From virtual screening hits targeting a cryptic pocket in BACE-1 to a nontoxic brain permeable multitarget anti-Alzheimer lead with disease-modifying and cognition-enhancing effects.

Starting from six potential hits identified in a virtual screening campaign directed to a cryptic pocket of BACE-1, at the edge of the catalytic cleft, we have synthesized and evaluated six hybrid compounds, designed to simultaneously reach BACE-1 secondary and catalytic sites and to exert additional activities of interest for Alzheimer's disease (AD). We have identified a lead compound with potent in vitro activity towards human BACE-1 and cholinesterases, moderate Aß42 and tau antiaggregating activity, and brain permeability, which is nontoxic in neuronal cells and zebrafish embryos at concentrations above those required for the in vitro activities. This compound completely restored short- and long-term memory in a mouse model of AD (SAMP8) relative to healthy control strain SAMR1, shifted APP processing towards the non-amyloidogenic pathway, reduced tau phosphorylation, and increased the levels of synaptic proteins PSD95 and synaptophysin, thereby emerging as a promising disease-modifying, cognition-enhancing anti-AD lead.

Merging Ligand-Based and Structure-Based Methods in Drug Discovery: An Overview of Combined Virtual Screening Approaches.

Virtual screening (VS) is an outstanding cornerstone in the drug discovery pipeline. A variety of computational approaches, which are generally classified as ligand-based (LB) and structure-based (SB) techniques, exploit key structural and physicochemical properties of ligands and targets to enable the screening of virtual libraries in the search of active compounds. Though LB and SB methods have found widespread application in the discovery of novel drug-like candidates, their complementary natures have stimulated continued efforts toward the development of hybrid strategies that combine LB and SB techniques, integrating them in a holistic computational framework that exploits the available information of both ligand and target to enhance the success of drug discovery projects. In this review, we analyze the main strategies and concepts that have emerged in the last years for defining hybrid LB + SB computational schemes in VS studies. Particularly, attention is focused on the combination of molecular similarity and docking, illustrating them with selected applications taken from the literature.

Wild daffodils of the section Ganymedes from the Iberian Peninsula as a source of mesembrane alkaloids.

The aim of this work was to perform a detailed study of the alkaloid content of Narcissus triandrus, as well as a complete analysis of the alkaloid profile of 18 wild populations, comprising all the taxa of the section Ganymedes. Through the application of a combination of spectroscopic and chromatographic methods, the isolation and structural elucidation of 3 compounds are reported for the first time from a natural source (2-oxomesembrenone, 7,7a-dehydromesembrenone and 2-oxoepimesembranol), together with the identification of 5 major common mesembrane alkaloids. Additionally, the GC-MS analysis of the alkaloid profile demonstrated the regular presence of mesembranes in all the studied plants, showing mesembrenone as the predominant compound without any typical Amaryllidaceae alkaloid being detected.

Ab initio study of the structural, tautomeric, pairing, and electronic properties of seleno-derivatives of thymine.

The structural, tautomeric, hydrogen-bonding, stacking, and electronic properties of a seleno-derivative of thymine (T), denoted here as 4SeT and created by replacing O4 in T with Se, are investigated by means of ab initio computational techniques. The structural properties of T and 4SeT are very similar, and the geometrical differences are mainly limited to the adjacent environment of the C-Se bond. The canonical "keto" form is the most stable tautomer, in the gas phase and in aqueous solution, for both T and 4SeT. It is argued that the competition between two opposite trends, i.e., a decrease in the base-pairing ability and an increase of the stacking interaction upon incorporation of 4SeT into a duplex, likely explains the similar experimental melting points of a seleno-derivative duplex (Se-DNA) and its native counterpart. Interestingly, the underlying electronic structure shows that replacement of O4 with Se promotes a reduction in the HOMO-LUMO gap and an increase in interplane coupling, which suggests that Se-DNA could be potentially useful for nanodevice applications. This finding is further supported by the fact that transfer integrals between 4SeT...A stacked base pairs are larger than those determined for similarly stacked natural T...A pairs.