Bacterial J-Domains with C-Terminal Tags Contact the Substrate Binding Domain of DnaK and Sequester Chaperone Activity.

Functional interactions between the molecular chaperone DnaK and cofactor J-proteins (DnaJs), as well as their homologs, are crucial to the maintenance of proteostasis across cell types. In the bacterial pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis, DnaK-DnaJ interactions are essential for cell growth and represent potential targets for antibiotic or adjuvant development. While the N-terminal J-domains of J-proteins are known to form important contacts with DnaK, C-terminal domains have varied roles. Here, we have studied the effect of adding C-terminal tags to N-terminal J-domain truncations of mycobacterial DnaJ1 and DnaJ2 to promote additional interactions with DnaK. We found that His6 tags uniquely promote binding to additional sites in the substrate binding domain at the C-terminus of DnaK. Other C-terminal tags attached to J-domains, even peptides known to interact with DnaK, do not produce the same effects. Expression of C-terminally modified DnaJ1 or DnaJ2 J-domains in mycobacterial cells suppresses chaperone activity following proteotoxic stress, which is exaggerated in the presence of a small-molecule DnaK inhibitor. Hence, this work uncovers genetically encodable J-protein variants that may be used to study chaperone-cofactor interactions in other organisms.

Preference of Bacterial Rhamnosyltransferases for 6-Deoxysugars Reveals a Strategy To Deplete O-Antigens.

Bacteria synthesize hundreds of bacteria-specific or "rare" sugars that are absent in mammalian cells and enriched in 6-deoxy monosaccharides such as l-rhamnose (l-Rha). Across bacteria, l-Rha is incorporated into glycans by rhamnosyltransferases (RTs) that couple nucleotide sugar substrates (donors) to target biomolecules (acceptors). Since l-Rha is required for the biosynthesis of bacterial glycans involved in survival or host infection, RTs represent potential antibiotic or antivirulence targets. However, purified RTs and their unique bacterial sugar substrates have been difficult to obtain. Here, we use synthetic nucleotide rare sugar and glycolipid analogs to examine substrate recognition by three RTs that produce cell envelope components in diverse species, including a known pathogen. We find that bacterial RTs prefer pyrimidine nucleotide-linked 6-deoxysugars, not those containing a C6-hydroxyl, as donors. While glycolipid acceptors must contain a lipid, isoprenoid chain length, and stereochemistry can vary. Based on these observations, we demonstrate that a 6-deoxysugar transition state analog inhibits an RT in vitro and reduces levels of RT-dependent O-antigen polysaccharides in Gram-negative cells. As O-antigens are virulence factors, bacteria-specific sugar transferase inhibition represents a novel strategy to prevent bacterial infections.

Peptide-based molecules for the disruption of bacterial Hsp70 chaperones.

DnaK is a chaperone that aids in nascent protein folding and the maintenance of proteome stability across bacteria. Due to the importance of DnaK in cellular proteostasis, there have been efforts to generate molecules that modulate its function. In nature, both protein substrates and antimicrobial peptides interact with DnaK. However, many of these ligands interact with other cellular machinery as well. Recent work has sought to modify these peptide scaffolds to create DnaK-selective and species-specific probes. Others have reported protein domain mimics of interaction partners to disrupt cellular DnaK function and high-throughput screening approaches to discover clinically-relevant peptidomimetics that inhibit DnaK. The described work provides a foundation for the design of new assays and molecules to regulate DnaK activity.

Counteracting antibiotic resistance enzymes and efflux pumps.

Bacterial pathogens are constantly evolving new resistance mechanisms against antibiotics; hence, strategies to potentiate existing antibiotics or combat mechanisms of resistance using adjuvants are always in demand. Recently, inhibitors have been identified that counteract enzymatic modification of the drugs isoniazid and rifampin, which have implications in the study of multi-drug-resistant mycobacteria. A wealth of structural studies on efflux pumps from diverse bacteria has also fueled the design of new small-molecule and peptide-based agents to prevent the active transport of antibiotics. We envision that these findings will inspire microbiologists to apply existing adjuvants to clinically relevant resistant strains, or to use described platforms to discover novel antibiotic adjuvant scaffolds.

Feedback Inhibition of Bacterial Nucleotidyltransferases by Rare Nucleotide l-Sugars Restricts Substrate Promiscuity.

