Sequential glycosylations at the multibasic cleavage site of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein regulate viral activity.

The multibasic furin cleavage site at the S1/S2 boundary of the spike protein is a hallmark of SARS-CoV-2 and plays a crucial role in viral infection. However, the mechanism underlying furin activation and its regulation remain poorly understood. Here, we show that GalNAc-T3 and T7 jointly initiate clustered O-glycosylations in the furin cleavage site of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which inhibit furin processing, suppress the incorporation of the spike protein into virus-like-particles and affect viral infection. Mechanistic analysis reveals that the assembly of the spike protein into virus-like particles relies on interactions between the furin-cleaved spike protein and the membrane protein of SARS-CoV-2, suggesting a possible mechanism for furin activation. Interestingly, mutations in the spike protein of the alpha and delta variants of the virus confer resistance against glycosylation by GalNAc-T3 and T7. In the omicron variant, additional mutations reverse this resistance, making the spike protein susceptible to glycosylation in vitro and sensitive to GalNAc-T3 and T7 expression in human lung cells. Our findings highlight the role of glycosylation as a defense mechanism employed by host cells against SARS-CoV-2 and shed light on the evolutionary interplay between the host and the virus.

Tumor mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation stimulated by the nuclear receptor RORγ represents an effective therapeutic opportunity in osteosarcoma.

Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most common malignant bone tumor with a poor prognosis. Here, we show that the nuclear receptor RORγ may serve as a potential therapeutic target in OS. OS exhibits a hyperactivated oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) program, which fuels the carbon source to promote tumor progression. We found that RORγ is overexpressed in OS tumors and is linked to hyperactivated OXPHOS. RORγ induces the expression of PGC-1ß and physically interacts with it to activate the OXPHOS program by upregulating the expression of respiratory chain component genes. Inhibition of RORγ strongly inhibits OXPHOS activation, downregulates mitochondrial functions, and increases ROS production, which results in OS cell apoptosis and ferroptosis. RORγ inverse agonists strongly suppressed OS tumor growth and progression and sensitized OS tumors to chemotherapy. Taken together, our results indicate that RORγ is a critical regulator of the OXPHOS program in OS and provides an effective therapeutic strategy for this deadly disease.

OGT and OGA: Sweet guardians of the genome.

The past 4 decades have witnessed tremendous efforts in deciphering the role of O-GlcNAcylation in a plethora of biological processes. Chemists and biologists have joined hand in hand in the sweet adventure to unravel this unique and universal yet uncharted post-translational modification, and the recent advent of cutting-edge chemical biology and mass spectrometry tools has greatly facilitated the process. Compared with O-GlcNAc, DNA damage response (DDR) is a relatively intensively studied area that could be traced to before the elucidation of the structure of DNA. Unexpectedly, yet somewhat expectedly, O-GlcNAc has been found to regulate various DDR pathways: homologous recombination, nonhomologous end joining, base excision repair, and translesion DNA synthesis. In this review, we first cover the recent structural studies of the O-GlcNAc transferase and O-GlcNAcase, the elegant duo that "writes" and "erases" O-GlcNAc modification. Then we delineate the intricate roles of O-GlcNAc transferase and O-GlcNAcase in DDR. We envision that this is only the beginning of our full appreciation of how O-GlcNAc regulates the blueprint of life-DNA.

ETD-Based Proteomic Profiling Improves Arginine Methylation Identification and Reveals Novel PRMT5 Substrates.

Protein arginine methylations are important post-translational modifications (PTMs) in eukaryotes, regulating many biological processes. However, traditional collision-based mass spectrometry methods inevitably cause neutral losses of methylarginines, preventing the deep mining of biologically important sites. Herein we developed an optimized mass spectrometry workflow based on electron-transfer dissociation (ETD) with supplemental activation for proteomic profiling of arginine methylation in human cells. Using symmetric dimethylarginine (sDMA) as an example, we show that the ETD-based optimized workflow significantly improved the identification and site localization of sDMA. Quantitative proteomics identified 138 novel sDMA sites as potential PRMT5 substrates in HeLa cells. Further biochemical studies on SERBP1, a newly identified PRMT5 substrate, confirmed the coexistence of sDMA and asymmetric dimethylarginine in the central RGG/RG motif, and loss of either methylation caused increased the recruitment of SERBP1 to stress granules under oxidative stress. Overall, our optimized workflow not only enabled the identification and localization of extensive, nonoverlapping sDMA sites in human cells but also revealed novel PRMT5 substrates whose sDMA may play potentially important biological functions.

