Examples of commercially available drug discovery softwares.
1. Introduction
The genetic information stored in DNA can be transcribed and translated into functional proteins with various biological roles, and the control of gene expression and cell division is tightly controlled under normal physiological conditions. However, genetic mutations arising during DNA replication can trigger uncontrolled cell growth, leading to the development of various types of cancers (Croce 2008). The cellular transformational events associated with cancer have been linked with mutations in particular genes, termed proto-oncogenes. These genes are necessary for the normal development and differentiation of cells, but when mutated into oncogenes they can lead to the overexpression of proteins involved in signal transduction and mitosis, ultimately resulting in cancer development. Blocking oncogenic translation using siRNAs has attracted intense attention in the literature (Heidenreich 2009; Ventura et al. 2009), but inhibiting oncogenic transcription through targeting DNA itself has been less explored.While DNA is a well-established biomolecular target for anti-cancer therapy, most DNA-binding drugs such as cisplatin (Alderden et al. 2006) and its analogues interact with DNA non-selectively, resulting in adverse side effects (Jung et al. 2007). Consequently, this has driven interest in the targeting of unusual, non-canonical structures in DNA, in order to achieve selectivity for particular (onco)genes while potentially reducing adverse side effects. One such DNA structure that has attracted significant attention in the recent literature as an anti-cancer target is the G-quadruplex. While G-quadruplexes were initially regarded as somewhat of a structural curiosity when they were first discovered, accumulating evidence over the past decade have suggested that these non-canonical DNA structures may play important roles in modulating various biological processes (Lipps et al. 2009).
G-quadruplexes are four-stranded guanine-rich DNA structures that were first found at the ends of eukaryotic telomeres, and the role of telomeric G-quadruplexes for inhibiting telomerase activity has been intensely studied since the early 1990s (Blackburn 1991). Human telomeric DNA is usually 4–14 kilobases long, and is comprised of TTAGGG tandem repeats. Up-regulated telomerase activity in cancer cells maintains the length of telomeres after cell division, conferring immortality. Hurley and co-workers demonstrated that the activity of telomerase can be inhibited by small molecule-induced stabilization of telomeric G-quadruplex (Wheelhouse et al. 1998).
A few years later, Hurley and co-workers reported the seminal discovery of a potential G-quadruplex structure in the nuclease hypersensitive element III1 (NHEIII1) of the promoter region of the c-
Since the discovery of the first c-
With advances in computer processing power and in the development of algorithms for molecular stimulation and docking, the use of high-throughput virtual screening for drug discovery has become increasingly popular (McInnes 2007). The rapid screening of a large chemical library using computational programs can efficiently weed out non-binding ligands
2. General structure of the G-quadruplex and its involvement in transcriptional events
G-quadruplexes are constructed from stacks of G-tetrads, which consist of four guanine bases aligned in a co-planar arrangement stabilized by Hoogsteen hydrogen-bonding and monovalent cations (e.g. K+ and Na+) in the central cavity (Figure 1) (Mergny et al. 1998; Parkinson et al. 2002; Huppert et al. 2007). G-quadruplexes exhibit a high degree of structural polymorphism, contributing to the wide variety of distinct G-quadruplex topologies that differ in strand orientation, loop size, surface and groove dimensions (Burge et al. 2006). Consequently, G-quadruplexes formed from different DNA sequences may exhibit unique structural features that can be specifically targeted by small molecule ligands (Monchaud et al. 2008).
