Characterization and exploitation of protein ligand interactions for structure based drug design

Most characterised protein-small molecule interactions that display a change in heat capacity (\bigtriangleupCp) occur with a negative \bigtriangleupCp value. This is often attributed to solvent reorganisation from reduction in solvent accessible apolar surface area accompanying complex formation. Positive \bigtriangleupCp values have not been widely reported and could typically be attributed to an increased solvent accessible apolar surface area, desolvation of polar surface area or structural transitions in the biomolecular complex. Heat shock protein-90 (Hsp90) is one of the abundant and important molecular ATP-dependent chaperones. The N-terminal domain of Hsp90 contains ATP/ADP binding site, where Hsp90-ADP interactions proceed with a large positive \bigtriangleupCp of 2.35 ± 0.46 kJ·mol-1·K-1. Interestingly geldanamycin, an Hsp90 inhibitor which binds to the same N-Hsp90-ADP/ATP binding site, interacts with a negative \bigtriangleupCp of -0.39 ± 0.04 kJ·mol-1·K-1. The semi-empirical correlation of the solvent accessible surface area change does not match well with the observed \bigtriangleupCp. This prompted us to investigate various factors affecting the thermodynamics of protein-small molecule binding including varying buffers, differing salt concentration, altering pH, substitution of different metal cations and performing interactions in heavy water. Molecular dynamics simulation and NMR studies have allowed us to disregard structural changes of N-Hsp90-ADP molecule from giving rise to positive \bigtriangleupCp. From a combination of these calorimetric, simulation and structural studies we have gathered a considerable body of evidence suggesting that the change in accessible surface area, ionic interactions and resultant desolvation of water molecules from the surface of a Mg2+ ion can contribute substantially to a positive \bigtriangleupCp. We conclude that this unique result appears to come from extensive disruption of the tightly bound water molecules present around Mg2+-ADP after binding to Hsp90, which then gives rise to a positive \bigtriangleupCp. In addition to these findings, the thermodynamics of 18 structurally related CDK2 inhibitors were investigated using ITC. CDK2 is a member of cyclin dependent kinases implicated in eukaryotic cell cycle progression and control. This investigation showed that even conservative changes in small molecule structure can reveal large variation in thermodynamic signature, while simple concepts such as van der Waals interactions, steric hindrance, and hydrophobicity are insufficient to explain it

Multivariate analysis of histopathological features as prognostic factors in fifty cases of thyroid neoplasm: a retrospective study done at tertiary care centre

Background: Number of prognostic factors for thyroid carcinoma have been identified including age, gender and tumor characteristics, such as histology and stage. The importance of these factors as independent predictors of survival for patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma has been extensively studied but remains uncertain. Methods: A retrospective analysis of 50 thyroid carcinomas was made to assess prognostic factors including histological variants from September 2019 to February 2022 at our centre. The surgical and histopathological data were studied. Results: 72% patients had papillary thyroid cancer. Multivariate analysis was done and factors showing prognostic significance were tumour size, extrathyroid extension, extranodal extension, lymphovascular, perineural invasion, histological type, necrosis, focality, capsular invasion were found to have poor prognosis. Conclusions: There are histopathological factors which can modify the course and influence the line of treatment of thyroid neoplasms

A peak into metastatic Leydig cell tumor: a rare case report

Testicle tumors are a rare entity among men population, comprising 1-1.5% of all cancers. The Sex cord Stromal tumors contribute just 4% of all testicular cancers, only 10% of them are malignant. Most common sex cord-stromal tumors are the Leydig cell tumor, comprising of 75 to 80% of the total. Incidence is bimodal involving children and adults between 30 and 60 years. The commonest metastatic sites are regional lymph nodes, lung, liver, and bones. Here, we report a case of late metastatic relapsed Leydig cell tumor in a 38-year-old male. Patients with metastatic Leydig cell tumors have poor prognosis and standard treatment recommendations are unclear.

Thermodynamics of Aryl-Dihydroxyphenyl-Thiadiazole Binding to Human Hsp90

The design of specific inhibitors against the Hsp90 chaperone and other enzyme relies on the detailed and correct understanding of both the thermodynamics of inhibitor binding and the structural features of the protein-inhibitor complex. Here we present a detailed thermodynamic study of binding of aryl-dihydroxyphenyl-thiadiazole inhibitor series to recombinant human Hsp90 alpha isozyme. The inhibitors are highly potent, with the intrinsic Kd approximately equal to 1 nM as determined by isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and thermal shift assay (TSA). Dissection of protonation contributions yielded the intrinsic thermodynamic parameters of binding, such as enthalpy, entropy, Gibbs free energy, and the heat capacity. The differences in binding thermodynamic parameters between the series of inhibitors revealed contributions of the functional groups, thus providing insight into molecular reasons for improved or diminished binding efficiency. The inhibitor binding to Hsp90 alpha primarily depended on a large favorable enthalpic contribution combined with the smaller favorable entropic contribution, thus suggesting that their binding was both enthalpically and entropically optimized. The enthalpy-entropy compensation phenomenon was highly evident when comparing the inhibitor binding enthalpies and entropies. This study illustrates how detailed thermodynamic analysis helps to understand energetic reasons for the binding efficiency and develop more potent inhibitors that could be applied for therapeutic use as Hsp90 inhibitors

Characterization and exploitation of protein ligand interactions for structure based drug design.

