The Ascaris suum nicotinic receptor, ACR-16, as a drug target: Four novel negative allosteric modulators from virtual screening

• Three-dimensional structural models of the Ascaris nicotinic (Asu-ACR-16) receptor made by homology modeling.
• High affinity ligands selected by in silico screening.
• Four ligands validated by electrophysiological studies as negative allosteric modulators.

Soil-transmitted helminth infections in humans and livestock cause significant debility, reduced productivity and economic losses globally. There are a limited number of effective anthelmintic drugs available for treating helminths infections, and their frequent use has led to the development of resistance in many parasite species. There is an urgent need for novel therapeutic drugs for treating these parasites. We have chosen the ACR-16 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor of Ascaris suum (Asu-ACR-16), as a drug target and have developed three-dimensional models of this transmembrane protein receptor to facilitate the search for new bioactive compounds. Using the human α7 nAChR chimeras and Torpedo marmorata nAChR for homology modeling, we defined orthosteric and allosteric binding sites on the Asu-ACR-16 receptor for virtual screening. We identified four ligands that bind to sites on Asu-ACR-16 and tested their activity using electrophysiological recording from Asu-ACR-16 receptors expressed in Xenopus oocytes. The four ligands were acetylcholine inhibitors (SB-277011-A, IC50, 3.12 ± 1.29 μM; (+)-butaclamol Cl, IC50, 9.85 ± 2.37 μM; fmoc-1, IC50, 10.00 ± 1.38 μM; fmoc-2, IC50, 16.67 ± 1.95 μM) that behaved like negative allosteric modulators. Our work illustrates a structure-based in silico screening method for seeking anthelmintic hits, which can then be tested electrophysiologically for further characterization.

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