Publications by authors named "Dries Van Rompaey"

Human dose prediction (HDP) is a useful tool for compound optimization in preclinical drug discovery. We describe here our exclusively in silico HDP strategy to triage compound designs for synthesis and experimental profiling. Our goal is a model that provides a preliminary estimate of the dose for a given exposure target based on chemical structure.

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We here introduce the Aquamarine (AQM) dataset, an extensive quantum-mechanical (QM) dataset that contains the structural and electronic information of 59,783 low-and high-energy conformers of 1,653 molecules with a total number of atoms ranging from 2 to 92 (mean: 50.9), and containing up to 54 (mean: 28.2) non-hydrogen atoms.

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Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major cause of hospitalization in infants, the elderly, and immune-compromised patients. While a half-life extended monoclonal antibody and 2 vaccines have recently been approved for infants and the elderly, respectively, options to prevent disease in immune-compromised patients are still needed. Here, we describe spiro-azetidine oxindoles as small molecule RSV entry inhibitors displaying favorable potency, developability attributes, and long-acting PK when injected as an aqueous suspension, suggesting their potential to prevent complications following RSV infection over a period of 3 to 6 months with 1 or 2 long-acting intramuscular (IM) or subcutaneous (SC) injections in these immune-compromised patients.

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It is common practice in the early drug discovery process to conduct in vitro screening experiments using liver microsomes in order to obtain an initial assessment of test compound metabolic stability. Compounds which bind to liver microsomes are unavailable for interaction with the drug metabolizing enzymes. As such, assessment of the unbound fraction of compound available for biotransformation is an important factor for interpretation of in vitro experimental results and to improve prediction of the in vivo metabolic clearance.

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There has been a wave of generative models for molecules triggered by advances in the field of Deep Learning. These generative models are often used to optimize chemical compounds towards particular properties or a desired biological activity. The evaluation of generative models remains challenging and suggested performance metrics or scoring functions often do not cover all relevant aspects of drug design projects.

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Fibroblast activation protein (FAP) is a proline-selective serine protease. It is hardly expressed in healthy adult tissue but upregulated in tissue remodeling sites associated with several diseases including epithelial cancer types, atherosclerosis, arthritis and fibrosis. Ongoing research aims at clinical implementation of FAP as a biomarker for these diseases.

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Target-guided synthesis (TGS) has emerged as a promising strategy in drug discovery. Although reported examples of TGS generally involve two-component reactions, there is a strong case for developing target-guided versions of three-component reactions (3CRs) because of their potential to deliver highly diversified druglike molecules. To this end, the Groebke-Blackburn-Bienaymé reaction was selected as a model 3CR.

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Ferroptosis is an iron-catalyzed, nonapoptotic form of regulated necrosis that results in oxidative lipid damage in cell membranes that can be inhibited by the radical-trapping antioxidant Ferrostatin-1 (Fer-1). Novel inhibitors derived from the Fer-1 scaffold inhibited ferroptosis potently but suffered from solubility issues. In this paper, we report the synthesis of a more stable and readily soluble series of Fer-1 analogues that potently inhibit ferroptosis.

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A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has been fixed in the paper.

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Receptor interacting protein kinase 1 (RIPK1) plays a crucial role in tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-induced necroptosis, suggesting that this pathway might be druggable. Most inhibitors of RIPK1 are classified as either type II or type III kinase inhibitors. This opened up some interesting perspectives for the discovery of novel inhibitors that target the active site of RIPK1.

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The pro-inflammatory cytokine thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) plays a pivotal role in the pathophysiology of various allergy disorders that are mediated by type 2 helper T cell (Th2) responses, such as asthma and atopic dermatitis. TSLP forms a ternary complex with the TSLP receptor (TSLPR) and the interleukin-7-receptor subunit alpha (IL-7Rα), thereby activating a signaling cascade that culminates in the release of pro-inflammatory mediators. In this study, we conducted an in silico characterization of the TSLP:TSLPR complex to investigate the drugability of this complex.

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The pro-inflammatory cytokine thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) is pivotal to the pathophysiology of widespread allergic diseases mediated by type 2 helper T cell (Th2) responses, including asthma and atopic dermatitis. The emergence of human TSLP as a clinical target against asthma calls for maximally harnessing its therapeutic potential via structural and mechanistic considerations. Here we employ an integrative experimental approach focusing on productive and antagonized TSLP complexes and free cytokine.

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