Antiretrovirals inhibit arginase in human microglia.

Preliminary evidence in an animal model, that is, primary cultures of rat microglia cells, suggested that some antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), namely darunavir, atazanavir, efavirenz, and nevirapine, increase NO production through a mechanism involving the inhibition of arginase (ARG) activity. This study was conceived to investigate the effects of ARVs on ARG activity in a human experimental model. We compared CHME-5 human microglial immortalized cells under basal conditions with cells exposed to either IL-4, a mix of inflammatory cytokines, or both stimuli given together.

Screening of benzamidine-based thrombin inhibitors via a linear interaction energy in continuum electrostatics model.

A series of 27 benzamidine inhibitors covering a wide range of biological activity and chemical diversity was analysed to derive a Linear Interaction Energy in Continuum Electrostatics (LIECE) model for analysing the thrombin inhibitory activity. The main interactions occurring at the thrombin binding site and the preferred binding conformations of inhibitors were explicitly biased by including into the LIECE model 10 compounds extracted from X-ray solved thrombin-inhibitor complexes available from the Protein Data Bank (PDB). Supported by a robust statistics (r(2) = 0.

Discovery of a novel class of potent coumarin monoamine oxidase B inhibitors: development and biopharmacological profiling of 7-[(3-chlorobenzyl)oxy]-4-[(methylamino)methyl]-2H-chromen-2-one methanesulfonate (NW-1772) as a highly potent, selective, reversible, and orally active monoamine oxidase B inhibitor.

In an effort to discover novel selective monoamine oxidase (MAO) B inhibitors with favorable physicochemical and pharmacokinetic profiles, 7-[(m-halogeno)benzyloxy]coumarins bearing properly selected polar substituents at position 4 were designed, synthesized, and evaluated as MAO inhibitors. Several compounds with MAO-B inhibitory activity in the nanomolar range and excellent MAO-B selectivity (selectivity index SI > 400) were identified. Structure-affinity relationships and docking simulations provided valuable insights into the enzyme-inhibitor binding interactions at position 4, which has been poorly explored.

Improving quantitative structure-activity relationships through multiobjective optimization.

A multiobjective optimization algorithm was proposed for the automated integration of structure- and ligand-based molecular design. Driven by a genetic algorithm, the herein proposed approach enabled the detection of a number of trade-off QSAR models accounting simultaneously for two independent objectives. The first was biased toward best regressions among docking scores and biological affinities; the second minimized the atom displacements from a properly established crystal-based binding topology.

An integrated approach to ligand- and structure-based drug design: development and application to a series of serine protease inhibitors.

A novel approach was developed to rationally interface structure- and ligand-based drug design through the rescoring of docking poses and automated generation of molecular alignments for 3D quantitative structure-activity relationship investigations. The procedure was driven by a genetic algorithm optimizing the value of a novel fitness function, accounting simultaneously for best regressions among binding-energy docking scores and affinities and for minimal geometric deviations from properly established crystal-based binding geometry. The GRID/CPCA method, as implemented in GOLPE, was used to feature molecular determinants of ligand binding affinity for each molecular alignment.

Screening of matrix metalloproteinases available from the protein data bank: insights into biological functions, domain organization, and zinc binding groups.

A total of 142 matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) X-ray crystallographic structures were retrieved from the Protein Data Bank (PDB) and analyzed by an automated and efficient routine, developed in-house, with a series of bioinformatic tools. Highly informative heat maps and hierarchical clusterograms provided a reliable and comprehensive representation of the relationships existing among MMPs, enlarging and complementing the current knowledge in the field. Multiple sequence and structural alignments permitted better location and display of key MMP motifs and quantification of the residue consensus at each amino acid position in the most critical binding subsites of MMPs.