Abstract
P-glycoprotein (P-gp) is a plasma membrane efflux transporter belonging to ATP-binding cassette superfamily, responsible for multidrug resistance in tumor cells. Over-expression of P-gp in cancer cells limits the efficacy of many anticancer drugs. A clear understanding of P-gp substrate binding will be advantageous in early drug discovery process. However, substrate poly-specificity of P-gp is a limiting factor in rational drug design. In this investigation, we report a dynamic trans-membrane model of P-gp that accurately identified the substrate binding residues of known anticancer agents. The study included homology modeling of human P-gp based on the crystal structure of C. elegans P-gp, molecular docking, molecular dynamics analyses and binding free energy calculations. The model was further utilized to speculate substrate propensity of in-house anticancer compounds. The model demonstrated promising results with one anticancer compound (NSC745689). As per our observations, the molecule could be a potential lead for anticancer agents devoid of P-gp mediated multiple drug resistance. The in silico results were further validated experimentally using Caco-2 cell lines studies, where NSC745689 exhibited poor permeability (P app 1.03 ± 0.16 × 10−6 cm/s) and low efflux ratio of 0.26.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Juliano RL, Ling V (1976) A surface glycoprotein modulating drug permeability in Chinese hamster ovary cell mutants. Biochim Biophys Acta 455(1):152–162
Chan HSL, Haddad G, Thorner PS, DeBoer G, Lin YP, Ondrusek N, Yeger H, Ling V (1991) P-glycoprotein expression as a predictor of the outcome of therapy for neuroblastoma. N Engl J Med 325(23):1608–1614
Van der Valk P, Van Kalken CK, Ketelaars H, Broxterman HJ, Scheffer G, Kuiper CM, Tsuruo T, Lankelma J, Meijer C, Pinedo HM (1990) Original article: distribution of multi-drug resistance-associated P-glycoprotein in normal and neoplastic human tissues. Ann Oncol 1(1):56–64
Ambudkar SV, Kimchi-Sarfaty C, Sauna ZE, Gottesman MM (2003) P-glycoprotein: from genomics to mechanism. Oncogene 22(47):7468–7485
Seelig A (1998) A general pattern for substrate recognition by P-glycoprotein. Eur J Biochem 251(1–2):252–261
Higgins CF, Callaghan R, Linton KJ, Rosenberg MF, Ford RC (1997) Structure of the multidrug resistance P-glycoprotein. Semin Cancer Biol 8:135–142
Jones PM, George AM (1999) Subunit interactions in ABC transporters: towards a functional architecture. FEMS Microbiol Lett 179(2):187–202
Sharom FJ (1997) The P-glycoprotein efflux pump: how does it transport drugs? J Membr Biol 160(3):161–175
Crowley E, Callaghan R (2010) Multidrug efflux pumps: drug binding-gates or cavity? FEBS J 277(3):530–539
Didziapetris R, Japertas P, Avdeef A, Petrauskas A (2003) Classification analysis of P-glycoprotein substrate specificity. J Drug Target 11(7):391–406
Doppenschmitt S, Spahn-Langguth H, Regardh CG, Langguth P (1999) Role of P-glycoprotein-mediated secretion in absorptive drug permeability: an approach using passive membrane permeability and affinity to P-glycoprotein. J Pharm Sci 88(10):1067–1072
Chang G (2003) RETRACTED: structure of MsbA from Vibrio cholera: a multidrug resistance ABC transporter homolog in a closed conformation. J Mol Biol 330(2):419–430
Dawson RJP, Locher KP (2006) Structure of a bacterial multidrug ABC transporter. Nature 443(7108):180–185
Aller SG, Yu J, Ward A, Weng Y, Chittaboina S, Zhuo R, Harrell PM, Trinh YT, Zhang Q, Urbatsch IL, Chang G (2009) Structure of P-glycoprotein reveals a molecular basis for poly-specific drug binding. Science 323(5922):1718–1722
Jin MS, Oldham ML, Zhang Q, Chen J (2012) Crystal structure of the multidrug transporter P-glycoprotein from Caenorhabditis elegans. Nature 490(7421):566–569
