scholarly journals Structural Features and Binding Modes of Thioether-Cyclized Peptide Ligands

Biomedicines ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Otero-Ramirez ◽  
Toby Passioura ◽  
Hiroaki Suga

Macrocyclic peptides are an emerging class of bioactive compounds for therapeutic use. In part, this is because they are capable of high potency and excellent target affinity and selectivity. Over the last decade, several biochemical techniques have been developed for the identification of bioactive macrocyclic peptides, allowing for the rapid isolation of high affinity ligands to a target of interest. A common feature of these techniques is a general reliance on thioether formation to effect macrocyclization. Increasingly, the compounds identified using these approaches have been subjected to x-ray crystallographic analysis bound to their respective targets, providing detailed structural information about their conformation and mechanism of target binding. The present review provides an overview of the target bound thioether-closed macrocyclic peptide structures that have been obtained to date.

Molecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 1924 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theo Battista ◽  
Gianni Colotti ◽  
Andrea Ilari ◽  
Annarita Fiorillo

The protozoans Leishmania and Trypanosoma, belonging to the same Trypanosomatidae family, are the causative agents of Leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, and human African trypanosomiasis. Overall, these infections affect millions of people worldwide, posing a serious health issue as well as socio-economical concern. Current treatments are inadequate, mainly due to poor efficacy, toxicity, and emerging resistance; therefore, there is an urgent need for new drugs. Among several molecular targets proposed, trypanothione reductase (TR) is of particular interest for its critical role in controlling the parasite’s redox homeostasis and several classes of active compounds that inhibit TR have been proposed so far. This review provides a comprehensive overview of TR’s structural characterization. In particular, we discuss all the structural features of TR relevant for drug discovery, with a focus on the recent advances made in the understanding of inhibitor binding. The reported cases show how, on the basis of the detailed structural information provided by the crystallographic analysis, it is possible to rationally modify molecular scaffolds to improve their properties.


2020 ◽  
Vol 477 (4) ◽  
pp. 787-800 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma A. Gunnell ◽  
Alaa Al-Noori ◽  
Usama Muhsen ◽  
Clare C. Davies ◽  
James Dowden ◽  
...  

Attenuating the function of protein arginine methyltransferases (PRMTs) is an objective for the investigation and treatment of several diseases including cardiovascular disease and cancer. Bisubstrate inhibitors that simultaneously target binding sites for arginine substrate and the cofactor (S-adenosylmethionine (SAM)) have potential utility, but structural information on their binding is required for their development. Evaluation of bisubstrate inhibitors featuring an isosteric guanidine replacement with two prominent enzymes PRMT1 and CARM1 (PRMT4) by isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), activity assays and crystallography are reported. Key findings are that 2-aminopyridine is a viable replacement for guanidine, providing an inhibitor that binds more strongly to CARM1 than PRMT1. Moreover, a residue around the active site that differs between CARM1 (Asn-265) and PRMT1 (Tyr-160) is identified that affects the side chain conformation of the catalytically important neighbouring glutamate in the crystal structures. Mutagenesis data supports its contribution to the difference in binding observed for this inhibitor. Structures of CARM1 in complex with a range of seven inhibitors reveal the binding modes and show that inhibitors with an amino acid terminus adopt a single conformation whereas the electron density for equivalent amine-bearing inhibitors is consistent with preferential binding in two conformations. These findings inform the molecular basis of CARM1 ligand binding and identify differences between CARM1 and PRMT1 that can inform drug discovery efforts.


Author(s):  
R.M. Glaeser ◽  
S.B. Hayward

Highly ordered or crystalline biological macromolecules become severely damaged and structurally disordered after a brief electron exposure. Evidence that damage and structural disorder are occurring is clearly given by the fading and eventual disappearance of the specimen's electron diffraction pattern. The fading and disappearance of sharp diffraction spots implies a corresponding disappearance of periodic structural features in the specimen. By the same token, there is a oneto- one correspondence between the disappearance of the crystalline diffraction pattern and the disappearance of reproducible structural information that can be observed in the images of identical unit cells of the object structure. The electron exposures that result in a significant decrease in the diffraction intensity will depend somewhat upon the resolution (Bragg spacing) involved, and can vary considerably with the chemical makeup and composition of the specimen material.


