Structure-based pharmacophore design and virtual screening for novel angiotensin converting enzyme 2 inhibitors

The metallopeptidase Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE) is an important drug target for the treatment of hypertension, heart, kidney, and lung disease. Recently, a close and unique human ACE homologue termed ACE2 has been identified and found to be an interesting new cardiorenal disease target. With the recently resolved inhibitor-bound ACE2 crystal structure available, we have attempted a structure-based approach to identify novel potent and selective inhibitors. Computational approaches focus on pharmacophore-based virtual screening of large compound databases. Selectivity was ensured by initial screening for ACE inhibitors within an internal database and the Derwent World Drug Index, which could be reduced to zero false positives and 0.1% hit rate, respectively. An average hit reduction of 0.44% was achieved with a five feature hypothesis, searching approximately 3.8 million compounds from various commercial databases. Seventeen compounds were selected based on high fit values as well as diverse structure and subjected to experimental validation in a bioassay. We show that all compounds displayed an inhibitory effect on ACE2 activity, the six most promising candidates exhibiting IC50 values in the range of 62-179 microM.     

Antioxidant activity of peptide-based angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors

Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors are important for the treatment of hypertension as they can decrease the formation of vasopressor hormone angiotensin II (Ang II) and elevate the levels of vasodilating hormone bradykinin. It is observed that bradykinin contains a Ser-Pro-Phe motif near the site of hydrolysis. The selenium analogues of captopril represent a novel class of ACE inhibitors as they also exhibit significant antioxidant activity. In this study, several di- and tripeptides containing selenocysteine and cysteine residues at the N-terminal were synthesized. Hydrolysis of angiotensin I (Ang I) to Ang II by ACE was studied in the presence of these peptides. It is observed that the introduction of L-Phe to Sec-Pro and Cys-Pro peptides significantly increases the ACE inhibitory activity. On the other hand, the introduction of L-Val or L-Ala decreases the inhibitory potency of the parent compounds. The presence of an L-Pro moiety in captopril analogues appears to be important for ACE inhibition as the replacement of L-Pro by L-piperidine 2-carboxylic acid decreases the ACE inhibition. The synthetic peptides were also tested for their ability to scavenge peroxynitrite (PN) and to exhibit glutathione peroxidase (GPx)-like activity. All the selenium-containing peptides exhibited good PN-scavenging and GPx activities.     

Studies on angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors. VI. Synthesis and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitory activities of the dicarboxylic acid derivative of imidapril and its diastereoisomers.

All possible diastereoisomers of the dicarboxylic acid (10a), the biologically active form of imidapril (1), were synthesized, and their inhibitory activity against angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) was examined. The in vitro ACE inhibitory activity of these compounds greatly depended on the configurations of the three asymmetric carbons in each molecule. The (S,S,S) isomer (10a) showed much more potent activity than the others.     

Synthesis, characterization and antioxidant activity of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors

Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) catalyzes the conversion of angiotensin I (Ang I) to angiotensin II (Ang II). ACE also cleaves the terminal dipeptide of vasodilating hormone bradykinin (a nonapeptide) to inactivate this hormone. Therefore, inhibition of ACE is generally used as one of the methods for the treatment of hypertension. 'Oxidative stress' is another disease state caused by an imbalance in the production of oxidants and antioxidants. A number of studies suggest that hypertension and oxidative stress are interdependent. Therefore, ACE inhibitors having antioxidant property are considered beneficial for the treatment of hypertension. As selenium compounds are known to exhibit better antioxidant behavior than their sulfur analogues, we have synthesized a number of selenium analogues of captopril, an ACE inhibitor used as an antihypertensive drug. The selenium analogues of captopril not only inhibit ACE activity but also effectively scavenge peroxynitrite, a strong oxidant found in vivo.     

