Discovery and characterization of a selective IKZF2 glue degrader for cancer immunotherapy

Malignant tumors can evade destruction by the immune system by attracting immune-suppressive regulatory T cells (Treg) cells. The IKZF2 (Helios) transcription factor plays a crucial role in maintaining function and stability of Treg cells, and IKZF2 deficiency reduces tumor growth in mice. Here we report the discovery of NVP-DKY709, a selective molecular glue degrader of IKZF2 that spares IKZF1/3. We describe the recruitment-guided medicinal chemistry campaign leading to NVP-DKY709 that redirected the degradation selectivity of cereblon (CRBN) binders from IKZF1 toward IKZF2. Selectivity of NVP-DKY709 for IKZF2 was rationalized by analyzing the DDB1:CRBN:NVP-DKY709:IKZF2(ZF2 or ZF2-3) ternary complex X-ray structures. Exposure to NVP-DKY709 reduced the suppressive activity of human Treg cells and rescued cytokine production in exhausted T-effector cells. In vivo, treatment with NVP-DKY709 delayed tumor growth in mice with a humanized immune system and enhanced immunization responses in cynomolgus monkeys. NVP-DKY709 is being investigated in the clinic as an immune-enhancing agent for cancer immunotherapy.

Examining the effect of social distancing on the compound growth rate of COVID-19 at the county level (United States) using statistical analyses and a random forest machine learning model

OBJECTIVES

The goal of the present work is to investigate trends among US counties and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) growth rates in relation to the existence of shelter-in-place (SIP) orders in that county.

STUDY DESIGN

This is a prospective cohort study.

METHODS

Compound growth rates were calculated using cumulative confirmed COVID-19 cases from January 21, 2020, to March 31, 2020, in all 3139 US counties. Compound growth was chosen as it gives a single number that can be used in machine learning to represent the speed of virus spread during defined time intervals. Statistical analyses and a random forest machine learning model were used to analyze the data for differences in counties with and without SIP orders.

RESULTS

Statistical analyses revealed that the March 16 presidential recommendation (limiting gatherings to ≤10 people) lowered the compound growth rate of COVID-19 for all counties in the US by 6.6%, and the counties that implemented SIP after March 16 had a further reduction of 7.8% compared with the counties that did not implement SIP after March 16. A random forest machine learning model was built to predict compound growth rate after a SIP order and was found to have an accuracy of 92.3%. The random forest found that population, longitude, and population per square mile were the most important features when predicting the effect of SIP.

CONCLUSIONS

SIP orders were found to be effective at reducing the growth rate of COVID-19 cases in the US. Counties with a large population or a high population density were found to benefit the most from a SIP order.

Lack of involvement of CEP adducts in TLR activation and in angiogenesis

Proteins that are post-translationally adducted with 2-(ω-carboxyethyl)pyrrole (CEP) have been proposed to play a pathogenic role in age-related macular degeneration, by inducing angiogenesis in a Toll Like Receptor 2 (TLR2)-dependent manner. We have investigated the involvement of CEP adducts in angiogenesis and TLR activation, to assess the therapeutic potential of inhibiting CEP adducts and TLR2 for ocular angiogenesis. As tool reagents, several CEP-adducted proteins and peptides were synthetically generated by published methodology and adduction was confirmed by NMR and LC-MS/MS analyses. Structural studies showed significant changes in secondary structure in CEP-adducted proteins but not the untreated proteins. Similar structural changes were also observed in the treated unadducted proteins, which were treated by the same adduction method except for one critical step required to form the CEP group. Thus some structural changes were unrelated to CEP groups and were artificially induced by the synthesis method. In biological studies, the CEP-adducted proteins and peptides failed to activate TLR2 in cell-based assays and in an in vivo TLR2-mediated retinal leukocyte infiltration model. Neither CEP adducts nor TLR agonists were able to induce angiogenesis in a tube formation assay. In vivo, treatment of animals with CEP-adducted protein had no effect on laser-induced choroidal neovascularization. Furthermore, in vivo inactivation of TLR2 by deficiency in Myeloid Differentiation factor 88 (Myd88) had no effect on abrasion-induced corneal neovascularization. Thus the CEP-TLR2 axis, which is implicated in other wound angiogenesis models, does not appear to play a pathological role in a corneal wound angiogenesis model. Collectively, our data do not support the mechanism of action of CEP adducts in TLR2-mediated angiogenesis proposed by others.

