The design of drugs with bioinformatics methods to identify proteins and peptides with a specific toxic action is increasingly recurrent. Here, we identify toxic proteins towards the influenza A virus subtype H1N1 located at the UniProt database. Our quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) approach is based on the analysis of the linear peptide sequence with the so-called Polarity Index Method that shows an efficiency of 90% for proteins from the Uniprot Database. This method was exhaustively verified with the APD2, CPPsite, Uniprot, and AmyPDB databases as well as with the set of antibacterial peptides studied by del Rio et al. and Oldfield et al.
Understanding the interactions of epothilones with β-tubulin is crucial for computer aided rational design of macrocyclic drugs based on epothilones and epothilone derivatives. Despite numerous structure-activity relationship investigations we still lack substantial knowledge about the binding mode of epothilones and their derivatives to β-tubulin. In this work, we reevaluated the electron crystallography structure of epothilone A/β-tubulin complex (PDB entry 1TVK) and proposed an alternative binding mode of epothilone A to β-tubulin that explains more experimental facts.
Fungal infections are a growing problem in contemporary medicine, yet only a few antifungal agents are used in clinical practice. In our laboratory we proposed the enzyme L-glutamine : D-fructose-6-phosphate amidotransferase (EC 2.6.1.16) as a new target for antifungals. The structure of this enzyme consists of two domains, N-terminal and C-terminal ones, catalysing glutamine hydrolysis and sugar-phosphate isomerisation, respectively. In our laboratory a series of potent selective inhibitors of GlcN-6-P synthase have been designed and synthesised. One group of these compounds, including the most studied N3-(4-methoxyfumaroyl)-l-2,3-diaminopropanoic acid (FMDP), behave like glutamine analogs acting as active-site-directed inactivators, blocking the N-terminal, glutamine-binding domain of the enzyme. The second group of GlcN-6-P synthase inhibitors mimic the transition state of the reaction taking place in the C-terminal sugar isomerising domain. Surprisingly, in spite of the fact that glutamine is the source of nitrogen for a number of enzymes it turned out that the glutamine analogue FMDP and its derivatives are selective against GlcN-6-P synthase and they do not block other enzymes, even belonging to the same family of glutamine amidotransferases. Our molecular modelling studies of this phenomenon revealed that even within the family of related enzymes substantial differences may exist in the geometry of the active site. In the case of the glutamine amidotransferase family the glutamine binding site of GlcN-6-P synthase fits a different region of the glutamine conformational space than other amidotransferases. Detailed analysis of the interaction pattern for the best known, so far, inhibitor of the sugar isomerising domain, namely 2-amino-2-deoxy-d-glucitol-6-phosphate (ADGP), allowed us to suggest changes in the structure of the inhibitor that should improve the interaction pattern. The novel ligand was designed and synthesised. Biological experiments confirmed our predictions. The new compound named ADMP is a much better inhibitor of glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase than ADGP.
The paper is a review of the literature on molecular modeling, with particular emphasis on the use of modern in silico methods in the early stages of designing new medical substances. Its purpose is to discuss the significance and justification of using computer software in the process of creating new drugs. Therefore, the stages through which a compound must pass so that it can be considered as a good drug candidate were presented, and the subsequent stages in the proces of searching for substances using molecular modeling methods were discussed. It has been demonstrated that molecular modeling can be a useful tool in the process of designing medicinal substances, as well as an important factor reducing the costs and shortening the time spent researching a new drug. Due to the considerable effectiveness of computer methods, work should be carried out in their further development
PL
Praca stanowi przegląd literatury dotyczącej modelowania molekularnego, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem użycia nowoczesnych metod in silico we wczesnych etapach projektowania nowych substancji leczniczych. Jej celem jest omówienie znaczenia oraz uzasadnienie słuszności zastosowania oprogramowania komputerowego w procesie tworzenia nowych leków. Przedstawiono etapy, przez które przechodzi związek, aby mógł być uznany za dobrego kandydata na lek, oraz omówiono kolejne fazy postępowania podczas poszukiwania substancji metodami modelowania molekularnego. Wykazano, że modelowanie molekularne może być narzędziem przydatnym w procesie projektowania substancji leczniczych; jest to również istotny czynnik redukujący koszty oraz skracający czas poświęcony na badania nad nowym lekiem. W związku ze znaczną efektywnością metod komputerowych powinno się prowadzić prace w zakresie ich dalszego rozwoju.
Traditional drug design has been effective in the development of therapies for a variety of disease states but there is a need for new approaches that will tackle new challenges and complement current paradigms. The use of metals in medicine has resulted in several successes and allows for the introduction of properties that cannot be achieved by use of organic compounds alone, but also introduces new challenges that can be addressed by a careful understanding of the principles of inorganic chemistry. Toward this end, the unique structural and coordination chemistry, as well as the reactivity of metals, has been used to design novel classes of therapeutic and diagnostic agents. This review briefly summarizes progress in the field of therapeutics, from the earliest use of metals to more recent efforts to design catalytic metallodrugs that promote the irreversible inactivation of therapeutically relevant targets.
This review aims to present magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) for applications in cellular therapeutics including descriptions of the use of 19F MRI and 19F MRS in drug tracking and visualization. Both MRI and MRS are often used as diagnostic tools in oncology, are non-invasive, and also can be employed for monitoring non-oncological and oncological therapies. Herin, we provide information pertaining to tracking and visualization of fluorinated drug uptake in cancer tissue in vitro, in vivo and ex vivo. The response of tissue to treatment is also discussed.
1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 has quite significant anticancer properties, but its strong calcemic effect in principle excludes it as a potential anticancer drug. Currently, a lot of effort is being devoted to develop potent anticancer analogs of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 that would not induce hypercalcemia during therapy. In this work, the free binding energy of the VDR receptor with 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 and its three potent analogs (EB 1089, KH 1060 and RO 25-9022) is calculated and compared with each other. With this approach, we could estimate the relative binding affinity of the most potent analog, RO 25-9022, and also revealed a quite distinct mechanism of its interaction with VDR.
Ligand efficiency (LE) is a molecular descriptor that probes the ratio of potency vs. heavy atom count (HAC). As an estimator of drug candidates, LE emphasizes a low heavy atom count more than potency. The objective was to design a novel transform where potency and the HAC would be balanced more evenly. A series of novel descriptors SCORE was defined to evaluate the co-influence of potency and the HAC. In particular, the product ligand efficiency (PLE) was designed and tested using the data of the ChEMBL, PubChem as well as the selected series of drugs and drug-fragments.
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