Ecto-5′-nucleotidase (ecto-5′-NT, CD73) is a zinc-binding metallophosphatase that plays a key role in extracellular purinergic pathways, being implicated in several physiological and pathophysiological processes, such as immune homeostasis, inflammation, and tumor progression. As such, it has been recognized as a promising biological target for many diseases, including cancer, infections, and autoimmune diseases. Despite its importance, so far only a few inhibitors of this target enzyme are known, most of which are not suitable as drug candidates. Here, we aimed to search for hydroxamic acid-containing compounds as potential human ecto-5′-NT inhibitors, since this group is known to be a strong zinc chelator. To this end, we performed a hierarchical virtual screening (VS) search consisting of three consecutive steps (filtering for compounds bearing a hydroxamic acid group, shape-based matching, and docking followed by visual inspection), which were applied to screen the ZINC-14 database ("all purchasable subset"). Out of 25 compounds selected by this VS protocol, 12 were acquired and further submitted to enzymatic assays for VS experimental validation. Four of them (i.e., 33.3%) were found to inhibit human ecto-5′-NT in the low micromolar range. The most potent one showed an IC 50 value of 6.2 ± 1.0 μM. All identified inhibitors satisfy drug-like criteria and provide novel scaffolds to be explored in further hit-to-lead optimization steps. Furthermore, to the best of our knowledge, they are the first hydroxamic acid-containing inhibitors of human ecto-5′-NT described so far.
Promiscuous inhibition due to aggregate formation has been recognized as a major concern in drug discovery campaigns. Here, we report some aggregators identified in a virtual screening (VS) protocol to search for inhibitors of human ecto-5′-nucleotidase (ecto-5′-NT/CD73), a promising target for several diseases and pathophysiological events, including cancer, inflammation and autoimmune diseases. Four compounds (A, B, C and D), selected from the ZINC-11 database, showed IC50 values in the micromolar range, being at the same time computationally predicted as potential aggregators. To confirm if they inhibit human ecto-5′-NT via promiscuous mechanism, forming aggregates, enzymatic assays were done in the presence of 0.01% (v/v) Triton X-100 and an increase in the enzyme concentration by 10-fold. Under both experimental conditions, these four compounds showed a significant decrease in their inhibitory activities. To corroborate these findings, turbidimetric assays were performed, confirming that they form aggregate species. Additionally, aggregation kinetic studies were done by dynamic light scattering (DLS) for compound C. None of the identified aggregators has been previously reported in the literature. For the first time, aggregation and promiscuous inhibition issues were systematically studied and evaluated for compounds selected by VS as potential inhibitors for human ecto-5′-NT. Together, our results reinforce the importance of accounting for potential false-positive hits acting by aggregation in drug discovery campaigns to avoid misleading assay results.
Lipid peroxidation generates a huge number of reactive electrophilic aldehyde products.These reactive aldehydes can modify macromolecules such as proteins, resulting in loss of function and/or aggregation. The accumulation of Cu,Zn-superoxide dismutase (SOD1) aggregates is associated with familial cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Recent studies have shown that lipid and its oxidized derivatives may play a role in this process. Here we aimed to compare and characterize the ability of lipid-derived electrophiles with different hydrophobicities to induce SOD1 modification and aggregation in vitro. SOD1 was incubated with 4-hydroxy-2-hexenal (HHE), 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (HNE), 2-hexen-1-al (HEX), 2,4-nonadienal (NON), 2,4-decadienal (DEC) or secosterol aldehydes (Seco-A or Seco-B) at 37°C for 24 h. Size exclusion chromatography analysis showed that hydrophobic aldehydes markedly enhances apo-SOD1 aggregation. More importantly, aggregation level was positively correlated to calculated aldehyde hydrophobicities (LogP). Protein sequencing by LC-MS/MS showed that aldehydes covalently modifies SOD1 at aggregation prone regions. For instance, specific lysine residues located mainly nearby the dimer interface (K3, K9) and at the electrostatic loop (K122, K128, K136) were ubiquitously modified by all aldehydes. The a,b-unsaturated aldehydes also promoted modifications on histidine and cysteine residues, with H120 and C6 being the most commonly modified residues. Overall, our data suggest that electrophile`s hydrophobicity is a critical factor that strongly influences protein aggregation propensity.
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