Patent Application
20110105554
This invention relates to a method of designing a modulator of a myosin, the method comprising molecular modeling of a compound such that the modeled compound interacts with at least three amino acid residues of said myosin, said residues being selected from (a) ranges K265-V268, V411-L441, N588-Q593, D614-T629, and V630-E646 of SEQ ID NO: 2, said myosin comprising or consisting of (i) the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2; (ii) the sequence encoded by the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1; (iii) a sequence being at least 40% identical to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2 or to the sequence encoded by the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1; or (iv) a sequence encoded by a sequence being at least 40% identical to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1; wherein said sequence of (iii) or (iv) comprises said three amino acid residues, and wherein said residues comprise K265; or (b) ranges of any one of SEQ ID NOs: 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80, 82, 84, 86, 88, 90, 92, 94, 96, 98, 100, 102, 104, 106 or 108, respectively, said ranges aligning with the ranges of SEQ ID NO: 2 as defined in (a), said myosin comprising or consisting of (i) the sequence of any one of SEQ ID. NO: 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80, 82, 84, 86, 88, 90, 92, 94, 96, 98, 100, 102, 104, 106 or 108, respectively; (ii) the sequence encoded by the sequence of any one of SEQ ID NO: 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 43, 45, 47, 49, 51, 53, 55, 57, 59, 61, 63, 65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, 83, 85, 87, 89, 91, 93, 95, 97, 99, 101, 103, 105, 107 or 109, respectively; (iii) a sequence being at least 40% identical to the sequence of any one of SEQ ID NO: 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80, 82, 84, 86, 88, 90, 92, 94, 96, 98, 100, 102, 104, 106 or 108, respectively, or to the sequence encoded by the sequence of any one of SEQ ID NO: 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 43, 45, 47, 49, 51, 53, 55, 57, 59, 61, 63, 65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, 83, 85, 87, 89, 91, 93, 95, 97, 99, 101, 103, 105, 107 or 109, respectively; or (iv) a sequence encoded by a sequence being at least 40% identical to the sequence of any one of SEQ ID NO: 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 43, 45, 47, 49, 51, 53, 55, 57, 59, 61, 63, 65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, 83, 85, 87, 89, 91, 93, 95, 97, 99, 101, 103, 105, 107 or 109, respectively; wherein said sequence of (iii) or (iv) comprises said three amino acid residues, and wherein said residues comprise the residue aligning with K265 of SEQ ID NO: 2; thereby obtaining said modulator of a myosin.
In this specification, a number of documents including patent applications and manufacturer's manuals are cited. The disclosure of these documents, while not considered relevant for the patentability of this invention, is herewith incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Myosins are motor proteins which are involved in a large number of motility processes. By decomposing, more specifically hydrolysing ATP, myosins generate a directed force which permits movement along actin filaments. Known myosin-dependent processes include muscle contraction, cell division, movements of entire cells, intracellular transport of organelles and vesicles, endocytosis as well as maintenance and modification of actin-rich structures such as the cytoskeleton.
Cellular motility as well as aberrant forms thereof are involved in numerous diseases and conditions including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, malaria, and diseases of the central nervous system. Known inhibitors of myosin such as Blebbistatin (Kovacs M, Toth J, Hetenyi C, Malnasi-Csizmadia A, Sellers J R. J. Biol. Chem. 2004, 279: 35557-35563), BDM (2,3-butanedione monoxime) and BTS (N-benzyl-p-toluol-sulfonamide) (Cheung A, Dantzig J A, Hollingworth S, Baylor S M, Goldman Y E, Mitchison T J, Straight A F. Nat. Cell Biol. 2002, 4: 83:8) lend themselves, in view of their lack of specifity, high toxicity, and associated side effects, not or only to a very restricted extent to therapeutic applications.
Laatsch et al. (Chem. Pharm. Bull. 43(4) 537-546 (1995)) and Fenical (Chem. Rev. 1993, 93, 1673-1683) describe pentabromopseudilin (2,3,4-tribromo-5-(3,5-dibromo-2-hydroxyphenyl)-1H-pyrrole), further pseudilins as well as their anti-tumor and anti-microbial properties.
In view of the limitations of the means and methods of the prior art, the technical problem underlying the present invention was therefore the provision of improved or alternative means and methods for the treatment of myosin-related diseases.
Accordingly, this invention relates to a method of designing a modulator of a myosin, the method comprising molecular modeling of a compound such that the modeled compound interacts with at least three amino acid residues of said myosin, said residues being selected from (a) ranges K265-V268, V411-L441, N588-Q593, D614-T629, and V630-E646 of SEQ ID NO: 2, said myosin comprising or consisting of (i) the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2; (ii) the sequence encoded by the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1; (iii) a sequence being at least 40% identical to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2 or to the sequence encoded by the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1; or (iv) a sequence encoded by a sequence being at least 40% identical to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1; wherein said sequence of (iii) or (iv) comprises said three amino acid residues, and wherein said residues comprise K265; or (b) ranges of any one of SEQ ID NOs: 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80, 82, 84, 86, 88, 90, 92, 94, 96, 98, 100, 102, 104, 106 or 108, respectively, said ranges aligning with the ranges of SEQ ID NO: 2 as defined in (a), said myosin comprising or consisting of (i) the sequence of any one of SEQ ID NO: 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80, 82, 84, 86, 88, 90, 92, 94, 96, 98, 100, 102, 104, 106 or 108, respectively; (ii) the sequence encoded by the sequence of any one of SEQ ID NO: 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 43, 45, 47, 49, 51, 53, 55, 57, 59, 61, 63, 65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, 83, 85, 87, 89, 91, 93, 95, 97, 99, 101, 103, 105, 107 or 109, respectively; (iii) a sequence being at least 40% identical to the sequence of any one of SEQ ID NO: 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80, 82, 84, 86, 88, 90, 92, 94, 96, 98, 100, 102, 104, 106 or 108, respectively, or to the sequence encoded by the sequence of any one of SEQ ID NO: 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 43, 45, 47, 49, 51, 53, 55, 57, 59, 61, 63, 65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, 83, 85, 87, 89, 91, 93, 95, 97, 99, 101, 103, 105, 107 or 109, respectively; or (iv) a sequence encoded by a sequence being at least 40% identical to the sequence of any one of SEQ ID NO: 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 43, 45, 47, 49, 51, 53, 55, 57, 59, 61, 63, 65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, 83, 85, 87, 89, 91, 93, 95, 97, 99, 101, 103, 105, 107 or 109, respectively; wherein said sequence of (iii) or (iv) comprises said three amino acid residues, and wherein said residues comprise the residue aligning with K265 of SEQ ID. NO: 2; thereby obtaining said modulator of a myosin.
The term “designing” refers to the creation of a molecule, preferably by in silica methods. In addition to in silica methods, further steps may be performed in the method of designing according to the invention, which may include synthesizing of a compound and/or optimization of said compound. Such optional further steps are detailed below.
As regard the in silica methods for creating molecules, these are commonly referred to as molecular modelling. Particularly envisaged for the present invention are molecular modeling tools which are also referred to as ligand construction tools. Such methods for rational drug design typically take into account properties including shape, charge distribution, the distribution of hydrophobic groups, ionic groups and groups capable of forming hydrogen bonds at a site of interests of the protein molecule under consideration. Using this information, that can be derived from the high resolution structure of proteins and protein-ligand complexes (see, e.g. Example 2), these methods either suggest improvements to existing molecules, construct new molecules on their own that are expected to have good binding affinity, screen through virtual compound libraries for such molecules or fragments thereof, or otherwise support interactive design of new drug compounds in silica. Typically, ligand construction makes use of dedicated software and involves interactive sessions in front of a computer display of the three-dimensional structure of the target molecule, i.e., myosin, and of candidate molecules or fragments thereof. Suitable software packages are known in the art and include Chemoffice (CambridgeSoft Corporation), CNS (Acta Cryst. D54, 905-921), CCP4 (Acta Cryst. D50, 760-763), ADF (Computational Chemistry, David Young, Wiley-Interscience, 2001. Appendix A. A.2.1 p. 332) and Gold (G. Jones, P. Willett and R. C. Glen, J. Mol. Biol., 245, 43-53, 1995; G. Jones, P. Willett, R. C. Glen, A. R. Leach and R. Taylor, J. Mol. Biol., 267, 727-748, 1997; M. L Verdonk, J. C. Cole, M. J. Hartshorn, C. W. Murray and R. D. Taylor, Proteins, 52, 609-623, 2003). As a result of modifications of candidate or starting molecules, the modeled compound is obtained.
The coordinates of the target molecule, i.e. myosin, may be experimentally determined e.g. by NMR spectroscopy and/or X-ray crystallography, or may be obtained by molecular modeling, preferably homology modeling using the high resolution structure of a myosin, said high resolution structure being determined by experimental means, to estimate and calculate the structure of a different myosin for which an experimentally determined high resolution structure is not yet available. Suitable software is known in the art and includes the software packages described in Example 2 enclosed herewith. Structures of myosin-2 from Dictyostelium with and without exemplary or preferred compounds are provided in Examples 2 and 7.