Pajeva IK, Globisch C, Wiese M (2009) Comparison of the inward and outward-open homology models and ligand binding of human P-glycoprotein. FEBS J 276(23):7016–7026
Sato T, Kodan A, Kimura Y, Ueda K, Nakatsu T, Kato H (2009) Functional role of the linker region in purified human P-glycoprotein. FEBS J 276(13):3504–3516
Campbell JD, Deol SS, Ashcroft FM, Kerr ID, Sansom MSP (2004) Nucleotide-dependent conformational changes in HisP: molecular dynamics simulations of an ABC transporter nucleotide-binding domain. Biophys J 87(6):3703–3715
Campbell JD, Sansom MSP (2005) Nucleotide binding to the homodimeric MJ0796 protein: a computational study of a prokaryotic ABC transporter NBD dimer. FEBS Lett 579(19):4193–4199
Damas JM, Oliveira ASF, Baptista AM, Soares CM (2011) Structural consequences of ATP hydrolysis on the ABC transporter NBD dimer: molecular dynamics studies of HlyB. Protein Sci 20(7):1220–1230
Jones PM, George AM (2002) Mechanism of ABC transporters: a molecular dynamics simulation of a well characterized nucleotide-binding subunit. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99(20):12639–12644
Jones PM, George AM (2004) The ABC transporter structure and mechanism: perspectives on recent research. Cell Mol Life Sci 61(6):682–699
Jones PM, George AM (2007) Nucleotide-dependent Allostery within the ABC transporter ATP-binding cassette. J Biol Chem 282(31):22793–22803
Jones PM, George AM (2009) Opening of the ADP-bound active site in the ABC transporter ATPase dimer: evidence for a constant contact, alternating sites model for the catalytic cycle. Proteins Struct Funct Bioinf 75(2):387–396
Jones PM, George AM (2011) Molecular-dynamics simulations of the ATP/apo state of a multidrug ATP-binding cassette transporter provide a structural and mechanistic basis for the asymmetric occluded state. Biophys J 100(12):3025–3034
Oliveira ASF, Baptista AM, Soares CM (2010) Insights into the molecular mechanism of an ABC transporter: conformational changes in the NBD dimer of MJ0796. J Phys Chem B 114(16):5486–5496
Oloo EO, Fung EY, Tieleman DP (2006) The dynamics of the MgATP-driven closure of MalK, the energy-transducing subunit of the maltose ABC transporter. J Biol Chem 281(38):28397–28407
Wen PC, Tajkhorshid E (2008) Dimer opening of the nucleotide binding domains of ABC transporters after ATP hydrolysis. Biophys J 95(11):5100–5110
Becker JP, Depret G, Van Bambeke F, Tulkens PM, Pravost M (2009) Molecular models of human P-glycoprotein in two different catalytic states. BMC Struct Biol 9(1):3
Ivetac A, Campbell JD, Sansom MSP (2007) Dynamics and function in a bacterial ABC transporter: simulation studies of the BtuCDF system and its components. Biochemistry 46(10):2767–2778
Kandt C, Tieleman DP (2010) Holo-BtuF stabilizes the open conformation of the vitamin B12 ABC transporter BtuCD. Proteins Struct Funct Bioinf 78(3):738–753
Oliveira AS, Baptista AM, Soares CM (2011) Conformational changes induced by ATP-hydrolysis in an ABC transporter: a molecular dynamics study of the Sav 1866 exporter. Proteins: Struct, Funct, Bioinf 79:1977–1990
Oloo EO, Tieleman DP (2004) Conformational transitions induced by the binding of MgATP to the vitamin B12 ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter BtuCD. J Biol Chem 279(43):45013–45019
Sonne J, Kandt C, Peters GH, Hansen FY, Jensen MÃ, Tieleman DP (2007) Simulation of the coupling between nucleotide binding and transmembrane domains in the ATP binding cassette transporter BtuCD. Biophys J 92(8):2727–2734
St-Pierre JF, Bunker A, Rog T, Karttunen M, Mousseau N (2012) Molecular dynamics simulations of the bacterial ABC transporter SAV1866 in the closed form. J Phys Chem B 116(9):2934–2942
Sun TG, Liu M, Chen WZ, Wang CX (2010) Molecular dynamics simulation of the transmembrane subunit of BtuCD in the lipid bilayer. Sci China Life Sci 53(5):620–630
