NRAS Mutant Dictates AHCYL1-Governed ER Calcium Homeostasis for Melanoma Tumor Growth.

Unlabelled: Calcium homeostasis is critical for cell proliferation, and emerging evidence shows that cancer cells exhibit altered calcium signals to fulfill their need for proliferation. However, it remains unclear whether there are oncogene-specific calcium homeostasis regulations that can expose novel therapeutic targets. Here, from RNAi screen, we report that adenosylhomocysteinase like protein 1 (AHCYL1), a suppressor of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) calcium channel protein inositol trisphosphate receptor (IP3R), is selectively upregulated and critical for cell proliferation and tumor growth potential of human NRAS-mutated melanoma, but not for melanoma expressing BRAF V600E.

Trans-vaccenic acid reprograms CD8 T cells and anti-tumour immunity.

Diet-derived nutrients are inextricably linked to human physiology by providing energy and biosynthetic building blocks and by functioning as regulatory molecules. However, the mechanisms by which circulating nutrients in the human body influence specific physiological processes remain largely unknown. Here we use a blood nutrient compound library-based screening approach to demonstrate that dietary trans-vaccenic acid (TVA) directly promotes effector CD8 T cell function and anti-tumour immunity in vivo.

Cellular signals converge at the NOX2-SHP-2 axis to induce reductive carboxylation in cancer cells.

Environmental stresses, including hypoxia or detachment for anchorage independence, or attenuation of mitochondrial respiration through inhibition of electron transport chain induce reductive carboxylation in cells with an enhanced fraction of citrate arising through reductive metabolism of glutamine. This metabolic process contributes to redox homeostasis and sustains biosynthesis of lipids. Reductive carboxylation is often dependent on cytosolic isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1).

Lyso-PAF, a biologically inactive phospholipid, contributes to RAF1 activation.

Phospholipase A2, group VII (PLA2G7) is widely recognized as a secreted, lipoprotein-associated PLA2 in plasma that converts phospholipid platelet-activating factor (PAF) to a biologically inactive product Lyso-PAF during inflammatory response. We report that intracellular PLA2G7 is selectively important for cell proliferation and tumor growth potential of melanoma cells expressing mutant NRAS, but not cells expressing BRAF V600E. Mechanistically, PLA2G7 signals through its product Lyso-PAF to contribute to RAF1 activation by mutant NRAS, which is bypassed by BRAF V600E.

Covalent Inhibitors Allosterically Block the Activation of Rho Family Proteins and Suppress Cancer Cell Invasion.

The Rho family GTPases are crucial drivers of tumor growth and metastasis. However, it is difficult to develop GTPases inhibitors due to a lack of well-characterized binding pockets for compounds. Here, through molecular dynamics simulation of the RhoA protein, a groove around cysteine 107 (Cys107) that is relatively well-conserved within the Rho family is discovered.

Lead discovery, chemical optimization, and biological evaluation studies of novel histone methyltransferase SET7 small-molecule inhibitors.

The post-translational modifications of histones, including histone methylation and demethylation, control the expression switch of multiple genes. SET domain-containing lysine methyltransferase 7 (SET7) is the only methyltransferase, which can specifically monomethylate lysine-4 of histone H3 (H3K4me1) and play critical roles in various diseases, including breast cancer, hepatitis C virus (HCV), atherosclerotic vascular disease, diabetes, prostate cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, and obesity. However, several known SET7 inhibitors exhibit weak activity or poor selectivity.

Discovery of Highly Potent, Selective, and Orally Efficacious p300/CBP Histone Acetyltransferases Inhibitors.

p300 and CREB-binding protein (CBP) are ubiquitously expressed pleiotropic lysine acetyltransferases and play a key role as transcriptional co-activators that are essential for a multitude of cellular processes. Despite great importance, there is a lack of highly selective, potent, druglike p300/CBP inhibitors. Through the artificial-intelligence-assisted drug discovery pipeline and further optimization, we reported the discovery of novel, highly selective, potent small-molecule inhibitors of p300/CBP histone acetyltransferases (HAT) with desired druglike properties, exemplified by .

Discovery of trisubstituted nicotinonitrile derivatives as novel human GCN5 inhibitors through AlphaScreen-based high throughput screening.

The general control nonrepressed protein 5 (GCN5) is an important target for drug design and drug discovery largely owing to its pathogenic role in malignancies. Chemical probes that target GCN5 have been developed in recent decades, but their potencies are still unsatisfactory. In this study, through an in-house developed AlphaScreen-based high throughput screening platform, radioactive acetylation assays and 2D-similarity based analogue searching, we discovered DC_HG24-01 as the novel hGCN5 inhibitor with the IC value of 3.

