Int J Biol Sci 2017; 13(10):1222-1233. doi:10.7150/ijbs.21597 This issue Cite

Review

Structural Principles in the Development of Cyclic Peptidic Enzyme Inhibitors

Peng Xu1, Peter A. Andreasen2, Mingdong Huang1, 3✉

1. State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry and Danish-Chinese Centre for Proteases and Cancer, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350002, P.R. China;
2. Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, 8000, Denmark;
3. College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350116, P.R. China.

Citation:
Xu P, Andreasen PA, Huang M. Structural Principles in the Development of Cyclic Peptidic Enzyme Inhibitors. Int J Biol Sci 2017; 13(10):1222-1233. doi:10.7150/ijbs.21597. https://www.ijbs.com/v13p1222.htm
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Abstract

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This review summarizes our studies in the development of small cyclic peptides for specifically modulating enzyme activity. Serine proteases share highly similar active sites but perform diverse physiological and pathological functions. From a phage-display peptide library, we isolated two mono-cyclic peptides, upain-1 (CSWRGLENHRMC) and mupain-1 (CPAYSRYLDC), which inhibit the activity of human and murine urokinase-type plasminogen activators (huPA and muPA) with Ki values in the micromolar or sub-micromolar range, respectively. The following affinity maturations significantly enhanced the potencies of the two peptides, 10-fold and >250-fold for upain-1 and mupain-1, respectively. The most potent muPA inhibitor has a potency (Ki = 2 nM) and specificity comparable to mono-clonal antibodies. Furthermore, we also found an unusual feature of mupain-1 that its inhibitory potency can be enhanced by increasing the flexibility, which challenges the traditional viewpoint that higher rigidity leading to higher affinity. Moreover, by changing a few key residues, we converted mupain-1 from a uPA inhibitor to inhibitors of other serine proteases, including plasma kallikrein (PK) and coagulation factor XIa (fXIa). PK and fXIa inhibitors showed Ki values in the low nanomolar range and high specificity. Our studies demonstrate the versatility of small cyclic peptides to engineer inhibitory potency against serine proteases and to provide a new strategy for generating peptide inhibitors of serine proteases.

Keywords: serine protease, inhibitory mechanism, cyclic peptide, urokinase-type plasminogen activator.


Citation styles

APA
Xu, P., Andreasen, P.A., Huang, M. (2017). Structural Principles in the Development of Cyclic Peptidic Enzyme Inhibitors. International Journal of Biological Sciences, 13(10), 1222-1233. https://doi.org/10.7150/ijbs.21597.

ACS
Xu, P.; Andreasen, P.A.; Huang, M. Structural Principles in the Development of Cyclic Peptidic Enzyme Inhibitors. Int. J. Biol. Sci. 2017, 13 (10), 1222-1233. DOI: 10.7150/ijbs.21597.

NLM
Xu P, Andreasen PA, Huang M. Structural Principles in the Development of Cyclic Peptidic Enzyme Inhibitors. Int J Biol Sci 2017; 13(10):1222-1233. doi:10.7150/ijbs.21597. https://www.ijbs.com/v13p1222.htm

CSE
Xu P, Andreasen PA, Huang M. 2017. Structural Principles in the Development of Cyclic Peptidic Enzyme Inhibitors. Int J Biol Sci. 13(10):1222-1233.

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