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Expression of human asparagine synthetase (ASNS) promotes metastatic progression and tumor cell invasiveness in colorectal and breast cancer, presumably by altering cellular levels of L-asparagine. Human ASNS is therefore emerging as a bona fide drug target for cancer therapy. Here we show that a slow-onset, tight binding inhibitor, which exhibits nanomolar affinity for human ASNS in vitro, exhibits excellent selectivity at 10 μM concentration in HCT-116 cell lysates with almost no off-target binding. The high-resolution (1.85 Å) crystal structure of human ASNS has enabled us to identify a cluster of negatively charged side chains in the synthetase domain that plays a key role in inhibitor binding. Comparing this structure with those of evolutionarily related AMP-forming enzymes provides insights into intermolecular interactions that give rise to the observed binding selectivity. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of developing second generation human ASNS inhibitors as lead compounds for the discovery of drugs against metastasis.

Evolution has yielded biopolymers that are constructed from exactly four building blocks and are able to support Darwinian evolution. Synthetic biology aims to extend this alphabet, and we recently showed that 8-letter (hachimoji) DNA can support rule-based information encoding.One source of replicative error in non-natural DNA-like systems, however, is the occurrence of alternative tautomeric forms, which pair differently. Unfortunately, little is known about how structural modifications impact free-energy differences between tautomers of the non-natural nucleobases used in the hachimoji expanded genetic alphabet. Determining experimental tautomer ratios is technically difficult and so strategies for improving hachimoji DNA replication efficiency will benefit from accurate computational predictions of equilibrium tautomeric ratios. We now report that high-level quantum-chemical calculations in aqueous solution by the embedded cluster reference interaction site model (EC-RISM), benchmarked against free energy molecular simulations for solvation thermodynamics, provide useful quantitative information on the tautomer ratios of both Watson-Crick and hachimoji nucleobases. In agreement with previous computational studies, all four Watson-Crick nucleobases adopt essentially only one tautomer in water. This is not the case, however, for non-natural nucleobases and their analogs. For example, although the enols of isoguanine and a series of related purines are not populated in water, these heterocycles possess N1-H and N3-H keto tautomers that are similar in energy thereby adversely impacting accurate nucleobase pairing. These robust computational strategies offer a firm basis for improving experimental measurements of tautomeric ratios, which are currently limited to studying molecules that exist only as two tautomers in solution.

X-Ray crystal structure of a novel C-glycoside synthase involved in the biosynthesis of biologically active C-nucleosides and C-nucleotides.

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The biosynthetic enzyme, ForT, catalyses the formation of a C-C bond between 4-amino-1 H -pyrazoledicarboxylic acid and MgPRPP to produce a C-nucleoside precursor of formycin A. The transformation catalysed by ForT is of chemical interest because it is one of only a few examples in which C-C bond formation takes place via an electrophilic substitution of a small, aromatic heterocycle. In addition, ForT is capable of discriminating between the aminopyrazoledicarboxylic acid and an analogue in which the amine is replaced by a hydroxyl group; a remarkable feat given the steric and electronic similarities of the two molecules. Here we report biophysical measurements, structural biology and quantum chemical calculations that provide a detailed molecular picture of ForT-catalysed C-C bond formation and the conformational changes that are coupled to catalysis. Our findings set the scene for employing engineered ForT variants in the biocatalytic production of novel, anti-viral C-nucleoside and C-nucleotide analogues.

L-Asparaginase (EC 3.5.1.1) was first used as a component of combination drug therapies to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, almost 50 years ago. Administering this enzyme to reduce asparagine levels in the blood is a cornerstone of modern clinical protocols for ALL; indeed, this remains the only successful example of a therapy targeted against a specific metabolic weakness in any form of cancer. Three problems, however, constrain the clinical use of L-asparaginase. First, a type II bacterial variant of L-asparaginase is administered to patients, the majority of whom are children, which produces an immune response thereby limiting the time over which the enzyme can be tolerated. Second, L-asparaginase is subject to proteolytic degradation in the blood. Third, toxic side effects are observed, which may be correlated with the L-glutaminase activity of the enzyme. This Perspective will outline how asparagine depletion negatively impacts the growth of leukemic blasts, discuss the structure and mechanism of L-asparaginase, and briefly describe the clinical use of chemically modified forms of clinically useful L-asparaginases, such as Asparlas, which was recently given FDA approval for use in children (babies to young adults) as part of multidrug treatments for ALL. Finally, we review ongoing efforts to engineer L-asparaginase variants with improved therapeutic properties and briefly detail emerging, alternate strategies for the treatment of forms of ALL that are resistant to asparagine depletion.