As previously mentioned, the occurrence of G-quadruplex-forming regions in the promoter region of oncogenes offers an alternative therapeutic avenue for the treatment of cancer. The induction of the G-quadruplex structure in the promoter region of the target gene could inhibit transcription of the oncogene, thus suppressing the production of the resultant oncoprotein. The potential to repress oncogenic expression by G-quadruplex formation can be illuminated by considering the history of the efforts targeted against well-studied oncogene c-
MYC protein is a transcription factor that controls cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis (Marcu et al. 1992), and its cellular level is strictly regulated in normal cells. Mutation of c-
These promoter G-quadruplex-stabilizing ligands have potential advantages as alternative anti-cancer compounds compared to conventional protein or enzyme inhibitors (Balasubramanian et al. 2011). Firstly, since the availability of G-quadruplexes in cells is generally limited, a lower concentration of inhibitor could theoretically be used to achieve the desired biological effect. Secondly, due to the unique structural diversity of G-quadruplex motifs, superior selectivity towards a particular G-quadruplex may be potentially achieved by the rational design and modification of the lead compound. Thirdly, a number of oncogenes such as c-
3. In silico methods in drug discovery
Virtual screening techniques have recently emerged as a complementary technique to traditional high-throughput screening technologies employed in the pharmaceutical industry (Shoichet 2004; Ghosh et al. 2006; Cavasotto et al. 2007). Using computer-aided methodologies, large numbers of compounds can be rapidly screened in order to efficiently eliminate non-binding compounds
Pharmacophore modelling can be further classified into structure-based and ligand-based methods. In structure-based pharmacophore modelling, the structure of receptor must be first determined using techniques such as X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Alternatively, if the structure of particular target is not known, a model can be constructed by homology with closely-related structures. In general, a structure containing the biomolecular target complexed with its ligand is advantageous for virtual screening since the key features of the interaction between the ligand and the binding pocket can be directly examined. Some commercially available computational software programs such as LIGANDSCOUT (Wolber et al. 2004) and POCKET v.2 (Chen et al. 2006) are able to analyse the binding interaction and calculate the relevant contributions of each feature to the specificity and inhibitory potency of the ligand. Ligand–target interactions can include hydrogen bonding, ionic interactions and hydrophobic interactions, and this information can be harnessed to generate a three-dimensional (3D) pharmacophore model.
Accelrys | Discovery Studio, Insight II | Pharmacophore modelling, receptor-ligand docking, de novo drug design, molecular stimulation |
MolSoft | ICM-Pro | Pharmacophore modelling, receptor-ligand docking, 3D QSAR model constructions |
Tripos | Sybyl | Receptor-ligand docking, chemoinformatics, 3D QSAR model constructions |
Scripps Research Institute | Autodock | Receptor-ligand docking |
Schrodinger | Phase | Receptor-ligand docking, pharmacophore modelling |
In contrast, a prior knowledge of the biomolecular target is not needed in ligand based pharmacophore modelling, but instead a library of compounds with known potencies towards the biomolecular target is required for the construction of a training set.
To confirm the validity of the 3D pharmacophore generated from either structure-based or ligand-based pharmacophore modelling, cost analysis techniques can be carried out based on statistical calculations in order to generate the “best” hypothetical structure. The validated pharmacophore is then subjected to virtual screening from chemical libraries to identify molecules that possess similar steric and electronic features with the pharmacophore. However, a drawback of pharmacophore modelling is that since the affinity calculation only involves the matching of geometry and functional groups of the potential ligand with the 3D pharmacophore, the screening process will tend to reveal ligands that structurally and electronically resemble the training set of compounds, rather than uncovering novel hit scaffolds.
On the other hand, molecular docking represents a totally different approach for virtual screening of bioactive compounds. Molecular docking involves stimulating the interactions between biomolecules and the ligands by computational algorithms. Molecular modelling has been gaining in popularity due to the increasing availability of biomolecular structures determined by either X-ray crystallography or NMR. In addition, advances in computational power and the continual development of more refined docking algorithms help to mitigate the relatively high computational strain demanded by molecular docking. In molecular docking, knowledge of the 3D biomolecular structure is essential, with or without the binding ligand. As previously described, the use of a biomolecular structure co-crystallized with a ligand is preferred as the binding pocket of the ligand can be easily identified and the subsequent docking analysis can then be restricted to the areas around the binding pocket in order to avoid wastage of computational resources and to eliminate false positives that interact outside of the binding site.
