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Wang M, Fan B, Lu W, Ryde U, Chang Y, Han D, Lu J, Liu T, Gao Q, Chen C, Xu Y. Unraveling the Binding Mode of Cyclic Adenosine-Inosine Monophosphate (cAIMP) to STING through Molecular Dynamics Simulations. Molecules 2024; 29:2650. [PMID: 38893524 PMCID: PMC11173896 DOI: 10.3390/molecules29112650] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2024] [Revised: 05/16/2024] [Accepted: 05/21/2024] [Indexed: 06/21/2024] Open
Abstract
The stimulator of interferon genes (STING) plays a significant role in immune defense and protection against tumor proliferation. Many cyclic dinucleotide (CDN) analogues have been reported to regulate its activity, but the dynamic process involved when the ligands activate STING remains unclear. In this work, all-atom molecular dynamics simulations were performed to explore the binding mode between human STING (hSTING) and four cyclic adenosine-inosine monophosphate analogs (cAIMPs), as well as 2',3'-cGMP-AMP (2',3'-cGAMP). The results indicate that these cAIMPs adopt a U-shaped configuration within the binding pocket, forming extensive non-covalent interaction networks with hSTING. These interactions play a significant role in augmenting the binding, particularly in interactions with Tyr167, Arg238, Thr263, and Thr267. Additionally, the presence of hydrophobic interactions between the ligand and the receptor further contributes to the overall stability of the binding. In this work, the conformational changes in hSTING upon binding these cAIMPs were also studied and a significant tendency for hSTING to shift from open to closed state was observed after binding some of the cAIMP ligands.
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Affiliation(s)
- Meiting Wang
- School of Medical Engineering & Henan International Joint Laboratory of Neural Information Analysis and Drug Intelligent Design, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang 453003, China; (M.W.); (D.H.); (J.L.); (T.L.)
- Department of Computational Chemistry, Chemical Centre, Lund University, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden;
| | - Baoyi Fan
- School of Medical Engineering & Henan International Joint Laboratory of Neural Information Analysis and Drug Intelligent Design, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang 453003, China; (M.W.); (D.H.); (J.L.); (T.L.)
| | - Wenfeng Lu
- School of Medical Engineering & Henan International Joint Laboratory of Neural Information Analysis and Drug Intelligent Design, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang 453003, China; (M.W.); (D.H.); (J.L.); (T.L.)
| | - Ulf Ryde
- Department of Computational Chemistry, Chemical Centre, Lund University, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden;
| | - Yuxiao Chang
- School of Medical Engineering & Henan International Joint Laboratory of Neural Information Analysis and Drug Intelligent Design, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang 453003, China; (M.W.); (D.H.); (J.L.); (T.L.)
| | - Di Han
- School of Medical Engineering & Henan International Joint Laboratory of Neural Information Analysis and Drug Intelligent Design, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang 453003, China; (M.W.); (D.H.); (J.L.); (T.L.)
| | - Jiarui Lu
- School of Medical Engineering & Henan International Joint Laboratory of Neural Information Analysis and Drug Intelligent Design, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang 453003, China; (M.W.); (D.H.); (J.L.); (T.L.)
| | - Taigang Liu
- School of Medical Engineering & Henan International Joint Laboratory of Neural Information Analysis and Drug Intelligent Design, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang 453003, China; (M.W.); (D.H.); (J.L.); (T.L.)
| | - Qinghe Gao
- School of Pharmacy, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang 453003, China;
| | - Changpo Chen
- Henan Key Laboratory of Organic Functional Molecule and Drug Innovation, Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Media and Reactions of Ministry of Education, Collaborative Innovation Center of Henan Province for Green Manufacturing of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang 453007, China
| | - Yongtao Xu
- School of Medical Engineering & Henan International Joint Laboratory of Neural Information Analysis and Drug Intelligent Design, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang 453003, China; (M.W.); (D.H.); (J.L.); (T.L.)
