Pharmacophore-driven identification of human glutaminyl cyclase inhibitors from foods, plants and herbs unveils the bioactive property and potential of Azaleatin in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease

  • Food Funct. 2022 Dec 13;13(24):12632-12647. doi: 10.1039/d2fo02507h.
Keng-Chang Tsai  1  2 ,  Yi-Xuan Zhang  3 ,  Hsiang-Yun Kao  3 ,  Kit-Man Fung  3  4 ,  Tien-Sheng Tseng  3
Affiliations
  • 1. National Research Institute of Chinese Medicine, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taipei, Taiwan. [email protected].
  • 2. Ph.D. Program in Medical Biotechnology, College of Medical Science and Technology, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
  • 3. Institute of Molecular Biology, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan. [email protected].
  • 4. Institute of Biological Chemistry, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan.
PMID: 36416361 DOI: 10.1039/d2fo02507h
Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the leading cause of disabilities in old age and a rapidly growing condition in the elderly population. AD brings significant burden and has a devastating impact on public health, society and the global economy. Thus, developing new therapeutics to combat AD is imperative. Human glutaminyl cyclase (hQC), which catalyzes the formation of neurotoxic pyroglutamate (pE)-modified β-amyloid (Aβ) peptides, is linked to the amyloidogenic process that leads to the initiation of AD. Hence, hQC is an essential target for developing anti-AD therapeutics. Here, we systematically screened and identified hQC inhibitors from natural products by pharmacophore-driven inhibitor screening coupled with biochemical and biophysical examinations. We employed receptor-ligand pharmacophore generation to build pharmacophore models and Phar-MERGE and Phar-SEN for inhibitor screening through ligand-pharmacophore mapping. About 11 and 24 hits identified from the Natural Product and Traditional Chinese Medicine databases, respectively, showed diverse hQC inhibitory abilities. Importantly, the inhibitors TCM1 (Azaleatin; IC50 = 1.1 μM) and TCM2 (Quercetin; IC50 = 4.3 μM) found in foods and Plants exhibited strong inhibitory potency against hQC. Furthermore, the binding affinity and molecular interactions were analyzed by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and molecular modeling/simulations to explore the possible modes of action of Azaleatin and Quercetin. Our study successfully screened and characterized the foundational biochemical and biophysical properties of Azaleatin and Quercetin toward targeting hQC, unveiling their bioactive potential in the treatment of AD.

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