cell signaling

Illuminating the Function of a Dark Kinase (DCLK1) with a Selective Chemical Probe

Posted on by Promega

The understudied kinome represents a major challenge as well as an exciting opportunity in drug discovery. A team of researchers lead by Nathanael Gray at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute was able to partially elucidate the function of an understudied kinase, Doublecortin-like kinase 1 (DCLK1), in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cells (PDAC). The characterization of DCLK1 in PDAC was realized by developing a highly specific chemical probe (1). Promega NanoBRET™ Target Engagement (TE) technology enabled intracellular characterization of this chemical probe.

The Dark Kinome

NanoBRET target engagement

Comprised of over 500 proteins, the human kinome is among the broadest class of enzymes in humans and is rife with targets for small molecule therapeutics. Indeed, to date, over 50 small molecule kinase inhibitors have achieved FDA approval for use in treating cancer and inflammatory diseases, with nearly 200 kinase inhibitors in various stages of clinical evaluation (2). Moreover, broad genomic screening efforts have implicated the involvement of a large fraction of kinases in human pathologies (3). Despite such advancements, our knowledge of the kinome is limited to only a fraction of its family members (3,4). For example, currently less than 20% of human kinases are being targeted with drugs in clinical trials. Moreover, only a subset of kinases historically has garnered substantial citations in academic research journals (4). As a result, a large proportion of the human kinome lacks functional annotation; as such, these understudied or “dark” kinases remain elusive to therapeutic intervention (4).

Continue reading “Illuminating the Function of a Dark Kinase (DCLK1) with a Selective Chemical Probe”

Giant Rodent, Lowered Cancer Rates: What Genetic Analysis Reveals about the Capybara and Cancer

Posted on by Kari Kenefick

Do you find the thought of a giant rodent off-putting? Do your thoughts go to huge rats running amuck in dark allies, threatening unsuspecting passers by?

I personally hold rodents in low esteem. Rats, mice…who needs them? With the exception of cavies. I spent countless hours as a child playing with guinea pigs. We had as many as 16 of these little rodents at one time (the males are very capable of chewing or climbing out of cardboard boxes to reach a female in the next box). The baby guinea pigs were very cute and the adults had quite pronounced personalities, and a lot of attitude.

It was this history with guinea pigs that made me interested in learning more about the largest rodent in the world, the South American capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris). These family-oriented herbivores are found in savannas and forested areas, living in groups of as many as 100 members. They are excellent swimmers and can remain underwater for as long as 5 minutes. In fact, capybara mate only in the water. (Perhaps it’s not surprising then that the South American alligator, the caiman, is one of the capybara’s greatest predators.)

Photos of an adult male capybara.
A male capybara, with a scent gland (called a morillo) on his head. Photo by: Charles J Sharp – Own work, from Sharp Photography, sharpphotography, CC BY-SA 4.0.

With their squared-off nose and lack of tail, capybaras actually resemble guinea pigs. However, these oversized cavies weigh as much as 40 pounds. and can reach 24” at the shoulder, the size of an average standard poodle. Guinea pigs, on the other hand, weigh in at 2–3 pounds, and are 3–4” tall.

Their proportions make capybaras 60 times more massive than their closest relatives, rock cavies (Kerodon sp.) and 2,000 times more massive than the common mouse (Mus musculus). This tremendous size difference is why Herrera-Álvarez et al. took a closer look at the capybara, studying its propensity to develop cancer and other tradeoffs that would seem to coincide with its exceptional size.

Continue reading “Giant Rodent, Lowered Cancer Rates: What Genetic Analysis Reveals about the Capybara and Cancer”

Mutation Analysis Using HaloTag Fusion Proteins

Posted on by Gary Kobs

In a recent reference, Kinoshita and colleagues characterized the phosphorylation dynamics of MEK1 in human cells by using the phosphate affinity electrophoresis technique, Phos-tag sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (Phos-tag SDS-PAGE; 1). They found that multiple variants of MEK1 with diferent phosphorylation states are constitutively present in typical human cells.

To investigate the relationships between kinase activity and drug efficacy researchers from the same laboratory group conducted phosphorylation profling of various MEK1 mutants by using Phos-tag SDS- PAGE (2).

