Optimized bisubstrate inhibitors for the actin N-terminal acetyltransferase NAA80

Acetylation of protein N-termini is one of the most common protein modifications in the eukaryotic cell and is catalyzed by the N-terminal acetyltransferase family of enzymes. The N-terminal acetyltransferase NAA80 is expressed in the animal kingdom and was recently found to specifically N-terminally acetylate actin, which is the main component of the microfilament system. This unique animal cell actin processing is essential for the maintenance of cell integrity and motility. Actin is the only known substrate of NAA80, thus potent inhibitors of NAA80 could prove as important tool compounds to study the crucial roles of actin and how NAA80 regulates this by N-terminal acetylation. Herein we describe a systematic study toward optimizing the peptide part of a bisubstrate-based NAA80 inhibitor comprising of coenzyme A conjugated onto the N-terminus of a tetrapeptide amide via an acetyl linker. By testing various combinations of Asp and Glu which are found at the N-termini of β- and γ-actin, respectively, CoA-Ac-EDDI-NH₂ was identified as the best inhibitor with an IC₅₀ value of 120 nM.

Antibacterial Strategy against H. pylori: Inhibition of the Radical SAM Enzyme MqnE in Menaquinone Biosynthesis

Aminofutalosine synthase (MqnE) catalyzes an important rearrangement reaction in menaquinone biosynthesis by the futalosine pathway. In this Letter, we report the identification of previously unreported inhibitors of MqnE using a mechanism-guided approach. The best inhibitor shows efficient inhibitory activity against H. pylori (IC50 = 1.8 ± 0.4 μM) and identifies MqnE as a promising target for antibiotic development.

Bisubstrate inhibitors to target histone acetyltransferase 1

Developing selective enzyme inhibitors allows for the expansion of molecular toolboxes to investigate functions and activities of target enzymes. The histone acetyltransferase 1 (HAT1) is among the first histone acetyltransferase (HAT) enzymes that were discovered in the mid-1990s; however, it remains one of the poorly studied enzymes in comparison with the other HATs. Although HAT1 has been linked to various disease states, no inhibitors have been reported to target HAT1. Here, we designed a set of peptide-CoA conjugates as bisubstrate inhibitors of HAT1 with submicromolar potency. In particular, the bisubstrate inhibitor H4K12CoA exhibited a low K_i value of 1.1 nM for HAT1. In addition, H4K12CoA was shown to be a competitive inhibitor with respect to both AcCoA and H4 peptide, suggesting a unique kinetic mechanism of HAT1 catalysis. Creating these submicromolar inhibitors offers mechanistic tools to better understand how HAT1 recognizes substrates and cofactors, as well as provides chemical leads to further develop therapeutic agents to target this important enzyme for disease therapy.

Avoiding Antibiotic Inactivation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis by Rv3406 through Strategic Nucleoside Modification

5'-[ N-(d-biotinoyl)sulfamoyl]amino-5'-deoxyadenosine (Bio-AMS, 1) possesses selective activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis ( Mtb) and arrests fatty acid and lipid biosynthesis through inhibition of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis biotin protein ligase ( MtBPL). Mtb develops spontaneous resistance to 1 with a frequency of at least 1 × 10^-7 by overexpression of Rv3406, a type II sulfatase that enzymatically inactivates 1. In an effort to circumvent this resistance mechanism, we describe herein strategic modification of the nucleoside at the 5'-position to prevent enzymatic inactivation. The new analogues retained subnanomolar potency to MtBPL ( K_D = 0.66-0.97 nM), and 5' R- C-methyl derivative 6 exhibited identical antimycobacterial activity toward: Mtb H37Rv, MtBPL overexpression, and an isogenic Rv3406 overexpression strain (minimum inhibitory concentration, MIC = 1.56 μM). Moreover, 6 was not metabolized by recombinant Rv3406 and resistant mutants to 6 could not be isolated (frequency of resistance <1.4 × 10^-10) demonstrating it successfully overcame Rv3406-mediated resistance.

Structural basis of arginine asymmetrical dimethylation by PRMT6. Biochem J. 2016;473:3049-3063. [PMID: 27480107 DOI: 10.1042/bcj20160537]

PRMT6 is a type I protein arginine methyltransferase, generating the asymmetric dimethylarginine mark on proteins such as histone H3R2. Asymmetric dimethylation of histone H3R2 by PRMT6 acts as a repressive mark that antagonizes trimethylation of H3 lysine 4 by the MLL histone H3K4 methyltransferase. PRMT6 is overexpressed in several cancer types, including prostate, bladder and lung cancers; therefore, it is of great interest to develop potent and selective inhibitors for PRMT6. Here, we report the synthesis of a potent bisubstrate inhibitor GMS [6'-methyleneamine sinefungin, an analog of sinefungin (SNF)], and the crystal structures of human PRMT6 in complex, respectively, with S-adenosyl-L-homocysteine (SAH) and the bisubstrate inhibitor GMS that shed light on the significantly improved inhibition effect of GMS on methylation activity of PRMT6 compared with SAH and an S-adenosyl-L-methionine competitive methyltransferase inhibitor SNF. In addition, we also crystallized PRMT6 in complex with SAH and a short arginine-containing peptide. Based on the structural information here and available in the PDB database, we proposed a mechanism that can rationalize the distinctive arginine methylation product specificity of different types of arginine methyltransferases and pinpoint the structural determinant of such a specificity.

Design, validation and efficacy of bisubstrate inhibitors specifically affecting ecto-CK2 kinase activity

By derivatizing the purely competitive CK2 inhibitor N1-(4,5,6,7-tetrabromo-1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)-propane-1,3-diamine (K137) at its 3-amino position with a peptidic fragment composed of three or four glutamic or aspartic acid residues, a new family of bisubstrate inhibitors has been generated whose ability to simultaneously interact with both the ATP and the phosphoacceptor substrate-binding sites has been probed by running mixed competition kinetics and by mutational mapping of the kinase residues implicated in substrate recognition. The most effective bisubstrate inhibitor, K137-E4, interacts with three functional regions of the kinase: the hydrophobic pocket close to the ATP-binding site, the basic residues of the p+1 loop that recognizes the acidic determinant at position n+1 and the basic residues of α-helixC that recognize the acidic determinant at position n+3. Compared with the parent inhibitor (K137), K137-E4 is severalfold more potent (IC50 25 compared with 130 nM) and more selective, failing to inhibit any other kinase as drastically as CK2 out of 140 enzymes, whereas 35 kinases are inhibited more potently than CK2 by K137. K137-E4 is unable to penetrate the cell and to inhibit endogenous CK2, its pro-apoptotic efficacy being negligible compared with cell-permeant inhibitors; however, it readily inhibits ecto-CK2 on the outer cell surface, reducing the phosphorylation of several external phosphoproteins. Inhibition of ecto-CK2 by K137-E4 is accompanied by a slower migration of cancer cells as judged by wound healing assays. On the basis of the cellular responses to K137-E4, we conclude that ecto-CK2 is implicated in cell motility, whereas its contribution to the pro-survival role of CK2 is negligible.