The overexpression of Hdm2 and HdmX is a common mechanism used by many tumor cells to inactive the p53 tumor suppressor pathway promoting cell survival. Targeting Hdm2 and HdmX has emerged as a validated therapeutic strategy for treating cancers with wild-type p53. Small linear peptides mimicking the N-terminal fragment of p53 have been shown to be potent Hdm2/HdmX antagonists. The potential therapeutic use of these peptides, however, is limited by their poor stability and bioavailability. Here, we report the engineering of the cyclotide MCoTI-I to efficiently antagonize intracellular p53 degradation. The resulting cyclotide MCo-PMI was able to bind with low nanomolar affinity to both Hdm2 and HdmX, showed high stability in human serum and was cytotoxic to wild-type p53 cancer cell lines by activating the p53 tumor suppressor pathway both in vitro and in vivo. These features make the cyclotide MCoTI-I an optimal scaffold for targeting intracellular protein-protein interactions.

Methods to visualize, track and modify proteins in living cells are central for understanding the spatial and temporal underpinnings of life inside cells. Although fluorescent proteins have proven to be extremely useful for in vivo studies of protein function, their utility is inherently limited because their spectral and structural characteristics are interdependent. These limitations have spurred the creation of alternative approaches for the chemical labeling of proteins. We report in this work the use of fluorescence resonance emission transfer (FRET)-quenched DnaE split-inteins for the site-specific labeling and concomitant fluorescence activation of proteins in living cells. We have successfully employed this approach for the site-specific in-cell labeling of the DNA binding domain (DBD) of the transcription factor YY1 using several human cell lines. Moreover, we have shown that this approach can be also used for modifying proteins in order to control their cellular localization and potentially alter their biological activity.

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We report for the first time the recombinant expression of fully folded bioactive cyclotides inside live yeast cells by using intracellular protein trans-splicing in combination with a highly efficient split-intein. This approach was successfully used to produce the naturally occurring cyclotide MCoTI-I and the engineered bioactive cyclotide MCoCP4. Cyclotide MCoCP4 was shown reduce the toxicity of human α-synuclein in live yeast cells. Cyclotide MCoCP4 was selected by phenotypic screening from cells transformed with a mixture of plasmids encoding MCoCP4 and inactive cyclotide MCoTI-I in a ratio of 1 to 5×104. This demonstrates the potential for using yeast to perform phenotypic screening of genetically-encoded cyclotide-based libraries in eukaryotic cells.

Here we review the different biochemical approaches available for the expression of backbone-cyclized polypeptides, including peptides and proteins. These methods allow for the production of circular polypeptides either in vitro or in vivo using standard recombinant DNA expression techniques. Polypeptide circularization provides a valuable tool to study the effects of topology on protein stability and folding kinetics. Furthermore, having biosynthetic access to backbone-cyclized polypeptides makes the production of genetically-encoded libraries of cyclic polypeptides possible. The production of such libraries, which was previously restricted to the domain of synthetic chemistry, now offers biologists access to highly diverse and stable molecular libraries that can be screened using high-throughput methods for the rapid selection of novel cyclic polypeptide sequences with new biological activities.