Molecules, Vol. 25, Pages 4904: Computational Studies towards the Identification of Novel Rhodopsin-Binding Compounds as Chemical Chaperones for Misfolded Opsins

Molecules, Vol. 25, Pages 4904: Computational Studies towards the Identification of Novel Rhodopsin-Binding Compounds as Chemical Chaperones for Misfolded Opsins Molecules doi: 10.3390/molecules25214904 Authors: Gaia Pasqualetto Martin Schepelmann Carmine Varricchio Elisa Pileggi Caroline Khogali Siân R. Morgan Ian Boostrom Malgorzata Rozanowska Andrea Brancale Salvatore Ferla Marcella Bassetto Accumulation of misfolded and mistrafficked rhodopsin on the endoplasmic reticulum of photoreceptor cells has a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of retinitis pigmentosa and a subset of Leber’s congenital amaurosis. One potential strategy to reduce rhodopsin misfolding and aggregation in these conditions is to use opsin-binding compounds as chemical chaperones for opsin. Such molecules have previously shown the ability to aid rhodopsin folding and proper trafficking to the outer cell membranes of photoreceptors. As means to identify novel chemical chaperones for rhodopsin, a structure-based virtual screening of commercially available drug-like compounds (300,000) was performed on the main binding site of the visual pigment chromophore, the 11-cis-retinal. The best 24 virtual hits were examined for their ability to compete for the chromophore-binding site of opsin. Among these, four small molecules demonstrated the ability to reduce the rate constant for the formation of the 9-cis-retinal-rhodopsin complex, while five molecules surprisingly enha...
Source: Molecules - Category: Chemistry Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research