Bacterial glycomes are rich in prokaryote-specific or "rare" sugars that are absent in mammals. Like common sugars found across organisms, rare sugars are typically activated as nucleoside diphosphate sugars (NDP-sugars) by nucleotidyltransferases. In bacteria, the nucleotidyltransferase RmlA initiates the production of several rare NDP-sugars, which in turn regulate downstream glycan assembly through feedback inhibition of RmlA via binding to an allosteric site. In vitro, RmlA activates a range of common sugar-1-phosphates to produce NDP-sugars for biochemical and synthetic applications. However, our ability to probe bacterial glycan biosynthesis is hindered by limited chemoenzymatic access to rare NDP-sugars. We postulate that natural feedback mechanisms impact nucleotidyltransferase utility. Here, we use synthetic rare NDP-sugars to identify structural features required for regulation of RmlA from diverse bacterial species. We find that mutation of RmlA to eliminate allosteric binding of an abundant rare NDP-sugar facilitates the activation of noncanonical rare sugar-1-phosphate substrates, as products no longer affect turnover. In addition to promoting an understanding of nucleotidyltransferase regulation by metabolites, this work provides new routes to access rare sugar substrates for the study of important bacteria-specific glycan pathways.

Expanding the Substrate Scope of a Bacterial Nucleotidyltransferase via Allosteric Mutations.

Bacterial glycoconjugates, such as cell surface polysaccharides and glycoproteins, play important roles in cellular interactions and survival. Enzymes called nucleotidyltransferases use sugar-1-phosphates and nucleoside triphosphates (NTPs) to produce nucleoside diphosphate sugars (NDP-sugars), which serve as building blocks for most glycoconjugates. Research spanning several decades has shown that some bacterial nucleotidyltransferases have broad substrate tolerance and can be exploited to produce a variety of NDP-sugars in vitro. While these enzymes are known to be allosterically regulated by NDP-sugars and their fragments, much work has focused on the effect of active site mutations alone. Here, we show that rational mutations in the allosteric site of the nucleotidyltransferase RmlA lead to expanded substrate tolerance and improvements in catalytic activity that can be explained by subtle changes in quaternary structure and interactions with ligands. These observations will help inform future studies on the directed biosynthesis of diverse bacterial NDP-sugars and downstream glycoconjugates.

Complementary protocols to evaluate inhibitors against the DnaK chaperone network.

Bacterial DnaK belongs to the Hsp70 chaperone family, which plays a critical role in maintaining proteostasis by catalyzing protein folding, and is a proposed antibacterial target in the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Here, we describe an experimental toolbox for evaluating inhibitors against the mycobacterial DnaK chaperone network: a coupled-enzymatic assay to monitor ATPase activity, a proteolytic cleavage assay to study DnaK conformational changes upon ligand addition, as well as a protein renaturation assay to assess chaperone function. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Hosfelt et al. (2021).

Protein Cofactor Mimics Disrupt Essential Chaperone Function in Stressed Mycobacteria.

Bacterial DnaK is an ATP-dependent molecular chaperone important for maintaining cellular proteostasis in concert with cofactor proteins. The cofactor DnaJ delivers non-native client proteins to DnaK and activates its ATPase activity, which is required for protein folding. In the bacterial pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis, DnaK is assisted by two DnaJs, DnaJ1 and DnaJ2. Functional protein-protein interactions (PPIs) between DnaK and at least one DnaJ are essential for survival of mycobacteria; hence, these PPIs represent untapped antibacterial targets. Here, we synthesize peptide-based mimetics of DnaJ1 and DnaJ2 N-terminal domains as rational inhibitors of DnaK-cofactor interactions. We find that covalently stabilized DnaJ mimetics are capable of disrupting DnaK-cofactor activity in vitro and prevent mycobacterial recovery from proteotoxic stress in vivo, leading to cell death. Since chaperones and cofactors are highly conserved, we anticipate these results will inform the design of other mimetics to modulate chaperone function across cell types.

An allosteric inhibitor of bacterial Hsp70 chaperone potentiates antibiotics and mitigates resistance.

