AT1受体的中药活性成分筛选模型及其作用机理研究

传统中药对治疗心血管类疾病疗效显著,例如钩藤、黄芪、益母草等在临床应用广泛.现代药理研究表明钩藤碱可以降压;黄芪中毛蕊异黄酮能舒张血管平滑肌、保护心脑血管;益母草碱可扩张微血管,改善血液流变异常,但它们分子层面作用机制尚不明确.首先以牛视紫红质蛋白为模板,模建出心血管疾病主要靶点AT1受体的三维结构.然后将AT1受体拮抗剂和中药活性成分与受体模型结合的作用方式进行了对比研究,据此提出了中药活性成分治疗心血管疾病的作用机理,并建立了AT1受体的中药活性成分筛选模型.结果表明:黄芪毛蕊异黄酮等中药活性成分能与AT1受体活性口袋中的残基发生氢键作用,结合方式与AT1受体拮抗剂相似.每一种AT1受体拮抗剂均与His183,Lys199,His256,Gln257,Ser105,Ser109,Tyr113,Asn200中多个发生氢键作用;黄芪毛蕊异黄酮与Try113,Lys199,Gln257,Ser105发生氢键作用.本研究从分子层面上阐释了一些中药活性小分子的治病机理,为进一步挖掘中药资源,研究AT1受体相关的心脑血管类药物,合理设计和筛选AT1受体的拮抗剂提供重要依据.     

基于药效团模型的DHODH抑制剂构效关系研究

利用药效团模型研究二氢乳清酸脱氢酶(Dihydroorotate dehydrogenase,DHODH)抑制剂的构效关系,为DHODH抑制剂的虚拟筛选提供新的方法.以31个具有DHODH抑制活性的化合物为训练集化合物,半数抑制浓度(IC50)范围为7~63000 nmol/L,利用Catalyst/HypoGen算法构建DHODH抑制剂药效团模型,通过对训练集化合物多个构象进行叠合,提取药效团特征及三维空间限制构建药效团模型.利用基于CatScramble的交叉验证方法及评价模型对已知活性化合物的活性预测能力,确定较优药效团模型.模型包含1个氢键受体、3个疏水中心,表征了受体配体相互作用时可能发生的氢键相互作用、疏水相互作用和π-π相互作用,4个药效特征在三维空间的排列概括了DHODH抑制剂产生活性的结构特点.所得较优模型对训练集化合物及测试集化合物的计算活性值与实验活性值的相关系数分别为0.8405和0.8788.利用药效团模型对来源于微生物的系列化合物进行虚拟筛选,筛选出59个预测活性较好的化合物,可作为进一步药物研发的候选化合物.     

黄酮类醛糖还原酶抑制剂的抑制机理研究

为了研究黄酮类醛糖还原酶抑制剂的抑制机理, 选择了31个黄酮类化合物作为训练集, 使用Catalyst软件包构建了此类抑制剂的药效团模型. 并专门针对黄酮类化合物定制了氢键给体和受体模型, 效果优于使用Catalyst内预定义的模型. 最终的药效团模型由两个氢键给体和一个氢键受体组成, 对训练集具有较好预测能力(Correl=0.9013). 此外, 使用InsightII/Affinity对6个黄酮类化合物进行了分子对接研究. 综合药效团模型和分子对接研究的结果, 发现黄酮类化合物的抑制活性主要源于黄酮骨架上的C4’或C3’位的羟基与醛糖还原酶活性口袋中的TYR48、VAL47、GLN49和C7位的羟基与HIS110, TRP111所形成的两组氢键.     

5-HT3受体拮抗剂药效团模型的构建

以31个来源于MDDR数据库中具有抑制鼠Bezold-Jarisch反射作用的5-HT3受体拮抗剂作为训练集化合物, 构建5-HT3受体拮抗剂药效团模型. 训练集化合物具备结构多样性, 来源于相同药理模型, 活性值ED50范围为0.05~320 μg/kg i.v.. 利用Catalyst计算5-HT3受体拮抗剂的最优药效团由一个氢键受体、一个疏水基团、一个正电离子化基团、一个芳香环特征和6个排除体积组成; Fixed cost值、Null cost 值、Δcost值和Configuration cost值分别为112.6, 172.0, 59.4和7.248. 训练集化合物活性的计算值与实测值相关系数为0.9031, 偏差值为0.8976, 基于Fischer的交叉验证结果表明药效团模型具有较高的置信度, 所得药效团对训练集化合物活性值的预测结果显示有较好的预测能力, 可用于数据库搜索指导发现新的具有该活性的先导化合物, 也可用于中药或天然产物药物研究开发.     

