Label-free single-molecule detection has been achieved so far by funnelling a large number of ligands into a sequence of single-binding events with few recognition elements host on nanometric ...transducers. Such approaches are inherently unable to sense a cue in a bulk milieu. Conceptualizing cells' ability to sense at the physical limit by means of highly-packed recognition elements, a millimetric sized field-effect-transistor is used to detect a single molecule. To this end, the gate is bio-functionalized with a self-assembled-monolayer of 10
capturing anti-Immunoglobulin-G and is endowed with a hydrogen-bonding network enabling cooperative interactions. The selective and label-free single molecule IgG detection is strikingly demonstrated in diluted saliva while 15 IgGs are assayed in whole serum. The suggested sensing mechanism, triggered by the affinity binding event, involves a work-function change that is assumed to propagate in the gating-field through the electrostatic hydrogen-bonding network. The proposed immunoassay platform is general and can revolutionize the current approach to protein detection.
Drug-induced blockade of the human ether-à-go-go-related gene (hERG) channel is today considered the main cause of cardiotoxicity in postmarketing surveillance. Hence, several ligand-based ...approaches were developed in the last years and are currently employed in the early stages of a drug discovery process for in silico cardiac safety assessment of drug candidates. Herein, we present the first structure-based classifiers able to discern hERG binders from nonbinders. LASSO regularized support vector machines were applied to integrate docking scores and protein–ligand interaction fingerprints. A total of 396 models were trained and validated based on: (i) high-quality experimental bioactivity information returned by 8337 curated compounds extracted from ChEMBL (version 25) and (ii) structural predictor data. Molecular docking simulations were performed using GLIDE and GOLD software programs and four different hERG structural models, namely, the recently published structures obtained by cryoelectron microscopy (PDB codes: 5VA1 and 7CN1) and two published homology models selected for comparison. Interestingly, some classifiers return performances comparable to ligand-based models in terms of area under the ROC curve (AUCMAX = 0.86 ± 0.01) and negative predictive values (NPVMAX = 0.81 ± 0.01), thus putting forward the herein proposed computational workflow as a valuable tool for predicting hERG-related cardiotoxicity without the limitations of ligand-based models, typically affected by low interpretability and a limited applicability domain. From a methodological point of view, our study represents the first example of a successful integration of docking scores and protein–ligand interaction fingerprints (IFs) through a support vector machine (SVM) LASSO regularized strategy. Finally, the study highlights the importance of using hERG structural models accounting for ligand-induced fit effects and allowed us to select the best-performing protein conformation (made available in the Supporting Information, SI) to be employed for a reliable structure-based prediction of hERG-related cardiotoxicity.
We present MuSSeL, a multifingerprint similarity search algorithm, able to predict putative drug targets for a given query small molecule as well as to return a quantitative assessment of its ...bioactivity in terms of Ki or IC50 values. Predictions are automatically made exploiting a large collection of high quality experimental bioactivity data available from ChEMBL (version 22.1) combining, in a consensus-like approach, predictions resulting from a similarity search performed using 13 different fingerprint definitions. Importantly, the herein proposed algorithm is also effective in detecting and handling activity cliffs. A calibration set including small molecules present in the last updated version of ChEMBL (version 23) was employed to properly tune the algorithm parameters. Three randomly built external sets were instead challenged for model performances. The potential use of MuSSeL was also challenged by a prospective exercise for the prediction of five bioactive compounds taken from articles published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry just few months ago. The paper emphasizes the importance of implementing multifingerprint consensus strategies to increase the confidence in prediction of similarity search algorithms and provides a fast and easy-to-run tool for drug target and bioactivity prediction.
•hERG primary anti-target responsible for serious side-effects.•hERG structure–activity relationships, data and models.•hERG channels structure and pathophysiology.•Testing screening methods and CIPA ...guidelines.•hERG target with a role in cancer.
hERG is best known as a primary anti-target, the inhibition of which is responsible for serious side effects. A renewed interest in hERG as a desired target, especially in oncology, was sparked because of its role in cellular proliferation and apoptosis. In this study, we survey the most recent advances regarding hERG by focusing on SAR in the attempt to elucidate, at a molecular level, off-target and on-target actions of potential hERG binders, which are highly promiscuous and largely varying in structure. Understanding the rationale behind hERG interactions and the molecular determinants of hERG activity is a real challenge and comprehension of this is of the utmost importance to prioritize compounds in early stages of drug discovery and to minimize cardiotoxicity attrition in preclinical and clinical studies.
We report how the understanding of SAR and the informed use of reliable data and models are pivotal to modulate the interplay with hERG channels.
We present a theoretical investigation of the effects of substitution of the triphenylamine (TPA) block on the overall properties of materials based on small push–pull molecules designed as donors ...for organic photovoltaics (OPV). In particular, we exploit modern computational techniques such as density functional theory (DFT), time-dependent DFT, molecular dynamics, and the Marcus theory to analyze the charge and exciton transport properties in crystalline and amorphous phases of four compounds in which one phenyl ring of the TPA block of 2-(5-{4-methyl(phenyl)aminophenyl}thiophen-2-yl)methylenemalononitrile is replaced with a methyl, an α-naphthyl, and a β-naphthyl. Our calculations unveil the molecular rationale behind the different transport properties observed in the experiments. We show that, although the effects of the substituents on the electronic and optical properties are negligible, they have an impact on the molecular packing of the crystalline structure, thus explaining the different macroscopic transport properties (observed and calculated). In particular, the substitution of a phenyl with a methyl favors face-to-face π–π packing in the crystal structure and allows a good π-orbital overlap and high hopping rates. On the other hand, the introduction of an α-naphthyl group generates a steric hindrance that negatively affects the transport properties. Moreover, the investigated substitutions do not significantly influence the degree of local order in the amorphous bulks displaying complete disorder and low hole mobilities. These results, in agreement with the experimental findings, suggest that our computational approach is able to account for the macroscopic effect of subtle transformations of a molecular structure on transport properties and thus can be further employed to obtain valuable insights into the molecular design of optimized active materials for OPV.
