title: Simulation and comparative analysis of binding modes of nucleoside and non-nucleoside agonists at the A2B adenosine receptor.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A2B receptor agonists are studied as possible therapeutic tools for a variety of pathological conditions. Unfortunately, medicinal chemistry efforts have led to the development of a limited number of potent agonists of this receptor, in most cases with a low or no selectivity versus the other adenosine receptor subtypes. Among the developed molecules, two structural families of compounds have been identified based on nucleoside and non-nucleoside (pyridine) scaffolds. The aim of this work is to analyse the binding mode of these molecules at 3D models of the human A2B receptor to identify possible common interaction features and the key receptor residues involved in ligand interaction.
  
  
  METHODS
  The A2B receptor models are built by using two recently published crystal structures of the human A2A receptor in complex with two different agonists. The developed models are used as targets for molecular docking studies of nucleoside and non-nucleoside agonists. The generated docking conformations are subjected to energy minimization and rescoring by using three different scoring functions. Further analysis of top-score conformations are performed with a tool evaluating the interaction energy between the ligand and the binding site residues.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results suggest a set of common interaction points between the two structural families of agonists and the receptor binding site, as evidenced by the superimposition of docking conformations and by analysis of interaction energy with the receptor residues.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The obtained results show that there is a conserved pattern of interaction between the A2B receptor and its agonists. These information and can provide useful data to support the design and the development of A2B receptor agonists belonging to nucleoside or non-nucleoside structural families.
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Medicinal Chemistry Unit, University of Camerino, via S. Agostino 1, Camerino, MC 62032 Italy.
authors.forename: Diego
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dal Ben
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Medicinal Chemistry Unit, University of Camerino, via S. Agostino 1, Camerino, MC 62032 Italy.
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Buccioni
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Medicinal Chemistry Unit, University of Camerino, via S. Agostino 1, Camerino, MC 62032 Italy.
authors.forename: Catia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lambertucci
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Medicinal Chemistry Unit, University of Camerino, via S. Agostino 1, Camerino, MC 62032 Italy.
authors.forename: Ajiroghene
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Medicinal Chemistry Unit, University of Camerino, via S. Agostino 1, Camerino, MC 62032 Italy.
authors.forename: Rosaria
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Volpini
keywords: Adenosine receptor agonists; Adenosine receptors; Homology modelling; Molecular docking; Molecular modelling; Nucleosides; Purine derivatives; Purinergic receptors; Pyridine derivatives