The term “interact” or “interaction” as used herein refers to a relation between at least two molecular entities. This relation may inter alia be described in terms of intermolecular distances and/or free energies of interaction. In the first case, an interaction may be defined by at least one intermolecular distance, preferably by more than one such as two, three, four, five or more intermolecular distances. If an interaction according to the invention is to be described in terms of intermolecular distances only, it is envisaged to use at least three such distances. Typically, intermolecular distances are determined as distances between the centers of atoms of the respective interacting molecular entities. In this case, intermolecular distances according to the invention are referred to as interatomic distances. Preferably, a such determined interatomic distance is less than 4 Angstroms, more preferably in the range from 3.6 and 2.8 Angstroms. Preferred values include 3.4, 3.2 and 3.0 Angstroms. Alternatively or in addition, an interaction may be defined in terms of free energy. The free energy may be a total free energy determining the strength of an intermolecular interaction in its entirety or a partial free energy, said partial free energy resulting from, for example, one atom-atom interaction within a plurality of atom-atom interactions within the intermolecular interaction under consideration. Preferably, the total free energy of an interaction according to the invention is at least 60 kJ/mol. This value corresponds to the binding energy of about three hydrogen bonds. More preferred are total free energies of an interaction of at least 100, at least 150 or at least 200 kJ/mol.
As an alternative or additional parameter, and in case of inhibitors, the IC50 concentration may be used to characterize the strength of an intermolecular interaction. The IC50 concentration is the concentration of an inhibitor that is required to inhibit 50% of the target, in the present case myosin. Preferably, the modelled compound, in case it is an inhibitor, interacts with said at least three residues such that the IC50 concentration is in the two-digit micomolar range, i.e. below 100 μM. More preferred are IC50 concentrations below 50 μM, below 10 μM or below 1 μM. Yet more preferred are nanomolar or even picomolar inhibitors, e.g. inhibitors with an IC50 concentration below 100 nM, below 10 nM, below 1 nM or below 100 μM. More generally speaking, and applicable to any binding molecule, the concentration that is required to achieve binding to 50% of the target or modulating of 50% of the target may be used. Preferred values of IC50 concentrations as recited above apply also to these concentrations.
An intermolecular interaction may comprise one or more types of interactions. Types of interactions include charge-charge, charge-dipole, and dipole-dipole interactions and furthermore hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions. Dipoles may be permanent, induced or fluctuating. Interactions involving permanent dipoles and hydrogen bonds may be of particular relevance, since they are capable of specifically positioning and orienting a ligand or modulator in a binding pocket.
The ranges according to part (a) of the main embodiment provide a generic description of the binding pocket according to the present invention. Since at least three residues within these ranges interact with the compound to be modelled, the present invention also provides an implicit definition of pharmacophores capable of binding to said binding pocket. The term “pharmacophore” is known in the art and refers to the molecular framework responsible for the biological or pharmacological activity of a compound (Osman F. Güner (2000) Pharmacophore Perception, Development, and use in Drug Disgn ISBN 0-9636817-6-1; Thierry Langer and Rémy D. Hoffmann (2006) Pharmacophores and Pharmacophore Searches ISBN 3-527-31250-1). Preferred activities of the compound include the modifying of myosin activities as described herein below. Typical pharmacophore features include hydrogen bond donors, hydrogen bond acceptors, dipoles, charges, ions and hydrophobic moieties. The pharmacophore furthermore includes information on the spatial arrangement of one or more of such moieties:
The term “modulator” as used herein refers to any molecule capable of modifying the activity of the target, i.e. myosin. “Modifying” includes increasing and decreasing said activity. The activity includes any molecular, biochemical, biomechanical or biological activity. A preferred activity is the capability of myosin to produce force and/or movement in an actin- and/or Mg-ATP dependent way; see below. A further activity is ATPase activity, i.e., the capability to hydrolyze adenosine trisphosphate (ATP), preferably to yield ADP and Pi. In structural terms, the modulator is not limited. Preferably, the modulator is a small organic molecule, the term “small” preferably referring to molecules with a molecular weight below 1200, 1000, 800, 600, 500, 400 or 300 Da.
The term “myosin” refers to a well-known class of proteins with ATPase activity and having the capability of generating force and/or directional movement; see also the background section herein above. Table 1 below provides further information on myosins to be used in the present invention.
thaliana, . . .)
Toxoplasma
Tg myosin-A (TgMyoA)
gondii
Tg myosin-B (TgMyoB)
Plasmodium
Tg myosin-E (TgMyoE)
falciparum
Pf myosin-A
Toxoplasma
Tgmyosin-F (TgMyoF)
gondii
Sequence alignments of myosins motor domains are shown in the Figures enclosed herewith. These sequence alignments have been created with methods well known and established in the art. The multiple sequence alignments have been generated with the software ClustalW (see below) by using the following parameters: Gap Penalty: 15.00; Gap Length Penalty: 0.5; Delay Divergent Seqs (%): 15; Protein Weight Matrix: Gonnet Series.
The invention is applicable to all myosin isoforms, in particular to the myosins having sequences of the sequence listing. Several sequences of the sequence listing correspond to sequences with the below accession numbers for the NCBI databases (www.pubmed.com) in the versions of Nov. 11, 2008. Preferred myosin isoforms are human, Apicomplexa and plant isoforms.
The ranges as defined in part (b) of the main embodiment are readily determined based on (i) the information regarding the ranges in the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2 (myosin-2) as defined in part (a) of the main embodiment and (ii) said sequence alignments. Preferably, the alignment of said ranges occurs over the entire length of the respective ranges as recited in parts (a) and (b); see also the enclosed alignments (in particular
For example, the corresponding, i.e., aligning ranges in the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 4 (myosin-1) are as follows: K186-V190, C342-N362, N523-F528, P549-T561, and A562-L577, and the corresponding ranges in the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 6 (myosin-5) are as follows: K246-V250, K392-N413, N568-Y573, L613-T635, and V636-L651.
These ranges as well as the ranges recited in part (a) of the main embodiment define structural elements of the three-dimensional structure of the respective myosin or secondary structure elements thereof. In particular, the five ranges in their respective order correspond to the following structural elements, the designations of which are established in the art: helix 13, helix 21, strut loop, loop2, and helix-29; see also the enclosed multiple sequence alignments (in particular
The amino acid residues K265 as recited in part (a) is an anchor residue for the interaction of a modulator with the binding pocket defined by the ranges recited in part (a). A corresponding anchor residue in the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 4 (myosin-1) is K186. A corresponding anchor residue in the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 6 (myosin-5) is K246. Corresponding anchor residues of further myosins can be determined from the enclosed multiple sequence alignments without further ado. As used herein, the term “anchor residue” refers to residues of particular relevance for the interaction between a myosin and a modulator thereof. The residue of any myosin which aligns with K265 of SEQ ID NO: 2 (myosin-2) is almost invariably a Lys residue. It may also be an Arg residue.
Sequence identity levels as recited in the main embodiment may be determined by methods well known in the art. Two nucleotide or protein sequences can be aligned electronically using suitable computer programs known in the art. Such programs comprise BLAST (Altschul et al. (1990), J. Mol. Biol. 215, 403-410), variants thereof such as WU-BLAST (Altschul & Gish (1996), Methods Enzymol. 266, 460-480), FASTA (Pearson & Lipman (1988), Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 85, 2444-2448), CLUSTALW (Higgins et al. (1994), Nucleic Acids Res. 22, 4673-4680) or implementations of the Smith-Waterman algorithm (SSEARCH, Smith & Waterman (1981), J. Mol. Biol. 147, 195-197). These programs, in addition to providing a pairwise sequence alignment (multiple sequence alignment in case of CLUSTALW), also report the sequence identity level (usually in percent identity) and the probability for the occurrence of the alignment by chance (P-value).
Preferably the sequence identity at the amino acid sequence level between myosins is at least 45%, 50%, 55%, 60%, 65%, 70%, 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, 96%, 97%, 98% or 99%. Preferred sequence identities at the nucleic acid sequence level are at least 50%, 60%, 70%, 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 92%, 94%, 95%, 96%, 97%, 98% or 99%. In any case, it is deliberately envisaged to use myosins from mammalian and avian species including Rattus norvegicus, Mus musculus, Gallus gallus, Lepus europaeus and Canis lupus.
In a further embodiment, the method of designing of the invention further comprises synthesizing said modulator, thereby producing said modulator. The subject-matter of this embodiment is a method of producing said modulator. This embodiment is particularly envisaged for those cases where the modulator is a small organic molecule, a peptide or protein. Means and methods for synthesizing peptides and proteins are well known in the art and may involve organic synthesis and/or the recombinant production using the methods of molecular biology and protein biochemistry. As regards small organic molecules, reference is made to the Beilstein database available from MDL Information Systems as an example. Means and methods for preparing the preferred compound classes (for details see below) to be used in screens according to the invention are detailed in the Examples enclosed herewith. In a further preferred embodiment, said molecular modeling comprises (i) measuring at least one intermolecular distance; (ii) calculating at least one free energy of interaction; and/or (iii) determining the accessibility to the allosteric binding pocket. Accessibility of the binding pocket limits the size of the allosteric effector and thereby the maximal intermolecular interaction energy.
Tools for molecular modeling as described above typically provide the option of measuring one or more intermolecular distances. Preferably, the intermolecular distances are determined as distances between the centers of atoms. Tools for molecular modeling also generally provide the option of calculating free energies of interaction. The term “free energy” in relation to an interaction is well known in the art and is related to the equilibrium binding constant by the equation ΔG=−RT ln K, wherein ΔG is the change in free energy upon binding, K is the binding constant, T is the temperature and R is the universal gas constant. Free energies to be calculated may be, as described above, total free energies and/or partial free energies.
