Susanne Eyrisch

Protein translocation across the ER membrane.

Protein translocation into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is the first and decisive step in the biogenesis of most extracellular and many soluble organelle proteins in eukaryotic cells. It is mechanistically related to protein export from eubacteria and archaea and to the integration of newly synthesized membrane proteins into the ER membrane and the plasma membranes of eubacteria and archaea (with the exception of tail anchored membrane proteins). Typically, protein translocation into the ER involves cleavable amino terminal signal peptides in precursor proteins and sophisticated transport machinery components in the cytosol, the ER membrane, and the ER lumen. Depending on the hydrophobicity and/or overall amino acid content of the precursor protein, transport can occur co- or posttranslationally. The respective mechanism determines the requirements for certain cytosolic transport components. The two mechanisms merge at the level of the ER membrane, specifically, at the heterotrimeric Sec61 complex present in the membrane. The Sec61 complex provides a signal peptide recognition site and forms a polypeptide conducting channel. Apparently, the Sec61 complex is gated by various ligands, such as signal peptides of the transport substrates, ribosomes (in cotranslational transport), and the ER lumenal molecular chaperone, BiP. Binding of BiP to the incoming polypeptide contributes to efficiency and unidirectionality of transport. Recent insights into the structure of the Sec61 complex and the comparison of the transport mechanisms and machineries in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the human parasite Trypanosoma brucei, and mammals have various important mechanistic as well as potential medical implications. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Protein translocation across or insertion into membranes.

What induces pocket openings on protein surface patches involved in protein-protein interactions?

We previously showed for the proteins BCL-XL, IL-2, and MDM2 that transient pockets at their protein–protein binding interfaces can be identified by applying the PASS algorithm to molecular dynamics (MD) snapshots. We now investigated which aspects of the natural conformational dynamics of proteins induce the formation of such pockets. The pocket detection protocol was applied to three different conformational ensembles for the same proteins that were extracted from MD simulations of the inhibitor bound crystal conformation in water and the free crystal/NMR structure in water and in methanol. Additional MD simulations studied the impact of backbone mobility. The more efficient CONCOORD or normal mode analysis (NMA) techniques gave significantly smaller pockets than MD simulations, whereas tCONCOORD generated pockets comparable to those observed in MD simulations for two of the three systems. Our findings emphasize the influence of solvent polarity and backbone rearrangements on the formation of pockets on protein surfaces and should be helpful in future generation of transient pockets as putative ligand binding sites at protein–protein interfaces.

Druggability of dynamic protein-protein interfaces.

The conformational flexibility of protein targets is being increasingly recognized in the drug discovery and design processes. When working on a particular disease-related biochemical pathway, it is of crucial importance to carefully select druggable protein binding pockets among all those cavities that may appear transiently or permanently on the respective protein surface. In this review, we will focus on the conformational dynamics of proteins that governs the formation and disappearance of such transient pockets on protein surfaces. We will also touch on the issue of druggability of transiently formed pockets. For example, protein cavities suitable to bind small drug-like molecules show an increased pocket size and buriedness when compared to empty sites. Interestingly, we observed in molecular dynamics simulations of five different protein systems that the conformational transitions on the protein surface occur almost barrierless and large pockets are found at similar frequencies as small pockets, see below. Thus, the dynamical processes at protein surfaces are better visualized as fluid-like motion than as energetically activated events. We conclude by comparing two computational tools, EPOS and MDpocket, for identifying transient pockets in PDK1 kinase. We illustrate how the obtained results depend on the way in which corresponding pockets in different molecular dynamics snapshots are connected to each other.

Lanthanum ions inhibit the mammalian Sec61 complex in its channel dynamics and protein transport activity

Previous electrophysiological experiments characterized the Sec61 complex, which provides the aqueous path for entry of newly‐synthesized polypeptides into the mammalian endoplasmic reticulum, as a highly dynamic channel that, once activated by precursor proteins, fluctuates between main open states with mean conductances of 220 and 550 pS. Millimolar concentrations of lanthanum ions simultaneously restricted the dynamics of the Sec61 channel and inhibited translocation of polypeptides. Molecular modeling indicates that lanthanum binding sites cluster at the putative lateral gate of the Sec61 complex and suggests that structural flexibility of the lateral gate is essential for channel and protein transport activities of the Sec61 complex.

