Chemoproteomic identification of a DPP4 homolog in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron.

Serine hydrolases have important roles in signaling and human metabolism, yet little is known about their functions in gut commensal bacteria. Using bioinformatics and chemoproteomics, we identify serine hydrolases in the gut commensal Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron that are specific to the Bacteroidetes phylum. Two are predicted homologs of the human dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (hDPP4), a key enzyme that regulates insulin signaling. Our functional studies reveal that BT4193 is a true homolog of hDPP4 that can be inhibited by FDA-approved type 2 diabetes medications targeting hDPP4, while the other is a misannotated proline-specific triaminopeptidase. We demonstrate that BT4193 is important for envelope integrity and that loss of BT4193 reduces B. thetaiotaomicron fitness during in vitro growth within a diverse community. However, neither function is dependent on BT4193 proteolytic activity, suggesting a scaffolding or signaling function for this bacterial protease.

Chemoproteomics-Enabled Identification of 4-Oxo-ß-Lactams as Inhibitors of Dipeptidyl Peptidases 8 and 9.

Dipeptidyl peptidases 8 and 9 (DPP8/9) have gathered interest as drug targets due to their important roles in biological processes like immunity and tumorigenesis. Elucidation of their distinct individual functions remains an ongoing task and could benefit from the availability of novel, chemically diverse and selective chemical tools. Here, we report the activity-based protein profiling (ABPP)-mediated discovery of 4-oxo-ß-lactams as potent, non-substrate-like nanomolar DPP8/9 inhibitors. X-ray crystallographic structures revealed different ligand binding modes for DPP8 and DPP9, including an unprecedented targeting of an extended S2' (eS2') subsite in DPP8. Biological assays confirmed inhibition at both target and cellular levels. Altogether, our integrated chemical proteomics and structure-guided small molecule design approach led to novel DPP8/9 inhibitors with alternative molecular inhibition mechanisms, delivering the highest selectivity index reported to date.

ABHD17 regulation of plasma membrane palmitoylation and N-Ras-dependent cancer growth.

Multiple Ras proteins, including N-Ras, depend on a palmitoylation/depalmitoylation cycle to regulate their subcellular trafficking and oncogenicity. General lipase inhibitors such as Palmostatin M (Palm M) block N-Ras depalmitoylation, but lack specificity and target several enzymes displaying depalmitoylase activity. Here, we describe ABD957, a potent and selective covalent inhibitor of the ABHD17 family of depalmitoylases, and show that this compound impairs N-Ras depalmitoylation in human acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells. ABD957 produced partial effects on N-Ras palmitoylation compared with Palm M, but was much more selective across the proteome, reflecting a plasma membrane-delineated action on dynamically palmitoylated proteins. Finally, ABD957 impaired N-Ras signaling and the growth of NRAS-mutant AML cells in a manner that synergizes with MAP kinase kinase (MEK) inhibition. Our findings uncover a surprisingly restricted role for ABHD17 enzymes as regulators of the N-Ras palmitoylation cycle and suggest that ABHD17 inhibitors may have value as targeted therapies for NRAS-mutant cancers.

An Activity-Guided Map of Electrophile-Cysteine Interactions in Primary Human T Cells.

Electrophilic compounds originating from nature or chemical synthesis have profound effects on immune cells. These compounds are thought to act by cysteine modification to alter the functions of immune-relevant proteins; however, our understanding of electrophile-sensitive cysteines in the human immune proteome remains limited. Here, we present a global map of cysteines in primary human T cells that are susceptible to covalent modification by electrophilic small molecules. More than 3,000 covalently liganded cysteines were found on functionally and structurally diverse proteins, including many that play fundamental roles in immunology. We further show that electrophilic compounds can impair T cell activation by distinct mechanisms involving the direct functional perturbation and/or degradation of proteins. Our findings reveal a rich content of ligandable cysteines in human T cells and point to electrophilic small molecules as a fertile source for chemical probes and ultimately therapeutics that modulate immunological processes and their associated disorders.

3-Oxo-ß-sultam as a Sulfonylating Chemotype for Inhibition of Serine Hydrolases and Activity-Based Protein Profiling.

3-Oxo-ß-sultams are four-membered ring ambident electrophiles that can react with nucleophiles either at the carbonyl carbon or at the sulfonyl sulfur atoms, and that have been reported to inhibit serine hydrolases via acylation of the active-site serine residue. We have developed a panel of 3-oxo-ß-sultam inhibitors and show, through crystallographic data, that they are regioselective sulfonylating electrophiles, covalently binding to the catalytic serine of human and porcine elastases through the sulfur atom. Application of 3-oxo-ß-sultam-derived activity-based probes in a human proteome revealed their potential to label disease-related serine hydrolases and proteasome subunits. Activity-based protein profiling applications of 3-oxo-ß-sultams should open up new opportunities to investigate these classes of enzymes in complex proteomes and expand the toolbox of available sulfur-based covalent protein modifiers in chemical biology.

Metabolically Labile Fumarate Esters Impart Kinetic Selectivity to Irreversible Inhibitors.

