Computational study of drugs targeting nuclear receptors

Kenda, Maša (author), Sollner Dolenc, Marija (author)

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals have been shown to interfere with the endocrine system function at the level of hormone synthesis, transport, metabolism, binding, action, and elimination. They are associated with several health problems in humans: obesity, diabetes mellitus, infertility, impaired thyroid and neuroendocrine functions, neurodevelopmental problems, and cancer are among them. As drugs are chemicals humans can be frequently exposed to for longer periods of time, special emphasis should be put on their endocrine-disrupting potential. In this study, we conducted a screen of 1046 US-approved and marketed small-molecule drugs (molecular weight between 60 and 600) for estimating their endocrine-disrupting properties. Binding affinity to 12 nuclear receptors was assessed with a molecular-docking program, Endocrine Disruptome. We identified 130 drugs with a high binding affinity to a nuclear receptor that is not their pharmacological target. In a subset of drugs with predicted high binding affinities to a nuclear receptor with Endocrine Disruptome, the positive predictive value was 0.66 when evaluated with in silico results obtained with another molecular docking program, VirtualToxLab, and 0.32 when evaluated with in vitro results from the Tox21 database. Computational screening was proven useful in prioritizing drugs for in vitro testing. We suggest that the novel interactions of drugs with nuclear receptors predicted here are further investigated.

• Language: English
• Keywords: endocrine-disrupting chemicals, drugs, databases, nuclear receptors, molecular docking, multidimensional QSAR
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FFA - Faculty of Pharmacy
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2020
• Number of pages: 14 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 25, iss. 7, art. 1616
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-133369
• UDC: 615:616.4
• ISSN on article: 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules25071616
• COBISS.SI-ID: 4896881
• Publication date in RUL: 24.11.2021

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Molecules
• Shortened title: Molecules
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 1420-3049
• COBISS.SI-ID: 18462981

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.
• Licensing start date: 01.04.2020

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: endokrinologija, zdravila, nuklearni receptorji, molekularno mapiranje

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Funding programme: Young researcher grant

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: P1-0208
• Name: Farmacevtska kemija: načrtovanje, sinteza in vrednotenje učinkovin