Monitoring the interference of protein-protein interactions in vivo by bimolecular fluorescence complementation: the DnaK case

Many cellular processes depend on protein-protein interactions. The identification of molecules able to modulate protein contacts is of significant interest for drug discovery and chemical biology. Nevertheless, finding antagonists of protein interactions that work efficiently within the cell is a challenging task. Here, we describe the novel use of bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BIFC) to detect compounds that block the interaction of target proteins in vivo. In the BIFC method, each interaction partner is fused to a complementary fragment of a fluorescent protein and interactions are detected by fluorescence restoration after reporter reassembly. Here, we demonstrate that the inhibition of specific intracellular protein interactions results in a concomitant decrease in fluorescence emission. We also show that integration of BIFC with flow cytometry might provide an effective means to detect interaction modulators by directly reading out changes in the reporter signal. The in vivo application of this approach is illustrated through monitoring the inhibition of the interaction between the Escherichia coli Hsp70 chaperone and a short peptidic substrate by pyrrhocoricin-derived antibacterial peptides.     

Discovery and structure–activity relationships of small molecules that block the human immunoglobulin G–human neonatal Fc receptor (hIgG–hFcRn) protein–protein interaction

The neonatal Fc receptor, FcRn, prolongs the half-life of IgG in the serum and represents a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of autoimmune disease. Small molecules that block the protein–protein interactions of human IgG–human FcRn may lower pathogenic autoantibodies and provide effective treatment. A novel class of quinoxalines has been discovered as antagonists of the IgG:FcRn protein–protein interaction through optimization of a hit derived from a virtual ligand-based screen.     

Evaluation of direct effects of protein ubiquitylation using computational analysis

Ubiquitylation is an important regulatory mechanism in the eukaryotic cell. A large volume of experimental data on protein ubiquitylation has been acquired in recent years. Particular ubiquitylated lysine residues were also identified. This allows us to analyze co-localization of ubiquitylation sites and functionally important protein domains, following the idea that ubiquitylation can directly affect protein functional activity. Computational analysis suggests that ubiquitylation can affect the functional activity of some proteins through direct steric effects. (1) Ubiquitylation can block protein functional domains/active site or cause accessibility limitations. It also (2) causes steric disturbances for homo-oligomerization and (3) influences heterologous protein interactions, impeding the binding of target protein with its partners. (4) Interaction with partner proteins can be disturbed by restricted conformational flexibility. Any of these effects will result in a decrease of target protein activity. Thus, we suggest a new “loss-of-function” mechanism of protein regulation by ubiquitylation.     

Evaluation of direct effects of protein ubiquitylation using computational analysis

Ubiquitylation is an important regulatory mechanism in the eukaryotic cell. A large volume of experimental data on protein ubiquitylation has been acquired in recent years. Particular ubiquitylated lysine residues were also identified. This allows us to analyze co-localization of ubiquitylation sites and functionally important protein domains, following the idea that ubiquitylation can directly affect protein functional activity. Computational analysis suggests that ubiquitylation can affect the functional activity of some proteins through direct steric effects. (1) Ubiquitylation can block protein functional domains/active site or cause accessibility limitations. It also (2) causes steric disturbances for homo-oligomerization and (3) influences heterologous protein interactions, impeding the binding of target protein with its partners. (4) Interaction with partner proteins can be disturbed by restricted conformational flexibility. Any of these effects will result in a decrease of target protein activity. Thus, we suggest a new “loss-of-function” mechanism of protein regulation by ubiquitylation.

     

Major role for mRNA binding and restructuring in sRNA recruitment by Hfq

Bacterial small RNAs (sRNAs) modulate gene expression by base-pairing with target mRNAs. Many sRNAs require the Sm-like RNA binding protein Hfq as a cofactor. Well-characterized interactions between DsrA sRNA and the rpoS mRNA leader were used to understand how Hfq stimulates sRNA pairing with target mRNAs. DsrA annealing stimulates expression of rpoS by disrupting a secondary structure in the rpoS leader, which otherwise prevents translation. Both RNAs bind Hfq with similar affinity but interact with opposite faces of the Hfq hexamer. Using mutations that block interactions between two of the three components, we demonstrate that Hfq binding to a functionally critical (AAN)(4) motif in rpoS mRNA rescues DsrA binding to a hyperstable rpoS mutant. We also show that Hfq cannot stably bridge the RNAs. Persistent ternary complexes only form when the two RNAs are complementary. Thus, Hfq mainly acts by binding and restructuring the rpoS mRNA. However, Hfq binding to DsrA is needed for maximum annealing in vitro, indicating that transient interactions with both RNAs contribute to the regulatory mechanism.     