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Li R, Chen L, He X, Cao D, Zhang Z, Jiang H, Chen K, Cheng X. Loops Mediate Agonist-Induced Activation of the Stimulator of Interferon Genes Protein. J Chem Inf Model 2023; 63:7373-7381. [PMID: 37831484 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.3c00984] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/14/2023]
Abstract
The stimulator of interferon genes (STING) is an important therapeutic target for cancer diseases. The activated STING recruits downstream tank-binding kinase 1 (TBK1) to trigger several important immune responses. However, the molecular mechanism of how agonist molecules mediate the STING-TBK1 interactions remains elusive. Here, we performed molecular dynamics simulations to capture the conformational changes of STING and TBK1 upon agonist binding. Our simulations revealed that multiple helices (α5-α7) and especially three loops (loop 6, loop 8, and C-terminal tail) of STING participated in the allosteric mediation of the STING-TBK1 interactions. Consistent results were also observed in the simulations of the constitutive activating mutant of STING (R284S). We further identified α5 as a key region in this agonist-induced activation mechanism of STING. Free-energy perturbation calculations of multiple STING agonists demonstrated that an alkynyl group targeting α5 is a determinant for agonist activities. These results not only offer deeper insights into the agonist-induced allosteric mediation of STING-TKB1 interactions but also provide a guidance for future drug development of this important therapeutic target.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rui Li
- School of Pharmacy, China Pharmaceutical University, 639 Longmian Road, Nanjing 211198, China
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai 201203, China
| | - Lin Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai 201203, China
| | - Xinheng He
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai 201203, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.1 Yanqihu East Rd, Huairou District, Beijing 101408, China
| | - Duanhua Cao
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai 201203, China
| | - Zehong Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai 201203, China
| | - Hualiang Jiang
- School of Pharmacy, China Pharmaceutical University, 639 Longmian Road, Nanjing 211198, China
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai 201203, China
| | - Kaixian Chen
- School of Pharmacy, China Pharmaceutical University, 639 Longmian Road, Nanjing 211198, China
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai 201203, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.1 Yanqihu East Rd, Huairou District, Beijing 101408, China
| | - Xi Cheng
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai 201203, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.1 Yanqihu East Rd, Huairou District, Beijing 101408, China
- School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, Hangzhou Institute of Advanced Study, No.1 Xiangshan Branch Lane, Hangzhou 310024, China
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Payne RT, Crivelli S, Watanabe M. All-Atom Simulations Uncover Structural and Dynamical Properties of STING Proteins in the Membrane System. J Chem Inf Model 2022; 62:4486-4499. [PMID: 36103256 PMCID: PMC10246352 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.2c00595] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
Recent studies have shown that the stimulator of interferon gene (STING) protein plays a central role in the immune system by facilitating the production of type I interferons in cells. The STING signaling pathway is also a prominent activator of cancer-killing T cells that initiate a powerful adaptive immune response. Since biomolecular signaling pathways are complicated and not easily identified through traditional experiments, molecular dynamics (MD) has often been used to study structural and dynamical responses of biological pathways. Here, we carried out MD simulations for full-length chicken and human STING (chSTING and hSTING) proteins. Specifically, we investigated ligand-bound closed (holo) and ligand-unbound open (apo) forms of STING in the membrane system by comparing their conformational and dynamical differences. Our research provides clues for understanding the mechanism of the STING signaling pathway by uncovering detailed insights for the examined systems: the residues from each chain in the binding pocket are strongly correlated to one another in the open STING structure compared with those in the closed STING structure. Ligand-bound closed STING displays ∼174° rotation of the ligand-binding domain (LBD) relative to the open STING structure. The dynamical analysis of residue Cys148 located in the linker region of hSTING does not support the earlier hypothesis that Cys148 can form disulfide bonds between adjacent STING dimers. We also demonstrate that using the full-length proteins is critical, since the MD simulations of the LBD portion alone cannot properly describe the global conformational properties of STING.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Silvia Crivelli