After completion of a virtual screening campaign, the resulting hit list of compounds can be subjected to experimental assays for hit validation (Figure 3). Alternatively, the hit structures can be used to construct analogues that can be screened
4. Molecular docking to discover promoter G-quadruplex stabilizing ligands
In order to drive the development of more potent and selective ligands targeting promoter G-quadruplexes, it is important to understand the detailed interactions between the G-quadruplex and the ligand at the molecular scale. Molecular modelling can provide a tool for visualizing the three-dimensional interactions of the G-quadruplex-ligand complex in order to better understand the structural or functional features required for effective binding. Compared to pharmacophore-based methods, molecular docking can potentially make more effective use of the structural information of the receptor for the discovery of novel G-quadruplex-targeting compounds. In particular, high-quality structural data on the distinctive features of different promoter G-quadruplexes may aid the design and optimization of bioactive ligands that are able to discriminate between related G-quadruplex topologies. In this section, we give a general overview for the
Computer-aided high-throughput molecular docking and hit validation usually involves three stages (Tang et al. 2006). The first stage is the construction and preparation/selection of the chemical library, and the preparation of the biomolecular model for molecular docking. The second stage is the docking of the individual compounds of the chemical library against the biomolecule, followed by score calculation. In the third stage, the high-scoring compounds can be selected for
4.1. Selection of chemical library
A poorly-designed chemical library can result a high rate of false positives, or otherwise poor-quality hits. Therefore, the careful selection of a chemical library containing members possessing favourable pharmacokinetic properties (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity; ADMET) or structural diversity could improve the hit rate of a single docking campaign. Today, most chemical libraries are focused in some way by applying a manually selected pre-filter. For example, the Lipinski rule-of-five is a common filter that represents a collection of structural properties correlated with desirable solubility and bioavailability of small molecules (Lipinski et al. 2001). Screening compounds libraries with a pre-filter reduces the likelihood of identifying hit compounds with undesirable ADMET properties, therefore minimizing any loss of investment in chemical synthesis or biological assays. Two types of chemical libraries commonly chosen for virtual screening campaigns are drug/drug-like databases and natural product libraries.
ChEMBL | European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) | "/>1.1 million | https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chembl/ |
ZINC | Bioinfomatics and Chemical Informatics Research Center (BCIRC) | "/>21 million | http://zinc.docking.org/ |
IBS Database | InterBioScreen Ltd | "/>45000 | http://www.ibscreen.com/natural.shtml |
NatDiverse | Analyticon Discovery | "/>20000 | http://www.ac-discovery.com |
Super Drug Database | Humboldt-University | ~3000 | http://bioinf.charite.de/superdrug/ |
DrugBank | University of Alberta | 6711 | http://www.drugbank.ca/ |
Approved drugs usually have favourable or validated pharmacokinetic properties and toxicological profiles, which can improve the hit rate of the screening campaign, and could allow promising hit compounds to potentially bypass early-stage testing, thus streamlining the hit-to-lead optimization process. However, the use of an existing drug library for virtual screening cannot uncover novel bioactive compounds against the biological target. On the other hand, natural products represent the largest class of compounds in the chemical world. The interactions of natural products with biomolecules have been refined throughout evolutionary timescales, and these unique interactions can be harnessed by medicinal chemists to discover potential drugs. Since most natural products do not strictly adhere to Lipinski rule-of-fives, the virtual screening of natural product libraries can yield novel bioactive scaffolds that could not be obtained from drug-like or combinatorial libraries. Examples of commercially available drug databases and natural product libraries that can be used in high-throughput virtual screening are shown in Table 2.
