细胞色素p450的结构与催化机理

细胞色素P450酶是广泛存在的含亚铁血红素单加氧酶, 参与甾类激素的合成、脂溶性维生素代谢、多不饱和脂肪酸转换为生物活性分子, 以及致癌作用和药物代谢. 综述了细胞色素p450结构与功能的关系, 特别是细胞色素P450活性位点经历大幅度开/关运动结合底物和释放产物以及电子迁移途径.     

Towards the development of molecularly imprinted artificial receptors for the screening of estrogenic chemicals.

Molecularly imprinted polymers are prepared using various steroid compounds as the templates. The imprinted polymers can selectively re-bind the original print molecules, which leads to versatile potential applications. The feasibility of using these artificial receptors to replace their biological counterparts for preliminary screening of a chemical library is demonstrated. A steroid library composed of 22 closely related compounds is screened with an estrogen specific polymer. The print molecule is identified with accuracy and structural similarities of other members are correlated with normalized retention indices. Molecularly imprinted artificial receptors are envisioned as being useful for screening purposes in drug discovery or for identifying endocrine-disrupting chemicals.     

High-throughput screening for modulators of protein-protein interactions: use of photonic crystal biosensors and complementary technologies

High-throughput screening (HTS) has played an integral role in the development of small molecule modulators of biological processes. These screens are typically developed for enzymes (such as kinases or proteases) or extracellular receptors, two classes of targets with well-established colorimetric or fluorimetric activity assays. In contrast, methods for detection of protein-protein interactions lack the simplicity inherent to enzyme and receptor assays. Technologies that facilitate the discovery of small molecule modulators of protein-protein interactions are essential to the exploitation of this important class of drug targets. As described in this critical review, photonic crystal (PC) biosensors and other emerging technologies can now be utilized in high-throughput screens for the identification of compounds that disrupt or enhance protein-protein interactions (167 references).     

In silico modeling of p450 substrates, inhibitors, activators, and inducers

Cytochrome P450 enzymes are the predominant mediators of phase I metabolism of exogenous small molecules. As a result of their extensive role in metabolism of xenobiotics, drug compounds, and endogenous compounds, as well as their wide tissue distribution, significant drug discovery resources are spent to avoid interacting with this class of enzymes. Here we review historical and recent in silico modeling of 7 cytochrome P450 enzymes of particular interest, specifically CYP1A2, CYP2B6, CYP2C8, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, and CYP3A4. For each we provide a brief biological background including known inhibitors, substrates, and inducers, as well as details of computational modeling efforts and advances in structural biology. We also provide similar details for 3 nuclear receptors known to regulate gene expression of these enzyme families.     

Small‐Molecule Control of Intracellular Protein Levels through Modulation of the Ubiquitin Proteasome System

Traditionally, biological probes and drugs have targeted the activities of proteins (such as enzymes and receptors) that can be readily controlled by small molecules. The remaining majority of the proteome has been deemed “undruggable”. By using small‐molecule modulators of the ubiquitin proteasome, protein levels, rather than protein activity, can be targeted instead, thus increasing the number of druggable targets. Whereas targeting of the proteasome itself can lead to a global increase in protein levels, the targeting of other components of the UPS (e.g., the E3 ubiquitin ligases) can lead to an increase in protein levels in a more targeted fashion. Alternatively, multiple strategies for inducing protein degradation with small‐molecule probes are emerging. With the ability to induce and inhibit the degradation of targeted proteins, small‐molecule modulators of the UPS have the potential to significantly expand the druggable portion of the proteome beyond traditional targets, such as enzymes and receptors.     

Anticalins versus antibodies: made-to-order binding proteins for small molecules

Engineering proteins to bind small molecules presents a challenge as daunting as drug discovery, for both hinge upon our understanding of receptor-ligand molecular recognition. However, powerful techniques from combinatorial molecular biology can be used to rapidly select artificial receptors. While traditionally researchers have relied upon antibody technologies as a source of new binding proteins, the lipocalin scaffold has recently emerged as an adaptable receptor for small molecule binding. 'Anticalins', engineered lipocalin variants, offer some advantages over traditional antibody technology and illuminate features of molecular recognition between receptors and small molecule ligands.     

