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Open AccessJournal ArticleDOI

Novel Allosteric Sites on Ras for Lead Generation

TLDR
The hypothesis that the chosen binders can inhibit the downstream signaling activity of Ras is confirmed and it is proposed that the predicted allosteric sites are viable targets for the development and optimization of new drugs.
Abstract
Aberrant Ras activity is a hallmark of diverse cancers and developmental diseases. Unfortunately, conventional efforts to develop effective small molecule Ras inhibitors have met with limited success. We have developed a novel multi-level computational approach to discover potential inhibitors of previously uncharacterized allosteric sites. Our approach couples bioinformatics analysis, advanced molecular simulations, ensemble docking and initial experimental testing of potential inhibitors. Molecular dynamics simulation highlighted conserved allosteric coupling of the nucleotide-binding switch region with distal regions, including loop 7 and helix 5. Bioinformatics methods identified novel transient small molecule binding pockets close to these regions and in the vicinity of the conformationally responsive switch region. Candidate binders for these pockets were selected through ensemble docking of ZINC and NCI compound libraries. Finally, cell-based assays confirmed our hypothesis that the chosen binders can inhibit the downstream signaling activity of Ras. We thus propose that the predicted allosteric sites are viable targets for the development and optimization of new drugs.

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Journal ArticleDOI

Drugging the undruggable Ras: mission possible?

TL;DR: This Review summarizes the progress and the promise of five key approaches for the development of RAS-inhibitory molecules and addresses the issue of whether blocking RAS membrane association is a viable approach.
Journal ArticleDOI

Molecular dynamics simulations and drug discovery

TL;DR: This review discusses the many roles atomistic computer simulations of macromolecular receptors and their associated small-molecule ligands can play in drug discovery, including the identification of cryptic or allosteric binding sites, the enhancement of traditional virtual-screening methodologies, and the direct prediction of small-Molecule binding energies.
Journal ArticleDOI

Ras Conformational Ensembles, Allostery, and Signaling.

TL;DR: This review focuses on data that have accumulated over the past few years pertaining to the conformational ensembles and the allosteric regulation of Ras proteins and their interpretation from a conformational landscape standpoint.
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Equilibrium fluctuations of a single folded protein reveal a multitude of potential cryptic allosteric sites

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that Markov state models built from extensive computer simulations can identify prospective cryptic sites from the equilibrium fluctuations of three medically relevant proteins—β-lactamase, interleukin-2, and RNase H—even in the absence of any ligand.
Journal ArticleDOI

Small-molecule modulation of Ras signaling

TL;DR: Recently, new cavities on Ras for small-molecule ligands were identified, and selective direct targeting of mutated K-Ras(G12C) has become possible for the first time, and impairment of Ras spatial organization via targeting the prenyl-binding Ras chaperone PDEδ has opened a fresh perspective in anticancer research.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

Particle mesh Ewald: An N⋅log(N) method for Ewald sums in large systems

TL;DR: An N⋅log(N) method for evaluating electrostatic energies and forces of large periodic systems is presented based on interpolation of the reciprocal space Ewald sums and evaluation of the resulting convolutions using fast Fourier transforms.
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Experimental and computational approaches to estimate solubility and permeability in drug discovery and development settings

TL;DR: Experimental and computational approaches to estimate solubility and permeability in discovery and development settings are described in this article, where the rule of 5 is used to predict poor absorption or permeability when there are more than 5 H-bond donors, 10 Hbond acceptors, and the calculated Log P (CLogP) is greater than 5 (or MlogP > 415).
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Automated docking using a Lamarckian genetic algorithm and an empirical binding free energy function

TL;DR: It is shown that both the traditional and Lamarckian genetic algorithms can handle ligands with more degrees of freedom than the simulated annealing method used in earlier versions of AUTODOCK, and that the Lamarckia genetic algorithm is the most efficient, reliable, and successful of the three.
Journal ArticleDOI

Glide: a new approach for rapid, accurate docking and scoring. 1. Method and assessment of docking accuracy.

TL;DR: Glide approximates a complete systematic search of the conformational, orientational, and positional space of the docked ligand to find the best docked pose using a model energy function that combines empirical and force-field-based terms.
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Comparison of multiple Amber force fields and development of improved protein backbone parameters.

TL;DR: An effort to improve the φ/ψ dihedral terms in the ff99 energy function achieves a better balance of secondary structure elements as judged by improved distribution of backbone dihedrals for glycine and alanine with respect to PDB survey data.
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