4.2. Receptor preparation
To construct the receptor model for molecular docking, the atomic coordinates of G-quadruplex solved by the X-ray crystallography and NMR studies with or without bound ligand can usually be retrieved from the Protein Data Bank (Berman et al. 2000) or Nucleic Acid Database (Berman et al. 1996). Generally, structural data obtained from X-ray crystallography is considered more advantageous compared to those from solution NMR studies, as more detailed structural information can be obtained at the atomic scale. For G-quadruplexes lacking hard structural data, a model can be constructed by homology by modification of known, related G-quadruplex structures determined by X-ray crystallography. Commercially available software such as Discovery Studio (Accelrys Inc.) or ICM-Pro (Molsoft) can perform modification of the G-quadruplex conformation or topology through the addition or deletion of nucleobases, addition of monovalent cations in the central ion channel, or modification of the loop length and/or addition of nucleotides in the loop region (Lee et al. 2010).
4.3. G-quadruplex flexibility
The receptor model prepared can then be subjected to local energy minimization to generate the most suitable conformer for subsequent molecular docking analysis. While the small molecule ligands are usually assumed to be flexible so that the binding geometry of the ligand can be corrected predicted, the target is usually assumed to be mostly rigid, as the explicit treatment of receptor flexibility in the docking calculations would be too computationally expensive. Several approaches have been proposed to account for receptor flexibility in virtual screening campaigns. In the case of the G-quadruplex, the flexibility of the loop regions could be important especially for G-quadruplex groove-binding ligands.
An early approach tackling the problem of receptor flexibility was the “soft-docking” method (Jiang et al. 1991). In this approach, the compounds need not fit perfectly to the binding pocket of receptor and a certain degree of steric crash is allowed. During the docking process, the ligand and the receptor adjust their conformations continuously in order to achieve the most suitable conformation with maximum interaction. However, this method only utilizes a single receptor conformation, and thus the choice of receptor model for docking is of the utmost importance.
An alternative strategy that may be useful in G-quadruplex ligand discovery is the use of multiple receptor conformations (MRC) to probe the receptor flexibility (Totrov et al. 2008). This could involve a combination of multiple structures experimentally determined by X-ray crystallography or NMR, or could be generated by molecular stimulation (MD). By considering the different receptor features from multiple conformations, a more representative receptor conformation could be generated for virtual screening. Some modern docking algorithms are able to explicitly model receptor flexibility, but this is usually constrained to the ligand binding domain in order to conserve computing resources. A more thorough discussion of the common approaches used to model receptor flexibility can be found in review articles by Kavraki and co-worker (Teodoro et al. 2003), and Durrant and co-worker (Durrant et al. 2010).
4.4. Global energy optimization
The compounds from the chemical libraries are docked to the receptor structure individually. Generally, assigning the docking site across the entire G-quadruplex structure yields end-stacking compounds as the highest-scoring hits. For discovering groove-binders, which typically display weaker binding affinities, the search area for docking can be limited to the groove or loop regions of the G-quadruplex. Once the compound has been docked into the receptor, most computer algorithms will perform global energy optimization of the small molecule inside the binding pocket to find the most favourable orientation of the small molecule (Abagyan et al. 1994). For example, ICM-Pro (Molsoft) docking software (Abagyan et al. 1997) includes the following steps for global energy optimization:
4.5. Score assignment
After the global energy optimization, score assignment is then performed to rank the compounds according to their predicted binding affinities. The score is a qualitative parameter that reflects the binding strength of the compound to the receptor and is composed a collection of factors such as hydrophobic interactions, van der Waal interactions, hydrogen bonding, and electrostatic interactions. However, the accuracy of the docking score will necessarily be limited by the assumptions and approximations of the scoring function. Other factors which may not be explicitly predicted by the computational algorithms, such as solvent environment and binding pocket availability, could also influence the actual binding affinity of the ligand.