新型血管紧张素转化酶抑制剂: 氮杂三肽类似物的合成及结构活性关系

设计与合成一系列氮杂三肽类似物, 测定了氮杂三肽类似物对血管紧张素转化酶的体外抑制活性, 探讨了它们的结构与抑制活性之间的关系, 结果表明氮杂丙氨酸是丙氨酸很好的替代物。     

亲和色谱法筛选中药中血管紧张素转化酶抑制剂

以壳聚糖微球为载体、戊二醛（glutaraldehyde,GA）为交联剂对血管紧张素转化酶（Angiotensin converting enzyme,ACE）进行固定化．用固化的ACE作为亲和介质,利用血管紧张素转化酶抑制剂（Angiotensin convertingenzym einhibitor,ACEI）与ACE之间的亲和作用,结合高效液相色谱对亲和前后的体系进行检测,比较两者各组分色谱峰的差异,以此实现快速筛选复杂体系中的ACE抑制剂．应用赖诺普利（Lisinopril）、九肽抑制剂、依那普利（Enalapril）、培哚普利（Perindopril）、卡托普利（Captopril）等已上市的ACEI对方法进行验证,反映方法具有高度选择性．将方法应用于中药地龙及山楂筛选,发现共有5个组分与ACE有亲和作用,并且都能抑制ACE酶活性,它们对酶活性抑制的IC50值在0．45～4．62μg／mL范围．通过对亲和方法重现性考察,6次测定的相对标准偏差小于1％,说明方法可靠．提出的亲和色谱．色谱指纹差异法非常适合于从中药及天然产物等复杂混合物库中快速筛选靶点活性物质．     

Mixed micellar liquid chromatography methods: modelling quantitative retention-activity relationships of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors

The capability of biopartitioning micellar chromatography (BMC), using pure Brij35 solution and mixed micellar system of Brij35-SDS (85:15) as mobile phase, to describe and estimate bioactivities of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors at different pH has been studied. Quantitative retention-activity relationships (QRAR) in BMC were investigated for these compounds. The obtained BMC(Brij35-SDS)-QRAR models were compared with the traditional BMC(Brij35)-QRAR, and better statistically models were obtained using Brij35-SDS retention data. The superiority of BMC(Brij35-SDS)-QRAR is due to the fact that the mixed micellar mobile phase can simulate the resting membrane potential and the conformation of the long hydrophilic polyoxyethylene chains remains unchanged.     

A synthetic approach to F-analogues of Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors

Studies on the synthetic routes to F-analogues of captopril, which is known as an Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor, have been undertaken.     

Pharmacophore-based structure optimization of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitory peptide

Chemical feature based pharmacophore models were generated for an angiotensin converting enzyme(ACE) inhibitory peptide using the Discovery Studio 2.0 pharmacophore modeling approach. The pharmacophore hypothesis selected has five features(one negative ionizable region,one hydrogen bond donor,one hydrogen bond acceptor and two hydrophobic functional groups). Additionally,ACE inhibitory hexapeptide previously obtained from silkworm pupae protein was optimized to target the ACE based on the selected pharmacophore. The results suggest that tri-peptide(thr-val-phe) may be structural determinant of ACE activity. Docking studies further provided confidence for the validity of the selected pharmacophore model to perform structure optimization of the ACE inhibitory peptide.     

Determination of the angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor benazeprilat in plasma and urine by an enzymic method

An enzyme inhibition assay for the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor benazeprilat is described. Plasma and urine samples were diluted and endogenous ACE was inactivated by heating. After incubation of the plasma samples with hippuryl-histidyl-leucine as substrate and blank plasma as the source of ACE, released hippuric acid was measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. Urine samples were incubated with [3H] hippuryl-glycyl-glycine and with rabbit lung extract as the source of ACE. Released [3H] hippuric acid was quantified by liquid scintillation counting. Drug standards for the standard curve were prepared in the biological matrix. A cross-check with a gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric method showed good agreement, demonstrating that this enzymic method is suitable for assessing drug bioavailability and pharmacokinetics.     

Bimane fluorogenic substrates for microdetermination of angiotensin converting enzyme level in serum.

The fluorescence of 9,10-dioxa-syn-3,4,6,7-tetramethylbimane (bimane) was found to be quenched in the presence of nitrated aromatic amino acid. Bimane peptides containing nitrated amino acid (1a, b) were shown to be useful fluorogenic substrates for the assay of angiotensin I converting enzyme (ACE) from rabbit lung, similar to bimane substrate containing tryptophan (3) previously reported. Among these bimane substrates, substrate 3 was shown to be a potent fluorogenic substrate for microdetermination of the ACE level in human serum.     

