Targeting the Large Subunit of Human Ribonucleotide Reductase for Cancer Chemotherapy

Serum Ribonucleotide Reductase Subunit M2 in Patients with Chronic Liver Diseases and Hepatocellular Carcinoma

BACKGROUND

Ribonucleotide reductase subunit M2 (RRM2) plays a key role in cell and hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication. Nevertheless, its clinical implications for managing liver diseases have been inadequately studied.

METHODS

A total of 412 participants were enrolled, including 60 healthy control individuals, 55 patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), 173 patients with cirrhosis, and 124 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Serum RRM2 was measured via ELISA.

RESULTS

The level of serum RRM2 in patients with CHB, cirrhosis, and HCC was higher than that in healthy controls (P < .05). A large difference in serum RRM2 was found between HBV-related and non-HBV-related patients in the cirrhosis group (P < .001), compared with the difference between HBV-related HCC and non-HBV-related HCC (P = .86). In the HBV-related cirrhosis group, the serum RRM2 level showed significant positive correlations with HBV DNA, hepatitis B surface antigen, hepatitis B e antigen, Child-Pugh scores, and MELD scores and played a strong role in diagnosing HBV-related cirrhosis in CHB, compared with fibrosis-4 score and aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index.

CONCLUSIONS

Serum RRM2 is a reliable biomarker for accurate HBV-related cirrhosis diagnosis and evaluation. Also, serum RRM2 could reflect the expression state of HBV replication in patients with HBV-related cirrhosis.

Protein-Targeting Drug Discovery

Protein-driven biological processes play a fundamental role in biomedicine because they are related to pathologies of enormous social impact, such as cancer, neuropathies, and viral diseases, including the one at the origin of the recent COVID-19 pandemic [...].

Inhibitors of the Cancer Target Ribonucleotide Reductase, Past and Present

Ribonucleotide reductase (RR) is an essential multi-subunit enzyme found in all living organisms; it catalyzes the rate-limiting step in dNTP synthesis, namely, the conversion of ribonucleoside diphosphates to deoxyribonucleoside diphosphates. As expression levels of human RR (hRR) are high during cell replication, hRR has long been considered an attractive drug target for a range of proliferative diseases, including cancer. While there are many excellent reviews regarding the structure, function, and clinical importance of hRR, recent years have seen an increase in novel approaches to inhibiting hRR that merit an updated discussion of the existing inhibitors and strategies to target this enzyme. In this review, we discuss the mechanisms and clinical applications of classic nucleoside analog inhibitors of hRRM1 (large catalytic subunit), including gemcitabine and clofarabine, as well as inhibitors of the hRRM2 (free radical housing small subunit), including triapine and hydroxyurea. Additionally, we discuss novel approaches to targeting RR and the discovery of new classes of hRR inhibitors.

Iron Chelator Transmetalative Approach to Inhibit Human Ribonucleotide Reductase

Efforts directed at curtailing the bioavailability of intracellular iron could lead to the development of broad-spectrum anticancer drugs given the metal's role in cancer proliferation and metastasis. Human ribonucleotide reductase (RNR), the key enzyme responsible for synthesizing the building blocks of DNA replication and repair, depends on Fe binding at its R2 subunit to activate the catalytic R1 subunit. This work explores an intracellular iron chelator transmetalative approach to inhibit RNR using the titanium(IV) chemical transferrin mimetic (cTfm) compounds Ti(HBED) and Ti(Deferasirox)2. Whole-cell EPR studies reveal that the compounds can effectively attenuate RNR activity though seemingly causing different changes to the labile iron pool that may account for differences in their potency against cells. Studies of Ti(IV) interactions with the adenosine nucleotide family at pH 7.4 reveal strong metal binding and extensive phosphate hydrolysis, which suggest the capacity of the metal to disturb the nucleotide substrate pool of the RNR enzyme. By decreasing intracellular Fe bioavailability and altering the nucleotide substrate pool, the Ti cTfm compounds could inhibit the activity of the R1 and R2 subunits of RNR. The compounds arrest the cell cycle in the S phase, indicating suppressed DNA replication, and induce apoptotic cell death. Cotreatment cell viability studies with cisplatin and Ti(Deferasirox)2 reveal a promising synergism between the compounds that is likely owed to their distinct but complementary effect on DNA replication.

Effector-Binding-Directed Dimerization and Dynamic Communication between Allosteric Sites of Ribonucleotide Reductase

Proteins forming dimers or larger complexes can be strongly influenced by their effector-binding status. We investigated how the effector-binding event is coupled with interface formation via computer simulations, and we quantified the correlation of two types of contact interactions: between the effector and its binding pocket and between protein monomers. This was achieved by connecting the protein dynamics at the monomeric level with the oligomer interface information. We applied this method to ribonucleotide reductase (RNR), an essential enzyme for de novo DNA synthesis. RNR contains two important allosteric sites, the s-site (specificity site) and the a-site (activity site), which bind different effectors. We studied these different binding states with atomistic simulation and used their coarse-grained contact information to analyze the protein dynamics. The results reveal that the effector-protein dynamics at the s-site and dimer interface formation are positively coupled. We further quantify the resonance level between these two events, which can be applied to other similar systems. At the a-site, different effector-binding states (ATP vs dATP) drastically alter the protein dynamics and affect the activity of the enzyme. On the basis of these results, we propose a new mechanism of how the a-site regulates enzyme activation.

