Pharmacophore modeling for the identification of small-molecule inhibitors of TACE

• Main Authors: Liu, Li-Juan, Leung, Ka-Ho, Lin, Sheng, Chan, Daniel Shiu-Hin, Susanti, Dewi, Rao, Weidong, Chan, Philip Wai Hong, Ma, Dik-Lung, Leung, Chung-Hang
• Other Authors: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Pharmacophore; TACE
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/82167; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/41148
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Tumor necrosis factor α-converting enzyme (TACE) plays a critical role in diverse physiological processes such as inflammation, hematopoiesis, and development. In this study, a pharmacophore model constructed from a training set of TACE inhibitors was used to screen an in-house database of organic compounds, from which compound 1 emerged as a top candidate. In a cell-free assay, compound 1 inhibited TACE enzymatic activity in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, compound 1 inhibited the production of soluble TNF-α in human acute monocytic leukemia THP-1 cells without impacting nitric oxide production, and exhibited anti-proliferative activity against THP-1 cells. We envisage that compound 1 may be employed as a useful scaffold for the development of more potent TACE inhibitors. This study also validates the use of pharmacophore modeling to identify enzyme inhibitors.