Release Time:2019-03-12  Hits:

Indexed by: Journal Article

Date of Publication: 2016-11-07

Journal: ANGEWANDTE CHEMIE-INTERNATIONAL EDITION

Included Journals: PubMed、EI、SCIE

Volume: 55

Issue: 46

Page Number: 14248-14254

ISSN: 1433-7851

Key Words: apoptosis; conformation analysis; drug design; inhibitors; structure elucidation

Abstract: By means of limited proteolysis assay, three-dimensional NMR, X-ray crystallography and alanine mutations, a dynamic region at the Q221R222N223 motif in the Bcl-2 homology 3 (BH3) domain of Mcl-1 has been identified as a conformational switch which controls Mcl-1 ubiquitination. Noxa(BH3) binding biases the QRN motif toward a helical conformation, thus leading to an enhanced in vitro ubiquitination of Mcl-1. In contrast, Bim(BH3) binding biases the QRN motif toward a nonhelical conformation, thus leading to the inhibition of ubiquitination. A dual function Mcl-1 inhibitor, which locates at the (BH3) domain of Mcl-1 and forms hydrogen bond with His224 to drive a helical QRN conformation, so that it not only interferes with the pro-apoptotic partners, but also facilitates Mcl-1 ubiquitination in living cells, is described. As a result, this inhibitor manifests a more effective apoptosis induction in Mcl-1-dependent cancer cells than other inhibitors exhibiting a similar binding affinity with it.