DnaK is the bacterial homolog of Hsp70, an ATP-dependent chaperone that helps cofactor proteins to catalyze nascent protein folding and salvage misfolded proteins. In the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), DnaK and its cofactors are proposed antimycobacterial targets, yet few small-molecule inhibitors or probes exist for these families of proteins. Here, we describe the repurposing of a drug called telaprevir that is able to allosterically inhibit the ATPase activity of DnaK and to prevent chaperone function by mimicking peptide substrates. In mycobacterial cells, telaprevir disrupts DnaK- and cofactor-mediated cellular proteostasis, resulting in enhanced efficacy of aminoglycoside antibiotics and reduced resistance to the frontline TB drug rifampin. Hence, this work contributes to a small but growing collection of protein chaperone inhibitors, and it demonstrates that these molecules disrupt bacterial mechanisms of survival in the presence of different antibiotic classes.

Chemical Biology Tools for Modulating and Visualizing Gram-Negative Bacterial Surface Polysaccharides.

Bacterial cells present a wide diversity of saccharides that decorate the cell surface and help mediate interactions with the environment. Many Gram-negative cells express O-antigens, which are long sugar polymers that makeup the distal portion of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) that constitutes the surface of the outer membrane. This review highlights chemical biology tools that have been developed in recent years to facilitate the modulation of O-antigen synthesis and composition, as well as related bacterial polysaccharide pathways, and the detection of unique glycan sequences. Advances in the biochemistry and structural biology of O-antigen biosynthetic machinery are also described, which provide guidance for the design of novel chemical and biomolecular probes. Many of the tools noted here have not yet been utilized in biological systems and offer researchers the opportunity to investigate the complex sugar architecture of Gram-negative cells.

Modulation of a Mycobacterial ADP-Ribosyltransferase to Augment Rifamycin Antibiotic Resistance.

The rifamycins are broad-spectrum antibiotics that are primarily utilized to treat infections caused by mycobacteria, including tuberculosis. Interestingly, various species of bacteria are known to contain an enzyme called Arr that catalyzes ADP-ribosylation of rifamycin antibiotics as a mechanism of resistance. Here, we study Arr modulation in relevant Gram-positive and -negative species. We show that a C-terminal truncation of Arr (ArrC), encoded in the genome of Mycobacterium smegmatis, activates Arr-mediated rifamycin modification. Through structural comparisons of mycobacterial Arr and human poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases (PARPs), we identify a known small molecule PARP inhibitor that can act as an adjuvant to sensitize M. smegmatis to the rifamycin antibiotic rifampin via inhibition of Arr, even in the presence of ArrC. Finally, we demonstrate that this rifampin/adjuvant combination treatment is effective at inhibiting growth of the multidrug-resistant (MDR) nontuberculosis pathogen Mycobacterium abscessus, which has become a growing cause of human infections in the clinic.

Nonredundant functions of Mycobacterium tuberculosis chaperones promote survival under stress.

Bacterial chaperones ClpB and DnaK, homologs of the respective eukaryotic heat shock proteins Hsp104 and Hsp70, are essential in the reactivation of toxic protein aggregates that occur during translation or periods of stress. In the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the protective effect of chaperones extends to survival in the presence of host stresses, such as protein-damaging oxidants. However, we lack a full understanding of the interplay of Hsps and other stress response genes in mycobacteria. Here, we employ genome-wide transposon mutagenesis to identify the genes that support clpB function in Mtb. In addition to validating the role of ClpB in Mtb's response to oxidants, we show that HtpG, a homolog of Hsp90, plays a distinct role from ClpB in the proteotoxic stress response. While loss of neither clpB nor htpG is lethal to the cell, loss of both through genetic depletion or small molecule inhibition impairs recovery after exposure to host-like stresses, especially reactive nitrogen species. Moreover, defects in cells lacking clpB can be complemented by overexpression of other chaperones, demonstrating that Mtb's stress response network depends upon finely tuned chaperone expression levels. These results suggest that inhibition of multiple chaperones could work in concert with host immunity to disable Mtb.

Activity-Based Protein Profiling Reveals That Cephalosporins Selectively Active on Non-replicating Mycobacterium tuberculosis Bind Multiple Protein Families and Spare Peptidoglycan Transpeptidases.

