Current progress and future perspectives of polypharmacology : From the view of non-small cell lung cancer

Prospects of Utilizing Computational Techniques for the Treatment of Human Diseases.

In the era of big data, the interplay of artificial and human intelligence is the demanding job to address the concerns involving exchange of decisions between both sides. Drug discovery is one of the key sources of the big data, which involves synergy among various computational methods to achieve a clinical success. Rightful acquisition, mining and analysis of the data related to ligand and targets are crucial to accomplish reliable outcomes in the entire process. Novel designing and screening tactics are necessary to substantiate a potent and efficient lead compounds. Such methods are emphasized and portrayed in the current review targeting protein-ligand and protein-protein interactions involved in various diseases with potential applications.

Computational approaches for identifying potential inhibitors on targeting protein interactions in drug discovery

Repurposing of phytocompounds-derived novel bioactive compounds possessing promising anticancer and cancer therapeutic efficacy through molecular docking, MD simulation, and drug-likeness/ADMET studies

Simple Summary Our work has led to the identification of three novel BH4 mimetics, SM216, SM396, and SM949, with nanomolar activities both in vitro and in vivo assays. SM396 binds covalently to the BH4 domain of BCL-2 while the compounds SM216 and SM949 are non-covalent BH4 binders. Our results illustrate that these compounds are highly specific to the triple-negative breast cancer cells with no effect on normal cells. Elevated levels of Cyt-c induced by these compounds suggest significant inhibition of BCL-2 leading to apoptosis. Further investigations of these potent lead compounds will lead to clinical translations in targeting challenging tumor types. Abstract Targeting the challenging tumors lacking explicit markers and predictors for chemosensitivity is one of the major impediments of the current cancer armamentarium. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive and challenging molecular subtype of breast cancer, which needs astute strategies to achieve clinical success. The pro-survival B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL-2) overexpression reported in TNBC plays a central role in deterring apoptosis and is a promising target. Here, we propose three novel BH4 mimetic small molecules, SM396, a covalent binder, and two non-covalent binders, i.e., SM216 and SM949, which show high binding affinity (nM) and selectivity, designed by remodeling the existing BCL-2 chemical space. Our mechanistic studies validate the selectivity of the compounds towards cancerous cells and not on normal cells. A series of functional assays illustrated BCL-2-mediated apoptosis in the tumor cells as a potent anti-cancerous mechanism. Moreover, the compounds exhibited efficacious in vivo activity as single agents in the MDA-MB-231 xenograft model (at nanomolar dosage). Overall, these findings depict SM216, SM396, and SM949 as promising leads, pointing to the clinical translation of these compounds in targeting triple-negative breast cancer.

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Novel BH4-BCL-2 Domain Antagonists Induce BCL-2-Mediated Apoptosis in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

BACKGROUND Though virtual screening methods have proven to be potent in various instances, the technique is practically incomplete to quench the need of drug discovery process. Thus, the quest for novel designing approaches and chemotypes for improved efficacy of lead compounds has been intensified and logistic approaches such as scaffold hopping and hierarchical virtual screening methods were evolved. Till now, in all the previous attempts these two approaches were applied separately. OBJECTIVE In the current work, we made a novel attempt in terms of blending scaffold hopping and hierarchical virtual screening. The prime objective is to assess the hybrid method for its efficacy in identifying active lead molecules for emerging PPI target Bcl-2 (B-cell Lymphoma 2). METHODS We designed novel scaffolds from the reported cores and screened a set of 8270 compounds using both scaffold hopping and hierarchical virtual screening for Bcl-2 protein. Also, we enumerated the libraries using clustering, PAINS filtering, physicochemical characterization and SAR matching. RESULTS We generated a focused library of compounds towards Bcl-2 interface, screened the 8270 compounds and identified top hits for seven families upon fine filtering with PAINS algorithm, features, SAR mapping, synthetic accessibility and similarity search. Our approach retrieved a set of 50 lead compounds. CONCLUSION Finding rational approach meeting the needs of drug discovery process for PPI targets is the need of the hour which can be fulfilled by an extended scaffold hopping approach resulting in focused PPI targeting by providing novel leads with better potency.

Sakthivel Rathinasamy

Papers

Forging New Scaffolds from Old: Combining Scaffold Hopping and Hierarchical Virtual Screening for Identifying Novel Bcl-2 Inhibitors.