Enzyme regulation. IRBIT is a novel regulator of ribonucleotide reductase in higher eukaryotes

Ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) supplies the balanced pools of deoxynucleotide triphosphates (dNTPs) necessary for DNA replication and maintenance of genomic integrity. RNR is subject to allosteric regulatory mechanisms in all eukaryotes, as well as to control by small protein inhibitors Sml1p and Spd1p in budding and fission yeast, respectively. Here, we show that the metazoan protein IRBIT forms a deoxyadenosine triphosphate (dATP)-dependent complex with RNR, which stabilizes dATP in the activity site of RNR and thus inhibits the enzyme. Formation of the RNR-IRBIT complex is regulated through phosphorylation of IRBIT, and ablation of IRBIT expression in HeLa cells causes imbalanced dNTP pools and altered cell cycle progression. We demonstrate a mechanism for RNR regulation in higher eukaryotes that acts by enhancing allosteric RNR inhibition by dATP.

Replication stress and cancer: it takes two to tango

Problems arising during DNA replication require the activation of the ATR-CHK1 pathway to ensure the stabilization and repair of the forks, and to prevent the entry into mitosis with unreplicated genomes. Whereas the pathway is essential at the cellular level, limiting its activity is particularly detrimental for some cancer cells. Here we review the links between replication stress (RS) and cancer, which provide a rationale for the use of ATR and Chk1 inhibitors in chemotherapy. First, we describe how the activation of oncogene-induced RS promotes genome rearrangements and chromosome instability, both of which could potentially fuel carcinogenesis. Next, we review the various pathways that contribute to the suppression of RS, and how mutations in these components lead to increased cancer incidence and/or accelerated ageing. Finally, we summarize the evidence showing that tumors with high levels of RS are dependent on a proficient RS-response, and therefore vulnerable to ATR or Chk1 inhibitors.

Ribonucleotide reductases: essential enzymes for bacterial life

Ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) is a key enzyme that mediates the synthesis of deoxyribonucleotides, the DNA precursors, for DNA synthesis in every living cell. This enzyme converts ribonucleotides to deoxyribonucleotides, the building blocks for DNA replication, and repair. Clearly, RNR enzymes have contributed to the appearance of genetic material that exists today, being essential for the evolution of all organisms on Earth. The strict control of RNR activity and dNTP pool sizes is important, as pool imbalances increase mutation rates, replication anomalies, and genome instability. Thus, RNR activity should be finely regulated allosterically and at the transcriptional level. In this review we examine the distribution, the evolution, and the genetic regulation of bacterial RNRs. Moreover, this enzyme can be considered an ideal target for anti-proliferative compounds designed to inhibit cell replication in eukaryotic cells (cancer cells), parasites, viruses, and bacteria.

Triapine and a more potent dimethyl derivative induce endoplasmic reticulum stress in cancer cells

Triapine (3-AP; 3-aminopyridine-2-carboxaldehyde thiosemicarbazone), a ribonucleotide reductase inhibitor, has been extensively evaluated in clinical trials in the last decade. This study addresses the role of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in the anticancer activity of 3-AP and the derivative N(4),N(4)-dimethyl-triapine (3-AP-Me), differing from 3-AP only by dimethylation of the terminal nitrogen. Treatment of colon cancer cells with 3-AP or 3-AP-Me activated all three ER stress pathways (PERK, IRE1a, ATF6) by phosphorylation of eIF2α and upregulation of gene expression of activating transcription factors ATF4 and ATF6. In particular, 3-AP-Me led to an upregulation of the alternatively spliced mRNA variant XBP1 (16-fold). Moreover, 3-AP and 3-AP-Me activated the cellular stress kinases c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinases, and inhibition of JNK activity antagonized the cytotoxic effect of both compounds. Subsequent to induction of the unfolded protein response, a significant upregulation of proapoptotic proteins was detected, including the transcription factor CHOP and Bim, an essential factor for ER stress-related apoptosis. In correlation with the higher degree of ER stress after 3-AP-Me treatment, also a more potent depolarization of mitochondrial membranes was found. These data suggest that 3-AP and 3-AP-Me induce apoptosis via ER stress. This was further corroborated by showing that inhibition of protein biosynthesis with cycloheximide prior to 3-AP and 3-AP-Me treatment leads to a significant reduction of the antiproliferative properties of both compounds. Taken together, this study demonstrates that induction of ER stress contributes to the mode of action of 3-AP and that terminal dimethylation leads to an even more pronounced manifestation of this effect.

The structural basis for the allosteric regulation of ribonucleotide reductase

Ribonucleotide reductases (RRs) catalyze a crucial step of de novo DNA synthesis by converting ribonucleoside diphosphates to deoxyribonucleoside diphosphates. Tight control of the dNTP pool is essential for cellular homeostasis. The activity of the enzyme is tightly regulated at the S-phase by allosteric regulation. Recent structural studies by our group and others provided the molecular basis for understanding how RR recognizes substrates, how it interacts with chemotherapeutic agents, and how it is regulated by its allosteric regulators ATP and dATP. This review discusses the molecular basis of allosteric regulation and substrate recognition of RR, and particularly the discovery that subunit oligomerization is an important prerequisite step in enzyme inhibition.