Discovery of inhibitors of the pentein superfamily protein dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH), by virtual screening and hit analysis.

An efficient process for the discovery of inhibitors of DDAH enzymes, without the requirement for high throughput screening, is described. Physicochemical filtering of a 308,000-compound library according to drug likeness followed by reciprocal nearest neighbour selection produced a representative subset of 35,000 compounds. Virtual screening on a dual processor PC using FlexX, followed by biological screening, identified two hit series.

Disruption of methylarginine metabolism impairs vascular homeostasis.

Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and monomethyl arginine (L-NMMA) are endogenously produced amino acids that inhibit all three isoforms of nitric oxide synthase (NOS). ADMA accumulates in various disease states, including renal failure, diabetes and pulmonary hypertension, and its concentration in plasma is strongly predictive of premature cardiovascular disease and death. Both L-NMMA and ADMA are eliminated largely through active metabolism by dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH) and thus DDAH dysfunction may be a crucial unifying feature of increased cardiovascular risk.