Discovery of novel dual adenosine A1/A2A receptor antagonists using deep learning, pharmacophore modeling and molecular docking

PLoS Comput Biol. 2021 Mar 19;17(3):e1008821. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008821. eCollection 2021 Mar.

Abstract

Adenosine receptors (ARs) have been demonstrated to be potential therapeutic targets against Parkinson's disease (PD). In the present study, we describe a multistage virtual screening approach that identifies dual adenosine A1 and A2A receptor antagonists using deep learning, pharmacophore models, and molecular docking methods. Nineteen hits from the ChemDiv library containing 1,178,506 compounds were selected and further tested by in vitro assays (cAMP functional assay and radioligand binding assay); of these hits, two compounds (C8 and C9) with 1,2,4-triazole scaffolds possessing the most potent binding affinity and antagonistic activity for A1/A2A ARs at the nanomolar level (pKi of 7.16-7.49 and pIC50 of 6.31-6.78) were identified. Further molecular dynamics (MD) simulations suggested similarly strong binding interactions of the complexes between the A1/A2A ARs and two compounds (C8 and C9). Notably, the 1,2,4-triazole derivatives (compounds C8 and C9) were identified as the most potent dual A1/A2A AR antagonists in our study and could serve as a basis for further development. The effective multistage screening approach developed in this study can be utilized to identify potent ligands for other drug targets.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adenosine A1 Receptor Antagonists*
  • Adenosine A2 Receptor Antagonists*
  • Deep Learning*
  • Drug Discovery / methods*
  • Humans
  • Molecular Docking Simulation
  • Parkinson Disease
  • Protein Binding
  • Receptor, Adenosine A2A / chemistry
  • Receptor, Adenosine A2A / genetics
  • Receptor, Adenosine A2A / metabolism

Substances

  • Adenosine A1 Receptor Antagonists
  • Adenosine A2 Receptor Antagonists
  • Receptor, Adenosine A2A

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China under Grant No. 2017YFC1104400 (J.L), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Nankai University under Grant No.63201231 (J.L) and No.63201228 (Y.W). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.