Discovery of Potent Allosteric DRP1 Inhibitors by Disrupting Protein-Protein Interaction with MiD49.

Mitochondrial dysfunction has been attributed to many disease indications, including metabolic, cardiovascular, neoplastic, and neurodegenerative diseases. Dynamin related protein 1 (DRP1) is crucial in regulating mitochondrial fission and maintaining mitochondrial homeostasis. MiD49 is a dynamic peripheral protein receptor on the surface of the mitochondrial membrane that recruits DRP1 protein to induce mitochondrial binary fission. By targeting the protein-protein interaction of DRP1/MiD49, we have discovered a novel and potent allosteric DRP1 inhibitor that inhibits mitochondria fragmentation in vitro. X-ray cocrystal structure revealed that it locked the closed DRP1 conformation by induced dimerization.

High-Contrast Facile Imaging with Target-Directing Fluorescent Molecular Rotors, the N3-Modified Thioflavin T Derivatives.

Immunostaining methods have generally been used not only for biological studies but also for clinical diagnoses for decades. However, recently, for these methods, improved rapidity and simplicity have been required for relevant techniques in laboratory research and medical applications. To this end, we present here a novel approach for designing fluorescent molecular rotor probes, i.e., N3-modified thioflavin T (ThT) derivatives, which enabled specific detection of interesting protein targets with sensitive fluorescence turn-on. As an example, we synthesized N3-( d-desthiobiotinyl-PEGylated) thioflavin T (ThT-PD) and N3-(cortisolyl-PEGylated) thioflavin T (ThT-PC) that carried d-desthiobioin and cortisol, respectively, via PEG linkers. Compared to those of the probes without the targets, ThT-PD and ThT-PC exhibited around 27- and 8-fold fluorescence intensities, respectively, with the target streptavidin and anti-cortisol antibody in excess of saturation, enabling quantitative detection of the targets. Furthermore, we successfully demonstrated the feasibility of ligand-tethering N3-ThT derivatives by the rapid specific staining of glucocorticoid receptors in cells, which was completed within only several minutes using ThT-PC after cell fixation, whereas it took ∼24 h for immunostaining to capture the corresponding fluorescence images.