HMG-CoA还原酶抑制剂三维药效团的构建

以作用于鼠肝脏细胞的21个3-羟基-3-甲基戊二酰辅酶A(HMG-CoA)还原酶抑制剂(RI)为训练集, 训练集化合物具备结构多样性, 来源于相同药理模型, 活性值IC50范围在0.3-8000 nmol·L-1. 利用Catalyst 计算HMG-CoA还原酶抑制剂最优药效团由一个氢键受体, 一个氢键给体, 一个疏水基团和一个芳香环特征组成. 药效团模型Fixed cost值, Total cost值和Configuration cost值分别为88.75、111.5 和16.98. 训练集化合物活性计算值与实测值相关系数为0.8883, 偏差值为1.269, 交叉验证结果表明, 药效团模型具有较高的置信度, 对测试集化合物活性值的预测结果显示有较好的预测能力, 可用于数据库搜索发现新的具有该活性的化合物, 也可用于中药或天然产物药物的研究开发.     

新型酪氨酸激酶小分子抑制的三维药效团研究

通过CATALYST软件包得到了两类HER2抑制的三维药效团模型。尽管亚苄基丙二腈化合物和3-取代吲哚啉-2-酮系列化合物具有完全不同的骨架结构,但得到的药效团却具有共同的特性,这表明当这两类抑制剂和受体发生相互作用时,采用了相似的结合模式。共同的药效团模型包括一个氢键受体,一个氢键给体,一个脂肪类疏水团以及一个芳香类疏水团。根据药效团模型,我们还进行了三维构效关系的研究,结果表明得到的药效团模型具有很好的预测能力(线性回归系数R≈0.96)。药效团模型对于研究酪氨酸激酶小分子抑制剂的结构与活性关系,以及评估和预测此类未知化合物活性具人重要的意义。     

新型酪氨酸激酶小分子抑制的三维药效团研究

通过CATALYST软件包得到了两类HER2抑制的三维药效团模型。尽管亚苄基丙二腈化合物和3-取代吲哚啉-2-酮系列化合物具有完全不同的骨架结构,但得到的药效团却具有共同的特性,这表明当这两类抑制剂和受体发生相互作用时,采用了相似的结合模式。共同的药效团模型包括一个氢键受体,一个氢键给体,一个脂肪类疏水团以及一个芳香类疏水团。根据药效团模型,我们还进行了三维构效关系的研究,结果表明得到的药效团模型具有很好的预测能力(线性回归系数R≈0.96)。药效团模型对于研究酪氨酸激酶小分子抑制剂的结构与活性关系,以及评估和预测此类未知化合物活性具人重要的意义。     

表皮生长因子受体酪氨酸激酶抑制剂的药效团研究

根据一系列表皮生长因子受体酪氨酸激酶抑制剂的三维定量构效关系研究，得 到了该类抑制剂的药效团，研究结果与Novartis的药效团模型相当类似．药效团包 括一个氢键受体，一个氢键给体，一个疏水区和一个带有氯或溴原子药效团对于研 究表皮生长因子受体酪氨酸激酶抑制剂结构与活性的关系具有重要的意义．通过三 维数据库搜索可能会得到新的先导化合物．     

基于药效团模型从中草药数据库中搜索gpⅡb/Ⅲa受体抑制剂

选择20个3,4-二氢-1(1H)-异喹啉酮类gpⅡb/Ⅲa受体抑制剂作为训练集,利用Catalyst软件包建立了gpⅡb/Ⅲa受体抑制剂三维药效团模型.探讨了药效团作用模式.并通过建立的可靠性最佳的药效团模型(线性回归系数r=0.7715),从中草药数据库中虚拟筛选了gpⅡb/Ⅲa受体抑制剂,通过实验活性测定得到了8个抑制ADP活化全血血小板聚集的IC50从40到100μmol·L-1的化合物,进一步证明了所建药效团模型的有效性.     

