Cardiovascular diseases continue to be among the most prominent life-threatening diseases, many of which are linked to thrombotic events. There exist a number of available medications to prevent thrombosis in cardiovascular diseases including anti-coagulation drugs (e.g., warfarin, heparin) and anti-platelet drugs (e.g., aspirin and PLAVIX®). Each of these pharmaceuticals impose the significant risk of excessive bleeding. The protease-activated receptors (PARs), comprised of PAR1-4, are a class A GPCR subfamily known to contribute to cell signaling events during platelet aggregation via thrombin activation [1][2][3].
Our work uses comparative modeling in Rosetta to obtain a structure for docking simulations for in silico virtual screening and structure-based optimization of our lead compounds. Parallel testing of platelet activation in both human and mouse platelets with structural mapping of sequence variations is used as an additional structure-based approach for optimization. Parallel testing in both human and mouse platelets allows for us to explore new tool compounds for in vivo mouse studies, as well as optimization for clinically-relevant human PAR4 inhibitors.
References:
[1]
Rwibasira Rudinga G, Khan GJ, Kong Y. Protease-Activated Receptor 4 (PAR4): A Promising Target for Antiplatelet Therapy. Int J Mol Sci. 2018;19(2). doi: 10.3390/ijms19020573. PubMed PMID: 29443899; PubMed Central PMCID: PMCPMC5855795.
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O'Brien PJ, Molino M, Kahn M, Brass LF. Protease activated receptors: theme and variations. Oncogene. 2001;20(13):1570-81. doi: 10.1038/sj.onc.1204194. PubMed PMID: 11313904.
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Duvernay MT, Temple KJ, Maeng JG, Blobaum AL, Stauffer SR, Lindsley CW, et al. Contributions of Protease-Activated Receptors PAR1 and PAR4 to Thrombin-Induced GPIIbIIIa Activation in Human Platelets. Mol Pharmacol. 2017;91(1):39-47. Epub 2016/10/28. doi: 10.1124/mol.116.106666. PubMed PMID: 27784794; PubMed Central PMCID: PMCPMC5198515.
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Jeanette L. Bertron, Matthew T. Duvernay, Sidnee G. Mitchell, Shannon T. Smith, Jae G. Maeng, Anna L. Blobaum, Dexter C. Davis, Jens Meiler, Heidi E. Hamm, and Craig W. Lindsley ACS Chemical Neuroscience 2021 12 (24), 4524-4534 DOI: 10.1021/acschemneuro.1c00557