Abelson tyrosine-protein kinase 1 as principal target for drug discovery against leukemias. Role of the current computer-aided drug design methodologies

Curr Top Med Chem. 2012;12(24):2745-62. doi: 10.2174/1568026611212240005.

Abstract

The discovery of anti-cancer agents is an area which continues in accelerated expansion. Leukemias (Lkms) are among the most investigated cancers due to its high and dominant prevalence in children. Computer-aided drug design (CADD) methodologies have been extremely important for the discovery of potent anti-Lkms agents, providing essential insights about the molecular patterns which could be involved in the appearance and development of anti-Lkms activity. The present review is focused on the role of the current CADD methodologies for the discovery of anti-Lkms agents with strong emphasis on the in silico prediction of inhibitors against the primary protein associated with the appearance of Lkms: Abelson tyrosine-protein kinase 1 (TPK-ABL1). In order to make a contribution to the field, we also developed a unified ligand-based approach by exploring Quantitative-Structure Activity Relationships (QSAR) studies. Here, we focused on the construction of two multi-targets (mt) QSAR models by employing a large and heterogeneous database of compounds. These models exhibited excellent statistical quality and predictive power to classifying more than 92% of inhibitors/ no inhibitors against seven proteins associated with Lkms, in both training and prediction sets. By using our unified ligand-based approach we identified several fragments as responsible for the anti-Lkms activity through inhibition of proteins, and new molecules were suggested as versatile inhibitors of the seven proteins under study.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Antineoplastic Agents / chemistry*
  • Antineoplastic Agents / pharmacology
  • Binding Sites
  • Child
  • Computer-Aided Design
  • Drug Design
  • Humans
  • Leukemia / drug therapy
  • Molecular Docking Simulation
  • Neoplasm Proteins / antagonists & inhibitors*
  • Neoplasm Proteins / chemistry
  • Protein Binding
  • Protein Kinase Inhibitors / chemistry*
  • Protein Kinase Inhibitors / pharmacology
  • Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / antagonists & inhibitors*
  • Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / chemistry
  • Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship
  • Small Molecule Libraries / chemistry*
  • Small Molecule Libraries / pharmacology

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Neoplasm Proteins
  • Protein Kinase Inhibitors
  • Small Molecule Libraries
  • Protein-Tyrosine Kinases