The geometry of diphtheria toxoid CRM197 channel assessed by thiazolium salts and nonelectrolytes.

The geometry of the channel formed by nontoxic derivative of diphtheria toxin CRM197 in lipid bilayer was determined using the dependence of single-channel conductance upon the hydrodynamic radii of different nonelectrolytes. It was found that the cis entrance of CRM197 channel on the side of membrane to which the toxoid was added at pH 4.8 and the trans entrance on the opposite side at pH 6.0 had effective radii of 3.90 and 3.48 Å, respectively. The 3-alkyloxycarbonylmethyl-5-(2-hydroxyethyl)-4-methyl-1,3-thiazolium salts reversibly reduced current via CRM197 channels. The potency of the blockers increased with increasing length of alkyl chain at symmetric pH 6.0 and remained high and stable at pH 4.8 on the cis side. Comparative analysis of CRM197 and amphotericin B pore size with the inhibitory action of thiazolium salts revealed a significant increase in CRM197 pore dimension at pH 6.0. Addition of thiazolium salt with nine carbons alkyl tail increased by ∼30% the viability of human carcinoma cells A431 treated with diphtheria toxin.

Calixarene-based phosphinic acids as inhibitors of protein tyrosine phosphatases.

In the present work, the derivatives of calix[4]arene, thiacalix[4]arene, and sulfonylcalix[4]arene bearing four methylene(phenyl)phosphinic acid groups on the upper rim of the macrocycle were synthesized and studied as inhibitors of human protein tyrosine phosphatases. The inhibitory capacities of the three compounds towards PTP1B were higher than those for protein tyrosine phosphatases TC-PTP, MEG1, MEG2, and SHP2. The most potent sulfonylcalix[4]arene phosphinic acid displayed Ki value of 32 nM. The thiacalix[4]arene phosphinic acid was found to be a low micromolar inhibitor of PTP1B with selectivity over the other PTPs. The kinetic experiments showed that the inhibitors compete with the substrate for the active site of the enzyme. Molecular docking was performed to explain possible binding modes of the calixarene-based phosphinic inhibitors of PTP1B.

Carboxylated aurone derivatives as potent inhibitors of xanthine oxidase.

Xanthine oxidase is a potential target for treatment of hyperuricemia and gout. In this study, a number of A- and B-ring carboxylated aurone derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their ability to inhibit xanthine oxidase in vitro. According to the results obtained, two different ranges of inhibitory activity were observed. The aurones with carboxylic acid group at the 4'-position of B-ring were found to be potent inhibitors of the enzyme with IC50 values in the low micromolar range. The effects of these compounds were about 50 fold higher than of A-ring modified aurones with carboxymethoxy group at the 6-position. The binding modes of the carboxylated aurones in the active site of xanthine oxidase were explained using molecular docking calculations.

A New, Improved Hybrid Scoring Function for Molecular Docking and Scoring Based on AutoDock and AutoDock Vina.

Automated docking is one of the most important tools for structure-based drug design that allows prediction of ligand binding poses and also provides an estimate of how well small molecules fit in the binding site of a protein. A new scoring function based on AutoDock and AutoDock Vina has been introduced. The new hybrid scoring function is a linear combination of the two scoring function components derived from a multiple linear regression fitting procedure. The scoring function was built on a training set of 2412 protein-ligand complexes from pdbbind database (www.pdbbind.org.cn, version 2012). A test set of 313 complexes that appeared in the 2013 version was used for validation purposes. The new hybrid scoring function performed better than the original functions, both on training and test sets of protein-ligand complexes, as measured by the non-parametric Pearson correlation coefficient, R, mean absolute error (MAE), and root-mean-square error (RMSE) between the experimental binding affinities and the docking scores. The function also gave one of the best results among more than 20 scoring functions tested on the core set of the pdbbind database. The new AutoDock hybrid scoring function will be implemented in modified version of AutoDock.

An EPR spin probe study of liposomes from sunflower and soybean phospholipids.

