Rational Adaptation of L3MBTL1 Inhibitors to Create Small-Molecule Cbx7 Antagonists.

Chromobox homolog 7 (Cbx7) is an epigenetic modulator that is an important driver of multiple cancers. It is a methyl reader protein that operates by recognizing and binding to methylated lysine residues on specific partners. Herein we report our efforts to create low-molecular-weight inhibitors of Cbx7 by making rational structural adaptations to inhibitors of a different methyl reader protein, L3MBTL1, inhibitors that had previously been reported to be inactive against Cbx7.

Attraction by repulsion: compounds with like charges undergo self-assembly in water that improves in high salt and persists in real biological fluids.

We report a family of highly anionic calixarenes that form discrete homo-dimeric assemblies in pure water, that get stronger in high salt solutions, and that remain assembled in complex, denaturing solutions like real urine. The results reveal the potential of like-charged subunits for self-assembly in high-salt solutions and biological fluids.

Molecular Insights into Inhibition of the Methylated Histone-Plant Homeodomain Complexes by Calixarenes.

Plant homeodomain (PHD) finger-containing proteins are implicated in fundamental biological processes, including transcriptional activation and repression, DNA damage repair, cell differentiation, and survival. The PHD finger functions as an epigenetic reader that binds to posttranslationally modified or unmodified histone H3 tails, recruiting catalytic writers and erasers and other components of the epigenetic machinery to chromatin. Despite the critical role of the histone-PHD interaction in normal and pathological processes, selective inhibitors of this association have not been well developed.

Inhibition of histone binding by supramolecular hosts.

The tandem PHD (plant homeodomain) fingers of the CHD4 (chromodomain helicase DNA-binding protein 4) ATPase are epigenetic readers that bind either unmodified histone H3 tails or H3K9me3 (histone H3 trimethylated at Lys⁹). This dual function is necessary for the transcriptional and chromatin remodelling activities of the NuRD (nucleosome remodelling and deacetylase) complex. In the present paper, we show that calixarene-based supramolecular hosts disrupt binding of the CHD4 PHD2 finger to H3K9me3, but do not affect the interaction of this protein with the H3K9me0 (unmodified histone H3) tail.

Synthetic trimethyllysine receptors that bind histone 3, trimethyllysine 27 (H3K27me3) and disrupt its interaction with the epigenetic reader protein CBX7.

Post-translational modifications act as 'on' or 'off' switches causing downstream changes in gene transcription. Modifications such as trimethylation of lysine 27 on histone H3 (H3K27me3) cause repression of transcription and stable gene silencing, and its presence is associated with aggressive cancers of many types. We report here macrocyclic host-type compounds that can bind H3K27me3 preferentially over unmethylated H3K27, and characterize their binding affinities and selectivities using a convenient dye-displacement method.

The cation-π interaction at protein-protein interaction interfaces: developing and learning from synthetic mimics of proteins that bind methylated lysines.

First discovered over 60 years ago, post-translational methylation was considered an irreversible modification until the initial discoveries of demethylase enzymes in 2004. Now researchers understand that this process serves as a dynamic and complex control mechanism that is misregulated in numerous diseases. Lysine methylation is most often found on histone proteins and can effect gene regulation, epigenetic inheritance, and cancer.

Antibody-free reading of the histone code using a simple chemical sensor array.

The histone code refers to the complex network of histone post-translational modifications that control gene expression and are of high interest as drivers of a large number of human diseases. We report here on a mix-and-match toolkit of readily available dyes and calixarene host molecules that can be combined to form dye-displacement sensors that respond to a wide variety of cationic peptides. Using the data from only two or three such simple supramolecular sensors as a chemical sensor array produces fingerprints of data that discriminate robustly among many kinds of histone code elements.

Synthesis of new trisulfonated calix[4]arenes functionalized at the upper rim, and their complexation with the trimethyllysine epigenetic mark.

A synthetic route to produce a new family of trisulfonated calix[4]arenes bearing a single group, selectively introduced, that lines the binding pocket is reported. Ten examples, including new sulfonamide and biphenyl-substituted hosts, each with additional binding elements, demonstrate the tuning of guest affinities and selectivities. NMR titrations in phosphate-buffered water show that one of the new hosts binds to the modified amino acid trimethyllysine with the highest affinity and selectivity observed to date.