Design, synthesis and structural characterisation of inhibitors of 1-Deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate Synthase

Due to the emergence of pathogenic organisms with resistance to classical antibiotics, the developmemt of new drugs is needed. The enzyme 1-deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate synthase (DXPS) is a potential target for such a new antibiotic. DXPS is the first enzyme of the methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathway, one of two known pathways for the biosynthesis of essential terpene building-blocks. It is found in many bacteria and plants, whereas most other organisms, especially mammals, use the mevalonate pathway. Inhibition of the MEP pathway is therefore one way to impare the growth and survival of microorganisms. The focus of this thesis is the protein structure of DXPS and the identification and development of DXPS inhibitors. In Chapter 1.2 an overview of the enzyme and the metabolic pathway is given, Chapter 1.3 updates on developments since 2017. Chapter 1.4 introduces our general workflow for protein-templated dynamic combinatorial chemistry (ptDCC). The main part describes in Chapters 2.1 and 2.2 protein crystallographic work to improve the resolution of D. radiodurans DXPS and structural elucidation of DXPS homologous from pathogenic species. In parallel, the hit-identification strategies ligandbased virtual screening (Chapter 2.3) and ptDCC (Chapter 2.4) were applied to find DXPS inhibitors. Finally, Chapter 2.5 describes the development and crystallographic validation of bioisosters for acylhydrazone-based ptDCC hits.Aufgrund der Zunahme von antibiotika-resistenten Pathogenen ist die Entwicklung neuer Antibiotika erforderlich. Das Enzym 1-Desoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphat-Synthase (DXPS) ist ein potenzielles Ziel für eine solche Neuentwicklung. DXPS ist das erste Enzym des Methylerythritolphosphat (MEP)-Weges, einer von zwei Stoffwechselwegen für die Biosynthese der essentiellen Terpen bausteine. Er kommt in vielen Bakterien und Pflanzen vor, wohingegen die meisten anderen Organismen, insbesondere Säugetiere, den Mevalonatweg nutzen. Die Hemmung des MEP-Weges ist daher eine Möglichkeit, das Wachstum und Überleben von Mikroorganismen gezielt zu beeinträchtigen. Der Schwerpunkt dieser Arbeit liegt auf der Proteinstruktur von DXPS sowie der Identifizierung und Entwicklung von DXPS-Inhibitoren. Zunächst wird ein Überblick über das Enzym, den MEP-Weg und den aktuellen Forschungsstand seit 2017 gegeben (Kapitel 1.2 und 1.3). Das Protokoll unserer Arbeitsgruppe für protein-templierte dynamische kombinatorische Chemie (ptDCC) wird anschließend in Kapitel 1.4 vorgestellt. Der Hauptteil beschriebt in den Kapiteln 2.1 und 2.2 proteinkristallographische Arbeiten zur Verbesserung der Auflösung von D. radiodurans DXPS sowie zur Strukturaufklärung von DXPS-homologen von Pathogenen. Parallel dazu wurden die Hit-identifikations- Strategien ligandenbasiertes virtuelles Screening (Kapitel 2.3) und ptDCC (Kapitel 2.4) angewandt, um DXPS-Inhibitoren zu finden. Abschließend wird in Kapitel 2.5 die Entwicklung und kristallographische Validierung von Bioisosteren für Acylhydrazon-basierte ptDCC-Hits beschrieben.LIFT gran

AI is a viable alternative to high throughput screening: a 318-target study

: High throughput screening (HTS) is routinely used to identify bioactive small molecules. This requires physical compounds, which limits coverage of accessible chemical space. Computational approaches combined with vast on-demand chemical libraries can access far greater chemical space, provided that the predictive accuracy is sufficient to identify useful molecules. Through the largest and most diverse virtual HTS campaign reported to date, comprising 318 individual projects, we demonstrate that our AtomNet® convolutional neural network successfully finds novel hits across every major therapeutic area and protein class. We address historical limitations of computational screening by demonstrating success for target proteins without known binders, high-quality X-ray crystal structures, or manual cherry-picking of compounds. We show that the molecules selected by the AtomNet® model are novel drug-like scaffolds rather than minor modifications to known bioactive compounds. Our empirical results suggest that computational methods can substantially replace HTS as the first step of small-molecule drug discovery

DXS as a target for structure-based drug design

In this review, we analyze the enzyme DXS, the first and rate-limiting protein in the methylerythritol 4-phosphate pathway. This pathway was discovered in 1996 and is one of two known metabolic pathways for the biosynthesis of the universal building blocks for isoprenoids. It promises to offer new targets for the development of anti-infectives against the human pathogens, malaria or tuberculosis. We mapped the sequence conservation of 1-deoxy-xylulose-5-phosphate synthase on the protein structure and analyzed it in comparison with previously identified druggable pockets. We provide a recent overview of known inhibitors of the enzyme. Taken together, this sets the stage for future structure-based drug design