27 research outputs found
A SARS-CoV-2 protein interaction map reveals targets for drug repurposing
The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19 respiratory disease, has infected over 2.3 million people, killed over 160,000, and caused worldwide social and economic disruption1,2. There are currently no antiviral drugs with proven clinical efficacy, nor are there vaccines for its prevention, and these efforts are hampered by limited knowledge of the molecular details of SARS-CoV-2 infection. To address this, we cloned, tagged and expressed 26 of the 29 SARS-CoV-2 proteins in human cells and identified the human proteins physically associated with each using affinity-purification mass spectrometry (AP-MS), identifying 332 high-confidence SARS-CoV-2-human protein-protein interactions (PPIs). Among these, we identify 66 druggable human proteins or host factors targeted by 69 compounds (29 FDA-approved drugs, 12 drugs in clinical trials, and 28 preclinical compounds). Screening a subset of these in multiple viral assays identified two sets of pharmacological agents that displayed antiviral activity: inhibitors of mRNA translation and predicted regulators of the Sigma1 and Sigma2 receptors. Further studies of these host factor targeting agents, including their combination with drugs that directly target viral enzymes, could lead to a therapeutic regimen to treat COVID-19
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Aligning public and institutional incentives to advance biomedical research
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Cell-associated heparin-like molecules modulate the ability of LDL to regulate PCSK9 uptake.
Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) targets the LDL receptor (LDLR) for degradation, increasing plasma LDL and, consequently, cardiovascular risk. Uptake of secreted PCSK9 is required for its effect on the LDLR, and LDL itself inhibits this uptake, though how it does so remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the relationship between LDL, the PCSK9:LDLR interaction, and PCSK9 uptake. We show that LDL inhibits binding of PCSK9 to the LDLR in vitro more impressively than it inhibits PCSK9 uptake in cells. Furthermore, cell-surface heparin-like molecules (HLMs) can partly explain this difference, consistent with heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) acting as coreceptors for PCSK9. We also show that HLMs can interact with either PCSK9 or LDL to modulate the inhibitory activity of LDL on PCSK9 uptake, with such inhibition rescued by competition with the entire PCSK9 prodomain, but not its truncated variants. Additionally, we show that the gain-of-function PCSK9 variant, S127R, located in the prodomain near the HSPG binding site, exhibits increased affinity for HLMs, potentially explaining its phenotype. Overall, our findings suggest a model where LDL acts as a negative regulator of PCSK9 function by decreasing its uptake via direct interactions with either the LDLR or HLMs
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Physical Maneuvers and Recent Tools to Break the Silence of Clinically Undetectable Heart Sounds.
The proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) active site and cleavage sequence differentially regulate protein secretion from proteolysis.
Biologic-based strategies to inhibit proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) show promise as anti-hypercholesterolemic and, therefore, anti-atherosclerotic therapies. Despite substantial effort, no small molecule strategy to inhibit PCSK9 has demonstrated feasibility. In this study we interrogated the chemistry of the PCSK9 active site and its adjacent residues to identify a foothold with which to drug the PCSK9 processing pathway and ultimately disrupt the interaction with the LDL receptor. Here, we develop a system in which we amplify the readout of PCSK9 proteolysis with a highly specific substrate in cells, showing that the PCSK9 catalytic domain is capable of proteolysis in trans. We use this system to show that the substrate specificity for PCSK9 proteolysis is distinct from the specificity for PCSK9 secretion, demonstrating that PCSK9 processing occurs in two separate sequential steps: that of proteolysis followed by secretion. We show that specific residues in the protease recognition sequence can differentially modulate the effects on proteolysis and secretion. Additionally, we demonstrate that the clinically described, dominant negative Q152H mutation restricts proteolysis and secretion independently. Our results suggest that the PCSK9 active site and its adjacent residues serve as an allosteric modulator of protein secretion independent of its role in proteolysis, revealing a new strategy for intracellular PCSK9 inhibition
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The Silent Threat: Bartonella quintana Endocarditis Unveiling Heart Failure and Severe Pulmonary Hypertension
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Stepwise processing analyses of the single-turnover PCSK9 protease reveal its substrate sequence specificity and link clinical genotype to lipid phenotype.
Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) down-regulates the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor, elevating LDL cholesterol and accelerating atherosclerotic heart disease, making it a promising cardiovascular drug target. To achieve its maximal effect on the LDL receptor, PCSK9 requires autoproteolysis. After cleavage, PCSK9 retains its prodomain in the active site as a self-inhibitor. Unlike other proprotein convertases, however, this retention is permanent, inhibiting any further protease activity for the remainder of its life cycle. Such inhibition has proven a major challenge toward a complete biochemical characterization of PCSK9's proteolytic function, which could inform therapeutic approaches against its hypercholesterolemic effects. To address this challenge, we employed a cell-based, high-throughput method using a luciferase readout to evaluate the single-turnover PCSK9 proteolytic event. We combined this method with saturation mutagenesis libraries to interrogate the sequence specificities of PCSK9 cleavage and proteolysis-independent secretion. Our results highlight several key differences in sequence identity between these two steps, complement known structural data, and suggest that PCSK9 self-proteolysis is the rate-limiting step of secretion. Additionally, we found that for missense SNPs within PCSK9, alterations in both proteolysis and secretion are common. Last, we show that some SNPs allosterically modulate PCSK9's substrate sequence specificity. Our findings indicate that PCSK9 proteolysis acts as a commonly perturbed but critical switch in controlling lipid homeostasis and provide a new hope for the development of small-molecule PCSK9 inhibitors