Rational design using sequence information only produces a peptide that binds to the intrinsically disordered region of p53

Sci Rep. 2019 Jun 28;9(1):8584. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-44688-0.

Abstract

Intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) of proteins are involved in many diseases. The rational drug design against disease-mediating proteins is often based on the 3D structure; however, the flexible structure of IDRs hinders the use of such structure-based design methods. Here, we developed a rational design method to obtain a peptide that can bind an IDR using only sequence information based on the statistical contact energy of amino acid pairs. We applied the method to the disordered C-terminal domain of the tumor suppressor p53. Titration experiments revealed that one of the designed peptides, DP6, has a druggable affinity of ~1 μM to the p53 C-terminal domain. NMR spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulation revealed that DP6 selectively binds to the vicinity of the target sequence in the C-terminal domain of p53. DP6 inhibits the nonspecific DNA binding of a tetrameric form of the p53 C-terminal domain, but does not significantly affect the specific DNA binding of a tetrameric form of the p53 core domain. Single-molecule measurements revealed that DP6 retards the 1D sliding of p53 along DNA, implying modulation of the target searching of p53. Statistical potential-based design may be useful in designing peptides that target IDRs for therapeutic purposes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • DNA-Binding Proteins / chemistry
  • DNA-Binding Proteins / genetics
  • DNA-Binding Proteins / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions
  • Intrinsically Disordered Proteins* / chemistry
  • Kinetics
  • Molecular Docking Simulation
  • Molecular Dynamics Simulation
  • Peptides / metabolism*
  • Protein Binding
  • Protein Conformation
  • Protein Interaction Domains and Motifs*
  • Static Electricity
  • Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / chemistry
  • Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / genetics*
  • Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / metabolism*

Substances

  • DNA-Binding Proteins
  • Intrinsically Disordered Proteins
  • Peptides
  • TP53 protein, human
  • Tumor Suppressor Protein p53