Heat-induced aggregation of subunits/polypeptides of soybean protein: Structural and physicochemical properties.

To reveal the nature of thermal aggregation of soybean protein at subunit level, structure and physicochemical properties of αα'- and ß-subunits isolated from ß-conglycinin, acidic polypeptide, and basic polypeptide from glycinin, as well as ß-conglycinin and glycinin, were characterized before and after heat treatment. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images showed that ß-conglycinin, αα'-subunits and acidic polypeptide formed regular thermal aggregates, which exhibited high solubility, high ζ-potential value, and small particle size. While glycinin, ß-subunit, and basic polypeptide aggregated to insoluble clusters with large particle size distribution. The results of size exclusion chromatography and non-reducing electrophoresis showed that the disulfide bond was the important force in stabilizing the protein conformation of thermal aggregates in ß-conglycinin, glycinin, and their isolated subunits/polypeptides but ß-subunit. The results of surface hydrophobicity and intrinsic fluorescence spectra showed that the thermal aggregations of ß-subunit and basic polypeptide were mainly driven by hydrophobic interactions.

O-GlcNAcylation stabilizes the autophagy-initiating kinase ULK1 by inhibiting chaperone-mediated autophagy upon HPV infection.

Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) cause a subset of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs). Previously, we demonstrated that HPV16 oncogene E6 or E6/E7 transduction increases the abundance of O-linked ß-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) transferase (OGT), but OGT substrates affected by this increase are unclear. Here, we focus on the effects of O-GlcNAcylation on HPV-positive HNSCCs. We found that upon HPV infection, Unc-51-like kinase 1 (ULK1), an autophagy-initiating kinase, is hyper-O-GlcNAcylated, stabilized, and linked with autophagy elevation. Through mass spectrometry, we identified that ULK1 is O-GlcNAcylated at Ser409, which is distinct from the previously reported Thr635/Thr754 sites. It has been demonstrated that PKCα mediates phosphorylation of ULK1 at Ser423, which attenuates its stability by shunting ULK1 to the chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) pathway. Using biochemical assays, we demonstrate that ULK1 Ser409Ser410 O-GlcNAcylation antagonizes its phosphorylation at Ser423. Moreover, mutations of Ser409A and its neighboring site Ser410A (2A) render ULK1 less stable by promoting interaction with the CMA chaperone HSC70 (heat shock cognate 70 kDa protein). Furthermore, ULK1-2A mutants attenuate the association of ULK1 with STX17, which is vital for the fusion between autophagosomes and lysosomes. Analysis of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database reveals that ULK1 is upregulated in HPV-positive HNSCCs, and its level positively correlates with HNSCC patient survival. Overall, our work demonstrates that O-GlcNAcylation of ULK1 is altered in response to environmental changes. O-GlcNAcylation of ULK1 at Ser409 and perhaps Ser410 stabilizes ULK1, which might underlie the molecular mechanism of HPV-positive HNSCC patient survival.

The role of the extension region on the structural and physicochemical characteristics of the α-subunit of ß-conglycinin: implications of pH value and ionic strength.

BACKGROUND: To clarify the role of the extension region on the structure-functional relationship of the α-subunit of ß-conglycinin, α-subunit and its segment of the core region (αc-subunit) were expressed via an Escherichia coli system. Their physicochemical properties were compared under acid, neutral or alkaline conditions (pH 4.0, 7.0, and 8.0) and high or low ionic strength (µ = 0.05 and 0.5), respectively. RESULTS: The results showed that the extension region contributed to increasing thermal stability, especially at low ionic strength under acidic and neutral conditions. The extension region stabilized the α-subunit with high solubility, low turbidity, and small particle size under neutral and alkaline conditions, whereas these impacts were suppressed at a high ionic strength and acidic conditions. Surface hydrophobicity of the α-subunit decreased under acidic and alkaline conditions without being interfered with by ionic strength. CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that the extension region played different roles under different pH and ionic strength conditions. These factors should be specified carefully and speculated individually to explore the more detailed and profound nature of ß-conglycinin at the submolecular level. The results could benefit a better understanding of the relationship between domain structure and functions of soybean protein. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.