Epitope alteration by small molecules and applications in drug discovery

Small molecules and antibodies are normally considered separately in drug discovery, except in the case of covalent conjugates. We unexpectedly discovered several small molecules that could inhibit or enhance antibody–epitope interactions which opens new possibilities in drug discovery and therapeutic modulation of auto-antibodies. We first discovered a small molecule, CRANAD-17, that enhanced the binding of an antibody to amyloid beta (Aβ), one of the major hallmarks of Alzheimer''s disease, by stable triplex formation. Next, we found several small molecules that altered antibody–epitope interactions of tau and PD-L1 proteins, demonstrating the generality of this phenomenon. We report a new screening technology for ligand discovery, screening platform based on epitope alteration for drug discovery (SPEED), which is label-free for both the antibody and small molecule. SPEED, applied to an Aβ antibody, led to the discovery of a small molecule, GNF5837, that inhibits Aβ aggregation and another, obatoclax, that binds Aβ plaques and can serve as a fluorescent reporter in brain slices of AD mice. We also found a small molecule that altered the binding between Aβ and auto-antibodies from AD patient serum. SPEED reveals the sensitivity of antibody–epitope interactions to perturbation by small molecules and will have multiple applications in biotechnology and drug discovery.

A screening platform based on epitope alteration for drug discovery (SPEED).     

New strategies in drug discovery for GPCRs: high throughput detection of cellular ERK phosphorylation

G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are a large family of receptors for a wide range of stimulants, including hormones, neurotransmitters, and taste and olfactory chemicals. Due to their broad involvement in cellular responses, GPCRs affect many important body functions both in health and disease. Compared to other receptor families, the GPCRs have been a rich source of extracellularly-acting pharmaceuticals, due largely to the fact that many GPCR ligands are small molecules when compared with ligands for other receptors, such as the tyrosine kinase receptor family. This has allowed the development of small molecule modulators of receptor function that act on specific GPCRs, such as those involved in cardiovascular regulation. However, at several levels, current screening technologies of drug development for GPCRs are lacking. Firstly, responses from many GPCRs, such as the Gi-coupled GPCRs, are not easily measured in large screening programs by current techniques. Secondly, there are few options for detecting agonists of orphan GPCRs. Thirdly, it is now clear that the signaling from GPCRs is more complex than once thought, and the measurement of Ca(2+) and cAMP can account for only a fraction of the biological information emanating from an activated GPCR. Studies of the discrete and sometimes separable activation of the Ras/Raf/Mek/ERK cascade by many GPCRs is likely to offer development of new agonists and antagonists, contribute to new pharmacologies from receptors, and raise the potential for novel drug candidates in this important area of biology. Downstream activation of the ERK pathway, with or without transactivation of growth factor receptors, has not been measurable by high throughput methodologies. This article presents recent advances and associated applications for screening of GPCRs and other receptor species through the rapid measurement of protein phosphorylation events, such as ERK phosphorylation, as new readouts for drug discovery.     

Fluorescent small molecule probe to modulate and explore α2β1 integrin function

Collagen binding integrins are an important family of cell surface receptors that mediate bidirectionally signals between the interior of the cell and the extracellular matrix. The protein-protein interactions between cells and collagen are necessary for many physiological functions, but also promote diseases. For example, the interaction of α2β1 integrin and collagen has been shown to have an important role in thrombus formation and cancer spread. The fact that the discovery of small molecules that can block such protein-protein interactions is highly challenging has significantly hindered the discovery of pharmaceutical agents to treat these diseases. Here, we present a rationally designed novel fluorescent molecule that can be synthesized in just a few minutes from commercially available starting materials. This molecule blocks the protein-protein interaction between α2β1 integrin and collagen, and due to its fluorescent properties, it can be employed in wide variety of biological applications.     