In the absence of an approved vaccine, developing effective severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antivirals is essential to tackle the current pandemic health crisis due to ...the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spread. As any traditional drug discovery program is a time-consuming and costly process requiring more than one decade to be completed, in silico repurposing of existing drugs is the preferred way for rapidly selecting promising clinical candidates. We present a virtual screening campaign to identify covalent and non-covalent inhibitors of the SARS-CoV-2 papain-like protease (PLpro) showing potential multitarget activities (i.e., a desirable polypharmacology profile) for the COVID-19 treatment. A dataset including 688 phase III and 1,702 phase IV clinical trial drugs was downloaded from ChEMBL (version 27.1) and docked to the recently released crystal structure of PLpro in complex with a covalently bound peptide inhibitor. The obtained results were analyzed by combining protein-ligand interaction fingerprint similarities, conventional docking scores, and MM-GBSA-binding free energies and allowed the identification of some interesting candidates for further in vitro testing. To the best of our knowledge, this study represents the first attempt to repurpose drugs for a covalent inhibition of PLpro and could pave the way for new therapeutic strategies against COVID-19.
We explore the relation between the morphological and the charge transport properties of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and poly(2,5-bis(3-alkylthiophen-2-yl)thieno3,2-bthiophene) (PBTTT) ...semiconductor polymers in both amorphous and crystalline phases. Using molecular dynamics to simulate bulk supercells and the Marcus theory to analyze the transport properties we found that amorphous systems display a reduced hole mobility due to the loss of nematic order and π-π stacking leading to a reduction in the electronic coupling between two chains. In the crystal phase, PBTTT displays a larger charge mobility than P3HT due to the interdigitation of the side chains enhancing the stability of the conjugated rings on the backbones. This more stable π-π stacking reduces the energetic disorder with respect to P3HT and increases the electronic coupling. In contrast, in the amorphous phase, PBTTT displays a reduced charge mobility with respect to P3HT due to the absence of side chains attached to the thienothiophenes, which increases their fluctuations and the energetic disorder. In addition, we show that it is possible to calculate the reorganization energy neglecting the side chains of the polymers and thus saving computational time. Within this approximation, we obtained mobility values matching the experimental measurements, thus confirming that the side chains are crucial to shape the morphology of the polymeric systems but are not involved in the charge transport process.
In this continuing work, we have updated our recently proposed Multi-fingerprint Similarity Search algorithm (MuSSel) by enabling the generation of dominant ionized species at a physiological pH and ...the exploration of a larger data domain, which included more than half a million high-quality small molecules extracted from the latest release of ChEMBL (version 24.1, at the time of writing). Provided with a high biological assay confidence score, these selected compounds explored up to 2822 protein drug targets. To improve the data accuracy, samples marked as prodrugs or with equivocal biological annotations were not considered. Notably, MuSSel performances were overall improved by using an object-relational database management system based on PostgreSQL. In order to challenge the real effectiveness of MuSSel in predicting relevant therapeutic drug targets, we analyzed a pool of 36 external bioactive compounds published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry from October to December 2018. This study demonstrates that the use of highly curated chemical and biological experimental data on one side, and a powerful multi-fingerprint search algorithm on the other, can be of the utmost importance in addressing the fate of newly conceived small molecules, by strongly reducing the attrition of early phases of drug discovery programs.
The Shwachman–Diamond Syndrome (SDS) is an autosomal recessive disease whose majority of patients display mutations in a ribosome assembly protein named Shwachman–Bodian–Diamond Syndrome protein ...(SBDS). A specific therapy for treating this rare disease is missing, due to the lack of knowledge of the molecular mechanisms responsible for its pathogenesis. Starting from the observation that SBDS single-point mutations, localized in different domains of the proteins, are responsible for an SDS phenotype, we carried out the first comparative Molecular Dynamics simulations on three SBDS mutants, namely R19Q, R126T and I212T. The obtained 450-ns long trajectories were compared with those returned by both the open and closed forms of wild type SBDS and strongly indicated that two distinct conformations (open and closed) are both necessary for the proper SBDS function, in full agreement with recent experimental observations. Our study supports the hypothesis that the SBDS function is governed by an allosteric mechanism involving domains I and III and provides new insights into SDS pathogenesis, thus offering a possible starting point for a specific therapeutic option.
Although the approved vaccines are proving to be of utmost importance in containing the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) threat, they will hardly be resolutive as new severe acute respiratory ...syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, a single-stranded RNA virus) variants might be insensitive to the immune response they induce. In this scenario, developing an effective therapy is still a dire need. Different targets for therapeutic antibodies and diagnostics have been identified, among which the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) glycoprotein, particularly its receptor-binding domain, has been defined as crucial. In this context, we aim to focus attention also on the role played by the S N-terminal domain (S1-NTD) in the virus attachment, already recognized as a valuable target for neutralizing antibodies, in particular, building on a cavity mapping indicating the presence of two druggable pockets and on the recent literature hypothesizing the presence of a ganglioside-binding domain. In this perspective, we aim at proposing S1-NTD as a putative target for designing small molecules hopefully able to hamper the SARS-CoV-2 attachment to host cells.
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