GALNT12 is associated with the malignancy of glioma and promotes glioblastoma multiforme in vitro by activating Akt signaling.

Abnormal expression of mucin-type O-glycosylation has been reported to be associated with a variety of human cancers including gliomas. However, little is known about its contribution to the malignancy of Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM), the deadliest form of brain tumors. Here, we conducted a detailed analysis of the expression profiles of GALNT gene family, which encode polypeptide-N-acetyl-galactosaminyltransferases (GalNAc-Ts) and are responsible for initiating O-glycans, both in the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and in the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA) databases. We discovered that GALNT12 is the only member within the GALNT family, whose expression demonstrated significant correlation with a worse prognosis of GBM. Genetic knockdown (KD) and knockout (KO) of GALNT12 in U87 MG, a representative GBM cell line with high GALNT12 expression, confirmed that GALNT12 deficiency leads to decreased cell proliferation, migration and invasion. Mechanism study revealed that GALNT12 KD and KO decreased the level of epidermal growth factor (EGF) and consequently attenuated Akt signaling within the cell. In summary, our results indicated that GALNT12 facilitates the malignant characteristics of GBM by influencing the PI3K/Akt/mTOR axis and may serve as a novel prognosis biomarker and a potential therapeutic target of GBM.

Semisynthesis and Biological Evaluation of Platencin Thioether Derivatives: Dual FabF and FabH Inhibitors against MRSA.

The discovery and clinical use of multitarget monotherapeutic antibiotics is regarded as a promising approach to reduce the development of antibiotic resistance. Platencin (PTN), a potent natural antibiotic initially isolated from a soil actinomycete, targets both FabH and FabF, the initiation and elongation condensing enzymes for bacterial fatty acid biosynthesis. However, its further clinical development has been hampered by poor pharmacokinetics. Herein we report the semisynthesis and biological evaluation of platencin derivatives 1-15 with potent antibacterial activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in vitro. Some of these PTN analogues showed similar yet distinct interactions with FabH and FabF, as shown by molecular docking, differential scanning fluorometry, and isothermal titration calorimetry. Compounds 3, 8, 10, and 14 were further evaluated in a mouse peritonitis model, among which 8 showed in vivo antibacterial activity comparable to that of PTN. Our results suggest that semisynthetic modification of PTN is a rapid route to obtain active PTN derivatives that might be further developed as promising antibiotics against drug-resistant major pathogens.

Effect of potato flour on quality and staling properties of wheat-potato flour bread.

To elucidate the impact of potato flour (PF) on quality changes and staling characteristics of the composite bread from wheat-potato flour (WPF), the physicochemical (specific volume, colority, sensory value, texture, and viscosity) properties, and staling (X-ray diffraction and water migration) properties of bread were investigated. The quality of composite bread was comparable to wheat bread when addition level of PF at 20%, but decreased when the addition level increased to 30% or more, and became unacceptable at 50%. A chewy mouthfeel and an elastic and none-crumbly texture were observed on composite bread, which had higher hardness than wheat bread, and could keep on both longer linear distance and higher linear force during compression test. It indicated that such new parameters other than hardness should be introduced to coordinate with the texture quality of composite bread. During storage, the higher addition level of PF significantly decreased crystallinity of composite bread and slowed water migration rate from the crumb to crust, suggesting that PF had antistaling effect on composite bread, which was further emphasized by the fact that the setback value of the WPF decreased with the increase of PF addition.

Synthesis and Anticancer Activity of Novel Actinonin Derivatives as HsPDF Inhibitors.

