Serum-Stable and Selective Backbone-N-Methylated Cyclic Peptides That Inhibit Prokaryotic Glycolytic Mutases

ACS Chem Biol. 2022 Aug 19;17(8):2284-2295. doi: 10.1021/acschembio.2c00403. Epub 2022 Jul 29.

Abstract

N-Methylated amino acids (N-MeAAs) are privileged residues of naturally occurring peptides critical to bioactivity. However, de novo discovery from ribosome display is limited by poor incorporation of N-methylated amino acids into the nascent peptide chain attributed to a poor EF-Tu affinity for the N-methyl-aminoacyl-tRNA. By reconfiguring the tRNA's T-stem region to compensate and tune the EF-Tu affinity, we conducted Random nonstandard Peptides Integrated Discovery (RaPID) display of a macrocyclic peptide (MCP) library containing six different N-MeAAs. We have here devised a "pool-and-split" enrichment strategy using the RaPID display and identified N-methylated MCPs against three species of prokaryotic metal-ion-dependent phosphoglycerate mutases. The enriched MCPs reached 57% N-methylation with up to three consecutively incorporated N-MeAAs, rivaling natural products. Potent nanomolar inhibitors ranging in ortholog selectivity, strongly mediated by N-methylation, were identified. Co-crystal structures reveal an architecturally related Ce-2 Ipglycermide active-site metal-ion-coordinating Cys lariat MCP, functionally dependent on two cis N-MeAAs with broadened iPGM species selectivity over the original nematode-selective MCPs. Furthermore, the isolation of a novel metal-ion-independent Staphylococcus aureus iPGM inhibitor utilizing a phosphoglycerate mimetic mechanism illustrates the diversity of possible chemotypes encoded by the N-MeAA MCP library.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acids / chemistry
  • Intramolecular Transferases* / metabolism
  • Peptide Elongation Factor Tu* / metabolism
  • Peptide Library
  • Peptides / chemistry
  • Peptides, Cyclic / chemistry
  • RNA, Transfer

Substances

  • Amino Acids
  • Peptide Library
  • Peptides
  • Peptides, Cyclic
  • RNA, Transfer
  • Peptide Elongation Factor Tu
  • Intramolecular Transferases