In a further preferred embodiment, said ranges as defined in part (a) of the main embodiment are limited to the following positions: K265, A420, K423, A424, R428, L431, D590, I617, and A618. These positions or at least three of these positions provide a preferred definition of the binding pocket according to the invention. By defining the binding pocket, they implicitly also define the pharmacophore which is capable of binding to said binding pocket.
In case of the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 4 (myosin-1), preferred positions are K186, A355, E358, R359 N362, D521 and L527. Said preferred positions are located within the ranges as defined in the main embodiment. In case of the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 6 (myosin-5), preferred positions are K246, A402, H406, A409, N410, N413, D570, V572 and H632. Obviously, in further preferred embodiments of part (b) of the main embodiment (said preferred embodiments relating to SEQ ID NOs: 8 to 108 (even numbers)), preferred positions are those positions which align with K265, A420, K423, A424, R428, L431, D590, I617, and A618 of SEQ ID NO: 2. Analogous considerations apply to all preferred positions or ranges.
Further preferred anchor residues for modulator binding (in addition to the Lys residue described above) include D590 in the strut loop in Dictyostelium myosin-2 (SEQ ID NO: 2), which corresponds to D521 in Dictyostelium myosin-1 (SEQ ID NO: 4) and to D570 in Gallus gallus myosin-5 (SEQ ID NO: 6), respectively.
On the other hand, there residues in the allosteric binding pocket according to the invention which are specific for a given subclass of myosins such as class 2 myosins. Preferably, the method of designing according to the invention makes use of such subclass-specific residues to the effect that said modeled compound interacts with at least one of said subclass-specific residues. Modeled compounds interacting with at least one of said subclass-specific residues are candidates for subclass-specific modulators. More specifically, specificity is mostly mediated by residues in helix-21 that connects the actin binding cardiomyopathy loop (formed by residues 403 to 406 in myosin 2 (SEQ ID NO: 2)) with strand β5 which is part of the central β-sheet and adjacent to switch-2, forming part of the nucleotide binding pocket. The multiple contacts in helix-21 are structurally conserved but diverse as regards the nature of side chains involved in interactions. Conserved residues are A424, R428, and L431 in myosin-2 (SEQ ID NO: 2), A355, R359, and N362 in myosin-1 (SEQ ID NO: 4), and H406, N410, N413 in myosin-5 (SEQ ID NO: 6), respectively. Additional, preferably subclass-specific contacts with a compound binding to the allosteric pocket are provided by residues belonging to loop-2 and helix-29. The latter contacts are neither structurally conserved nor at the level of the side chains and thereby provide further possibilities in fine-tuning inhibitor binding and subclass-specificity thereof. Residues belonging to loop-2 and helix-29 are of particular importance in forming the opening of the access channel to the allosteric binding site of the invention. Specific residues in this region can be selected from the annotated sequence alignments and the topology diagram enclosed herewith (
The present invention furthermore provides a method of identifying a modulator of a myosin, the method comprising (a) bringing into contact a myosin and a test compound; (b) determining whether said test compound interacts with at least three amino acid residues selected from (ba) ranges K265-V268, V411-L441, N588-Q593, D614-T629, and V630-E646 of SEQ ID NO: 2, said myosin comprising or consisting of (i) the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2; (ii) the sequence encoded by the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1; (iii) a sequence being at least 40% identical to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2 or to the sequence encoded by the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1; or (iv) a sequence encoded by a sequence being at least 40% identical to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1; wherein said sequence of (iii) or (iv) comprises said three amino, acid residues, and wherein said residues comprise K265; or (bb) ranges of any one of SEQ ID NOs: 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80, 82, 84, 86, 88, 90, 92, 94, 96, 98, 100, 102, 104, 106 or 108, respectively, said ranges aligning with the ranges of SEQ ID NO: 2 as defined in (a), said myosin comprising or consisting of (i) the sequence of any one of SEQ ID NO: 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80, 82, 84, 86, 88, 90, 92, 94, 96, 98, 100, 102, 104, 106 or 108, respectively; (ii) the sequence encoded by the sequence of any one of SEQ ID NO: 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 43, 45, 47, 49, 51, 53, 55, 57, 59, 61, 63, 65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, 83, 85, 87, 89, 91, 93, 95, 97, 99, 101, 103, 105, 107 or 109, respectively; (iii) a sequence being at least 40% identical to the sequence of any one of SEQ ID NO: 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80, 82, 84, 86, 88, 90, 92, 94, 96, 98, 100, 102, 104, 106 or 108, respectively, or to the sequence encoded by the sequence of any one of SEQ ID NO: 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 43, 45, 47, 49, 51, 53, 55, 57, 59, 61, 63, 65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, 83, 85, 87, 89, 91, 93, 95, 97, 99, 101, 103, 105, 107 or 109, respectively; or (iv) a sequence encoded by a sequence being at least 40% identical to the sequence of any one of SEQ ID NO: 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 43, 45, 47, 49, 51, 53, 55, 57, 59, 61, 63, 65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, 83, 85, 87, 89, 91, 93, 95, 97, 99, 101, 103, 105, 107 or 109, respectively; wherein said sequence of (iii) or (iv) comprises said three amino acid residues, and wherein said residues comprise the residue aligning with K265 of SEQ ID NO: 2; and (c) identifying those compounds which interact with said at least three amino acid residues, thereby indentifying said modulator of a myosin.
This embodiment relates to a screen for the identification of myosin modulators which in turn are suitable as medicaments or lead compounds for the development of a medicament. The screen may be implemented in various ways such as a biochemical screen or a cellular screen. In case of a cellular screen said “bringing into contact a myosin and a test compound” may be effected by bringing into contact a cell producing a myosin with a test compound. The bringing into contact is performed under conditions which allow binding of the test compound to myosin, in case the test compound is in principle capable of binding. Suitable conditions include conditions in liquid phase such as aqueous solutions, preferably buffered solutions. Furthermore, ionic strength may be adjusted, e.g., by the addition of sodium chloride. The concentration of sodium chloride may be between 0 and 2 M, preferably between 100 and 200 mM. Alternatively, sodium chloride is absent from the assay. For biological assays in many cases the presence of one or more further substances, including other salts than sodium chloride, trace elements, anti-oxidants, amino acids, vitamins, growth factors, ubiquitous co-factors such as ATP or GTP, is required. Said further substances may either be added individually or provided in complex mixtures such as serum. These and further accessory substances are well known in the art as are concentrations suitable for biological assays. The skilled person is aware of suitable conditions in dependency of the particular assay format to be used in the method of screening according to the invention.
In a further embodiment, the screen may be implemented as a virtual screen, i.e., the screen may be performed in silico. Virtual screens may be implemented by computer-based docking of one test compound at a time into the allosteric binding site defined above, wherein both the test compound and the binding site are represented in silico. Thereby, the binding position and conformation is calculated. The binding site may, for example, be comprised in a representation of the entire myosin molecule or, alternatively, of those parts only which line the binding pocket. Upon completion of docking, the binding affinity (or equivalently the free energy of interaction as defined herein above) is determined based on the parameters of the computer representation of the involved molecules. A threshold may be chosen such as to select those test compounds which are candidate high affinity binders. Suitable software packages are known in the art and include Chemoffice, CNS, CCP4, ADF and Gold (see above).
Preferably, said determining in step (b) is effected by X-ray crystallography and/or NMR spectroscopy.
In other words, the question of whether an interaction involving at least three residues of myosin occurs, is answered by determining structural parameters by using NMR spectroscopy or X-ray crystallography. These structural parameters may comprise the coordinates of the complex between said test compound and myosin. Alternatively, structural parameters may be determined only to the extent necessary to determine whether binding according to the invention, in particular interaction with at least three residues of myosin occurs. Examples of the latter, more selective methods include NMR spectroscopic methods exploiting the nuclear Overhauser effect or saturation transfer difference (STD). Suitable methods include the recording of NOESY and/or ROESY spectra. The required NMR spectra can be obtained in medium to high throughput manner, wherein throughput may be further increased by assessing a mixture of ligands, for example 10, 20 or 100 ligands at a time and further analyzing only those mixtures which are found to comprise one or more binding molecules. Also, means and methods for high throughput crystallization are available; see, for example, Stevens (Current Opinion in Structural Biology 2000, 10: 558-564) and Kuhn et al. (Current Opinion in Chemical Biology 2002, 6: 704-710).
In a preferred embodiment, X-ray crystallography comprises (a) generating a crystal of a complex formed by said test compound bound to myosin; (b) generating and recording x-ray diffraction data; (c) digitising the data; (d) calculating an electron density map; (e) determining the three-dimensional structure of the crystal components; and (f) storing the crystal coordinates generated on a data carrier.
