Structure- and ligand-based virtual screening identifies new scaffolds for inhibitors of the oncoprotein MDM2

PLoS One. 2015 Apr 17;10(4):e0121424. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0121424. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

A major challenge in the field of ligand discovery is to identify chemically useful fragments that can be developed into inhibitors of specific protein-protein interactions. Low molecular weight fragments (with molecular weight less than 250 Da) are likely to bind weakly to a protein's surface. Here we use a new virtual screening procedure which uses a combination of similarity searching and docking to identify chemically tractable scaffolds that bind to the p53-interaction site of MDM2. The binding has been verified using capillary electrophoresis which has proven to be an excellent screening method for such small, weakly binding ligands.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Binding Sites
  • Electrophoresis, Capillary
  • Fluorescence Polarization
  • Humans
  • Imidazoles / chemistry
  • Imidazoles / metabolism
  • Ligands*
  • Molecular Docking Simulation
  • Piperazines / chemistry
  • Piperazines / metabolism
  • Protein Binding
  • Protein Interaction Domains and Motifs
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-mdm2 / antagonists & inhibitors*
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-mdm2 / metabolism
  • Small Molecule Libraries / chemistry
  • Small Molecule Libraries / metabolism

Substances

  • Imidazoles
  • Ligands
  • Piperazines
  • Small Molecule Libraries
  • nutlin 3
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-mdm2