Kerui Chen, Li Luo, Gao Tu, Jingyi Yang, Wang Pu, Junyu Zhu, Weiwei Xue, Rui Zhang
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
The environmental factor aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), a key protein connecting the external environmental signals (e.g., environmental endocrine disruptor TCDD) to internal cellular processes, is involved in the activation of peripheral macrophages and inflammatory response in human body. Thus, there is widespread interest in finding compounds to anti-inflammatory response in macrophages by targeting human AhR. Here, ensemble docking based-virtual screening was first used to screen a library (~200,000 compounds) against human AhR ligand binding domain (LBD) and 25 compounds were identified as potential inhibitors. Then, 9 out of the 25 ligands were found to down-regulate the mRNA expression of CYP1A1 (a downstream gene of AhR signaling) in AhR overexpressing macrophages. The most potent compound AE-411/41415610 was selected for further study and found to reduce both mRNA and protein expressions level of CYP1A1 in mouse peritoneal macrophage. Moreover, protein chip signal pathway analysis indicated that AE-411/41415610 play a role in regulating JAK–STAT and AKT–mTOR pathways. In sum, the discovered hits with novel scaffolds provided a starting point for future design of more effective AhR-targeted lead compounds to regulate CYP1A1 expression of inflammatory peritoneal macrophages.
期刊介绍:
Chemical Biology & Drug Design is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that is dedicated to the advancement of innovative science, technology and medicine with a focus on the multidisciplinary fields of chemical biology and drug design. It is the aim of Chemical Biology & Drug Design to capture significant research and drug discovery that highlights new concepts, insight and new findings within the scope of chemical biology and drug design.