Carbon dioxide is an omnipresent gas that drives adaptive responses within organisms from all domains of life. The molecular mechanisms by which proteins serve as sensors of CO2 are, accordingly, of ...great interest. Because CO2 is electrophilic, one way it can modulate protein biochemistry is by carboxylation of the amine group of lysine residues. However, the resulting CO2-carboxylated lysines spontaneously decompose, giving off CO2, which makes studying this modification difficult. Here we describe a method to stably mimic CO2-carboxylated lysine residues in proteins. We leverage this method to develop a quantitative approach to identify CO2-carboxylated lysines of proteins and explore the lysine ‘carboxylome’ of the CO2-responsive cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. We uncover one CO2-carboxylated lysine within the effector binding pocket of the metabolic signaling protein PII. CO2-carboxylatation of this lysine markedly lowers the affinity of PII for its regulatory effector ligand ATP, illuminating a negative molecular control mechanism mediated by CO2.Using isocyanic acid as a CO2 analog generates a stable mimic of lysine carboxylation, enabling development of a quantitative chemoproteomic approach to identify this modification in proteins and explore the lysine carboxylome of a cyanobacterium.
-GlcNAcylation is an essential post-translational modification installed by the enzyme
-β-
-acetyl-d-glucosaminyl transferase (OGT). Modulating this enzyme would be extremely valuable to better ...understand its role in the development of serious human pathologies, such as diabetes and cancer. However, the limited availability of potent and selective inhibitors hinders the validation of this potential therapeutic target. To explore new chemotypes that target the active site of OGT, we performed virtual screening of a large library of commercially available compounds with drug-like properties. We purchased samples of the most promising virtual hits and used enzyme assays to identify authentic leads. Structure-activity relationships of the best identified OGT inhibitor were explored by generating a small library of derivatives. Our best hit displays a novel uridine mimetic scaffold and inhibited the recombinant enzyme with an IC
value of 7 µM. The current hit represents an excellent starting point for designing and developing a new set of OGT inhibitors that may prove useful for exploring the biology of OGT.
Deficiency of the lysosomal glycoside hydrolase glucocerebrosidase (GCase) leads to abnormal accumulation of glucosyl ceramide in lysosomes and the development of the lysosomal storage disease known ...as Gaucher’s disease. More recently, mutations in the GBA1 gene that encodes GCase have been uncovered as a major genetic risk factor for Parkinson’s disease (PD). Current therapeutic strategies to increase GCase activity in lysosomes involve enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) and molecular chaperone therapy. One challenge associated with developing and optimizing these therapies is the difficulty in determining levels of GCase activity present within the lysosomes of live cells. Indeed, visualizing the activity of endogenous levels of any glycoside hydrolases, including GCase, has proven problematic within live mammalian cells. Here we describe the successful modular design and synthesis of fluorescence-quenched substrates for GCase. The selection of a suitable fluorophore and quencher pair permits the generation of substrates that allow convenient time-dependent monitoring of endogenous GCase activity within cells as well as localization of activity within lysosomes. These efficiently quenched (∼99.9%) fluorescent substrates also permit assessment of GCase inhibition in live cells by either confocal microscopy or high content imaging. Such substrates should enable improved understanding of GCase in situ as well the optimization of small-molecule chaperones for this enzyme. These findings also suggest routes to generate fluorescence-quenched substrates for other mammalian glycoside hydrolases for use in live cell imaging.
Pathological hyperphosphorylation of the microtubule-associated protein tau is characteristic of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and the associated tauopathies. The reciprocal relationship between ...phosphorylation and O-GlcNAc modification of tau and reductions in O-GlcNAc levels on tau in AD brain offers motivation for the generation of potent and selective inhibitors that can effectively enhance O-GlcNAc in vertebrate brain. We describe the rational design and synthesis of such an inhibitor (thiamet-G, K(i) = 21 nM; 1) of human O-GlcNAcase. Thiamet-G decreased phosphorylation of tau in PC-12 cells at pathologically relevant sites including Thr231 and Ser396. Thiamet-G also efficiently reduced phosphorylation of tau at Thr231, Ser396 and Ser422 in both rat cortex and hippocampus, which reveals the rapid and dynamic relationship between O-GlcNAc and phosphorylation of tau in vivo. We anticipate that thiamet-G will find wide use in probing the functional role of O-GlcNAc in vertebrate brain, and it may also offer a route to blocking pathological hyperphosphorylation of tau in AD.
The retaining glycosyltransferase GalNAc‐T2 is a member of a large family of human polypeptide GalNAc‐transferases that is responsible for the post‐translational modification of many cell‐surface ...proteins. By the use of combined structural and computational approaches, we provide the first set of structural snapshots of the enzyme during the catalytic cycle and combine these with quantum‐mechanics/molecular‐mechanics (QM/MM) metadynamics to unravel the catalytic mechanism of this retaining enzyme at the atomic‐electronic level of detail. Our study provides a detailed structural rationale for an ordered bi–bi kinetic mechanism and reveals critical aspects of substrate recognition, which dictate the specificity for acceptor Thr versus Ser residues and enforce a front‐face SNi‐type reaction in which the substrate N‐acetyl sugar substituent coordinates efficient glycosyl transfer.
