Integrated computational and Drosophila cancer model platform captures previously unappreciated chemicals perturbing a kinase network

PLoS Comput Biol. 2019 Apr 26;15(4):e1006878. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006878. eCollection 2019 Apr.

Abstract

Drosophila provides an inexpensive and quantitative platform for measuring whole animal drug response. A complementary approach is virtual screening, where chemical libraries can be efficiently screened against protein target(s). Here, we present a unique discovery platform integrating structure-based modeling with Drosophila biology and organic synthesis. We demonstrate this platform by developing chemicals targeting a Drosophila model of Medullary Thyroid Cancer (MTC) characterized by a transformation network activated by oncogenic dRetM955T. Structural models for kinases relevant to MTC were generated for virtual screening to identify unique preliminary hits that suppressed dRetM955T-induced transformation. We then combined features from our hits with those of known inhibitors to create a 'hybrid' molecule with improved suppression of dRetM955T transformation. Our platform provides a framework to efficiently explore novel kinase inhibitors outside of explored inhibitor chemical space that are effective in inhibiting cancer networks while minimizing whole body toxicity.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antineoplastic Agents / pharmacology*
  • Carcinoma, Neuroendocrine* / enzymology
  • Carcinoma, Neuroendocrine* / metabolism
  • Computational Biology / methods
  • Drosophila
  • Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / methods*
  • Models, Biological
  • Neoplasms, Experimental / enzymology
  • Neoplasms, Experimental / metabolism
  • Protein Kinase Inhibitors / pharmacology*
  • Protein Kinases* / drug effects
  • Protein Kinases* / metabolism
  • Thyroid Neoplasms* / enzymology
  • Thyroid Neoplasms* / metabolism

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Protein Kinase Inhibitors
  • Protein Kinases

Supplementary concepts

  • Thyroid cancer, medullary