scholarly journals Ligands with poly-fluorophenyl moieties promote a local structural rearrangement in the Spinach2 and Broccoli aptamers that increases ligand affinities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharif Anisuzzaman ◽  
Ivan M Geraskin ◽  
Muslum Ilgu ◽  
Lee Bendickson ◽  
George A Kraus ◽  
...  

The interaction of nucleic acids with their molecular targets often involves structural reorganization that may traverse a complex folding landscape. With the more recent recognition that many RNAs, both coding and noncoding, may regulate cellular activities by interacting with target molecules, it becomes increasingly important to understand the means by which nucleic acids interact with their targets and how drugs might be developed that can influence critical folding transitions. We have extensively investigated the interaction of the Spinach2 and Broccoli aptamers with a library of small molecule ligands modified by various extensions from the imido nitrogen of DFHBI (3,5-difluoro-4-hydroxybenzylidene imidazolinone) that reach out from the Spinach2 ligand binding pocket. Studies of the interaction of these compounds with the aptamers revealed that poly-fluorophenyl-modified ligands initiate a slow change in aptamer affinity that takes an extended time (half-life of ~40 min) to achieve. The change in affinity appears to involve an initial disruption of the entrance to the ligand binding pocket followed by a gradual lockdown for which the most likely driving force is an interaction of the gateway adenine with a nearby 2'OH group. These results suggest that poly-fluorophenyl modifications might increase the ability of small molecule drugs to disrupt local structure and promote RNA remodeling.

2010 ◽  
Vol 111 (14) ◽  
pp. 3928-3937
Author(s):  
Jinhu Wang ◽  
Ke Tang ◽  
Qianqian Hou ◽  
Xueli Cheng ◽  
Yongjun Liu ◽  
...  

2009 ◽  
Vol 52 (5) ◽  
pp. 1438-1449 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuka Inaba ◽  
Nobuko Yoshimoto ◽  
Yuta Sakamaki ◽  
Makoto Nakabayashi ◽  
Teikichi Ikura ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin W. Flatt ◽  
Aušra Domanska ◽  
Alma L. Seppälä ◽  
Sarah J. Butcher

AbstractEnteroviruses pose a persistent and widespread threat to human physical health, with no specific treatments available. Small molecule capsid binders have the potential to be developed as antivirals that prevent virus attachment and entry into host cells. To aid with broad-range drug development, we report here structures of coxsackieviruses B3 and B4 bound to different interprotomer-targeting capsid binders using single-particle cryo-EM. The EM density maps are beyond 3 Å resolution, providing detailed information about interactions in the ligand-binding pocket. Comparative analysis revealed the residues that form a conserved virion-stabilizing network at the interprotomer site, and showed the small molecule properties that allow anchoring in the pocket to inhibit virus disassembly.


Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 1151
Author(s):  
Chenyun Guo ◽  
Zhihua Wu ◽  
Weiliang Lin ◽  
Hao Xu ◽  
Ting Chang ◽  
...  

Suramin was initially used to treat African sleeping sickness and has been clinically tested to treat human cancers and HIV infection in the recent years. However, the therapeutic index is low with numerous clinical side-effects, attributed to its diverse interactions with multiple biological macromolecules. Here, we report a novel binding target of suramin, human Raf1 kinase inhibitory protein (hRKIP), which is an important regulatory protein involved in the Ras/Raf1/MEK/ERK (MAPK) signal pathway. Biolayer interference technology showed that suramin had an intermediate affinity for binding hRKIP with a dissociation constant of 23.8 µM. Both nuclear magnetic resonance technology and molecular docking analysis revealed that suramin bound to the conserved ligand-binding pocket of hRKIP, and that residues K113, W173, and Y181 play crucial roles in hRKIP binding suramin. Furthermore, suramin treatment at 160 µM could profoundly increase the ERK phosphorylation level by around 3 times. Our results indicate that suramin binds to hRKIP and prevents hRKIP from binding with hRaf1, thus promoting the MAPK pathway. This work is beneficial to both mechanistically understanding the side-effects of suramin and efficiently improving the clinical applications of suramin.


2013 ◽  
Vol 182 ◽  
pp. 73-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grace Jones ◽  
Peter Teal ◽  
Vincent C. Henrich ◽  
Anna Krzywonos ◽  
Agnes Sapa ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Diogo Tavares ◽  
Artur Reimer ◽  
Shantanu Roy ◽  
Aurélie Joublin ◽  
Vladimir Sentchilo ◽  
...  

AbstractBacterial periplasmic-binding proteins have been acclaimed as general biosensing platform, but their range of natural ligands is too limited for optimal development of chemical compound detection. Computational redesign of the ligand-binding pocket of periplasmic-binding proteins may yield variants with new properties, but, despite earlier claims, genuine changes of specificity to non-natural ligands have so far not been achieved. In order to better understand the reasons of such limited success, we revisited here the Escherichia coli RbsB ribose-binding protein, aiming to achieve perceptible transition from ribose to structurally related chemical ligands 1,3-cyclohexanediol and cyclohexanol. Combinations of mutations were computationally predicted for nine residues in the RbsB binding pocket, then synthesized and tested in an E. coli reporter chassis. Two million variants were screened in a microcolony-in-bead fluorescence-assisted sorting procedure, which yielded six mutants no longer responsive to ribose but with 1.2–1.5 times induction in presence of 1 mM 1,3-cyclohexanediol, one of which responded to cyclohexanol as well. Isothermal microcalorimetry confirmed 1,3-cyclohexanediol binding, although only two mutant proteins were sufficiently stable upon purification. Circular dichroism spectroscopy indicated discernable structural differences between these two mutant proteins and wild-type RbsB. This and further quantification of periplasmic-space abundance suggested most mutants to be prone to misfolding and/or with defects in translocation compared to wild-type. Our results thus affirm that computational design and library screening can yield RbsB mutants with recognition of non-natural but structurally similar ligands. The inherent arisal of protein instability or misfolding concomitant with designed altered ligand-binding pockets should be overcome by new experimental strategies or by improved future protein design algorithms.


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