Effect of dielectric medium on angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors binding to Zn<Superscript>2+</Superscript>

The Becke3LYP density functional was used to study structural and thermodynamic parameters of bivalent zinc cation complexes with selected substrates and ACE inhibitors (H₂O/OH⁻, neutral forms of captopril, zofenoprilat, omapatrilat, CH₃CONHCH₃, and N-terminal anions of captopril, zofenoprilat, omapatrilat, enalaprilat, perindoprilat, trandolaprilat, and fosinoprilat). The combination of DFT and the conductor-like polarizable continuum model (CPCM) were employed to compute the Gibbs interaction energies (ΔG) between Zn²⁺ and the selected ACE inhibitors for dielectric media with ɛ = 5 (to simulate the protein environment) and for water media (ɛ = 78.39) for comparison purposes. The results show that ΔG is sensitive to the dielectric constant of the environment and that lower dielectric medium favors the binding of inhibitors to the zinc cation.     

Targeted catalytic inactivation of angiotensin converting enzyme by lisinopril-coupled transition-metal chelates

A series of compounds that target reactive transition-metal chelates to somatic angiotensin converting enzyme (sACE-1) have been synthesized. Half-maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC(50)) and rate constants for both inactivation and cleavage of full-length sACE-1 have been determined and evaluated in terms of metal chelate size, charge, reduction potential, coordination unsaturation, and coreactant selectivity. Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA), 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid (DOTA), and tripeptide GGH were linked to the lysine side chain of lisinopril by 1-ethyl-3-[3-(dimethylamino)propyl]carbodiimide hydrochloride/N-hydroxysuccinimide coupling. The resulting amide-linked chelate-lisinopril (EDTA-lisinopril, NTA-lisinopril, DOTA-lisinopril, and GGH-lisinopril) conjugates were used to form coordination complexes with iron, cobalt, nickel, and copper, such that lisinopril could mediate localization of the reactive metal chelates to sACE-1. ACE activity was assayed by monitoring cleavage of the fluorogenic substrate Mca-RPPGFSAFK(Dnp)-OH, a derivative of bradykinin, following preincubation with metal chelate-lisinopril compounds. Concentration-dependent inhibition of sACE-1 by metal chelate-lisinopril complexes revealed IC(50) values ranging from 44 to 4500 nM for Ni-NTA-lisinopril and Ni-DOTA-lisinopril, respectively, versus 1.9 nM for lisinopril. Stronger inhibition was correlated with smaller size and lower negative charge of the attached metal chelates. Time-dependent inactivation of sACE-1 by metal chelate-lisinopril complexes revealed a remarkable range of catalytic activities, with second-order rate constants as high as 150,000 M(-1) min(-1) (Cu-GGH-lisinopril), while catalyst-mediated cleavage of sACE-1 typically occurred at much lower rates, indicating that inactivation arose primarily from side chain modification. Optimal inactivation of sACE-1 was observed when the reduction potential for the metal center was poised near 1000 mV, reflecting the difficulty of protein oxidation. This class of metal chelate-lisinopril complexes possesses a range of high-affinity binding to ACE, introduces the advantage of irreversible catalytic turnover, and marks an important step toward the development of multiple-turnover drugs for selective inactivation of sACE-1.     

Drug repositioning and pharmacophore identification in the discovery of hookworm MIF inhibitors

The screening of bioactive compound libraries can be an effective approach for repositioning FDA-approved drugs or discovering new pharmacophores. Hookworms are blood-feeding, intestinal nematode parasites that infect up to 600 million people worldwide. Vaccination with recombinant Ancylostoma ceylanicum macrophage migration inhibitory factor (rAceMIF) provided partial protection from disease, thus establishing a "proof-of-concept" for targeting AceMIF to prevent or treat infection. A high-throughput screen (HTS) against rAceMIF identified six AceMIF-specific inhibitors. A?nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), sodium meclofenamate, could be tested in an animal model to assess the therapeutic efficacy in treating hookworm disease. Furosemide, an FDA-approved diuretic, exhibited submicromolar inhibition of rAceMIF tautomerase activity. Structure-activity relationships of a pharmacophore based on furosemide included one analog that binds similarly to the active site, yet does not inhibit the Na-K-Cl symporter (NKCC1) responsible for diuretic activity.