They introduced mutations in of the MEK-1 coding gene that are associated with spontaneous melanoma, lung cancer, gastric cancer, colon cancer and ovarian cancer were introduced into Flexi HaloTag clone pFN21AE0668, which is suitable for expression of N-terminal HaloTag-fused MEK1 in mammalian cells. Continue reading “Mutation Analysis Using HaloTag Fusion Proteins”

Making Drug Discovery More Efficient: Predicting Drug Side Effects in Early Screening Efforts

Posted on by Michele Arduengo

26911030-Laymans-KSPS-figure-WEB-R4Drug research and development is a complex and expensive process that begins with initial screening steps of candidate chemical compounds, and compounds that appear to have the desired potency against a specific cellular target or pathway are further evaluated. Candidate compounds that fail late in development or during clinical trials because of off-target effects are costly, and can be dangerous. Therefore drug developers not only need to ensure that a candidate compound is effective as a therapy, but also they need to predict any potential undesirable side effects due to off-target activities as early as possible in the drug discovery and development process. Continue reading “Making Drug Discovery More Efficient: Predicting Drug Side Effects in Early Screening Efforts”

A NanoBRET™ Biosensor for GPCR:G protein Interaction with the Kinetics and Temporal Resolution of Patch Clamping

Posted on by Michele Arduengo

Electrophysiologists are talented scientists/artists who see into the events of the cell with amazing detail.
Electrophysiology experiments provide a view into the cell with amazing detail. The paper reviewed here describes a molecular reporter biosensor (NanoBRET) that can offer the same kind of temporal and spatial resolution traditionally reserved for extremely labor-intensive experiments like patch clamp analysis.

I confess that I struggled through biophysics, and my Bertil Hille textbook Ion Channels of Excitable Membranes lies neglected somewhere in a box in my basement (I have not tossed it into the recycle bin—I can’t bear too, I spent too much time bonding with that book in graduate school).

My struggles in that graduate class and my attendance at the seminars of my grad school colleagues who were conducting electrophysiological studies left me with a sincere awe and appreciation of both the genius and the artistry required to produce nice electrophysiology data. The people who are good at these experiments are artists—they have the golden touch when it comes to generating that megaohm seal between a piece of cell membrane and a finely pulled glass pipette. And, they are brilliant scientists, they really understand the physics, the chemistry and the biology of the cells they study from a perspective that very few scientists ever develop.

Electrophysiology data, which often demonstrate the gating of a single channel protein in response to a single stimulus in real time–ions crossing a membrane through a single protein–are amazing for their ability, unlike virtually any other experimental data for the story they can tell about what is going on in a cell in real time under physiological conditions.

So when I read the paper recently published by Mashuo et al. in Science Signaling “Distinct profiles of functional discrimination among G proteins determine the action of G protein-coupled receptors”, this sentence really caught my attention:

When constructs were ectopically expressed in HEK 293T/17 cells, we obtained very similar kinetics for the GPCR-driven responses between NanoBRET™ biosensors and the patch clamp recordings.

They continue:

Indeed, the activation rates that we observed were very similar to those of GPCR-stimulated GIRKs [G protein-coupled, inwardly rectifying K+ channel] in native cells, suggesting that the conditions of this assay closely match the in vivo setting. This finding further demonstrates the ability of the system to resolve the fast, physiological relevant kinetics of GPCR signaling.

A reporter biosensor that can resolve events similarly to patch clamping?!  Amazing. Continue reading “A NanoBRET™ Biosensor for GPCR:G protein Interaction with the Kinetics and Temporal Resolution of Patch Clamping”

Targeting MYC: The Need to Study Protein:Protein Interactions in Cells

Posted on by Michele Arduengo
Crystal Structure of MYC MAX Heterodimer bound to DNA ImageSource=RCSB PDB; StructureID=1nkp; DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.2210/pdb1nkp/pdb;
Crystal Structure of MYC MAX Heterodimer bound to DNA ImageSource=RCSB PDB; StructureID=1nkp; DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.2210/pdb1nkp/pdb;

In 1982, picked up because of its homology to chicken virus genes that could transform cells, MYC became one of the first human genes identified that could drive cellular transformation (1,2). Since that time countless laboratories have prodded and poked the human MYC gene, the MYC protein, their homologs in other animal models, and their transforming viral counterparts.

MYC is a transcription factor and forms heterodimers with a required protein partner, MAX, before binding to the E box sequences of DNA regulatory regions (3). MYC regulates gene expression of many targets through interactions with a host of proteins, often referred to as the MYC Interactome (2).  In fact, MYC is estimated to bind 10–15% of the genome, and it regulates the expression of genes that  are transcribed by by each of the three RNA polymerases (2).

MYC plays a central role in regulating cell growth, proliferation, apoptosis, differentiation and transformation, acting as a central integrator of cellular signals. MYC is tightly regulated at multiple levels from gene expression to protein stability. Dysregulation (usually upregulation) of the amount and stability of Myc protein is observed in many human cancers. Even in cancers in which MYC is not directly involved in transforming cells, its normal expression is often required to support the extracellular matrix and/or vascularization necessary for tumor growth and formation (4).

Because MYC is such a central player cancer pathology, it is an attractive target for cancer therapeutics  (2) .

