Systematic Down-Selection of Repurposed Drug Candidates for COVID-19.

SARS-CoV-2 is the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic which has claimed more than 6.5 million lives worldwide, devastating the economy and overwhelming healthcare systems globally. The development of new drug molecules and vaccines has played a critical role in managing the pandemic; however, new variants of concern still pose a significant threat as the current vaccines cannot prevent all infections. This situation calls for the collaboration of biomedical scientists and healthcare workers across the world. Repurposing approved drugs is an effective way of fast-tracking new treatments for recently emerged diseases. To this end, we have assembled and curated a database consisting of 7817 compounds from the Compounds Australia Open Drug collection. We developed a set of eight filters based on indicators of efficacy and safety that were applied sequentially to down-select drugs that showed promise for drug repurposing efforts against SARS-CoV-2. Considerable effort was made to evaluate approximately 14,000 assay data points for SARS-CoV-2 FDA/TGA-approved drugs and provide an average activity score for 3539 compounds. The filtering process identified 12 FDA-approved molecules with established safety profiles that have plausible mechanisms for treating COVID-19 disease. The methodology developed in our study provides a template for prioritising drug candidates that can be repurposed for the safe, efficacious, and cost-effective treatment of COVID-19, long COVID, or any other future disease. We present our database in an easy-to-use interactive interface (CoviRx that was also developed to enable the scientific community to access to the data of over 7000 potential drugs and to implement alternative prioritisation and down-selection strategies.

Screening the Medicines for Malaria Venture Pathogen Box across Multiple Pathogens Reclassifies Starting Points for Open-Source Drug Discovery.

Open-access drug discovery provides a substantial resource for diseases primarily affecting the poor and disadvantaged. The open-access Pathogen Box collection is comprised of compounds with demonstrated biological activity against specific pathogenic organisms. The supply of this resource by the Medicines for Malaria Venture has the potential to provide new chemical starting points for a number of tropical and neglected diseases, through repurposing of these compounds for use in drug discovery campaigns for these additional pathogens. We tested the Pathogen Box against kinetoplastid parasites and malaria life cycle stages in vitro Consequently, chemical starting points for malaria, human African trypanosomiasis, Chagas disease, and leishmaniasis drug discovery efforts have been identified. Inclusive of this in vitro biological evaluation, outcomes from extensive literature reviews and database searches are provided. This information encompasses commercial availability, literature reference citations, other aliases and ChEMBL number with associated biological activity, where available. The release of this new data for the Pathogen Box collection into the public domain will aid the open-source model of drug discovery. Importantly, this will provide novel chemical starting points for drug discovery and target identification in tropical disease research.

Screening of the 'Open Scaffolds' collection from Compounds Australia identifies a new chemical entity with anthelmintic activities against different developmental stages of the barber's pole worm and other parasitic nematodes.

The discovery and development of novel anthelmintic classes is essential to sustain the control of socioeconomically important parasitic worms of humans and animals. With the aim of offering novel, lead-like scaffolds for drug discovery, Compounds Australia released the 'Open Scaffolds' collection containing 33,999 compounds, with extensive information available on the physicochemical properties of these chemicals. In the present study, we screened 14,464 prioritised compounds from the 'Open Scaffolds' collection against the exsheathed third-stage larvae (xL3s) of Haemonchus contortus using recently developed whole-organism screening assays. We identified a hit compound, called SN00797439, which was shown to reproducibly reduce xL3 motility by ≥ 70%; this compound induced a characteristic, "coiled" xL3 phenotype (IC50 = 3.46-5.93 µM), inhibited motility of fourth-stage larvae (L4s; IC50 = 0.31-12.5 µM) and caused considerable cuticular damage to L4s in vitro. When tested on other parasitic nematodes in vitro, SN00797439 was shown to inhibit (IC50 = 3-50 µM) adults of Ancylostoma ceylanicum (hookworm) and first-stage larvae of Trichuris muris (whipworm) and eventually kill (>90%) these stages. Furthermore, this compound completely inhibited the motility of female and male adults of Brugia malayi (50-100 µM) as well as microfilariae of both B. malayi and Dirofilaria immitis (heartworm). Overall, these results show that SN00797439 acts against genetically (evolutionarily) distant parasitic nematodes i.e. H. contortus and A. ceylanicum [strongyloids] vs. B. malayi and D. immitis [filarioids] vs. T. muris [enoplid], and, thus, might offer a novel, lead-like scaffold for the development of a relatively broad-spectrum anthelmintic. Our future work will focus on assessing the activity of SN00797439 against other pathogens that cause neglected tropical diseases, optimising analogs with improved biological activities and characterising their targets.

