Peptide-to-Small Molecule: A Pharmacophore-Guided Small Molecule Lead Generation Strategy from High-Affinity Macrocyclic Peptides.
Yoshida, S., Uehara, S., Kondo, N., Takahashi, Y., Yamamoto, S., Kameda, A., Kawagoe, S., Inoue, N., Yamada, M., Yoshimura, N., Tachibana, Y.(2022) J Med Chem 65: 10655-10673
- PubMed: 35904556 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.2c00919
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
7WMC, 7WMT - PubMed Abstract: 
Recent technological innovations have led to the development of methods for the rapid identification of high-affinity macrocyclic peptides for a wide range of targets; however, it is still challenging to achieve the desired activity and membrane permeability at the same time. Here, we propose a novel small molecule lead discovery strategy, ″Peptide-to-Small Molecule″, which is a combination of rapid identification of high-affinity macrocyclic peptides via peptide display screening followed by pharmacophore-guided de novo design of small molecules, and demonstrate the applicability using nicotinamide N -methyltransferase (NNMT) as a target. Affinity selection by peptide display technology identified macrocyclic peptide 1 that exhibited good enzymatic inhibitory activity but no cell-based activity. Thereafter, a peptide pharmacophore-guided de novo design and further structure-based optimization resulted in highly potent and cell-active small molecule 14 (cell-free IC 50 = 0.0011 μM, cell-based IC 50 = 0.40 μM), indicating that this strategy could be a new option for drug discovery.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Pharmaceutical Research Division, Shionogi Pharmaceutical Research Center, 3-1-1 Futaba-cho, Toyonaka, Osaka561-0825, Japan.