Discovery of Novel Inhibitors Targeting the Menin-Mixed Lineage Leukemia Interface Using Pharmacophore- and Docking-Based Virtual Screening.

Disrupting the interaction between mixed lineage leukemia (MLL) fusion protein and menin provides a therapeutic approach for MLL-mediated leukemia. Here, we aim to discover novel inhibitors targeting the menin-MLL interface with virtual screening. Both structure-based molecular docking and ligand-based pharmacophore models were established, and the models used for compound screening show a remarkable ability to retrieve known active ligands from decoy molecules. Verified by a fluorescence polarization assay, five hits with novel scaffolds were identified. Among them, DCZ_M123 exhibited potent inhibitory activity with an IC50 of 4.71 ± 0.12 μM and a KD of 14.70 ± 2.13 μM, and it can effectively inhibit the human MLL-rearranged leukemia cells MV4;11 and KOPN8 with GI50 values of 0.84 μM and 0.54 μM, respectively.