Most characterised protein-small molecule interactions that display a change in heat capacity (\bigtriangleupCp) occur with a negative \bigtriangleupCp value. This is often attributed to solvent reorganisation from reduction in solvent accessible apolar surface area accompanying complex formation. Positive \bigtriangleupCp values have not been widely reported and could typically be attributed to an increased solvent accessible apolar surface area, desolvation of polar surface area or structural transitions in the biomolecular complex. Heat shock protein-90 (Hsp90) is one of the abundant and important molecular ATP-dependent chaperones. The N-terminal domain of Hsp90 contains ATP/ADP binding site, where Hsp90-ADP interactions proceed with a large positive \bigtriangleupCp of 2.35 ± 0.46 kJ·mol-1·K-1. Interestingly geldanamycin, an Hsp90 inhibitor which binds to the same N-Hsp90-ADP/ATP binding site, interacts with a negative \bigtriangleupCp of -0.39 ± 0.04 kJ·mol-1·K-1. The semi-empirical correlation of the solvent accessible surface area change does not match well with the observed \bigtriangleupCp. This prompted us to investigate various factors affecting the thermodynamics of protein-small molecule binding including varying buffers, differing salt concentration, altering pH, substitution of different metal cations and performing interactions in heavy water. Molecular dynamics simulation and NMR studies have allowed us to disregard structural changes of N-Hsp90-ADP molecule from giving rise to positive \bigtriangleupCp. From a combination of these calorimetric, simulation and structural studies we have gathered a considerable body of evidence suggesting that the change in accessible surface area, ionic interactions and resultant desolvation of water molecules from the surface of a Mg2+ ion can contribute substantially to a positive \bigtriangleupCp. We conclude that this unique result appears to come from extensive disruption of the tightly bound water molecules present around Mg2+-ADP after binding to Hsp90, which then gives rise to a positive \bigtriangleupCp. In addition to these findings, the thermodynamics of 18 structurally related CDK2 inhibitors were investigated using ITC. CDK2 is a member of cyclin dependent kinases implicated in eukaryotic cell cycle progression and control. This investigation showed that even conservative changes in small molecule structure can reveal large variation in thermodynamic signature, while simple concepts such as van der Waals interactions, steric hindrance, and hydrophobicity are insufficient to explain it.

Structural–thermodynamic relationships of interactions in the N-Terminal ATP-Binding domain of Hsp90

Despite its importance as a target in anti-cancer therapeutics and the numerous rational-based inhibitor design efforts aimed at it, there are only limited data available on structural-thermodynamic relationships of interactions of the N-terminal ATP-binding domain of Hsp90 (N-Hsp90). Here, we redress this by presenting an investigation of binding of nucleotides and ansamycin compounds to this domain. Interactions of nucleotides with N-Hsp90 are relatively weak (> 10 μM) and are strongly enthalpy driven over the temperature range 10–25 °C. Geldanamycin (GA) and its analogues 17-AAG [17-(allylamino)-17-demethoxy-GA] and 17-DMAG (17-N,N-dimethylaminoethylamino-17-demethoxy-GA) bind more strongly and have a dominant favourable enthalpic contribution over the temperature range investigated. We investigated the temperature dependence of the enthalpic contribution to binding. We found that while the ansamycin compounds have the commonly observed negative value, the nucleotides show a negligible or even a positive ΔCp of binding. These data represent the first observation of a single binding site for which interactions with different ligands result in both negative and positive ΔCp values. By addressing the likely impact of the potential contributions from protein–ligand interactions, we are able to attribute the anomalous ΔCp for the nucleotides largely to a change in the conformation of the domain structure and local motion in the lid region of N-Hsp90 with the concomitant exposure of hydrophobic amino acid side chains

Heat shock protein 90 protects rat mesenchymal stem cells against hypoxia and serum deprivation-induced apoptosis via the PI3K/Akt and ERK1/2 pathways*

Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) transplantation has shown a therapeutic potential to repair the ischemic and infracted myocardium, but the effects are limited by the apoptosis and loss of donor cells in host cardiac microenvironment. The aim of this study is to explore the cytoprotection of heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) against hypoxia and serum deprivation-induced apoptosis and the possible mechanisms in rat MSCs. Cell viability was determined by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Apoptosis was assessed by Hoechst 33258 nuclear staining and flow cytometric analysis with annexin V/PI staining. The gene expression of Toll-like receptor-4 (TLR-4) and V-erb-b2 erythroblastic leukemia viral oncogene homolog 2 (ErbB2) was detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The protein levels of cleaved caspase-3, Bcl-2, Bcl-xL, Bax, total-ERK, phospho-ERK, total-Akt, phospho-Akt, and Hsp90 were detected by Western blot. The production of nitric oxide was measured by spectrophotometric assay. Hsp90 improves MSC viability and protects MSCs against apoptosis induced by serum deprivation and hypoxia. The protective role of Hsp90 not only elevates Bcl-2/Bax and Bcl-xL/Bax expression and attenuates cleaved caspase-3 expression via down-regulating membrane TLR-4 and ErbB2 receptors and then activating their downstream PI3K/Akt and ERK1/2 pathways, but also enhances the paracrine effect of MSCs. These findings demonstrated a novel and effective treatment strategy against MSC apoptosis in cell transplantation