Polyamines: naturally occurring small molecule modulators of electrostatic protein-protein interactions.

Modulations of protein-protein interactions are a key step in regulating protein function, especially in networks. Modulators of these interactions are supposed to be candidates for the development of novel drugs. Here, we describe the role of the small, polycationic and highly abundant natural polyamines that could efficiently bind to charged spots at protein interfaces as modulators of such protein-protein interactions. Using the mitochondrial cytochrome P45011A1 (CYP11A1) electron transfer system as a model, we have analyzed the capability of putrescine, spermidine, and spermine at physiologically relevant concentrations to affect the protein-protein interactions between adrenodoxin reductase (AdR), adrenodoxin (Adx), and CYP11A1. The actions of polyamines on the individual components, on their association/dissociation, on electron transfer, and on substrate conversion were examined. These studies revealed modulating effects of polyamines on distinct interactions and on the entire system in a complex way. Modulation via changed protein-protein interactions appeared plausible from docking experiments that suggested favourable high-affinity binding sites of polyamines (spermine>spermidine>putrescine) at the AdR-Adx interface. Our findings imply for the first time that small endogenous compounds are capable of interfering with distinct components of transient protein complexes and might control protein functions by modulating electrostatic protein-protein interactions.

Transient pockets on XIAP-BIR2: toward the characterization of putative binding sites of small-molecule XIAP inhibitors

Protein-protein interactions are abundant in signal transduction pathways and thus of crucial importance in the regulation of apoptosis. However, designing small-molecule inhibitors for these potential drug targets is very challenging as such proteins often lack well-defined binding pockets. An example for such an interaction is the binding of the anti-apoptotic BIR2 domain of XIAP to the pro-apoptotic caspase-3 that results in the survival of damaged cells. Although small-molecule inhibitors of this interaction have been identified, their exact binding sites on XIAP are not known as its crystal structures reveal no suitable pockets. Here, we apply our previously developed protocol for identifying transient binding pockets to XIAP-BIR2. Transient pockets were identified in snapshots taken during four different molecular dynamics simulations that started from the caspase-3:BIR2 complex or from the unbound BIR2 structure and used water or methanol as solvent. Clustering of these pockets revealed that surprisingly many pockets opened in the flexible linker region that is involved in caspase-3 binding. We docked three known inhibitors into these transient pockets and so determined five putative binding sites. In addition, by docking two inactive compounds of the same series, we show that this protocol is also able to distinguish between binders and nonbinders which was not possible when docking to the crystal structures. These findings represent a first step toward the understanding of the binding of small-molecule XIAP-BIR2 inhibitors on a molecular level and further highlight the importance of considering protein flexibility when designing small-molecule protein-protein interaction inhibitors.

How transient pockets open on the surface of the MDM2 protein

Meeting abstracts - A si ngle PDF containing all abstracts in this Supplement is available here . http://www. biomedcentral.co m/content/pdf/17 52-153X-2-S1-inf o.pdf

Designing binding pockets on protein surfaces using the A* algorithm

The in-silico design of ligands binding to the protein surface instead of deep binding pockets is still a great challenge. Often no appropriate binding pockets are available in the apo experimental structures and standard virtual screening techniques will fail. Here, we present two new algorithms for designing tailored ligand binding pockets on the protein surface that account for protein backbone and side chain flexibility. At first, the protein surface is scanned for potential pocket positions using a program named PocketScanner. This program minimizes the protein energetically in the presence of generic pocket spheres representing the new binding pockets whose positions remain fixed. The side chains of the relaxed protein conformations are then further refined by a second program named PocketBuilder. PocketBuilder identifies all residues within a given radius of the pocket positions and searches for the best combination of side chain rotamers using the A* algorithm. Given multiple protein conformations as input, PocketBuilder identifies those that lead to the best results, namely protein conformations of low energy that possess binding pockets with desired properties. The approach was tested on the proteins BCL-XL, IL-2, and MDM2 which are involved in protein-protein interactions and hence represent challenging drug targets. Although the native ligand binding pocket was not or only partly open in the apo crystal or NMR structures, PocketScanner and PocketBuilder successfully generated conformations with pockets into which a known inhibitor could be docked in a nativelike orientation for two out of the three test systems. For BCL-XL, the docking scores were even similar to those obtained in re-docking experiments to the inhibitor bound crystal structure.