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Culletta G, Tutone M, Ettari R, Perricone U, Di Chio C, Almerico AM, Zappalà M. Virtual Screening Strategy and In Vitro Tests to Identify New Inhibitors of the Immunoproteasome. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:10504. [PMID: 37445688 DOI: 10.3390/ijms241310504] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2023] [Revised: 06/16/2023] [Accepted: 06/20/2023] [Indexed: 07/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Immunoproteasome inhibition is a promising strategy for the treatment of hematological malignancies, autoimmune diseases, and inflammatory diseases. The design of non-covalent inhibitors of the immunoproteasome β1i/β5i catalytic subunits could be a novel approach to avoid the drawbacks of the known covalent inhibitors, such as toxicity due to off-target binding. In this work, we report the biological evaluation of thirty-four compounds selected from a commercially available collection. These hit compounds are the outcomes of a virtual screening strategy including a dynamic pharmacophore modeling approach onto the β1i subunit and a pharmacophore/docking approach onto the β5i subunit. The computational studies were first followed by in vitro enzymatic assays at 100 μM. Only compounds capable of inhibiting the enzymatic activity by more than 50% were characterized in detail using Tian continuous assays, determining the dissociation constant (Ki) of the non-covalent complex where Ki is also the measure of the binding affinity. Seven out of thirty-four hits showed to inhibit β1i and/or β5i subunit. Compound 3 is the most active on the β1i subunit with Ki = 11.84 ± 1.63 µM, and compound 17 showed Ki = 12.50 ± 0.77 µM on the β5i subunit. Compound 2 showed inhibitory activity on both subunits (Ki = 12.53 ± 0.18 and Ki = 31.95 ± 0.81 on the β1i subunit and β5i subunit, respectively). The induced fit docking analysis revealed interactions with Thr1 and Phe31 of β1i subunit and that represent new key residues as reported in our previous work. Onto β5i subunit, it interacts with the key residues Thr1, Thr21, and Tyr169. This last hit compound identified represents an interesting starting point for further optimization of β1i/β5i dual inhibitors of the immunoproteasome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giulia Culletta
- Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche Chimiche e Farmaceutiche (STEBICEF), Università degli Studi di Palermo, Via Archirafi 32, 90123 Palermo, Italy
- Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Biologiche, Farmaceutiche ed Ambientali, Università di Messina, Viale Annunziata, 98168 Messina, Italy
| | - Marco Tutone
- Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche Chimiche e Farmaceutiche (STEBICEF), Università degli Studi di Palermo, Via Archirafi 32, 90123 Palermo, Italy
| | - Roberta Ettari
- Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Biologiche, Farmaceutiche ed Ambientali, Università di Messina, Viale Annunziata, 98168 Messina, Italy
| | - Ugo Perricone
- Drug Discovery Unit, Fondazione Ri.MED, 90133 Palermo, Italy
| | - Carla Di Chio
- Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Biologiche, Farmaceutiche ed Ambientali, Università di Messina, Viale Annunziata, 98168 Messina, Italy
| | - Anna Maria Almerico
- Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche Chimiche e Farmaceutiche (STEBICEF), Università degli Studi di Palermo, Via Archirafi 32, 90123 Palermo, Italy
| | - Maria Zappalà
- Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Biologiche, Farmaceutiche ed Ambientali, Università di Messina, Viale Annunziata, 98168 Messina, Italy
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Carollo PS, Tutone M, Culletta G, Fiduccia I, Corrao F, Pibiri I, Di Leonardo A, Zizzo MG, Melfi R, Pace A, Almerico AM, Lentini L. Investigating the Inhibition of FTSJ1, a Tryptophan tRNA-Specific 2'-O-Methyltransferase by NV TRIDs, as a Mechanism of Readthrough in Nonsense Mutated CFTR. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:9609. [PMID: 37298560 PMCID: PMC10253411 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24119609] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2023] [Revised: 05/19/2023] [Accepted: 05/29/2023] [Indexed: 06/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is an autosomal recessive genetic disease caused by mutations in the CFTR gene, coding for the CFTR chloride channel. About 10% of the CFTR gene mutations are "stop" mutations that generate a premature termination codon (PTC), thus synthesizing a truncated CFTR protein. A way to bypass PTC relies on ribosome readthrough, which is the ribosome's capacity to skip a PTC, thus generating a full-length protein. "TRIDs" are molecules exerting ribosome readthrough; for some, the mechanism of action is still under debate. We investigate a possible mechanism of action (MOA) by which our recently synthesized TRIDs, namely NV848, NV914, and NV930, could exert their readthrough activity by in silico analysis and in vitro studies. Our results suggest a likely inhibition of FTSJ1, a tryptophan tRNA-specific 2'-O-methyltransferase.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Marco Tutone
- Department of Biological, Chemical, and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies, University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy; (P.S.C.); (G.C.); (I.F.); (F.C.); (I.P.); (A.D.L.); (M.G.Z.); (R.M.); (A.P.); (A.M.A.)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Laura Lentini
- Department of Biological, Chemical, and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies, University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy; (P.S.C.); (G.C.); (I.F.); (F.C.); (I.P.); (A.D.L.); (M.G.Z.); (R.M.); (A.P.); (A.M.A.)
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Tutone M, Almerico AM. Computational Approaches: Drug Discovery and Design in Medicinal Chemistry and Bioinformatics. Molecules 2021; 26:molecules26247500. [PMID: 34946582 PMCID: PMC8707150 DOI: 10.3390/molecules26247500] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2021] [Accepted: 12/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
To date, computational approaches have been recognized as a key component in drug design and discovery workflows [...].
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