Human mitochondrial peptide deformylase (HsPDF) is responsible for removing the formyl group from N-terminal formylmethionines of newly synthesized mitochondrial proteins and plays important roles in maintaining mitochondria function. It is overexpressed in various cancers and has been proposed as a novel therapeutic target. Actinonin, a naturally occurring peptidomimetic HsPDF inhibitor, was reported to inhibit the proliferation of a broad spectrum of human cancer cells in vitro. However, its efficacy and pharmacokinetic profile requires significant improvement for therapeutic purposes. To obtain HsPDF inhibitors as anticancer therapeutics, we screened an in-house collection of actinonin derivatives and found two initial hits with antiproliferation activity. Further optimization along the peptidomimetic backbone lead to two series of compounds containing substituted phenyl moieties. They are potent HsPDF inhibitors and exhibited greatly improved antiproliferation activity in selected cancer cell lines. Finally, compound 15m significantly inhibited the growth of human colon cancer in xenograft animal models.

Discovery of Novel Antibiotics as Covalent Inhibitors of Fatty Acid Synthesis.

The steady increase in the prevalence of multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus has made the search for novel antibiotics to combat this clinically important pathogen an urgent matter. In an effort to discover antibacterials with new chemical structures and mechanisms, we performed a growth inhibition screen of a synthetic library against S. aureus and discovered a promising scaffold with a 1,3,5-oxadiazin-2-one core. These compounds are potent against both methicillin-sensitive and methicillin-resistant S. aureus strains. Isolation of compound-resistant strains followed by whole genome sequencing revealed its cellular target as FabH, a key enzyme in bacterial fatty acid synthesis. Detailed mechanism of action studies suggested the compounds inhibit FabH activity by covalently modifying its active site cysteine residue with high selectivity. A crystal structure of FabH protein modified by a selected compound Oxa1 further confirmed covalency and suggested a possible mechanism for reaction. Moreover, the structural snapshot provided an explanation for compound selectivity. On the basis of the structure, we designed and synthesized Oxa1 derivatives and evaluated their antibacterial activity. The structure-activity relationship supports the hypothesis that noncovalent recognition between compounds and FabH is critical for the activity of these covalent inhibitors. We believe further optimization of the current scaffold could lead to an antibacterial with potential to treat drug-resistant bacteria in the clinic.

Zinc-Catalyzed Alkyne-Carbonyl Metathesis of Ynamides with Isatins: Stereoselective Access to Fully Substituted Alkenes.

A zinc-catalyzed intermolecular alkyne-carbonyl metathesis reaction of ynamides with isatins followed by an amide to ester conversion has been developed, which produces the indolone derivatives with a fully substituted alkene species in good to high yields. The salient features of this reaction include the following: mild reaction conditions, an inexpensive zinc catalyst, a broad substrate scope, the excellent regiocontrol and stereoselectivity, and amenable to the gram scale.

The effects of extruded corn flour on rheological properties of wheat-based composite dough and the bread quality.

The effects of extruded corn flour (ECF) on the rheological properties of the wheat-based composite dough and quality of the bread were investigated. The RVA results of the composite flour with ECF showed weak thermal viscosity and resistance to starch retrogradation. Mixolab tests revealed that the water absorption capacity increased with the increasing amount of ECF, while dough development time (DT) and dough stability (ST) showed a downward trend, and the composite dough became more resistant to retrogradation. The microstructure of the composite dough showed that the presence of both ECF and unextruded corn flour (UECF) resulted in a more broken gluten matrix. The breads made from the composite flour with ECF had significantly softer texture, lower hardening percentage with storage time, darker crust color, larger specific volume, and higher sensory scores than the UECF ones. It is concluded that the extrusion of corn flour is an effective way to improve the quality of the composite bread and retard staling during storage.

Protein Arginine Methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) as an Anticancer Target and Its Inhibitor Discovery.

