Cryo-EM structure of human ATR-ATRIP complex

Structural basis of homologous recombination

Homologous recombination (HR) is a pathway to faithfully repair DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). At the core of this pathway is a DNA recombinase, which, as a nucleoprotein filament on ssDNA, pairs with homologous DNA as a template to repair the damaged site. In eukaryotes Rad51 is the recombinase capable of carrying out essential steps including strand invasion, homology search on the sister chromatid and strand exchange. Importantly, a tightly regulated process involving many protein factors has evolved to ensure proper localisation of this DNA repair machinery and its correct timing within the cell cycle. Dysregulation of any of the proteins involved can result in unchecked DNA damage, leading to uncontrolled cell division and cancer. Indeed, many are tumour suppressors and are key targets in the development of new cancer therapies. Over the past 40 years, our structural and mechanistic understanding of homologous recombination has steadily increased with notable recent advancements due to the advances in single particle cryo electron microscopy. These have resulted in higher resolution structural models of the signalling proteins ATM (ataxia telangiectasia mutated), and ATR (ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3-related protein), along with various structures of Rad51. However, structural information of the other major players involved, such as BRCA1 (breast cancer type 1 susceptibility protein) and BRCA2 (breast cancer type 2 susceptibility protein), has been limited to crystal structures of isolated domains and low-resolution electron microscopy reconstructions of the full-length proteins. Here we summarise the current structural understanding of homologous recombination, focusing on key proteins in recruitment and signalling events as well as the mediators for the Rad51 recombinase.

Cryo-EM structure of SMG1-SMG8-SMG9 complex

Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) targets premature stop codon (PTC)-containing mRNAs for rapid degradation, and is essential for mammalian embryonic development, brain development and modulation of the stress response. The key event in NMD is the SMG1-mediated phosphorylation of an RNA helicase UPF1 and SMG1 kinase activity is inhibited by SMG8 and SMG9 in an unknown mechanism. Here, we determined the cryo-EM structures of human SMG1 at 3.6 Å resolution and the SMG1-SMG8-SMG9 complex at 3.4 Å resolution, respectively. SMG8 has a C-terminal kinase inhibitory domain (KID), which covers the catalytic pocket and inhibits the kinase activity of SMG1. Structural analyses suggest that GTP hydrolysis of SMG9 would lead to a dramatic conformational change of SMG8-SMG9 and the KID would move away from the inhibitory position to restore SMG1 kinase activity. Thus, our structural and biochemical analyses provide a mechanistic understanding of SMG1-SMG8-SMG9 complex assembly and the regulatory mechanism of SMG1 kinase activity.

A functional enrichment test for molecular convergent evolution finds a clear protein-coding signal in echolocating bats and whales

Distantly related species entering similar biological niches often adapt by evolving similar morphological and physiological characters. How much genomic molecular convergence (particularly of highly constrained coding sequence) contributes to convergent phenotypic evolution, such as echolocation in bats and whales, is a long-standing fundamental question. Like others, we find that convergent amino acid substitutions are not more abundant in echolocating mammals compared to their outgroups. However, we also ask a more informative question about the genomic distribution of convergent substitutions by devising a test to determine which, if any, of more than 4,000 tissue-affecting gene sets is most statistically enriched with convergent substitutions. We find that the gene set most overrepresented (q-value = 2.2e-3) with convergent substitutions in echolocators, affecting 18 genes, regulates development of the cochlear ganglion, a structure with empirically supported relevance to echolocation. Conversely, when comparing to nonecholocating outgroups, no significant gene set enrichment exists. For aquatic and high-altitude mammals, our analysis highlights 15 and 16 genes from the gene sets most affected by molecular convergence which regulate skin and lung physiology, respectively. Importantly, our test requires that the most convergence-enriched set cannot also be enriched for divergent substitutions, such as in the pattern produced by inactivated vision genes in subterranean mammals. Showing a clear role for adaptive protein-coding molecular convergence, we discover nearly 2,600 convergent positions, highlight 77 of them in 3 organs, and provide code to investigate other clades across the tree of life.

Structural insights into the critical DNA damage sensors DNA-PKcs, ATM and ATR

ATM, ATR and DNA-PKCs are key effectors of DNA Damage response and have been extensively linked to tumourigenesis and survival of cancer cells after radio/chemotherapy. Despite numerous efforts, the structures of these proteins remained elusive until very recently. The resolution revolution in Cryo-EM allowed for molecular details of these proteins to be seen for the first time. Here we provide a comprehensive review of the structures of ATM, ATR and DNA-PKcs and their complexes and expand with observations springing from our own cryo-EM studies. These observations include a novel conformation of ATR and novel dimeric arrangements of DNA-PKcs.

