Potent Inhibitors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Growth Identified by Using in-Cell NMR-based Screening.

In-cell NMR spectroscopy was used to screen for drugs that disrupt the interaction between prokaryotic ubiquitin like protein, Pup, and mycobacterial proteasome ATPase, Mpa. This interaction is critical for Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistance against nitric oxide (NO) stress; interruption of this process was proposed as a mechanism to control latent infection. Three compounds isolated from the NCI Diversity set III library rescued the physiological proteasome substrate from degradation suggesting that the proteasome degradation pathway was selectively targeted.

Quantitative Determination of Interacting Protein Surfaces in Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes by Using In-Cell NMR Spectroscopy.

This paper describes three protocols for identifying interacting surfaces on N-labeled target proteins of known structure by using in-cell NMR spectroscopy. The first protocol describes how to identify protein quinary structure interaction surfaces in prokaryotes by using cross-relaxation-induced polarization transfer, CRIPT, based in-cell NMR. The second protocol describes how to introduce labeled protein into eukaryotic (HeLa) cells via electroporation for CRIPT-based in-cell studies.

Ribosome Mediated Quinary Interactions Modulate In-Cell Protein Activities.

Ribosomes are present inside bacterial cells at micromolar concentrations and occupy up to 20% of the cell volume. Under these conditions, even weak quinary interactions between ribosomes and cytosolic proteins can affect protein activity. By using in-cell and in vitro NMR spectroscopy, and biophysical techniques, we show that the enzymes, adenylate kinase and dihydrofolate reductase, and the respective coenzymes, ATP and NADPH, bind to ribosomes with micromolar affinity, and that this interaction suppresses the enzymatic activities of both enzymes.

Chemical activation of adenylyl cyclase Rv1625c inhibits growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis on cholesterol and modulates intramacrophage signaling.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) uses a complex 3', 5'-cyclic AMP (cAMP) signaling network to sense and respond to changing environments encountered during infection, so perturbation of cAMP signaling might be leveraged to disrupt Mtb pathogenesis. However, understanding of cAMP signaling pathways is hindered by the presence of at least 15 distinct adenylyl cyclases (ACs). Recently, the small molecule V-58 was shown to inhibit Mtb replication within macrophages and stimulate cAMP production in Mtb.

Cu(II)-Based Paramagnetic Probe to Study RNA-Protein Interactions by NMR.

Paramagnetic NMR techniques allow for studying three-dimensional structures of RNA-protein complexes. In particular, paramagnetic relaxation enhancement (PRE) data can provide valuable information about long-range distances between different structural components. For PRE NMR experiments, oligonucleotides are typically spin-labeled using nitroxide reagents.

Cobalt-based paramagnetic probe to study RNA-protein interactions by NMR.

Paramagnetic resonance enhancement (PRE) is an NMR technique that allows studying three-dimensional structures of RNA-protein complexes in solution. RNA strands are typically spin labeled using nitroxide reagents, which provide minimal perturbation to the native structure. The current work describes an alternative approach, which is based on a Co-based probe that can be covalently attached to RNA in the vicinity of the protein's binding site using 'click' chemistry.

Total Cellular RNA Modulates Protein Activity.

RNA constitutes up to 20% of a cell's dry weight, corresponding to ∼20 mg/mL. This high concentration of RNA facilitates low-affinity protein-RNA quinary interactions, which may play an important role in facilitating and regulating biological processes. In the yeast Pichia pastoris, the level of ubiquitin-RNA colocalization increases when cells are grown in the presence of dextrose and methanol instead of methanol as the sole carbon source.

Probing protein quinary interactions by in-cell nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Historically introduced by McConkey to explain the slow mutation rate of highly abundant proteins, weak protein (quinary) interactions are an emergent property of living cells. The protein complexes that result from quinary interactions are transient and thus difficult to study biochemically in vitro. Cross-correlated relaxation-induced polarization transfer-based in-cell nuclear magnetic resonance allows the characterization of protein quinary interactions with atomic resolution inside live prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.

Using singular value decomposition to characterize protein-protein interactions by in-cell NMR spectroscopy.

Distinct differences between how model proteins interact in-cell and in vitro suggest that the cytosol might have a profound effect in modulating protein-protein and/or protein-ligand interactions that are not observed in vitro. Analyses of in-cell NMR spectra of target proteins interacting with physiological partners are further complicated by low signal-to-noise ratios, and the long overexpression times used in protein-protein interaction studies may lead to changes in the in-cell spectra over the course of the experiment. To unambiguously resolve the principal binding mode between two interacting species against the dynamic cellular background, we analyzed in-cell spectral data of a target protein over the time course of overexpression of its interacting partner by using single-value decomposition (SVD).