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- Kauppi, Anna M., 1971-, et al.
(author)
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Inhibitors of type III secretion in Yersinia : design, synthesis and multivariate QSAR of 2-sulfonamino-benzanilides
- 2007
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In: Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry. - : Elsevier Ltd. - 0968-0896 .- 1464-3391. ; 15:22, s. 6994-7011
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Compound 1, 2-(benzo[1,2,5]thiadiazole-4-sulfonylamino)-5-chloro-N-(3,4-dichloro-phenyl)-benzamide, was identified as a putative type III secretion inhibitor in Yersinia, and the compound thus has a potential to be used to prevent or treat bacterial infections. A set of seven analogues was synthesized and evaluated in a type III secretion dependent reporter-gene assay with viable bacterial to give basic SAR. A second set of 19 compounds was obtained by statistical molecular design in the building block and product space and subsequent synthesis. Evaluation in the reporter-gene assay showed that the compounds ranged from non-active to compounds more potent than 1. Based on the data multivariate QSAR models were established and the final Hi-PLS model showed good correlation between experimentally determined % inhibition and the calculated % inhibition of the reporter-gene signal.
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3. |
- Adolfsson, Dan E., 1989-
(author)
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Synthesis of Ring-fused Peptidomimetics : Interacting with Amyloid Fibrils
- 2020
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease are the two most common neurological disorders in humans. Both conditions involve progressive death of neurons in the central nervous system, decline in bodily functions and eventually (and invariably), death. So far, no cure exists and the available treatments can only ease symptoms. Despite substantial investments in research, the biomolecular processes are still far from fully understood. However, both diseases are associated with formation of fibrillar protein aggregates called amyloid deposits. Whereas Alzheimer’s disease involves aggregation of the Tau and Amyloid β proteins, α-Synuclein fibrilization plays a key role in Parkinson's disease. Although they are chemically distinct, the deposits consist of protein fibres with similar morphology and fold. Small molecules, such as the thiazoline fused 2-pyridones herein presented, can interfere with the formation of amyloid fibres, or bind to them. Besides having potential for diagnostication and treatment, such small molecules constitute valuable tool compounds in future research, to unravel the mechanisms of amyloid formation and pathology. The first step towards successful treatment, diagnostication and prevention of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease is understanding the causes and underlying mechanisms better. This thesis narrates the synthesis and development of novel chemical structures: multi ring fused peptidomimetics with the ability to bind mature amyloid fibrils, consisting of α-Synuclein or Amyloid β. The first project (articles I, III and VI) describes method development for the extension of bicyclic thiazolino 2-pyrdiones by fusion with aromatic nitrogen heterocycles, which enables the desired amyloid binding properties. Derivatisations of the newly generated central scaffold, and variation of the multiple attached substituents, were subsequently performed in efforts to improve binding strength and solubility, and gain selectivity towards certain fibrils. One of the most promising amyloid fibril binders was evaluated in a human cell line and in mice, and found to be protective against accelerator induced neurotoxicity. One pyrimidine fused compound moreover indicated potent inhibition of Amyloid b aggregation. The second project (articles II, IV and V) focuses on development of methods to modify the thiazoline ring. Ring opening induced by electrophiles generates N-alkenyl 2-pyridones but decreases amyloid binding potency. Introduction of a cyclobutane moiety fused with the thiazoline ring is better tolerated, and adds a terminal alkene moiety that can be exploited in future chemical modifications. Expansion of the five membered thiazoline ring to a six membered dihydrothiazine ring, equipped with a nitrophenyl substituent, provides compounds with enhanced fibril binding capacity, which further inhibits Amyloid β fibril formation in vitro. Taken together, the synthetic methodologies allow construction and late stage modification of complex fused heterocycles, with several points of variation. Thus, the developed methods may be of future value in our laboratories and elsewhere.
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4. |
- Andersson, C. David, 1978-, et al.
(author)
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Influence of Enantiomeric Inhibitors on the Dynamics of Acetylcholinesterase Measured by Elastic Incoherent Neutron Scattering
- 2018
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In: Journal of Physical Chemistry B. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1520-6106 .- 1520-5207. ; 122:36, s. 8516-8525
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE) is essential in humans and animals because it catalyzes the breakdown of the nerve-signaling substance acetylcholine. Small molecules that inhibit the function of AChE are important for their use as drugs in the, for example, symptomatic treatment of Alzheimer's disease. New and improved inhibitors are warranted, mainly because of severe side effects of current drugs. In the present study, we have investigated if and how two enantiomeric inhibitors of AChE influence the overall dynamics of noncovalent complexes, using elastic incoherent neutron scattering. A fruitful combination of univariate models, including a newly developed non-Gaussian model for atomic fluctuations, and multivariate methods (principal component analysis and discriminant analysis) was crucial to analyze the fine details of the data. The study revealed a small but clear increase in the dynamics of the inhibited enzyme compared to that of the noninhibited enzyme and contributed to the fundamental knowledge of the mechanisms of AChE-inhibitor binding valuable for the future development of inhibitors.