As ß-lactams are reconsidered for the treatment of tuberculosis (TB), their targets are assumed to be peptidoglycan transpeptidases, as verified by adduct formation and kinetic inhibition of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) transpeptidases by carbapenems active against replicating Mtb. Here, we investigated the targets of recently described cephalosporins that are selectively active against non-replicating (NR) Mtb. NR-active cephalosporins failed to inhibit recombinant Mtb transpeptidases. Accordingly, we used alkyne analogs of NR-active cephalosporins to pull down potential targets through unbiased activity-based protein profiling and identified over 30 protein binders. None was a transpeptidase. Several of the target candidates are plausibly related to Mtb's survival in an NR state. However, biochemical tests and studies of loss of function mutants did not identify a unique target that accounts for the bactericidal activity of these beta-lactams against NR Mtb. Instead, NR-active cephalosporins appear to kill Mtb by collective action on multiple targets. These results highlight the ability of these ß-lactams to target diverse classes of proteins.

Exploiting Existing Molecular Scaffolds for Long-Term COVID Treatment.

Discovery and development of COVID-19 prophylactics and treatments remains a global imperative. This perspective provides an overview of important molecular pathways involved in the viral life cycle of SARS-CoV-2, the infectious agent of COVID-19. We highlight past and recent findings in essential coronavirus proteins, including RNA polymerase machinery, proteases, and fusion proteins, that offer opportunities for the design of novel inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 infection. By discussing the current inventory of viral inhibitors, we identify molecular scaffolds that may be improved by medicinal chemistry efforts for effective therapeutics to treat current and future coronavirus-caused diseases.

ATP hydrolysis-coupled peptide translocation mechanism of Mycobacterium tuberculosis ClpB.

The protein disaggregase ClpB hexamer is conserved across evolution and has two AAA+-type nucleotide-binding domains, NBD1 and NBD2, in each protomer. In M. tuberculosis (Mtb), ClpB facilitates asymmetric distribution of protein aggregates during cell division to help the pathogen survive and persist within the host, but a mechanistic understanding has been lacking. Here we report cryo-EM structures at 3.8- to 3.9-Šresolution of Mtb ClpB bound to a model substrate, casein, in the presence of the weakly hydrolyzable ATP mimic adenosine 5'-[γ-thio]triphosphate. Mtb ClpB existed in solution in two closed-ring conformations, conformers 1 and 2. In both conformers, the 12 pore-loops on the 12 NTDs of the six protomers (P1-P6) were arranged similarly to a staircase around the bound peptide. Conformer 1 is a low-affinity state in which three of the 12 pore-loops (the protomer P1 NBD1 and NBD2 loops and the protomer P2 NBD1 loop) are not engaged with peptide. Conformer 2 is a high-affinity state because only one pore-loop (the protomer P2 NBD1 loop) is not engaged with the peptide. The resolution of the two conformations, along with their bound substrate peptides and nucleotides, enabled us to propose a nucleotide-driven peptide translocation mechanism of a bacterial ClpB that is largely consistent with several recent unfoldase structures, in particular with the eukaryotic Hsp104. However, whereas Hsp104's two NBDs move in opposing directions during one step of peptide translocation, in Mtb ClpB the two NBDs move only in the direction of translocation.

Targeting the Proteostasis Network for Mycobacterial Drug Discovery.

Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), remains one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases and urgently requires new antibiotics to treat drug-resistant strains and to decrease the duration of therapy. During infection, Mtb encounters numerous stresses associated with host immunity, including hypoxia, reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, mild acidity, nutrient starvation, and metal sequestration and intoxication. The Mtb proteostasis network, composed of chaperones, proteases, and a eukaryotic-like proteasome, provides protection from stresses and chemistries of host immunity by maintaining the integrity of the mycobacterial proteome. In this Review, we explore the proteostasis network as a noncanonical target for antibacterial drug discovery.

Reconstitution of a Mycobacterium tuberculosis proteostasis network highlights essential cofactor interactions with chaperone DnaK.