Wen PC, Tajkhorshid E (2011) Conformational coupling of the nucleotide-binding and the transmembrane domains in ABC transporters. Biophys J 101(3):680–690
Weng JW, Fan KN, Wang WN (2010) The conformational transition pathway of ATP binding cassette transporter MsbA revealed by atomistic simulations. J Biol Chem 285(5):3053
Labhsetwar LB, Shendarkar GR, Kuberkar SV (2010) Synthesis and in vitro anticancer activity of 8-chloro-3-cyano-4-imino-2-methylthio-4-H-pyrimido [2, 1-B][1, 3] benzothiazoel and its 2-substituted derivatives. JPRHC 3:273–278
Nandekar P, Tumbi K, Bansal N, Rathod V, Labhsetwar L, Soumya N, Singh S, Sangamwar A (2012) Chem-bioinformatics and in vitro approaches for candidate optimization: a case study of NSC745689 as a promising antitumor agent. Med Chem Res 1–15. doi:10.1007/s00044-012-0364-8
Apweiler R, Martin MJ, O’Donovan C, Magrane M, Alam-Faruque Y, Antunes R, Barrell D, Bely B, Bingley M, Binns D (2010) The universal protein resource (UniProt) in 2010. Nucleic Acids Res 38:D142–D148
Altschul SF, Gish W, Miller W, Myers EW, Lipman DJ (1990) Basic local alignment search tool. J Mol Biol 215(3):403–410
Eswar N, Webb B, Marti-Renom MA, Madhusudhan MS, Eramian D, Shen MY, Pieper U, Sali A (2007) Comparative protein structure modeling using Modeller. Curr Protoc Protein Sci 2(12):15–32
Ferreira RJ, Ferreira MJU, dos Santos DJVA (2012) Insights on P-glycoprotein’s efflux mechanism obtained by molecular dynamics simulations. J Chem Theory Comput 8(6):1853–1864
Hrycyna CA, Airan LE, Germann UA, Ambudkar SV, Pastan I, Gottesman MM (1998) Structural flexibility of the linker region of human P-glycoprotein permits ATP hydrolysis and drug transport. Biochemistry 37(39):13660–13673
Raviv Y, Pollard HB, Bruggemann EP, Pastan I, Gottesman MM (1990) Photosensitized labeling of a functional multidrug transporter in living drug-resistant tumor cells. J Biol Chem 265(7):3975
Retzinger GS, Cohen L, Lau SH, Kezdy FJ (1986) Ionization and surface properties of verapamil and several verapamil analogues. J Pharm Sci 75(10):976–982
Schrödinger Suite 2009 Induced Fit Docking protocol; Glide version 5.5, Schrödinger, LLC, New York, NY, 2009; Prime version 2.1, Schrödinger, LLC, New York, NY, 2009
Sherman W, Beard HS, Farid R (2006) Use of an induced fit receptor structure in virtual screening. Chem Biol Drug Des 67(1):83–84
Loo TW, Bartlett MC, Clarke DM (2006) Transmembrane segment 1 of human P-glycoprotein contributes to the drug-binding pocket. Biochem J 396(Pt 3):537
Loo TW, Bartlett MC, Clarke DM (2006) Transmembrane segment 7 of human P-glycoprotein forms part of the drug-binding pocket. Biochem J 399(Pt 2):351
Loo TW, Bartlett MC, Clarke DM (2009) Identification of residues in the drug translocation pathway of the human multidrug resistance P-glycoprotein by arginine mutagenesis. J Biol Chem 284(36):24074–24087
Loo TW, Clarke DM (1997) Identification of residues in the drug-binding site of human P-glycoprotein using a thiol-reactive substrate. J Biol Chem 272(51):31945–31948
Loo TW, Clarke DM (2000) Identification of residues within the drug-binding domain of the human multidrug resistance P-glycoprotein by cysteine-scanning mutagenesis and reaction with dibromobimane. J Biol Chem 275(50):39272–39278
Humphrey W, Dalke A, Schulten K (1996) VMD: visual molecular dynamics. J Mol Graph 14(1):33–38
Van Der Spoel D, Lindahl E, Hess B, Groenhof G, Mark AE, Berendsen HJC (2005) GROMACS: fast, flexible, and free. J Comput Chem 26(16):1701–1718
Kandt C, Ash WL, Peter Tieleman D (2007) Setting up and running molecular dynamics simulations of membrane proteins. Methods 41(4):475–488