Different docking programs may employ different scoring functions, which are generally classified into the following types: 1) force-field functions; 2) knowledge-based scoring functions; and 3) empirical scoring functions (Kitchen et al. 2004). These scoring functions perform calculations that involve different parameters such as statistical potential and weighted interaction terms to rank the apparent potency of the compounds. To improve the accuracy of the scoring assignment, the consensus scoring approach has been investigated. This strategy involves the combination of the weighted scores obtained for a single ligand from different score functions, to improve the hit rate of a docking campaign (Charifson et al. 1999; Clark et al. 2002; Baber et al. 2005; Yang et al. 2005).
5. Structure-based lead optimization
In the conventional drug discovery, validation of a screening hit by
6. Discovery of oncogenic promoter G-quadruplex-stabilizing ligands using structure-based approaches
The use of
In 2010, our group has employed high-throughput virtual screening techniques to identify fonsecin B (3) as a c-
A variety of experiments were performed to analyze the interaction and selectivity of fonsecin B towards the c-
Apart from the high-throughput virtual screening of chemical libraries, structure-based optimization by
Later, the Che group reported another successful application of computer-based lead optimization of Pt(II) metal complexes to discover efficient c-
Our group has recently reported the structural-based optimization of FDA-approved drug methylene blue (MB) to generate more potent analogues as c-
7. Conclusion
The identification of oncogenes involved in the progression of various types of tumours has stimulated the development of various anti-cancer strategies targeting oncogenic expression. The discovery of G-quadruplex motifs in the promoter regions of oncogenes and the elucidation of their putative roles in the regulation of oncogenic transcription has opened a new potential therapeutic avenue for the treatment of cancer. However, it should be noted that the application of G-quadruplex-stabilizing ligands for the modulation of oncogenic activity in living systems is still in its infancy. Most promoter quadruplex ligands discovered thus far have not yet progressed past pre-clinical investigation. To advance further, several important criteria have to be addressed. These include the bioavailability of G-quadruplex-binding compounds as well their conformational rigidity and promiscuity for other physiological targets. In particular, the action of the lead candidates against the large number of other gene promoters and G-quadruplex structures that are likely to be present in normal cells should be rigorously assessed. These factors would aid in the determination of the permissible dosage and therapeutic window of the G-quadruplex-targeting compounds for the potential treatment of cancer. With continual advances in computational technologies and modelling techniques, as well as the concurrent development of more focused yet diverse chemical libraries, we envisage that the discovery and investigation of novel promoter G-quadruplex-stabilizing ligands would continue to thrive in the near future. Furthermore,
Acknowledgement
This work is supported by Hong Kong Baptist University (FRG2/11-12/009), Environment and Conservation Fund (ECF Project 3/2010), Centre for Cancer and Inflammation Research, School of Chinese Medicine (CCIR-SCM, HKBU), the Health and Medical Research Fund (HMRF/11101212), the Research Grants Council (HKBU/201811 and HKBU/204612), the Science and Technology Development Fund, Macao SAR (001/2012/A) and the University of Macau (SRG013-ICMS12-LCH, MYRG091(Y1-L2)-ICMS12-LCH and MYRG121(Y1-L2)-ICMS12-LCH).
References
- 1.
andAbagyan R M Totrov 1994 Biased Probability Monte Carlo Conformational Searches and Electrostatic Calculations for Peptides and Proteins J Mol Biol235 983 1002 - 2.
andAbagyan R M Totrov 1997 Flexible protein-ligand docking by global energy optimization in internal coordinates Proteins29 215 220 - 3.
Alderden R. A andM. D Hall T. W Hambley 2006 The Discovery and Development of Cisplatin J Chem Educ 83:728 EOF - 4.
Baber J. C W. A Shirley andY Gao M Feher 2005 The Use of Consensus Scoring in Ligand-Based Virtual Screening. J Chem Inf Model46 277 288 - 5.
Balasubramanian S andL. H Hurley S Neidle 2011 Targeting G-quadruplexes in gene promoters: a novel anticancer strategy? Nat Rev Drug Discov10 261 275 - 6.
andBalasubramanian S S Neidle 2009 G-quadruplex nucleic acids as therapeutic targets Curr Opin Chem Biol13 345 353 - 7.