Performance comparisons of nano-LC systems, electrospray sources and LC-MS-MS platforms

Selecting a suitable nano-liquid chromatography system (LC), ionization source and mass spectrometer for LC-tandem mass spectrometry (MS-MS) studies is complicated by numerous competing technologies. This study compares four popular nano-LC systems, four ionization sources and three MS facilities that use completely different LC-MS-MS systems. Statistically significant differences in LC performance were identified with similarly performing Proxeon, Waters and Eksigent nanoLC-Ultra systems [retention time routinely at 0.7-0.9% relative standard deviation (RSD)], and all outperformed the Eksigent nanoLC-2D (RSD ∼2%). In addition, compatibility issues were identified between the Bruker HCT ion trap mass spectrometer and both the Eksigent nanoLC-2D and the Bruker nanoelectrospray source. The electrospray source itself had an unexpected and striking effect on chromatographic reproducibility on the Bruker HCT ion trap. The New Objective nanospray source significantly outperformed the Bruker nanospray source in retention time RSD (1% RSD versus 14% RSD, respectively); and the Bruker nebulized nanospray source outperformed both of these traditional, non-nebulized sources (0.5% RSD in retention time). Finally, to provide useful benchmarks for overall proteomics sensitivity, different LC-MS-MS platforms were compared by analyzing a range of concentrations of tryptic digests of bovine serum albumin at three MS facilities. The results indicate that similar sensitivity can be realized with a Bruker HCT-Ultra ion trap, a Thermo LTQ-Velos Linear ion trap and a Thermo LTQ-Orbitrap XL-ETD.

Building blocks of the nexin-dynein regulatory complex in Chlamydomonas flagella

The directional flow generated by motile cilia and flagella is critical for many processes, including human development and organ function. Normal beating requires the control and coordination of thousands of dynein motors, and the nexin-dynein regulatory complex (N-DRC) has been identified as an important regulatory node for orchestrating dynein activity. The nexin link appears to be critical for the transformation of dynein-driven, linear microtubule sliding to flagellar bending, yet the molecular composition and mechanism of the N-DRC remain largely unknown. Here, we used proteomics with special attention to protein phosphorylation to analyze the composition of the N-DRC and to determine which subunits may be important for signal transduction. Two-dimensional electrophoresis and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry of WT and mutant flagellar axonemes from Chlamydomonas identified 12 N-DRC-associated proteins, including all seven previously observed N-DRC components. Sequence and PCR analyses identified the mutation responsible for the phenotype of the sup-pf-4 strain, and biochemical comparison with a radial spoke mutant revealed two components that may link the N-DRC and the radial spokes. Phosphoproteomics revealed eight proteins with phosphorylated isoforms for which the isoform patterns changed with the genotype as well as two components that may play pivotal roles in N-DRC function through their phosphorylation status. These data were assembled into a model of the N-DRC that explains aspects of its regulatory function.

Memory-efficient calculation of the isotopic mass states of a molecule

Our previous work postulated a transition concept among different isotopic mass states (i.e., isotopic species) of a molecule, and developed a hierarchical algorithm for accurately calculating their masses and abundances. A theoretical mass spectrum can be generated by convoluting a peak shape function to these discrete mass states. This approach suffers from limited memory if a level in the hierarchical structure has too many mass states. Here we present a memory efficient divide-and-recursively-combine algorithm to do the calculation, which also improves the truncation method used in the previous hierarchical algorithm. Instead of treating all of the elements in a molecule as a whole, the new algorithm first 'strips' each element one by one. For the mass states of each element, a hierarchical structure is established and kept in the memory. This process reduces the memory usage by orders of magnitude (e.g., for bovine insulin, memory can be reduced from gigabytes to kilobytes). Next, a recursive algorithm is applied to combine mass states of elements to mass states of the whole molecule. The algorithm described above has been implemented as a computer program called Isotope Calculator, which was written in C++. It is freely available under the GNU Lesser General Public License from http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~hong/software.html or http://people.brandeis.edu/~agar.

