Discovery of protein disulfide isomerase P5 inhibitors that reduce the secretion of MICA from cancer cells

Genetic biomarkers of drug resistance: A compass of prognosis and targeted therapy in acute myeloid leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a highly aggressive hematological malignancy with complex heterogenous genetic and biological nature. Thus, prognostic prediction and targeted therapies might contribute to better chemotherapeutic response. However, the emergence of multidrug resistance (MDR) markedly impedes chemotherapeutic efficacy and dictates poor prognosis. Therefore, prior evaluation of chemoresistance is of great importance in therapeutic decision making and prognosis. In recent years, preclinical studies on chemoresistance have unveiled a compendium of underlying molecular basis, which facilitated the development of targetable small molecules. Furthermore, routing genomic sequencing has identified various genomic aberrations driving cellular response during the course of therapeutic treatment through adaptive mechanisms of drug resistance, some of which serve as prognostic biomarkers in risk stratification. However, the underlying mechanisms of MDR have challenged the certainty of the prognostic significance of some mutations. This review aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the role of MDR in therapeutic decision making and prognostic prediction in AML. We present an updated genetic landscape of the predominant mechanisms of drug resistance with novel targeted therapies and potential prognostic biomarkers from preclinical and clinical chemoresistance studies in AML. We particularly highlight the unfolded protein response (UPR) that has emerged as a critical regulatory pathway in chemoresistance of AML with promising therapeutic horizon. Futhermore, we outline the most prevalent mutations associated with mechanisms of chemoresistance and delineate the future directions to improve the current prognostic tools. The molecular analysis of chemoresistance integrated with genetic profiling will facilitate decision making towards personalized prognostic prediction and enhanced therapeutic efficacy.

Functional Assays of Thiol Isomerase ERp5

Endoplasmic reticulum protein 5 (ERp5) is a member of the thiol isomerase family of enzymes, whose prototype member is protein disulphide isomerase (PDI). Thiol isomerases catalyze reduction/oxidation (redox) reactions which lead to the cleavage, formation, or isomerization of disulphide bonds in protein substrates. Thiol isomerase reactions on protein disulphides are important for the correct folding of proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum and for the regulation of various protein functions in the extracellular space. Apart from the disulphide reactions, thiol isomerases assist protein folding by chaperone activity.The disulphide redox activity of ERp5 can be measured with functional assays involving artificial or natural substrates containing disulphide bonds. Herein we describe step-by-step assays of ERp5 reductase, isomerization, and de-nitrosylation activity. Disulphide reductase assays include insulin or di-eosin-GSSG as substrates whereas the isomerization assay includes RNase as substrate. The reduction of natural substrates, i.e., integrin αIIbβ3, can be detected using maleimide labels of free thiols and Western blotting. The biotin switch assay is used to measure the de-nitrosylation of S-nitrosylated substrates. These assays can measure the activity of purified ERp5 protein but can also be applied for the measurement of thiol isomerase activity in cellular samples.

Garcinol Inhibits GCN5-Mediated Lysine Acetyltransferase Activity and Prevents Replication of the Parasite Toxoplasma gondii

Lysine acetylation is a critical posttranslational modification that influences protein activity, stability, and binding properties. The acetylation of histone proteins in particular is a well-characterized feature of gene expression regulation. In the protozoan parasiteToxoplasma gondii, a number of lysine acetyltransferases (KATs) contribute to gene expression and are essential for parasite viability. The natural product garcinol was recently reported to inhibit enzymatic activities of GCN5 and p300 family KATs in other species. Here we show that garcinol inhibits TgGCN5b, the only nuclear GCN5 family KAT known to be required forToxoplasmatachyzoite replication. Treatment of tachyzoites with garcinol led to a reduction of global lysine acetylation, particularly on histone H3 and TgGCN5b itself. We also performed transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq), which revealed increasing aberrant gene expression coincident with increasing concentrations of garcinol. The majority of the genes that were most significantly affected by garcinol were also associated with TgGCN5b in a previously reported chromatin immunoprecipitation assay with microarray technology (ChIP-chip) analysis. The dysregulated gene expression induced by garcinol significantly inhibitsToxoplasmatachyzoite replication, and the concentrations used exhibit no overt toxicity on human host cells. Garcinol also inhibitsPlasmodium falciparumasexual replication with a 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) similar to that forToxoplasma Together, these data support that pharmacological inhibition of TgGCN5b leads to a catastrophic failure in gene expression control that prevents parasite replication.

Mia40 is a facile oxidant of unfolded reduced proteins but shows minimal isomerase activity

Mia40 participates in oxidative protein folding within the mitochondrial intermembrane space (IMS) by mediating the transfer of reducing equivalents from client proteins to FAD-linked oxidoreductases of the Erv1 family (lfALR in mammals). Here we investigate the specificity of the human Mia40/lfALR system towards non-cognate unfolded protein substrates to assess whether the efficient introduction of disulfides requires a particular amino acid sequence context or the presence of an IMS targeting signal. Reduced pancreatic ribonuclease A (rRNase), avian lysozyme, and riboflavin binding protein are all competent substrates of the Mia40/lfALR system, although they lack those sequence features previously thought to direct disulfide bond formation in cognate IMS substrates. The oxidation of rRNase by Mia40 does not limit overall turnover of unfolded substrate by the Mia40/lfALR system. Mia40 is an ineffective protein disulfide isomerase when its ability to restore enzymatic activity from scrambled RNase is compared to that of protein disulfide isomerase. Mia40's ability to bind amphipathic peptides is evident by avid binding to the isolated B-chain during the insulin reductase assay. In aggregate these data suggest that the Mia40/lfALR system has a broad sequence specificity and that potential substrates may be protected from adventitious oxidation by kinetic sequestration within the mitochondrial IMS.