A multi-pronged approach targeting SARS-CoV-2 proteins using ultra-large virtual screening.

The unparalleled global effort to combat the continuing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic over the last year has resulted in promising prophylactic measures. However, a need still exists for cheap, effective therapeutics, and targeting multiple points in the viral life cycle could help tackle the current, as well as future, coronaviruses. Here, we leverage our recently developed, ultra-large-scale in silico screening platform, VirtualFlow, to search for inhibitors that target SARS-CoV-2. In this unprecedented structure-based virtual campaign, we screened roughly 1 billion molecules against each of 40 different target sites on 17 different potential viral and host targets. In addition to targeting the active sites of viral enzymes, we also targeted critical auxiliary sites such as functionally important protein-protein interactions.

Erratum: Generating Multibillion Chemical Space of Readily Accessible Screening Compounds.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2020.101681.].

A Multi-Pronged Approach Targeting SARS-CoV-2 Proteins Using Ultra-Large Virtual Screening.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), previously known as 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), has spread rapidly across the globe, creating an unparalleled global health burden and spurring a deepening economic crisis. As of July 7th, 2020, almost seven months into the outbreak, there are no approved vaccines and few treatments available. Developing drugs that target multiple points in the viral life cycle could serve as a strategy to tackle the current as well as future coronavirus pandemics. Here we leverage the power of our recently developed in silico screening platform, VirtualFlow, to identify inhibitors that target SARS-CoV-2. VirtualFlow is able to efficiently harness the power of computing clusters and cloud-based computing platforms to carry out ultra-large scale virtual screens. In this unprecedented structure-based multi-target virtual screening campaign, we have used VirtualFlow to screen an average of approximately 1 billion molecules against each of 40 different target sites on 17 different potential viral and host targets in the cloud. In addition to targeting the active sites of viral enzymes, we also target critical auxiliary sites such as functionally important protein-protein interaction interfaces. This multi-target approach not only increases the likelihood of finding a potent inhibitor, but could also help identify a collection of anti-coronavirus drugs that would retain efficacy in the face of viral mutation. Drugs belonging to different regimen classes could be combined to develop possible combination therapies, and top hits that bind at highly conserved sites would be potential candidates for further development as coronavirus drugs. Here, we present the top 200 in silico hits for each target site. While in-house experimental validation of some of these compounds is currently underway, we want to make this array of potential inhibitor candidates available to researchers worldwide in consideration of the pressing need for fast-tracked drug development.

Generating Multibillion Chemical Space of Readily Accessible Screening Compounds.

An approach to the generation of ultra-large chemical libraries of readily accessible ("REAL") compounds is described. The strategy is based on the use of two- or three-step three-component reaction sequences and available starting materials with pre-validated chemical reactivity. After the preliminary parallel experiments, the methods with at least ∼80% synthesis success rate (such as acylation - deprotection - acylation of monoprotected diamines or amide formation - click reaction with functionalized azides) can be selected and used to generate the target chemical space. It is shown that by using only on the two aforementioned reaction sequences, a nearly 29-billion compound library is easily obtained. According to the predicted physico-chemical descriptor values, the generated chemical space contains large fractions of both drug-like and "beyond rule-of-five" members, whereas the strictest lead-likeness criteria (the so-called Churcher's rules) are met by the lesser part, which still exceeds 22 million.

Evolution of commercially available compounds for HTS.

Over recent years, an industry of compound suppliers has grown to provide drug discovery with screening compounds: it is estimated that there are over 16 million compounds available from these sources. Here, we review the chemical space covered by suppliers' compound libraries (SCL) in terms of compound physicochemical properties, novelty, diversity, and quality. We examine the feasibility of compiling high-quality vendor-based libraries avoiding complicated, expensive compound management activity, and compare the resulting libraries to the ChEMBL data set. We also consider how vendors have responded to the evolving requirements for drug discovery.

A solution-phase parallel synthesis of alkylated guanidines from thioisocyanates and amines.

An efficient solution-phase parallel synthesis of alkylated guanidines from commercial thioisocyanates and amines is described. In the first step, a thioisocyanate reacts with one equivalent of ammonia or a primary or secondary amine to give a thiourea intermediate. The latter is S-alkylated with n-dodecyl bromide resulting in the corresponding thiouronium bromide. Finally, the reaction of the thiouronium salt with a second equivalent of ammonia or a primary amine yields an alkylated guanidine. All three synthetic steps are easily combined in a one-pot high-yielding procedure with a simple work-up. Ca. 250 guanidine derivatives with high structural and functional diversity were synthesized by the developed method. 35 representatives reported in this study were fully characterized.

Combinatorial synthesis of chemical building blocks 1. Azomethines.

128 Azomethines were synthesized through condensation of carbonyl compounds with various amines in pyridine in the presence of Me(3)SiCl as promoter and water scavenger in 58-98 % yield. Et(3)N was added to reaction mixtures before precipitating the product with H(2)O to prevent acid catalyzed hydrolysis of the C=N bond. The scope and limitation of the method are discussed. High yields and simple setup/workup procedure make this method suitable for the combinatorial synthesis of azomethines, which are suitable as starting materials for high throughput synthesis of various combinatorial libraries. The azomethines synthesized were used as starting materials in a one-pot combinatorial synthesis of amines and amides.

Drug- and lead-likeness, target class, and molecular diversity analysis of 7.9 million commercially available organic compounds provided by 29 suppliers.

A database of 7.9 million compounds commercially available from 29 suppliers in 2008-2009 was assembled and analyzed. 5.2 million structures of this database were identified to be unique and were subjected to an assessment of physical and biological properties and estimation of molecular diversity. The rules of Lipinski and Veber were applied to the molecular weight, the calculated water/n-octanol partition coefficients (Clog P), the calculated aqueous solubility (log S), the numbers of hydrogen-bond donors and acceptors, and the calculated Caco-2 membrane permeability to identify the drug-like compounds, whereas the toxicity/reactivity filters were used to remove the structures with biologically undesired functional groups. This filtering resulted in 2.0 million (39%) structures perfectly suitable for high-throughput screening of biological activity. Modified filters applied to identify lead-like structures revealed that 16% of the unique compounds could be potential leads. Assessment of the biological activities, the analysis of diversity, and the sizes of exclusive sets of compounds are presented.