The magic of many moments: Structural snapshots of GalNAc‐T2 complexes during the catalytic cycle were combined with quantum‐mechanics/molecular‐mechanics metadynamics to reveal an ordered bi–bi kinetic mechanism. Critical aspects of substrate recognition were identified that dictate the specificity for acceptor Thr versus Ser residues and enforce a front‐face reaction in which the substrate N‐acetyl sugar coordinates glycosyl transfer.
Amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) are the defining pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Increasing the quantity of the O-linked N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) ...post-translational modification of nuclear and cytoplasmic proteins slows neurodegeneration and blocks the formation of NFTs in a tauopathy mouse model. It remains unknown, however, if O-GlcNAc can influence the formation of amyloid plaques in the presence of tau pathology.
We treated double transgenic TAPP mice, which express both mutant human tau and amyloid precursor protein (APP), with a highly selective orally bioavailable inhibitor of the enzyme responsible for removing O-GlcNAc (OGA) to increase O-GlcNAc in the brain. We find that increased O-GlcNAc levels block cognitive decline in the TAPP mice and this effect parallels decreased β-amyloid peptide levels and decreased levels of amyloid plaques.
This study indicates that increased O-GlcNAc can influence β-amyloid pathology in the presence of tau pathology. The findings provide good support for OGA as a promising therapeutic target to alter disease progression in Alzheimer disease.
O-GlcNAc hydrolase (OGA) removes O-linked N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) from a myriad of nucleocytoplasmic proteins. Through co-expression and assembly of OGA fragments, we determined the ...three-dimensional structure of human OGA, revealing an unusual helix-exchanged dimer that lays a structural foundation for an improved understanding of substrate recognition and regulation of OGA. Structures of OGA in complex with a series of inhibitors define a precise blueprint for the design of inhibitors that have clinical value.
Pyrrolidine‐based iminocyclitols are a promising class of glycosidase inhibitors. Reported herein is a convenient epimerization strategy that provides direct access to a range of stereoisomeric ...iminocyclitol inhibitors of O‐GlcNAcase (OGA), the enzyme responsible for catalyzing removal of O‐GlcNAc from nucleocytoplasmic proteins. Structural details regarding the binding of these inhibitors to a bacterial homologue of OGA reveal the basis for potency. These compounds are orally available and permeate into rodent brain to increase O‐GlcNAc, and should prove useful tools for studying the role of OGA in health and disease.
On the brain: An epimerization strategy provides direct access to a range of stereoisomeric iminocyclitol inhibitors of O‐GlcNAcase (OGA), the enzyme responsible for catalyzing removal of O‐GlcNAc from nucleocytoplasmic proteins. Binding of these inhibitors to a bacterial homologue of OGA was obtained, and it was shown that they permeate in rodent brains.
The modification of proteins with O-linked N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) by the enzyme O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) has emerged as an important regulator of cellular physiology. Metabolic labeling ...strategies to monitor O-GlcNAcylation in cells have proven of great value for uncovering the molecular roles of O-GlcNAc. These strategies rely on two-step labeling procedures, which limits the scope of experiments that can be performed. Here, we report on the creation of fluorescent uridine 5′-diphospho-N-acetylglucosamine (UDP-GlcNAc) analogues in which the N-acyl group of glucosamine is modified with a suitable linker and fluorophore. Using human OGT, we show these donor sugar substrates permit direct monitoring of OGT activity on protein substrates in vitro. We show that feeding cells with a corresponding fluorescent metabolic precursor for the last step of the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway (HBP) leads to its metabolic assimilation and labeling of O-GlcNAcylated proteins within live cells. This one-step metabolic feeding strategy permits labeling of O-GlcNAcylated proteins with a fluorescent glucosamine-nitrobenzoxadiazole (GlcN-NBD) conjugate that accumulates in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Because no genetic engineering of cells is required, we anticipate this strategy should be generally amenable to studying the roles of O-GlcNAc in cellular physiology as well as to gain an improved understanding of the regulation of OGT within cells. The further expansion of this one-step in-cell labeling strategy should enable performing a range of experiments including two-color pulse chase experiments and monitoring OGT activity on specific protein substrates in live cells.
The microtubule-associated protein tau is known to be post-translationally modified by the addition of N-acetyl-d-glucosamine monosaccharides to certain serine and threonine residues. These O-GlcNAc ...modification sites on tau have been challenging to identify due to the inherent complexity of tau from mammalian brains and the fact that the O-GlcNAc modification typically has substoichiometric occupancy. Here, we describe a method for the production of recombinant O-GlcNAc modified tau and, using this tau, we have mapped sites of O-GlcNAc on tau at Thr-123 and Ser-400 using mass spectrometry. We have also detected the presence of a third O-GlcNAc site on either Ser-409, Ser-412, or Ser-413. Using this information we have raised a rabbit polyclonal IgG antibody (3925) that detects tau O-GlcNAc modified at Ser-400. Further, using this antibody we have detected the Ser-400 tau O-GlcNAc modification in rat brain, which confirms the validity of this in vitro mapping approach. The identification of these O-GlcNAc sites on tau and this antibody will enable both in vivo and in vitro experiments designed to understand the possible functional roles of O-GlcNAc on tau.
PDF
