Probing BoNT/A Protease Exosites: Implications for Inhibitor Design and Light Chain Longevity

Botulinum neurotoxin serotype A (BoNT/A) is one of the most lethal toxins known. Its extreme toxicity is due to its light chain (LC), a zinc protease that cleaves SNAP-25, a synaptosome-associated protein, leading to the inhibition of neuronal activity. Studies on BoNT/A LC have revealed that two regions, termed exosites, can play an important role in BoNT catalytic activity. A clear understanding of how these exosites influence neurotoxin catalytic activity would provide a critical framework for deciphering the mechanism of SNAP-25 cleavage and the design of inhibitors. Herein, based on the crystallographic structure of BoNT/A LC complexed with its substrate, we designed an α-exosite binding probe. Experiments with this unique probe demonstrated that α-exosite binding enhanced both catalytic activity and stability of the LC. These data help delineate why α-exosite binding is needed for SNAP-25 cleavage and also provide new insights into the extended lifetime observed for BoNT/A LC <i>in vivo</i>

A Platform Stratifying a Sequestering Agent and a Pharmacological Antagonist as a Means to Negate Botulinum Neurotoxicity

Botulinum neurotoxicity is characterized by peripheral neuromuscular blockade/flaccid paralysis that can lead to respiratory failure and ultimately death. Current therapeutic options provide relief in a pre-exposure scenario, but there are no clinically approved postexposure medical countermeasures. Here, we introduce a platform that utilizes a combination of a toxin sequestering agent and a pharmacological antagonist to ablate botulinum neurotoxicity in a well-defined mouse lethality assay. The platform was constructed to allow for ready exchange of sequestering agent and/or pharmacological antagonist for therapeutic optimization. As such, we attempted to improve upon the pharmacological antagonist, a potassium channel blocker, 3,4-diaminopyridine, through a prodrug approach; thus, a complete kinetic decomposition pathway is described. These experiments provide the first proof-of-principle that a synergistic combination strategy can be used to reduce toxin burden in the peripheral using a sequestering antibody, while restoring muscle action via a pharmacological small molecule antagonist

Mechanistic Insights into the LsrK Kinase Required for Autoinducer‑2 Quorum Sensing Activation

In enteric bacteria, the kinase LsrK catalyzes the phosphorylation of the C5-hydroxyl group in the linear form of 4,5-dihydroxy-2,3-pentanedione (DPD), the precursor of the type II bacterial quorum sensing molecule (AI-2). This phosphorylation is required for AI-2 sequestration in the cytoplasm and subsequent derepression of AI-2-related genes necessary for quorum development. While LsrK is a critical enzyme within the DPD quorum sensing relay system, kinetic details of this kinase have yet to be reported. A continuous UV–vis spectrophotometric assay was developed that allowed steady-state kinetic analysis of LsrK to be undertaken with the substrates ATP and DPD. The data was most consistent with a rapid equilibrium ordered mechanism with ATP binding first: <i>k</i>_cat (7.4 ± 0.6 s^–1), <i>K</i>_m,ATP (150 ± 30 μM) and <i>K</i>_m(app),DPD (1.0 ± 0.2 mM). The assay also allowed a DPD substrate profile to be conducted, which provided an unexpected biochemical disconnect between the previous agonist/antagonist cell-based reporter assay and the LsrK assay presented herein. Together these findings raise the importance of LsrK and lay the foundation not only for further understanding of this enzyme and its critical biological role but also for the rational design of regulatory molecules targeting AI-2 quorum sensing in pathogenic bacteria

Probing the Effects of Hapten Stability on Cocaine Vaccine Immunogenicity

Judicious hapten design has been shown to be of importance when trying to generate a viable vaccine against a drug of abuse. Hapten design has typically been predicated upon faithfully emulating the unique chemical architecture that each drug presents. However, the need for drug–hapten congruency may also compromise vaccine immunogenicity if the drug–hapten conjugate possesses chemical epitope instability. There has been no systematic study on the impact of hapten stability as it relates to vaccine immunogenicity. As a starting point, we have probed the stability of a series of cocaine haptens through varying several of its structural elements, including functionality at the C2-position, the nature of the linker, and its site of attachment. Accordingly, a hydrolytic stability profile of four cocaine haptens (GNNA, GNNS, GNE, and GNC) was produced, and these results were compared through each hapten’s immunological properties, which were generated via active vaccination. From this group of four, three of the haptens, GNE, GNNA, and GNC, were further examined in an animal behavioral model, and findings here were again measured in relationship to hapten stability. We demonstrate a corresponding relationship between the half-life of the hapten and its immunogenicity, wherein haptens presenting a fully representative cocaine framework elicited higher concentrations of cocaine-specific IgG in sera and also conferred better protection against cocaine-induced locomotor activity. Our results indicate that hapten half-life plays an important role in vaccine immunogenicity and this in turn can impact animal behavioral effects when challenged with a drug of abuse

Repurposing Suzuki Coupling Reagents as a Directed Fragment Library Targeting Serine Hydrolases and Related Enzymes

Serine hydrolases are susceptible to potent reversible inhibition by boronic acids. Large collections of chemically diverse boronic acid fragments are commercially available because of their utility in coupling chemistry. We repurposed the approximately 650 boronic acid reagents in our collection as a directed fragment library targeting serine hydrolases and related enzymes. Highly efficient hits (LE > 0.6) often result. The utility of the approach is illustrated with the results against autotaxin, a phospholipase implicated in cardiovascular disease

C‑Terminus of Botulinum A Protease Has Profound and Unanticipated Kinetic Consequences upon the Catalytic Cleft

Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) are among the most deadly poisons known, though ironically, they also are of great therapeutic utility. A number of research programs have been initiated to discover small molecule inhibitors of BoNTs metalloprotease activity. Many, though not all, of these programs have screened against a truncated and more stable form of the enzyme, that possesses comparable catalytic properties to the full length enzyme. Interestingly, several classes of inhibitors, notably the hydroxamates, display a large shift in potency between the two enzyme forms. In this report we compare the kinetics of active-site, α-exosite and β-exosite inhibitors versus truncated and full length enzyme. Molecular dynamics simulations conducted with the truncated and homology models of the full length BoNT LC/A indicate the flexibility of the C-terminus of the full length enzyme is responsible for the potency shifts of active-site proximally binding inhibitors while distal binding (α-exosite) inhibitors remain equipotent

A Fragment-Based Approach to Identifying <i>S</i>‑Adenosyl‑l‑methionine -Competitive Inhibitors of Catechol <i>O</i>‑Methyl Transferase (COMT).

Catechol <i>O</i>-methyl transferase belongs to the diverse family of <i>S</i>-adenosyl-l-methionine transferases. It is a target involved in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Here we present a fragment-based screening approach to discover noncatechol derived COMT inhibitors which bind at the SAM binding pocket. We describe the identification and characterization of a series of highly ligand efficient SAM competitive bisaryl fragments (LE = 0.33–0.58). We also present the first SAM-competitive small-molecule COMT co-complex crystal structure