X-ray diffraction may be performed on a beamline such as the 1029 beamline of ESRF, Grenoble or using in-house devices such as a Bruker X8PROTEUM. Data may be further processed with XDS (W. Kabsch, J. Appl. Cryst. 21, 67 (1988)) and refined with CNS (A. T. Brünger et al. Acta Cryst. D 54, 905 (1998)). Alternatively, the PROTEUM2 software (Bruker) may be used. Structure can finally be solved with, for example, AmoRe (J. Navaza, Acta Crystallogr. A 50, 157 (1994)) and analysed with Xfit (D. E. McRee, J. Struct. Biol. 125, 156 (1999)) while structure validatation may be performed with PROCHECK (R. A. Laskowski, M. W. MacArthur, J. Appl. Crystallogr. 26, 283 (1993)) and WHATCHECK (R. W. W. Hoot G. Vriend, C. Sander, E. E. Abola, Nature 381, 272 (1996)). The final map containing the atomic coordinates of the constituents of the crystal may be stored on a data carrier, typically the data is stored in PDB format or in X_PLOR format, both of which are known to the person skilled in the art. However, crystal coordinates may as well be stored in simple tables or text files.
In a preferred embodiment, the myosin used in the screen involving X-ray crystallography according to the invention is myosin-2. A co-crystal of myosin-2 with an exemplary inhibitor has been solved; see Example 2. Methods well know in the art such as soaking permit the generation of co-crystals of myosin-2 with other modulators. Performing X-ray crystallography according to the invention with such co-crystals is a means of providing the necessary information for identifying compounds which interact with said at least three amino acid residues.
In a preferred embodiment of the method of identifying according to the invention, said method further comprises the step of (a′) (i) determining whether said test compound binds to said myosin; and/or (ii) determining whether said test compound modulates the activity and/or conformation of said myosin; and/or (iii) determining the cytotoxicity of said test compound; wherein step (a) is to be effected after step (a) and prior to step (b), and wherein said determining in step (b) is performed with test compounds determined to bind, to modulate, and/or to be cytotoxic in step (a′).
This embodiment provides for filtering a subset of test compounds testing positive in one or more of the assays of (a′) (i) to (iii). The advantage of such filtering is that the subsequent determining whether the test compound interacts with at least three residues has to be done only with said test compounds testing positive.
Means and methods for determining binding are well known in the art and include assays based on fluorescence such as fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) assays and fluorescence polarization (FP) assays, immunological assays such as ELISA, surface plasmon resonance, isothermal titration calorimetry and Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR).
Assays for myosin activity are discussed further below.
Since the method of identifying a modulator according to the invention is designed to identify compounds binding to the allosteric pocket of myosins, an additional or alternative filtering step involves the determining whether the test compound modulates or changes the conformation of said myosin. A change in conformation may be determined by using methods known in the art including the determination of electrophoretic or chromatographic mobility and fluorescence-based methods. In the latter case, changes in intramolecular distances between fluorophors arising from a change of conformation may be determined.
Said cytotoxicity correlates with the inhibition of the ATPase activity of myosin. Cytotoxicity may be assayed by determining the cellular uptake of neutral red. Only living cells are capable of neutral red uptake via an active transport mechanism. For an exemplary workflow of a cytotoxicity assay, see
Preferably, said activity is the capability of said myosin (i) to bind actin; (ii) to convert ATP into ADP and Pi; and/or (iii) to generate force and/or movement. Exemplary or preferred binding assays are described herein above and can be applied for determining whether myosin binds actin, preferably F-actin, and/or nucleotides. Exemplary or preferred activity assays are described herein below and can be applied for determining whether myosin is capable of converting ATP into ADP and Pi or of force production and generation of movement. An exemplary assay for ATPase activity is based on the detection of free phosphate formed upon cleavage of ATP, wherein the detection is effected using malachite green. For an exemplary workflow, see
In preferred embodiments, molecular modeling according to the invention starts from a compound selected from compounds of the general formulae (1) to (4) or a salt or solvate thereof, or the test compound to be used in methods of identifying of the invention is selected from compounds of the general formulae (1) to (4) or a salt or solvate thereof
wherein X is selected from NH, O and S; and Y and Z designate, as valence permits, one or more substituents, wherein each occurrence of Y and Z is independently selected from F, Cl, Br, I, R and OR; R being selected from (i) H, (ii) (CO)CH3, and (iii) linear or branched alkyl, alkenyl or alkinyl with one to four carbon atoms, the moieties (ii) and (iii) being optionally substituted with one or more F, Cl, Br and/or I.
Formula (1) represents carbazoles, dibenzofurans and dibenzothiophenes according to the invention. Formula (2) represents acridones according to the invention. Formula (3) represents a group of alkaloids known as pseudilines as well as their structural analogues having furan or thiophene in place of the pyrrole ring. Formula (4) represents quinolines according to the invention. The nitrogen-containing ring of quinolines according to the invention may be partially or fully hydrogenated.
Generally, in preferred embodiments of the present invention, R—as used in conjunction with any of the general formulae disclosed herein above and below—has one or two carbon atoms. Particularly preferred is R=CH3, CCl3 or CF3. Also preferred are partially halogenated or mixed halogenated methyl groups such as CH2F, CHF2, CH2Cl, CHCl2, CF2Cl or CHFCl.
Further preferred compounds are disclosed herein below in conjunction with medical uses. All compounds described in conjunction with medical uses, in particular classes of compounds represented by generic formulae, are deliberately envisaged for use in the methods according to the present invention.
Also provided is the use of a compound selected from compounds of the general formulae (1) to (4) or a salt or solvate thereof as a lead compound in the development of a modulator of a myosin.
The term “lead compound” is known in the art and refers to a compound providing a starting point for developing a pharmaceutically active agent. Generally, said pharmaceutically active agent is different from, preferably optimized as compared to the lead compound. In other words, the development of a lead compound preferably involves the optimization of the pharmacological properties of said lead compound.
Methods for the optimization of the pharmacological properties of compounds identified in screens, generally referred to as lead compounds, are known in the art and comprise a method of modifying a compound identified as a lead compound to achieve: (i) modified site of action, spectrum of activity, organ specificity, and/or (ii) improved potency, and/or (iii) decreased toxicity (improved therapeutic index), and/or (iv) decreased side effects, and/or (v) modified onset of therapeutic action, duration of effect, and/or (vi) modified pharmacokinetic parameters (resorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion), and/or (vii) modified physico-chemical parameters (solubility, hygroscopicity, color, taste, odor, stability, state), and/or (viii) improved general specificity, organ/tissue specificity, and/or (ix) optimized application form and route by (i) esterification of carboxyl groups, or (ii) esterification of hydroxyl groups with carboxylic acids, or (iii) esterification of hydroxyl groups to, e.g. phosphates, pyrophosphates or sulfates or hemi-succinates, or (iv) formation of pharmaceutically acceptable salts, or (v) formation of pharmaceutically acceptable complexes, or (vi) synthesis of pharmacologically active polymers, or (vii) introduction of hydrophilic moieties, or (viii) introduction/exchange of substituents on aromates or side chains, change of substituent pattern, or (ix) modification by introduction of isosteric or bioisosteric moieties, or (x) synthesis of homologous compounds, or (xi) introduction of branched side chains, or (xii) conversion of alkyl substituents to cyclic analogues, or (xiii) derivatisation of hydroxyl group to ketales, acetales, or (xiv) N-acetylation to amides, phenylcarbamates, or (xv) synthesis of Mannich bases, imines, or (xvi) transformation of ketones or aldehydes to Schiff's bases, oximes, acetates, ketales, enolesters, oxazolidines, thiazolidines or combinations thereof.
The various steps recited above are generally known in the art. They include or rely on quantitative structure-action relationship (QSAR) analyses (Kubinyi, “Hausch-Analysis and Related Approaches”, VCH Verlag, Weinheim, 1992), combinatorial biochemistry, classical chemistry and others (see, for example, Holzgrabe and Bechtold, Deutsche Apotheker Zeitung 140(8), 813-823, 2000).
Preferably, said general formulae are the general formulae (1) or (2).
In a further preferred embodiment, said modulator is an inhibitor.
The term “inhibitor” refers to compounds lowering or abolishing the activity of myosin, whereas the term “activator” refers to compounds increasing the activity of myosin, said activity being defined herein above. In preferred embodiments, inhibition refers to a reduction in activity of at least 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 95, 98 or 99%. More preferred, activity drops to less than 10−2, less than 10−3, less than 10−4 or less than 10−5 times the activity in absence of the inhibitor. “Activation” preferably refers to an increase in activity by 10, 20, 50 or 100%. More preferred activation involves a rise in activity to 3-fold, 5-fold, 10-fold or 15-fold or more of the activity in absence of the activator.
The present invention furthermore provides a pharmaceutical composition comprising one or more compounds selected from compounds of the general formulae (1), (2) and (4) as defined herein above; 2,3,4-tribromo-5-(1′-methoxy-2′,4′-difluoro-phenyl)-pyrrole; and the compounds shown below, wherein CF3 may replace one, more or all occurrences of F, Cl, Br and/or MeO in said compounds shown below:
or a salt or solvate thereof.
