Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is the human receptor that interacts with the spike protein of coronaviruses, including the one that produced the 2020 coronavirus pandemic (COVID‐19). Thus, ACE2 is a potential target for drugs that disrupt the interaction of human cells with SARS‐CoV‐2 to abolish infection. There is also interest in drugs that inhibit or activate ACE2, that is, for cardiovascular disorders or colitis. Compounds binding at alternative sites could allosterically affect the interaction with the spike protein. Herein, we review biochemical, chemical biology, and structural information on ACE2, including the recent cryoEM structures of full‐length ACE2. We conclude that ACE2 is very dynamic and that allosteric drugs could be developed to target ACE2. At the time of the 2020 pandemic, we suggest that available ACE2 inhibitors or activators in advanced development should be tested for their ability to allosterically displace the interaction between ACE2 and the spike protein.

Amide hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry is powerful for describing combinatorial coupling effects of a cooperative ligand pair binding at noncontiguous sites: adenosine at the ATP-pocket and a docking peptide (PIFtide) at the PIFpocket, on a model protein kinase PDK1. Binding of two ligands to PDK1 reveal multiple hotspots of synergistic allostery with cumulative effects greater than the sum of individual effects mediated by each ligand. We quantified this synergism and ranked these hotspots using a difference in deuteration-based approach, which showed that the strongest synergistic effects were observed at three of the critical catalytic loci of kinases: the aB-aC helices, and HRD-motif loop, and DFG-motif. Additionally, we observed weaker synergistic effects at a distal GHI-subdomain locus. Synergistic changes in deuterium exchange observed at a distal site but not at the intermediate sites of the large lobe of the kinase reveals allosteric propagation in proteins to operate through two modes. Direct electrostatic interactions between polar and charged amino acids that mediate targeted relay of allosteric signals, and diffused relay of allosteric signals through soft matter-like hydrophobic core amino acids. Furthermore, we provide evidence that the conserved b-3 strand lysine of protein kinases (Lys111 of PDK1) functions as an integrator node to coordinate allosteric coupling of the two ligandbinding sites. It maintains indirect interactions with the ATP-pocket and mediates a critical salt bridge with a glutamate (Glu130) of aC helix, which is conserved across all kinases. In summary, allosteric propagation in cooperative, dual-liganded enzyme targets is bidirectional and synergistic and offers a strategy for combinatorial drug development.

Allostery is a basic principle that enables proteins to process and transmit cellular information. Protein kinases evolved allosteric mechanisms to transduce cellular signals to downstream signalling components or effector molecules. Protein kinases catalyse the transfer of the terminal phosphate from ATP to protein substrates upon specific stimuli. Protein kinases are targets for the development of small molecule inhibitors for the treatment of human diseases. Drug development has focussed on ATP-binding site, while there is increase interest in the development of drugs targeting alternative sites, i.e. allosteric sites. Here, we review the mechanism of regulation of protein kinases, which often involve the allosteric modulation of the ATP-binding site, enhancing or inhibiting activity. We exemplify the molecular mechanism of allostery in protein kinases downstream of PI3-kinase signalling with a focus on phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase 1 (PDK1), a model kinase where small compounds can allosterically modulate the conformation of the kinase bidirectionally.

The activation of at least 23 different mammalian kinases requires the phosphorylation of their hydrophobic motifs by the kinase PDK1. A linker connects the phosphoinositide-binding PH domain to the catalytic domain, which contains a docking site for substrates called the PIF pocket. Here, we used a chemical biology approach to show that PDK1 existed in equilibrium between at least three distinct conformations with differing substrate specificities. The inositol polyphosphate derivative HYG8 bound to the PH domain and disrupted PDK1 dimerization by stabilizing a monomeric conformation in which the PH domain associated with the catalytic domain and the PIF pocket was accessible. In the absence of lipids, HYG8 potently inhibited the phosphorylation of Akt (also termed PKB) but did not affect the intrinsic activity of PDK1 or the phosphorylation of SGK, which requires docking to the PIF pocket. In contrast, the small-molecule valsartan bound to the PIF pocket and stabilized a second distinct monomeric conformation. Our study reveals dynamic conformations of full-length PDK1 in which the location of the linker and the PH domain relative to the catalytic domain determines the selective phosphorylation of PDK1 substrates. The study further suggests new approaches for the design of drugs to selectively modulate signaling downstream of PDK1.

Phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase 1 (PDK1) is a master AGC kinase of the PI3K signalling pathway that phosphorylates at least other 23 AGC kinases, being PKB/Akt the most relevant substrate for growth and cell survival, and therefore a potential drug target for cancer treatment. Over the years, our laboratory used a chemical and structural biology approach to study and characterize in detail the allosteric regulation of the catalytic domain of PDK1. We developed small compounds that bind to a regulatory site we termed the PIF-pocket and activate PDK1, mimicking the mechanism of activation of AGC kinases by phosphorylation. Using an integrative approach between biochemistry, crystallography and molecular dynamics, we showed how PS653, a small compound that binds to the active ATP-Binding site, displaces through a reverse allosteric mechanism the in vitro interaction between the PIF-pocket and PIFtide, which is a peptide derived from the hydrophobic motif of a PDK1 substrate. Thus, we not only demonstrated an allosteric regulation from a regulatory site to the active site, but also showed experimentally the existence of the reverse process [1]. This bidirectional allosteric mechanism of regulation between both pockets can therefore be modulated by small molecules that bind to their specific orthosteric site and either enhance or inhibit interactions at the allosteric site. Taking this into consideration, it is not surprising that while the pharmaceutical industry has been developing compounds that bind at the ATP-binding site of kinases, they unwillingly developed drugs that affect protein-protein interactions [2]. Moreover, we now provide further evidence of the bidirectional system using hydrogen/deuterium exchange (HDX) experiments and present a rather complete model for a kinase that can be modulated bidirectionally with small compounds. This concept of bidirectional allostery in kinases can be exploited to produce drugs that enhance or disrupt the formation of multi-protein complexes. Could this mechanism be already in use physiologically? We found out that adenosine binds at the ATP-binding site and allosterically enhances the interaction between PIFtide and PDK1, which demonstrates that bidirectional allostery is a phenomenum that can also be modulated by metabolites. But interestingly, adenine, AMP, ADP, or ATP do not produce this effect. The findings open the possibility that the physiological regulation of the kinase complexes may be modulated by metabolites and implies that the metabolic state of cells could be linked to cell signalling.