1987 ◽  
Vol 26 (01) ◽  
pp. 13-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. W. Gottinger

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to report on an expert system in design that screens for potential hazards from environmental chemicals on the basis of structure-activity relationships in the study of chemical carcinogenesis, particularly with respect to analyzing the current state of known structural information about chemical carcinogens and predicting the possible carcinogenicity of untested chemicals. The structure-activity tree serves as an index of known chemical structure features associated with carcinogenic activity. The basic units of the tree are the principal recognized classes of chemical carcinogens that are subdivided into subclasses known as nodes according to specific structural features that may reflect differences in carcinogenic potential among chemicals in the class. An analysis of a computerized data base of known carcinogens (knowledge base) is proposed using the structure-activity tree in order to test the validity of the tree as a classification scheme (inference engine).


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary VanAernum ◽  
Florian Busch ◽  
Benjamin J. Jones ◽  
Mengxuan Jia ◽  
Zibo Chen ◽  
...  

It is important to assess the identity and purity of proteins and protein complexes during and after protein purification to ensure that samples are of sufficient quality for further biochemical and structural characterization, as well as for use in consumer products, chemical processes, and therapeutics. Native mass spectrometry (nMS) has become an important tool in protein analysis due to its ability to retain non-covalent interactions during measurements, making it possible to obtain protein structural information with high sensitivity and at high speed. Interferences from the presence of non-volatiles are typically alleviated by offline buffer exchange, which is timeconsuming and difficult to automate. We provide a protocol for rapid online buffer exchange (OBE) nMS to directly screen structural features of pre-purified proteins, protein complexes, or clarified cell lysates. Information obtained by OBE nMS can be used for fast (<5 min) quality control and can further guide protein expression and purification optimization.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (37) ◽  
pp. 6306-6355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marian Vincenzi ◽  
Flavia Anna Mercurio ◽  
Marilisa Leone

Background:: Many pathways regarding healthy cells and/or linked to diseases onset and progression depend on large assemblies including multi-protein complexes. Protein-protein interactions may occur through a vast array of modules known as protein interaction domains (PIDs). Objective:: This review concerns with PIDs recognizing post-translationally modified peptide sequences and intends to provide the scientific community with state of art knowledge on their 3D structures, binding topologies and potential applications in the drug discovery field. Method:: Several databases, such as the Pfam (Protein family), the SMART (Simple Modular Architecture Research Tool) and the PDB (Protein Data Bank), were searched to look for different domain families and gain structural information on protein complexes in which particular PIDs are involved. Recent literature on PIDs and related drug discovery campaigns was retrieved through Pubmed and analyzed. Results and Conclusion:: PIDs are rather versatile as concerning their binding preferences. Many of them recognize specifically only determined amino acid stretches with post-translational modifications, a few others are able to interact with several post-translationally modified sequences or with unmodified ones. Many PIDs can be linked to different diseases including cancer. The tremendous amount of available structural data led to the structure-based design of several molecules targeting protein-protein interactions mediated by PIDs, including peptides, peptidomimetics and small compounds. More studies are needed to fully role out, among different families, PIDs that can be considered reliable therapeutic targets, however, attacking PIDs rather than catalytic domains of a particular protein may represent a route to obtain selective inhibitors.


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (17) ◽  
pp. 1899-1904
Author(s):  
Daniel Fabio Kawano ◽  
Marcelo Rodrigues de Carvalho ◽  
Mauricio Ferreira Marcondes Machado ◽  
Adriana Karaoglanovic Carmona ◽  
Gilberto Ubida Leite Braga ◽  
...  

