Development of Novel Bioluminescent Biosensors Monitoring the Conformation and Activity of the Merlin Tumour Suppressor.

Solid tumours can universally evade contact inhibition of proliferation (CIP), a mechanism halting cell proliferation when cell-cell contact occurs. Merlin, an ERM-like protein, crucially regulates CIP and is frequently deactivated in various cancers, indicating its significance as a tumour suppressor in cancer biology. Despite extensive investigations into Merlin's role in cancer, its lack of intrinsic catalytic activity and frequent conformation changes have made it notoriously challenging to study. To address this challenge, we harnessed innovative luciferase technologies to create and validate a NanoBiT split-luciferase biosensor system in which Merlin is cloned between two split components (LgBiT and SmBiT) of NanoLuc luciferase. This system enables precise quantification of Merlin's conformation and activity both in vitro and within living cells. This biosensor significantly enhances the study of Merlin's molecular functions, serving as a potent tool for exploring its contributions to CIP and tumorigenesis.

Monitoring Hippo Signaling Pathway Activity Using a Luciferase-Based Large Tumor Suppressor (LATS) Biosensor.

Kinase cascades are a fundamental feature of cellular signaling and play a vital role in disease progression. Thus, tools to monitor the activity of kinase cascades are of high importance. Our group has developed a split-luciferase biosensor system to monitor the activity of the Hippo pathway, a kinase cascade that regulates a wide variety of cellular processes. We have applied this biosensor for high-throughput screening to discover novel upstream kinase regulators of Hippo signaling. In this chapter, we describe our approach to designing, validating, and using the biosensor for screening procedures, which provides an example for the reader should they wish to design a similar biosensor system for their own purposes.

Using Biosensors to Study Protein-Protein Interaction in the Hippo Pathway.

The Hippo signaling network is dependent on protein-protein interactions (PPIs) as a mechanism of signal transduction to regulate organ size, cellular proliferation and differentiation, tumorigenesis, and other cellular processes. Current efforts aim to resolve the complex regulation of upstream Hippo components or focus on identifying targeted drugs for use in cancer therapy. Despite extensive characterization of the Hippo pathway interactome by affinity purification mass spectrometry (AP-MS) and other methodologies, previous research methods have not been sufficient to achieve these aims. In this review, we describe several recent studies that make use of luciferase-based biosensors as a new approach to study the Hippo Pathway. These biosensors serve as powerful tools with which to study PPIs both in vitro using purified biosensor proteins, and in real time in live cells. Notably, luciferase biosensors have excellent sensitivity and have been used to screen for upstream kinase regulators of the Hippo pathway. Furthermore, the high sensitivity and stability of these biosensors enables their application in high throughput screening for Hippo-targeted chemotherapeutics. Finally, we describe the strengths and weaknesses of this method relative to AP-MS and discuss potential future directions for using biosensors to study Hippo signaling.

Identification of Celastrol as a Novel YAP-TEAD Inhibitor for Cancer Therapy by High Throughput Screening with Ultrasensitive YAP/TAZ-TEAD Biosensors.

The Hippo pathway has emerged as a key signaling pathway that regulates a broad range of biological functions, and dysregulation of the Hippo pathway is a feature of a variety of cancers. Given this, some have suggested that disrupting the interaction of the Hippo core component YAP and its paralog TAZ with transcriptional factor TEAD may be an effective strategy for cancer therapy. However, there are currently no clinically available drugs targeting the YAP/TAZ-TEAD interaction for cancer treatment. To facilitate screens for small molecule compounds that disrupt the YAP-TEAD interaction, we have developed the first ultra-bright NanoLuc biosensor to quantify YAP/TAZ-TEAD protein-protein interaction (PPI) both in living cells and also in vitro using biosensor fusion proteins purified from bacteria. Using this biosensor, we have performed an in vitro high throughput screen (HTS) of small molecule compounds and have identified and validated the drug Celastrol as a novel inhibitor of YAP/TAZ-TEAD interaction. We have also demonstrated that Celastrol can inhibit cancer cell proliferation, transformation, and cell migration. In this study, we describe a new inhibitor of the YAP/TAZ-TEAD interaction warranting further investigation and offer a novel biosensor tool for the discovery of other new Hippo-targeting drugs in future work.