Abstract
CONTEXT: Discovery of pharmacologically active natural products as starting points for drug development remains important and, for reasons of consumer safety, the identification of toxicologically relevant compounds in herbal drugs. OBJECTIVE: To explain, with the aid of relevant examples from our own research, how these goals can be achieved. METHODS: An in-house technology platform comprising pre-formatted extract libraries in 96-well format, miniaturized tracking of activity in extracts via HPLC-activity profiling, structure elucidation with microprobe NMR, and in vitro and in vivo pharmacological methods were used. RESULTS: Piperine was identified as a new scaffold for allosteric GABA(A) receptor modulators with in vivo activity that interacts at a benzodiazepine-independent binding site. Selectivity and potency were improved by iterative optimization towards synthetic piperine analogues. Dehydroevodiamine and hortiamine from the traditional Chinese herbal drug Evodiae fructus were identified as potent hERG channel blockers in vitro. The compounds induced torsades de pointes arrhythmia in animal models. CONCLUSIONS: The allosteric binding site for piperine analogues remains to be characterized and cardiac risks of herbal drugs need to be further evaluated to ensure consumer safety.