Prediction of small molecule binding property of protein domains with Bayesian classifiers based on Markov chains

Accurate computational methods that can help to predict biological function of a protein from its sequence are of great interest to research biologists and pharmaceutical companies. One approach to assume the function of proteins is to predict the interactions between proteins and other molecules. In this work, we propose a machine learning method that uses a primary sequence of a domain to predict its propensity for interaction with small molecules. By curating the Pfam database with respect to the small molecule binding ability of its component domains, we have constructed a dataset of small molecule binding and non-binding domains. This dataset was then used as training set to learn a Bayesian classifier, which should distinguish members of each class. The domain sequences of both classes are modelled with Markov chains. In a Jack-knife test, our classification procedure achieved the predictive accuracies of 77.2% and 66.7% for binding and non-binding classes respectively. We demonstrate the applicability of our classifier by using it to identify previously unknown small molecule binding domains. Our predictions are available as supplementary material and can provide very useful information to drug discovery specialists. Given the ubiquitous and essential role small molecules play in biological processes, our method is important for identifying pharmaceutically relevant components of complete proteomes. The software is available from the author upon request.     

The complexity of G-protein coupled receptor-ligand interactions

The G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) play fundamental roles in the human biololgy and drug discovery. GPCRs function as signalling molecules that transduce extracellular signals into cells. The signalling transduction is generally triggered by interacting with ligands, including photons, ions, small organic compounds, peptides, proteins and lipids. In this review, we focus on interactions with diffusible ligands such as hormones and neurotransmitters. We discuss three aspects of the complexity of the GPCR-ligand interactions: functional selectivity of ligands, receptor subtype selectivity of ligands and orphan GPCRs.     

Symmetry calculation for molecules and transition states

The symmetry of molecules and transition states of elementary reactions is an essential property with important implications for computational chemistry. The automated identification of symmetry by computers is a very useful tool for many applications, but often relies on the availability of three‐dimensional coordinates of the atoms in the molecule and hence becomes less useful when these coordinates are a priori unavailable. This article presents a new algorithm that identifies symmetry of molecules and transition states based on an augmented graph representation of the corresponding structures, in which both topology and the presence of stereocenters are accounted for. The automorphism group order of the graph associated with the molecule or transition state is used as a starting point. A novel concept of label‐stereoisomers, that is, stereoisomers that arise after labeling homomorph substituents in the original molecule so that they become distinguishable, is introduced and used to obtain the symmetry number. The algorithm is characterized by its generic nature and avoids the use of heuristic rules that would limit the applicability. The calculated symmetry numbers are in agreement with expected values for a large and diverse set of structures, ranging from asymmetric, small molecules such as fluorochlorobromomethane to highly symmetric structures found in drug discovery assays. The new algorithm opens up new possibilities for the fast screening of the degree of symmetry of large sets of molecules. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Polymer derivatives of glucocorticoid hormones

The activated derivatives of hydrocortisone, prednisolone, and dexamethasone, crotonates, methacrylates, and haloacetates were synthesized by acylating native hormones with chloroanhydrides of the corresponding acids. Water-soluble conjugates of steroids which bear a positive sign were obtained by reactions in chains of copolymers of vinylpyrrolidone and vinyl-, allylamine, diethylaminoethyl methacrylate and diethylaminoethyl crotonate with steroid haloacetates. Water-soluble derivatives bearing a negative sign were obtained by the acylation of steroids using vinylpyrrolidone copolymer with maleic anhydride. Non-ionogenic water-soluble polymers were synthesized by the copolymerization of vinylpyrrolidone with steroid methacrylates and crotonates. Cationic and anionic polyelectrolytes bearing steroid units were also obtained by the ternary copolymerization of vinylpyrrolidone with steroid crotonates, diethylaminoethyl crotonate and crotonic acid. The polymer steroids exhibit high specificity in the interaction with trans-cortine and antybodies to cortisol and to target cells, thymocytes. The in vivo experiments revealed anti-inflammatory activity on the level of native hormones. The antishock activity of polymer conjugates exeeds that of native hormones. It was detected that negative side effects characteristic of native hormones decrease markedly after they are bonded to a molecule of water-soluble polymer. No effect of the sign of the macromolecule on the biological activity of modified hormones was detected.     