Bejugam M S Sewitz P. S Shirude R Rodriguez andR Shahid S Balasubramanian 2007 Trisubstituted Isoalloxazines as a New Class of G-Quadruplex Binding Ligands:? Small Molecule Regulation of c-kit Oncogene Expression J Am Chem Soc129 12926 12927 - 8.
Berman H. M andA Gelbin J Westbrook 1996 Nucleic acid crystallography: A view from the nucleic acid database. Prog Biophys Mol Biol66 255 288 - 9.
Berman H. M J Westbrook Z Feng G Gilliland T. N Bhat H Weissig et al 2000 The Protein Data Bank." Nucleic Acids Res28 235 242 - 10.
Blackburn E. H 1991 Structure and function of telomeres. 350 569 573 - 11.
Burge S G. N Parkinson P Hazel andA. K Todd S Neidle 2006 Quadruplex DNA: sequence, topology and structure Nucleic Acids Res34 5402 5415 - 12.
andCavasotto C A Orry 2007 Ligand docking and structure-based virtual screening in drug discovery. Curr Top Med Chem7 1006 1014 - 13.
Chan D. S H. , H Yang M. H. -T Kwan Z Cheng P Lee L. -P Bai et al 2011 Structure-based optimization of FDA-approved drug methylene blue as a c-myc G-quadruplex DNA stabilizer 93 1055 1064 - 14.
Charifson P. S J. J Corkery andM. A Murcko W. P Walters 1999 Consensus Scoring:? A Method for Obtaining Improved Hit Rates from Docking Databases of Three-Dimensional Structures into Proteins J Med Chem42 5100 5109 - 15.
Further Developments on Receptor-Based Pharmacophore Modeling." J Chem Inf Model andChen J L Lai 2006 Pocket v 46 2684 2691 - 16.
Clark R. D A Strizhev J. M Leonard andJ. F Blake J. B Matthew 2002 Consensus scoring for ligand/protein interactions. J Mol Graph Model20 281 295 - 17.
andCogoi S L. E Xodo 2006 G-quadruplex formation within the promoter of the KRAS proto-oncogene and its effect on transcription Nucleic Acids Res34 2536 2549 - 18.
Croce C. M 2008 Oncogenes and Cancer New Engl J Med358 502 511 - 19.
Dai J D Chen R. A Jones andL. H Hurley D Yang 2006 NMR solution structure of the major G-quadruplex structure formed in the human BCL2 promoter region Nucleic Acids Res34 5133 5144 - 20.
Davis T. L andA. B Firulli A. J Kinniburgh 1989 Ribonucleoprotein and protein factors bind to an H-DNA-forming c-myc DNA element: possible regulators of the c-myc gene. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA86 9682 9686 - 21.
Dexheimer T. S S. S Carey S Zuohe V. M Gokhale X Hu L. B Murata et al 2009 NM23-H2 may play an indirect role in transcriptional activation of c-myc gene expression but does not cleave the nuclease hypersensitive element III1." Mol Cancer Ther8 1363 1377 - 22.
Duan W A Rangan H Vankayalapati M. -Y Kim Q Zeng D Sun et al 2001 Design and Synthesis of Fluoroquinophenoxazines That Interact with Human Telomeric G-Quadruplexes and Their Biological Effects1." Mol Cancer Ther1 103 120 - 23.
andDurrant J. D J. A Mccammon 2010 Computer-aided drug-discovery techniques that account for receptor flexibility Curr Opin Pharmacol10 770 774 - 24.
Ghosh S A Nie andJ An Z Huang 2006 Structure-based virtual screening of chemical libraries for drug discovery Curr Opin Chem Biol10 194 202 - 25.
