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Automated design of ligands to polypharmacological profiles.

Nature | 2012

The clinical efficacy and safety of a drug is determined by its activity profile across many proteins in the proteome. However, designing drugs with a specific multi-target profile is both complex and difficult. Therefore methods to design drugs rationally a priori against profiles of several proteins would have immense value in drug discovery. Here we describe a new approach for the automated design of ligands against profiles of multiple drug targets. The method is demonstrated by the evolution of an approved acetylcholinesterase inhibitor drug into brain-penetrable ligands with either specific polypharmacology or exquisite selectivity profiles for G-protein-coupled receptors. Overall, 800 ligand-target predictions of prospectively designed ligands were tested experimentally, of which 75% were confirmed to be correct. We also demonstrate target engagement in vivo. The approach can be a useful source of drug leads when multi-target profiles are required to achieve either selectivity over other drug targets or a desired polypharmacology.

Pubmed ID: 23235874 RIS Download

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Associated grants

  • Agency: NIMH NIH HHS, United States
    Id: U19 MH082441
  • Agency: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, United Kingdom
    Id: BB/FOF/PF/15/09
  • Agency: Wellcome Trust, United Kingdom
    Id: 083481
  • Agency: NIDA NIH HHS, United States
    Id: R01 DA017204
  • Agency: Wellcome Trust, United Kingdom
    Id: WT 083481
  • Agency: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, United Kingdom
    Id: BB/J010510/1
  • Agency: Wellcome Trust, United Kingdom
  • Agency: NIMH NIH HHS, United States
    Id: R01 MH061887
  • Agency: NIMH NIH HHS, United States
    Id: MH082441

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