The pharmaceutical composition may further comprise pharmaceutically acceptable carriers, excipients and/or diluents. Examples of suitable pharmaceutical carriers, excipients and/or diluents are well known in the art and include phosphate buffered saline solutions, water, emulsions, such as oil/water emulsions, various types of wetting agents, sterile solutions etc. Compositions comprising such carriers can be formulated by well known conventional methods. These pharmaceutical compositions can be administered to the subject at a suitable dose. Administration of the suitable compositions may be effected by different ways, e.g., by intravenous, intraperitoneal, subcutaneous, intramuscular, topical, intradermal, intranasal or intrabronchial administration. It is particularly preferred that said administration is carried out by injection and/or delivery, e.g., to a site in the pancreas or into a brain artery or directly into brain tissue. The compositions may also be administered directly to the target site, e.g., by biolistic delivery to an external or internal target site, like the pancreas or brain. The dosage regimen will be determined by the attending physician and clinical factors. As is well known in the medical arts, dosages for any one patient depends upon many factors, including the patient's size, body surface area, age, the particular compound to be administered, sex, time and route of administration, general health, and other drugs being administered concurrently. Pharmaceutically active matter may be present in amounts between 1 ng and 10 mg/kg body weight per dose; however, doses below or above this exemplary range are envisioned, especially considering the aforementioned factors. If the regimen is a continuous infusion, it is preferably in the range of 1 μg to 10 mg units per kilogram of body weight per minute.
Also provided is the use of one or more compounds as defined above for the manufacture a pharmaceutical composition for the treatment and/or prevention of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diseases of the central nervous system, viral infections, and infections by parasites of the Apicomplexa family.
Example 2 provides proof of in vitro and in vivo activity of several preferred or exemplary compounds of the invention.
Myosins play an essential role in force generating processes and are essential in several common diseases like cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and parasite and viral infections. Also the immune response during inflammation, which is triggered by the synapse between T cells and antigen presenting cells, depends on the activation of myosin-2 and myosin-5 and is up-regulated during T-cell activation (Rey et al., 2007, in press).
With respect to cancer, in particular the formation of metastasis severely complicates the therapy and negatively affects the prognosis. At the beginning of tumor metastasis cells may enter into an amoeboid migratory state. For the migration, non-muscle myosins-2A and 2B play an essential role (Betapudi et al., 2006). The inhibition of myosin-2 (in particular isoform A) was shown to strongly inhibit tumor cell migration. Furthermore, in a clinical study on lung cancer patients a positive correlation was found between the expression of a myosin acitivating enzyme (myosin light chain kinase) and the likelihood of disease recurrence and metastasis (Minamiya et al., 2005). These and additional observations give strong evidence that the myosin-2 isoforms are excellent target proteins for cancer treatment, in particular against tumors that may form metastasis. This holds true in particular for the prevalent cancer types with high incidence (U.S. cancer statistics from 2003) like cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx, the digestive system including pancreas and respiratory system, melanomas of the skin, the genital and urinary system, and cancer of the brain and the nervous system. Further cancer forms which are deliberately envisaged for treatment by the present invention are listed below.
The myosin isoform 2B was found to be important for lamellar protrusions of migrating cells. Cellular protrusions such as filopodia are known to provide a gateway for the entry of various viruses into a host cell. Myosin-2 (Lehmann et al., 2005) or myosin-6 (Sun and Whittaker, 2007) are indispensable for virus uptake. After multiplication the exit of virus particles from the infected cell again depend on Myosin-2A or B; examples are vaccinia virus (M. Way, London; personal communication to HOG) and herpes simplex virus (van Leeuwen, 2002)). Myosin-2A is furthermore required for the internalization of the CXCR4 receptor, which plays a role in HIV uptake into the cell. The uptake of the receptor can be inhibited by silencing nonmuscle myosin-2A with siRNA or using the myosin inhibitor blebbistatin (Rey et al, 2007). Furthermore, the release of HIV-1 from the host cell depends on myosin activity, since this process can be blocked with Wortmannin, an effective inhibitor of myosin light chain kinase (Sasaki et al., 1995). Based on these findings the inhibition of myosin activity is envisaged as an efficient treatment of viral infections. The fact that myosin plays a key role in viral spreading is reflected in the observation that even plant viruses (Tobacco mosaic virus, Kawakami et al., 2004) require myosin activity for spreading.
Members of the myosin superfamily are known to be involved in the host cell invasion of apicomplexan parasites. This group of protozoa includes species which are the cause of various human diseases of which malaria, toxoplasmosis or Eimeria infections are prominent examples. The gliding motility and invasion during infection depends on the activity of the unusual class-14, 23, and 24 myosins which is found in all Apicomplexa (Soldati et al., 2004).
Class-5 myosins are very abundant in the CNS (central nervous system) and mutations in the encoding gene give rise to severe neurological defects in mice and humans. In neurons, myosin-5a controls the targeting of IP3 (inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate)-sensitive Ca2+ stores to dendritic spines and the transport of mRNAs (Desnos et. al., 2007). Whereas deletion of non-muscle myosins-2 A and B are accompanied by abnormalities in the brain and a defect in the migration of neuronal cells (facial neurons, cerebellar granule cell and pontine neurons (Kim et. al., 2005).
In a more preferred embodiment, said infection by parasites of Apicomplexa family is selected from malaria, toxoplasmosis and coccidiosis (e.g. by Eimeria).
In a more preferred embodiment, said cancer is selected from the group consisting of:
Anal Cancer (Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Anus), Bladder Cancer (Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Bladder), Bone Cancer (Chondrosarcoma of Cartilage), Osteosarcoma, Cancer of the bone marrow including Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL), Promyelocytic Leukaemia (PML), Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML), Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML), Chronic Lymphacytic Leukaemia (CLL), Multiple Myeloma, Brain Tumour including as Astrocytoma, Glioblastoma, Lymphoma of the Brain, Neuroblastoma, Breast Cancer including including Ductal Carcinoma of the Breast (DCIS) and Lobular Carcinoma of the Breast (LCIS), Bowel Cancer, Cervical Cancer, Colorectal Cancer including Adenocarcinoma of the Rectum and of the Colon, Head and Neck Cancer including Lymphoma of the Tonsil, Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Floor of the Mouth (Oral Cancer), Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Larynx, Pharynx, Tongue, and Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Tonsil (Throat cancer), Kidney Cancer (Renal Cell Carcinoma), Liver Cancer (Hepatocellular Carcinoma), Lung Cancer including Malignant Mesothelioma of the Pleura (Malignant Mesothelioma), Adenocarcinoma of the Lung, Large Cell Carcinoma of the Lung, Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), Small Cell Carcinoma of the Lung, Pleural effusion, Cancer of the Lymphatic System Hodgkin's lymphoma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma including Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (ALCL), Burkitt's lymphoma, Cerebral Lymphoma, Cutaneous T cell Lymphoma, Diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), Muscle Cancer including Biliary Cancer (Cholangiocarcinoma), Leiomyosarcoma of Muscle, Rhabdomyosarcoma of Muscle, Soft tissue Sarcomas, Oesophagus Cancer, Ovarian Cancer, Pancreatic Cancer (Adenocarcinoma of the Pancreas), Pituitary gland Gland Cancer, Prostate Cancer including Neuroendocrine Carcinoma, Adenocarcinoma of the Prostate, Skin Cancer including Basal Cell Carcinoma of the Skin, Malignant Skin Melanoma, Small Intestine Cancer including Small Bowel cancer, Spinal Cord Tumours including Lymphoma, Astrocytoma, Glioma, Meningioma, and Metastases of the Spinal Cord, Stomach cancer, Testicular Cancer including Seminoma and Teratoma of the Testicle, Thyroid Cancer, Uterus Cancer (Adenocarcinoma of the Endometrium), Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Vulva.
Viral infections according to the invention include infection by double-stranded DNA viruses such as viruses of Herpesviridae family include Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV). Furthermore deliberately envisaged are lentiviral and retroviral infections, including HIV infection (AIDS), Hepatitis-A, HBV (hepatitis-B) and HCV (hepatitis-C) infections.
Preferred diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) include:
Alzheimer Disease, Brain Ischemia, Cerebellar Ataxia, Cerebrovascular Accident, Corticobasal Ganglionic Degeneration (CBGD), Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome, Dandy-Walker Syndrome, Dementia, Vascular, Encephalitis, Encephalomyelitis, Epilepsy, Hallervorden-Spatz Syndrome, Huntington Disease, Hydrocephalus, Ischemic Attack, Lacunar Syndromes, Landau-Kleffner Syndrome, Lewy Body Disease, Machado-Joseph Disease, Meige Syndrome, Meningitis, Multiple System Atrophy, Neuroaxonal Dystrophies, Parkinsonian Disorders, Shy-Drager Syndrome, Spinocerebellar Ataxias, Spinocerebellar Degenerations and Tourette Syndrome.
The present invention furthermore provides a compound of the following formula A-L-B, wherein A is selected from compounds of the general formulae (1) to (4) as defined above, L is a linker, B is blebbistatin or an analogue, and “—” is a covalent bond.
This embodiment provides divalent or multivalent compounds binding simultaneously to two or more binding sites of myosin. Such simultaneous binding to two or more binding sites may significantly enhance affinity and/or specificity. Blebbistatin as such has been described in the prior art; see e.g. Kovacs et al. (loc. cit.). Analogues of blebbistatin according to the invention are compounds binding to the blebbistatin binding pocket of myosins and/or exerting substantially the same modulating effect as blebbistatin. Blebbistatin interferes with myosin-2 function by inhibiting ATPase activity by blocking entry into the strong binding state, additionally it reduces the rate of ADP release. Preferred compounds A are carbazoles according to the invention (formulae (2) and (2′)). A preferred attachment site for the linker L on carbazoles according to the invention is the position Y6. The linker L may be the substituent designated Y6. Preferably the linker is a poly-methylene linker with four to eight, more preferred five to seven, most preferred six carbon atoms, i.e., —(CH2)6—. One or more CH2 groups of said linker may be replaced with oxygen or sulphur. Accordingly, envisaged linkers include —O—(CH2)2—O—(CH2)2—. Further linkers are known in the art and can be used for the present invention, wherein it is preferred that the length of said linkers is the same or substantially the same as the length of a poly-methylene linker with four to eight, more preferred five to seven, most preferred six carbon atoms.
