Identification of Small‐Molecule Scaffolds for P450 Inhibitors

Mycobacterium tuberculosis cytochrome P450 enzymes (P450, CYP) attract ongoing interest for their pharmacological development potential, as evidenced by the activity of antifungal azole drugs that inhibit sterol 14α-demethylase CYP51 in fungi, tightly bind M. tuberculosis CYP enzymes, and display inhibitory potential against latent and multi drug resistant forms of tuberculosis both in vitro and in tuberculosis-infected mice. Although “piggy-backing” onto existing antifungal drug development programs would have obvious practical and economic benefits, the substantial differences between fungal CYP51 and potential CYP targets in M. tuberculosis are driving direct screening efforts against CYP enzymes with the ultimate goal of developing potent CYP-specific inhibitors and/or molecular probes to address M. tuberculosis biology. The property of CYP enzymes to shift the ferric heme Fe Soret band in response to ligand binding provides the basis for an experimental platform for high throughput screening (HTS) of compound libraries to select chemotypes with high binding affinities to the target. Newly discovered compounds can be evaluated in in vitro assays or in vivo disease models for inhibitory/therapeutic effects. The best inhibitors in complex with the target protein can be further characterized by x-ray crystallography. In conjunction with knowledge about compound inhibition potential, detailed structural characterization of the protein-inhibitor binding mode can guide lead optimization strategies to assist drug design. This unit includes protocols for compound library screening, analysis of inhibitory potential of the screen hits, and co-crystallization of top hits with the target CYP. Support protocols are provided for expression and purification of soluble CYP enzymes