PRMT5 is a major enzyme responsible for symmetric dimethylation of arginine residues on both histone and non-histone proteins, regulating many biological pathways in mammalian cells. PRMT5 has been suggested as a therapeutic target in a variety of diseases including infectious disease, heart disease, and cancer. Many PRMT5 inhibitors have been discovered in the past 5 years, and one entered clinical trial in 2015 for the treatment of solid tumor and mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). The aim of this review is to summarize the current understanding of the roles of PRMT5 in cancer and the discovery of PRMT5 enzymatic inhibitors. By reviewing the structure-activity relationship (SAR) of known inhibitors of PRMT5, we hope to provide guidance for future drug designs and inhibitor optimization. Opportunities and limitations of PRMT5 inhibitors for the treatment of cancer are also discussed.

A cuboidal [Ni4O4] cluster as a precursor for recyclable, carbon-supported nickel nanoparticle reduction catalysts.

Cuboidal [Ni4O4] clusters supported by a pyridine alkoxide ligand have been developed. One of these clusters was selected as a precursor for carbon-hosted Ni nanoparticles (NiNPs/C) which were efficient catalysts for the conversion of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to 4-aminophenol (4-AP) at room temperature.

Deciphering the Structural Relationships of Five Cd-Based Metal-Organic Frameworks.

The one-pot reaction of Cd(NO3)2·4H2O and 5-(6-(hydroxymethyl)pyridin-3-yl)isophthalic acid (H2L) in DMF/H2O (DMF = N,N-dimethylformamide) produced a two-dimensional (2D) metal-organic framework (MOF) of [Cd(L)(H2O)2] (A) bearing aqua-bridged Cd centers, accompanied by two three-dimensional (3D) MOFs [Cd(L)(DMF)0.5] (B) and [Cd(L)] (C). Removing the bridging aqua molecules of A by heating led to the formation of an additional 3D MOF of [Cd(L)] (D) in a single-crystal to single-crystal (SCSC) manner. The search for the preceding compound that could convert to A resulted in the isolation of a 2D MOF [Cd(L)(DMF)] (E) that readily converted to A in water, but with the loss of single crystallinity. Upon excitation at 350 nm, A, D, E, and the ligand H2L fluoresced at 460 nm, 468 nm, 475 nm, and 411 nm, respectively. The fluorescence of A could be used for the selective detection of Fe3+ in water down to 0.58 ppm. This quenching was not affected by the presence of other common metal ions.

"Addition" and "Subtraction": Selectivity Design for Type II Maternal Embryonic Leucine Zipper Kinase Inhibitors.

While adding the structural features that are more favored by on-target activity is the more common strategy in selectivity optimization, the opposite strategy of subtracting the structural features that contribute more to off-target activity can also be very effective. Reported here is our successful effort of improving the kinase selectivity of type II maternal embryonic leucine zipper kinase inhibitors by applying these two complementary approaches together, which clearly demonstrates the powerful synergy between them.

Toward the Validation of Maternal Embryonic Leucine Zipper Kinase: Discovery, Optimization of Highly Potent and Selective Inhibitors, and Preliminary Biology Insight.

MELK kinase has been implicated in playing an important role in tumorigenesis. Our previous studies suggested that MELK is involved in the regulation of cell cycle and its genetic depletion leads to growth inhibition in a subset of high MELK-expressing basal-like breast cancer cell lines. Herein we describe the discovery and optimization of novel MELK inhibitors 8a and 8b that recapitulate the cellular effects observed by short hairpin ribonucleic acid (shRNA)-mediated MELK knockdown in cellular models. We also discovered a novel fluorine-induced hydrophobic collapse that locked the ligand in its bioactive conformation and led to a 20-fold gain in potency. These novel pharmacological inhibitors achieved high exposure in vivo and were well tolerated, which may allow further in vivo evaluation.

Metal-Organic Frameworks via Emissive Metal-Carboxylate Zwitterion Intermediates.

This month's cover is dedicated to the golden anniversary of Singapore by the collaborating groups of Wen-Hua Zhang of the IMRE, Singapore, and T. S. Andy Hor of the NUS, Singapore, and two more groups from Monash University, Malaysia, and Soochow University, P. R. China. In the cover picture the number "50" commemorates the 50th anniversary of Singapore, the Lion City. The photo on the top-right corner shows the modern skyline of Singapore. Underneath are the structures described in this article. Read the full text of the article at 10.1002/cplu.201500134.