Rule of five in 2015 and beyond: Target and ligand structural limitations, ligand chemistry structure and drug discovery project decisions☆

Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) is a biophysical technique for measuring the formation and dissociation of molecular complexes and has become an invaluable tool in many branches of science from cell biology to food chemistry. By measuring the heat absorbed or released during bond formation, ITC provides accurate, rapid, and label-free measurement of the thermodynamics of molecular interactions. In this review, we survey the recent literature reporting the use of ITC and have highlighted a number of interesting studies that provide a flavour of the diverse systems to which ITC can be applied. These include measurements of protein-protein and protein-membrane interactions required for macromolecular assembly, analysis of enzyme kinetics, experimental validation of molecular dynamics simulations, and even in manufacturing applications such as food science. Some highlights include studies of the biological complex formed by Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin C3 and the murine T-cell receptor, the mechanism of membrane association of the Parkinson's disease-associated protein α-synuclein, and the role of non-specific tannin-protein interactions in the quality of different beverages. Recent developments in automation are overcoming limitations on throughput imposed by previous manual procedures and promise to greatly extend usefulness of ITC in the future. We also attempt to impart some practical advice for getting the most out of ITC data for those researchers less familiar with the method.

Applications of isothermal titration calorimetry in pure and applied research--survey of the literature from 2010.

Finding a better path to drug selectivity.

Therapeutic nanomedicine has concentrated mostly on anticancer therapy by making use of the nanosize for targeted therapy. Such nanocarriers are not expected to have sustained release of the bioactive molecule beyond a few days. There are other conditions where patients can benefit from sustained duration of action following a single instillation, but achieving this has been difficult in nanosized carriers. An important prerequisite for sustained delivery over several months is to have sufficiently high drug loading, without disruption or changes to the shape of the nanocarriers. Here we report on successful development of a drug-encapsulated nanocarrier for reducing intraocular pressure in a diseased nonhuman primate model and explain why it has been possible to achieve sustained action in vivo. The drug is a prostaglandin derivative, latanoprost, while the carrier is a nanosized unilamellar vesicle. The mechanistic details of this unique drug–nanocarrier combination were elucidated by isothermal titrati...

Sustained Drug Release in Nanomedicine: A Long-Acting Nanocarrier-Based Formulation for Glaucoma

The thermodynamic basis for the use of lipophilic efficiency (LipE) in enthalpic optimizations.

Binding affinity optimization is critical during drug development. Here, we evaluate the thermodynamic consequences of filling a binding cavity with functionalities of increasing van der Waals radii (–H, –F, –Cl, and CH3) that improve the geometric fit without participating in hydrogen bonding or other specific interactions. We observe a binding affinity increase of two orders of magnitude. There appears to be three phases in the process. The first phase is associated with the formation of stable van der Waals interactions. This phase is characterized by a gain in binding enthalpy and a loss in binding entropy, attributed to a loss of conformational degrees of freedom. For the specific case presented in this article, the enthalpy gain amounts to −1.5 kcal/mol while the entropic losses amount to +0.9 kcal/mol resulting in a net 3.5-fold affinity gain. The second phase is characterized by simultaneous enthalpic and entropic gains. This phase improves the binding affinity 25-fold. The third phase represents the collapse of the trend and is triggered by the introduction of chemical functionalities larger than the binding cavity itself [CH(CH3)2]. It is characterized by large enthalpy and affinity losses. The thermodynamic signatures associated with each phase provide guidelines for lead optimization.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1747-0285.2009.00921.x

Eduardo E. Chufan

Papers

How Much Binding Affinity Can be Gained by Filling a Cavity