme encoded from this gene family (SmAP), named SmCD1, has been validated for the development of schistosomicidal drugs, since it has a key role in haemoglobin digestion by worms.ObjectiveIn this work, we integrated a structure-based virtual screening campaign, enzymatic assays and adult worms ex vivo experiments aiming to discover the first classes of SmCD1 inhibitors.MethodsInitially, the 3D-structures of SmCD1, SmCD2 and SmCD3 were generated using homology modelling approach. Using these models, we prioritised 50 compounds from 20,000 compounds from ChemBridge database for further testing in adult worm aqueous extract (AWAE) and recombinant SmCD1 using enzymatic assays.FindingsSeven compounds were confirmed as hits and among them, two compounds representing new chemical scaffolds, named 5 and 19, had IC50 values against SmCD1 close to 100 μM while presenting binding efficiency indexes comparable to or even higher than pepstatin, a classical tight-binding peptide inhibitor of aspartyl proteases. Upon activity comparison against mammalian enzymes, compound 50 was selective and the most potent against the AWAE aspartic protease activity (IC50 = 77.7 μM). Combination of computational and experimental results indicate that compound 50 is a selective inhibitor of SmCD2. Compounds 5, 19 and 50 tested at low concentrations (10 uM) were neither cytotoxic against WSS-1 cells (48 h) nor could kill adult worms ex-vivo, although compounds 5 and 50 presented a slight decrease on female worms motility on late incubations times (48 or 72 h).Main conclusionOverall, the inhibitors identified in this work represent promising hits for further hit-to-lead optimisation.

Dataset Information

Rapid Discovery of Aspartyl Protease Inhibitors Using an Anchoring Approach.

Publications

Rapid Discovery of Aspartyl Protease Inhibitors Using an Anchoring Approach.

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