Warheads for designing covalent inhibitors and chemical probes

Brd4, a member of the bromodomain and extraterminal domain (BET) family, has emerged as a promising epigenetic target in cancer and inflammatory disorders. All reported BET family ligands bind within the bromodomain acetyl-lysine binding sites and competitively inhibit BET protein interaction with acetylated chromatin. Alternative chemical probes that act orthogonally to the highly-conserved acetyl-lysine binding sites may exhibit selectivity within the BET family and avoid recently reported toxicity in clinical trials of BET bromodomain inhibitors. Here, we report the first identification of a ligandable site on a bromodomain outside the acetyl-lysine binding site. Inspired by our computational prediction of hotspots adjacent to non-homologous cysteine residues within the C-terminal Brd4 bromodomain (Brd4-BD2), we performed a mid-throughput mass spectrometry screen to identify cysteine-reactive fragments that covalently and selectively modify Brd4. Subsequent mass spectrometry, NMR and computational docking analyses of electrophilic fragment hits revealed a novel ligandable site near Cys356 that is unique to Brd4 among all human bromodomains. This site is orthogonal to the Brd4-BD2 acetyl-lysine binding site as Cys356 modification did not impact binding of the pan-BET bromodomain inhibitor JQ1 in fluorescence polarization assays. Finally, we tethered covalent fragments to JQ1 and performed NanoBRET assays to provide proof of principle that this orthogonal site can be covalently targeted in intact human cells. Overall, we demonstrate the potential of targeting sites orthogonal to bromodomain acetyl-lysine binding sites to develop bivalent and covalent inhibitors that displace Brd4 from chromatin.

Download Full-text

Covalent-Fragment Screening of Brd4 Identifies a Ligandable Site Orthogonal to the Acetyl-Lysine Binding Sites

10.26434/chemrxiv.8859098.v1 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Michael Olp ◽

Daniel Sprague ◽

Stefan Kathman ◽

Ziyang Xu ◽

Alexandar Statsyuk ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mass Spectrometry ◽

Binding Site ◽

Binding Sites ◽

Computational Prediction ◽

Chemical Probes ◽

Computational Docking ◽

Fragment Screening ◽

Covalent Inhibitors ◽

Bet Protein ◽

Proof Of Principle

Brd4, a member of the bromodomain and extraterminal domain (BET) family, has emerged as a promising epigenetic target in cancer and inflammatory disorders. All reported BET family ligands bind within the bromodomain acetyl-lysine binding sites and competitively inhibit BET protein interaction with acetylated chromatin. Alternative chemical probes that act orthogonally to the highly-conserved acetyl-lysine binding sites may exhibit selectivity within the BET family and avoid recently reported toxicity in clinical trials of BET bromodomain inhibitors. Here, we report the first identification of a ligandable site on a bromodomain outside the acetyl-lysine binding site. Inspired by our computational prediction of hotspots adjacent to non-homologous cysteine residues within the C-terminal Brd4 bromodomain (Brd4-BD2), we performed a mid-throughput mass spectrometry screen to identify cysteine-reactive fragments that covalently and selectively modify Brd4. Subsequent mass spectrometry, NMR and computational docking analyses of electrophilic fragment hits revealed a novel ligandable site near Cys356 that is unique to Brd4 among all human bromodomains. This site is orthogonal to the Brd4-BD2 acetyl-lysine binding site as Cys356 modification did not impact binding of the pan-BET bromodomain inhibitor JQ1 in fluorescence polarization assays. Finally, we tethered covalent fragments to JQ1 and performed NanoBRET assays to provide proof of principle that this orthogonal site can be covalently targeted in intact human cells. Overall, we demonstrate the potential of targeting sites orthogonal to bromodomain acetyl-lysine binding sites to develop bivalent and covalent inhibitors that displace Brd4 from chromatin.

Download Full-text

Covalent Docking in Drug Discovery: Scope and Limitations

Current Pharmaceutical Design ◽

10.2174/1381612824999201105164942 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 26 (44) ◽

pp. 5684-5699

Author(s):

Andrea Scarpino ◽

György G. Ferenczy ◽

György M. Keserű

Keyword(s):