Comparative properties of lecithin-based liposomes prepared from the mixed phospholipids of sunflower seeds, soybean and egg yolk were investigated by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. For these investigations, stable nitroxide radicals, 1-oxyl-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-4-yl 5,7-dimethyladamantane-1-carboxylate (DMAC-TEMPO), 5-doxylstearic acid (5-DSA) and 16-doxylstearic acid (16-DSA) were used as spin probes. Binding of the spin probes to the liposome membranes resulted in a substantial increase of the apparent rotational diffusion correlation times. The EPR spectra of the incorporated nitroxides underwent temperature-dependent changes. For every spin probe, values of apparent enthalpy and entropy of activation were calculated from the temperature dependence of rotational diffusion correlation times via Arrhenius equation. In case of DMAC-TEMPO, the data point to differences between the phospholipid bilayer of liposomes derived from sunflower and soy lecithin, and some similarity between the sunflower and egg yolk liposomes. Anisotropic hyperfine interaction constants of DMAC-TEMPO and 16-DSA included in the liposomes have been analyzed and attributed to different micropolarity of the surroundings of the spin probes. The kinetics of EPR signal decay of DMAC-TEMPO in the presence of 2,2'-azobis(2-amidinopropane) suggest the better stability of the sunflower liposomes to lipid peroxidation as compared to the liposomes prepared from soy lecithin.

A New Scoring Function for Molecular Docking Based on AutoDock and AutoDock Vina.

Molecular docking of small molecules in the protein binding sites is the most widely used computational technique in modern structure-based drug discovery. Although accurate prediction of binding modes of small molecules can be achieved in most cases, estimation of their binding affinities remains mediocre at best. As an attempt to improve the correlation between the inhibitory constants, pKi, and scoring, we created a new, hybrid scoring function. The new function is a linear combination of the terms of the scoring functions of AutoDock and AutoDock Vina. It was trained on 2,412 protein-ligand complexes from the PDBbind database (www.pdbbind.org.cn, version 2012) and validated on a set of 313 complexes released in the 2013 version as a test set. The new function was included in a modified version of AutoDock. The hybrid scoring function showed a statistically significant improvement in both training and test sets in terms of correlation with and root mean square and mean absolute errors in prediction of pKi values. It was also tested on the CSAR 2014 Benchmark Exercise dataset (team T) and produced reasonably good results.

Phosphonate monoesters on a thiacalix[4]arene framework as potential inhibitors of protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B.

Monoester derivatives of thiacalix[4]arene tetrakis(methylphosphonic) acid were found to be capable of inhibiting protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B. In addition, these compounds can strongly bind to human serum albumin.

Phosphonate derivatives of tetraazamacrocycles as new inhibitors of protein tyrosine phosphatases.

α,α-Difluoro-ß-ketophosphonated derivatives of tetraazamacrocycles were synthesized and found to be potential inhibitors of protein tyrosine phosphatases. N-Substituted conjugates of cyclam and cyclen with bioisosteric phosphonate groups displayed good activities toward T-cell protein tyrosine phosphatase with IC50 values in the micromolar to nanomolar range and showed selectivity over PTP1B, CD45, SHP2, and PTPß. Kinetic studies indicated that the inhibitors can occupy the region of the active site of TC-PTP. This study demonstrates a new approach which employs tetraazamacrocycles as a molecular platform for designing inhibitors of protein tyrosine phosphatases.

Fullerene derivatives as a new class of inhibitors of protein tyrosine phosphatases.

In this study, we identified water-soluble C60 and C70 fullerene derivatives as a novel class of protein tyrosine phosphatase inhibitors. The evaluated compounds were found to inhibit CD45, PTP1B, TC-PTP, SHP2, and PTPß with IC50 values in the low micromolar to high nanomolar range. These results demonstrate a new strategy for designing effective nanoscale protein tyrosine phosphatase inhibitors.

Calix[4]arene methylenebisphosphonic acids as inhibitors of protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B.

