PMID: 26733474

Authors:

Kinoshita T, Sugiyama H, Mori Y, Takahashi N, Tomonaga A

Title:

Identification of allosteric ERK2 inhibitors through in silico biased screening and competitive binding assay.

Journal:

Bioorg Med Chem Lett. 2016 Feb 1;26(3):955-8. doi: 10.1016/j.bmcl.2015.12.056., Epub 2015 Dec 18.

Abstract:

Extracellular signal-regulated kinase 2 (ERK2) is a drug target for type 2 diabetes mellitus. A peptide-type ERK2 inhibitor (PEP) was discovered in the previous study through the knowledge-based method and showed physiological effects on the db/db mice model of type 2 diabetes. Here, the crystal structure showed that PEP bound to the allosteric site without the interruption of the ATP competitive inhibitor binding to ERK2. An in silico biased-screening using the focused library rendered three compounds with inhibitory activity of IC50 <100muM. Among them, two compounds revealed the concentration-dependent competition with PEP and could be lead compounds for antidiabetic medicine.