Molecular interactions and inhibition of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease by a thiadiazolidinone derivative
Jacob Andrzejczyk
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, USA
Search for more papers by this authorKatarina Jovic
Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Biomedical Services, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, USA
Search for more papers by this authorLogan M. Brown
Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Biomedical Services, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, USA
Search for more papers by this authorValerie G. Pascetta
Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Biomedical Services, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, USA
Search for more papers by this authorKrisztina Varga
Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Biomedical Services, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, USA
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Harish Vashisth
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, USA
Correspondence
Harish Vashisth, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorJacob Andrzejczyk
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, USA
Search for more papers by this authorKatarina Jovic
Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Biomedical Services, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, USA
Search for more papers by this authorLogan M. Brown
Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Biomedical Services, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, USA
Search for more papers by this authorValerie G. Pascetta
Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Biomedical Services, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, USA
Search for more papers by this authorKrisztina Varga
Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Biomedical Services, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, USA
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Harish Vashisth
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, USA
Correspondence
Harish Vashisth, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorFunding information: National Institutes of Health, Grant/Award Numbers: R35GM138217, P20GM113131; National Science Foundation, Grant/Award Number: OIA-1757371
Abstract
We report molecular interactions and inhibition of the main protease (MPro) of SARS-CoV-2, a key enzyme involved in the viral life cycle. By using a thiadiazolidinone (TDZD) derivative as a chemical probe, we explore the conformational dynamics of MPro via docking protocols and molecular dynamics simulations in all-atom detail. We reveal the local and global dynamics of MPro in the presence of this inhibitor and confirm the inhibition of the enzyme with an IC50 value of 1.39 ± 0.22 μM, which is comparable to other known inhibitors of this enzyme.
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Open Research
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
The data that supports the findings of this study are available in the supplementary material of this article
Supporting Information
Filename | Description |
---|---|
prot26385-sup-0001-supinfo.pdfPDF document, 2.5 MB | Appendix S1 Supporting Information |
Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.
REFERENCES
- 1Astuti I, Ysrafil. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2): an overview of viral structure and host response. Diabetes Metab Syndrome. 2020; 14(4): 407-412.
- 2Satarker S, Nampoothiri M. Structural proteins in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2. Arch Med Res. 2020; 51(6): 482-491.
- 3Yadav R, Chaudhary JK, Jain N, et al. Role of structural and non-structural proteins and therapeutic targets of SARS-CoV-2 for COVID-19. Cell. 2021; 10(4):821.
- 4Qiu Y, Xu K. Functional studies of the coronavirus nonstructural proteins. STEMedicine. 2020; 1(2):e39.
10.37175/stemedicine.v1i2.39 Google Scholar
- 5Silva SJR, Silva CTA, Mendes RPG, Pena L, et al. Role of nonstructural proteins in the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2. J Med Virol. 2020; 92(9): 1427-1429.
- 6Shitrit A, Zaidman D, Kalid O, et al. Conserved interactions required for inhibition of the main protease of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Sci Rep. 2020; 10(1): 1-11.
- 7Padhi AK, Rath SL, Tripathi T. Accelerating COVID-19 research using molecular dynamics simulation. J Phys Chem B. 2021; 125(32): 9078-9091.
- 8Keillor J, Brown R. Attack of zwitterionic ammonium thiolates on a distorted anilide as a model for the acylation of papain by amides. A simple demonstration of a bell-shaped pH/rate profile. J Am Chem Soc. 1992; 114(21): 7983-7989.
- 9Świderek K, Moliner V. Revealing the molecular mechanisms of proteolysis of SARS-CoV-2 M pro by QM/MM computational methods. Chem Sci. 2020; 11(39): 10626-10630.
- 10Zhang L, Lin D, Sun X, et al. Crystal structure of SARS-CoV-2 main protease provides a basis for design of improved α-ketoamide inhibitors. Science. 2020; 368(6489): 409-412.
- 11Khan SA, Zia K, Ashraf S, Uddin R, Ul-Haq Z. Identification of chymotrypsin-like protease inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 via integrated computational approach. J Biomol Struct Dyn. 2021; 39: 2607-2616.
- 12DiMasi JA. The value of improving the productivity of the drug development process. Pharmacoeconomics. 2002; 20(3): 1-10.
- 13Viceconte G, Petrosillo N. COVID-19 R0: magic number or conundrum? Infect Dis Rep. 2020; 12(1):8516.
- 14Strittmatter SM. Overcoming drug development bottlenecks with repurposing: old drugs learn new tricks. Nature. 2014; 20(6): 590-591.
