ptc-209 and Huntington-Disease

REST/NRSF is a multifunctional transcription factor that represses or silences many neuron-specific genes in both neural and non-neural cells by recruitment to its cognate RE1/NRSE regulatory sites. An increase in RE1/NRSE genomic binding is found in Huntington's disease (HD), resulting in the repression of REST/NRSF regulated gene transcription, among which BDNF, thus representing one of the possible detrimental effectors in HD. Three 2-aminothiazole derivatives were recently identified as potent modulators of the RE1/NRSE silencing activity through a cell-based gene reporter assay. In this study, the structure-activity relationships (SAR) of a library of commercially available 2-aminoisothiazoles diversely substituted at the amino group or at position 4 has been evaluated. A quantitative structure-activity relationship analysis performed using the Phase strategy yielded highly predictive 3D-QSAR pharmacophore model for in silico drug screening.

Topics: Gene Expression Regulation; Gene Library; Gene Silencing; Huntington Disease; Models, Molecular; Molecular Structure; Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship; Repressor Proteins; Reproducibility of Results; Stereoisomerism; Structure-Activity Relationship; Thiazoles; Transcription, Genetic