Small-molecule inhibitors of the cancer target, isoprenylcysteine carboxyl methyltransferase, from Hovea parvicalyx.

Isoprenylcysteine carboxyl methyltransferase (Icmt) is enzyme target in anticancer drug discovery. An Icmt natural product high-throughput screening campaign was conducted and a hit extract from the roots of Hovea parvicalyx was identified. 2'-Methoxy-3'-prenyl-licodione and 2'-methoxy-3',3''-diprenyl-licodione, two prenylated beta-hydroxychalcone compounds, together with the known flavanone (S)-glabrol, were isolated and identified as bioactive constituents. Their structures were determined largely by 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy.

Aplysamine 6, an alkaloidal inhibitor of Isoprenylcysteine carboxyl methyltransferase from the sponge Pseudoceratina sp.

The anticancer target isoprenylcysteine carboxyl methyltransferase (Icmt) was the focus of a natural product high-throughput screening campaign. The Australian marine sponge Pseudoceratina sp. yielded aplysamine 6, a new bromotyrosine derivative with an alpha,beta-unsaturated amide linkage, as the bioactive constituent. Its structure was determined by 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy.

Pim2 inhibitors from the Papua New Guinean plant Cupaniopsis macropetala.

Bioassay-guided fractionation of an organic extract from the leaves of Cupaniopsis macropetala resulted in the isolation of a new alkaloid, galloyl tyramine ( 1), together with the known flavonoid glycoside quercitrin ( 2). The structure of 1 was determined following 1D and 2D NMR, IR, UV, and MS data analysis. Compounds 1 and 2 displayed IC 50 values of 161 and 25 microM, respectively, in a Pim2 enzyme assay.

Spermatinamine, the first natural product inhibitor of isoprenylcysteine carboxyl methyltransferase, a new cancer target.

Isoprenylcysteine methyltransferase (Icmt) catalyzes the carboxyl methylation of oncogenic proteins in the final step of a series of post-translational modifications. The inhibition of Icmt provides an attractive and novel anticancer target. A natural product high-throughput screening campaign was conducted to discover inhibitors of Icmt. The Australian marine sponge, Pseudoceratina sp., yielded spermatinamine, a novel alkaloid with a bromotyrosyl-spermine-bromotyrosyl sequence, as the bioactive constituent. Its structure was determined by 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy. Spermatinamine is the first natural product inhibitor of Icmt.

Dysinosins B-D, inhibitors of factor VIIa and thrombin from the Australian sponge Lamellodysidea chlorea.

Three new marine natural products, dysinosins B-D (1-3), were isolated from the sponge Lamellodysidea chlorea and their structures determined by 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy. These compounds are inhibitors of the blood coagulation cascade serine proteases factor VIIa and thrombin. These analogues, dysinosins B-D (1-3), allowed identification of two structural motifs within the structures that contribute to binding to the proteases, factor VIIa and thrombin.

Dysinosin A: a novel inhibitor of Factor VIIa and thrombin from a new genus and species of Australian sponge of the family Dysideidae.

A new marine natural product dysinosin A 1 has been isolated from a new genus and species of sponge of the family Dysideidae found near Lizard Island, North Queensland, Australia. Dysinosin A is a potent inhibitor of the blood coagulation cascade factor VIIa and an inhibitor of the serine protease thrombin. Among the distinctive features of dysinosin A are the presence of a 5,6-dihydroxy-octahydroindole-2-carboxylic acid, 3-amino-ethyl 1-N-amidino-Delta-3-pyrroline, a sulfated glyceric acid, and d-leucine, assembled through three peptidic linkages. Dysinosin A inhibited factor VIIa at a Ki of 108 nM and thrombin at a Ki of 452 nM. The identification of the 1-N-amidino-Delta-3-pyrroline and 5,6-dihydroxy-octahydroindole-2-carboxylic acid as P1 and P2 moieties respectively, should pave the way for the design and synthesis of new structure-based inhibitors.