Pharmacophore-based discovery of FXR-agonists. Part II: identification of bioactive triterpenes from Ganoderma lucidum.

Article Details

Citation

Grienke U, Mihaly-Bison J, Schuster D, Afonyushkin T, Binder M, Guan SH, Cheng CR, Wolber G, Stuppner H, Guo DA, Bochkov VN, Rollinger JM

Pharmacophore-based discovery of FXR-agonists. Part II: identification of bioactive triterpenes from Ganoderma lucidum.

Bioorg Med Chem. 2011 Nov 15;19(22):6779-91. doi: 10.1016/j.bmc.2011.09.039. Epub 2011 Sep 29.

PubMed ID
22014750 [ View in PubMed
]
Abstract

The farnesoid X receptor (FXR) belonging to the metabolic subfamily of nuclear receptors is a ligand-induced transcriptional activator. Its central function is the physiological maintenance of bile acid homeostasis including the regulation of glucose and lipid metabolism. Accessible structural information about its ligand-binding domain renders FXR an attractive target for in silico approaches. Integrated to natural product research these computational tools assist to find novel bioactive compounds showing beneficial effects in prevention and treatment of, for example, the metabolic syndrome, dyslipidemia, atherosclerosis, and type 2 diabetes. Virtual screening experiments of our in-house Chinese Herbal Medicine database with structure-based pharmacophore models, previously generated and validated, revealed mainly lanostane-type triterpenes of the TCM fungus Ganoderma lucidum Karst. as putative FXR ligands. To verify the prediction of the in silico approach, two Ganoderma fruit body extracts and compounds isolated thereof were pharmacologically investigated. Pronounced FXR-inducing effects were observed for the extracts at a concentration of 100 mug/mL. Intriguingly, five lanostanes out of 25 secondary metabolites from G. lucidum, that is, ergosterol peroxide (2), lucidumol A (11), ganoderic acid TR (12), ganodermanontriol (13), and ganoderiol F (14), dose-dependently induced FXR in the low micromolar range in a reporter gene assay. To rationalize the binding interactions, additional pharmacophore profiling and molecular docking studies were performed, which allowed establishing a first structure-activity relationship of the investigated triterpenes.

DrugBank Data that Cites this Article

Binding Properties
DrugTargetPropertyMeasurementpHTemperature (°C)
Chenodeoxycholic acidBile acid receptorEC 50 (nM)10000N/AN/ADetails