Sunday, February 2, 2020

Cyclization Reaction-Based Turn-on Probe for Covalent Labeling of Target Proteins


Simon A. Hawley, Fiona A. Ross, Fiona M. Russell, Abdelmadjid Atrih, Douglas J. Lamont, D. Grahame Hardie
Cell Chem. Biol. 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chembiol.2020.01.006

Cordycepin (3-deoxyadenosine) is a major bioactive agent in Cordyceps militaris, a fungus used in traditional Chinese medicine. It has been proposed to have many beneficial metabolic effects by activating AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), but the mechanism of activation remained uncertain. We report that cordycepin enters cells via adenosine transporters and is converted by cellular metabolism into mono-, di-, and triphosphates, which at high cordycepin concentrations can almost replace cellular adenine nucleotides. AMPK activation by cordycepin in intact cells correlates with the content of cordycepin monophosphate and not other cordycepin or adenine nucleotides. Genetic knockout of AMPK sensitizes cells to the cytotoxic effects of cordycepin. In cell-free assays, cordycepin monophosphate mimics all three effects of AMP on AMPK, while activation in cells is blocked by a γ-subunit mutation that prevents activation by AMP. Thus, cordycepin is a pro-drug that activates AMPK by being converted by cellular metabolism into the AMP analog cordycepin
monophosphate.

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Discovery of a Tunable Heterocyclic Electrophile 4-Chloro-pyrazolopyridine That Defines a Unique Subset of Ligandable Cysteines

Hong-Rae Kim, David P. Byun, Kalyani Thakur, Jennifer Ritchie, Yixin Xie, Ronald Holewinski, Kiall F. Suazo, Mckayla Stevens, Hope Liechty, ...