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Proteome-wide covalent ligand discovery in native biological systems

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Backus, Keriann M., Correia, Bruno E., Lum, Kenneth M., Forli, Stefano, Horning, Benjamin D., González-Páez, Gonzalo E., Chatterjee, Sandip, Lanning, Bryan R. +4 more·2016·Nature

Abstract

Small molecules are powerful tools for investigating protein function and can serve as leads for new therapeutics. Most human proteins, however, lack small-molecule ligands, and entire protein classes are considered 'undruggable'. Fragment-based ligand discovery can identify small-molecule probes for proteins that have proven difficult to target using high-throughput screening of complex compound libraries. Although reversibly binding ligands are commonly pursued, covalent fragments provide an alternative route to small-molecule probes, including those that can access regions of proteins that are difficult to target through binding affinity alone. Here we report a quantitative analysis of cysteine-reactive small-molecule fragments screened against thousands of proteins in human proteomes and cells. Covalent ligands were identified for >700 cysteines found in both druggable proteins and proteins deficient in chemical probes, including transcription factors, adaptor/scaffolding proteins, and uncharacterized proteins. Among the atypical ligand-protein interactions discovered were compounds that react preferentially with pro- (inactive) caspases. We used these ligands to distinguish extrinsic apoptosis pathways in human cell lines versus primary human T cells, showing that the former is largely mediated by caspase-8 while the latter depends on both caspase-8 and -10. Fragment-based covalent ligand discovery provides a greatly expanded portrait of the ligandable proteome and furnishes compounds that can illuminate protein functions in native biological systems.

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  • Human CASP10 shares some substrate specificity with CASP8 and possibly contributes to extrinsic apoptosis in primary T cells.

    “Although human CASP10 shares some degree of substrate specificity with CASP8 [317] and possibly contributes to extrinsic apoptosis in primary T cells [318]”
  • Covalent inhibitors achieve high efficiency through forming covalent bonds with cysteine or other nucleophilic residues in the target protein.

    “Covalent inhibitors have been reported to achieve high efficiency through forming covalent bonds with cysteine or other nucleophilic residues in the target protein.”
  • Reactive cysteine residues on proteins have high nucleophilicity, which enables covalent binding with electrophilic small molecules.

    “Reactive cysteine residues on proteins have high nucleophilicity, which enables covalent binding with electrophilic small molecules [53, 54].”
  • In that study, more than 700 ligandable cysteines were identified and proteome-wide selectivity information was provided for each covalent fragment in the library.

    “In this study, more than 700 ligandable cysteines were identified, and information was provided about the proteome-wide selectivity of each covalent fragment in the library.”

    From Advances in covalent drug discovery (2022) · cites this paper as [180]

  • Competitive isoTOP-ABPP was expanded to identify proteome-wide targets of a small covalent fragment library by competing acrylamide and chloroacetamide fragments against an iodoacetamide-alkyne probe.

    “The use of competitive isoTOP-ABPP was expanded to identify proteome-wide targets of a small covalent fragment library by competing individual acrylamide and chloroacetamide fragments against an iodoacetamide–alkyne probe180.”

    From Advances in covalent drug discovery (2022) · cites this paper as [180]

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. [34]Wang C Weerapana E Blewett MM Cravatt BF A chemoproteomic platform to quantitatively map targets of lipid-derived electrophiles Nat Meth 2014 11 79 85 PMC3901407 24292485

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Authors
Backus, K. M., Correia, B. E., Lum, K. M., Forli, S., Horning, B. D., González-Páez, G. E., Chatterjee, S., Lanning, B. R., Teijaro, J. R., Olson, A. J., Wolan, D. W., & Cravatt, B. F.
Affiliations
Scripps Research Institute (US)
Corresponding author
  • Backus, Keriann M.
  • Cravatt, Benjamin F.
Venue
Nature
Published
2016-06-15
Volume
534
Issue
7608
Pages
570-574
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
OpenAlex
W2430132928
Cited by
940
References
43
Citations by year
2026: 109 · 2025: 114 · 2024: 114 · 2023: 134 · 2022: 82 · 2021: 94 · 2020: 87 · 2019: 69 · 2018: 61 · 2017: 54 · 2016: 18 · 2012: 1
FWCI
31.01
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Cancer Institute (CA-087660, R37CA087660, R01CA087660)
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences (GM069832, GM-090294, GM108208, R01GM090294, F32GM108208, R01GM069832)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Organic Chemistry › Click Chemistry and Applications
  • Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Spectroscopy › Advanced Proteomics Techniques and Applications
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Chemical Synthesis and Analysis
Keywords
covalent ligands, chemical probes, undruggable proteins, transcription factors, caspase-8, caspase-10, extrinsic apoptotic pathway, T cells, protein function
MeSH terms
Cells, Cultured, Cysteine, Drug Evaluation, Preclinical, Enzyme Precursors, Humans, Ligands, Peptide Fragments, T-Lymphocytes, Transcription Factors, Apoptosis, Proteome, Caspase 8, Caspase 10, Small Molecule Libraries

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