Identification of small-molecule binding pockets in the soluble monomeric form of the Aβ42 peptide

M Zhu, Alfonso De Simone, D Schenk, Gregely Toth, Christopher Dobson, Michele Vendruscolo, Apollo-University Of Cambridge Repository, Apollo-University Of Cambridge Repository
2017
The aggregation of intrinsically disordered peptides and proteins is associated with a wide range of highly debilitating neurological and systemic disorders. In this work we explored the potential of a structure-based drug discovery procedure to target one such system, the soluble monomeric form of the Aβ42 peptide. We utilised for this purpose a set of structures of the Aβ42 peptide selected from clusters of conformations within an ensemble generated by molecular dynamics simulations. Using
more » ... se structures we carried out fragment mapping calculations to identify binding "hot spots" on the monomeric form of the Aβ42 peptide. This procedure provided a set of hot spots with ligand efficiencies comparable to those observed for structured proteins, and clustered into binding pockets. Such binding pockets exhibited a propensity to bind small molecules known to interact with the Aβ42 peptide. Taken together these results provide an initial indication that fragment-based drug discovery may represent a potential therapeutic strategy for diseases associated with the aggregation of intrinsically disordered proteins.
doi:10.17863/cam.8632 fatcat:yh5qnrc32rfwnnru5vcjvnpgsi