Despite intense interest in expanding chemical space, libraries of hundreds-of-millions to billions of diverse molecules have remained inaccessible. Here, we investigate structure-based docking of 170 million make-on-demand compounds from 130 well-characterized reactions. The resulting library is diverse, representing over 10.7 million scaffolds otherwise unavailable. The library was docked against AmpC β-lactamase and the D 4 dopamine receptor. From the top-ranking molecules, 44 and 549 were synthesized and tested, respectively. This revealed an unprecedented phenolate inhibitor of AmpC, which was optimized to 77 nM, the most potent non-covalent AmpC inhibitor known. Crystal structures of this and other new AmpC inhibitors confirmed the docking predictions. Against D 4 , hit rates fell monotonically with docking score, and a hit-rate vs. score curve predicted 453,000 D 4 ligands in the library. Of 81 new chemotypes discovered, 30 were sub-micromolar, including a 180 pM sub-type selective agonist.

Morphine is an alkaloid from the opium poppy used to treat pain. The potentially lethal side effects of morphine and related opioids—which include fatal respiratory depression—are thought to be mediated by μ-opioid-receptor (μOR) signalling through the β-arrestin pathway or by actions at other receptors. Conversely, G-protein μOR signalling is thought to confer analgesia. Here we computationally dock over 3 million molecules against the μOR structure and identify new scaffolds unrelated to known opioids. Structure-based optimization yields PZM21—a potent Gi activator with exceptional selectivity for μOR and minimal β-arrestin-2 recruitment. Unlike morphine, PZM21 is more efficacious for the affective component of analgesia versus the reflexive component and is devoid of both respiratory depression and morphine-like reinforcing activity in mice at equi-analgesic doses. PZM21 thus serves as both a probe to disentangle μOR signalling and a therapeutic lead that is devoid of many of the side effects of current opioids.

Summary Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that has been implicated in processes as diverse as reward, addiction, control of coordinated movement, metabolism and hormonal secretion. Correspondingly, dysregulation of the dopaminergic system has been implicated in diseases ranging from schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, nausea and vomiting, among others. Dopamine’s actions are mediated by a family of five G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) (viz. D1, D2, D3, D4 and D5)1. The D2 dopamine receptor (DRD2) is the primary target for both typical2 and atypical3,4 antipsychotic drugs, and for Parkinson’s disease drugs. Unfortunately, many drugs targeting DRD2 frequently suffer from serious and potentially life-threatening side effects due to promiscuous activities against related receptors4,5. Accordingly, a molecular understanding of DRD2 structure and function could provide a template for the design of safer and more effective medications. Here we provide the crystal structure of DRD2 in complex with the widely prescribed atypical antipsychotic drug risperidone. The DRD2-risperidone structure reveals an unexpected mode of antipsychotic drug binding to dopamine receptors, and illuminates structural determinants essential for the actions of risperidone and related drugs at DRD2.

SUMMARY The prototypical hallucinogen LSD acts via serotonin receptors, and here we describe the crystal structure of LSD in complex with the human serotonin receptor 5-HT2B. The complex reveals conformational rearrangements to accommodate LSD, providing a structural explanation for the conformational selectivity of LSD’s key diethylamide moiety. LSD dissociates exceptionally slowly from both 5-HT2BR and 5-HT2AR -- a major target for its psychoactivity. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations suggest that LSD’s slow binding kinetics may be due to a “lid” formed by extracellular loop 2 (EL2) at the entrance to the binding pocket. A mutation predicted to increase the mobility of this lid greatly accelerates LSD’s binding kinetics and selectively dampens LSD-mediated β-arrestin2 recruitment. This study thus reveals an unexpected binding mode of LSD, illuminates key features of its kinetics, stereochemistry, and signaling, and provides a molecular explanation for LSD’s actions at human serotonin receptors.

Dopamine receptors are implicated in the pathogenesis and treatment of nearly every neuropsychiatric disorder. Although thousands of drugs interact with these receptors, our molecular understanding of dopaminergic drug selectivity and design remains clouded. To illuminate dopamine receptor structure, function, and ligand recognition, we determined crystal structures of the D4 dopamine receptor in its inactive state bound to the antipsychotic drug nemonapride, with resolutions up to 1.95 angstroms. These structures suggest a mechanism for the control of constitutive signaling, and their unusually high resolution enabled a structure-based campaign for new agonists of the D4 dopamine receptor. The ability to efficiently exploit structure for specific probe discovery-rapidly moving from elucidating receptor structure to discovering previously unrecognized, selective agonists-testifies to the power of structure-based approaches.