Docking studies of benzylidene anabaseine interactions with α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) and acetylcholine binding proteins (AChBPs): Application to the design of related α7 selective ligands
作者:David C. Kombo、Anatoly Mazurov、Kartik Tallapragada、Philip S. Hammond、Joseph Chewning、Terry A. Hauser、Montserrat Vasquez-Valdivieso、Daniel Yohannes、Todd T. Talley、Palmer Taylor、William S. Caldwell
DOI:10.1016/j.ejmech.2011.09.033
日期:2011.11
AChBPs isolated from Lymnaea stagnalis (Ls), Aplysia californica (Ac) and Bulinus truncatus (Bt) have been extensively used as structural prototypes to understand the molecular mechanisms that underlie ligand-interactions with nAChRs [1]. Here, we describe docking studies on interactions of benzylidene anabaseine analogs with AChBPs and alpha 7 nAChR. Results reveal that docking of these compounds using Glide software accurately reproduces experimentally-observed binding modes of DMXBA and of its active metabolite, in the binding pocket of Ac. In addition to the well-known nicotinic pharmacophore (positive charge, hydrogen-bond acceptor, and hydrophobic aromatic groups), a hydrogen-bond donor feature contributes to binding of these compounds to Ac. Bt, and the alpha 7 nAChR. This is consistent with benzylidene anabaseine analogs with OH and NH2 functional groups showing the highest binding affinity of these congeners, and the position of the ligand shown in previous X-ray crystallographic studies of ligand-Ac complexes. In the predicted ligand-Ls complex, by contrast, the ligand OH group acts as hydrogen-bond acceptor. We have applied our structural findings to optimizing the design of novel spirodiazepine and spiroimidazoline quinuclidine series. Binding and functional studies revealed that these hydrogen-bond donor containing compounds exhibit improved affinity and selectivity for the alpha 7 nAChR subtype and demonstrate partial agonism. The gain in affinity is also due to conformational restriction, tighter hydrophobic enclosures, and stronger cation-pi interactions. The use of AChBPs structure as a surrogate to predict binding affinity to alpha 7 nAChR has also been investigated. On the whole, we found that molecular docking into Ls binding site generally scores better than when a alpha 7 homology model, Bt or Ac crystal structure is used. (C) 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.