success-story

High-throughput screening (HTS) of chemical libraries has become a critical tool in basic biology and drug discovery. However, its implementation and the adaptation of high-content assays to human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) have been hampered by multiple technical challenges. Here we present a strategy to adapt hESCs to HTS conditions, resulting in an assay suitable […]

The screening of a commercially available library of compounds has proved a successful strategy for the identification of a lead compound in a drug discovery programme. Here, we analysed 880 off-patent drugs, which initially comprised the Prestwick Chemical library, as sources of bacterial endotoxin neutralizers. We identified 3,3′,5-triiodo-thyroacetic acid (tiratricol) as a non-antibacterial compound that […]

Escherichia coli YjeE is a broadly conserved bacterial ATPase of unknown function that has been widely characterized as essential. Here, the transcriptional regulation of the promoter of yjeE (P yjeE) was probed using a luciferase reporter and 172 antibiotics of diverse mechanisms. Norfloxacin and other fluorquinolones were found to be the most potent activator of […]

Alternative splicing of tau exon 10 produces tau isoforms with either 3 (3R) or 4 (4R) repeated microtubule-binding domains. Increased ratios of 4R to 3R tau expression, above the physiological 1:1, leads to neurofibrillary tangles and causes neurode-generative disease. An RNA stem loop structure plays a significant role in determining the ratio, with decreasing stability […]

This study describes a method for mining and modeling binding data obtained from a large panel of targets (in vitro safety pharmacology) to distinguish differences between promiscuous and selective compounds. Two naïve Bayes models for promiscuity and selectivity were generated and validated on a test set as well as publicly available drug databases. The model […]

Preclinical Safety Pharmacology (PSP) attempts to anticipate adverse drug reactions (ADRs) during early phases of drug discovery by testing compounds in simple, in vitro binding assays (that is, preclinical profiling). The selection of PSP targets is based largely on circumstantial evidence of their contribution to known clinical ADRs, inferred from findings in clinical trials, animal […]

The range of molecular properties of generally recognized as safe (GRAS) compounds that are typically used in food and beverage products is compared to marketed drugs. It is observed that GRAS compounds differ from marketed drugs with respect to several molecular descriptors, including molecular weight, H-bond acceptor count, H-bond donor count, aromatic ring count, basic […]

Chitinases hydrolyse the ??(1,4)-glycosidic bonds of chitin, an essential fungal cell wall component. Genetic data on a subclass of fungal family 18 chitinases have suggested a role in??cell wall morphology. Specific inhibitors of these enzymes would be useful as tools to study their role in cell wall morphogenesis and could possess antifungal properties. Here, we […]

Alzheimer disease is diagnosed postmortem by the density and spatial distribution of β-amyloid plaques and tau-bearing neurofibrillary tangles. The major protein component of each lesion adopts cross-β-sheet conformation capable of binding small molecules with submicromolar affinity. In many cases, however, Alzheimer pathology overlaps with Lewy body disease, characterized by the accumulation of a third cross-β-sheet […]

The aim of this study was to investigate the permeation properties of 20 permanently positive charged molecules in the parallel artificial membrane permeability assay (PAMPA). Eight of them were derivatives of the N-alkyl-isoquinolinium salt and 12 were congeners of the dye rhodamine 110. Five out of 12 molecules from the rhodamine 110 series have one […]