A specific small-molecule inhibitor of p97 would provide an important tool to investigate diverse functions of this essential ATPase associated with diverse cellular activities (AAA) ATPase and to evaluate its potential to be a therapeutic target in human disease. We carried out a high-throughput screen to identify inhibitors of p97 ATPase activity. Dual-reporter cell lines that simultaneously express p97-dependent and p97-independent proteasome substrates were used to stratify inhibitors that emerged from the screen. N 2 ,N 4 -dibenzylquinazoline-2,4-diamine (DBeQ) was identified as a selective, potent, reversible, and ATP-competitive p97 inhibitor. DBeQ blocks multiple processes that have been shown by RNAi to depend on p97, including degradation of ubiquitin fusion degradation and endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation pathway reporters, as well as autophagosome maturation. DBeQ also potently inhibits cancer cell growth and is more rapid than a proteasome inhibitor at mobilizing the executioner caspases-3 and -7. Our results provide a rationale for targeting p97 in cancer therapy.apoptosis | autophagy | unfolded protein response T he AAA (ATPase associated with diverse cellular activities) ATPase p97 is conserved across all eukaryotes and is essential for life in budding yeast (1) and mice (2). p97 was first linked to the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) through its role in the turnover of ubiquitin−β-galactosidase fusion proteins via the "ubiquitin fusion degradation" (UFD) pathway (3). Since then, p97 has been shown to play a critical role in the degradation of misfolded membrane and secretory proteins (4) and has also been linked to a broad array of cellular processes, including Golgi membrane reassembly (5), membrane transport (6), regulation of myofibril assembly (7), cell division (8), formation of protein aggregates (9), and autophagosome maturation (10, 11). The broad range of cellular functions for p97 is thought to derive from its ability to unfold proteins or disassemble protein complexes, but the detailed mechanism of how p97 works and is linked to specific cellular processes remains largely unknown.The structure of p97 comprises three domains: an N-terminal domain that recruits adaptors/substrate specificity factors, followed by two ATPase domains, D1 and D2 (12, 13). p97 monomers assemble to form a homohexamer that is thought to provide a platform for transduction of chemical activity into mechanical force that is applied to substrate proteins. The D1 domain mediates hexamerization (14) and has very low ATPase activity (15). Most of the ATPase activity is contributed by the D2 domain, which is thought to underlie p97's function as a mechanochemical transducer (16).The mechanochemical activity of p97 is linked to substrate proteins by an array of 13 UBX (ubiquitin regulatory X) domain adapters that bind the N-terminal domain of p97 (17), as well as the non-UBX domain adaptors Ufd1 and Npl4 (18). The functions and mechanisms of action of these different p97-adaptor complexes remain poorly u...

Imbalances in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) proteostasis are associated with etiologically-diverse degenerative diseases linked to excessive extracellular protein misfolding and aggregation. Reprogramming of the ER proteostasis environment through genetic activation of the Unfolded Protein Response (UPR)-associated transcription factor ATF6 attenuates secretion and extracellular aggregation of amyloidogenic proteins. Here, we employed a screening approach that included complementary arm-specific UPR reporters and medium-throughput transcriptional profiling to identify non-toxic small molecules that phenocopy the ATF6-mediated reprogramming of the ER proteostasis environment. The ER reprogramming afforded by our molecules requires activation of endogenous ATF6 and occurs independent of global ER stress. Furthermore, our molecules phenocopy the ability of genetic ATF6 activation to selectively reduce secretion and extracellular aggregation of amyloidogenic proteins. These results show that small molecule-dependent ER reprogramming, achieved through preferential activation of the ATF6 transcriptional program, is a promising strategy to ameliorate imbalances in ER function associated with degenerative protein aggregation diseases.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.15550.001

A high-throughput screen of the NIH molecular libraries sample collection and subsequent optimization of a lead dipeptide-like series of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) main protease (3CLpro) inhibitors led to the identification of probe compound ML188 (16-(R), (R)-N-(4-(tert-butyl)phenyl)-N-(2-(tert-butylamino)-2-oxo-1-(pyridin-3-yl)ethyl)furan-2-carboxamide, Pubchem CID: 46897844). Unlike the majority of reported coronavirus 3CLpro inhibitors that act via covalent modification of the enzyme, 16-(R) is a non-covalent SARS-CoV 3CLpro inhibitor with moderate MW and good enzyme and antiviral inhibitory activity. A multi-component Ugi reaction was utilized to rapidly explore structure activity relationships within S1′, S1, and S2 enzyme binding pockets. The X-ray structure of SARS-CoV 3CLpro bound with 16-(R) was instrumental in guiding subsequent rounds of chemistry optimization. 16-(R) provides an excellent starting point for the further design and refinement of 3CLpro inhibitors that act by a non-covalent mechanism of action.

Protein homeostasis (proteostasis) is essential for cellular and organismal health. Stress, aging, and the chronic expression of misfolded proteins, however, challenge the proteostasis machinery and the vitality of the cell. Enhanced expression of molecular chaperones, regulated by heat shock transcription factor-1 (HSF-1), has been shown to restore proteostasis in a variety of conformational disease models, suggesting a promising therapeutic approach. We describe the results of a ∼900,000 small molecule screen that identified novel classes of small molecule proteostasis regulators (PRs) that induce HSF-1-dependent chaperone expression and restore protein folding in multiple conformational disease models. The beneficial effects to proteome stability are mediated by HSF-1, DAF-16/FOXO, SKN-1/Nrf-2, and the chaperone machinery through mechanisms that are distinct from current known small molecule activators of the HSR. We suggest that modulation of the proteostasis network by PRs represents a promising therapeutic approach for the treatment of a variety of protein conformational diseases.

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