Gonzalez V K Guo andL Hurley D Sun 2009 Identification and Characterization of Nucleolin as a c-myc G-quadruplex-binding Protein J Biol Chem284 23622 23635 - 26.
Grand C. L H Han R. M Muñoz S Weitman D. D Von Hoff L. H Hurley et al 2002 The Cationic Porphyrin TMPyP4 Down-Regulates c-MYC and Human Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase Expression and Inhibits Tumor Growth in Vivo 1 This research was supported by grants from the NIH and the Arizona Disease Control Research Commission.1." Mol Cancer Ther1 565 573 - 27.
Heidenreich O 2009 Targeting Oncogenes with siRNAs. siRNA and miRNA Gene Silencing. M. Sioud, Humana Press.487 221 242 - 28.
andHuppert J. L S Balasubramanian 2007 G-quadruplexes in promoters throughout the human genome Nucleic Acids Res35 406 413 - 29.
andJiang F S. -H Kim 1991 Soft docking”: Matching of molecular surface cubes." J Mol Biol219 79 102 - 30.
andJung Y S. J Lippard 2007 Direct Cellular Responses to Platinum-Induced DNA Damage. Chem Rev107 1387 1407 - 31.
Kitchen D. B H Decornez andJ. R Furr J Bajorath 2004 Docking and scoring in virtual screening for drug discovery: methods and applications. Nat Rev Drug Discov3 935 949 - 32.
Lee H M. , D. S. -H Chan F Yang H. -Y Lam S. -C Yan C. -M Che et al 2010 Identification of natural product Fonsecin B as a stabilizing ligand of c-myc G-quadruplex DNA by high-throughput virtual screening Chem Commun46 4680 4682 - 33.
Li Q J Xiang X Li L Chen X Xu Y Tang et al 2009 Stabilizing parallel G-quadruplex DNA by a new class of ligands: Two non-planar alkaloids through interaction in lateral grooves 91 811 819 - 34.
Lipinski C. A F Lombardo andB. W Dominy P. J Feeney 2001 Experimental and computational approaches to estimate solubility and permeability in drug discovery and development settings Adv Drug Deliver Rev46 3 26 - 35.
in vivo evidence and function." Trends Cell Biol andLipps H. J D Rhodes 2009 G-q. u. a. d. r. u. p. l. e. x Structures 19 414 422 - 36.
Lu Y J. , T. -M Ou J. -H Tan J. -Q Hou W. -Y Shao D Peng et al 2008 5-N-Methylated Quindoline Derivatives as Telomeric G-Quadruplex Stabilizing Ligands: Effects of 5-N Positive Charge on Quadruplex Binding Affinity and Cell Proliferation J Med Chem51 6381 6392 - 37.
Lutz W andJ Leon M Eilers 2002 Contributions of Myc to tumorigenesis. BBA-Rev Cancer1602 61 71 - 38.
Ma D L. , V. P. -Y Ma D. S. -H Chan K. -H Leung andH. -J Zhong C. -H Leung 2012 In silico screening of quadruplex-binding ligands 57 106 114 - 39.
Ma Y T. -M Ou J. -Q Hou Y. -J Lu J. -H Tan L. -Q Gu et al 2008 9-N-Substituted berberine derivatives: Stabilization of G-quadruplex DNA and down-regulation of oncogene c-myc Bioorg Med Chem16 7582 7591 - 40.
Marcu K. B andS. A Bossone A. J Patel 1992 myc Function and Regulation." Annu Rev Biochem61 809 858 - 41.
Mcinnes C 2007 Virtual screening strategies in drug discovery Curr Opin Chem Biol11 494 502 - 42.
A target for drug design." Nat MedMergny J L. a. n. d C Helene 1998 G-q. u. a. d. r. u. p. l. e. x Dna 4 1366 1367 - 43.
andMeyer N L. Z Penn 2008 Reflecting on 25 years with MYC Nat Rev Cancer8 976 990 - 44.
s guide to G-quadruplex ligands." Org Biomol Chem andMonchaud D M. -P Teulade-fichou 2008 A Hitchhiker 6 627 636 - 45.
