RESUMEN
Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is a key regulator of inflammatory responses and has been implicated in many pathological conditions. We used structure-based design to engineer variant TNF proteins that rapidly form heterotrimers with native TNF to give complexes that neither bind to nor stimulate signaling through TNF receptors. Thus, TNF is inactivated by sequestration. Dominant-negative TNFs represent a possible approach to anti-inflammatory biotherapeutics, and experiments in animal models show that the strategy can attenuate TNF-mediated pathology. Similar rational design could be used to engineer inhibitors of additional TNF superfamily cytokines as well as other multimeric ligands.
Asunto(s)
Ingeniería de Proteínas , Transducción de Señal , Factor de Necrosis Tumoral alfa/antagonistas & inhibidores , Factor de Necrosis Tumoral alfa/farmacología , Sustitución de Aminoácidos , Animales , Antígenos CD/metabolismo , Apoptosis , Artritis Experimental/tratamiento farmacológico , Biopolímeros , Caspasas/metabolismo , Línea Celular , Núcleo Celular/metabolismo , Simulación por Computador , Progresión de la Enfermedad , Ensayo de Inmunoadsorción Enzimática , Femenino , Galactosamina/farmacología , Células HeLa , Humanos , Hígado/efectos de los fármacos , FN-kappa B/metabolismo , Mutación Puntual , Ratas , Receptores del Factor de Necrosis Tumoral/metabolismo , Receptores Tipo I de Factores de Necrosis Tumoral , Receptores Tipo II del Factor de Necrosis Tumoral , Factor de Transcripción ReIA , Transcripción Genética , Factor de Necrosis Tumoral alfa/genética , Factor de Necrosis Tumoral alfa/metabolismoRESUMEN
Waglerin-1 (Wtx-1) is a 22-amino acid peptide that competitively antagonizes muscle nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). Previous work demonstrated that Wtx-1 binds to mouse nAChRs with higher affinity than receptors from rats or humans, and distinguished residues in alpha and epsilon subunits that govern the species selectivity. These studies also showed that Wtx-1 binds selectively to the alpha-epsilon binding site with significantly higher affinity than to the alpha-delta binding site. Here we identify residues at equivalent positions in the epsilon, gamma, and delta subunits that govern Wtx-1 selectivity for one of the two binding sites on the nAChR pentamer. Using a series of chimeric and point mutant subunits, we show that residues Gly-57, Asp-59, Tyr-111, Tyr-115, and Asp-173 of the epsilon subunit account predominantly for the 3700-fold higher affinity of the alpha-epsilon site relative to that of the alpha-gamma site. Similarly, we find that residues Lys-34, Gly-57, Asp-59, and Asp-173 account predominantly for the high affinity of the alpha-epsilon site relative to that of the alpha-delta site. Analysis of combinations of point mutations reveals that Asp-173 in the epsilon subunit is required together with the remaining determinants in the epsilon subunit to achieve Wtx-1 selectivity. In particular, Lys-34 interacts with Asp-173 to confer high affinity, resulting in a DeltaDeltaG(INT) of -2.3 kcal/mol in the epsilon subunit and a DeltaDeltaG(INT) of -1.3 kcal/mol in the delta subunit. Asp-173 is part of a nonhomologous insertion not found in the acetylcholine binding protein structure. The key role of this insertion in Wtx-1 selectivity indicates that it is proximal to the ligand binding site. We use the binding and interaction energies for Wtx-1 to generate structural models of the alpha-epsilon, alpha-gamma, and alpha-delta binding sites containing the nonhomologous insertion.
