Virtual Screening Directly Identifies New Fragment-Sized Inhibitors of Carboxylesterase Notum with Nanomolar Activity

J Med Chem. 2022 Jan 13;65(1):562-578. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.1c01735. Epub 2021 Dec 23.

Abstract

Notum is a negative regulator of Wnt signaling acting through the hydrolysis of a palmitoleoylate ester, which is required for Wnt activity. Inhibitors of Notum could be of use in diseases where dysfunctional Notum activity is an underlying cause. A docking-based virtual screen (VS) of a large commercial library was used to shortlist 952 compounds for experimental validation as inhibitors of Notum. The VS was successful with 31 compounds having an IC50 < 500 nM. A critical selection process was then applied with two clusters and two singletons (1-4d) selected for hit validation. Optimization of 4d guided by structural biology identified potent inhibitors of Notum activity that restored Wnt/β-catenin signaling in cell-based models. The [1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-b]pyradizin-3(2H)-one series 4 represent a new chemical class of Notum inhibitors and the first to be discovered by a VS campaign. These results demonstrate the value of VS with well-designed docking models based on X-ray structures.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Binding Sites
  • Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases / antagonists & inhibitors*
  • Crystallography, X-Ray
  • Enzyme Inhibitors / chemical synthesis*
  • Enzyme Inhibitors / pharmacology*
  • Esterases / antagonists & inhibitors*
  • High-Throughput Screening Assays
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Docking Simulation
  • Protein Binding
  • Structure-Activity Relationship
  • Wnt Signaling Pathway / drug effects
  • beta Catenin / drug effects

Substances

  • Enzyme Inhibitors
  • beta Catenin
  • Esterases
  • Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases
  • Notum protein, mouse