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
| | - Masakatsu Watanabe
- Department of Chemistry, Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS 67601, United States
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Cheng X, Ning J, Xu X, Zhou X. The role of bacterial cyclic di-adenosine monophosphate in the host immune response. Front Microbiol 2022; 13:958133. [PMID: 36106081 PMCID: PMC9465037 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.958133] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2022] [Accepted: 08/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Cyclic di-adenosine monophosphate (c-di-AMP) is a second messenger which is widely used in signal transduction in bacteria and archaea. c-di-AMP plays an important role in the regulation of bacterial physiological activities, such as the cell cycle, cell wall stability, environmental stress response, and biofilm formation. Moreover, c-di-AMP produced by pathogens can be recognized by host cells for the activation of innate immune responses. It can induce type I interferon (IFN) response in a stimulator of interferon genes (STING)-dependent manner, activate the nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) pathway, inflammasome, and host autophagy, and promote the production and secretion of cytokines. In addition, c-di-AMP is capable of triggering a host mucosal immune response as a mucosal adjuvant. Therefore, c-di-AMP is now considered to be a new pathogen-associated molecular pattern in host immunity and has become a promising target in bacterial/viral vaccine and drug research. In this review, we discussed the crosstalk between bacteria and host immunity mediated by c-di-AMP and addressed the role of c-di-AMP as a mucosal adjuvant in boosting evoked immune responses of subunit vaccines. The potential application of c-di-AMP in immunomodulation and immunotherapy was also discussed in this review.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xingqun Cheng
- State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Jia Ning
- The School and Hospital of Stomatology, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
| | - Xin Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Xuedong Zhou
- State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
- *Correspondence: Xuedong Zhou,
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Morere J, Hognon C, Miclot T, Jiang T, Dumont E, Barone G, Monari A, Bignon E. How Fragile We Are: Influence of Stimulator of Interferon Genes (STING) Variants on Pathogen Recognition and Immune Response Efficiency. J Chem Inf Model 2022; 62:3096-3106. [PMID: 35675714 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.2c00315] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
The stimulator of interferon genes (STING) protein is a cornerstone of the human immune response. Its activation by cGAMP in the presence of cytosolic DNA stimulates the production of type I interferons and inflammatory cytokines. In the human population, several STING variants exist and exhibit dramatic differences in their activity, impacting the efficiency of the host defense against infections. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of these variants opens perspectives for personalized medicine treatments against diseases such as viral infections, cancers, or autoinflammatory diseases. Through microsecond-scale molecular modeling simulations, contact analyses, and machine learning techniques, we reveal the dynamic behavior of four STING variants (wild type, G230A, R293Q, and G230A/R293Q) and rationalize the variability of efficiency observed experimentally. Our results show that the decrease in STING activity is linked to a stiffening of key structural elements of the binding cavity together with changes in the interaction patterns within the protein.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeremy Morere
- Université de Lorraine and CNRS, LPCT UMR 7019, F-54000 Nancy, France
| | - Cécilia Hognon
- Université de Lorraine and CNRS, LPCT UMR 7019, F-54000 Nancy, France
| | - Tom Miclot
- Université de Lorraine and CNRS, LPCT UMR 7019, F-54000 Nancy, France.,Department of Biological, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universita degli Studi di Palermo, via delle Scienze, 90126 Palermo, Italy
| | - Tao Jiang
- Université de Lyon, ENS de Lyon, CNRS UMR 5182, Laboratoire de Chimie, F-69342 Lyon, France
| | - Elise Dumont
- Université de Lyon, ENS de Lyon, CNRS UMR 5182, Laboratoire de Chimie, F-69342 Lyon, France.,Institut Universitaire de France, 5 rue Descartes, F-75005 Paris, France
| | - Giampaolo Barone
- Department of Biological, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universita degli Studi di Palermo, via delle Scienze, 90126 Palermo, Italy
| | - Antonio Monari
- Université de Lorraine and CNRS, LPCT UMR 7019, F-54000 Nancy, France.,Université Paris Cité and CNRS, ITODYS, F-75006, Paris, France
| | - Emmanuelle Bignon
- Université de Lorraine and CNRS, LPCT UMR 7019, F-54000 Nancy, France
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