| 1. |
- Chen, Dan, et al.
(författare)
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Complementarity between in Silico and Biophysical Screening Approaches in Fragment-Based Lead Discovery against the A(2A) Adenosine Receptor
- 2013
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Ingår i: Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1549-9596 .- 1549-960X. ; 53:10, s. 2701-2714
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Fragment-based lead discovery (FBLD) is becoming an increasingly important method in drug development. We have explored the potential to complement NMR-based biophysical screening of chemical libraries with molecular docking in FBLD against the A(2A) adenosine receptor (A(2A)AR), a drug target for inflammation and Parkinson's disease. Prior to an NMR-based screen of a fragment library against the A(2A)AR, molecular docking against a crystal structure was used to rank the same set of molecules by their predicted affinities. Molecular docking was able to predict four out of the five orthosteric ligands discovered by NMR among the top 5% of the ranked library, suggesting that structure-based methods could be used to prioritize among primary hits from biophysical screens. In addition, three fragments that were top-ranked by molecular docking, but had not been picked up by the NMR-based method, were demonstrated to be A2AAR ligands. While biophysical approaches for fragment screening are typically limited to a few thousand compounds, the docking screen was extended to include 328,000 commercially available fragments. Twenty-two top-ranked compounds were tested in radioligand binding assays, and 14 of these were A(2A)AR ligands with K-i values ranging from 2 to 240 mu M. Optimization of fragments was guided by molecular dynamics simulations and free energy calculations. The results illuminate strengths and weaknesses of molecular docking and demonstrate that this method can serve as a valuable complementary tool to biophysical screening in FBLD.
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| 2. |
- Chen, Gefei, et al.
(författare)
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Molecular basis for different substrate-binding sites and chaperone functions of the BRICHOS domain
- 2024
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Ingår i: Protein Science. - : Wiley. - 0961-8368 .- 1469-896X. ; 33:7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Proteins can misfold into fibrillar or amorphous aggregates and molecular chaperones act as crucial guardians against these undesirable processes. The BRICHOS chaperone domain, found in several otherwise unrelated proproteins that contain amyloidogenic regions, effectively inhibits amyloid formation and toxicity but can in some cases also prevent non-fibrillar, amorphous protein aggregation. Here, we elucidate the molecular basis behind the multifaceted chaperone activities of the BRICHOS domain from the Bri2 proprotein. High-confidence AlphaFold2 and RoseTTAFold predictions suggest that the intramolecular amyloidogenic region (Bri23) is part of the hydrophobic core of the proprotein, where it occupies the proposed amyloid binding site, explaining the markedly reduced ability of the proprotein to prevent an exogenous amyloidogenic peptide from aggregating. However, the BRICHOS-Bri23 complex maintains its ability to form large polydisperse oligomers that prevent amorphous protein aggregation. A cryo-EM-derived model of the Bri2 BRICHOS oligomer is compatible with surface-exposed hydrophobic motifs that get exposed and come together during oligomerization, explaining its effects against amorphous aggregation. These findings provide a molecular basis for the BRICHOS chaperone domain function, where distinct surfaces are employed against different forms of protein aggregation.
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| 3. |
- Nordström, Helena, 1974-
(författare)
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Fragment Based Drug Discovery with Surface Plasmon Resonance Technology
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Fragment based drug discovery (FBDD) has been applied to two protease drug targets, MMP-12 and HIV-1 protease. The primary screening and characterization of hit fragments were performed with surface plasmon resonance -technology. Further evaluation of the interaction was done by inhibition studies and in one case with X-ray crystallography. The focus of the two projects was different.Many MMP inhibitors contain a strong zinc chelating group, hydroxamate, interacting with the catalytic zinc atom. This strategy may be the cause for the low specificity of MMP inhibitors. Using FBDD we found a fragment with an unusual strong affinity for MMP-12. An inhibition assay confirmed that it was an inhibitor but indicated a stoichiometry of 2:1. Crystallography data revealed that an adduct of the fragment was bound in the active site, with interactions both with the catalytic zinc and the S1’ pocket. This may present a new scaffold for MMP-12 inhibitors.For HIV-1 protease the focus was on identifying inhibitors not sensitive to current resistance mutations. A fragment library for screening with SPR-technology was designed and used for screening against wild type enzyme and three variants with resistance mutations. Many of the hits were promiscuous but a number of fragments with possible allosteric inhibition mechanism were identified.The temperature dependency of the dissociation rate and reported resistance mutations was studied with thermodynamics. A good, but not perfect correlation was found between resistance and both the dissociation data and the free energy for dissociation compared to data from wild type enzyme. However, the type of mutation also influenced the results. The flap mutation G48V displayed thermodynamic profiles not completely correlating with resistance. It was found that dissociation rate and thermodynamics may complement each other when studying resistance, but only one of them may not be enough.
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