Electrophilic small molecules are an important class of chemical probes and drugs that produce biological effects by irreversibly modifying proteins. Examples of electrophilic drugs include covalent kinase inhibitors that are used to treat cancer and the multiple sclerosis drug dimethyl fumarate. Optimized covalent drugs typically inactivate their protein targets rapidly in cells, but ensuing time-dependent, off-target protein modification can erode selectivity and diminish the utility of reactive small molecules as chemical probes and therapeutics. Here, we describe an approach to confer kinetic selectivity to electrophilic drugs. We show that an analogue of the covalent Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor Ibrutinib bearing a fumarate ester electrophile is vulnerable to enzymatic metabolism on a time-scale that preserves rapid and sustained BTK inhibition, while thwarting more slowly accumulating off-target reactivity in cell and animal models. These findings demonstrate that metabolically labile electrophilic groups can endow covalent drugs with kinetic selectivity to enable perturbation of proteins and biochemical pathways with greater precision.

Chemical Proteomic Profiling of Human Methyltransferases.

Methylation is a fundamental mechanism used in Nature to modify the structure and function of biomolecules, including proteins, DNA, RNA, and metabolites. Methyl groups are predominantly installed into biomolecules by a large and diverse class of S-adenosyl methionine (SAM)-dependent methyltransferases (MTs), of which there are ∼200 known or putative members in the human proteome. Deregulated MT activity contributes to numerous diseases, including cancer, and several MT inhibitors are in clinical development. Nonetheless, a large fraction of the human MT family remains poorly characterized, underscoring the need for new technologies to characterize MTs and their inhibitors in native biological systems. Here, we describe a suite of S-adenosyl homocysteine (SAH) photoreactive probes and their application in chemical proteomic experiments to profile and enrich a large number of MTs (>50) from human cancer cell lysates with remarkable specificity over other classes of proteins. We further demonstrate that the SAH probes can enrich MT-associated proteins and be used to screen for and assess the selectivity of MT inhibitors, leading to the discovery of a covalent inhibitor of nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT), an enzyme implicated in cancer and metabolic disorders. The chemical proteomics probes and methods for their utilization reported herein should prove of value for the functional characterization of MTs, MT complexes, and MT inhibitors in mammalian biology and disease.

An LXR-Cholesterol Axis Creates a Metabolic Co-Dependency for Brain Cancers.

Small-molecule inhibitors targeting growth factor receptors have failed to show efficacy for brain cancers, potentially due to their inability to achieve sufficient drug levels in the CNS. Targeting non-oncogene tumor co-dependencies provides an alternative approach, particularly if drugs with high brain penetration can be identified. Here we demonstrate that the highly lethal brain cancer glioblastoma (GBM) is remarkably dependent on cholesterol for survival, rendering these tumors sensitive to Liver X receptor (LXR) agonist-dependent cell death. We show that LXR-623, a clinically viable, highly brain-penetrant LXRα-partial/LXRß-full agonist selectively kills GBM cells in an LXRß- and cholesterol-dependent fashion, causing tumor regression and prolonged survival in mouse models. Thus, a metabolic co-dependency provides a pharmacological means to kill growth factor-activated cancers in the CNS.

Proteome-wide covalent ligand discovery in native biological systems.

Small molecules are powerful tools for investigating protein function and can serve as leads for new therapeutics. Most human proteins, however, lack small-molecule ligands, and entire protein classes are considered 'undruggable'. Fragment-based ligand discovery can identify small-molecule probes for proteins that have proven difficult to target using high-throughput screening of complex compound libraries. Although reversibly binding ligands are commonly pursued, covalent fragments provide an alternative route to small-molecule probes, including those that can access regions of proteins that are difficult to target through binding affinity alone. Here we report a quantitative analysis of cysteine-reactive small-molecule fragments screened against thousands of proteins in human proteomes and cells. Covalent ligands were identified for >700 cysteines found in both druggable proteins and proteins deficient in chemical probes, including transcription factors, adaptor/scaffolding proteins, and uncharacterized proteins. Among the atypical ligand-protein interactions discovered were compounds that react preferentially with pro- (inactive) caspases. We used these ligands to distinguish extrinsic apoptosis pathways in human cell lines versus primary human T cells, showing that the former is largely mediated by caspase-8 while the latter depends on both caspase-8 and -10. Fragment-based covalent ligand discovery provides a greatly expanded portrait of the ligandable proteome and furnishes compounds that can illuminate protein functions in native biological systems.

A Global Map of Lipid-Binding Proteins and Their Ligandability in Cells.

Lipids play central roles in physiology and disease, where their structural, metabolic, and signaling functions often arise from interactions with proteins. Here, we describe a set of lipid-based chemical proteomic probes and their global interaction map in mammalian cells. These interactions involve hundreds of proteins from diverse functional classes and frequently occur at sites of drug action. We determine the target profiles for several drugs across the lipid-interaction proteome, revealing that its ligandable content extends far beyond traditionally defined categories of druggable proteins. In further support of this finding, we describe a selective ligand for the lipid-binding protein nucleobindin-1 (NUCB1) and show that this compound perturbs the hydrolytic and oxidative metabolism of endocannabinoids in cells. The described chemical proteomic platform thus provides an integrated path to both discover and pharmacologically characterize a wide range of proteins that participate in lipid pathways in cells.