A search of broader range of chemical space is important for drug discovery. Different methods of computer-aided drug discovery (CADD) are known to propose compounds in different chemical spaces as hit molecules for the same target protein. This study aimed at using multiple CADD methods through open innovation to achieve a level of hit molecule diversity that is not achievable with any particular single method. We held a compound proposal contest, in which multiple research groups participated and predicted inhibitors of tyrosine-protein kinase Yes. This showed whether collective knowledge based on individual approaches helped to obtain hit compounds from a broad range of chemical space and whether the contest-based approach was effective.

Transmission and reflection measurements on polyamide nanocomposite films were performed in the THz frequency region, and the dielectric function was calculated using the Debye model to interpret the data. The relaxation time from the signal of orientation polarization due to the permanent dipole moments exhibits intermolecular interaction. In nanocomposites, the extreme increase of the interaction from polymer clay was first observed by THz spectroscopy. The essential interaction was thought to occur between the amide functional (−NH) group in polyamide-6 and the surface of the clay by considering the correlation with the results of infrared spectroscopy.

We propose a new iterative screening contest method to identify target protein inhibitors. After conducting a compound screening contest in 2014, we report results acquired from a contest held in 2015 in this study. Our aims were to identify target enzyme inhibitors and to benchmark a variety of computer-aided drug discovery methods under identical experimental conditions. In both contests, we employed the tyrosine-protein kinase Yes as an example target protein. Participating groups virtually screened possible inhibitors from a library containing 2.4 million compounds. Compounds were ranked based on functional scores obtained using their respective methods, and the top 181 compounds from each group were selected. Our results from the 2015 contest show an improved hit rate when compared to results from the 2014 contest. In addition, we have successfully identified a statistically-warranted method for identifying target inhibitors. Quantitative analysis of the most successful method gave additional insights into important characteristics of the method used.

As the number of structurally resolved protein-ligand complexes increases, the ligand-binding pockets of many proteins have been found to accommodate multiple different compounds. Effective use of these structural data is important for developing virtual screening (VS) methods that identify bioactive compounds. Here, we introduce a VS method, VS-APPLE (Virtual Screening Algorithm using Promiscuous Protein-Ligand complExes), based on promiscuous protein-ligand binding structures. In VS-APPLE, multiple ligands bound to a pocket are combined into a query template for screening. Both the structural match between a test compound and the multiple-ligand template and the possible collisions between the test compound and the target protein are evaluated by an efficient geometric hashing method. The performance of VS-APPLE was examined on a filtered, clustered version of the Directory of Useful Decoys data set. In Area Under the Curve analyses of this data set, VS-APPLE outperformed several popular screening programs. Judging from the performance of VS-APPLE, the structural data of promiscuous protein-ligand bindings could be further analyzed and exploited for developing VS methods.

We discuss methods and ideas of virtual screening (VS) for drug discovery by examining the performance of VS-APPLE, a recently developed VS method, which extensively utilizes the tendency of single binding pockets to bind diversely different ligands, i.e. promiscuity of binding pockets. In VS-APPLE, multiple ligands bound to a pocket are spatially arranged by maximizing structural overlap of the protein while keeping their relative position and orientation with respect to the pocket surface, which are then combined into a multiple-ligand template for screening test compounds. To greatly reduce the computational cost, comparison of test compound structures are made only with limited regions of the multiple-ligand template. Even when we use the narrow regions with most densely populated atoms for the comparison, VSAPPLE outperforms other conventional VS methods in terms of Area Under the Curve (AUC) measure. This region with densely populated atoms corresponds to the consensus region among multiple ligands. It is typically observed that expansion of the sampled region including more atoms improves screening efficiency. However, for some target proteins, considering only a small consensus region is enough for the effective screening of test compounds. These results suggest that the performance test of VS methods sheds light on the mechanisms of protein-ligand interactions, and elucidation of the protein-ligand interactions should further help improvement of VS methods.

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Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV8; also known as Kaposi's sarcoma‐associated herpesvirus [KSHV]) utilizes the viral E3 ubiquitin ligase family members K3 and K5 for immune evasion. Both K3 and K5 mediate the ubiquitination of host MHC class I (MHC‐I) molecules, which play a key role in antigen presentation to cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs). Because ubiquitinated MHC‐I is immediately down‐regulated from the cell surface, HHV8‐infected cells can escape surveillance by CTLs. K3 and K5 have similar domain structures and topologies. They contain an N‐terminal RINGv ubiquitin ligase domain, two transmembrane helices, and an intrinsically disordered cytoplasmic tail at the C‐terminus. The cytoplasmic tail contains a membrane‐proximal “conserved region” involved in ligase activity. On the other hand, the role of the membrane‐distal region of the cytoplasmic tail, termed the “C‐tail” in this study, remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that the C‐tail contributes to the protein expression of both K3 and K5. The C‐tail‐truncated K3 and K5 mutants were rapidly reduced in cells. The recombinant C‐tail proteins bind to acidic lipids via a basic charge cluster located near the C‐terminus of the C‐tails. Similar to the C‐tail‐truncated mutants, the basic charge cluster‐substituting mutants showed decreased protein expression of K3 and K5. These findings suggest that the basic charge cluster near the C‐terminus of the cytoplasmic tail contributes to the molecular stability of K3 and K5.