In preferred embodiments of the pharmaceutical composition, the use, or the compound of the formula A-L- Blebbistatin according to the invention, said one or more compounds or said compound A, respectively, are selected from compounds of the formulae (1′), (2′) and (3′):
wherein Y1, Y2, Y3, Y4, Y5, Y6, and Y7 are independently selected from H, F, Cl, Br, I, R and OR; R being selected from (i) H, (ii) (CO)CH3, and (iii) linear or branched alkyl, alkenyl or alkinyl with one to four carbon atoms, optionally substituted with one or more F, Cl, Br and/or I; or a salt or solvate thereof.
Preferably, Y1 to Y7, to the extent they are not H, are selected from Cl, Br, OCH3 and CF3. Particularly preferred are Br and CF3.
In more preferred embodiments, (i) Y1, Y4 and Y6 of formula (1′) are H; and/or (ii) Y1, Y4, Y5 and Y7 of formula (2′) are H.
In yet more preferred embodiments, furthermore (i) Y7 of formula (1′) is H; and/or (ii) Y2 of formula (2′) is H.
Accordingly, more preferred carbazoles include
More preferred acridones include
The preferred substitution patterns as defined in the preceding embodiments apply mutatis mutandis O- and S-analoga of the compounds of formulae (1′), and (3′), i.e., to the corresponding dibenzo-furans and dibenzo-thiophenes (O- and S-analoga of the compounds of formulae (1′)), as well as to the corresponding phenyl-furans and phenyl-thiophenes (O- and S-analoga of the compounds of formulae (3′)). Also these O- and S-analogs are embraced by the present invention. Accordingly, a preferred dibenzo-furan is
It is furthermore preferred that the substituents Y1 to Y7 on carbazoles, dibenzo-furans, dibenzo-thiophenes and acridones according to the invention, to the extent said substituents are present, i.e., different from H, are equal. Also, it is preferred that substituents Y1, Y2 and Y3 of pseudilines, phenyl-furans and phenyl-thiophenes of the invention are equal. Furthermore, and independently, it is preferred that substituents Y4 and Y5 of said pseudilines, phenyl-furans and phenyl-thiophenes are equal. Preferably, said substituents which are equal are all Cl, Br, OCH3 (herein also abbreviated “MeO”) or CF3, respectively. Particularly preferred are Br and CF3.
Further compounds of the invention are phenols which are substituted in positions 2, 4 and 6. Preferably, the substituents are selected from Br and CF3. A preferred phenol according to the invention is 2,4,6-tribromo-phenol.
A further class of compounds according to the invention are fluorenes. Preferred fluorenes include 1-amino-9-hydroxy-fluorenes and 2-amino-9-hydroxy-fluorenes, which are optionally substituted, as valence permits, with one or more substituents selected from F, Cl, Br, I, R and OR; R being selected from (i) H, (ii) (CO)CH3, and (iii) linear or branched alkyl, alkenyl or alkinyl with one to four carbon atoms, optionally substituted with one or more F, Cl, Br and/or I. A preferred fluorene according to the invention is 2-amino-3-bromo-9-hydroxy-fluorene.
Further preferred or exemplary compounds are shown below. These compounds—as are all compounds described herein—are inter alia envisaged as starting compounds far the method of designing according to the invention and as lead compounds which may be further optimized by using the lead optimization methods as described herein above. The “HET” series of compounds is herein also referred to as the “KIN” series of compounds. Accordingly, and as an example, “HET-43” and “KIN-43” designate the same compound.
HET-43 is also known as pentabromopseudilin (PBP).
The present invention furthermore provides a method of treating a disease selected from the group consisting of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diseases of the central nervous system, viral infections, and infections by parasites of the Apicomplexa family, the method comprising administering to the subject in need thereof a therapeutically effective amount of one or more compounds as defined herein above.
Another embodiment of the invention is a method of treating a patient suffering from or at risk of developing a disease or condition selected from the group consisting of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diseases of the central nervous system, viral infections, and infections by parasites of the Apicomplexa family, the method comprising administering to the patient a composition comprising one or more of the compounds defined above in a therapeutically effective dose, thereby treating the patient.
Preferred compounds and preferred indications to be treated or prevented by the above methods are described herein above in conjunction with medical uses and pharmaceutical compositions according to the invention.
The Figures show:
Overall view of myosin(Het-43) complex (left). The details of Het-43 positioning in the binding site are shown in the close up (right). The transparent surface represents van-der-waals radii of the atoms forming Het-43 binding site.
(a) Concentrations of KIN-7 in the range from 1 to 50 μM activate the basal ATPase activity of Dictyostelium myosin-2 with an apparent half maximum activation constant AC50 of 18 μM. At concentrations of KIN-74>50 μM the basal ATPase activity of Dictyostelium myosin-2 is inhibited with IC50=90 μM.
(b) In the presence of 30 μM actin KIN-74 inhibits the ATPase activity of Dictyostelium myosin-2 with IC50=88.8 μM
(c) KIN-77 inhibits the basal ATPase activity of myosin-2 approximately 3-fold with IC50=5.3 μM.
(d) Concentrations of KIN-77 in the range from 1 to 100 μM activate the basal ATPase activity of rabbit myosin-2 from 6.1 s-1 to 8.5 s-1 with a half maximum activation constant AC50=19.2 μM. At concentrations of KIN-77>100 μM the actin-activated ATPase activity of rabbit myosin-2 is inhibited 3.5-fold with an IC50=95.6 μM.
The following examples illustrate the invention but should not be construed as being limiting.
Over the past two decades, applications of transition metals for selective C—H bond activation have emerged to a powerful tool in organic synthesis.
Methodologies have been developed for the cyclization of appropriately substituted primary or secondary alkyl- and arylamines, which open up simple and direct approaches to nitrogen-containing heterocyclic ring systems. These transformations are efficiently induced by using either stoichiometric or even catalytic amounts of transition metals (e.g., iron, molybdenum, palladium, or silver). The advantages of this synthetic approach are mild reaction conditions and toleration of a broad range of functional groups. Therefore, the construction of nitrogen-containing heterocyclic frameworks by fusion of fully functionalized building blocks is achieved in just a few synthetic steps. Application of this chemistry in heterocyclic synthesis provides convergent and highly efficient short-step approaches to a variety of biologically active compounds.1
The pyrrole ring system represents a pivotal substructure in naturally occurring alkaloids and pharmaceutical products. Following the classical Hantzsch, Knorr, and Paal-Knorr syntheses numerous alternative assemblies of pyrroles have been reported. Homopropargylamines represent easily available building blocks for pyrrole synthesis. We recently described a novel pyrrole synthesis by silver(I)-mediated oxidative cyclization of homopropargylamines to pyrroles.2 The required precursors are readily accessible by condensation of simple arylaldehydes to Schiff bases and subsequent Lewis acid-promoted addition of 3-trimethyl-silylpropargylmagnesium bromide (Scheme 1). Under optimized reaction conditions, treatment with 1.1 equivalents of silver acetate at room temperature affords the corresponding pyrroles almost quantitatively. This procedure represents a versatile and simple synthetic route to 1,2-diarylpyrroles, which are of interest due to their biological activities.
It is known that silver(I) salts form stable π-complexes with terminal acetylenes. On the other hand, silylacetylenes on treatment with silver nitrate were reported to afford silver acetylides. Based on these considerations and additional experimental evidence,2 the following mechanistic rationale has been provided for the silver(I)-mediated oxidative cyclization of homopropargylamines to pyrroles (Scheme 2). Activation of the acetylene by coordination of the triple bond to the silver cation enables a 5-endo-dig cyclization via nucleophilic attack of the amine. Protonation of the resulting vinyl silver complex leads to an iminium ion. Subsequent β-hydride elimination affords metallic silver and a pyrrylium ion which aromatizes by proton loss to the pyrrole. For trimethylsilyl-substituted homopropargylamines (R3=SiMe3), the resulting pyrrole (R3=SiMe3) undergoes protodesilylation to the 1,2-disubstituted pyrrole.
Highly halogenated bioactive natural products as pentabromo- and pentachloropseudilin are often obtained from marine sources.3 For the construction of their heterocyclic framework a catalytic variant of our silver(I)-mediated pyrrole synthesis was applied: a silver(I)-catalyzed cyclization of the corresponding N-tosylhomopropargylamines (Scheme 3).
Starting from the appropriately substituted precursor, the dichloro- and the difluoro-O-methylpseudilin are available (Scheme 4). Further chlorination and subsequent cleavage of the ether provides pentachloropseudilin, while further bromination followed by ether cleavage leads to the non-natural dichlorotribromopseudilin and difluorotribromopseudilin. Our direct approach can be easily exploited for the generation of a whole series of structural analogues.