人类免疫缺陷病毒整合酶二酮酸类抑制剂的三维药效团构建

应用遗传算法相似性程序(GASP), 以作用于I型人类免疫缺陷病毒(human immun-odeficiency virus type 1, HIV-1)整合酶(IN)的二酮酸类(diketoacids, DKAs)抑制剂构建药效团模型. 所选训练集分子均具有可靠的类药性特征及DKAs药效团特征. 尝试将抑制剂与药效团叠合后的构象和抑制剂与IN的对接构象进行叠合, 得到药效团模型与分子对接构象中IN残基的相对位置, 并基于抑制剂的药效团模型特征与周围IN氨基酸残基位置的匹配情况进行药效团特征的修改. 所得最优药效团由1个疏水特征、3对氢键特征和1个氢键供体特征组成. 该药效团的命中物质量(goodness of hit, GH)为0.56, 产出率(Y)达63.6%, 假阳性率(FP)为0.41%. 该药效团具有较好的置信度, 产出率较高而假阳性率较低, 可用于数据库搜索发现新的具有DKAs药效团特征的活性化合物, 也可为先导化合物的改造提供帮助.     

Multiple receptor-ligand based pharmacophore modeling and molecular docking to screen the selective inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinase-9 from natural products

Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) is an attractive target for cancer therapy. In this study, the pharmacophore model of MMP-9 inhibitors is built based on the experimental binding structures of multiple receptor-ligand complexes. It is found that the pharmacophore model consists of six chemical features, including two hydrogen bond acceptors, one hydrogen bond donor, one ring aromatic regions, and two hydrophobic (HY) features. Among them, the two HY features are especially important because they can enter the S1′ pocket of MMP-9 which determines the selectivity of MMP-9 inhibitors. The reliability of pharmacophore model is validated based on the two different decoy sets and relevant experimental data. The virtual screening, combining pharmacophore model with molecular docking, is performed to identify the selective MMP-9 inhibitors from a database of natural products. The four novel MMP-9 inhibitors of natural products, NP-000686, NP-001752, NP-014331, and NP-015905, are found; one of them, NP-000686, is used to perform the experiment of in vitro bioassay inhibiting MMP-9, and the IC₅₀ value was estimated to be only 13.4 µM, showing the strongly inhibitory activity of NP-000686 against MMP-9, which suggests that our screening results should be reliable. The binding modes of screened inhibitors with MMP-9 active sites were discussed. In addition, the ADMET properties and physicochemical properties of screened four compounds were assessed. The found MMP-9 inhibitors of natural products could serve as the lead compounds for designing the new MMP-9 inhibitors by carrying out structural modifications in the future.     

Receptor-Based Pharmacophore Modeling in the Search for Natural Products for COVID-19 Mpro

Considering the urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic, we developed a receptor-based pharmacophore model for identifying FDA-approved drugs and hits from natural products. The COVID-19 main protease (M^pro) was selected for the development of the pharmacophore model. The model consisted of a hydrogen bond acceptor, donor, and hydrophobic features. These features demonstrated good corroboration with a previously reported model that was used to validate the present model, showing an RMSD value of 0.32. The virtual screening was carried out using the ZINC database. A set of 208,000 hits was extracted and filtered using the ligand pharmacophore mapping, applying the lead-like properties. Lipinski’s filter and the fit value filter were used to minimize hits to the top 2000. Simultaneous docking was carried out for 200 hits for natural drugs belonging to the FDA-approved drug database. The top 28 hits from these experiments, with promising predicted pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties, are reported here. To optimize these hits as M^pro inhibitors and potential treatment options for COVID-19, bench work investigations are needed.     

Development of predictive pharmacophore model for in silico screening,and 3D QSAR CoMFA and CoMSIA studies for lead optimization,for designing of potent tumor necrosis factor alpha converting enzyme inhibitors

A chemical feature-based pharmacophore model was developed for Tumor Necrosis Factor-α converting enzyme (TACE) inhibitors. A five point pharmacophore model having two hydrogen bond acceptors (A), one hydrogen bond donor (D) and two aromatic rings (R) with discrete geometries as pharmacophoric features was developed. The pharmacophore model so generated was then utilized for in silico screening of a database. The pharmacophore model so developed was validated by using four compounds having proven TACE inhibitory activity which were grafted into the database. These compounds mapped well onto the five listed pharmacophoric features. This validated pharmacophore model was also used for alignment of molecules in CoMFA and CoMSIA analysis. The contour maps of the CoMFA/CoMSIA models were utilized to provide structural insight for activity improvement of potential novel TACE inhibitors. The pharmacophore model so developed could be used for in silico screening of any commercial/in house database for identification of TACE inhibiting lead compounds, and the leads so identified could be optimized using the developed CoMSIA model. The present work highlights the tremendous potential of the two mutually complementary ligand-based drug designing techniques (i.e. pharmacophore mapping and 3D-QSAR analysis) using TACE inhibitors as prototype biologically active molecules.     

