Toward reduction in animal sacrifice for drugs:Molecular modeling of Macaca fascicularis P450 2C20 for virtual screening of Homo sapiens P450 2C8 substrates

Macaca fascicularis P450 2C20 shares 92% identity with human cytochrome P450 2C8, which is involved in the metabolism of more than 8% of all prescribed drugs. To date, only paclitaxel and amodiaquine, two substrate markers of the human P450 2C8, have been experimentally confirmed as M. fascicularis P450 2C20 drugs. To bridge the lack of information on the ligands recognized by M. fascicularis P450 2C20, in this study, a three-dimensional homology model of this enzyme was generated on the basis of the available crystal structure of the human homologue P450 2C8 using YASARA. The results indicated that 90.0%, 9.0%, 0.5%, and 0.5% of the residues of the P450 2C20 model were located in the most favorable, allowed, generously allowed, and disallowed regions, respectively. The root-mean-square deviation of the C-alpha superposition of the M. fascicularis P450 2C20 model with the Homo sapiens P450 2C8 was 0.074A, indicating a very high similarity of the two structures. Subsequently, the 2C20 model was used for in silico screening of 58 known P450 2C8 substrates and 62 inhibitors. These were also docked in the active site of the crystal structure of the human P450 2C8. The affinity of each compound for the active site of both cytochromes proved to be very similar, meaning that the few key residues that are mutated in the active site of the M. fascicularis P450 do not prevent the P450 2C20 from recognizing the same substrates as the human P450 2C8.