Structure of a monomeric mutant of the HIV-1 capsid protein

The capsid protein (CA) of HIV-1 plays a significant role in the assembly of the immature virion and is the critical building block of its mature capsid. Thus, there has been significant interest in the CA protein as a target in the design of inhibitors of early and late stage events in the HIV-1 replication cycle. However, because of its inherent flexibility from the interdomain linker and the monomer-dimer equilibrium in solution, the HIV-1 wild-type CA monomer has defied structural determinations by X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Here we report the detailed solution structure of full-length HIV-1 CA using a monomeric mutant that, though noninfective, preserves many of the critical properties of the wild-type protein. The structure shows independently folded N-terminal (NTD) and C-terminal domains (CTD) joined by a flexible linker. The CTD shows some differences from that of the dimeric wild-type CTD structures. This study provides insights into the molecular mechanism of the wild-type CA dimerization critical for capsid assembly. The monomeric mutant allows investigation of interactions of CA with human cellular proteins exploited by HIV-1, directly in solution without the complications associated with the monomer-dimer equilibrium of the wild-type protein. This structure also permits the design of inhibitors directed at a novel target, viz., interdomain flexibility, as well as inhibitors that target multiple interdomain interactions critical for assembly and interactions of CA with host cellular proteins that play significant roles within the replication cycle of HIV-1.     

Protein Interactions in Genome Maintenance as Novel Antibacterial Targets

Antibacterial compounds typically act by directly inhibiting essential bacterial enzyme activities. Although this general mechanism of action has fueled traditional antibiotic discovery efforts for decades, new antibiotic development has not kept pace with the emergence of drug resistant bacterial strains. These limitations have severely restricted the therapeutic tools available for treating bacterial infections. Here we test an alternative antibacterial lead-compound identification strategy in which essential protein-protein interactions are targeted rather than enzymatic activities. Bacterial single-stranded DNA-binding proteins (SSBs) form conserved protein interaction “hubs” that are essential for recruiting many DNA replication, recombination, and repair proteins to SSB/DNA nucleoprotein substrates. Three small molecules that block SSB/protein interactions are shown to have antibacterial activity against diverse bacterial species. Consistent with a model in which the compounds target multiple SSB/protein interactions, treatment of Bacillus subtilis cultures with the compounds leads to rapid inhibition of DNA replication and recombination, and ultimately to cell death. The compounds also have unanticipated effects on protein synthesis that could be due to a previously unknown role for SSB/protein interactions in translation or to off-target effects. Our results highlight the potential of targeting protein-protein interactions, particularly those that mediate genome maintenance, as a powerful approach for identifying new antibacterial compounds.     

Highly specific protein-protein interactions, evolution and negative design

We consider highly specific protein-protein interactions in proteomes of simple model proteins. We are inspired by the work of Zarrinpar et al (2003 Nature 426 676). They took a binding domain in a signalling pathway in yeast and replaced it with domains of the same class but from different organisms. They found that the probability of a protein binding to a protein from the proteome of a different organism is rather high, around one half. We calculate the probability of a model protein from one proteome binding to the protein of a different proteome. These proteomes are obtained by sampling the space of functional proteomes uniformly. In agreement with Zarrinpar et al we find that the probability of a protein binding a protein from another proteome is rather high, of order one tenth. Our results, together with those of Zarrinpar et al, suggest that designing, say, a peptide to block or reconstitute a single signalling pathway, without affecting any other pathways, requires knowledge of all the partners of the class of binding domains the peptide is designed to mimic. This knowledge is required to use negative design to explicitly design out interactions of the peptide with proteins other than its target. We also found that patches that are required to bind with high specificity evolve more slowly than those that are required only to not bind to any other patch. This is consistent with some analysis of sequence data for proteins engaged in highly specific interactions.     

Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Sonic Hedgehog-Receptor and Inhibitor Complexes and Their Applications for Potential Anticancer Agent Discovery

The sonic hedgehog (Shh) signaling pathway is necessary for a variety of development and differentiation during embryogenesis as well as maintenance and renascence of diverse adult tissues. However, an abnormal activation of the signaling pathway is related to various cancers. In this pathway, the Shh signaling transduction is facilitated by binding of Shh to its receptor protein, Ptch. In this study, we modeled the 3D structure of functionally important key loop peptides of Ptch based on homologous proteins. Using this loop model, the molecular interactions between the structural components present in the pseudo-active site of Shh and key residues of Ptch was investigated in atomic level through molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. For the purpose of developing inhibitor candidates of the Shh signaling pathway, the Shh pseudo-active site of this interface region was selected as a target to block the direct binding between Shh and Ptch. Two different structure-based pharmacophore models were generated considering the key loop of Ptch and known inhibitor-induced conformational changes of the Shh through MD simulations. Finally two hit compounds were retrieved through a series of virtual screening combined with molecular docking simulations and we propose two hit compounds as potential inhibitory lead candidates to block the Shh signaling pathway based on their strong interactions to receptor or inhibitor induced conformations of the Shh.     

Identifying Protein-protein Interaction Sites Using Peptide Arrays

Protein-protein interactions mediate most of the processes in the living cell and control homeostasis of the organism. Impaired protein interactions may result in disease, making protein interactions important drug targets. It is thus highly important to understand these interactions at the molecular level. Protein interactions are studied using a variety of techniques ranging from cellular and biochemical assays to quantitative biophysical assays, and these may be performed either with full-length proteins, with protein domains or with peptides. Peptides serve as excellent tools to study protein interactions since peptides can be easily synthesized and allow the focusing on specific interaction sites. Peptide arrays enable the identification of the interaction sites between two proteins as well as screening for peptides that bind the target protein for therapeutic purposes. They also allow high throughput SAR studies. For identification of binding sites, a typical peptide array usually contains partly overlapping 10-20 residues peptides derived from the full sequences of one or more partner proteins of the desired target protein. Screening the array for binding the target protein reveals the binding peptides, corresponding to the binding sites in the partner proteins, in an easy and fast method using only small amount of protein.In this article we describe a protocol for screening peptide arrays for mapping the interaction sites between a target protein and its partners. The peptide array is designed based on the sequences of the partner proteins taking into account their secondary structures. The arrays used in this protocol were Celluspots arrays prepared by INTAVIS Bioanalytical Instruments. The array is blocked to prevent unspecific binding and then incubated with the studied protein. Detection using an antibody reveals the binding peptides corresponding to the specific interaction sites between the proteins.     

New design platform for malonyl-CoA-acyl carrier protein transacylase

Malonyl-CoA-acyl carrier protein transacylase (MCAT) transfers the malonyl group from malonyl-CoA to holo-acyl carrier protein (ACP), and since malonyl-ACP is a key building block for fatty-acid biosynthesis it is considered as a promising antibacterial target. The crystal structures of MCAT from Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pneumoniae have been determined at 1.46 and 2.1 Å resolution, respectively. In the SaMCAT structure, the N-terminal expression peptide of a neighboring molecule running in the opposite direction of malonyl-CoA makes extensive interactions with the highly conserved “Gly-Gln-Gly-Ser-Gln” stretch, suggesting a new design platform. Mutagenesis results suggest that Ser91 and His199 are the catalytic dyad.     

Computational Design of Binding Proteins to EGFR Domain II

We developed a process to produce novel interactions between two previously unrelated proteins. This process selects protein scaffolds and designs protein interfaces that bind to a surface patch of interest on a target protein. Scaffolds with shapes complementary to the target surface patch were screened using an exhaustive computational search of the human proteome and optimized by directed evolution using phage display. This method was applied to successfully design scaffolds that bind to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) domain II, the interface of EGFR dimerization, with high reactivity toward the target surface patch of EGFR domain II. One potential application of these tailor-made protein interactions is the development of therapeutic agents against specific protein targets.     

Semantically assessing the reliability of protein interactions

Protein–protein interactions (PPIs) play very important roles in many cellular processes, and provide rich information for discovering biological facts and knowledge. Although various experimental approaches have been developed to generate large amounts of PPI data for different organisms, high-throughput experimental data usually suffers from high error rates, and as a consequence, the biological knowledge discovered from this data is distorted or incorrect. Therefore, it is vital to assess the quality of protein interaction data and extract reliable protein interactions from the high-throughput experimental data. In this paper, we propose a new Semantic Reliability (SR) method to assess the reliability of each protein interaction and identify potential false-positive protein interactions in a dataset. For each pair of target interacting proteins, the SR method takes into account the semantic influence between proteins that interact with the target proteins, and the semantic influence between the target proteins themselves when assessing the interaction reliability. Evaluations on real protein interaction datasets demonstrated that our method outperformed other existing methods in terms of extracting more reliable interactions from original protein interaction datasets.     

