Identification and Optimization of RNA-Splicing Modulators as Huntingtin Protein-Lowering Agents for the Treatment of Huntington's Disease

Huntington's disease (HD) is caused by an expanded CAG trinucleotide repeat in exon 1 of the huntingtin (HTT) gene. We report the design of a series of HTT pre-mRNA splicing modulators that lower huntingtin (HTT) protein, including the toxic mutant huntingtin (mHTT), by promoting insertion of a pseudoexon containing a premature termination codon at the exon 49-50 junction. The resulting transcript undergoes nonsense-mediated decay, leading to a reduction of HTT mRNA transcripts and protein levels. The starting benzamide core was modified to pyrazine amide and further optimized to give a potent, CNS-penetrant, and orally bioavailable HTT-splicing modulator 27. This compound reduced canonical splicing of the HTT RNA exon 49-50 and demonstrated significant HTT-lowering in both human HD stem cells and mouse BACHD models. Compound 27 is a structurally diverse HTT-splicing modulator that may help understand the mechanism of adverse effects such as peripheral neuropathy associated with branaplam.

Constitutive phosphorylation of the vesicular stomatitis virus P protein modulates polymerase complex formation but is not essential for transcription or replication

As a subunit of both the P-L polymerase complex and the P-N assembly complex, the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) P protein plays a pivotal role in transcription and replication of the viral genome. Constitutive phosphorylation of this protein is currently thought to be essential for formation of the P-L complex. We recently identified the three relevant phosphate acceptor sites in the VSV Indiana serotype P protein (R. L. Jackson, D. Spadafora, and J. Perrault, Virology 214:189-197, 1995). We now report the effects of substituting Ala at these acceptor sites on transcription reconstitution in vitro and replication of defective interfering virus (DI) templates in vivo. The singly substituted S60A, T62A, and S64A mutants and the doubly substituted S60A/T62A and T62A/S64A mutants, all of which retain some constitutive phosphorylation, were nearly as active as the wild type in both assays. Surprisingly, the nonphosphorylated S60A/S64A protein was also active in transcription (> or = 28%)) and replication (> or = 50%) under optimal conditions. However, this mutant was much less active in in vitro transcription (< or = 5% of wild type) at low P concentrations (<27 nM). In addition, S60A/S64A required higher concentrations of L protein than did the wild type for optimal DI replication in vivo. DI replication efficiency and intracellular accumulation of L, P, and N proteins in the transfected system were very similar to those in VSV-infected cells. We conclude that P protein constitutive phosphorylation is not essential for VSV RNA synthesis per se but likely plays an important role in vivo in facilitating P multimerization and possibly P-L complex formation.

Hierarchal constitutive phosphorylation of the vesicular stomatitis virus P protein and lack of effect on P1 to P2 conversion

In vitro reconstitution of a transcriptionally active VSV polymerase complex (P:L) reportedly requires phosphorylation of the N-terminal domain of P by CKII. Two constitutively phosphorylated sites have been implicated in this activation for both VSV Indiana and New Jersey serotype P proteins. We show here that, in contrast to New Jersey, the Indiana P protein is constitutively phosphorylated on three sites in vivo. The evidence rests on assessing the phosphorylation status of transfected P gene constructs containing all possible combinations of Ala substitutions at Ser60, Thr62, and Ser64. All mutants containing the T62A substitution showed a reduced level of phosphorylation and yielded no P-Thr. Surprisingly the S60A/S64A mutant behaved like the triple substitution and displayed no significant phosphorylation, while the S64A mutant yielded no P-Thr. Phosphorylation of Thr62 therefore depended on prior modification of Ser64. We also tested the ability of our mutant P proteins to convert to the more highly phosphorylated P2 species, a modification essential for transcription in the New Jersey serotype and thought to be carried out by an L-protein-associated kinase. All of our transfected mutant P proteins readily converted to P2 in the presence or absence of L cotransfection, and the latter had no significant effect on P phosphorylation. We conclude that VSV Indiana P protein differs in significant ways from New Jersey P. It is hierarchically and constitutively phosphorylated on a cluster of three sites, not two, suggesting that an additional kinase may be involved. Moreover, Indiana P1 to P2 conversion is independent of prior constitutive phosphorylation and does not require the presence of L protein.