Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1093/toxsci/kfab139
Title (Primary) Screening of 6000 compounds for uncoupling activity: a comparison between a mechanistic biophysical model and the structural alert profiler Mitotox
Author Ebert, A. ORCID logo ; Goss, K.U.
Source Titel Toxicological Sciences
Year 2022
Department AUC
Volume 185
Issue 2
Page From 208
Page To 219
Language englisch
Topic T9 Healthy Planet
Keywords uncoupling of phosphorylation; structural alerts; baseline toxicity; COSMOtherm; Mitotox
Abstract Protonophoric uncoupling of phosphorylation is an important factor when assessing chemicals for their toxicity, and has recently moved into focus in pharmaceutical research with respect to the treatment of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, or obesity. Reliably identifying uncoupling activity is thus a valuable goal. To that end, we screened more than 6000 anionic compounds for in vitro uncoupling activity, using a biophysical model based on ab initio COSMO-RS input parameters with the molecular structure as the only external input. We combined these results with a model for baseline toxicity (narcosis). Our model identified more than 1250 possible uncouplers in the screening dataset, and identified possible new uncoupler classes such as thiophosphoric acids. When tested against 423 known uncouplers and 612 known inactive compounds in the dataset, the model reached a sensitivity of 83% and a specificity of 96%. In a direct comparison, it showed a similar specificity than the structural alert profiler Mitotox (97%), but much higher sensitivity than Mitotox (47%). The biophysical model thus allows for a more accurate screening for uncoupling activity than existing structural alert profilers. We propose to use our model as a complementary tool to screen large datasets for protonophoric uncoupling activity in drug development and toxicity assessment.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=25421
Ebert, A., Goss, K.U. (2022):
Screening of 6000 compounds for uncoupling activity: a comparison between a mechanistic biophysical model and the structural alert profiler Mitotox
Toxicol. Sci. 185 (2), 208 - 219 10.1093/toxsci/kfab139