Dual targeted hit identification using pharmacophore screening

Recently, the article dedicated to the development of dual-targeted inhibitors of mycobacterial aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases using pharmacophore screening has been published.

Abstract:

Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection remains a major cause of global morbidity and mortality due to the increase of antibiotics resistance. Dual/multi-target drug discovery is a promising approach to overcome bacterial resistance. In this study, we built ligand-based pharmacophore models and performed pharmacophore screening in order to identify hit compounds targeting simultaneously two enzymes - M. tuberculosis leucyl-tRNA synthetase (LeuRS) and methionyl-tRNA synthetase (MetRS). In vitro aminoacylation assay revealed five compounds from different chemical classes inhibiting both enzymes. Among them the most active compound - 3-(3-chloro-4-methoxy-phenyl)-5-[3-(4-fluoro-phenyl)-[1,2,4]oxadiazol-5-yl]-3H-[1,2,3]triazol-4-ylamine (1) inhibits mycobacterial LeuRS and MetRS with IC₅₀ values of 13 μM and 13.8 μM, respectively. Molecular modeling study indicated that compound 1 has similar binding mode with the active sites of both aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases and can be valuable compound for further chemical optimization in order to find promising antituberculosis agents.     

• Dual-targeted hit identification using pharmacophore screening. Volynets GP, Starosyla SA, Rybak MYu, Bdzhola VG, Kovalenko OP, Vdovin VS, Yarmoluk SM, Tukalo MA. J Comput. Aided-Mol. Des. 2019, 33: 955-964.