Elevated levels of human lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) are associated with cardiovascular disease and dementia. A fragment screen was conducted against Lp-PLA2 in order to identify novel inhibitors. Multiple fragment hits were observed in different regions of the active site, including some hits that bound in a pocket created by movement of a protein side chain (approximately 13 A from the catalytic residue Ser273). Using structure guided design, we optimized a fragment that bound in this pocket to generate a novel low nanomolar chemotype, which did not interact with the catalytic residues.
        
Representative scheme of PAF-Acetylhydrolase structure and an image from PDBsum server
Databases
PDB-Sum
5JAH Previously Class, Architecture, Topology and Homologous superfamily - PDB-Sum server
FSSP
5JAHFold classification based on Structure-Structure alignment of Proteins - FSSP server