NMR Analysis of the Dynamic Exchange of the NS2B Cofactor between Open and Closed Conformations of the West Nile Virus NS2B-NS3 Protease

Dengue and West Nile virus infections put an estimated 2.5 billion people at risk. Neither drugs nor vaccines are currently available against these diseases. The non-structural protein NS3 is a protease that, together with the cofactor NS2B, is essential for viral maturation. The NS2B-NS3 proteases of dengue and West Nile viruses are highly homologous and present promising drug targets. Crystal structures of the West Nile virus protease with and without bound inhibitor revealed large structural differences in NS2B, while no crystal structure of the dengue virus protease could be determined with a bound inhibitor. We investigated the structural change in solution and found that the C-terminal segment (CTS) of the NS2B cofactor is prone to dissociation from NS3. In the case of the West Nile virus protease, the CTS of NS2B is mostly associated with NS3, especially in the presence of inhibitors. In the case of the dengue virus protease and in the absence of inhibitors, the CTS of NS2B is mostly dissociated from NS3. Finding drug candidates to inhibit the association of the NS2B cofactor may thus be easier for the dengue virus protease

Biochemical evidence of the interactions of membrane type-1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) with adenine nucleotide translocator (ANT): potential implications linking proteolysis with energy metabolism in cancer cells.

Invasion-promoting MT1-MMP (membrane type-1 matrix metalloproteinase) is a key element in cell migration processes. To identify the proteins that interact and therefore co-precipitate with this proteinase from cancer cells, we used the proteolytically active WT (wild-type), the catalytically inert E240A and the C-end truncated (tailless; ΔCT) MT1-MMP–FLAG constructs as baits. The identity of the pulled-down proteins was determined by LC-MS/MS (liquid chromatography tandem MS) and then confirmed by Western blotting using specific antibodies. We determined that, in breast carcinoma MCF cells (MCF-7 cells), ANT (adenine nucleotide translocator) efficiently interacted with the WT, E240A and ΔCT constructs. The WT and E240A constructs also interacted with α-tubulin, an essential component of clathrin-mediated endocytosis. In turn, tubulin did not co-precipitate with the ΔCT construct because of the inefficient endocytosis of the latter, thus suggesting a high level of selectivity of our test system. To corroborate these results, we then successfully used the ANT2–FLAG construct as a bait to pull-down MT1-MMP, which was naturally produced by fibrosarcoma HT1080 cells. We determined that the presence of the functionally inert catalytic domain alone was sufficient to cause the proteinase to interact with ANT2, thus indicating that there is a non-proteolytic mode of these interactions. Overall, it is tempting to hypothesize that by interacting with pro-invasive MT1-MMP, ANT plays a yet to be identified role in a coupling mechanism between energy metabolism and pericellular proteolysis in migrating cancer cells

Inflammatory Proprotein Convertase-Matrix Metalloproteinase Proteolytic Pathway in Antigen-presenting Cells as a Step to Autoimmune Multiple Sclerosis*

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease of the central nervous system with autoimmune etiology. Susceptibility to MS is linked to viral and bacterial infections. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) play a significant role in the fragmentation of myelin basic protein (MBP) and demyelination. The splice variants of the single MBP gene are expressed in the oligodendrocytes of the central nervous system (classic MBP) and in the immune cells (Golli-MBPs). Our data suggest that persistent inflammation caused by environmental risk factors is a step to MS. We have discovered biochemical evidence suggesting the presence of the inflammatory proteolytic pathway leading to MS. The pathway involves the self-activated furin and PC2 proprotein convertases and membrane type-6 MMP (MT6-MMP/MMP-25) that is activated by furin/PC2. These events are followed by MMP-25 proteolysis of the Golli-MBP isoforms in the immune system cells and stimulation of the specific autoimmune T cell clones. It is likely that the passage of these autoimmune T cell clones through the disrupted blood-brain barrier to the brain and the recognition of neuronal, classic MBP causes inflammation leading to the further up-regulation of the activity of the multiple individual MMPs, the massive cleavage of MBP in the brain, demyelination, and MS. In addition to the cleavage of Golli-MBPs, MMP-25 proteolysis readily inactivates crystallin αB that is a suppressor of MS. These data suggest that MMP-25 plays an important role in MS pathology and that MMP-25, especially because of its restricted cell/tissue expression pattern and cell surface/lipid raft localization, is a promising drug target in MS