Flaviviral protease inhibitors identified by fragment-based library docking into a structure generated by molecular dynamics.
Fragment-based docking was used to select a conformation for virtual screening from a molecular dynamics trajectory of the West Nile virus nonstructural 3 protease. This conformation was chosen from an ensemble of 100 molecular dynamics snapshots because it optimally accommodates benzene, the most common ring in known drugs, and two positively charged fragments (methylguanidinium and 2-phenylimidazoline). The latter fragments were used as probes because of the large number of hydrogen bond acceptors in the substrate binding site of the protease. Upon high-throughput docking of a diversity set of 18,694 molecules and pose filtering, only five compounds were chosen for experimental validation, and two of them are active in the low micromolar range in an enzymatic assay and a tryptophan fluorescence quenching assay. Evidence for specific binding to the protease active site is provided by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The two inhibitors have different scaffolds (diphenylurea and diphenyl ester) and are promising lead candidates because they have a molecular weight of about 300 Da.
Ekonomiuk
Dariusz
D
Department of Biochemistry, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
Su
Xun-Cheng
XC
Ozawa
Kiyoshi
K
Bodenreider
Christophe
C
Lim
Siew Pheng
SP
Otting
Gottfried
G
Huang
Danzhi
D
Caflisch
Amedeo
A
D006860:Hydrogen Bonding; D011480:Protease Inhibitors / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology; D011487:Protein Conformation; D020365:RNA Helicases / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000737:chemistry; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases / Q000737:chemistry; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000737:chemistry; D014902:West Nile virus / Q000201:enzymology*; D043583:Nucleoside-Triphosphatase; D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases; D000085242:Viral Proteases
D011480:Protease Inhibitors; D020365:RNA Helicases; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins; C080102:NS2B protein, flavivirus; C060028:NS3 protein, flavivirus; D043583:Nucleoside-Triphosphatase; D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases; D000085242:Viral Proteases