More than half of the ~20,000 protein-encoding human genes have at least one paralog. Chemical proteomics has uncovered many electrophile-sensitive cysteines that are exclusive to a subset of paralogous proteins. Here, we explore whether such covalent compound-cysteine interactions can be used to discover ligandable pockets in paralogs that lack the cysteine. Leveraging the covalent ligandability of C109 in the cyclin CCNE2, we mutated the corresponding residue in paralog CCNE1 to cysteine (N112C) and found through activity-based protein profiling (ABPP) that this mutant reacts stereoselectively and site-specifically with tryptoline acrylamides. We then converted the tryptoline acrylamide-N112C-CCNE1 interaction into a NanoBRET-ABPP assay capable of identifying compounds that reversibly inhibit both N112C- and WT-CCNE1:CDK2 complexes. X-ray crystallography revealed a cryptic allosteric pocket at the CCNE1:CDK2 interface adjacent to N112 that binds the reversible inhibitors. Our findings thus provide a roadmap for leveraging electrophile-cysteine interactions to extend the ligandability of the proteome beyond covalent chemistry.
A blog highlighting recent publications in the area of covalent modification of proteins, particularly relating to covalent-modifier drugs. @CovalentMod on Twitter, @covalentmod@mstdn.science on Mastodon, and @covalentmod.bsky.social on BlueSky
Rapid, potent, and persistent covalent chemical probes to deconvolute PI3Kα signaling
Lukas Bissegger, Theodora A. Constantin, Erhan Keles, Luka Raguž, Isobel Barlow-Busch, Clara Orbegozo, Thorsten Schaefer, Valentina...
-
Linqi Cheng Yixian Wang, Yiming Guo, Sophie S. Zhang Han Xiao C ell Chemical Biology, 2024 Volume 31, 3, 428 - 445 https://doi.org/10.10...
-
Nathalie M. Grob, Clint Remarcik, Simon L. Rössler, Jeffrey Y. K. Wong, John C. K. Wang, Jason Tao, Corey L. Smith, Andrei Loas, Stephen L. ...
-
Guanghui Tang , Wei Wang , Chengjun Zhu , Huisi Huang , Peng Chen , Xuan Wang , Manyi Xu , Jie Sun , Chong-Jing Zhang , Qicai Xiao ...