The identification of novel small-molecule inhibitors targeting WDR5-MLL1 interaction through fluorescence polarization based high-throughput screening.

The protein-protein interaction between WDR5 (WD40 repeat protein 5) and MLL1 (mixed-lineage leukemia 1) is important for maintaining optimal H3K4 methyltransferase activity of MLL1. Dysregulation of MLL1 catalytic function is relevant to mixed-lineage leukemia, and targeting WDR5-MLL1 interaction could be a promising therapeutic strategy for leukemia harboring MLL1 fusion proteins. To date, several peptidomimetic and non-peptidomimetic small-molecule inhibitors targeting WDR5-MLL1 interaction have been reported, yet the discovery walk of new drugs inhibiting MLL1 methytransferase activity is still in its infancy.

Rational design of 5-((1H-imidazol-1-yl)methyl)quinolin-8-ol derivatives as novel bromodomain-containing protein 4 inhibitors.

Bromodomain-containing protein 4 (BRD4), an epigenetic reader of acetyl lysine, has emerged as a promising therapeutic target for many diseases including cancer, inflammation and heart failure. Our previous study reported that nitroxoline, an FDA approved antibiotic, showed potential BRD4 inhibitory activity and antiproliferation activity against leukemia cell lines. In this study, we further explored the structure-activity relationship (SAR) around nitroxoline and employed our previously developed machine learning based activity scoring function BRD4LGR for further analysis.

Identification of novel inhibitors of histone acetyltransferase hMOF through high throughput screening.

The histone acetyltransferases (HATs) in mammals include GCN5 N-acetyltransferases, the MOZ, YBF2, SAS2, and TIP60 proteins, and the orphan HATs. The males absent on the first (MOF) is mainly related to acetylation of histone H4 Lys16 and has influence on downstream genes expression. However, the only inhibitor MG149 presented low activity against MOF.

Computer-Aided Drug Design in Epigenetics.

Epigenetic dysfunction has been widely implicated in several diseases especially cancers thus highlights the therapeutic potential for chemical interventions in this field. With rapid development of computational methodologies and high-performance computational resources, computer-aided drug design has emerged as a promising strategy to speed up epigenetic drug discovery. Herein, we make a brief overview of major computational methods reported in the literature including druggability prediction, virtual screening, homology modeling, scaffold hopping, pharmacophore modeling, molecular dynamics simulations, quantum chemistry calculation, and 3D quantitative structure activity relationship that have been successfully applied in the design and discovery of epi-drugs and epi-probes.

Biochemical Studies and Molecular Dynamic Simulations Reveal the Molecular Basis of Conformational Changes in DNA Methyltransferase-1.

DNA methyltransferase-1 (DNMT1) plays a crucial role in the maintenance of genomic methylation patterns. The crystal structure of DNMT1 was determined in two different states in which the helix that follows the catalytic loop was either kinked (designated helix-kinked) or well folded (designated helix-straight state). Here, we show that the proper structural transition between these two states is required for DNMT1 activity.

Enhanced room-temperature ferromagnetism on (InCoSn)O films: magnetic mechanism, optical and transport properties.

The effects of Co doping on the structural, optical, magnetic and transport properties of (InCoSn)O films grown by RF-magnetron sputtering were systematically investigated by theoretical and experimental techniques. The detailed structural analyses revealed that all the (InCoSn)O films possess the cubic bixbyite structure, with the substitutional Co at the In sites of the InO matrix, while some of the Co atoms form Co metal clusters. Obvious room-temperature (RT) ferromagnetic behavior was observed and the saturated magnetization (M) first increased, then decreased with increased Co concentration, while carrier concentration n decreased monotonically, implying that the Co metal clusters are superparamagnetic and the observed RT ferromagnetism is not mediated by the charge carriers.

Discovery of novel DNA methyltransferase 3A inhibitors via structure-based virtual screening and biological assays.

DNA methyltransferases are involved in diverse biological processes and abnormal methylation patterns play essential roles in cancer initiation and progression. DNA methyltransferase 3A (DNMT3A) acting as a de novo DNA methyltransferase, has gained widespread attention especially in haematological diseases. To date, large numbers of DNMTs inhibitors have been discovered, however, the small molecular inhibitors targeting DNMT3A are still in its infancy.