Structural characterization of intact proteins is enhanced by prevalent fragmentation pathways rarely observed for peptides

While collisionally activated dissociation (CAD) pathways for peptides are well characterized, those of intact proteins are not. We systematically assigned CAD product ions of ubiquitin, myoglobin, and bovine serum albumin generated using high-yield, in-source fragmentation. Assignment of >98% of hundreds of product ions implies that the fragmentation pathways described are representative of the major pathways. Protein dissociation mechanisms were found to be modulated by both source declustering potential and precursor ion charge state. Like peptides, higher charge states of proteins fragmented at lower energies next to Pro, via mobile protons, while lower charge states fragmented at higher energies after Asp and Glu, via localized protons. Unlike peptides, however, predominant fragmentation channels of proteins occurred at intermediate charge states via non-canonical mechanisms and produced extensive internal fragmentation. The non-canonical mechanisms include prominent cleavages C-terminal to Pro and Asn, and N-terminal to Ile, Leu, and Ser; these cleavages, along with internal fragments, led to a 45% increase in sequence coverage, improving the specificity of top-down protein identification. Three applications take advantage of the different mechanisms of protein fragmentation. First, modulation of declustering potential selectively fragments different charge states, allowing the source region to be used as the first stage of a low-resolution tandem mass spectrometer, facilitating pseudo-MS(3) of product ions with known parent charge states. Second, development and integration of automated modulation of ion funnel declustering potential allows users access to a particular fragmentation mechanism, yielding facile cleavage on a liquid chromatography timescale. Third, augmentation of a top-down search engine improved protein characterization.

A hierarchical algorithm for calculating the isotopic fine structures of molecules

This article presents a memory efficient algorithm for accurately calculating the isotopic fine structures of molecules. Treating individual isotopic species of a molecule as different mass states, we introduce the concept of transitions between mass states and represent all mass states of the molecule in a hierarchical structure. We show that there exists a simple relationship between two different mass states at two different levels of the hierarchical structure. This allows us to efficiently and accurately compute both the mass and the abundance of every mass state of a small to medium-sized molecule, whose gross structures include small number of fine structures. A truncated calculation of this algorithm can be applied to calculate a majority of isotopic species (99.99% of cumulative abundance) of a large molecule.

The difficulties in constructing a common denominator for peer review in general practice

A helpful analysis of clinical events in general practice would be to show a doctor how his opinion compares with the use of the same opinion by other doctors. For such a comparison a common denominator, which is a measure of clinical opportunity, is required. The population of patients cared for by a doctor can be used for this purpose and this paper describes a method which uses a computer to calculate the share of a known practice population that each doctor has cared for. The computer produces details of consultations, set out in square tables, of those registered with each doctor and those seen by each doctor.

Estimating list inflation in a practice register

The reason why patients were incorrectly registered in an age-sex register was studied. Whereas underregistration was caused by patient delay in registering with a doctor, the much greater number of overregistered patients were thought to be there largely because of administrative delays in removing their names from the register. It is suggested that it would be possible for the software of a computer system in general practice to correct the population size and structure for estimated list inflation.

Do patients who move to a new town consult their doctor more often?

A study was conducted to measure any difference in the consultation rate of patients from two new town housing estates compared with patients from the rest of the practice. Patients from the new estates consulted 15% to 20% more than those in other areas, but newly registered patients showed no difference compared with the indigenous population. It is suggested that patients who chose to move to new town rented accommodation bring with them a more casual attitude to the general medical services.

Behavior and the Crustacean Molt Cycle: Changes in Aggression of Homarus americanus

The phase of the molt cycle affects dominance status and the performance of agonistic acts in individual juvenile lobsters (Homarus americanus). Lobsters in the midphase of proecdysis are more aggressive than those in intermolt; the latter are more aggressive than lobsters in early or late proecdysis and those in postecdysis.

Consultation patterns in a general practice

A study from the Oxford Community Health Project is reported on the effects on consultation rates in general practice of patients' age, sex, date of registration, address, and usual doctor. The impact on consultation rates of accessibility of surgeries and availability of doctors is examined when the variables are controlled, and the importance of these factors is discussed in relation to planning primary medical care.