Abstract
We describe in this work a successful virtual screening and experimental testing aimed to the identification of novel inhibitors of superoxide dismutase of the worm Taenia solium (TsCu/Zn–SOD), a human parasite. Conformers from LeadQuest® database of drug-like compounds were selected and then docked on the surface of TsCu/Zn–SOD. Results were screened looking for ligand contacts with receptor side-chains not conserved in the human homologue, with a subsequent development of a score optimization by a set of energy minimization steps, aimed to identify lead compounds for in vitro experiments. Six out of fifty experimentally tested compounds showed μM inhibitory activity toward TsCu/Zn–SOD. Two of them showed species selectivity since did not inhibit the homologous human enzyme when assayed in vitro.






Similar content being viewed by others
References
Del Brutto OH, Sotelo J, Roman GC (1998) Neurocysticercosis: a clinical handbook. Swets and Zeitlinger Publisher, Lisse, pp 216–222
García HH, González AE, Evans CA, Gilman RH (2003) Taenia solium cysticercosis. Lancet 362:547–556
Wallin MT, Kurtzke JF (2004) Neurocysticercosis in the United States. Review of an important emerging infection. Neurology 63:1559–1564
Bern C, García HH, Evans C, González AE, Verastegui M, Tsang VC, Gilman RH (1999) Magnitude of the disease burden from neurocysticercosis in a developing country. Clin Infect Dis 29:1203–1209
Carpio A, Escobar A, Hauser WA (1998) Cysticercosis and epilepsy: a critical review. Epilepsia 39:1025–1040
Mafojane NA, Appleton CC, Krecek RC, Michael LM, Willingham AL (2003) The current status of neurocysticercosis in Eastern and Southern Africa. Acta Trop 87:25–33
Takayanagui OM, Jardim E (1992) Therapy for neurocysticercosis: comparison between albendazole and praziquantel. Arch Neurol 49:290–294
Chong MS, Hawkins CP, Cook GC, Hawkes CH, Kocen RS (1991) A resistant case of neurocysticercosis. Postgrad Med J 67:577–578
Köhler P (2001) The biochemical basis of anthelminthic action and resistance. Int J Parasitol 31:336–345
Stepek G, Behnke JM, Buttle DJ, Duce IR (2004) Natural plant cysteine proteinases as anthelmintics? Trends Parasitol 20:323–327
Fridovich I (1998) Oxygen toxicity: a radical explanation. J Exp Biol 201:1203–1209
Vaca-Paniagua F, Torres-Rivera A, Unda-Parra R, Landa A (2008) Taenia solium: Antioxidant metabolism enzymes as target for cestocidal drugs and vaccines. Curr Top Med Chem 8:393–399
Birnboim HC, Kanabus-Kaminka M (1985) The production of DNA strands breaks in human leukocytes by superoxide anion may involve a metabolic process. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 82:6820–6824
Henkle-Dührsen K, Kampkötter A (2001) Antioxidant enzyme families in parasitic nematodes. Mol Biochem Parasitol 114:129–142
Loverde PT (1998) Do antioxidants play a role in schistosoma host parasite interactions? Parasitol Today 4:284–289
Monroy-Ostria A, Monroy-Ostria TJ, Gómez G, Hernández MO (1993) Some studies on experimental infection of golden hamsters with Taenia solium. Rev Lat Microbiol 35:91–98
Sánchez-Moreno M, León P, Salas-Peregrin JM, Osuna A (1988) Superoxide dismutase in trematodes. Arzneimittelforschung 37:903–905
Sánchez-Moreno M, García-Ruiz A, García-Rejón L, Valero A, León P (1989) Superoxide dismutase in cestodes. Isoenzymatic characterization and studies of inhibition by series of benzimidazoles and by pyrimidine derivates of recent synthesis. Drug Res 39:759–761
Sánchez-Moreno M, Entrala E, Janssen D, Fernández-Becerra C, Salas-Peregrin JM, Osuna A (1996) Inhibition of superoxide dismutase from Ascaris suum by benzimidazols and synthesized pyrimidine and glycine derivatives. Pharmacology 52:61–68
Castellanos-González A, Jiménez L, Landa A (2002) Cloning, production and characterization of a recombinant Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase from Taenia solium. Int J Parasitol 81:541–546
Sanz AM, Gómez-Contreras F, Navarro P, Sánchez-Moreno M, Boutaleb-Charki S, Campuzano J, Pardo M, Osuna A, Cano C, Yunta MJR, Campayo L (2008) Efficient inhibition of iron superoxide dismutase and of growth Trypanosoma cruzi by benzo[g]phthalazine derivatives functionalized with one or two imidazole rings. J Med Chem 51:1962–1966
Temperton NJ, Wilkinson SR, Meyer DJ, Kelly JM (1998) Overexpression of superoxide dismutase in T. cruzi results in increased sensitivity to the trypanocidal agents gentian violet and benznidazole. Mol Biochem Parasitol 96:167–176
Hernández-Santoyo A, Landa A, González-Mondragón E, Pedraza-Escalona M, Parra-Unda R, Rodríguez-Romero A (2011) Crystal structure of Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase from Taenia solium reveals metal-mediated self-assembly. FEBS J (In press)
Molecular Operating Environment (MOE). Chemical Computing Group, Inc. CCG, Montreal, Canada. http://www.chemcomp.com. Versions 2005.06 and 2007.09
LeadQuest® Compound Library, April 2006, Exelgen, Inc. 1699 South Hanley Road, St. Louis, MO 63144 USA
