New discoveries in RNA biology underscore a need for chemical tools to clarify their roles in pathophysiological mechanisms. In certain cancers, synthesis of the let-7 microRNA tumor suppressor is blocked by an RNA binding protein (RBP) Lin28, which docks onto a conserved sequence in let-7 precursor RNA molecules and prevents their maturation. Thus, the Lin28/let-7 interaction might be an attractive drug target, if not for the well-known difficulty in targeting RNA-protein interactions with drugs. Here, we describe a protein/RNA FRET assay using a GFP-Lin28 donor and a black-hole quencher (BHQ)-labeled let-7 acceptor, a fluorescent protein/quencher combination which is rarely used in screening despite favorable spectral properties. We tested 16 000 molecules and identified N-methyl-N-[3-(3-methyl[1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-b]pyridazin-6-yl)phenyl]acetamide, which blocked the Lin28/let-7 interaction, rescued let-7 processing and function in Lin28-expressing cancer cells, induced differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells, and reduced tumor-sphere formation by 22Rv1 and Huh7 cells. A biotinylated derivative captured Lin28 from cell lysates consistent with an on-target mechanism in cells, though the compound also showed some activity against bromodomains in selectivity assays. The Lin28/let-7 axis is presently of high interest not only for its role as a bistable switch in stem-cell biology but also because of its prominent roles in numerous diseases. We anticipate that much can be learned from the use of this first reported small molecule antagonist of Lin28, including the potential of the Lin28/let-7 interaction as a new drug target for selected cancers. Furthermore, this approach to assay development may be used to identify antagonists of other RBP/RNA interactions suspected to be operative in pathophysiological mechanisms.

The high-throughput docking protocol called ALTA-VS (anchor-based library tailoring approach for virtual screening) was developed in 2005 for the efficient in silico screening of large libraries of compounds by preselection of only those molecules that have optimal fragments (anchors) for the protein target. Here we present an updated version of ALTA-VS with a broader range of potential applications. The evaluation of binding energy makes use of a classical force field with implicit solvent in the continuum dielectric approximation. In about 2 days per protein target on a 96-core compute cluster (equipped with Xeon E3-1280 quad core processors at 2.5 GHz), the screening of a library of nearly 77 000 diverse molecules with the updated ALTA-VS protocol has resulted in the identification of 19, 3, 3, and 2 μM inhibitors of the human bromodomains ATAD2, BAZ2B, BRD4(1), and CREBBP, respectively. The success ratio (i.e., number of actives in a competition binding assay in vitro divided by the number of compounds tested) ranges from 8% to 13% in dose-response measurements. The poses predicted by fragment-based docking for the three ligands of the BAZ2B bromodomain were confirmed by protein X-ray crystallography.

Bromodomains, epigenetic readers that recognize acetylated lysine residues in histone tails, are potential drug targets in cancer and inflammation. Herein we review the crystal structures of human bromodomains in complex with histone tails and analyze the main interaction motifs. The histone backbone is extended and occupies, in one of the two possible orientations, the bromodomain surface groove lined by the ZA and BC loops. The acetyl-lysine side chain is buried in the cavity between the four helices of the bromodomain, and its oxygen atom accepts hydrogen bonds from a structural water molecule and a conserved asparagine residue in the BC loop. In stark contrast to this common binding motif, a large variety of ancillary interactions emerge from our analysis. In 10 of 26 structures, a basic side chain (up to five residues up- or downstream in sequence with respect to the acetyl-lysine) interacts with the carbonyl groups of the C-terminal turn of helix αB. Furthermore, the complexes reveal many heterogeneous backbone hydrogen bonds (direct or water-bridged). These interactions contribute unselectively to the binding of acetylated histone tails to bromodomains, which provides further evidence that specific recognition is modulated by combinations of multiple histone modifications and multiple modules of the proteins involved in transcription.

The 3-amino-2-methylpyridine derivative 1 was identified as ligand of the BAZ2B bromodomain by automatic docking of nearly 500 compounds, selected on the basis of previous fragment hits. Hit expansion by two in silico approaches, pharmacophore search followed by docking, and substructure search resulted in five additional ligands. The predicted binding mode of the six 3-amino-2-methylpyridine derivatives was validated by protein crystallography. A small displacement of residues 1894-1899 of the ZA loop is observed for two of the six ligands. In all structures, the pyridine head is involved in a water-mediated hydrogen bond with the side chain of the conserved Tyr1901 while the 3-amino linker acts as hydrogen bond donor for the backbone carbonyl of Pro1888. Heterogeneous orientations are observed for the tail groups (i.e., the 3-amino substituents). The sulfonyl group in the tail of compounds 1 and 2 is involved in a hydrogen bond with the backbone amide of Asn1894.

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