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To contain the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, a safe and effective vaccine against the new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is urgently needed in quantities sufficient to immunise large populations. In this study, we report the design, preclinical development, immunogenicity and anti-viral protective effect in rhesus macaques of the BNT162b2 vaccine candidate. BNT162b2 contains an LNP-formulated nucleoside-modified mRNA that encodes the spike glycoprotein captured in its prefusion conformation. After expression of the BNT162b2 coding sequence in cells, approximately 20% of the spike molecules are in the one-RBD ‘up’, two-RBD ‘down’ state. Immunisation of mice with a single dose of BNT162b2 induced dose level-dependent increases in pseudovirus neutralisation titers. Prime-boost vaccination of rhesus macaques elicited authentic SARS-CoV-2 neutralising geometric mean titers 10.2 to 18.0 times that of a SARS-CoV-2 convalescent human serum panel. BNT162b2 generated strong TH1 type CD4+ and IFNγ+ CD8+ T-cell responses in mice and rhesus macaques. The BNT162b2 vaccine candidate fully protected the lungs of immunised rhesus macaques from infectious SARS-CoV-2 challenge. BNT162b2 is currently being evaluated in a global, pivotal Phase 2/3 trial (NCT04368728).

Summary Antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection is a serious threat to public health. Peptidoglycan biosynthesis is a well-established target for antibiotic development. MraY (phospho-MurNAc-pentapeptide translocase) catalyzes the first and an essential membrane step of peptidoglycan biosynthesis. It is considered a very promising target for the development of new antibiotics, as many naturally occuring nucleoside inhibitors with antibacterial activity target this enzyme1-4. However, antibiotics targeting MraY have not been developed for clinical use mainly due to a lack of structural insight into inhibition of this enzyme. Here we present the crystal structure of MraY from Aquifex aeolicus (MraYAA) in complex with its naturally occurring inhibitor, muraymycin D2 (MD2). Upon binding MD2, MraYAA undergoes remarkably large conformational rearrangements near the active site, which lead to the formation of a nucleoside-binding pocket and a peptide-binding site. MD2 binds the nucleoside-binding pocket like a two-pronged plug inserting into a socket. Additional interactions it makes in the adjacent peptide-binding site anchor MD2 to and enhance its affinity for MraYAA. Surprisingly, MD2 does not interact with three acidic residues or the Mg2+ cofactor required for catalysis, suggesting that MD2 binds to MraYAA in a manner that overlaps with, but is distinct from its natural substrate, UDP-MurNAc-pentapeptide. We have deciphered the chemical logic of MD2 binding to MraYAA, including how it avoids the need for pyrophosphate and sugar moieties, which are essential features for substrate binding. The conformational plasticity of MraY could be the reason that it is the target of many structurally distinct inhibitors. These findings can inform the design of new inhibitors targeting MraY as well as its paralogs, WecA and TarO.

Peptidoglycan (PG) protects bacteria from osmotic lysis, and its biogenesis is a key antibiotic target. A central step in PG biosynthesis is to flip the lipid-linked PG precursor lipid II across the cytoplasmic membrane for subsequent incorporation into peptidoglycan. MurJ, part of the multidrug/oligosaccharidyl-lipid/polysaccharide (MOP) transporter superfamily, was recently shown to carry out this process. However, our understanding of how MurJ flips lipid II and how MOP transporters operate in general remains limited by a lack of structural information. Here we present a crystal structure of MurJ from Thermosipho africanus in an inward-facing conformation at 2.0 Å resolution. A hydrophobic groove is formed by two C-terminal transmembrane helices, which leads into a large central cavity that is mostly cationic. Our studies not only provide the first structural glimpse of MurJ but also suggest that alternating access is important for MurJ function, which may be applicable to other MOP superfamily transporters.

This protocol describes the screening of a library of low-molecular-weight compounds (fragments) using a series of biophysical ligand-binding assays. Fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) has emerged as a successful method to design high-affinity ligands for biomacromolecules of therapeutic interest. It involves detecting relatively weak interactions between the fragments and a target macromolecule using sensitive biophysical techniques. These weak binders provide a starting point for the development of inhibitors with submicromolar affinity. Here we describe an efficient fragment screening cascade that can identify binding fragments (hits) within weeks. It is divided into three stages: (i) preliminary screening using differential scanning fluorimetry (DSF), (ii) validation by NMR spectroscopy and (iii) characterization of binding fragments by isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and X-ray crystallography. Although this protocol is readily applicable in academic settings because of its emphasis on low cost and medium-throughput early-stage screening technologies, the core principle of orthogonal validation makes it robust enough to meet the quality standards of an industrial laboratory.

