• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.28 no.3
• /
• pp.379-385
• /
• 2007

Receptor-oriented pharmacophore-based in silico screening is a powerful tool for rapidly screening large number of compounds for interactions with a given protein. Inhibition of the enzyme catechol-Omethyltransferase (COMT) offers a novel possibility for treating Parkinson's disease. Bisubstrate inhibitors of COMT containing the adenine of S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) and a catechol moiety are a new class of potent and selective inhibitor. In the present study, we used receptor-oriented pharmacophore-based in silico screening to examine the interactions between the active site of human COMT and bisubstrate inhibitors. We generated 20 pharmacophore maps, of which 4 maps reproduced the docking model of hCOMT and a bisubstrate inhibitor. Only one of these four, pharmacophore map I, effectively described the common features of a series of bisubstrate inhibitors. Pharmacophore map I consisted of one hydrogen bond acceptor (to Mg2+), three hydrogen bond donors (to Glu199, Glu90, and Gln120), and one hydrophobic feature (an active site region surrounded by several aromatic and hydrophobic residues). This map represented the most essential pharmacophore for explaining interactions between hCOMT and a bisubstrate inhibitor. These results revealed a pharmacophore that should help in the development of new drugs for treating Parkinson's disease.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
• /
• v.14 no.6
• /
• pp.727-731
• /
• 2005

Synthesized Ile-Ala-Val-Pro (IAVP) peptide, which has the highest hypocholesterolemic effect among a number of synthesized derivatives of Ile-Ala-Val-Pro-Gly-Glu-Val-Ala (IAVPGEVA) isolated from 11S globulin of soy protein by pepsin digestion, was selected for investigation in the present study. Using a recombinant Syrian hamster 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase (HMGR), we studied in detail the inhibition of this enzyme by IAVP and compared the action of this peptide to that of lovastatin, a known competitive inhibitor of this enzyme. The concentration of IAVP required for 50% inhibition ($IC_{50}$) of HMGR activity in given experimental conditions was $340\;{\mu}M$. Kinetic analysis revealed that the studied peptide is a competitive inhibitor of HMGR with respect to both 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH), with an equilibrium constant of inhibitor binding ($K_i\;=\;[E][I]/[EI]$) of $61{\pm}1.2\;{\mu}M$ and $157{\pm}4.4\;{\mu}M$, respectively. At the same conditions, $K_i$ and $IC_{50}$ for lovastatin were $2.2{\pm}0.1\;nM$ and 12.5 nM, respectively. Thus, the given peptide interacts with HMGR as a bisubstrate, consequently blocking access of both substrates to the active sites. The achieved results suggest the design of new peptide sequences having a higher relative affinity to binding sites of this enzyme and an enhancement of their hypocholesterolemic properties.