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5. |
- Andersson, C. David, 1978-, et al.
(author)
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Physical Mechanisms Governing Substituent Effects on Arene-Arene Interactions in a Protein Milieu
- 2020
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In: Journal of Physical Chemistry B. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1520-6106 .- 1520-5207. ; 124:30, s. 6529-6539
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Arene-arene interactions play important roles in protein-ligand complex formation. Here, we investigate the characteristics of arene-arene interactions between small organic molecules and aromatic amino acids in protein interiors. The study is based on X-ray crystallographic data and quantum mechanical calculations using the enzyme acetylcholinesterase and selected inhibitory ligands as a model system. It is shown that the arene substituents of the inhibitors dictate the strength of the interaction and the geometry of the resulting complexes. Importantly, the calculated interaction energies correlate well with the measured inhibitor potency. Non-hydrogen substituents strengthened all interaction types in the protein milieu, in keeping with results for benzene dimer model systems. The interaction energies were dispersion-dominated, but substituents that induced local dipole moments increased the electrostatic contribution and thus yielded more strongly bound complexes. These findings provide fundamental insights into the physical mechanisms governing arene-arene interactions in the protein milieu and thus into molecular recognition between proteins and small molecules.
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6. |
- Andersson, David C., 1978-, et al.
(author)
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A multivariate approach to investigate docking parameters' effects on docking performance
- 2007
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In: Journal of chemical information and modeling. - : American Chemical Society Publications. - 1549-9596 .- 1549-960X. ; 47:4, s. 1673-1687
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Increasingly powerful docking programs for analyzing and estimating the strength of protein-ligand interactions have been developed in recent decades, and they are now valuable tools in drug discovery. Software used to perform dockings relies on a number of parameters that affect various steps in the docking procedure. However, identifying the best choices of the settings for these parameters is often challenging. Therefore, the settings of the parameters are quite often left at their default values, even though scientists with long experience with a specific docking tool know that modifying certain parameters can improve the results. In the study presented here, we have used statistical experimental design and subsequent regression based on root-mean-square deviation values using partial least-square projections to latent structures (PLS) to scrutinize the effects of different parameters on the docking performance of two software packages: FRED and GOLD. Protein-ligand complexes with a high level of ligand diversity were selected from the PDBbind database for the study, using principal component analysis based on 1D and 2D descriptors, and space-filling design. The PLS models showed quantitative relationships between the docking parameters and the ability of the programs to reproduce the ligand crystallographic conformation. The PLS models also revealed which of the parameters and what parameter settings were important for the docking performance of the two programs. Furthermore, the variation in docking results obtained with specific parameter settings for different protein-ligand complexes in the diverse set examined indicates that there is great potential for optimizing the parameter settings for selected sets of proteins.
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7. |
- Andersson, David C., 1978-, et al.
(author)
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Design of target-tailored virtual screening experiments
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Other publication (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Discovering molecules with a desired biological function is one of the great challenges in drug research. To discover new lead molecules, in silico virtual screens (VS) are often conducted, in which databases of molecules are screened for potential binders to a specific protein, using molecular docking. The choice of docking software and parameter settings within the software can significantly influence the outcome of a VS. In this study, we have applied chemometric methods such as DoE, principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least-square projections to latent structure (PLS) to simulated VS experiments to find and compare suitable conditions for performing VS against six protein targets selected from the DUD databases. The docking parameters in FRED, and scoring functions in both FRED and GOLD docking software, were varied according to a statistical experimental design and a PLS model was calculated to correlate the experimental setup to the VS outcome. The study revealed that the choice of scoring function has the greatest influence on VS outcome, and that other parameters have varying influence, depending on the protein target. We also found that substantial bias can be introduced by the lack of variation of molecule properties in the databases used in the screening. The results indicate that docking experiments should be tailored to the protein target in order to obtain satisfactory VS results and that our methodology provides a suitable approach for such tailoring.
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8. |
- Andersson, David C., 1978-, et al.
