Covalently Engineered Nanobody Chimeras for Targeted Membrane Protein Degradation

J Am Chem Soc. 2021 Oct 13;143(40):16377-16382. doi: 10.1021/jacs.1c08521. Epub 2021 Oct 1.

Abstract

The targeted degradation of membrane proteins would afford an attractive and general strategy for treating various diseases that remain difficult with the current proteolysis-targeting chimera (PROTAC) methodology. We herein report a covalent nanobody-based PROTAC strategy, termed GlueTAC, for targeted membrane protein degradation with high specificity and efficiency. We first established a mass-spectrometry-based screening platform for the rapid development of a covalent nanobody (GlueBody) that allowed proximity-enabled cross-linking with surface antigens on cancer cells. By conjugation with a cell-penetrating peptide and a lysosomal-sorting sequence, the resulting GlueTAC chimera triggered the internalization and degradation of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), which provides a new avenue to target and degrade cell-surface proteins.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Proteolysis*