2. Academic Validation
  3. Identification of novel EZH2 inhibitors through pharmacophore-based virtual screening and biological assays

Identification of novel EZH2 inhibitors through pharmacophore-based virtual screening and biological assays

  • Bioorg Med Chem Lett. 2016 Aug 1;26(15):3813-7. doi: 10.1016/j.bmcl.2016.05.018.
Yunlong Wu 1,  Junchi Hu 2,  Hong Ding 3,  Limin Chen 4,  Yuanyuan Zhang 3,  Rongfeng Liu 5,  Pan Xu 2,  Daohai Du 3,  Wenchao Lu 2,  Jingqiu Liu 3,  Yan Liu 3,  Yu-Chih Liu 5,  Junyan Lu 3,  Jin Zhang 6,  Zhiyi Yao 7,  Cheng Luo 8
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 College of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Shanghai Institute of Technology, Shanghai 210418, China.
  • 2 State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Shanghai 201203, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 19A Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, China.
  • 3 State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Shanghai 201203, China.
  • 4 Center for Experimental Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330006, China.
  • 5 Shanghai ChemPartner Co., Ltd, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, Shanghai 201203, China.
  • 6 Department of Urology, Renji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200127, China. Electronic address: med-zhangjin@vip.sina.com.
  • 7 College of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Shanghai Institute of Technology, Shanghai 210418, China. Electronic address: yao99cn@sit.edu.cn.
  • 8 State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Shanghai 201203, China. Electronic address: cluo@simm.ac.cn.
PMID: 27289323 DOI: 10.1016/j.bmcl.2016.05.018
Abstract

Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) acts as a primary writer for di- and tri-methylation of histone H3 at lysine 27. This protein plays an essential role in silencing gene expression. Enhancer of zeste 2 (EZH2), the catalytic subunit of PRC2, is considered as a promising therapeutic target for Cancer. GSK126, a specific inhibitor of EZH2, is undergoing phase I trials for hypermethylation-related cancers. In addition, many derivatives of GSK126 are also commonly used in laboratory investigations. However, studies on the mechanism and drug development of EZH2 are limited by the absence of structural diversity of these inhibitors because they share similar SAM-like scaffolds. In this study, we generated a pharmacophore model based on reported EZH2 inhibitors and performed in silico screenings. Experimental validations led to the identification of two novel EZH2 inhibitors, DCE_42 and DCE_254, with IC50 values of 23 and 11μM, respectively. They also displayed significant anti-proliferation activity against lymphoma cell lines. Thus, we discovered potent EZH2 inhibitors with novel scaffold using combined in silico screening and experimental study. Results from this study can also guide further development of novel specific EZH2 inhibitors.

Keywords

Computational drug design; EZH2; Epigenetics; PRC2; Pharmacophore-based virtual screening.

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