Bisphosphonate inhibition of the exopolyphosphatase activity of the Trypanosoma brucei soluble vacuolar pyrophosphatase

Evangelia Kotsikorou, Yongcheng Song, Julian M.W. Chan, Stephanie Faelens, Zev Tovian, Erin Broderick, Norbert Bakalara, Roberta Docampo, Eric Oldfield

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of African trypanosomiasis, contains a soluble, vacuolar pyrophosphatase, TbVSP1, not present in humans, which is essential for the growth of bloodstream forms in their mammalian host. Here, we report the inhibition of a recombinant TbVSP1 expressed in Escherichia coli by a panel of 81 bisphosphonates. The IC50 values were found to vary from ∼2 to 850 μM. We then used 3D QSAR (comparative molecular field and comparative molecular similarity index; CoMFA and CoMSIA) methods to analyze the enzyme inhibition results. The R2 values for the experimental versus the QSAR-predicted activities were 0.78 or 0.61 for CoMFA and 0.79 or 0.68 for CoMSIA, for two different alignments. The root-mean-square (rms) pIC50 error for the best CoMFA model was 0.41 for five test sets of five activity predictions, which translates to a factor of ∼2.6 error in IC50 prediction. For CoMSIA, the rms pIC50 error and error factors were 0.35 and 2.2, respectively. In general, the most active compounds contained both a single aromatic ring and a hydrogen bond donor feature. Thirteen of the more potent compounds were then tested in vivo in a mouse model of T. brucei infection. The most active compound in vivo provided a 40% protection from death with no apparent side effects, suggesting that further development of such compounds may be of interest.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)6128-6139
Number of pages12
JournalJournal of Medicinal Chemistry
Volume48
Issue number19
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 22 2005

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Molecular Medicine
  • Drug Discovery

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