Computational Drug Repositioning for Chagas Disease Using Protein-Ligand Interaction Profiling

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Alfredo Juárez-Saldivar - , Instituto Politécnico Nacional (Author)
  • Michael Schroeder - , Biotechnology Center, Chair of Bioinformatics (Author)
  • Sebastian Salentin - , Biotechnology Center (Author)
  • V Joachim Haupt - , Biotechnology Center (BIOTEC) (Author)
  • Emma Saavedra - , Instituto Nacional de Cardiologia Ignacio Chavez (Author)
  • Citlali Vázquez - , Instituto Nacional de Cardiologia Ignacio Chavez (Author)
  • Francisco Reyes-Espinosa - , Instituto Politécnico Nacional (Author)
  • Verónica Herrera-Mayorga - , Instituto Politécnico Nacional (Author)
  • Juan Carlos Villalobos-Rocha - , Instituto Politécnico Nacional (Author)
  • Carlos A García-Pérez - , Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health (Author)
  • Nuria E Campillo - , Center for Biological Research (CIB-CSIC) (Author)
  • Gildardo Rivera - , Instituto Politécnico Nacional (Author)

Abstract

Chagas disease, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi), affects nearly eight million people worldwide. There are currently only limited treatment options, which cause several side effects and have drug resistance. Thus, there is a great need for a novel, improved Chagas treatment. Bifunctional enzyme dihydrofolate reductase-thymidylate synthase (DHFR-TS) has emerged as a promising pharmacological target. Moreover, some human dihydrofolate reductase (HsDHFR) inhibitors such as trimetrexate also inhibit T. cruzi DHFR-TS (TcDHFR-TS). These compounds serve as a starting point and a reference in a screening campaign to search for new TcDHFR-TS inhibitors. In this paper, a novel virtual screening approach was developed that combines classical docking with protein-ligand interaction profiling to identify drug repositioning opportunities against T. cruzi infection. In this approach, some food and drug administration (FDA)-approved drugs that were predicted to bind with high affinity to TcDHFR-TS and whose predicted molecular interactions are conserved among known inhibitors were selected. Overall, ten putative TcDHFR-TS inhibitors were identified. These exhibited a similar interaction profile and a higher computed binding affinity, compared to trimetrexate. Nilotinib, glipizide, glyburide and gliquidone were tested on T. cruzi epimastigotes and showed growth inhibitory activity in the micromolar range. Therefore, these compounds could lead to the development of new treatment options for Chagas disease.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number4270
JournalInternational journal of molecular sciences
Volume21
Issue number12
Publication statusPublished - 16 Jun 2020
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMedCentral PMC7348847
Scopus 85086754443
ORCID /0000-0003-2848-6949/work/141543362

Keywords

Sustainable Development Goals

Keywords

  • Chagas Disease/drug therapy, Computer Simulation, Drug Repositioning, Folic Acid Antagonists/chemistry, Glipizide/chemistry, Glyburide/chemistry, Humans, Ligands, Molecular Docking Simulation, Molecular Structure, Pyrimidines/chemistry, Structure-Activity Relationship, Sulfonylurea Compounds/chemistry, Trypanocidal Agents/chemistry, Trypanosoma cruzi/drug effects