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 road map to evaluate the proteome-wide selectivity of covalent kinase inhibitors.

Kinases are principal components of signal transduction pathways and the focus of intense basic and drug discovery research. Irreversible inhibitors that covalently modify non-catalytic cysteines in kinase active sites have emerged as valuable probes and approved drugs. Many protein classes, however, have functional cysteines, and therefore understanding the proteome-wide selectivity of covalent kinase inhibitors is imperative. Here, we accomplish this objective using activity-based protein profiling coupled with quantitative MS to globally map the targets, both specific and nonspecific, of covalent kinase inhibitors in human cells. Many of the specific off-targets represent nonkinase proteins that, notably, have conserved active site cysteines. We define windows of selectivity for covalent kinase inhibitors and show that, when these windows are exceeded, rampant proteome-wide reactivity and kinase target-independent cell death conjointly occur. Our findings, taken together, provide an experimental road map to illuminate opportunities and surmount challenges for the development of covalent kinase inhibitors.

Selective penicillin-binding protein imaging probes reveal substructure in bacterial cell division.

The peptidoglycan cell wall is a common target for antibiotic therapy, but its structure and assembly are only partially understood. Peptidoglycan synthesis requires a suite of penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs), the individual roles of which are difficult to determine because each enzyme is often dispensable for growth perhaps due to functional redundancy. To address this challenge, we sought to generate tools that would enable selective examination of a subset of PBPs. We designed and synthesized fluorescent and biotin derivatives of the ß-lactam-containing antibiotic cephalosporin C. These probes facilitated specific in vivo labeling of active PBPs in both Bacillus subtilis PY79 and an unencapsulated derivative of D39 Streptococcus pneumoniae. Microscopy and gel-based analysis indicated that the cephalosporin C-based probes are more selective than BOCILLIN-FL, a commercially available penicillin V analogue, which labels all PBPs. Dual labeling of live cells performed by saturation of cephalosporin C-susceptible PBPs followed by tagging of the remaining PBP population with BOCILLIN-FL demonstrated that the two sets of PBPs are not co-localized. This suggests that even PBPs that are located at a particular site (e.g., septum) are not all intermixed, but rather that PBP subpopulations are discretely localized. Accordingly, the Ceph C probes represent new tools to explore a subset of PBPs and have the potential to facilitate a deeper understand of the roles of this critical class of proteins.