Exploration of Novel Inhibitors for Bruton's Tyrosine Kinase by 3D QSAR Modeling and Molecular Dynamics Simulation

PLoS One. 2016 Jan 19;11(1):e0147190. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0147190. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) is a cytoplasmic, non-receptor tyrosine kinase which is expressed in most of the hematopoietic cells and plays an important role in many cellular signaling pathways. B cell malignancies are dependent on BCR signaling, thus making BTK an efficient therapeutic target. Over the last few years, significant efforts have been made in order to develop BTK inhibitors to treat B-cell malignancies, and autoimmunity or allergy/hypersensitivity but limited success has been achieved. Here in this study, 3D QSAR pharmacophore models were generated for Btk based on known IC50 values and experimental energy scores with extensive validations. The five features pharmacophore model, Hypo1, includes one hydrogen bond acceptor lipid, one hydrogen bond donor, and three hydrophobic features, which has the highest correlation coefficient (0.98), cost difference (112.87), and low RMS (1.68). It was further validated by the Fisher's randomization method and test set. The well validated Hypo1 was used as a 3D query to search novel Btk inhibitors with different chemical scaffold using high throughput virtual screening technique. The screened compounds were further sorted by applying ADMET properties, Lipinski's rule of five and molecular docking studies to refine the retrieved hits. Furthermore, molecular dynamic simulation was employed to study the stability of docked conformation and to investigate the binding interactions in detail. Several important hydrogen bonds with Btk were revealed, which includes the gatekeeper residues Glu475 and Met 477 at the hinge region. Overall, this study suggests that the proposed hits may be more effective inhibitors for cancer and autoimmune therapy.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Agammaglobulinaemia Tyrosine Kinase
  • Drug Design
  • Drug Stability
  • Humans
  • Hydrogen Bonding
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Docking Simulation
  • Molecular Dynamics Simulation
  • Protein Binding
  • Protein Kinase Inhibitors / chemistry*
  • Protein Kinase Inhibitors / pharmacology*
  • Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / antagonists & inhibitors*
  • Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / metabolism*
  • Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship

Substances

  • Protein Kinase Inhibitors
  • Protein-Tyrosine Kinases
  • Agammaglobulinaemia Tyrosine Kinase
  • BTK protein, human

Grants and funding

Dr. Rohit S. Bavi was financially supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from BK21 PLUS program of Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development, South Korea. This research was supported by the Pioneer Research Center Program through the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (NRF-2015M3C1A3023028). This work was also supported by the Next-Generation BioGreen 21 Program (PJ01106202) from Rural Development Administration (RDA) of Republic of Korea. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.