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- Domínguez, José L, et al.
(author)
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Effect of the Protonation State of the Titratable Residues on the Inhibitor Affinity to BACE-1
- 2010
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In: Biochemistry. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0006-2960 .- 1520-4995. ; 49:34, s. 7255-7263
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BACE-1 is one of the aspartic proteases involved in the cleavage of beta amyloid peptide, an initial step in the formation of amyloid plaques whose toxicity induces neuron death in Alzheimer's disease patients. One of the central issues in the search of novel BACE-1 inhibitors is the optimum pH for the binding of inhibitors to the enzyme. It is known that the enzyme has optimal catalytic activity at acidic pH, while cell active inhibitors may bind optimally at higher pH. In this work we determine the effect of the pH on the affinities of a set of inhibitors, with a variety of chemical motifs, for the ectodomain region of BACE-1 by a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor based assay. In order to understand the molecular interactions that underlie the diverse optimum pH for the binding of the various inhibitors as observed experimentally, we have calculated the titration curves for a set of BACE-1 ligand complexes. The results indicate that the pK(a) values of the titratable residues of the protein depend on the nature of the ligand involved, in disagreement with previous work. The enzyme-inhibitor structures with the resulting protonation states at pH values 4.5 and 7.4 served as the starting point for the prediction of the pH-dependent binding ranking. Our calculations reproduced the entire affinity ranking observed upon pH increase and most of the binding trends among inhibitors, especially at low pH. Finally, our cell-based assays indicate a possible correlation between high inhibitor affinity at both acidic and neutral pH values, with optimal cell response, a result that may open new venues for the search of potent BACE-1 inhibitors that are active at the cellular level.
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| 2. |
- Dominguez, Jose L., et al.
(author)
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Experimental and 'in silico' analysis of the effect of pH on HIV-1 protease inhibitor affinity : Implications for the charge state of the protein ionogenic groups
- 2012
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In: Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry. - : Elsevier BV. - 0968-0896 .- 1464-3391. ; 20:15, s. 4838-4847
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The pH dependence of the HIV-1 protease inhibitor affinity was studied by determining the interaction kinetics of a series of inhibitors at three pH values by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor analysis. The results were rationalized by molecular mechanics based protocols that have as a starting point the structures of the HIV-1 protease inhibitor complexes differing in the protonation states as predicted by our calculations. The SPR experiments indicate a variety of binding affinity pH dependencies which are rather well reproduced by our simulations. Moreover, our calculations are able to pinpoint the possible changes in the charged state of the protein binding site and of the inhibitor that underlie the observed effects of the pH on binding affinity. The combination of SPR and molecular mechanics calculations has afforded novel insights into the pH dependence of inhibitor interactions with their target. This work raises the possibility of designing inhibitors with different pH binding affinity profiles to the ones described here.
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| 3. |
- Sussman, Fredy, et al.
(author)
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On the Active Site Protonation State in Aspartic Proteases : Implications for Drug Design
- 2013
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In: Current pharmaceutical design. - : Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.. - 1381-6128 .- 1873-4286. ; 19:23, s. 4257-4275
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Aspartic proteases (AP) are a family of important hydrolytic enzymes in medicinal chemistry, since many of its members have become therapeutical targets for a wide variety of diseases from AIDS to Alzheimer. The enzymatic activity of these proteins is driven by the Asp dyad, a pair of active site Asp residues that participate in the hydrolysis of peptides. Hence, the protonation state of these and other acidic residues present in these enzymes determines the catalytic rate and the affinity for an inhibitor at a given pH. In the present work we have reviewed the effect of the protonation states of the titratable residues in AP's both on catalysis and inhibition in this family of enzymes. The first section focuses on the details of the catalytic reaction mechanism picture brought about by a large number of kinetic, crystallographic and computational chemistry analyses. The results indicate that although the mechanism is similar in both retroviral and eukaryotic enzymes, there are some clear differences. For instance, while in the former family branch the binding of the substrate induces a mono-ionic charge state for the Asp dyad, this charge state seems to be already present in the unbound state of the eukaryotic enzymes. In this section we have explored as well the possible existence of low barrier hydrogen bonds (LBHB's) in the enzymatic path. Catalytic rate enhancement in AP's could in part be explained by the lowering of the barrier for proton transfer in a hydrogen bond from donor to acceptor, which is a typical feature of LBHB's. Review of the published work indicates that the experimental support for this type of bonds is rather scarce and it may be more probable in the first stages of the hydrolytic mechanism in retroviral proteases. The second section deals with the effect of active site protonation state on inhibitor binding. The design of highly potent AP inhibitors, that could be the basis for drug leads require a deep knowledge of the protonation state of the active site residues induced by their presence. This vital issue has been tackled by experimental techniques like NMR, X-ray crystallography, calorimetric and binding kinetic techniques. Recently, we have developed a protocol that combines monitoring the pH effect on binding affinities by SPR methods and rationalization of the results by molecular mechanics based calculations. We have used this combined method on BACE-1 and HIV-1 PR, two important therapeutic targets. Our calculations are able to reproduce the inhibitor binding trends to either enzyme upon a pH increase. The results indicate that inhibitors that differ in the Asp dyad binding fragments will present different binding affinity trends upon a pH increase. Our calculations have enabled us to predict the protonation states at different pH values that underlie the above mentioned trends. We have found out that these results have many implications not only for in silico hit screening campaigns aimed at finding high affinity binders, but also (in the case of BACE-1) for the discovery of cell active compounds.
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