Nicklaus M. C N Neamati H Hong A Mazumder S Sunder J Chen et al 1997 HIV-1 Integrase Pharmacophore:? Discovery of Inhibitors through Three-Dimensional Database Searchin g†." J Med Chem40 920 929 - 46.
Ou T M. , Y. -J Lu C Zhang Z. -S Huang X. -D Wang J. -H Tan et al 2007 Stabilization of G-Quadruplex DNA and Down-Regulation of Oncogene c-myc by Quindoline Derivatives. J Med Chem50 1465 1474 - 47.
Parkinson G. N andM. P. H Lee S Neidle 2002 Crystal structure of parallel quadruplexes from human telomeric DNA Nature417 876 880 - 48.
Rankin S A. P Reszka J Huppert M Zloh G. N Parkinson A. K Todd et al 2005 Putative DNA Quadruplex Formation within the Human c-kit Oncogene. J Am Chem Soc127 10584 10589 - 49.
Seenisamy J E. M Rezler T. J Powell D Tye V Gokhale C. S Joshi et al 2004 The Dynamic Character of the G-Quadruplex Element in the c-MYC Promoter and Modification by TMPyP4. J Am Chem Soc126 8702 8709 - 50.
Shoichet B. K 2004 Virtual screening of chemical libraries. 432 862 865 - 51.
Siddiqui-jain A C. L Grand andD. J Bearss L. H Hurley 2002 Direct evidence for a G-quadruplex in a promoter region and its targeting with a small molecule to repress c-MYC transcription. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA99 11593 11598 - 52.
Tang Y W Zhu andK Chen H Jiang 2006 New technologies in computer-aided drug design: Toward target identification and new chemical entity discovery Drug Discov Today Technol3 307 313 - 53.
andTeodoro M. L L. E Kavraki 2003 Conformational flexibility models for the receptor in structure based drug design. Curr Pharm Des9 1635 1648 - 54.
andTotrov M R Abagyan 2008 Flexible ligand docking to multiple receptor conformations: a practical alternative Curr Opin Struct Biol18 178 184 - 55.
andVentura A T Jacks 2009 MicroRNAs and Cancer: Short RNAs Go a Long Way 136 586 591 - 56.
Wang P C. -H Leung D. -L Ma andS. -C Yan C. -M Che 2010 Structure-Based Design of Platinum(II) Complexes as c-myc Oncogene Down-Regulators and Luminescent Probes for G-Quadruplex DNA." Chem Eur J16 6900 6911 - 57.
Wheelhouse R. T D Sun H Han andF. X Han L. H Hurley 1998 Cationic Porphyrins as Telomerase Inhibitors:? the Interaction of Tetra-(N-methyl-4-pyridyl)porphine with Quadruplex DNA." J Am Chem Soc120 3261 3262 - 58.
andWierstra I J Alves 2008 The c-myc Promoter: Still MysterY and Challenge F. V. W. George and K. George, Academic Press.99 113 EOF 333 EOF - 59.
andWolber G T Langer 2004 LigandScout:? 3-D Pharmacophores Derived from Protein-Bound Ligands and Their Use as Virtual Screening Filters J Chem Inf Model45 160 169 - 60.
Wu P D. -L Ma C. -H Leung S. -C Yan N Zhu R Abagyan et al 2009 Stabilization of G-Quadruplex DNA with Platinum(II) Schiff Base Complexes: Luminescent Probe and Down-Regulation of c-myc Oncogene Expression." Chem Eur J15 13008 13021 - 61.
Yang J M. , Y. -F Chen T. -W Shen andB. S Kristal D. F Hsu 2005 Consensus Scoring Criteria for Improving Enrichment in Virtual Screening J Chem Inf Model45 1134 1146