Last updated:
August 28, 2012
This modern medicinal chemistry program aims at establishing
rational lead generation as an intelligent, economic alternative to combinatorial
and high-throughput screening approaches. It focuses at expanding the understanding
of biological molecular recognition, generating detailed information on the
strength of individual bonding interactions and their contribution to the overall
free energy of complexation. Such knowledge is widely applicable to other medicinal
chemistry projects.
The strong performance of our rational, structure-based design approach is
illustrated by the following: in the first eight projects brought to the
stage of biological testing, the first designed compounds showed an inhibitory
activity (Ki or IC50) between 1 and 16 micromolar.
Within 1-2 X-ray structure-based lead optimization cycles, single-digit
nanomolar activities have been reached
in all advanced projects. Whereas rational structure-based inhibitor design
and synthesis are done in our laboratories, biological testing and protein
crystallography are pursued in collaborations.
Actual targets in this research are, among others:
• t-RNA guanine transglycosylase (TGT), a target in antibacterial
therapy against shigellosis (in collaboration with Prof. G. Klebe, Univ.
Marburg). Shown is the X-ray crystal structure of the potent inhibitor
3 (inhibitory constant Ki = 6 nM) within
the active site of TGT. The central lin-benzoguanine scaffold is sandwiched
between a
methionine and a tyrosine (not shown). The naphthyl side chain points into
the pocket which hosts ribose33 of bound tRNA. Nucleic acid binding is efficiently
inhibited by this ligand. There is strong evidence that the 2-aminoimidazole
moiety is protonated and that complexation is enhanced by charge-assisted
H-bonding. The achievement of single-digit nanomolar inhibition constants
is a milestone towards the development of new, specific drugs against Shigellosis,
a neglected disease of the third world.
a) Crystal structure of naphthyl-substituted 2-amino-lin-benzoguanine ligand
bound to TGT, resolution 1.95 Å. b) Superimposition of the ligand and
the natural substrate preQ1 bound to the active site of TGT and engaging
in charge-assisted
hydrogen bonding with E235, mediated by the peptide bond L231-A232
Some of our aims in the TGT project, that are all guided by structure-based design, are:
A first successful approach towards replacing the mentioned water cluster involves an ammonium ion inker as shown by X-ray crystallography for the cyclohexane-bearing ligand with an activity of Ki = 4 nM.
The ligand occupies, with the lin-benzoguanine core, the nucleobase pocket and an ammonium linker crosses the ribose 34 pocket to position the cyclohexyl ring onto a hydrophobic patch shaped by the side chains of Val282, Val45, and Leu68.
• New Targets against Malaria. Malaria,
a life-threatening disease caused by parasites of the genus Plasmodium, kills
each year more than one million people, and more than 500 million clinical
cases are registered annually. The recent emergence of multi-drug resistent
strains of Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes the deadliest
form of malaria, demands the urgent development of new therapeutic agents
with novel modes of action.
A variety of new targets is available in the search for innovative antimalarial
therapies. Specific objectives in our research include preventing Hemoglobin
degradation by P. Falciparum: Inhibition of the Plasmepsins and the Falcipains.
During
its stay in the human body, the parasites infect
erythrocytes and catabolize hemoglobin to provide nutrient for its own growth
and maturation. Hemoglobin degradation is initiated by a series of aspartic
proteases, the plasmepsins (PMs), followed by degradation to smaller fragments
by cysteine proteases, the falcipains (FPs). Because degradation of hemoglobin
is vital for parasite survival, inhibition of these two classes of proteases
offers a valid approach for the development of new therapeutic agents in our
laboratory. Biological study suggests that both the four PMs and the three
FPs need to be inhibited to starve the parasite. We wish to validate this proposal
and develop potent and selective inhibitors for each class of proteases. This
worl is pursued in collaboration with Actelion, Basel.
The figure below shows potent inhibitors of the aspartic proteases Plasmepsin
II and IV. Optimal binding is achieve if the alkyl chain entering the flap
vector
of the proteins features a volume occupancy of around 55%, thereby validating
the 55% rule by Mecozzi and Rebek for a biological binding site. Also, the
data suggest that longer alkyl chains (> C7) fold in order to fit into the
flap pocket.
Left above: Overlay of PM II X-ray crystal structures in the pepsin-like flap-closed conformation (PDB code: 1LF3, yellow) and the flap-open conformation (PDB code: 2BJU, red). In the latter, the Trp41 side chain rotates by 120° to open the flap pocket. Right: Illustration of the proposed binding mode.The n-heptyl chain is the longest that fits into the open flap pocket without contortion, in the all-anti conformation.
