Understanding the Inhibitory Effect of Highly Potent and Selective Archazolides Binding to the Vacuolar ATPase

S Dreisigacker, D Latek, S Bockelmann, M Huss, H Wieczorek, S Filipek, H Gohlke, D Menche & T Carlomagno

Journal Of Chemical Information And Modeling

Pages
2265–2272
Issue
8
Volume
52
Year
2012

Vacuolar ATPases are a potential therapeutic target because of their involvement in a variety of severe diseases such as osteoporosis or cancer. Archazolide A (1) and related analogs have been previously identified as selective inhibitors of V-ATPases with potency down to the subnanomolar range. Herein we report on the determination of the ligand binding mode by a combination of molecular docking, molecular dynamics simulations, and biochemical experiments, resulting in a sound model for the inhibitory mechanism of this class of putative anticancer agents. The binding site of archazolides was confirmed to be located in the equatorial region of the membrane-embedded VO-rotor, as recently proposed on the basis of site-directed mutagenesis. Quantification of the bioactivity of a series of archazolide derivatives, together with the docking-derived binding mode of archazolides to the V-ATPase, revealed favorable ligand profiles, which can guide the development of a simplified archazolide analog with potential therapeutic relevance.