Background: Fungal secondary metabolites are important sources for the discovery of new pharmaceuticals, as exemplified by penicillin, lovastatin and cyclosporine. Searching for secondary metabolites of the fungi Metarhizium spp., we previously identified tyrosine betaine as a major constituent. Methods: Because of the structural similarity with other inhibitors of neprilysin (NEP), an enzyme explored for the treatment of heart failure, we devised the synthesis of tyrosine betaine and three analogues to be subjected to in vitro NEP inhibition assays and to molecular modeling studies. Results: In spite of the similar binding modes with other NEP inhibitors, these compounds only displayed moderate inhibitory activities (IC50 ranging from 170.0 to 52.9 µM). However, they enclose structural features required to hinder passive blood brain barrier permeation (BBB). Conclusions: Tyrosine betaine remains as a starting point for the development of NEP inhibitors because of the low probability of BBB permeation and, consequently, of NEP inhibition at the Central Nervous System, which is associated to an increment in the Aβ levels and, accordingly, with a higher risk for the onset of Alzheimer's disease.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (31) ◽  
pp. 3339-3349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Indrani Bera ◽  
Pavan V. Payghan

Background: Traditional drug discovery is a lengthy process which involves a huge amount of resources. Modern-day drug discovers various multidisciplinary approaches amongst which, computational ligand and structure-based drug designing methods contribute significantly. Structure-based drug designing techniques require the knowledge of structural information of drug target and drug-target complexes. Proper understanding of drug-target binding requires the flexibility of both ligand and receptor to be incorporated. Molecular docking refers to the static picture of the drug-target complex(es). Molecular dynamics, on the other hand, introduces flexibility to understand the drug binding process. Objective: The aim of the present study is to provide a systematic review on the usage of molecular dynamics simulations to aid the process of structure-based drug design. Method: This review discussed findings from various research articles and review papers on the use of molecular dynamics in drug discovery. All efforts highlight the practical grounds for which molecular dynamics simulations are used in drug designing program. In summary, various aspects of the use of molecular dynamics simulations that underline the basis of studying drug-target complexes were thoroughly explained. Results: This review is the result of reviewing more than a hundred papers. It summarizes various problems that use molecular dynamics simulations. Conclusion: The findings of this review highlight how molecular dynamics simulations have been successfully implemented to study the structure-function details of specific drug-target complexes. It also identifies the key areas such as stability of drug-target complexes, ligand binding kinetics and identification of allosteric sites which have been elucidated using molecular dynamics simulations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaheh Kashani-Amin ◽  
Ozra Tabatabaei-Malazy ◽  
Amirhossein Sakhteman ◽  
Bagher Larijani ◽  
Azadeh Ebrahim-Habibi

Background: Prediction of proteins’ secondary structure is one of the major steps in the generation of homology models. These models provide structural information which is used to design suitable ligands for potential medicinal targets. However, selecting a proper tool between multiple Secondary Structure Prediction (SSP) options is challenging. The current study is an insight into currently favored methods and tools, within various contexts. Objective: A systematic review was performed for a comprehensive access to recent (2013-2016) studies which used or recommended protein SSP tools. Methods: Three databases, Web of Science, PubMed and Scopus were systematically searched and 99 out of the 209 studies were finally found eligible to extract data. Results: Four categories of applications for 59 retrieved SSP tools were: (I) prediction of structural features of a given sequence, (II) evaluation of a method, (III) providing input for a new SSP method and (IV) integrating an SSP tool as a component for a program. PSIPRED was found to be the most popular tool in all four categories. JPred and tools utilizing PHD (Profile network from HeiDelberg) method occupied second and third places of popularity in categories I and II. JPred was only found in the two first categories, while PHD was present in three fields. Conclusion: This study provides a comprehensive insight into the recent usage of SSP tools which could be helpful for selecting a proper tool.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Dengler ◽  
Pradeep Kumar Mandal ◽  
Lars Allmendinger ◽  
Céline Douat ◽  
Ivan Huc

Macrocyclic peptides are an important class of bioactive substances. When inserting an aromatic foldamer segment in a macrocyclic peptide, the strong folding propensity of the former may influence the conformation...


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document