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Human Pim1 kinase is a serine/threonine protein kinase that plays important biological roles in cell survival, apoptosis, proliferation, and differentiation. Moreover, Pim1 is up-regulated in various hematopoietic malignancies and solid tumors. Thus, Pim1 is an attractive target for cancer therapeutics, and there has been growing interest in developing small molecule inhibitors for Pim1. Here, we describe the crystal structure of Pim1 in complex with a newly developed pyrido[4,3-d]pyrimidine-derivative inhibitor (SKI-O-068). Our inhibitor exhibits a half maximum inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 123 (±14) nM and has an unusual binding mode in complex with Pim1 kinase. The interactions between SKI-O-068 and the Pim1 active site pocket residue are different from those of other scaffold inhibitor-bound structures. The binding mode analysis suggests that the SKI-O-068 inhibitor can be improved by introducing functional groups that facilitate direct interaction with Lys67, which aid in the design of an optimized inhibitor.

Myotubularin-related protein 1 (MTMR1) is a phosphatase that belongs to the tyrosine/dual-specificity phosphatase superfamily. MTMR1 has been shown to use phosphatidylinositol 3-monophosphate (PI(3)P) and/or phosphatidylinositol 3,5-bisphosphate (PI(3,5)P2) as substrates. Here, we determined the crystal structure of human MTMR1. The refined model consists of the Pleckstrin homology (PH)-GRAM and phosphatase (PTP) domains. The overall structure was highly similar to the previously reported MTMR2 structure. Interestingly, two phosphate molecules were coordinated by strictly conserved residues located in the C(X)5R motif of the active site. Additionally, our biochemical studies confirmed the substrate specificity of MTMR1 for PI(3)P and PI(3,5)P2 over other phosphatidylinositol phosphates. Our structural and enzymatic analyses provide insight into the catalytic mechanism and biochemical properties of MTMR1.

Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron BT0793, a putative xylose isomerase, was overexpressed in Escherichia coli, purified and crystallized using polyethylene glycol monomethyl ether 550 as the precipitant. X-ray diffraction data were collected to 2.10 Å resolution at 100 K using synchrotron X-rays. The crystal was found to belong to space group P1, with unit-cell parameters a=96.3, b=101.7, c=108.3 Å, α=82.8, β=68.2, γ=83.0°. The asymmetric unit contained eight subunits of xylose isomerase with a crystal volume per protein weight (VM) of 2.38 Å3 Da(-1) and a solvent content of 48.3%.

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