ABRF�CMIRG Benchmark Study: Molecular Interactions in a Three-Component System

Protein–protein interactions identified through high-throughput proteomics efforts continue to advance our understanding of the protein interactome. In addition to highly specific protein–protein interactions, it is becoming increasingly more common for yeast two-hybrid, pull-down assays, and other proteomics techniques to identify multiple protein ligands that bind to the same target protein. A resulting challenge is to accurately characterize the assembly of these multiprotein complexes and the competition among multiple protein ligands for a given target. The Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities–Molecular Interactions Research Group recently conducted a benchmark study to assess participants'' ability to correctly describe the interactions between two protein ligands and their target protein using primarily biosensor technologies, such as surface plasmon resonance. Participants were provided with microgram quantities of three proteins (A, B, and C) and asked to determine if a ternary A-B-C complex can form or if protein-B and protein-C bind competitively to protein-A. This article will summarize the experimental approaches taken by participants to characterize the molecular interactions, the interpretation of the data, and the results obtained using different biosensor instruments.     

蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用及其抑制剂研究进展

蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用在细胞活动和生命过程中扮演着非常重要的角色。基因调节、免疫应答、信号转导、细胞组装等等都离不开蛋白质-蛋白质的相互作用。近几年,靶向蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用及其抑制剂研究也逐渐成为研究的热点;但是蛋白质复合物相互作用界面的一些特点和性质,如相互作用界面较大、结合界面较为平坦等,使蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用及其抑制剂研究充满了挑战。本文主要总结了蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用界面的一些性质和特点,分析了界面特性与其抑制剂设计的关系,并讨论了蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用的理论预测方法及其抑制剂的类型和特点,最后又通过实例说明了如何进行蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用抑制剂的设计。     

Modulation of molecular mechanisms involved in protein synthesis machinery as a new tool for the control of cell proliferation.

In the past years, the attention of scientists has focused mainly on the study of the genetic information and alterations that regulate eukaryotic cell proliferation and that lead to neoplastic transformation. All therapeutic strategies against cancer are, to date, directed at DNA either with cytotoxic drugs or gene therapy. Little or no interest has been aroused by protein synthesis mechanisms. However, an increasing body of data is emerging about the involvement of translational processes and factors in control of cell proliferation, indicating that protein synthesis can be an additional target for anticancer strategies. In this paper we review the novel insights on the biochemical and molecular events leading to protein biosynthesis and we describe their involvement in cell proliferation and tumorigenesis. A possible mechanistic explanation is given by the interactions that occur between protein synthesis machinery and the proliferative signal transduction pathways and that are therefore suitable targets for indirect modulation of protein synthesis. We briefly describe the molecular tools used to block protein synthesis and the attempts made at increasing their efficacy. Finally, we propose a new multimodal strategy against cancer based on the simultaneous intervention on protein synthesis and signal transduction.     

Detecting protein-protein interactions using Renilla luciferase fusion proteins

We have developed a novel system designated the luciferase assay for protein detection (LAPD) to study protein-protein interactions. This method involves two protein fusions, a soluble reporter fusion and a fusion for immobilizing the target protein. The soluble reporter is an N-terminal Renilla luciferase fusion protein that exhibits high Renilla luciferase activity. Crude cleared lysates from transfected Cos1 cells that express the Renilla luciferase fusion protein can be used in binding assays with immobilized target proteins. Following incubation and washing, target-bound Renilla luciferase fusion proteins produce light from the coelenterazine substrate, indicating an interaction between the two proteins of interest. As proof of the principle, we reproduced known, transient protein-protein interactions between the Cdc42 GTPase and its effector proteins. GTPase Renilla fusion proteins produced in Cos1 cells were tested with immobilized recombinant GST-N-WASP and CEP5 effector proteins. Using this assay, we could detect specific interactions of Cdc42 with these effector proteins in approximately 50 min. The specificity of these interactions was demonstrated by showing that they were GTPase-specific and GTP-dependent and not seen with other unrelated target proteins. These results suggest that the LAPD method, which is both rapid and sensitive, may have research and practical applications.