- 15Hodos RA, Kidd BA, Shameer K, Readhead BP, Dudley JT. In silico methods for drug repurposing and pharmacology. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Syst Biol Med. 2016; 8(3): 186-210.
- 16Pushpakom S, Iorio F, Eyers PA, et al. Drug repurposing: progress, challenges and recommendations. Nat Rev Drug Discov. 2019; 18(1): 41-58.
- 17Domínguez JM, Fuertes A, Orozco L, del Monte-Millán M, Delgado E, Medina M. Evidence for irreversible inhibition of glycogen synthase kinase-3β by tideglusib. J Biol Chem. 2012; 287(2): 893-904.
- 18del Ser T, Steinwachs KC, Gertz HJ, et al. Treatment of Alzheimer's disease with the GSK-3 inhibitor tideglusib: a pilot study. J Alzheimers Dis. 2013; 33(1): 205-215.
- 19Höglinger GU, Huppertz HJ, Wagenpfeil S, et al. Tideglusib reduces progression of brain atrophy in progressive supranuclear palsy in a randomized trial. Mov Disord. 2014; 29(4): 479-487.
- 20Ma C, Hu Y, Townsend JA, et al. Ebselen, disulfiram, carmofur, PX-12, tideglusib, and shikonin are nonspecific promiscuous SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors. ACS Pharmacol Transl Sci. 2020; 3(6): 1265-1277.
- 21Andújar I, Ríos JL, Giner RM, Recio MC. Pharmacological properties of shikonin—a review of literature since 2002. Planta Med. 2013; 79(18): 1685-1697.
- 22Chen X, Yang L, Oppenheim JJ, Howard OZ. Cellular pharmacology studies of shikonin derivatives. Phytother Res. 2002; 16(3): 199-209.
- 23Sankawa U, Ebizuka Y, Miyazaki T, et al. Antitumor activity of shikonin and its derivatives. Chem Pharm Bull. 1977; 25(9): 2392-2395.
- 24Rai H, Barik A, Singh YP, et al. Molecular docking, binding mode analysis, molecular dynamics, and prediction of ADMET/toxicity properties of selective potential antiviral agents against SARS-CoV-2 main protease: an effort toward drug repurposing to combat COVID-19. Mol Divers. 2021; 25: 1905-1927.
- 25Das S, Sarmah S, Lyndem S, Singha RA. An investigation into the identification of potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 main protease using molecular docking study. J Biomol Struc Dyn. 2020; 39: 3347-3357.
- 26Abel R, Paredes Ramos M, Chen Q, et al. Computational prediction of potential inhibitors of the main protease of SARS-CoV-2. Front Chem. 2020; 8: 1162.
- 27Keretsu S, Bhujbal SP, Cho SJ. Rational approach toward COVID-19 main protease inhibitors via molecular docking, molecular dynamics simulation and free energy calculation. Sci Rep. 2020; 10(1): 1-14.
- 28Zhang L, Lin D, Kusov Y, et al. α-Ketoamides as broad-spectrum inhibitors of coronavirus and enterovirus replication: structure-based design, synthesis, and activity assessment. J Med Chem. 2020; 63(9): 4562-4578.
- 29Jiménez-Alberto A, Ribas-Aparicio RM, Aparicio-Ozores G, Castelán-Vega JA. Virtual screening of approved drugs as potential SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors. Comput Biol Chem. 2020; 88:107325.
- 30Mittal L, Kumari A, Srivastava M, Singh M, Asthana S. Identification of potential molecules against COVID-19 main protease through structure-guided virtual screening approach. J Biomol Struc Dyn. 2021; 39(10): 3662-3680.
- 31Bolelli K, Ertan-Bolelli T, Unsalan O, Altunayar-Unsalan C. Fenoterol and dobutamine as SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors: a virtual screening study. J Mol Struct. 2021; 1228:129449.
- 32Kneller DW, Phillips G, O'Neill HM, et al. Room-temperature X-ray crystallography reveals the oxidation and reactivity of cysteine residues in SARS-CoV-2 3CL Mpro: insights into enzyme mechanism and drug design. IUCrJ. 2020; 7(6): 1028-1035.
- 33Shaw VS, Mohammadiarani H, Vashisth H, Neubig RR. Differential protein dynamics of regulators of G-protein signaling: role in specificity of small-molecule inhibitors. J Am Chem Soc. 2018; 140(9): 3454-3460.
