Journal Article

G Protein-Coupled Receptors: In silico Drug Discovery in 3D

Inbal, Boaz, Levitt, Michael, Becker, Oren M., Bar-Haim, Shay, Fichman, Merav, Warshaviak, Dora, Heifetz, Alexander, Marantz, Yael, Shacham, Sharon, Noiman, Silvia, Kalid, Ori

2004

Overview

The application of structure-based in silico methods to drug discovery is still considered a major challenge, especially when the x-ray structure of the target protein is unknown. Such is the case with human G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), one of the most important families of drug targets, where in the absence of x-ray structures, one has to rely on in silico 3D models. We report repeated success in using ab initio in silico GPCR models, generated by the PREDICT method, for blind in silico screening when applied to a set of five different GPCR drug targets. More than 100,000 compounds were typically screened in silico for each target, leading to a selection of <100 \"virtual hit\" compounds to be tested in the lab. In vitro binding assays of the selected compounds confirm high hit rates, of 12-21% (full dose-response curves,$K_{{\\rm i}}<5\\ \\mu {\\rm M}$. In most cases, the best hit was a novel compound (New Chemical Entity) in the 1- to 100-nM range, with very promising pharmacological properties, as measured by a variety of in vitro and in vivo assays. These assays validated the quality of the hits as lead compounds for drug discovery. The results demonstrate the usefulness and robustness of ab initio in silico 3D models and of in silico screening for GPCR drug discovery.

• Publisher: National Academy of Sciences,National Acad Sciences
• Subject: Agonists / Algorithms / Binding Sites / Biological Sciences / Biophysics / Combinatorial Chemistry Techniques / Drug Design / Drug discovery / Drugs / Humans / In Vitro Techniques / Lead compounds / Libraries / Ligands / Modeling / Models, Chemical / Protein Structure, Quaternary / Proteins / Receptor, Serotonin, 5-HT1A - chemistry / Receptor, Serotonin, 5-HT1A - metabolism / Receptors / Receptors, CCR3 / Receptors, Chemokine - chemistry / Receptors, Chemokine - metabolism / Receptors, Dopamine D2 - chemistry / Receptors, Dopamine D2 - metabolism / Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled - chemistry / Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled - metabolism / Receptors, Neurokinin-1 - chemistry / Receptors, Neurokinin-1 - metabolism / Receptors, Serotonin, 5-HT4 - chemistry / Receptors, Serotonin, 5-HT4 - metabolism / Serotonin receptors / Three dimensional imaging / Three dimensional modeling