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RationaleThe sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) contains many phytochemicals and has a history of human use. To determine which compounds may be responsible for reported psychotropic effects, we used in silico predictions of the identified phytochemicals. Nuciferine, an alkaloid component of Nelumbo nucifera and Nymphaea caerulea, had a predicted molecular profile similar to antipsychotic compounds. Our study characterizes nuciferine using in vitro and in vivo pharmacological assays.MethodsNuciferine was first characterized in silico using the similarity ensemble approach, and was followed by further characterization and validation using the Psychoactive Drug Screening Program of the National Institute of Mental Health. Nuciferine was then tested in vivo in the head-twitch response, pre-pulse inhibition, hyperlocomotor activity, and drug discrimination paradigms.ResultsNuciferine shares a receptor profile similar to aripiprazole-like antipsychotic drugs. Nuciferine was an antagonist at 5-HT2A, 5-HT2C, and 5-HT2B, an inverse agonist at 5-HT7, a partial agonist at D2, D5 and 5-HT6, an agonist at 5-HT1A and D4 receptors, and inhibited the dopamine transporter. In rodent models relevant to antipsychotic drug action, nuciferine blocked head-twitch responses and discriminative stimulus effects of a 5-HT2A agonist, substituted for clozapine discriminative stimulus, enhanced amphetamine induced locomotor activity, inhibited phencyclidine (PCP)-induced locomotor activity, and rescued PCP-induced disruption of prepulse inhibition without induction of catalepsy.ConclusionsThe molecular profile of nuciferine was similar but not identical to that shared with several approved antipsychotic drugs suggesting that nuciferine has atypical antipsychotic-like actions.

Finding small molecules that target allosteric sites remains a grand challenge for ligand discovery. In the protein kinase field, only a handful of highly selective allosteric modulators have been found. Thus, more general methods are needed to discover allosteric modulators for additional kinases. Here, we use virtual screening against an ensemble of both crystal structures and comparative models to identify ligands for an allosteric peptide-binding site on the protein kinase PDK1 (the PIF pocket). We optimized these ligands through an analog-by-catalog search that yielded compound 4, which binds to PDK1 with 8 μM affinity. We confirmed the docking poses by determining a crystal structure of PDK1 in complex with 4. Because the PIF pocket appears to be a recurring structural feature of the kinase fold, known generally as the helix αC patch, this approach may enable the discovery of allosteric modulators for other kinases.

Colloidal aggregation of organic molecules is the dominant mechanism for artifactual inhibition of proteins, and controls against it are widely deployed. Notwithstanding an increasingly detailed understanding of this phenomenon, a method to reliably predict aggregation has remained elusive. Correspondingly, active molecules that act via aggregation continue to be found in early discovery campaigns and remain common in the literature. Over the past decade, over 12 thousand aggregating organic molecules have been identified, potentially enabling a precedent-based approach to match known aggregators with new molecules that may be expected to aggregate and lead to artifacts. We investigate an approach that uses lipophilicity, affinity, and similarity to known aggregators to advise on the likelihood that a candidate compound is an aggregator. In prospective experimental testing, five of seven new molecules with Tanimoto coefficients (Tc's) between 0.95 and 0.99 to known aggregators aggregated at relevant concentrations. Ten of 19 with Tc's between 0.94 and 0.90 and three of seven with Tc's between 0.89 and 0.85 also aggregated. Another three of the predicted compounds aggregated at higher concentrations. This method finds that 61 827 or 5.1% of the ligands acting in the 0.1 to 10 μM range in the medicinal chemistry literature are at least 85% similar to a known aggregator with these physical properties and may aggregate at relevant concentrations. Intriguingly, only 0.73% of all drug-like commercially available compounds resemble the known aggregators, suggesting that colloidal aggregators are enriched in the literature. As a percentage of the literature, aggregator-like compounds have increased 9-fold since 1995, partly reflecting the advent of high-throughput and virtual screens against molecular targets. Emerging from this study is an aggregator advisor database and tool ( http://advisor.bkslab.org ), free to the community, that may help distinguish between fruitful and artifactual screening hits acting by this mechanism.

Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCMs) have been the sole source of therapeutics in China for two millennia. In recent drug discovery efforts, purified components of TCM formulations have shown activity in many in vitro assays, raising concerns of promiscuity. Here, we investigated 14 bioactive small molecules isolated from TCMs for colloidal aggregation. At concentrations commonly used in cell-based or biochemical assay conditions, eight of these compounds formed particles detectable by dynamic light scattering and showed detergent-reversible inhibition against β-lactamase and malate dehydrogenase, two counter-screening enzymes. When three of these compounds were tested against their literature-reported molecular targets, they showed similar reversal of their inhibitory activity in the presence of detergent. For three of the most potent aggregators, contributions to promiscuity via oxidative cycling were investigated; addition of 1 mM DTT had no effect on their activity, which is inconsistent with an oxidative mechanism. TCMs are often active at micromolar concentrations; this study suggests that care must be taken to control for artifactual activity when seeking their primary targets. Implications for the formulation of these molecules are considered.

There is great interest in developing selective protein kinase inhibitors by targeting allosteric sites, but these sites often involve protein-protein or protein-peptide interfaces that are very challenging to target with small molecules. Here we present a systematic approach to targeting a functionally conserved allosteric site on the protein kinase PDK1 called the PDK1-interacting fragment (PIF)tide-binding site, or PIF pocket. More than two dozen prosurvival and progrowth kinases dock a conserved peptide tail into this binding site, which recruits them to PDK1 to become activated. Using a site-directed chemical screen, we identified and chemically optimized ligand-efficient, selective, and cell-penetrant small molecules (molecular weight ∼ 380 Da) that compete with the peptide docking motif for binding to PDK1. We solved the first high-resolution structure of a peptide docking motif (PIFtide) bound to PDK1 and mapped binding energy hot spots using mutational analysis. We then solved structures of PDK1 bound to the allosteric small molecules, which revealed a binding mode that remarkably mimics three of five hot-spot residues in PIFtide. These allosteric small molecules are substrate-selective PDK1 inhibitors when used as single agents, but when combined with an ATP-competitive inhibitor, they completely suppress the activation of the downstream kinases. This work provides a promising new scaffold for the development of high-affinity PIF pocket ligands, which may be used to enhance the anticancer activity of existing PDK1 inhibitors. Moreover, our results provide further impetus for exploring the helix αC patches of other protein kinases as potential therapeutic targets even though they involve protein-protein interfaces.

One drug may suppress the effects of another. Although knowledge of drug suppression is vital to avoid efficacy-reducing drug interactions or discover countermeasures for chemical toxins, drug-drug suppression relationships have not been systematically mapped. Here, we analyze the growth response of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to anti-fungal compound ("drug") pairs. Among 440 ordered drug pairs, we identified 94 suppressive drug interactions. Using only pairs not selected on the basis of their suppression behavior, we provide an estimate of the prevalence of suppressive interactions between anti-fungal compounds as 17%. Analysis of the drug suppression network suggested that Bromopyruvate is a frequently suppressive drug and Staurosporine is a frequently suppressed drug. We investigated potential explanations for suppressive drug interactions, including chemogenomic analysis, coaggregation, and pH effects, allowing us to explain the interaction tendencies of Bromopyruvate.

Liver receptor homolog 1 (nuclear receptor LRH-1, NR5A2) is an essential regulator of gene transcription, critical for maintenance of cell pluripotency in early development and imperative for the proper functions of the liver, pancreas, and intestines during the adult life. Although physiological hormones of LRH-1 have not yet been identified, crystallographic and biochemical studies demonstrated that LRH-1 could bind regulatory ligands and suggested phosphatidylinositols as potential hormone candidates for this receptor. No synthetic antagonists of LRH-1 are known to date. Here, we identify the first small molecule antagonists of LRH-1 activity. Our search for LRH-1 modulators was empowered by screening of 5.2 million commercially available compounds via molecular docking followed by verification of the top-ranked molecules using in vitro direct binding and transcriptional assays. Experimental evaluation of the predicted ligands identified two compounds that inhibit the transcriptional activity of LRH-1 and diminish the expression of the receptor's target genes. Among the affected transcriptional targets are co-repressor SHP (small heterodimer partner) as well as cyclin E1 (CCNE1) and G0S2 genes that are known to regulate cell growth and proliferation. Treatments of human pancreatic (AsPC-1), colon (HT29), and breast adenocarcinoma cells T47D and MDA-MB-468 with the LRH-1 antagonists resulted in the receptor-mediated inhibition of cancer cell proliferation. Our data suggest that specific antagonists of LRH-1 could be used as specific molecular probes for elucidating the roles of the receptor in different types of malignancies.

The protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas' disease, affects millions of individuals and continues to be an important global health concern. The poor efficacy and unfavorable side effects of current treatments necessitate novel therapeutics. Cruzain, the major cysteine protease of T. cruzi, is one potential novel target. Recent advances in a class of vinyl sulfone inhibitors are encouraging; however, as most potential therapeutics fail in clinical trials and both disease progression and resistance call for combination therapy with several drugs, the identification of additional classes of inhibitory molecules is essential. Using an exhaustive virtual-screening and experimental validation approach, we identify several additional small-molecule cruzain inhibitors. Further optimization of these chemical scaffolds could lead to the development of novel drugs useful in the treatment of Chagas' disease.

Discovering the unintended off-targets that predict adverse drug reactions is daunting by empirical methods alone. Drugs can act on several protein targets, some of which can be unrelated by conventional molecular metrics, and hundreds of proteins have been implicated in side effects. Here we use a computational strategy to predict the activity of 656 marketed drugs on 73 unintended side-effect targets. Approximately half of the predictions were confirmed, either from proprietary databases unknown to the method or by new experimental assays. Affinities for these new off-targets ranged from 1 nM to 30 μM. To explore relevance, we developed an association metric to prioritize those new off-targets that explained side effects better than any known target of a given drug, creating a drug-target-adverse drug reaction network. Among these new associations was the prediction that the abdominal pain side effect of the synthetic oestrogen chlorotrianisene was mediated through its newly discovered inhibition of the enzyme cyclooxygenase-1. The clinical relevance of this inhibition was borne out in whole human blood platelet aggregation assays. This approach may have wide application to de-risking toxicological liabilities in drug discovery.

Many organic molecules form colloidal aggregates in aqueous solution at micromolar concentrations. These aggregates promiscuously inhibit soluble proteins and are a major source of false positives in high-throughput screening. Several drugs also form colloidal aggregates, and there has been speculation that this may affect the absorption and distribution of at least one drug in vivo. Here we investigate the ability of drugs to form aggregates in simulated intestinal fluid. Thirty-three Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS) class II and class IV drugs, spanning multiple pharmacological activities, were tested for promiscuous aggregation in biochemical buffers. The 22 that behaved as aggregators were then tested for colloid formation in simulated intestinal fluid, a buffer mimicking conditions in the small intestine. Six formed colloids at concentrations equal to or lower than the concentrations reached in the gut, suggesting that aggregation may have an effect on the absorption and distribution of these drugs, and potentially others, in vivo.

Colloidalaggregation is the dominant mechanism for artifactualinhibition of soluble proteins, and controls against it are now widelydeployed. Conversely, investigating this mechanism for membrane-boundreceptors has proven difficult. Here we investigate the activity offour well-characterized aggregators against three G protein-coupledreceptors (GPCRs) recognizing peptide and protein ligands. Each ofthe aggregators was active at micromolar concentrations against thethree GPCRs in cell-based assays. This activity could be attenuatedby either centrifugation of the inhibitor stock solution or by additionof Tween-80 detergent. In the absence of agonist, the aggregatorsacted as inverse agonists, consistent with a direct receptor interaction.Meanwhile, several literature GPCR ligands that resemble aggregatorsthemselves formed colloids, by both physical and enzymological tests.These observations suggest that some GPCRs may be artifactually antagonizedby colloidal aggregates, an effect that merits the attention of investigatorsin this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]