- 34Blazer LL, Zhang H, Casey EM, Husbands SM, Neubig RR. A nanomolar-potency small molecule inhibitor of regulator of G-protein signaling proteins. Biochemistry. 2011; 50(15): 3181-3192.
- 35Liu Y, Vashisth H. Allosteric pathways originating at cysteine residues in regulators of G-protein signaling proteins. Biophys J. 2021; 120(3): 517-526.
- 36Shaw VS, Mohammadi M, Quinn JA, Vashisth H, Neubig RR. An interhelical salt bridge controls flexibility and inhibitor potency for regulators of G-protein signaling proteins 4, 8, and 19. Mol Pharmacol. 2019; 96(6): 683-691.
- 37Mohammadi M, Mohammadiarani H, Shaw VS, Neubig RR, Vashisth H. Interplay of cysteine exposure and global protein dynamics in small-molecule recognition by a regulator of G-protein signaling protein. Proteins. 2019; 87(2): 146-156.
- 38Jin Z, Du X, Xu Y, et al. Structure of M pro from SARS-CoV-2 and discovery of its inhibitors. Nature. 2020; 582(7811): 289-293.
- 39 Schrödinger, LLC, New York, NY, Maestro; 2020.
- 40Sastry GM, Adzhigirey M, Day T, Annabhimoju R, Sherman W. Protein and ligand preparation: parameters, protocols, and influence on virtual screening enrichments. J Comput Aided Mol Des. 2013; 27(3): 221-234.
- 41Phillips JC, Braun R, Wang W, et al. Scalable molecular dynamics with NAMD. J Comput Chem. 2005; 26(16): 1781-1802.
- 42Vanommeslaeghe K, Hatcher E, Acharya C, et al. CHARMM general force field: a force field for drug-like molecules compatible with the CHARMM all-atom additive biological force fields. J Comput Chem. 2010; 31(4): 671-690.
- 43Lee J, Cheng X, Swails JM, et al. CHARMM-GUI input generator for NAMD, GROMACS, AMBER, OpenMM, and CHARMM/OpenMM simulations using the CHARMM36 additive force field. J Chem Theory Comput. 2016; 12(1): 405-413.
- 44Mark P, Nilsson L. Structure and dynamics of the TIP3P, SPC, and SPC/E water models at 298 K. J Phys Chem. 2001; 105(43): 9954-9960.
- 45Zhu K, Borrelli KW, Greenwood JR, et al. Docking covalent inhibitors: a parameter free approach to pose prediction and scoring. J Chem Inf Model. 2014; 54(7): 1932-1940.
- 46Li J, Abel R, Zhu K, Cao Y, Zhao S, Friesner RA. The VSGB 2.0 model: a next generation energy model for high resolution protein structure modeling. Proteins. 2011; 79(10): 2794-2812.
- 47Halgren T. New method for fast and accurate binding-site identification and analysis. Chem Biol Drug Des. 2007; 69(2): 146-148.
- 48Friesner RA, Murphy RB, Repasky MP, et al. Extra precision glide: docking and scoring incorporating a model of hydrophobic enclosure for protein-ligand complexes. J Med Chem. 2006; 49(21): 6177-6196.
- 49Sethi A, Eargle J, Black AA, Luthey-Schulten Z. Dynamical networks in tRNA: protein complexes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009; 106(16): 6620-6625.
- 50VanWart AT, Eargle J, Luthey-Schulten Z, Amaro RE. Exploring residue component contributions to dynamical network models of allostery. J Chem Theory Comput. 2012; 8(8): 2949-2961.
- 51Chopra N, Wales TE, Joseph RE, et al. Dynamic allostery mediated by a conserved tryptophan in the Tec family kinases. PLoS Comput Biol. 2016; 12(3):e1004826.
- 52Kornev AP, Taylor SS. Dynamics-driven allostery in protein kinases. Trends Biochem Sci. 2015; 40(11): 628-647.
- 53McClendon CL, Kornev AP, Gilson MK, Taylor SS. Dynamic architecture of a protein kinase. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014; 111(43): E4623-E4631.
- 54Ahuja LG, Kornev AP, McClendon CL, Veglia G, Taylor SS. Mutation of a kinase allosteric node uncouples dynamics linked to phosphotransfer. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017; 114(6): E931-E940.
- 55Srivastava AK, McDonald LR, Cembran A, et al. Synchronous opening and closing motions are essential for cAMP-dependent protein kinase A signaling. Structure. 2014; 22(12): 1735-1743.
- 56Glykos NM. Software news and updates carma: a molecular dynamics analysis program. J Comput Chem. 2006; 27(14): 1765-1768.
