Human recombinant beta-secretase immobilized enzyme reactor for fast hits' selection and characterization from a virtual screening library

Screening Techniques for Drug Discovery in Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive and irreversible impairment of memory and other cognitive functions of the aging brain. Pathways such as amyloid beta neurotoxicity, tau pathogenesis and neuroinflammatory have been used to understand AD, despite not knowing the definite molecular mechanism which causes this progressive disease. This review attempts to summarize the small molecules that target these pathways using various techniques involving high-throughput screening, molecular modeling, custom bioassays, and spectroscopic detection tools. Novel and evolving screening methods developed to advance drug discovery initiatives in AD research are also highlighted.

Capillary electrophoresis integrated immobilized enzyme reactor for kinetic and inhibition assays of β-secretase as the Alzheimer's disease drug target

Capillary electrophoresis integrated immobilized enzyme reactors are becoming an increasingly popular alternative for enzyme kinetic and inhibition assays thanks to their unique set of features including cost effectiveness, repeated use of the enzyme, minuscule sample consumption, rapid analysis time and easy automation. In this work we present the development and application of a capillary electrophoresis integrated immobilized enzyme reactor based on magnetic particles for kinetic and inhibition studies of β-secretase, a key enzyme in the development of Alzheimer's disease and a promising drug target. We document the optimization of the immobilization procedure, characterization of immobilized β-secretase, optimization of a mutually compatible incubation protocol and separation method as well as the production of the capillary electrophoresis integrated immobilized enzyme reactor. The applicability of the capillary electrophoresis integrated immobilized enzyme reactor was demonstrated by kinetic assay with an unlabelled substrate and by inhibition assays using three structurally different reference inhibitors. The resulting kinetic and inhibition parameters clearly support the applicability of the herein presented method as well as document the fundamental phenomena which need to be taken in account when comparing the results to other methods.

Reprint of: Liquid chromatographic enzymatic studies with on-line Beta-secretase immobilized enzyme reactor and 4-(4-dimethylaminophenylazo) benzoic acid/5-[(2-aminoethyl) amino] naphthalene-1-sulfonic acid peptide as fluorogenic substrate

High throughput screening (HTS) techniques are required for the fast hit inhibitors selection in the early discovery process. However, in Beta-secretase (BACE1) inhibitors screening campaign, the most frequently used methoxycoumarin based peptide substrate (M-2420) is not widely applicable when aromatic or heterocycle compounds of natural source show auto-fluorescence interferences. Here, in order to overcome these drawbacks, we propose the use of a highly selective 4-(4-dimethylaminophenylazo)benzoic acid/5-[(2-aminoethyl)amino]naphthalene-1-sulfonic acid (DABCYL/1,5-EDANS) based peptide substrate (Substrate IV), whose cleavage product is devoid of spectroscopic interference. HrBACE1-IMER was prepared and characterized in terms of units of immobilised hrBACE1. BACE1 catalyzed Substrate IV cleavage was on-line kinetically characterized in terms of KM and vmax, in a classical Michaelis and Menten study. The on-line kinetic constants were found consistent with those obtained with the in solution fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) standard method. In order to further validate the use of Substrate IV for inhibition studies, the inhibitory potency of the well-known BACE1 peptide InhibitorIV (IC₅₀: 0.19 ± 0.02 μM) and of the natural compound Uleine (IC₅₀: 0.57 ± 0.05) were determined in the optimized on-line hrBACE1-IMER. The IC₅₀ values on the hrBACE1-IMER system were found in agreement with that obtained by the conventional methods confirming the applicability of Substrate IV for on-line BACE1 kinetic and inhibition studies.

Liquid chromatographic enzymatic studies with on-line Beta-secretase immobilized enzyme reactor and 4-(4-dimethylaminophenylazo) benzoic acid/5-[(2-aminoethyl) amino] naphthalene-1-sulfonic acid peptide as fluorogenic substrate

High throughput screening (HTS) techniques are required for the fast hit inhibitors selection in the early discovery process. However, in Beta-secretase (BACE1) inhibitors screening campaign, the most frequently used methoxycoumarin based peptide substrate (M-2420) is not widely applicable when aromatic or heterocycle compounds of natural source show auto-fluorescence interferences. Here, in order to overcome these drawbacks, we propose the use of a highly selective 4-(4-dimethylaminophenylazo)benzoic acid/5-[(2-aminoethyl)amino]naphthalene-1-sulfonic acid (DABCYL/1,5-EDANS) based peptide substrate (Substrate IV), whose cleavage product is devoid of spectroscopic interference. HrBACE1-IMER was prepared and characterized in terms of units of immobilised hrBACE1. BACE1 catalyzed Substrate IV cleavage was on-line kinetically characterized in terms of KM and vmax, in a classical Michaelis and Menten study. The on-line kinetic constants were found consistent with those obtained with the in solution fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) standard method. In order to further validate the use of Substrate IV for inhibition studies, the inhibitory potency of the well-known BACE1 peptide InhibitorIV (IC50: 0.19±0.02μM) and of the natural compound Uleine (IC50: 0.57±0.05) were determined in the optimized on-line hrBACE1-IMER. The IC50 values on the hrBACE1-IMER system were found in agreement with that obtained by the conventional methods confirming the applicability of Substrate IV for on-line BACE1 kinetic and inhibition studies.

Protein flexibility in virtual screening: the BACE-1 case study

Simulating protein flexibility is a major issue in the docking-based drug-design process for which a single methodological solution does not exist. In our search of new anti-Alzheimer ligands, we were faced with the challenge of including receptor plasticity in a virtual screening campaign aimed at finding new β-secretase inhibitors. To this aim, we incorporated protein flexibility in our simulations by using an ensemble of static X-ray enzyme structures to screen the National Cancer Institute database. A unified description of the protein motion was also generated by computing and combining a set of grid maps using an energy weighting scheme. Such a description was used in an energy-weighted virtual screening experiment on the same molecular database. Assessment of the enrichment factors from these two virtual screening approaches demonstrated comparable predictive powers, with the energy-weighted method being faster than the ensemble method. The in vitro evaluation demonstrated that out of the 32 tested ligands, 17 featured the predicted enzyme inhibiting property. Such an impressive success rate (53.1%) demonstrates the enhanced power of the two methodologies and suggests that energy-weighted virtual screening is a more than valid alternative to ensemble virtual screening given its reduced computational demands and comparable performance.