Site-Specific Antibody Prodrugs via S-Arylation: a Bioconjugation Approach Toward Masked Tyrosine Analogues.

The utility of antibody therapeutics is hampered by potential cross-reactivity with healthy tissue. Over the past decade, significant advances have been made in the design of activatable antibodies, which increase, or create altogether, the therapeutic window of a parent antibody. Of these, antibody prodrugs (pro-antibodies) are masked antibodies that have advanced the most for therapeutic use. They are designed to reveal the active, parent antibody only when encountering proteases upregulated in the microenvironment of the targeted disease tissue, thereby minimizing off-target activity. However, current pro-antibody designs are relegated to fusion proteins that append masking groups restricted to the use of only canonical amino acids, offering excellent control of the site of introduction, but with no authority over where the masking group is installed other than the N-terminus of the antibody. Here, we present a palladium-based bioconjugation approach for the site-specific introduction of a masked tyrosine mimic in the complementary determining region of the FDA approved antibody therapeutic ipilimumab used as a model system. The approach enables the introduction of a protease cleavable group tethered to noncanonical polymers (polyethylene glycol (PEG)) resulting in 47-fold weaker binding to cells expressing CTLA-4, the target antigen of ipilimumab. Upon exposure to tumor-associated proteases, the masking group is cleaved, unveiling a tyrosine-mimic (dubbed hydroxyphenyl cysteine (HPC)) that restores (>90% restoration) binding affinity to its target antigen.

Electrophile Scanning Reveals Reactivity Hotspots for the Design of Covalent Peptide Binders.

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are intriguing targets in drug discovery and development. Peptides are well suited to target PPIs, which typically present with large surface areas lacking distinct features and deep binding pockets. To improve binding interactions with these topologies and advance the development of PPI-focused therapeutics, potential ligands can be equipped with electrophilic groups to enable binding through covalent mechanisms of action. We report a strategy termed electrophile scanning to identify reactivity hotspots in a known peptide ligand and demonstrate its application in a model PPI. Cysteine mutants of a known ligand are used to install protein-reactive modifiers via a palladium oxidative addition complex (Pd-OAC). Reactivity hotspots are revealed by cross-linking reactions with the target protein under physiological conditions. In a model PPI with the 9-mer peptide antigen VL9 and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I protein HLA-E, we identify two reactivity hotspots that afford up to 87% conversion to the protein-peptide conjugate within 4 h. The reactions are specific to the target protein in vitro and dependent on the peptide sequence. Moreover, the cross-linked peptide successfully inhibits molecular recognition of HLA-E by CD94-NKG2A possibly due to structural changes enacted at the PPI interface. The results illustrate the potential application of electrophile scanning as a tool for rapid discovery and development of covalent peptide binders.

Discovery of reactive peptide inhibitors of human papillomavirus oncoprotein E6.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infections account for nearly all cervical cancer cases, which is the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide. High-risk variants, including HPV16, drive tumorigenesis in part by promoting the degradation of the tumor suppressor p53. This degradation is mediated by the HPV early protein 6 (E6), which recruits the E3 ubiquitin ligase E6AP and redirects its activity towards ubiquitinating p53. Targeting the protein interaction interface between HPV E6 and E6AP is a promising modality to mitigate HPV-mediated degradation of p53. In this study, we designed a covalent peptide inhibitor, termed reactide, that mimics the E6AP LXXLL binding motif by selectively targeting cysteine 58 in HPV16 E6 with quantitative conversion. This reactide provides a starting point in the development of covalent peptidomimetic inhibitors for intervention against HPV-driven cancers.

Iodide-Mediated Synthesis of Spirooxindolo Dihydrofurans from Iodonium Ylides and 3-Alkylidene-2-oxindoles.

An iodide-mediated reaction between cyclic iodonium ylides of 1,3-dicarbonyls and 3-alkylidene-2-oxindoles results in 3H-spiro[furan-2,3'-indolin]-2'-ones. The reaction was tolerant to substitutions on both the alkylidene and ylide substrates and provided access to 19 new, densely functionalized polycyclic spirocycles in typically high yield.

Metal-free intermolecular cyclopropanation between alkenes and iodonium ylides mediated by PhI(OAc)2·Bu4NI.

A rapid, mild and metal-free intermolecular cyclopropanation between iodonium ylides and alkene-containing substrates mediated by PhI(OAc)2·Bu4NI is reported. Iodonium ylides of cyclic and acyclic 1,3-dicarbonyls were reacted with a variety of mono-, di-, tri- and tetra-substituted alkenes of various structural types to give 29 cyclopropanes in up to 97% yield.

Dihaloiodoarenes: α,α-dihalogenation of phenylacetate derivatives.

A hypervalent iodine reagent-based α-carbonyl dihalogenation reaction is reported. Treating diazoacetate derivatives with either iodobenzene dichloride or iodotoluene difluoride results in gem-dichlorination or gem-difluorination products, respectively. The reaction is catalyzed by either Lewis acid or Lewis base activation of the aryl-λ(3)-iodane (ArIX2) species and proceeds rapidly and chemoselectively to the desired gem-difunctionalized products in good to excellent yield.

Accurate analytic potential and Born-Oppenheimer breakdown functions for MgH and MgD from a direct-potential-fit data analysis.

New high-resolution visible Fourier transform emission spectra of the A (2)Π â†’ X (2)Σ(+) and B' (2)Σ(+) → X (2)Σ(+) systems of (24)MgD and of the B' (2)Σ(+) → X (2)Σ(+) systems of (25,26)MgD and (25,26)MgH have been combined with earlier results for (24)MgH in a multi-isotopologue direct-potential-fit analysis to yield improved analytic potential energy and Born-Oppenheimer breakdown functions for the ground X (2)Σ(+) state of MgH. Vibrational levels of the ground state of (24)MgD were observed up to v" = 15, which is bound by only 30.6 ± 0.10 cm(-1). Including deuteride and minor magnesium isotopologue data allowed us also to determine the adiabatic Born-Oppenheimer breakdown effects in this molecule. The fitting procedure used the recently developed Morse/Long-Range (MLR) potential energy function, whose asymptotic behavior incorporates the correct inverse-power form. A spin-splitting radial correction function to take account of the (2)Σ spin-rotation interaction was also determined. Our refined value for the ground-state dissociation energy of the dominant isotopologue ((24)MgH) is D(e) = 11,104.25 ± 0.8 cm (-1), in which the uncertainty also accounts for the model dependence of the fitted D(e) values for a range of physically acceptable fits. We were also able to determine the marked difference in the well depths of (24)MgH and (24)MgD (with the deuteride potential curve being 7.58 ± 0.30 cm(-1) deeper than that of the hydride) as well as smaller well-depth differences for the minor (25,26)Mg isotopologues. This analytic potential function also predicts that the highest bound level of (24)MgD is v" = 16 and that it is bound by only 2.73 ± 0.10 cm(-1).