Drug Discovery ◽

Covalent Bond ◽

Binding Mode ◽

Chemical Probes ◽

Comprehensive Overview ◽

Computational Tools ◽

Covalent Inhibitors ◽

Covalent Docking ◽

Docking And Scoring ◽

Covalent Ligands

Drug discovery efforts for new covalent inhibitors have drastically increased in the last few years. The binding mechanism of covalent compounds entails the formation of a chemical bond between their electrophilic warhead group and the protein of interest. The use of moderately reactive warheads targeting nonconserved nucleophilic residues can improve the affinity and selectivity profiles of covalent binders as compared to their non-covalent analogs. Recent advances have also enabled their use as chemical probes to disclose novel and also less tractable targets. Increasing interest in covalent drug discovery prompted the development of new computational tools, including covalent docking methods, that are available to predict the binding mode and affinity of covalent ligands. These tools integrate conventional non-covalent docking and scoring schemes by modeling the newly formed covalent bond and the interactions occurring at the reaction site. In this review, we provide a thorough analysis of state-of-the-art covalent docking programs by highlighting their main features and current limitations. Focusing on the implemented algorithms, we show the differences in handling the formation of the new covalent bond and their relative impact on the prediction. This analysis provides a comprehensive overview of the current technology and suggests future improvements in computer-aided covalent drug design. Finally, discussing successful retrospective and prospective covalent docking-based virtual screening applications, we intend to identify best practices for the drug discovery community.

Download Full-text

The Discovery and Utility of Chemical Probes in Target Discovery

10.1039/9781839160745 ◽

2020 ◽

Keyword(s):

Chemical Probes ◽

Target Discovery

Download Full-text

Novel chemistry for covalent inhibitors

Nature Reviews Drug Discovery ◽

10.1038/d41573-020-00161-6 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 19 (11) ◽

pp. 754-754

Author(s):

Megan Cully

Keyword(s):

Covalent Inhibitors

Download Full-text

Rapid Elaboration of Fragments into Leads Applied to Bromodomain-3 Extra Terminal Domain

10.26434/chemrxiv.12026952 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Luke Adams ◽

Lorna E. Wilkinson-White ◽

Menachem J. Gunzburg ◽

Stephen J. Headey ◽

Martin J. Scanlon ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Binding Site ◽

Systematic Approach ◽

Structural Information ◽

Peptide Binding ◽

Chemical Diversity ◽

Chemical Probes ◽

Protein Targets ◽

Structure Activity ◽

Peptide Binding Site ◽

Selection Of

The development of low-affinity fragment hits into higher affinity leads is a major hurdle in fragment-based drug design. Here we demonstrate an approach for the Rapid Elaboration of Fragments into Leads (REFiL) applying an integrated workflow that provides a systematic approach to generate higher-affinity binders without the need for structural information. The workflow involves the selection of commercial analogues of fragment hits to generate preliminary structure-activity relationships. This is followed by parallel microscale chemistry using chemoinformatically designed reagent libraries to rapidly explore chemical diversity. Upon completion of a fragment screen against Bromodomain-3 extra terminal (BRD3-ET) domain we applied the REFiL workflow, which allowed us to develop a series of tetrahydrocarbazole ligands that bind to the peptide binding site of BRD3-ET. With REFiL we were able to rapidly improve binding affinity >30-fold. The REFiL workflow can be applied readily to a broad range of protein targets without the need of a structure, allowing the efficient evolution of low-affinity fragments into higher affinity leads and chemical probes.

Download Full-text

Isotopically Labeled Desthiobiotin Azide (isoDTB) Tags Enable Global Profiling of the Bacterial Cysteinome

10.26434/chemrxiv.9853445 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Patrick R. A. Zanon ◽

Lisa Lewald ◽

Stephan M. Hacker

Keyword(s):

Binding Sites ◽

Bacterial Resistance ◽

Mevalonate Pathway ◽

Rapid Development ◽

High Reactivity ◽

Functional Importance ◽

Essential Proteins ◽

Covalent Inhibitors ◽

Druggable Targets ◽

Covalent Ligands

Rapid development of bacterial resistance has led to an urgent need to find new druggable targets for antibiotics. In this context, residue-specific chemoproteomic approaches enable proteome-wide identification of binding sites for covalent inhibitors. Here, we describe isotopically labeled desthiobiotin azide (isoDTB) tags that are easily synthesized, shorten the chemoproteomic workflow and allow an increased coverage of cysteines in bacterial systems. We quantify 59% of all cysteines in essential proteins in Staphylococcus aureus and discover 88 cysteines with high reactivity, which correlates with functional importance. Furthermore, we identify 268 cysteines that are engaged by covalent ligands. We verify inhibition of HMG-CoA synthase, which will allow addressing the bacterial mevalonate pathway through a new target. Overall, a comprehensive map of the bacterial cysteinome is obtained, which will facilitate the development of antibiotics with novel modes-of-action.

Download Full-text