Elucidation of Molecular Mechanism of a Selective PPARα Modulator, Pemafibrate, through Combinational Approaches of X-ray Crystallography, Thermodynamic Analysis, and First-Principle Calculations

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Hiroaki Tokiwa¹  Sundaram Arulmozhiraja¹  Yuta Yamamoto¹  Yoshimi Nakagawa²  Akira Kambe³  Sohei Ito³  Shogo Nakano³  Mayu Kawasaki³  Hitoshi Shimano⁴ 

[1] Department of Chemistry, Rikkyo University, 3-34-1 Nishi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo 171-8501, Japan;Department of Internal Medicine (Endocrinology and Metabolism), Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8575, Japan;Graduate Division of Nutritional and Environmental Sciences, University of Shizuoka, 52-1 Yada, Suruga-ku, Shizuoka 422-8526, Japan;Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development-Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (AMED-CREST), Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-1004, Japan;

关键词: pemafibrate;    spparmα;    x-ray crystal structure;    isothermal titration calorimetry;    fragment molecular orbital theory;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms21010361

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The selective PPARα modulator (SPPARMα) is expected to medicate dyslipidemia with minimizing adverse effects. Recently, pemafibrate was screened from the ligand library as an SPPARMα bearing strong potency. Several clinical pieces of evidence have proved the usefulness of pemafibrate as a medication; however, how pemafibrate works as a SPPARMα at the molecular level is not fully known. In this study, we investigate the molecular mechanism behind its novel SPPARMα character through a combination of approaches of X-ray crystallography, isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), and fragment molecular orbital (FMO) analysis. ITC measurements have indicated that pemafibrate binds more strongly to PPARα than to PPARγ. The crystal structure of PPARα-ligand binding domain (LBD)/pemafibrate/steroid receptor coactivator-1 peptide (SRC1) determined at 3.2 Å resolution indicates that pemafibrate binds to the ligand binding pocket (LBP) of PPARα in a Y-shaped form. The structure also reveals that the conformation of the phenoxyalkyl group in pemafibrate is flexible in the absence of SRC1 coactivator peptide bound to PPARα; this gives a freedom for the phenoxyalkyl group to adopt structural changes induced by the binding of coactivators. FMO calculations have indicated that the accumulation of hydrophobic interactions provided by the residues at the LBP improve the interaction between pemafibrate and PPARα compared with the interaction between fenofibrate and PPARα.

【 授权许可】

Unknown