Bayly CI, Cieplak P, Cornell W, Kollman PA (1993) A well-behaved electrostatic potential based method using charge restraints for deriving atomic charges: the RESP model. J Phys Chem 97(40):10269–10280
Wang J, Morin P, Wang W, Kollman PA (2001) Use of MM-PBSA in reproducing the binding free energies to HIV-1 RT of TIBO derivatives and predicting the binding mode to HIV-1 RT of efavirenz by docking and MM-PBSA. J Am Chem Soc 123(22):5221–5230
Hou T, Wang J, Li Y, Wang W (2011) Assessing the performance of the MM/PBSA and MM/GBSA methods. 1. The accuracy of binding free energy calculations based on molecular dynamics simulations. J Chem Inf Model 51(1):69–82
Wahlang B, Pawar YB, Bansal AK (2011) Identification of permeability-related hurdles in oral delivery of curcumin using the Caco-2 cell model. Eur J Pharm Biopharm 77(2):275–282
Loo TW, Bartlett MC, Clarke DM (2004) Disulfide cross-linking analysis shows that transmembrane segments 5 and 8 of human P-glycoprotein are close together on the cytoplasmic side of the membrane. J Biol Chem 279(9):7692–7697
Loo TW, Bartlett MC, Clarke DM (2004) Val133 and Cys137 in transmembrane segment 2 are close to Arg935 and Gly939 in transmembrane segment 11 of human P-glycoprotein. J Biol Chem 279(18):18232–18238
Loo TW, Bartlett MC, Clarke DM (2007) Suppressor mutations in the transmembrane segments of P-glycoprotein promote maturation of processing mutants and disrupt a subset of drug-binding sites. J Biol Chem 282(44):32043–32052
Loo TW, Bartlett MC, Clarke DM (2008) Processing mutations disrupt interactions between the nucleotide binding and transmembrane domains of P-glycoprotein and the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). J Biol Chem 283(42):28190–28197
Loo TW, Clarke DM (2000) The packing of the transmembrane segments of human multidrug resistance P-glycoprotein is revealed by disulfide cross-linking analysis. J Biol Chem 275(8):5253–5256
Loo TW, Clarke DM (2001) Determining the dimensions of the drug-binding domain of human P-glycoprotein using thiol cross-linking compounds as molecular rulers. J Biol Chem 276(40):36877–36880
Loo TW, Clarke DM (2001) Defining the drug-binding site in the human multidrug resistance P-glycoprotein using a methanethiosulfonate analog of verapamil, MTS-verapamil. J Biol Chem 276(18):14972–14979
Indu S, Kumar ST, Thakurela S, Gupta M, Bhaskara RM, Ramakrishnan C, Varadarajan R (2010) Disulfide conformation and design at helix N-termini. Proteins: Struct, Funct, Bioinf 78(5):1228–1242
Newstead S, Fowler PW, Bilton P, Carpenter EP, Sadler PJ, Campopiano DJ, Sansom MSP, Iwata S (2009) Insights into how nucleotide-binding domains power ABC transport. Structure 17(9):1213–1222
Loo TW, Clarke DM (1999) Identification of residues in the drug-binding domain of human P-glycoprotein Analysis of transmembrane segment 11 by cysteine-scanning mutagenesis and inhibition by dibromobimane. J Biol Chem 274(50):35388–35392
Korjamo T, Honkakoski P, Toppinen MR, Niva S, Reinisalo M, Palmgrénb JJ, Mönkkönena J (2005) Absorption properties and P-glycoprotein activity of modified Caco-2 cell lines. Eur J Pharm Sci 26(3):266–279
Uchida M, Fukazawa T, Yamazaki Y, Hashimoto H, Miyamoto Y (2009) A modified fast (4 day) 96-well plate Caco-2 permeability assay. J Pharmacol Toxicol Methods 59(1):39–43
Yamashita S, Furubayashi T, Kataoka M, Sakane T, Sezaki H, Tokuda H (2000) Optimized conditions for prediction of intestinal drug permeability using Caco-2 cells. Eur J Pharm Sci 10(3):195–204
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Prajapati, R., Singh, U., Patil, A. et al. In silico model for P-glycoprotein substrate prediction: insights from molecular dynamics and in vitro studies. J Comput Aided Mol Des 27, 347–363 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10822-013-9650-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10822-013-9650-x