During host infection, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) encounters several types of stress that impair protein integrity, including reactive oxygen and nitrogen species and chemotherapy. The resulting protein aggregates can be resolved or degraded by molecular machinery conserved from bacteria to eukaryotes. Eukaryotic Hsp104/Hsp70 and their bacterial homologs ClpB/DnaK are ATP-powered chaperones that restore toxic protein aggregates to a native folded state. DnaK is essential in Mycobacterium smegmatis, and ClpB is involved in asymmetrically distributing damaged proteins during cell division as a mechanism of survival in Mtb, commending both proteins as potential drug targets. However, their molecular partners in protein reactivation have not been characterized in mycobacteria. Here, we reconstituted the activities of the Mtb ClpB/DnaK bichaperone system with the cofactors DnaJ1, DnaJ2, and GrpE and the small heat shock protein Hsp20. We found that DnaJ1 and DnaJ2 activate the ATPase activity of DnaK differently. A point mutation in the highly conserved HPD motif of the DnaJ proteins abrogates their ability to activate DnaK, although the DnaJ2 mutant still binds to DnaK. The purified Mtb ClpB/DnaK system reactivated a heat-denatured model substrate, but the DnaJ HPD mutants inhibited the reaction. Finally, either DnaJ1 or DnaJ2 is required for mycobacterial viability, as is the DnaK-activating activity of a DnaJ protein. These studies lay the groundwork for strategies to target essential chaperone-protein interactions in Mtb, the leading cause of death from a bacterial infection.

Cofactor bypass variants reveal a conformational control mechanism governing cell wall polymerase activity.

To fortify their cytoplasmic membrane and protect it from osmotic rupture, most bacteria surround themselves with a peptidoglycan (PG) exoskeleton synthesized by the penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs). As their name implies, these proteins are the targets of penicillin and related antibiotics. We and others have shown that the PG synthases PBP1b and PBP1a of Escherichia coli require the outer membrane lipoproteins LpoA and LpoB, respectively, for their in vivo function. Although it has been demonstrated that LpoB activates the PG polymerization activity of PBP1b in vitro, the mechanism of activation and its physiological relevance have remained unclear. We therefore selected for variants of PBP1b (PBP1b*) that bypass the LpoB requirement for in vivo function, reasoning that they would shed light on LpoB function and its activation mechanism. Several of these PBP1b variants were isolated and displayed elevated polymerization activity in vitro, indicating that the activation of glycan polymer growth is indeed one of the relevant functions of LpoB in vivo. Moreover, the location of amino acid substitutions causing the bypass phenotype on the PBP1b structure support a model in which polymerization activation proceeds via the induction of a conformational change in PBP1b initiated by LpoB binding to its UB2H domain, followed by its transmission to the glycosyl transferase active site. Finally, phenotypic analysis of strains carrying a PBP1b* variant revealed that the PBP1b-LpoB complex is most likely not providing an important physical link between the inner and outer membranes at the division site, as has been previously proposed.

Reconstitution of peptidoglycan cross-linking leads to improved fluorescent probes of cell wall synthesis.

The peptidoglycan precursor, Lipid II, produced in the model Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis differs from Lipid II found in Gram-negative bacteria such as Escherichia coli by a single amidation on the peptide side chain. How this difference affects the cross-linking activity of penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) that assemble peptidoglycan in cells has not been investigated because B. subtilis Lipid II was not previously available. Here we report the synthesis of B. subtilis Lipid II and its use by purified B. subtilis PBP1 and E. coli PBP1A. While enzymes from both organisms assembled B. subtilis Lipid II into glycan strands, only the B. subtilis enzyme cross-linked the strands. Furthermore, B. subtilis PBP1 catalyzed the exchange of both D-amino acids and D-amino carboxamides into nascent peptidoglycan, but the E. coli enzyme only exchanged D-amino acids. We exploited these observations to design a fluorescent D-amino carboxamide probe to label B. subtilis PG in vivo and found that this probe labels the cell wall dramatically better than existing reagents.

Lipoprotein activators stimulate Escherichia coli penicillin-binding proteins by different mechanisms.

In Escherichia coli , the bifunctional penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs), PBP1A and PBP1B, play critical roles in the final stage of peptidoglycan (PG) biosynthesis. These synthetic enzymes each possess a PG glycosyltransferase (PGT) domain and a transpeptidase (TP) domain. Recent genetic experiments have shown that PBP1A and PBP1B each require an outer membrane lipoprotein, LpoA and LpoB, respectively, to function properly in vivo. Here, we use complementary assays to show that LpoA and LpoB each increase the PGT and TP activities of their cognate PBPs, albeit by different mechanisms. LpoA directly increases the rate of the PBP1A TP reaction, which also results in enhanced PGT activity; in contrast, LpoB directly affects PGT domain activity, resulting in enhanced TP activity. These studies demonstrate bidirectional coupling of PGT and TP domain function. Additionally, the transpeptidation assay described here can be applied to study other activators or inhibitors of the TP domain of PBPs, which are validated drug targets.