- 57Girvan M, Newman ME. Community structure in social and biological networks. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2002; 99(12): 7821-7826.
- 58Sacco MD, Ma C, Lagarias P, et al. Structure and inhibition of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease reveal strategy for developing dual inhibitors against Mpro and cathepsin L. Sci Adv. 2020; 6(50):eabe0751.
- 59Anand K, Ziebuhr J, Wadhwani P, Mesters JR, Hilgenfeld R. Coronavirus main proteinase (3CLpro) structure: basis for design of anti-SARS drugs. Science. 2003; 300(5626): 1763-1767.
- 60Padhi AK, Tripathi T. Targeted design of drug binding sites in the main protease of SARS-CoV-2 reveals potential signatures of adaptation. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2021; 555: 147-153.
- 61Mengist HM, Dilnessa T, Jin T. Structural basis of potential inhibitors targeting SARS-CoV-2 main protease. Front Chem. 2021; 9:622898.
- 62Kneller DW, Phillips G, O'Neill HM, et al. Structural plasticity of SARS-CoV-2 3CL M pro active site cavity revealed by room temperature X-ray crystallography. Nat Commun. 2020; 11(1):3202.
- 63Feng BY, Shoichet BK. A detergent-based assay for the detection of promiscuous inhibitors. Nat Protoc. 2006; 1(2): 550-553.
- 64Niesor EJ, Boivin G, Rhéaume E, et al. Inhibition of the 3CL protease and SARS-CoV-2 replication by dalcetrapib. ACS Omega. 2021; 6(25): 16584-16591.
- 65Paul AS, Islam R, Parves MR, et al. Cysteine focused covalent inhibitors against the main protease of SARS-CoV-2. J Biomol Struct Dyn. 2020; 40: 1639-1658.
- 66Soulère L, Barbier T, Queneau Y. Docking-based virtual screening studies aiming at the covalent inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 MPro by targeting the cysteine 145. Comput Biol Chem. 2021; 92:107463.
- 67Hassab MAE, Fares M, Amin MK, et al. Toward the identification of potential α-Ketoamide covalent inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2 Main protease: fragment-based drug design and MM-PBSA calculations. Processes. 2021; 9(6):1004.
- 68Hoffman RL, Kania RS, Brothers MA, et al. Discovery of ketone-based covalent inhibitors of coronavirus 3CL proteases for the potential therapeutic treatment of COVID-19. J Med Chem. 2020; 63(21): 12725-12747.
- 69Banerjee R, Perera L, Tillekeratne LV. Potential SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors. Drug Discov Today. 2021; 26(3): 804-806.
- 70Chen CC, Yu X, Kuo CJ, et al. Overview of antiviral drug candidates targeting coronaviral 3C-like main proteases. FEBS Lett. 2021; 288(17): 5089-5121.
- 71Durdagi S, Dağ Ç, Dogan B, et al. Near-physiological-temperature serial crystallography reveals conformations of SARS-CoV-2 main protease active site for improved drug repurposing. Structure. 2021; 29: 1382-1396.
- 72Mishra D, Maurya RR, Kumar K, et al. Structurally modified compounds of hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir and tetrahydrocannabinol against main protease of SARS-CoV-2, a possible hope for COVID-19: docking and molecular dynamics simulation studies. J Mol Liq. 2021; 335:116185.
- 73Hosseini FS, Amanlou M. Anti-HCV and anti-malaria agent, potential candidates to repurpose for coronavirus infection: virtual screening, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics simulation study. Life Sci. 2020; 258:118205.
- 74Ancy I, Sivanandam M, Kumaradhas P. Possibility of HIV-1 protease inhibitors-clinical trial drugs as repurposed drugs for SARS-CoV-2 main protease: a molecular docking, molecular dynamics and binding free energy simulation study. J Biomol Struct Dyn. 2021; 39: 5368-5375.
- 75Sun Z, Wang L, Li X, et al. An extended conformation of SARS-CoV-2 main protease reveals allosteric targets. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022; 119(15):e2120913119.
- 76El-Baba TJ, Lutomski CA, Kantsadi AL, et al. Allosteric inhibition of the SARS-CoV-2 Main protease: insights from mass spectrometry based assays. Angew Chem Int Ed. 2020; 59(52): 23544-23548.
- 77DasGupta D, Chan WK, Carlson HA. Computational identification of possible allosteric sites and modulators of the SARS-CoV-2 Main protease. J Chem Inf Model. 2022; 62(3): 618-626.