Continue reading “Targeting MYC: The Need to Study Protein:Protein Interactions in Cells”

Uncovering Protein Autoinhibition Using NanoBRET™ Technology

Posted on by Sara Klink
13305818-protein ligand

In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA article, Wang et al. used the principle of the Promega NanoBRET™ assay to understand how ERK1/2 phosphorylation of Rabin8, a guanine nucleotide exchange factor, influenced its configuration and subsequent activation of Rab8, a protein that regulates exocytosis.

Crystal structure of GDP-boudn Rab8:Rabin8 ImageSource=RCSB PDB; StructureID=4lhy; DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.2210/pdb4lhy/pdb;
Crystal structure of GDP-boudn Rab8:Rabin8 ImageSource=RCSB PDB; StructureID=4lhy; DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.2210/pdb4lhy/pdb;

Rab8 is a member of the Rab family of small GTPases and an important regulator of membrane trafficking from the trans Golgi network and recycling endosomes to the plasma membrane. Wang et al. were interested in learning how the guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) Rabin8, a known activator of Rab8, was itself activated to better understand how Rab8 and exocytosis were regulated in the cell. First, they confirmed if the consensus extracellular-signal-regulated kinases ERK1/2 phosphorylation motif uncovered in Rabin8 resulted in phosphorylation of Rabin8. Both in vitro analysis and cell-based assays confirmed that ERK1/2 phosphorylated Rabin8. Next, the GEF activity of Rabin8 was assessed to determine if ERK1/2 phosphorylation activated the GEF. Researchers confirmed activation of Rabin8 GEF in vitro.

Continue reading “Uncovering Protein Autoinhibition Using NanoBRET™ Technology”

Why We Care About Glycosyltransferases

Posted on by Promega

Today’s post is a guest blog from Michael Curtin in the cellular analysis and proteomics group at Promega.

Glycobiology is the study of carbohydrates and their role in biology. Glycans, defined as “compounds consisting of a large number of monosaccharides linked glycosidically” are present in all living cells and coat cell membranes and are integral components of cell walls (1). They play diverse roles, including critical functions in cell signaling, molecular recognition, immunity and inflammation. They are the cell-surface molecules that define the ABO blood groups and must be taken into consideration to ensure successful blood transfusions. (2).The process by which a sugar moiety is attached to a biological compound is referred to as glycosylation. Protein glycosylation is a form of post-translational modification, which is important for many biological processes and often serves as an analog switch that modulates protein activity.The class of enzymes responsible for transferring the sugar moiety onto proteins is called a glycosyltransferase (GT).

GTs can be divided into three major types based on their roles:

  • Oligosaccharide elongation for peptidoglycan biosynthesis
  • Regulation of protein activities by post-translational modification
  • Small molecule glucuronidation as means of drug metabolism

Continue reading “Why We Care About Glycosyltransferases”

Basic Biology Matters

Posted on by Isobel Maciver

crop image2Every scientific paper is the story of a journey from an initial hypothesis to a final conclusion. It may take months or years and consists of many steps taken carefully one at a time. The experiments are repeated, the controls verified, the negative and positive results analyzed until the story finally makes sense. Sometimes the end of the story confirms the hypothesis, sometimes it is a surprise. A paper published last week in Cell describes a study where a team of researchers investigating one problem in basic biology (how one component of a signaling complex works), found an unexpected and potentially significant application in a different field (cancer research).

The paper, published in the June 6 issue of Cell, describes a previously unknown interaction between two cellular proteins—the transcription factor HIF1A and the cyclin-dependent kinase CDK8—in the regulation of genes associated with cellular survival under low-oxygen conditions. An accompanying press release describes how the discovery of a role for CDK8 in this process may have implications for cancer research, as CDK8 may be a potential target for drugs to combat “hypoxic” tumors. Continue reading “Basic Biology Matters”

Chromatography and “Air Traffic Control” Interplay Direct Olfactory Function

Posted on by Anupama Gopalakrishnan

It is not difficult to appreciate why a keen sense of smell is important to well-being and to general living. While it signals the presence of delicious (or stale) food before we can even see or taste it, it has obvious great survival value to be able to alert living beings of danger such as certain poisons, leaking gas or fire. Humans are known to identify about 10,000 different types of odors. Of course dogs have vastly improved and keener sense of smell than human beings.

When odorant molecules (molecules that we can smell) reach the nostril, they dissolve in the mucus and bind to olfactory receptors present on the cilia of each sensory neuron. This binding activates a G-protein coupled cascade involving adenylyl cyclase. This causes the release of cyclic AMP and opening of cAMP-dependent sodium channels. Influx of sodium causes the membrane to depolarize and activate an action potential for propagation of the signal to the brain where it is analyzed and decoded(1). This seems pretty straightforward until one realizes the sheer magnitude of smells we are able to identify using this mechanism. Continue reading “Chromatography and “Air Traffic Control” Interplay Direct Olfactory Function”