Discovery of PLD4 modulators by high-throughput screening and kinetic analysis

Phospholipase D3 (PLD3) and D4 (PLD4) are endolysosomal exonucleases of ssDNA and ssRNA that regulate innate immunity. Polymorphisms of these enzymes are correlated with numerous human diseases, including Alzheimer’s, rheumatoid arthritis, and systemic sclerosis. Pharmacological modulation of these immunoregulatory proteins may yield novel immunotherapies and adjuvants. A previous study reported a high-throughput screen (N = 17,952) that discovered a PLD3-selective activator and inhibitor, as well as a nonselective inhibitor, but failed to identify selective modulators of PLD4. However, modulators selective for PLD4 are therapeutically pertinent, since recent reports have shown that regulating this protein has direct implications in cancer and autoimmune diseases. Furthermore, the high expression of PLD4 in dendritic and myeloid cells, in comparison to the broader expression of PLD3, presents the opportunity for a cell-targeted immunotherapy. Here, we describe screening of an expended diversity library (N = 45,760) with an improved platform and report the discovery of one inhibitor and three activators selective for PLD4. Furthermore, kinetic modeling and structural analysis suggest mechanistic differences in the modulation of these hits. These findings further establish the utility of this screening platform and provide a set of chemical scaffolds to guide future small-molecule development for this novel immunoregulator target.