@article {Spiliotopoulos122317, author = {Dimitrios Spiliotopoulos and Eike-Christian Wamhoff and Graziano Lolli and Christoph Rademacher and Amedeo Caflisch}, title = {Discovery of BAZ2A Bromodomain Ligands}, elocation-id = {122317}, year = {2017}, doi = {10.1101/122317}, publisher = {Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory}, abstract = {The bromodomain adjacent to zinc finger domain protein 2A (BAZ2A) is implicated in aggressive prostate cancer. The BAZ2A bromodomain is a challenging target because of the shallow pocket of its natural ligand, the acetylated side chain of lysine. Here, we report the successful screening of a library of nearly 1500 small molecules by high-throughput docking and force field-based binding-energy evaluation. For seven of the 20 molecules selected in silico, evidence of binding to the BAZ2A bromodomain is provided by ligand-observed NMR spectroscopy. Two of these compounds show a favorable ligand efficiency of 0.42 kcal/mol per non-hydrogen atom in a competition-binding assay. The crystal structures of the BAZ2A bromodomain in complex with four fragment hits validate the predicted binding modes. The binding modes of compounds 1 and 3 are compatible with ligand growing for optimization of affinity for BAZ2A and selectivity against the close homologue BAZ2B.BAZ2Abromodomain adjacent to zinc finger domain protein 2ABAZ2Bbromodomain adjacent to zinc finger domain 2BBETbromodomain and extra terminalCPMGCarr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill sequenceCREBcAMP response element-binding proteinCSPchemical shift perturbationDMSOdimethyl sulfoxideDPFGSEDouble Pulsaed Field Gradient Spin Echo sequenceIMACimmobilized metal affinity chromatographyIPTGisopropyl β-D-1-thiogalactopyranosideKacacetyllysineLEligand efficiencySTDsaturation transfer differenceTSPtrimethylsilylpropanoic acid.}, URL = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/07/122317}, eprint = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/07/122317.full.pdf}, journal = {bioRxiv} }