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Charalampidou A, Nehls T, Meyners C, Gandhesiri S, Pomplun S, Pentelute BL, Lermyte F, Hausch F. Automated Flow Peptide Synthesis Enables Engineering of Proteins with Stabilized Transient Binding Pockets. ACS Cent Sci 2024; 10:649-657. [PMID: 38559286 PMCID: PMC10979424 DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.3c01283] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2023] [Revised: 01/29/2024] [Accepted: 01/31/2024] [Indexed: 04/04/2024]
Abstract
Engineering at the amino acid level is key to enhancing the properties of existing proteins in a desired manner. So far, protein engineering has been dominated by genetic approaches, which have been extremely powerful but only allow for minimal variations beyond the canonical amino acids. Chemical peptide synthesis allows the unrestricted incorporation of a vast set of unnatural amino acids with much broader functionalities, including the incorporation of post-translational modifications or labels. Here we demonstrate the potential of chemical synthesis to generate proteins in a specific conformation, which would have been unattainable by recombinant protein expression. We use recently established rapid automated flow peptide synthesis combined with solid-phase late-stage modifications to rapidly generate a set of FK506-binding protein 51 constructs bearing defined intramolecular lactam bridges. This trapped an otherwise rarely populated transient pocket-as confirmed by crystal structures-which led to an up to 39-fold improved binding affinity for conformation-selective ligands and represents a unique system for the development of ligands for this rare conformation. Overall, our results show how rapid automated flow peptide synthesis can be applied to precision protein engineering.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Charalampidou
- Clemens-Schöpf-Institute,
Department of Chemistry, Technical University
of Darmstadt, Peter-Grünberg-Straße 4, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany
| | - Thomas Nehls
- Clemens-Schöpf-Institute,
Department of Chemistry, Technical University
of Darmstadt, Peter-Grünberg-Straße 4, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany
| | - Christian Meyners
- Clemens-Schöpf-Institute,
Department of Chemistry, Technical University
of Darmstadt, Peter-Grünberg-Straße 4, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany
| | - Satish Gandhesiri
- Department
of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Sebastian Pomplun
- Leiden
Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR), Leiden University, Einsteinweg
55, 2333 CC Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Bradley L. Pentelute
- Department
of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Frederik Lermyte
- Clemens-Schöpf-Institute,
Department of Chemistry, Technical University
of Darmstadt, Peter-Grünberg-Straße 4, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany
- Department
of Synthetic Biology, Technical University
of Darmstadt, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany
| | - Felix Hausch
- Clemens-Schöpf-Institute,
Department of Chemistry, Technical University
of Darmstadt, Peter-Grünberg-Straße 4, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany
- Department
of Synthetic Biology, Technical University
of Darmstadt, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany
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Callahan AJ, Gandhesiri S, Travaline TL, Reja RM, Lozano Salazar L, Hanna S, Lee YC, Li K, Tokareva OS, Swiecicki JM, Loas A, Verdine GL, McGee JH, Pentelute BL. Mirror-image ligand discovery enabled by single-shot fast-flow synthesis of D-proteins. Nat Commun 2024; 15:1813. [PMID: 38418820 PMCID: PMC10901774 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45634-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2023] [Accepted: 01/26/2024] [Indexed: 03/02/2024] Open
Abstract
Widespread adoption of mirror-image biological systems presents difficulties in accessing the requisite D-protein substrates. In particular, mirror-image phage display has the potential for high-throughput generation of biologically stable macrocyclic D-peptide binders with potentially unique recognition modes but is hindered by the individualized optimization required for D-protein chemical synthesis. We demonstrate a general mirror-image phage display pipeline that utilizes automated flow peptide synthesis to prepare D-proteins in a single run. With this approach, we prepare and characterize 12 D-proteins - almost one third of all reported D-proteins to date. With access to mirror-image protein targets, we describe the successful discovery of six macrocyclic D-peptide binders: three to the oncoprotein MDM2, and three to the E3 ubiquitin ligase CHIP. Reliable production of mirror-image proteins can unlock the full potential of D-peptide drug discovery and streamline the study of mirror-image biology more broadly.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alex J Callahan
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Satish Gandhesiri
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Tara L Travaline
- FOG Pharmaceuticals Inc., 30 Acorn Park Drive, Cambridge, MA, 02140, USA
| | - Rahi M Reja
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Lia Lozano Salazar
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Stephanie Hanna
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Yen-Chun Lee
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
- Department of Chemistry, National Cheng Kung University, No.1, University Road, Tainan City, 701, Taiwan
| | - Kunhua Li
- FOG Pharmaceuticals Inc., 30 Acorn Park Drive, Cambridge, MA, 02140, USA
| | - Olena S Tokareva
- FOG Pharmaceuticals Inc., 30 Acorn Park Drive, Cambridge, MA, 02140, USA
| | - Jean-Marie Swiecicki
- FOG Pharmaceuticals Inc., 30 Acorn Park Drive, Cambridge, MA, 02140, USA
- Relay Therapeutics, Inc., 399 Binney Street, 2nd Floor, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Andrei Loas
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Gregory L Verdine
- FOG Pharmaceuticals Inc., 30 Acorn Park Drive, Cambridge, MA, 02140, USA
- Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, 7 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, 52 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA
| | - John H McGee
- FOG Pharmaceuticals Inc., 30 Acorn Park Drive, Cambridge, MA, 02140, USA.
| | - Bradley L Pentelute
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
- The Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 500 Main Street, Cambridge, MA, 02142, USA.
- Center for Environmental Health Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, MA, 02142, USA.
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Gutkin S, Gandhesiri S, Brik A, Shabat D. Synthesis and Evaluation of Ubiquitin-Dioxetane Conjugate as a Chemiluminescent Probe for Monitoring Deubiquitinase Activity. Bioconjug Chem 2021; 32:2141-2147. [PMID: 34549948 PMCID: PMC8589252 DOI: 10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.1c00413] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
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The removal of ubiquitin (Ub) from
a modified protein or Ub chain
is a process that occurs regularly by the ubiquitin–proteasome
system. This process is known to be mediated by various deubiquitinating
enzymes (DUBs) in order to control the protein’s half-life
and its expression levels among many other signaling processes. Since
the function of DUBs is also involved in numerous human diseases,
such as cancer, there is an obvious need for an effective diagnostic
probe that can monitor the activity of these enzymes. We have developed
the first chemiluminescence probe for detection of DUBs activity.
The probe was prepared by conjugation of the chemically synthesized
C-terminally activated Ub(1-75) with a Gly-enolether precursor. Subsequent
oxidation, under aqueous conditions, of the enolether conjuagate with
singlet-oxygen furnished the dioxetane probe Ub-CL. This
synthesis provides the first example of a dioxetane–luminophore
protein conjugate. The probe’s ability to detect deubiquitinating
activity was successfully validated with three different DUBs. In
order to demonstrate the advantage of our new probe, comparison measurements
for detection of DUB UCH-L3 activity were performed between the chemiluminescent
probe Ub-CL and the well-known Ub-AMC probe.
The obtained data showed significantly higher S/N, for probe Ub-CL (>93-fold) in comparison to that observed for Ub-AMC (1.5-fold). We anticipate that the successful design
and synthesis of the turn-ON protein–dioxetane conjugate probe,
demonstrated in this work, will provide the insight and motivation
for preparation of other relevant protein–dioxetane conjugates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Gutkin
- School of Chemistry, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
| | - Satish Gandhesiri
- Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200008, Israel
| | - Ashraf Brik
- Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200008, Israel
| | - Doron Shabat
- School of Chemistry, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
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