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Reader's Corner Archive

18 Dec 2020

Nearest-neighbor NMR spectroscopy: categorizing spectral peaks by their adjacent nuclei (Nature Communications)

Methyl-NMR enables atomic-resolution studies of structure and dynamics of large proteins in solution. However, resonance assignment remains challenging. The problem is to combine existing structural informational with sparse distance restraints and search for the most compatible assignment among the permutations. Prior classification of peaks as either from isoleucine, leucine, or valine reduces the search space by many orders of magnitude. However, this is hindered by overlapped leucine and valine frequencies. In contrast, the nearest-neighbor nuclei, coupled to the methyl carbons, resonate in distinct frequency bands. Here, Coote, P.,  Arthanari, H. et. al. develop a framework to imprint additional information about passively coupled resonances onto the observed peaks. This depends on simultaneously orchestrating closely spaced bands of resonances along different magnetization trajectories, using principles from control theory. For methyl-NMR, the method is implemented as a modification to the standard fingerprint spectrum (the 2D-HMQC). The amino acid type is immediately apparent in the fingerprint spectrum. There is no additional relaxation loss or an increase in experimental time. The method is validated on biologically relevant proteins. The idea of generating new spectral information using passive, adjacent resonances is applicable to other contexts in NMR spectroscopy. The structure and dynamics of large proteins and complexes can be studied by methyl-NMR but resonance assignment is still challenging. Here, the authors present a NMR method that leverages optimal control pulse design to unambiguously distinguish between Leu and Val using a simple 2D HMQC experiment and they apply it to several proteins including Cas9, interleukin, and human translation initiation factor eIF4a.

18 Dec 2020

Small-molecule-induced polymerization triggers degradation of BCL6 (Nature)

Effective and sustained inhibition of non-enzymatic oncogenic driver proteins is a major pharmacological challenge. The clinical success of thalidomide analogues demonstrates the therapeutic efficacy of drug-induced degradation of transcription factors and other cancer targets(1-3), but a substantial subset of proteins are resistant to targeted degradation using existing approaches(4,5). B. Elber, S. Fischer et.al. report an alternative mechanism of targeted protein degradation, in which a small molecule induces the highly specific, reversible polymerization of a target protein, followed by its sequestration into cellular foci and subsequent degradation. BI-3802 is a small molecule that binds to the Broad-complex, Tramtrack and Bric-a-brac (BTB) domain of the oncogenic transcription factor B cell lymphoma 6 (BCL6) and leads to the proteasomal degradation of BCL6(6). They use cryo-electron microscopy to reveal how the solvent-exposed moiety of a BCL6-binding molecule contributes to a composite ligand-protein surface that engages BCL6 homodimers to form a supramolecular structure. Drug-induced formation of BCL6 filaments facilitates ubiquitination by the SIAH1 E3 ubiquitin ligase. Our findings demonstrate that a small molecule such as BI-3802 can induce polymerization coupled to highly specific protein degradation, which in the case of BCL6 leads to increased pharmacological activity compared to the effects induced by other BCL6 inhibitors. These findings open new avenues for the development of therapeutic agents and synthetic biology.

11 Nov 2020

Structure of inhibitor-bound mammalian complex I (Nat. Commun.)

Respiratory complex I (NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase) captures the free energy from oxidising NADH and reducing ubiquinone to drive protons across the mitochondrial inner membrane and power oxidative phosphorylation. Recent cryo-EM analyses have produced near-complete models of the mammalian complex but leave the molecular principles of its long-range energy coupling mechanism open to debate. Here, V.R.I. Kaila, J. Hirst et. al.  describe the 3.0-Ao resolution cryo-EM structure of complex I from mouse heart mitochondria with a substrate-like inhibitor, piericidin A, bound in the ubiquinone-binding active site. They combine the structural analyses with both functional and computational studies to demonstrate competitive inhibitor binding poses and provide evidence that two inhibitor molecules bind end-to-end in the long substrate binding channel. Their findings reveal information about the mechanisms of inhibition and substrate reduction that are central for understanding the principles of energy transduction in mammalian complex I. The respiratory complex I (NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase) is a large redox-driven proton pump that initiates respiration in mitochondria. Here, the authors present the 3.0 angstrom cryo-EM structure of complex I from mouse heart mitochondria with the ubiquinone-analogue inhibitor piericidin A bound in the active site and with kinetic measurements and MD simulations they further show that this inhibitor acts competitively against the native ubiquinone-10 substrate.

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