The advent of biocatalysts designed computationally and optimized by laboratory evolution provides an opportunity to explore molecular strategies for augmenting catalytic function. Applying a suite of NMR, crystallographic, and stopped-flow techniques to an enzyme designed for an elementary proton transfer reaction, we show how directed evolution gradually altered the conformational ensemble of the protein scaffold to populate a narrow, highly active conformational ensemble and achieve a nearly billionfold rate acceleration. Mutations acquired during optimization enabled global conformational changes, including high-energy backbone rearrangements, that cooperatively organized the catalytic base and oxyanion stabilizer, thus perfecting transition-state stabilization. Explicit sampling of conformational sub-states during design, and specifically stabilizing productive over all unproductive conformations, could speed up the development of protein catalysts for many chemical transformations.
Protein tyrosine phosphatase SHP2 functions as a key regulator of cell cycle control, and activating mutations cause several cancers. Here, we dissect the energy landscape of wild-type SHP2 and the oncogenic mutation E76K. NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography reveal that wild-type SHP2 exchanges between closed, inactive and open, active conformations. E76K mutation shifts this equilibrium toward the open state. The previously unknown open conformation is characterized, including the active-site WPD loop in the inward and outward conformations. Binding of the allosteric inhibitor SHP099 to E76K mutant, despite much weaker, results in an identical structure as the wild-type complex. A conformational selection to the closed state reduces drug affinity which, combined with E76K’s much higher activity, demands significantly greater SHP099 concentrations to restore wild-type activity levels. The differences in structural ensembles and drug-binding kinetics of cancer-associated SHP2 forms may stimulate innovative ideas for developing more potent inhibitors for activated SHP2 mutants.
Protein kinases are major drug targets, but the development of highly-selective inhibitors has been challenging due to the similarity of their active sites. The observation of distinct structural states of the fully-conserved Asp-Phe-Gly (DFG) loop has put the concept of conformational selection for the DFG-state at the center of kinase drug discovery. Recently, it was shown that Gleevec selectivity for the Tyr-kinase Abl was instead rooted in conformational changes after drug binding. Here, we investigate whether protein dynamics after binding is a more general paradigm for drug selectivity by characterizing the binding of several approved drugs to the Ser/Thr-kinase Aurora A. Using a combination of biophysical techniques, we propose a universal drug-binding mechanism, that rationalizes selectivity, affinity and long on-target residence time for kinase inhibitors. These new concepts, where protein dynamics in the drug-bound state plays the crucial role, can be applied to inhibitor design of targets outside the kinome.
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