From genome to drug lead: Identification of a small-molecule inhibitor of the SARS virus

Andrea J. Dooley, Nice Shindo, Barbara Taggart, Jewn Giew Park, Yuan Ping Pang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

37 Scopus citations

Abstract

Virtual screening, a fast, computational approach to identify drug leads [Perola, E.; Xu, K.; Kollmeyer, T. M.; Kaufmann, S. H.; Prendergast, F. G. J. Med. Chem. 2000, 43, 401; Miller, M. A. Nat. Rev. Drug Disc. 2002, 1 220], is limited by a known challenge in crystallographically determining flexible regions of proteins. This approach has not been able to identify active inhibitors of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) using solely the crystal structures of a SARS-CoV cysteine proteinase with a flexible loop in the active site [Yang, H. T.; Yang, M. J.; Ding, Y.; Liu, Y. W.; Lou, Z. Y. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2003, 100, 13190; Jenwitheesuk, E.; Samudrala, R. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 2003, 13, 3989; Rajnarayanan, R. V.; Dakshanamurthy, S.; Pattabiraman, N. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 2004, 321, 370; Du, Q.; Wang, S.; Wei, D.; Sirois, S.; Chou, K. Anal. Biochem. 2005, 337, 262; Du, Q.; Wang, S.; Zhu, Y.; Wei, D.; Guo, H. Peptides 2004, 25, 1857; Lee, V.; Wittayanarakul, K.; Remsungenen, T.; Parasuk, V.; Sompornpisut, P. Science (Asia) 2003, 29, 181; Toney, J.; Navas-Martin, S.; Weiss, S.; Koeller, A. J. Med. Chem. 2004, 47, 1079; Zhang, X. W.; Yap, Y. L. Bioorg. Med. Chem. 2004, 12, 2517]. This article demonstrates a genome-to-drug-lead approach that uses terascale computing to model flexible regions of proteins, thus permitting the utilization of genetic information to identify drug leads expeditiously. A small-molecule inhibitor of SARS-CoV, exhibiting an effective concentration (EC50) of 23 μM in cell-based assays, was identified through virtual screening against a computer-predicted model of the cysteine proteinase. Screening against two crystal structures of the same proteinase failed to identify the 23-μM inhibitor. This study suggests that terascale computing can complement crystallography, broaden the scope of virtual screening, and accelerate the development of therapeutics to treat emerging infectious diseases such as SARS and Bird Flu.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)830-833
Number of pages4
JournalBioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters
Volume16
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 15 2006

Keywords

  • Anti-SARS agents
  • Antiviral agents
  • Chemical databases
  • Docking
  • Drug lead identification
  • In silico screening
  • Small-molecule inhibitor leads

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Medicine
  • Molecular Biology
  • Pharmaceutical Science
  • Drug Discovery
  • Clinical Biochemistry
  • Organic Chemistry

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'From genome to drug lead: Identification of a small-molecule inhibitor of the SARS virus'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this