Identification of Influenza PAN Endonuclease Inhibitors via 3D-QSAR Modeling and Docking-Based Virtual Screening

Structural and biochemical studies elucidate that PA_N may contribute to the host protein shutdown observed during influenza A infection. Thus, inhibition of the endonuclease activity of viral RdRP is an attractive approach for novel antiviral therapy. In order to envisage structurally diverse novel compounds with better efficacy as PA_N endonuclease inhibitors, a ligand-based-pharmacophore model was developed using 3D-QSAR pharmacophore generation (HypoGen algorithm) methodology in Discovery Studio. As the training set, 25 compounds were taken to generate a significant pharmacophore model. The selected pharmacophore Hypo1 was further validated by 12 compounds in the test set and was used as a query model for further screening of 1916 compounds containing 71 HIV-1 integrase inhibitors, 37 antibacterial inhibitors, 131 antiviral inhibitors and other 1677 approved drugs by the FDA. Then, six compounds (Hit01–Hit06) with estimated activity values less than 10 μM were subjected to ADMET study and toxicity assessment. Only one potential inhibitory ‘hit’ molecule (Hit01, raltegravir’s derivative) was further scrutinized by molecular docking analysis on the active site of PA_N endonuclease (PDB ID: 6E6W). Hit01 was utilized for designing novel potential PA_N endonuclease inhibitors through lead optimization, and then compounds were screened by pharmacophore Hypo1 and docking studies. Six raltegravir’s derivatives with significant estimated activity values and docking scores were obtained. Further, these results certainly do not confirm or indicate the seven compounds (Hit01, Hit07, Hit08, Hit09, Hit10, Hit11 and Hit12) have antiviral activity, and extensive wet-laboratory experimentation is needed to transmute these compounds into clinical drugs.     

Pharmacophore modelling,virtual screening and molecular docking studies on PLD1 inhibitors

Lipid metabolism plays a significant role in influenza virus replication and subsequent infection. The regulatory mechanism governing lipid metabolism and viral replication is not properly understood to date, but both Phospholipase D (PLD1 and PLD2) activities are stimulated in viral infection. In vitro studies indicate that chemical inhibition of PLD1 delays viral entry and reduction of viral loads. The current study reports a three-dimensional pharmacophore model based on 35 known PLD1 inhibitors. A sub-set of 25 compounds was selected as the training set and the remaining 10 compounds were kept in the test set. One hundred and twelve pharmacophore models were generated; a six-featured pharmacophore model (AADDHR.57) with survival score (2.69) produced a statistically significant three-dimensional quantitative structure–activity relationship model with r² = 0.97 (internal training set), r² = 0.71 (internal test set) and Q² = 0.64. The predictive power of the pharmacophore model was validated with an external test set (r² = 0.73) and a systematic virtual screening work-flow was employed showing an enrichment factor of 23.68 at the top 2% of the dataset (active and decoys). Finally, the model was used for screening of the filtered PubChem database to fetch molecules which can be proposed as potential PLD1 inhibitors for blocking influenza infection.     

Development of energetic pharmacophore for the designing of 1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyrimidine derivatives as selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors

We present here the Energetic pharmacophore model representing complementary features of the 1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyrimidine for selective cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibition. For the development of pharmacophore hypothesis, a total of 43 previously reported compounds were docked on active site of COX-2 enzyme. The generated pharmacophore features were ranked using energetic terms of Glide XP docking for 1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyrimidine scaffold to optimize its structure requirement for COX-2 inhibition. The thirty new 4,5,6-triphenyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyrimidine derivatives were synthesized and assessed for selective COX-2 inhibitory activity. Two compounds 4B1 and 4B11 were found to be potent and selective COX-2 inhibitors. The molecular docking studies revealed that the newly synthesized compounds can be docked into COX-2 binding site and also provide the molecular basis for their activity.     

