Péter Ábrányi-Balogh, Dávid Bajusz, Zoltán Orgován, Aaron B. Keeley, László Petri, Nikolett Péczka, Tibor Viktor Szalai, Gyula Pálfy, Márton Gadanecz, Emma K. Grant, Tímea Imre, Tamás Takács, Ivan Ranđelović, Marcell Baranyi, András Marton, Gitta Schlosser, Qirat F. Ashraf, Elvin D. de Araujo, Tamás Karancsi, László Buday, József Tóvári, András Perczel, Jacob T. Bush, György M. Keserű
{"title":"Mapping protein binding sites by photoreactive fragment pharmacophores","authors":"Péter Ábrányi-Balogh, Dávid Bajusz, Zoltán Orgován, Aaron B. Keeley, László Petri, Nikolett Péczka, Tibor Viktor Szalai, Gyula Pálfy, Márton Gadanecz, Emma K. Grant, Tímea Imre, Tamás Takács, Ivan Ranđelović, Marcell Baranyi, András Marton, Gitta Schlosser, Qirat F. Ashraf, Elvin D. de Araujo, Tamás Karancsi, László Buday, József Tóvári, András Perczel, Jacob T. Bush, György M. Keserű","doi":"10.1038/s42004-024-01252-w","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Fragment screening is a popular strategy of generating viable chemical starting points especially for challenging targets. Although fragments provide a better coverage of chemical space and they have typically higher chance of binding, their weak affinity necessitates highly sensitive biophysical assays. Here, we introduce a screening concept that combines evolutionary optimized fragment pharmacophores with the use of a photoaffinity handle that enables high hit rates by LC-MS-based detection. The sensitivity of our screening protocol was further improved by a target-conjugated photocatalyst. We have designed, synthesized, and screened 100 diazirine-tagged fragments against three benchmark and three therapeutically relevant protein targets of different tractability. Our therapeutic targets included a conventional enzyme, the first bromodomain of BRD4, a protein-protein interaction represented by the oncogenic KRasG12D protein, and the yet unliganded N-terminal domain of the STAT5B transcription factor. We have discovered several fragment hits against all three targets and identified their binding sites via enzymatic digestion, structural studies and modeling. Our results revealed that this protocol outperforms screening traditional fully functionalized and photoaffinity fragments in better exploration of the available binding sites and higher hit rates observed for even difficult targets. Fragment screening is a popular strategy for generating viable chemical starting points for drug targets, however, weak affinity to targets, as well as the exploration of the binding site, remain challenging. Here, the authors develop pharmacophore-optimized photoaffinity fragments that can effectively explore the available binding site and enable a high hit rate and better sensitivity.","PeriodicalId":10529,"journal":{"name":"Communications Chemistry","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11292009/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Communications Chemistry","FirstCategoryId":"92","ListUrlMain":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s42004-024-01252-w","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Fragment screening is a popular strategy of generating viable chemical starting points especially for challenging targets. Although fragments provide a better coverage of chemical space and they have typically higher chance of binding, their weak affinity necessitates highly sensitive biophysical assays. Here, we introduce a screening concept that combines evolutionary optimized fragment pharmacophores with the use of a photoaffinity handle that enables high hit rates by LC-MS-based detection. The sensitivity of our screening protocol was further improved by a target-conjugated photocatalyst. We have designed, synthesized, and screened 100 diazirine-tagged fragments against three benchmark and three therapeutically relevant protein targets of different tractability. Our therapeutic targets included a conventional enzyme, the first bromodomain of BRD4, a protein-protein interaction represented by the oncogenic KRasG12D protein, and the yet unliganded N-terminal domain of the STAT5B transcription factor. We have discovered several fragment hits against all three targets and identified their binding sites via enzymatic digestion, structural studies and modeling. Our results revealed that this protocol outperforms screening traditional fully functionalized and photoaffinity fragments in better exploration of the available binding sites and higher hit rates observed for even difficult targets. Fragment screening is a popular strategy for generating viable chemical starting points for drug targets, however, weak affinity to targets, as well as the exploration of the binding site, remain challenging. Here, the authors develop pharmacophore-optimized photoaffinity fragments that can effectively explore the available binding site and enable a high hit rate and better sensitivity.
期刊介绍:
Communications Chemistry is an open access journal from Nature Research publishing high-quality research, reviews and commentary in all areas of the chemical sciences. Research papers published by the journal represent significant advances bringing new chemical insight to a specialized area of research. We also aim to provide a community forum for issues of importance to all chemists, regardless of sub-discipline.