Сalix[4]arenes bearing methylenebisphosphonic or hydroxymethylenebisphosphonic acid fragments at the wide rim of the macrocycle were studied as inhibitors of PTP1B. Some of the inhibitors showed IC50 values in the micromolar range and good selectivity in comparison with other protein tyrosine phosphatases such as TC-PTP, PTPß, LAR, and CD45. Kinetic studies indicated that the calix[4]arene derivatives influence PTP1B activity as slow-binding inhibitors. Based on molecular docking results, the binding modes of the macrocyclic bisphosphonates in the active centre of PTP1B are discussed.

Classification of binding site conformations of protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B.

Hundred and two binding sites from 91 Protein Data Bank files for protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B with different ligands have been compared. It was found that they can be divided into five clusters. Additional clusters were formed by the unliganded and oxidized enzyme. The centroids of the clusters can be used as starting points for further studies of enzyme-inhibitor interaction by computer simulations. A special software tool has been created for the investigation of protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B and other enzymes. It performs multiple comparisons of selected parts of Protein Data Bank files, as well as further clustering, and determines mobility of separate residues.

Inhibition of Yersinia protein tyrosine phosphatase by phosphonate derivatives of calixarenes.

Inhibition of Yersinia protein tyrosine phosphatase by calix[4]arene mono-, bis-, and tetrakis(methylenebisphosphonic) acids as well as calix[4]arene and thiacalix[4]arene tetrakis(methylphosphonic) acids have been investigated. The kinetic studies revealed that some compounds in this class are potent competitive inhibitors of Yersinia PTP with inhibition constants in the low micromolar range. The binding modes of macrocyclic phosphonate derivatives in the enzyme active center have been explained using computational docking approach. The results obtained indicate that calix[4]arenes are promising scaffolds for the development of inhibitors of Yersinia PTP.

Antioxidant and antiradical activities of resorcinarene tetranitroxides.

Resorcinarene oxazines bearing four TEMPO fragments at the wide rim of the macrocycle were prepared through the aminomethylation of resorcinarene octols with 4-amino-TEMPO and formaldehyde. Tetra-TEMPO resorcinarenes are efficient scavengers of 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radicals. The model studies revealed that macrocyclic structure and intramolecular hydrogen bonding make considerable contribution to antiradical activity of these compounds. Tetra-TEMPO resorcinarenes show also superoxide dismutase-like activity and efficiently inhibit ABAP-induced peroxidation of linoleic acid.

Stereoselectivity of binding of alpha-(N-benzylamino)benzylphosphonic acids to prostatic acid phosphatase.

The inhibition effects of enantiomerically pure alpha-(N-benzylamino)benzylphosphonic acids and their derivatives on human prostatic acid phosphatase have been investigated. As expected, (R)-alpha-(N-benzylamino)benzylphosphonic acid demonstrated higher affinity for the enzyme than (S)-enantiomer. At the same time, (1R,2S)-phenyl[(1-phenylethyl)amino]methylphosphonic acid was found to be a significantly weaker inhibitor than its (1S,2R)-analogue. The enantioselectivity has been explained using a molecular modeling approach by computational docking of inhibitors into active center of prostatic acid phosphatase.

Calix[4]arene methylenebisphosphonic acids as calf intestine alkaline phosphatase inhibitors.

Calix[4]arenes bearing one or two methylenebisphosphonic acid fragments were prepared via addition of diethylphosphite to the parent calix[4]arene aldehydes. The resulting compounds displayed stronger inhibition of calf intestine alkaline phosphatase than simple methylenebisphosphonic or 4-hydroxyphenyl methylenebisphosphonic acids. The action of these phosphorylated calix[4]arenes is concordant with partial mixed-type inhibition. The inhibition constants Ki and Ki' for the calix[4]arene bis(methylenebisphosphonic) acid in Tris-HCl buffer at pH 9 are 0.38 microM and 2.8 microM respectively. The replacement of the phosphoric acid moieties on the macrocycle with diethylphosphonates results in a sharp decrease of its inhibitory action. Preorganizing phosphonic acid fragments using a calixarene platform therefore provides a promising approach for the design of efficient alkaline phosphatase inhibitors.