A ligand-based molecular modeling study on some matrix metalloproteinase-1 inhibitors using several 3D QSAR techniques

Some three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationship (3D-QSAR) models have been constructed using the comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) and comparative molecular similarity indices (CoMSIA) for a series of 84 proline-based plus 12 structurally more diversified nonproline matrix metalloproteinase inhibitors. The structures of these inhibitors were built from a structure template extracted from the crystal structure of stromelysin. The structures built were divided into the training and test sets for both the CoMFA and CoMSIA analyses for each being composed of 60 and 24 inhibitors, respectively. The structures in the training set were aligned using some alignment rules derived from the analysis of the Ligplot program on a recent crystal structure of ligand-collagenase-1 complex. Some stepwise CoMSIA's were performed on the aligned training set on which the best CoMFA result was obtained. The best CoMSIA model was identified from the stepwise results, and the corresponding pharmacophore features were used for the construction of a pharmacophore hypothesis by the Catalyst 4.9 program. The training set was extended to include 11 structurally more diversified and nonproline inhibitors. To construct a pharmacophore hypothesis, the conformation of 60 structurally aligned proline-based inhibitors was fixed, while that of the 11 structurally more diversified nonproline inhibitors was allowed to vary during the hypothesis construction process. It was found that the predicted activities by the top hypothesis constructed for both the training and test sets were as good in statistics as those predicted by the best CoMSIA model from which the hypothesis was derived. The top hypothesis was mapped onto the structures of several highly active inhibitors selected from both the training and test sets. The goodness of mapping on each inhibitor was found to be correlated well with the activity of each inhibitor.     

Pharmacophore modelling and electronic feature analysis of hydroxamic acid derivatives,the HIV integrase inhibitors

Hydroxamic acid derivatives with metal ion binding properties were collected from the literature to generate a pharmacophore and 3D-QSAR model for HIV strand transfer inhibition. The derived pharmacophore model (AAAHRR) recognizes both metal ion binding site and hydrophobic group. The QSAR model generated using this hypothesis expressed statistical significance (r ² = 0.971 for the training set and q ² = 0.913 for the test set). The ability of this pharmacophore model to retrieve other metal ion binding inhibitors was examined by screening the ChemBank database (ligandinfo) incorporated with 10 known strand transfer inhibitors. The studied favourable and unfavourable contours of chemical features (H-bond donor, acceptor and hydrophobic sites) revealed the role of hydrophobic substitution at the fluorobenzene ring and cyclization of the metal ion binding hydroxamic acid in effective integrase inhibition. Analysis of the frontier orbitals, HOMO and LUMO revealed that the nucleophilic / electrophilic interactions depend on the significant overlapping observed at the azaindole and hydroxamic acid groups. In essence, the generated pharmacophore model is competent enough to disclose the essential site-specific interactions involved in the inhibition of HIV integrase, and hence can be used in virtual screening to identify novel scaffolds as leads with increased anti-viral potency.     

Pharmacophore Mode lingand Virtual Screening to Design the Potential Influenza Virus Endonuclease Inhibitors

Influenza virus endonuclease is an attractive target for antiviral therapy in the treatment of influenza infection. The purpos e of this study is to design a novel antiviral agent with improved biological activities against the influenza virus endonuclease. In this study, chemical feature‐based 3D pharmacophore models were developed from 41 known influenza virus endonuclease inhibitors. The best quantitative pharmacohore model (Hypo 1), which consists of two hydrogen‐bond acceptors and two hydrophobic features, yields the highest correlation coefficient (R = 0.886). Hypo 1 was further validated by the cross validation method and the test set compounds. The application of this model for predicting the activities of 11 known influenza virus endonuclease inhibitors in the test set shows great success. The correlation coefficient of 0.942 and a cross validation of 95;% confidence level prove that this model is reliable in identifying structurally diverse compounds for influenza virus endonuclease inhibition. The most active compound (compound 1) from the training set was docked into the active site of the influenza virus endonuclease as an additional verification that the pharmacophore model is accurate. The docked conformation showed important hydrogen bond interactions between the compound and two amino acids, Lys 134 and Lys 137. After validation, this model was used to screen the NCI chemical database to identify new influenza virus endonuclease inhibitors. Our study shows that the to pranking compound out of the 10 newly identified compounds using fit value ranking has an estimated activity of 0.049 μM. These newly identified lead compounds can be further experimentally validated using in vitro techniques.