Left: IC50 values (nM) for PM II (squares) and PM IV (triangles) as a function of the number of C-atoms n in the n-alkyl chain flap vector. Right: Inhibition of PM II and PM IV and packing coefficients PCs calculated for PM II. Best binding is clearly observed at a volume occupancy of around 55%.
Preventing Isoprenoid Biosynthesis by the Non-Mevalonate Pathway
in P. Falciparum: Inhibition of IspE and IspF. The non-mevalonate pathway for
the biosynthesis of isoprenoids was discovered in the early 1990s and uses
seven enzymes to transform pyruvate and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate into the
isoprenoid precursors isopentenyl diphosphate (IPP) and dimethylallyl diphosphate
(DMAPP). It is used exclusively by the Plasmodium parasites. Mammals, on the
other hand, only use the alternative mevalonate pathway. Hence, the development
of small-molecule inhibitors for enzymes of the non-mevalonate pathway constitutes
a promising approach to selectively hit the malarial parasite. The pathway
has previously been fully validated as antimalarial target, by inhibition of
the second enzyme (IspC) with a small phosphonate, fosmidomycin. We propose
the structure-based design of inhibitors of the fourth and fifth enzymes in
the pathway, IspE (4-diphosphocytidyl-2C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase, EC 2.7.1.148)
and IspF (2C-methyl-D-erythritol 2,4-cyclodiphosphate synthase, EC 4.6.1.12).
In preliminary work, we prepared drug-like inhibitors of IspE and IspF which
are the first non-phosphonate, non-phosphate inhibitors of any of the enzymes
in the pathway. To achieve high selectivity against human kinases, the inhibitors
of the kinase IspE occupy the substrate and not the ATP site. These first-generation
ligands will be systematically optimized and a new bi-substrate inhibition
approach for IspE tested. This work is pursued in collaboration with Prof.
A. Bacher (TU Munich) and Prof. W. N. Hunter (Univ. Dundee).
Top left: Active site of E. coli IspE in the ternary complex
with CDP-ME and ATP analog AppNp (PDB code: 1OJ4). Bottom left: Design of the
first-generation inhibitors for IspE. Top right: Proposed binding of the cyclopropyl
moiety into the hydrophobic sub-pocket at the cytidine site of E. coli IspE.
Bottom right: Activities of the new ligands with an SAR in clear agreement
with the proposed binding of residue R in the small sub-pocket.
New Targets against African Sleeping Sickness
• In one aspect of our work, we target the development of efficient ligands for Trypanothione Reductase (TR), an essential enzyme of trypanosomatids and therefore a promising target for the development of new drugs against African sleeping sickness and Chagas' disease. We prepared a series of diaryl sulfide-based ligands and, using computer modeling, we revised the binding model for this class of TR inhibitors. In vitro studies (collaboration with Prof. Reto Brun at the Swiss Tropical Institute (SPHTI) and with Prof. Luise Krauth-Siegel at the University of Heidelberg) showed IC50 values in the low micromolar to submicromolar range against Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense and, unexpectedly, also against the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.
Proposed binding mode of a new potent inhibitor against Trypanothione Reductase (TR).
In a second approach, we pursue the selective inhibition of an essential cysteine protease of Trypanosoma brucei, rhodesain, a cathepsin L-like hydrolase of T. brucei, which exhibits a crucial role in the parasite life-cycle.
Based on available X-ray crystal structures, we utilized computer-aided 3D modeling to design small drug-like molecules to occupy the various apolar pockets of the active sites. The general structure of cysteine protease inhibitors contains prevalently an electrophilic moiety to form a reversible, covalent thioimidate intermediate with the catalytic cysteine. We therefore opted specifically for inhibitors featuring a nitrile residue as electrophilic head group.
Based on our structure-based design approach, we prepared a series of functionalized triazine nitrile inhibitors which were tested (in collaboration with Prof. T. Schirmeister, Univ. Würzburg) against falcipain-2 and rhodesain in standard fluorescence-based assays. Promising inhibitory activities down to Ki = 2 nm for rhodesain were obtained for this first generation triazine nitrile-based inhibitors. Biological assays showed in most cases good selectivity against closely related human enzymes, and in vitro studies at the Swiss Public Health and Tropical Institute (SPHTI) in collaboration with the group of Prof. R. Brun revealed moderate activity of the synthesized compounds against the parasites. These results are now followed by detailed optimization studies in order to diminish off-target effects and improve bioavailability and ADMET parameters. It is noticeable that some of these ligands are also strong inhibitors of Falcipain-2, a hemoglobinase of P. falciparum.
The ligand is bound by rhodesain from T. Brucei with a Ki-value of 2 nM. It is covalently bound as thioimidate to the catalytic cysteine of the enzyme and fills the S2 and S3 pockets.