Journal Article

Understanding gilteritinib resistance to FLT3-F691L mutation through an integrated computational strategy

Yang, Bo, Zhou, Shibo, Peng, Juan, Gu, Aihua, Xu, Yufeng, Fu, Jinfeng

2022

Overview

FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) serves as an important drug target for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and gene mutations of FLT3 have been closely associated with AML patients with an incidence rate of ~ 30%. However, the mechanism of the clinically relevant F691L gatekeeper mutation conferred resistance to the drug gilteritinib remained poorly understood. In this study, multiple microsecond molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, end-point free energy calculations, and dynamic correlated and network analyses were performed to investigate the molecular basis of gilteritinib resistance to the FLT3-F691L mutation. The simulations revealed that the resistant mutation largely induced the conformational changes of the activation loop (A-loop), the phosphate-binding loop, and the helix αC of the FLT3 protein. The binding abilities of the gilteritinib to the wild-type and the F691L mutant were different through the binding free energy prediction. The simulation results further indicated that the driving force to determine the binding affinity of gilteritinib was derived from the differences in the energy terms of electrostatic and van der Waals interactions. Moreover, the per-residue free energy decomposition suggested that the four residues (Phe803, Gly831, Leu832, and Ala833) located at the A-loop of FLT3 had a significant impact on the binding affinity of gilteritinib to the F691L mutant. This study may provide useful information for the design of novel FLT3 inhibitors specially targeting the F691L gatekeeper mutant. Graphical abstract

• Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Affinity / Binding / Characterization and Evaluation of Materials / Chemistry / Chemistry and Materials Science / Computer Appl. in Life Sciences / Computer Applications in Chemistry / drugs / energy / Free energy / genes / Gibbs free energy / Kinases / Leukemia / Molecular dynamics / Molecular Medicine / mutants / Mutation / myeloid leukemia / Original Paper / prediction / Residues / Simulation / Theoretical and Computational Chemistry / Tyrosine / van der Waals forces