Cryo-EM in drug discovery

The impact of structural biology on drug discovery is well documented, and the workhorse technique for the past 30 years or so has been X-ray crystallography. With the advent of several technological improvements, including direct electron detectors, automation, better microscope vacuums and lenses, phase plates and improvements in computing power enabled by GPUs, it is now possible to record and analyse images of protein structures containing high-resolution information. This review, from a pharmaceutical perspective, highlights some of the most relevant and interesting protein structures for the pharmaceutical industry and shows examples of how ligand-binding sites, membrane proteins, both big and small, pseudo symmetry and complexes are being addressed by this technique.

Evaluation of Maltose Binding Protein-Tagged hATR Kinase Domain Catalytic Activity with p53 Ser-15 Phosphorylation

DNA damage response (DDR) pathways form an integral part of the body's repair machinery, and ATR (ataxia-telangiectasia and Rad3-related kinase) protein is one of the key mediators in the DDR pathway that helps in maintaining genomic integrity. A growing body of evidence suggests that inhibition of ATR can help sensitize tumor cells to combinatorial treatment. However, specific ATR kinase inhibitors have largely remained elusive until now. Despite much interest in the protein for more than a decade, there has been little characterization of only the kinase domain, an essential target site for a variety of ATR inhibitors. Here, we report our findings for the bacterial expression, purification, and biological characterization of this potentially important recombinant kinase domain, which could further be considered for structure elucidation studies. Introduction of a solubility partner, i.e., maltose binding protein (MBP), at the N-terminus of the ATR kinase domain generated a soluble form of the protein, i.e., MBP-tagged hATR kinase domain (MBP-ATR-6X His), which was found to be catalytically active, as assessed by substrate p53 Ser-15 phosphorylation (EPPLSQEAFADLWKK). Our results also highlight the prospect of utilization of the overexpressed recombinant ATR kinase domain in characterization of kinase domain specific inhibitors.

Discovery and Characterization of AZD6738, a Potent Inhibitor of Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutated and Rad3 Related (ATR) Kinase with Application as an Anticancer Agent

The kinase ataxia telangiectasia mutated and rad3 related (ATR) is a key regulator of the DNA-damage response and the apical kinase which orchestrates the cellular processes that repair stalled replication forks (replication stress) and associated DNA double-strand breaks. Inhibition of repair pathways mediated by ATR in a context where alternative pathways are less active is expected to aid clinical response by increasing replication stress. Here we describe the development of the clinical candidate 2 (AZD6738), a potent and selective sulfoximine morpholinopyrimidine ATR inhibitor with excellent preclinical physicochemical and pharmacokinetic (PK) characteristics. Compound 2 was developed improving aqueous solubility and eliminating CYP3A4 time-dependent inhibition starting from the earlier described inhibitor 1 (AZ20). The clinical candidate 2 has favorable human PK suitable for once or twice daily dosing and achieves biologically effective exposure at moderate doses. Compound 2 is currently being tested in multiple phase I/II trials as an anticancer agent.

Selective human inhibitors of ATR and ATM render Leishmania major promastigotes sensitive to oxidative damage

All cellular processes, including those involved in normal cell metabolism to those responsible for cell proliferation or death, are finely controlled by cell signaling pathways, whose core proteins constitute the family of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-related kinases (PIKKs). Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutated (ATM) and Ataxia Telangiectasia and Rad3 related (ATR) are two important PIKK proteins that act in response to DNA damage, phosphorylating a large number of proteins to exert control over genomic integrity. The genus Leishmania belongs to a group of early divergent eukaryotes in evolution and has a highly plastic genome, probably owing to the existence of signaling pathways designed to maintain genomic integrity. The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of specific human inhibitors of ATR and ATM in Leishmania major. Bioinformatic analyses revealed the existence of the putative PIKK genes ATR and ATM, in addition to mTOR and DNA-PKcs in Leishmania spp. Moreover, it was possible to suggest that the inhibitors VE-821 and KU-55933 have binding affinity for the catalytic sites of putative L. major ATR and ATM, respectively. Promastigotes of L. major exposed to these inhibitors show slight growth impairment and minor changes in cell cycle and morphology. It is noteworthy that treatment of promastigotes with inhibitors VE-821 and KU-55933 enhanced the oxidative damage caused by hydrogen peroxide. These inhibitors could significantly reduce the number of surviving L. major cells following H₂O₂ exposure whilst also decreasing their evaluated IC₅₀ to H₂O₂ to less than half of that observed for non-treated cells. These results suggest that the use of specific inhibitors of ATR and ATM in Leishmania interferes in the signaling pathways of this parasite, which can impair its tolerance to DNA damage and affect its genome integrity. ATR and ATM could constitute novel targets for drug development and/or repositioning for treatment of leishmaniases.