SummaryN-linked glycosylation is a predominant post-translational modification of protein in eukaryotes, and its dysregulation is the etiology of several human disorders. The enzyme UDP-N-acetylglucosamine:dolichyl-phosphate N-acetylglucosaminephosphotransferase (GlcNAc-1-P-transferase, GPT) catalyzes the first and committed step of N-linked glycosylation in the endoplasmic reticulum membrane, and it is the target of the natural product tunicamycin. Tunicamycin has potent antibacterial activity by inhibiting the bacterial cell wall synthesis enzyme MraY, but its usefulness as an antibiotic is limited by off-target inhibition of human GPT. Our understanding of how tunicamycin inhibits N-linked glycosylation and efforts to selectively target MraY are hampered by a lack of structural information. Here we present crystal structures of human GPT in complex with tunicamycin. Our structural and functional analyses reveal the difference between GPT and MraY in their mechanisms of inhibition by tunicamycin. We demonstrate that this difference could be exploited for the design of MraY-specific inhibitors as potential antibiotics.

Novel antibacterial agents are needed to address the emergence of global antibiotic resistance. MraY is a promising candidate for antibiotic development because it is the target of five classes of naturally occurring nucleoside inhibitors with potent antibacterial activity. Although these natural products share a common uridine moiety, their core structures vary substantially and they exhibit different activity profiles. An incomplete understanding of the structural and mechanistic basis of MraY inhibition has hindered the translation of these compounds to the clinic. Here we present crystal structures of MraY in complex with representative members of the liposidomycin/caprazamycin, capuramycin, and mureidomycin classes of nucleoside inhibitors. Our structures reveal cryptic druggable hot spots in the shallow inhibitor binding site of MraY that were not previously appreciated. Structural analyses of nucleoside inhibitor binding provide insights into the chemical logic of MraY inhibition, which can guide novel approaches to MraY-targeted antibiotic design.

Adiponectin is a circulating insulin-sensitizing hormone that homo-oligomerizes into trimers, hexamers, and higher molecular weight (HMW) species. Low levels of circulating HMW adiponectin appear to increase the risk for insulin resistance. Currently, assembly of adiponectin oligomers, and consequently mechanisms responsible for decreased HMW adiponectin in insulin resistance, are not well understood. In the work reported here, we analyzed the re-assembly of the most abundant HMW adiponectin species, the octadecamer, following its collapse to smaller oligomers in vitro. Purified bovine serum adiponectin octadecamer was treated with reducing agents at pH 5 to obtain trimers. These reduced trimers partially and spontaneously reassembled into octadecamers upon oxidative formation of disulfide bonds. Disulfide bonds appear to occupy a greater role in the process of oligomerization than in the structural stabilization of mature octadecamer. Stable octadecamers lacking virtually all disulfide bonds could be observed in abundance using native gel electrophoresis, dynamic light scattering, and collision-induced dissociation nano-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. These findings indicate that while disulfide bonds help to maintain the mature octadecameric adiponectin structure, their more important function is to stabilize intermediates during the assembly of octadecamer. Adiponectin oligomerization must proceed through intermediates that are at least partially reduced. Accordingly, fully oxidized adiponectin hexamers failed to reassemble into octadecamers at a rate comparable to that of reduced trimers. As the findings from the present study are based on in vitro experiments, their in vivo relevance remains unclear. Nevertheless, they describe a redox environment-dependent model of adiponectin oligomerization that can be tested using cell-based approaches.Adiponectin is a peptide hormone secreted from adipocytes with insulin-sensitizing and vascular and cardiac protective functions (1-4). Expression of the adiponectin gene and circulating adiponectin levels are subjected to regulation by a variety of hormones, cytokines, and transcription factors (1). Low levels of circulating adiponectin are associated with insulin resistance, coronary artery disease, and obesity, especially visceral obesity, in humans and animals (5,6). Mice lacking adiponectin display increased proliferation of vascular smooth † This work was supported by a Junior Faculty Award from American Diabetes Association (1-08-JF-54) and by a grant from the Arizona Biomedical Research Commission to T.-S.T. We also acknowledge financial support from NSF (DBI Grant CHE 024447) for development of the QToF instrument and NIH (R01 GM-051387) for support of experiments on fragmentation. C.M.J. is the recipient of a Pfizer Graduate Research Fellowship in Analytical Chemistry. MALDI-TOF mass spectrometric data were acquired by the Arizona Proteomics Consortium with support from NIEHS (ES06694) to the University of Arizona Southwest Environmental Healt...