Lipid droplets (LDs) provide a reservoir for triacylglycerol storage and are a central hub for fatty acid trafficking and signaling in cells. Lipolysis promotes mitochondrial biogenesis and oxidative metabolism via a SIRT1/PGC-1a/PPARa-dependent pathway through an unknown mechanism. Herein, we identify that monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) allosterically activate SIRT1 toward select peptide-substrates such as PGC-1a. MUFAs enhance PGC-1a/ PPARa signaling and promote oxidative metabolism in cells and animal models in a SIRT1-dependent manner. Moreover, we characterize the LD protein perilipin 5 (PLIN5), which is known to enhance mitochondrial biogenesis and function, to be a fattyacid-binding protein that preferentially binds LDderived monounsaturated fatty acids and traffics them to the nucleus following cAMP/PKA-mediated lipolytic stimulation. Thus, these studies identify the first-known endogenous allosteric modulators of SIRT1 and characterize a LD-nuclear signaling axis that underlies the known metabolic benefits of MUFAs and PLIN5.

Background The venoms of predators such as spiders, scorpions, cone snails, sea anemones, and snakes, have been an excellent source of pharmacological diversity for drug discovery and as pharmacological tools for elucidating the structure, function, and physiological properties of ion channels. Here we describe the first known peptide antagonist of the nociceptor ion channel transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (TRPA1). Results We constructed a recombinant cDNA library encoding ∼100 diverse GPI-anchored peptide toxins (t-toxins) derived from spider venoms and screened this library by co-expression in Xenopus oocytes with TRPA1. This screen resulted in identification of protoxin-I (ProTx-I), a 35-residue peptide from the venom of the Peruvian green-velvet tarantula, Thrixopelma pruriens, as the first known high-affinity peptide TRPA1 antagonist. Interestingly, ProTx-I was previously identified as an antagonist of voltage-gated sodium (NaV) channels. To identify the surfaces of ProTx-I by which it binds to these distinct ion channel types, we constructed a t-toxin library of ProTx-I alanine-scanning mutants and screened this library against NaV1.2 and TRPA1. This revealed distinct partially overlapping surfaces of ProTx-I by which it binds to these two ion channels, and whose specific chemical features explain its higher affinity for NaV1.2 than for TRPA1. Importantly, this mutagenesis yielded two novel ProTx-I variants that are only active against either TRPA1or NaV1.2, but not both. By testing its activity against chimeric channels, we identified the extracellular loops of the TRPA1 S1-S4 gating domain as the ProTx-I binding site. Conclusions These studies establish screening of t-toxin libraries of native and mutated toxins, which we term “toxineering”, as a generally applicable method for isolation of novel ion channel modifiers and for design of ion channel modifiers with altered target selectivity. They also suggest that ProTx-I will be a valuable pharmacological reagent for addressing the biophysical mechanisms of TRPA1 gating, the physiology and pathophysiology of TRPA1 function in nociceptors, and for potential clinical application in the context of pain and inflammation.

Non-receptor protein tyrosine kinases (NRTKs) are essential for cellular homeostasis, and thus are a major focus of current drug discovery efforts. Peptide substrates that can enhance lanthanide ion luminescence upon tyrosine phosphorylation enable rapid, sensitive screening of kinase activity, however design of suitable substrates that can distinguish between tyrosine kinase families is a huge challenge. Despite their different substrate preferences, many NRTKs are structurally similar even between families. Furthermore, the development of lanthanide-based kinase assays is hampered by incomplete understanding of how to integrate sequence selectivity with metal ion binding, necessitating laborious iterative substrate optimization. We used curated proteomic data from endogenous kinase substrates and known Tb3+-binding sequences to build a generalizable in silico pipeline with tools to generate, screen, align and select potential phosphorylation-dependent Tb3+-sensitizing substrates that are most likely to be kinase specific. We demonstrated the approach by developing several substrates that are selective within kinase families and amenable to HTS applications. Overall, this strategy represents a pipeline for developing efficient and specific assays for virtually any tyrosine kinase that use high throughput screening-compatible lanthanide-based detection. The tools provided in the pipeline also have the potential to be adapted to identify peptides for other purposes, including other enzyme assays or protein binding ligands.

Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) is a well-documented target for cancer therapeutics due to its role in B-cell signaling pathways. However, inhibitor design is hindered by lack of tools to assess kinase activity. We used in vitro phosphoproteomics to determine BTK's substrate preferences and applied this information to our updated data processing pipeline, KINATEST-ID 2.1.0. This pipeline generates a position-specific scoring matrix for BTK and a list of candidate synthetic substrates, each given a score. Characterization of selected synthetic substrates demonstrated a correlation between KINATEST-ID 2.1.0 score and biochemical performance in in vitro kinase assays. Additionally, by incorporating a known terbium-chelation motif, we adapted synthetic substrates for use in an antibody-free time-resolved terbium luminescence assay. This assay has applications in high-throughput inhibitor screening.

Kinase signaling is a major mechanism driving many cancers. While many inhibitors have been developed and are employed in the clinic, resistance due to crosstalk and pathway reprogramming is an emerging problem. High-throughput assays to detect multiple pathway kinases simultaneously could better model these complex relationships and enable drug development to combat this type of resistance. We developed a strategy to take advantage of time-resolved luminescence of Tb3+-chelated phosphotyrosine-containing peptides, which facilitated efficient energy transfer to small molecule fluorophores conjugated to the peptides to produce orthogonally-colored biosensors for two different kinases. This enabled multiplexed detection with high signal to noise in a high-throughput-compatible format. This proof-of-concept study provides a platform that could be applied to other lanthanide metal and fluorophore combinations to achieve even greater multiplexing without the need for phosphospecific antibodies.