(author)
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Mapping of ligand-binding cavities in proteins
- 2010
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In: Proteins. - : John Wiley & Sons, Inc. - 0887-3585 .- 1097-0134. ; 78:6, s. 1408-1422
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The complex interactions between proteins and small organic molecules (ligands) are intensively studied because they play key roles in biological processes and drug activities. Here, we present a novel approach to characterize and map the ligand-binding cavities of proteins without direct geometric comparison of structures, based on Principal Component Analysis of cavity properties (related mainly to size, polarity, and charge). This approach can provide valuable information on the similarities and dissimilarities, of binding cavities due to mutations, between-species differences and flexibility upon ligand-binding. The presented results show that information on ligand-binding cavity variations can complement information on protein similarity obtained from sequence comparisons. The predictive aspect of the method is exemplified by successful predictions of serine proteases that were not included in the model construction. The presented strategy to compare ligand-binding cavities of related and unrelated proteins has many potential applications within protein and medicinal chemistry, for example in the characterization and mapping of "orphan structures", selection of protein structures for docking studies in structure-based design, and identification of proteins for selectivity screens in drug design programs.
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9. |
- Andersson, Ida E, 1982-, et al.
(author)
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Design of glycopeptides used to investigate class II MHC binding and T-Cell responses associated with autoimmune arthritis
- 2011
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In: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science. - 1932-6203. ; 6:3, s. e17881-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The glycopeptide fragment CII259–273 from type II collagen (CII) binds to the murine Aq and human DR4 class II Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC II) proteins, which are associated with development of murine collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), respectively. It has been shown that CII259–273 can be used in therapeutic vaccination of CIA. This glycopeptide also elicits responses from T-cells obtained from RA patients, which indicates that it has an important role in RA as well. We now present a methodology for studies of (glyco)peptide-receptor interactions based on a combination of structure-based virtual screening, ligand-based statistical molecular design and biological evaluations. This methodology included the design of a CII259–273 glycopeptide library in which two anchor positions crucial for binding in pockets of Aq and DR4 were varied. Synthesis and biological evaluation of the designed glycopeptides provided novel structure-activity relationship (SAR) understanding of binding to Aq and DR4. Glycopeptides that retained high affinities for these MHC II proteins and induced strong responses in panels of T-cell hybridomas were also identified. An analysis of all the responses revealed groups of glycopeptides with different response patterns that are of high interest for vaccination studies in CIA. Moreover, the SAR understanding obtained in this study provides a platform for the design of second-generation glycopeptides with tuned MHC affinities and T-cell responses.
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10. |
- Andersson, Ida E., 1982-, et al.
(author)
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(E)-Alkene and Ethylene Isosteres Substantially Alter the Hydrogen-Bonding Network in Class II MHC Aq/Glycopeptide Complexes and Affect T-Cell Recognition
- 2011
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In: Journal of the American Chemical Society. - : American Chemical Society. - 0002-7863 .- 1520-5126. ; 133:36, s. 14368-14378
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The structural basis for antigen presentation by class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins to CD4(+) T-cells is important for understanding and possibly treating autoimmune diseases. In the work described in this paper, (E)-alkene and ethylene amide-bond isosteres were used to investigate the effect of removing hydrogen-bonding possibilities from the CII259-270 glycopeptide, which is bound by the arthritis-associated murine A(q) class II MHC protein. The isostere-modified glycopeptides showed varying and unexpectedly large losses of A(q) binding that could be linked to the dynamics of the system. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations revealed that the backbone of CII259-270 and the A(q) protein are able to form up to 11 hydrogen bonds, but fewer than this number are present at any one time. Most of the strong hydrogen-bond interactions were formed by the N-terminal part of the glycopeptide, i.e., in the region where the isosteric replacements were made. The structural dynamics also revealed that hydrogen bonds were strongly coupled to each other; the loss of one hydrogen-bond interaction had a profound effect on the entire hydrogen-bonding network. The A(q) binding data revealed that an ethylene isostere glycopeptide unexpectedly bound more strongly to A(q) than the corresponding (E)-alkene, which is in contrast to the trend observed for the other isosteres. Analysis of the MD trajectories revealed that the complex conformation of this ethylene isostere was structurally different and had an altered molecular interaction pattern compared to the other A(q)/glycopeptide complexes. The introduced amide-bond isosteres also affected the interactions of the glycopeptide/A(q) complexes with T-cell receptors. The dynamic variation of the patterns and strengths of the hydrogen-bond interactions in the class II MHC system is of critical importance for the class II MHC/peptide/TCR signaling system.
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