A broad structural variety of carbazole alkaloids with useful biological activities has been isolated from different natural sources (Chinese and Indian medicinal plants, marine algae, streptomyces, etc.). The pharmacological potential of this class of natural products led to the development of diverse methodologies for the synthesis of carbazoles.4 We elaborated an efficient iron-mediated construction of the carbazole framework by consecutive C—C and C—N bond formation (Scheme 5). Electrophilic aromatic substitution by reaction of the iron-coordinated cyclohexadienylium salt 1 and the arylamine 2 generates the aryl-substituted iron-cyclohexadiene complex 3. Application of an appropriate oxidizing agent results in oxidative cyclization with concomitant aromatization and demetalation to afford directly the carbazole 4.
An alternative route to the carbazole framework represents the palladium(II)-catalyzed oxidative cyclization of N,N-diarylamines 6, which are readily available by palladium(0)-catalyzed amination of the aryl bromides 5 with the arylamines 2. Heating of the N,N-diarylamines 6 with catalytic amounts of palladium(II) acetate in the presence of copper(II) acetate in acetic acid at reflux results in smooth oxidative cyclization to the corresponding carbazoles 4 (Scheme 5).4
Using the palladium-catalyzed construction of the carbazole framework, an easy access to 1-methoxycarbazole has been achieved (Scheme 6). Dependent on the reagent and the reaction conditions, the subsequent bromination provides either 3,4,6-tribromo-1-methoxycarbazole or 3,4,6,8-tetrabromo-1-methoxycarbazole, which by cleavage of the ether are converted to the corresponding polybrominated 1-hydroxycarbazoles.
The inventors surprisingly found several promising lead compounds; amongst them flavinoids and halogenated alkaloids; see
To identify the PBP binding site and to elucidate the inhibitory mechanism, we solved the cocrystal structure of PBP bound to the Dictyostelium myosin-2 motor domain. The structure shows the inhibitor to bind in a pocket close to the actin binding region at the tip of the 50-kDa domain. Based on the structure, we modeled the binding of PBP to Dictyostelium myosin-1E and chicken myosin-5a. Functional assays confirmed the predictions from the modeling that PBP is most potent as an inhibitor of class-5 myosins, less active for class-2 myosins, and displays weaker activity with class-1 myosins.
To identify the binding mode of PBP, we crystallized the Dictyostelium myosin-2 motor domain MgATP-metavanadate complex in the presence and absence of PBP. We solved the complex structures by molecular replacement and refined them to 2.1 Å and 2.8 Å resolution, respectively. The overall fold of the motor domain in both structures is similar to that reported for the pre-powerstroke conformation. The α-carbon atoms in both structures superimpose with an r.m.s. deviation of 0.695. The electron density for PBP is unambiguous and shows the inhibitor in a conformation where the phenyl and pyrrole ring systems are bent by 12° out of plane and twisted by 20° against each other (
Coordinates for the myosin-2 motor domain—ADP.VO3 and myosin-2 motor domain—ADP.VO3—PBP complexes have been deposited in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) with the accession codes 2JJ9 and 2JHR, respectively.
Binding of PBP requires several rearrangements of residues inside and near the binding pocket. The most extensive of these changes involve residue K265. To allow PBP to bind, the ammonium group of K265 needs to move 3.4 Å towards K423. The movement of K265 involves a change in rotamer and the stabilization of the side chain in its new position by an intricate network of interactions (
Based on the structure of the myosin-2 motor domain with bound PBP, we performed molecular modeling studies to elucidate the specificity of PBP-binding to myosins from different classes. Here, we show the results for the modeling of complexes formed with class-1 and class-5 myosins, representing isoforms that are predicted to interact considerably stronger and weaker with the inhibitor (
Values for the rate of maximum ATP turnover (kcat), the concentration of F-actin at which half-maximal activation is achieved (Kapp), and the apparent second order rate constant for actin binding (kcat/Kapp) were estimated from a fit of the data to a hyperbolic function. kcat/Kapp is a direct measure of the coupling efficiency between actin and nucleotide binding and can be determined from the initial slope at F-actin concentrations much smaller than Kapp. Coupling was 26-fold weaker for myosin-5b (0.32 μM-1 s-1/0.012 μM-1 s-1), whereas a 3.7-fold reduction in coupling was observed for myosin-2 (0.037 μM-1 s-1/0.010 μM-1 s-1). ATP turn-over rates of Dictyostelium myosin-2 (◯) and Dictyostelium myosin-5b (▪) at increasing F-actin concentrations in the absence (filled symbols) and presence (open symbols) of 25 μM pentabromopseudilin (
Effect of Pentabromopseudilin on ATP binding kinetics to DdMyosin-5b and acto-DdMyosin-5b. (
The extent and order of isoform-specific differences in the potency of the inhibitor were additionally confirmed by the results of in vitro motility assays). The histograms shows the average sliding velocity of Rh/Ph-labeled actin filaments in the absence and presence of 10 μM PBP. (
To test the effect of PBP on fully assembled myofilament arrays, we examined the contractile properties of skinned muscle fibre preparations from rabbit psoas muscle. Pentabromopseudilin leads to a more than 4-fold reduction in isometric force development of skinned muscle fibre preparations from rabbit psoas muscle. The Ki is in the same range as that determined for actomyosin ATPase activity. (
To test the specific inhibition of myosin-5 function in a cellular context, we exposed Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells to 100 to 500 nM PBP. S. cerevisiae has five myosin heavy chain genes: a myosin-2, two class-1 myosins, and the class-5 myosins Myo2p and Myo4p. Myo2p plays a crucial role in polarized distribution of mitochondria and is required for retention of newly inherited mitochondria in yeast cells during cell division4-6. Myo4p is required for mRNA transport and facilitates movement of ER tubules into the growing bud. Myo4p null mutants are viable and display no detectable phenotype. Deletion of the myo3 and myo5 genes, encoding class-1 myosins, leads to severe defects in growth and actin cytoskeletal organization. Severe growth defects are also observed upon depletion of the class-2 myosin Myo1p. Therefore, we expected that selective inhibition of class-5 myosins will produce readily detectable changes in the morphology of mitochondria without affecting cell growth and cytokinesis. To facilitate the visual inspection of mitochondrial morphology, we transfected the cells used for these experiments with an expression vector for the production of mitochondria-targeted GFP7. A yeast mutant strain with myo2 expression under the control of the TetO7 promoter was used as control8. Repression of the TetO7 promoter by the addition of 10 μg/ml deoxycycline to the culture medium of this strain led to an apparent fragmentation of mitochondria. Similar phenotypic changes were observed when wild-type cells were exposed to 500 nM PBP for 12 hours (
The results from the actin-activated ATPase measurements clearly demonstrate that PBP impairs the ability of myosins to effectively interact with nucleotides and actin; however the extent of inhibition by PBP is quite different for the individual myosins. The strongest inhibition was observed for class-5 myosins. In this case, the inhibitor caused a more than 25-fold increase in Kapp and an approximately 8-fold decrease in kcat, while the same Michaelis-Menten parameters were less affected for a corresponding myosin-2 motor-domain construct.
Protein preparation. Rabbit fast skeletal muscle heavy meromyosin (HMM) was prepared as described by Kron and Spudich9. Motor domain constructs of myosin-1E, myosin-2, and myosin-5b from Dictyostelium discoideum comprising amino acids 1-698, 1-765, and 1-839 respectively, were prepared as described previouslyl10-12. Myosin-5a heavy meromyosin from chicken brain was provided by Dr. T. Scholz (Hannover Medical School, Germany) and F-actin was prepared as described by Lehrer and Kerwar13.
Crystallization experiments were performed with myosin motor domain construct M761-c14 consisting of an N-terminal His-tag, amino acids 3 to 761 of myosin-2 from D. discoideum followed by a leucine and a glutamate residue and the 14 C-terminal residues of EcoSSB14. The protein was expressed in D. discoideum AX3-ORF+ cells and purified by Ni2+-chelate affinity chromatography as described previously15. Subsequently the protein was applied onto a Resource Q column (GE Healthcare) equilibrated with storage buffer (1 mM magnesium acetate, 0.5 mM EDTA, 0.2 mM EGTA, 1 mM benzamidine, 1 mM DTT, 50 mM Tris/HCl pH 7.5), followed by an elution with a gradient from 0 to 0.5 M KCl. The peak fractions were concentrated to 10 mg/ml using ultrafiltration (Vivaspin 20, Vivascience) and dialyzed against storage buffer containing 3% (w/v) sucrose. Aliquots of 100 μl were flash frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at −80° C.
Synthesis of halogenated pseudilins. PBP and the other halogenated pseudilin derivates used in this study were synthesized using silver(I)-catalyzed pyrrole synthesis for the cyclization reaction to the heterocyclic system as described previously16.
Inhibitor screening. To screen compound libraries for myosin effectors, colorimetric high-throughput assays for myosin ATPase activity were performed with heavy meromyosin (HMM) prepared from rabbit skeletal muscle myosin-2. Nα-Tosyl-L-lysine chloromethyl ketone hydrochloride treated α-chymotrypsin was used for the generation of HMM. Each reaction mixture including the controls contained 2.5% DMSO that was used as solvent for the small organic compounds. Reactions containing HMM (0.01 mg/ml), assay buffer (50 mM KCl, 5 mM CaCl2, 25 mM Tris-HCl pH 7.5) and 25 μM of the respective inhibitor were started by the addition of 50 μM ATP and incubated in for 20 min at 37° C. Reactions were terminated by the addition of Biomoi Green (Biomol, Hamburg, Germany). The amount of dye formed after 20 min color development at room temperature was determined with a Tecan Infinite™ microplate reader (Cralisheim, Germany).