Liang J, Edelsbrunner H, Woodward C (1998) Anatomy of protein pockets and cavities: Measurement of binding site geometry and implications for ligand design. Protein Sci 7:1884–1897
Edelsbrunner H Weighted Alpha Shapes. Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61810
This function estimates the enthalpic contribution to the free energy of binding using a linear function: G = C hb f hb + C ion f ion + C mlig f mlig + C hh f hh + C hp f hp + C aa f aa, where the f terms fractionally count atomic contacts of specific types and the Cs are coefficients that weight the term contributions to estimate the docking score
Wood ER, Truesdale AT, McDonald OB, Yuan D, Hassell A, Dickerson SH, Ellis B, Pennisi C, Horne E, Lackey K, Alligood KJ, Rusnak DW, Gilmer TM, Shewchuk L (2004) A unique structure for epidermal growth factor receptor bound to GW572016 (Lapatinib): relationships among protein conformation, inhibitor off-rate, and receptor activity in tumor cells. Cancer Res 64:6652–6659
Kuntz ID (1993) Structure–base strategies for drug design and discovery. Science 33:107–115
Trott O, Olson AJ (2010) AutoDock Vina: improving the speed and accuracy of docking with a new scoring function, efficient optimization, and multithreading. J Comput Chem 31:455–461
Sanner MF (1999) Python: a programming language for software integration and development. J Mol Graph Model 17:57–61
McCord JM, Fridovich I (1969) Superoxide dismutase. An enzymic function for erythrocuprein (hemocuprein). J Biol Chem 244:6049–6055
Perola E, Charifson P (2004) Conformational analysis of drug-like molecules bound to proteins: An extensive study of ligand reorganization upon binding. J Med Chem 47:2499–2510
Laurie ATR, Jackson RM (2006) Methods for the prediction of protein–ligand binding sites for structure-based drug design and virtual ligand screnning. Curr Protein Pept Sci 7:395–406
Molinspiration Property Calculation Service. http://www.molinspiration.com
Park MS, Dessal AL, Smrcka AV, Stern HA (2009) Evaluating docking methods for prediction of binding affinities of small molecules to the G protein beta-gamma subunits. J Chem Inf Model 49:437–443
Cardinale D, Salo-Ahen OMH, Ferrari S, Ponterini G, Cruciani G, Carosati E, Tochowicz AM, Mangani S, Wade RC, Costi MP (2010) Homodimeric enzymes as drug targets. Curr Med Chem 17:826–846
Banci L, Benedetto I, Bertini R, Del Conte M, Piccioli M, Viezzoli MS (1998) Solution structure of reduced monomeric Q133M2 copper, zinc superoxide dismutase. Why is SOD a dimeric enzyme? Biochemistry 37:11780–11791
Banci L, Bertini I, Del Conte R, Mangani S, Viezzoli MS, Fadin R (1999) The solution structure of a monomeric reduced form of human copper, zinc superoxide dismutase bearing the same charge as the native protein. J Biol Inorg Chem 4:795–803
Ferraroni M, Rypniewski W, Wilson KS, Viezzoli MS, Banci L, Bertini I, Mangani S (1999) The crystal structure of the monomeric human SOD mutant F50/G51E/E133Q at atomic resolution. The enzyme mechanism revisited. J Mol Biol 288:413–426
Luty BA, El Amrani S, McCammon JA (1993) Simulation of the bimolecular reaction between superoxide and superoxide dismutase: synthesis of the encounter and reaction steps. J Am Chem Soc 115:11874–11877
Banci L, Bertini I, Cramaro F, Del Conte R, Rosato A, Viezzoli MS (2000) Backbone dynamics of human Cu, Zn superoxide dismustase and of its monomeric F50/EG51E/E133Q mutant: The influence of dimerization on mobility and function. Biochemistry 39:9108–9118
Acknowledgments
This work was partially suported by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología-México (CONACyT, 105532, 80134-M, ECOS M05-501) and the Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico (DEGAPA, IN 207507-3). P.G.-G. and R.P.-U. also thank CONACyT for graduate studies grants.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
10822_2011_9498_MOESM1_ESM.doc
Supplementary Material Available: 2D structures and LeadQuest® ID for all the fifty experimentally tested compounds with high docking score predicted as inhibitors for TsCu/Zn–SOD. 2D structures and LeadQuest® ID for the twenty experimentally tested compounds with low docking scores used as negative control. Schemes for ligand-interactions of active compounds in site 1 in the optimized pose with lowest binding energy. List of residues that constituted the potential binding sites for docking on the surface of TsCu/Zn–SOD identified with Site_Finder–MOE and CASTp. Interaction energies and docking scores before and after energy minimizations for fifty experimentally tested compounds. Comparison between Dock–MOE and AutoDock–Vina docking scores for compounds 1–6 against TsCu/Zn-SOD enzyme. (DOC 1382 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
García-Gutiérrez, P., Landa-Piedra, A., Rodríguez-Romero, A. et al. Novel inhibitors to Taenia solium Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase identified by virtual screening. J Comput Aided Mol Des 25, 1135–1145 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10822-011-9498-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10822-011-9498-x