Discovery of Novel Anti-prion Compounds Using In Silico and In Vitro Approaches

Prion diseases are associated with the conformational conversion of the physiological form of cellular prion protein (PrP C ) to the pathogenic form, PrP Sc . Compounds that inhibit this process by blocking conversion to the PrP Sc could provide useful anti-prion therapies. However, no suitable drugs have been identified to date. To identify novel anti-prion compounds, we developed a combined structure- and ligand-based virtual screening system in silico . Virtual screening of a 700,000-compound database, followed by cluster analysis, identified 37 compounds with strong interactions with essential hotspot PrP residues identified in a previous study of PrP C interaction with a known anti-prion compound (GN8). These compounds were tested in vitro using a multimer detection system, cell-based assays and surface plasmon resonance. Some compounds effectively reduced PrP Sc levels and one of these compounds also showed a high binding affinity for PrP C . These results provide a promising starting point for the development of anti-prion compounds.