An αv‐RGD Integrin Inhibitor Toolbox: Drug Discovery Insight,Challenges and Opportunities

There is a requirement for efficacious and safe medicines to treat diseases with high unmet need. The resurgence in αv‐RGD integrin inhibitor drug discovery is poised to contribute to this requirement. However, drug discovery in the αv integrin space is notoriously difficult due to the receptors being structurally very similar as well as the polar zwitterionic nature of the pharmacophore. This Review aims to guide drug discovery research in this field through an αv inhibitor toolbox, consisting of small molecules and antibodies. Small‐molecule αv tool compounds with extended profiles in αvβ1, 3, 5, 6 and 8 cell adhesion assays, with key physicochemical properties, have been collated to assist in the selection of the right tool for the right experiment. This should also facilitate an understanding of partial selectivity profiles of compounds generated in different assays across research institutions. Prospects for further αv integrin research and the critical importance of target validation are discussed, where increased knowledge of the selectivity for individual RGD αv integrins is key. Insights into the design of small‐molecule RGD chemotypes for topical or oral administration are provided and clinical findings on advanced molecules are examined.     

Small molecule-dependent genetic selection in stochastic nanodroplets as a means of detecting protein-ligand interactions on a large scale

Background: Understanding the cellular role of a protein often requires a means of altering its function, most commonly by mutating the gene encoding the protein. Alternatively, protein function can be altered directly using a small molecule that binds to the protein, but no general method exists for the systematic discovery of small molecule ligands. Split-pool synthesis provides a means of synthesizing vast numbers of small molecules. Synthetic chemists will soon be able to synthesize natural product-like substances by this method, so compatible screening methods that detect the activity of minute quantities of molecules among many inactive ones will be in demand.Results: We describe two advances towards achieving the above goals. First, a technique is described that uses a simple spray gun to create 5000–8000 droplets randomly, each having a volume of 50–200 nanoliters. The individual ‘nanodroplets’ contain a controlled number of cells and many also contain individual synthesis beads. As small molecules can be photochemically released from the beads in a time-dependent manner, the concentration of ligands that the cells are exposed to can be controlled. The spatial segregation of nanodroplets prevents the mixing of compounds from other beads so the effects of each molecule can be assayed individually. Second, a small molecule-dependent genetic selection involving engineered budding yeast cells was used to detect intracellular protein-ligand interactions in nanodroplets.Conclusions: The technique described here should facilitate the discovery of new cell-permeable ligands, especially when combined with a positive selection assay that detects intracellular binding of small molecules to proteins. Using ‘anchored combinatorial libraries’, it may be possible to screen entire libraries of natural product-like molecules against the entire collection of proteins encoded within cDNA libraries in a single experiment.     

Quality, not quantity: the role of natural products and chemical proteomics in modern drug discovery

Chemical genetics and reverse chemical genetics parallel classical genetics but target genes at the protein level and have proven useful in recent years for screening combinatorial libraries for compounds of biological interest. However, the performance of combinatorial chemistry in filling pharmaceutical pipelines has been lower than anticipated and the tide may be turning back to Nature in the search for new drug candidates. Even though diversity oriented synthesis is now producing molecules that are natural product-like in terms of size and complexity, these molecules have not evolved to interact with biomolecules. Natural products, on the other hand, have evolved to interact with biomolecules, which is why so many can be found in pharmacopoeias. However, the cellular targets and modes of action of these fascinating compounds are seldom known, hindering the drug development process. This review focuses on the emergence of chemical proteomics and reverse chemical proteomics as tools for the discovery of cellular receptors for natural products, thereby generating protein/ligand pairs that will prove useful in identifying new drug targets and new biologically active small molecule scaffolds. Such a system-wide approach to identifying new drugable targets and their small molecule ligands will help unblock the pharmaceutical product pipelines by speeding the process of target and lead identification.