Discovering target and off-target effects of specific compounds is critical to drug discovery and development. We generated a compendium of "chemical-genetic interaction" profiles by testing the collection of viable yeast haploid deletion mutants for hypersensitivity to 82 compounds and natural product extracts. To cluster compounds with a similar mode-of-action and to reveal insights into the cellular pathways and proteins affected, we applied both a hierarchical clustering and a factorgram method, which allows a gene or compound to be associated with more than one group. In particular, tamoxifen, a breast cancer therapeutic, was found to disrupt calcium homeostasis and phosphatidylserine (PS) was recognized as a target for papuamide B, a cytotoxic lipopeptide with anti-HIV activity. Further, the profile of crude extracts resembled that of its constituent purified natural product, enabling detailed classification of extract activity prior to purification. This compendium should serve as a valuable key for interpreting cellular effects of novel compounds with similar activities.

Castration-recurrent prostate cancer (CRPC) is suspected to depend on androgen receptor (AR). The AF-1 region in the amino-terminal domain (NTD) of AR contains most, if not all, of the transcriptional activity. Here we identify EPI-001, a small molecule that blocked transactivation of the NTD and was specific for inhibition of AR without attenuating transcriptional activities of related steroid receptors. EPI-001 interacted with the AF-1 region, inhibited protein-protein interactions with AR, and reduced AR interaction with androgen-response elements on target genes. Importantly, EPI-001 blocked androgen-induced proliferation and caused cytoreduction of CRPC in xenografts dependent on AR for growth and survival without causing toxicity.

Hormone therapies for advanced prostate cancer target the androgen receptor (AR) ligand-binding domain (LBD), but these ultimately fail and the disease progresses to lethal castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). The mechanisms that drive CRPC are incompletely understood, but may involve constitutively active AR splice variants that lack the LBD. The AR N-terminal domain (NTD) is essential for AR activity, but targeting this domain with small-molecule inhibitors is complicated by its intrinsic disorder. Here we investigated EPI-001, a small-molecule antagonist of AR NTD that inhibits protein-protein interactions necessary for AR transcriptional activity. We found that EPI analogs covalently bound the NTD to block transcriptional activity of AR and its splice variants and reduced the growth of CRPC xenografts. These findings suggest that the development of small-molecule inhibitors that bind covalently to intrinsically disordered proteins is a promising strategy for development of specific and effective anticancer agents.

We present a yeast chemical-genomics approach designed to identify genes that when mutated confer drug resistance, thereby providing insight about the modes of action of compounds. We developed a molecular barcoded yeast open reading frame (MoBY-ORF) library in which each gene, controlled by its native promoter and terminator, is cloned into a centromere-based vector along with two unique oligonucleotide barcodes. The MoBY-ORF resource has numerous genetic and chemical-genetic applications, but here we focus on cloning wild-type versions of mutant drug-resistance genes using a complementation strategy and on simultaneously assaying the fitness of all transformants with barcode microarrays. The complementation cloning was validated by mutation detection using whole-genome yeast tiling microarrays, which identified unique polymorphisms associated with a drug-resistant mutant. We used the MoBY-ORF library to identify the genetic basis of several drug-resistant mutants and in this analysis discovered a new class of sterol-binding compounds.

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Because phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) plays a central role in cellular activation, proliferation, and survival, pharmacologic inhibitors targeting components of the PI3K pathway are actively being developed as therapeutics for the treatment of inflammatory disorders and cancer. These targeted drugs inhibit the activity of either PI3K itself or downstream protein kinases. However, a previously unexplored, alternate strategy is to activate the negative regulatory phosphatases in this pathway. The SH2-containing inositol-5-phosphatase SHIP1 is a normal physiologic counterregulator of PI3K in immune/hematopoietic cells that hydrolyzes the PI3K product phosphatidylinositiol-3,4,5-trisphosphate (PIP 3 ). We now describe the identification and characterization of potent and specific small-molecule activators of SHIP1. These compounds represent the first small-molecule activators of a phosphatase, and are able to activate recombinant SHIP1 enzyme in vitro and stimulate SHIP1 activity in intact macrophage and mast cells. Mechanism of activation studies with these compounds suggest that they bind a previously undescribed, allosteric activation domain within SHIP1. Furthermore, in vivo administration of these compounds was protective in mouse models of endotoxemia and acute cutaneous anaphylaxis, suggesting that SHIP1 agonists could be used therapeutically to inhibit the PI3K pathway. IntroductionIn response to extracellular signals, phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) becomes activated and phosphorylates phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate (PI-4,5-P 2 ) within the plasma membrane to generate phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-bisphosphate (PIP 3 ). PIP 3 then initiates a cascade of downstream signaling pathways by interacting with pleckstrin homology (PH) domain-containing proteins, such as protein kinase B (PKB, also known as Akt), that regulate cellular activation, proliferation and/or survival, depending on the cell type and stimulus. 1 Cellular levels of PIP 3 are normally tightly regulated by both PI3K and the 5Ј inositol phosphatases SHIP1 (SH2 domain-containing inositol phosphatase) and SHIP2, as well as the 3Ј inositol phosphatase PTEN, which dephosphorylates PIP 3 . 2,3 Of these, SHIP1 is unique in that its expression is restricted primarily to immune and hematopoietic cells. 2,4 SHIP's role in immune cell homeostasis is shown both by the myeloproliferative syndrome observed in SHIP1 Ϫ/Ϫ mice, as well as the hypersensitivity of SHIP1 Ϫ/Ϫ mice and cells to immune stimulation. 5,6 SHIP1 mediates signaling from the inhibitory Fc␥RIIB receptor, 7 and is important in terminating signal transduction from activating immune/hematopoietic cell receptor systems. 8 Diminished SHIP1 activity or expression has been observed in human inflammatory diseases 9 and hematopoietic malignancies. [10][11][12][13] Because dysregulated activation of the PI3K pathway contributes to inflammatory/immune disorders and cancer, intense efforts have been invested into the development of inhibitors of PI3K itself, as well as downstream protein kinas...

The new chlorinated peptides sintokamides A to E (1-5) have been isolated from specimens of the marine sponge Dysidea sp. collected in Indonesia. Their structures were elucidated by a combination of spectroscopic and single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses. Sintokamide A (1) is an inhibitor of N-terminus transactivation of the androgen receptor in prostate cancer cells.

Specific inhibitors of human pancreatic alpha-amylase (HPA) have potential as oral agents for the control of blood glucose levels in the treatment of diabetes and obesity. In a search for novel inhibitors, a library of 30 000 crude biological extracts of terrestrial and marine origin has been screened. A number of inhibitory extracts were identified, of which the most potent was subjected to bioassay-guided purification. A family of three glycosylated acyl flavonols, montbretins A-C, was thereby identified and characterized as competitive amylase inhibitors, with K(i) values ranging from 8.1-6100 nM. Competitive inhibition by myricetin, which corresponds to the flavone core, and noncompetitive inhibition by a second fragment, ethyl caffeiate, suggest a binding mode for these inhibitors.