Identification of Potent Leucine-Rich Repeat Kinase 2 Inhibitors by Virtual Screening and Biological Evaluation

Abstract

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease but has limited medications. Targeting leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) has been identified as a potential strategy for the treatment of PD. The development of LRRK2 inhibitors has attracted much interest, and various compounds have been reported with significant improvement in preclinical and clinical models. Currently, no LRRK2 inhibitor has been approved for PD intervention. Herein, we reported a virtual screening (VS) workflow combining molecular docking and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to achieve eight compounds for further enzymatic assay. The results indicated a potent LRRK2 inhibitor 2 with IC₅₀ values of 2.396 and 5.996 μM against LRRK2 and LRRK2 G2019S, respectively, implying the reliability of this VS approach. Combined with predicted favorable drug-like properties, this hit can be used as a starting point for further structural optimization, probably offering insight into targeting LRRK2 for PD treatment in the future.