Cholesterol plays a key role in membrane protein function and signaling in endothelial cells. Thus, disturbing cholesterol trafficking is an effective approach for inhibiting angiogenesis. We recently identified astemizole (AST), an antihistamine drug, as a cholesterol trafficking inhibitor from a phenotypic screen. In this study, we found that AST induced cholesterol accumulation in the lysosome by binding to the sterol-sensing domain of Niemann-Pick disease, type C1 (NPC1), a lysosomal surface protein responsible for cholesterol transport. Inhibition of cholesterol trafficking by AST led to the depletion of membrane cholesterol, causing SREBP1 nuclear localization. The depletion of membrane cholesterol resulted in dissociation of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) from the lysosomal surface and inactivation of mTOR signaling. These effects were effectively rescued by addition of exogenous cholesterol. AST inhibited endothelial cell proliferation, migration and tube formation in a cholesterol-dependent manner. Furthermore, AST inhibited zebrafish angiogenesis in a cholesterol-dependent manner. Together, our data suggest that AST is a new class of NPC1 antagonist that inhibits cholesterol trafficking in endothelial cells and angiogenesis.

Biophysical studies have shown that each molecule of calsequestrin 1 (CASQ1) can bind about 70–80 Ca2+ ions. However, the nature of Ca2+-binding sites has not yet been fully characterized. In this study, we employed in-silico approaches to identify the Ca2+ binding sites and to understand the molecular basis of CASQ1-Ca2+ recognition. We built the protein model by extracting the atomic coordinates for the back-to-back dimeric unit from the recently solved hexameric CASQ1 structure (PDB id: 3UOM) and adding the missing C-terminal residues (aa350–364). Using this model we performed extensive 30 ns molecular dynamics simulations exposed to wide range of Ca2+ concentrations ([Ca2+]). Our results show that the Ca2+-binding sites on CASQ1 differ both in affinity and geometry. The high affinity Ca2+-binding sites share a similar geometry and interestingly, majority of them were found to be induced by increased [Ca2+]. We also found that the system undergoes maximal Ca2+-binding to the CAS (consecutive aspartate stretch at the C-terminus) before the rest of the CASQ1 surface becomes saturated. Simulated data shows that the CASQ1 back-to-back stacking is progressively stabilized by emergence of an increasing number of hydrophobic interactions with increasing [Ca2+]. Further, this study shows that the CAS domain assumes a compact structure with increase in Ca2+ binding, which suggests that the CAS domain might function as a Ca2+-sensor that may be a novel structural motif to sense metal. We propose the term “Dn-motif” for the CAS domain.

Warburg effect, a preference of aerobic glycolysis for energy production even in the presence of adequate oxygen, is one of the most prominent distinctions of cancer cells from their normal equivalents. Upregulated pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 1 (PDK1) was found to dominate the pivotal switch from mitochondrial respiration to aerobic glycolysis by inactivating pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) in cancer cells. PDK1 inhibition may lead to an unfavorable environment for cancer cells, which presents an opportunity for anticancer therapy. However, up to now, only limited number of PDK1 inhibitors were reported. In this work, we reported our attempt to discover novel small molecules from a diverse chemical library containing 15 000 small molecules selected from the Chembridge screening library. We developed a kinase activity-based high throughput screening (HTS) assay for initial screening of PDK1 inhibitors. Seven PDK1 inhibitory compounds were identified with IC50 values range from 0.68 and 45.69 μM. Follow up evaluations on these compounds revealed good PDK1 binding affinity and antiproliferative activities in cancer cell lines, with two novel hits (9 and 10) clearly outperformed others compounds in terms of PDK1 inhibition and the suppression of cancer cell proliferation. 9 and 10 may serve as new chemistry starting points for further structural modifications to improve the potency on PDK1 inhibition for anticancer treatment.

Calsequestrin (CASQ) exists as two distinct isoforms CASQ1 and CASQ2 in all vertebrates. Although the isoforms exhibit unique functional characteristic, the structural basis for the same is yet to be fully defined. Interestingly, the C-terminal region of the two isoforms exhibit significant differences both in length and amino acid composition; forming Dn-motif and DEXn-motif in CASQ1 and CASQ2 respectively. Here, we investigated if the unique C-terminal motifs possess Ca2+-sensitivity and affect protein function. Sequence analysis shows that both the Dn- and DEXn-motifs are intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) of the protein, a feature that is conserved from fish to man. Using purified synthetic peptides, we show that these motifs undergo distinctive Ca2+-mediated folding suggesting that these disordered motifs are Ca2+-sensitivity. We generated chimeric proteins by swapping the C-terminal portions between CASQ1 and CASQ2. Our studies show that the C-terminal portions do not play significant role in protein folding. An interesting finding of the current study is that the switching of the C-terminal portion completely reverses the polymerization kinetics. Collectively, these data suggest that these Ca2+-sensitivity IDRs located at the back-to-back dimer interface influence isoform-specific Ca2+-dependent polymerization properties of CASQ.

With the surge in the cases of Alzheimer's disease (AD) over the years, several targets have been explored to curb the disease. Cholinesterases, namely acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE), remain to be the available targets that are amendable to currently approved treatments. In this study, a series of novel compounds based on tramiprosate, a highly specific amyloid beta (Aβ) inhibitor, was designed to inhibit AChE, BuChE, and Aβ aggregation. In particular, the addition of a pyridinium/isoquinolinium ring to the tramiprosate moiety (to give compounds 3a–j) led to an increase in the binding affinity for the catalytic active site of cholinesterase, which was hampered by the presence of sulfonic acid. Exclusion of the sulfonic acid moiety led to a novel but effective class of cholinesterase inhibitors (9a–w). in vitro Aβ aggregation inhibition assay indicated that compounds 3a–j, 9e–f, 9i–l, 9q, 9r, 9u–w, and 12 could inhibit over 10% Aβ aggregation at 1 mM concentration. Cholinesterase inhibition assay suggested that compounds 9g, 9h, 9o, and 9q–t exhibit over 70% inhibition on both AChE and BuChE at a concentration of 100 μM. Amongst the designed molecules, compound 9r (ca 18% at 1 mM) showed comparable inhibitory effect on the inhibition of Aβ aggregation with tramiprosate (ca 20% at 1 mM), along with impressive cholinesterase inhibitory potential (AChE IC50 = 13 μM and BuChE IC50 = 12 μM), acceptable toxicity and ability to pass through blood brain barrier, which could be used to ameliorate the phenotypes of AD in preclinical models.