Crystallization and data collection. The complex of M761-c14 with HET43 and ADP-VO3 was obtained by adding 2 mM of PBP, MgCl2, ADP and sodium meta-vanadate to the protein solution and incubation on ice for 1 hour. Crystals of the complex were grown in the dark at 4° C. using the hanging drop geometry. 2 μl of complex solution and 2 μl of reservoir solution were mixed, the latter contained 50 mM HEPES pH 7.4, 140 mM NaCl, 11% w/v PEG8000, 2% (v/v) MPD, 5 mM MgCl2, 5 mM DTT, and 1 mM EGTA. Rectangular shaped crystals appeared within 3 weeks. Prior to diffraction data collection the crystals were soaked for 5 minutes at 4° C. in a cryo-protection solution containing reservoir solution supplemented with 25% ethylene glycol, 2 mM sodium meta-vanadate, 2 mM ADP and 2 mM HET43. Subsequently, crystals were flash-cooled in liquid nitrogen. Diffraction data were collected in house using a Bruker X8PROTEUM equipped with cryo-system, κ-goniometer and CCD-detector. We processed the data with PROTEUM2 software (Bruker AXS).
Molecular modeling. The motor domain structures of Dictyostelium myosin-1E (PDB entry 1 LKX) and chicken myosin-5A (PDB entry 1OE9) were used to model the complexes of class-1 and class-5 myosins with Het43. Initial models were created by inserting HET43 coordinates from superimposed myo2-HET43 complex. Next molecular mechanics energy minimization procedures were performed for HET43 in the new protein environment using the CNS software suit17. The resulting structures were subjected to a more precise quantum chemical energy minimization procedure, using ab initio DFT QM/MM calculations with the 6-31G* basis set of atomic orbitals and B3LYP hybrid functional. The quantum chemical calculations were performed using the PC GAMESS version developed by Alex A. Granovsky (http://www.classic.chem.msu.su/gran/gamess/index.html) of the GAMESS (US) Quantum Chemistry package18.
Steady-state kinetics. Basal and actin-activated Mg2+-ATPase activities were measured with the NADH-coupled assay19 in a buffer containing 25 mM HEPES, 25 mM KCl, and 4 mM MgCl2, 0.5 mM DTT at pH 7.0 in the presence of 1 mM ATP at 25° C. PBP was added to the reaction mixture in the absence of nucleotide and incubated for 20 minutes before the reaction was started by the addition of ATP. NADH oxidation was followed using the change in absorption at 340 nm in a Beckman DU-800 spectrophotometer.
Transient kinetic experiments: Stopped-flow measurements were performed with an Applied Photophysics PiStar instrument in a buffer containing 25 mM HEPES, 25 mM KCl, 1 mM DTT, 4 mM MgCl2, pH 7.0 at 20° C. using procedures and kinetic models described previously (1-3). The binding and hydrolysis of ATP and mantATP, respectively by myosin head fragments were analyzed in terms of the seven-step model described by Bagshaw and coworkers (4). Transients in the presence of actin were analyzed according to the mechanisms described in references 5 and 6.
Direct functional Assays. Actin-sliding motility was performed at 25° C. using an Olympus IX81 inverted fluorescence microscope. Experimental flow cells were constructed using bovine serum albumin (0.5 mg/ml in assay buffer)-coated glass slides and nitrocellulose-coated coverslips. Myosins were actin affinity-purified immediately before use, to remove rigor heads20. Sliding movement was started by adding assay buffer containing 4 mM ATP, 10 mM DTT, 0.5 mg/ml bovine serum albumin, anti-fade solution, and 0.5% methylcellulose to the flow cell. Average sliding velocity was determined from the Gaussian distribution of automatically tracked actin filaments using DiaTrack 3.0 and Origin 7.0.
Quench-flow Experiments. Experiments were performed in a BioLogic QFM-400 apparatus. 20 μl of a 50 μM γ-33P-ATP solution (0.3 μCi/μl) were mixed with an equal amount of 10 μM myosin solution in the absence and presence of 50 μM PBP in the assay buffer (25 mM HEPES, pH 7.3, 4 mM MgCl2, 1 mM DTT, and 25 mM KCl at 25° C.). The reaction was quenched after a well defined period of time by the addition of 176 μl 1 M perchloric acid and rapidly neutralized by 60 μl of an 8 M KOAc. After centrifugation, 2 μl aliquots of the supernatant were spotted on a thin-layer chromatography (TLC) plate (Polygram CEL 300 PEI, cellose-molyethylenimin, Machery-Nagel). The hydrolysis products were separated in a 1.2 M LiCl solution containing 1 M HCOOH. The relative amounts of P1 and ATP were quantified using a phosphorimager (Fujix BAS1000, Fuji), the software MacBAS V 2.4, TINA V 2.09f, and Origin 7.0.
Myo2p-dependent changes in mitochondrial morphology. The predicted strong inhibitory effect of PDP on myosin activity was tested in viva, making use of the phenotypic changes induced by the depletion of the class-5 myosin Myo2p in S. cerevisiae. Yeast strains producing mitochondria-targeted GFP were supplied by Dr. B. Westermann7, allowing us to study the morphology of yeast mitochondria in a fluorescence microscope. Repression of the TetO7 promoter that controls myo2 in one of the mutant strains was achieved by the addition of 10 μg/ml deoxycycline to the culture medium8. Cells were analyzed at the end of the logarithmic growth phase. Yeast cells exposed to 500 nM PDP showed almost the same growth kinetics as wild type control cultures. Addition of 0.05% DMSO used as solvent vehicle for PBP had no effect on growth. Images of the mitochondrial phenotype were acquired using a Zeiss confocal microscope (LSM 510) equipped with a 63× oil immersion objective. Additional images of the same cells in transmitted light were acquired using a Hamamatsu ORCA camera.
KIN-43 shows preferred selectivity for mammalian myosin-5a, KIN-68 displays preferred selectivity for myosin-1 isoforms. In this context, preferred selectivity means a more than 20-fold smaller IC50 value compared to fast skeletal muscle myosin-2 and other references myosins.
Compounds KIN-74, KIN-77 are activators of myosin-2 function. KIN-74 activates the ATPase activity of Dictyostelium myosin-2 in the absence of actin. ATPase activity is uncoupled from motor activity in this situation. The apparent half-maximum activation constant AC50 corresponds to 18 μM. Uncouplers have potential applications in inhibiting the overcontraction and overextension of cardiac muscles without being accompanied with a cardioinhibitory action. Therefore, compounds derived from KIN-74 have potential applications in the treatment of acute myocardial infarction helping to prevent the necrosis of cardiac muscles.
KIN-77 activates the actin-activated ATPase and motor activity of rabbit myosin-2 with a half maximum activation concentration AC50=19.2 μM. KIN-77 is an ideal lead compounds for the development of optimized activators of myosin motor activity, Optimized activators have potential applications in diseases where myosin motility is impaired and contractility needs to be restored, as in the case of cardiomyopathies and congestive heart failures.
Plasmodium sporozoites are moving at very low speed in the salivary glands of infected mosquitoes but are moving at high speed (2 μm/s) upon transmission into the vertebrate host. In vivo microscopy showed that sporozoites can move extensively within the dermis and when associated with blood and lymph vessels, which they can both invade. We followed single parasites using in vitro imaging approaches in combination with our bioactive compounds and discovered some intriguing features of sporozoite motility. Under normal conditions sporozoites move in circles, either counterclockwise or clockwise. Two other states of attachment and waving are less populated.
In the presence of 10 μM KIN-93, the number of sporozoite that followed counterclockwise or clockwise movement was strongly reduced. In addition, their gliding velocity was only half as fast as compared with control parasites. In addition to sporozoite impairment, in vitro growth assays indicate that the compound applied at concentration of 25 μM has an effect on the blood stages of malaria, too, by reducing the number of Plasmodium merozoites. No general cytotoxicity for erythrocytes or for Plasmodium sporozoites was recorded in any of the assays.
Based on the X-ray structures of myosin-2 motor domains in complex with KIN-43 and related inhibitors of myosin function, we have gained a detailed understanding of the pharmacophore requirements of the allosteric binding site. By applying in silico assisted methods, we optimized the pharmacological properties of the initial bioactive compounds. We are using a library of common organic molecules and functional groups and are applying an empirical force field description of the nonbonding interactions between a ligand and the binding site in order to build up de novo compounds with spatial and electrostatic properties complementary to the allosteric binding site. KIN-93 is the result of a target directed drug design that shows improved pharmacological properties in relation to KIN-43. Cell viability is vastly improved in the presence of KIN-93. Neutral red uptake experiments do not reveal any defects. In addition, Medaka fish-based assays show that embryonic development is not impaired in the presence of KIN-93.
The pdb coordinate file below shows the structure of the complex of the carbazole KIN-79 with myosin-2.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/EP08/09891 | 11/21/2008 | WO | 00 | 1/24/2011 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60989773 | Nov 2007 | US |
