The natural product withaferin A (WFA) exhibits antitumor and antiangiogenesis activity in vivo, which results from this drug's potent growth inhibitory activities. Here, we show that WFA binds to the intermediate filament (IF) protein, vimentin, by covalently modifying its cysteine residue, which is present in the highly conserved alpha-helical coiled coil 2B domain. WFA induces vimentin filaments to aggregate in vitro, an activity manifested in vivo as punctate cytoplasmic aggregates that colocalize vimentin and F-actin. WFA's potent dominant-negative effect on F-actin requires vimentin expression and induces apoptosis. Finally, we show that WFA-induced inhibition of capillary growth in a mouse model of corneal neovascularization is compromised in vimentin-deficient mice. These findings identify WFA as a chemical genetic probe of IF functions, and illuminate a potential molecular target for withanolide-based therapeutics for treating angioproliferative and malignant diseases.
Abstract:Cocaine is recognized as the most reinforcing of all drugs of abuse. There is no anticocaine medication available. The disastrous medical and social consequences of cocaine addiction have made the development of an anticocaine medication a high priority. It has been recognized that an ideal anticocaine medication is one that accelerates cocaine metabolism producing biologically inactive metabolites via a route similar to the primary cocaine-metabolizing pathway, i.e., cocaine hydrolysis catalyzed by plasma enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE). However, wild-type BChE has a low catalytic efficiency against the abused cocaine. Design of a high-activity enzyme mutant is extremely challenging, particularly when the chemical reaction process is rate-determining for the enzymatic reaction. Here we report the design and discovery of a high-activity mutant of human BChE by using a novel, systematic computational design approach based on transition-state simulations and activation energy calculations. The novel computational design approach has led to discovery of the most efficient cocaine hydrolase, i.e., a human BChE mutant with an ∼2000-fold improved catalytic efficiency, promising for therapeutic treatment of cocaine overdose and addiction as an exogenous enzyme in human. The encouraging discovery resulted from the computational design not only provides a promising anticocaine medication but also demonstrates that the novel, generally applicable computational design approach is promising for rational enzyme redesign and drug discovery.
Fundamental reaction mechanism of cocaine esterase (CocE)-catalyzed hydrolysis of (−)-cocaine and the corresponding free energy profile have been studied by performing pseudobond firstprinciple quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM)-free energy (FE) calculations. Based on the QM/MM-FE results, the entire hydrolysis reaction consists of four reaction steps, including the nucleophilic attack on carbonyl carbon of (−)-cocaine benzoyl ester by hydroxyl group of Ser117, dissociation of (−)-cocaine benzoyl ester, nucleophilic attack on carbonyl carbon of (−)-cocaine benzoyl ester by water, and finally the dissociation between (−)-cocaine benzoyl group and Ser117 of CocE. The third reaction step involving the nucleophilic attack of a water molecule was found to be rate-determining, which is remarkably different from (−)-cocaine hydrolysis catalyzed by wild-type butyrylcholinesterase (where the formation of prereactive BChE-(−)-cocaine complex is rate-determining) or its mutants containing Tyr332Gly or Tyr332Gly mutation (where the first chemical reaction step is rate-determining). Besides, the role of Asp259 in the catalytic triad of CocE does not follow the general concept of the "charge-relay system" for all serine esterases. The free energy barrier calculated for the rate-determining step of CocE-catalyzed hydrolysis of (−)-cocaine is 17.9 kcal/mol, which is in good agreement with the experimentally derived activation free energy of 16.2 kcal/mol. In present study, where many sodium ions are present, the effects of counter ions are found to be significant in determining the free energy barrier. The finding of the significant effects of counter ions on the free energy barrier may also be valuable in guiding future mechanistic studies on other charged enzymes.
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