Apurinic/apyrimidinic DNA repair endonuclease-1 (APE1), first recognized as an important DNA excision repair enzyme, is also known as Redox Factor-1 (Ref-1) involved in the activation of many nuclear transcription factors in both redox-dependent and independent manner. It has been well-documented that the overexpression of APE/Ref-1 contributes to the development of chemo-resistance and is associated with tumor progression in many human malignancies [1].
Our previous study in melanoma demonstrated that the development of novel inhibitors targeting the redox regulation domain of APE/Ref-1 is a promising strategy for melanoma treatment. To date, limited successes have been reported in developing novel APE/Ref-1 inhibitors for cancer treatment. Utilizing a structure-based approach, our study identified and characterized small molecular inhibitors of APE/Ref-1. First, N-terminally truncated APE/Ref-1 protein lacking the first 40 amino acid residues (∆40APE-1wt) was cloned into the pGEX-6P1 vector to express the GST-∆40APE-1wtprotein. After cleavage of GST-tag, the concentrated ∆40APE-1wt protein was subjected to protein crystallization study. We have successfully diffracted ∆40APE-1wt crystals and collected data with a resolution of 1.57Å. The crystal structure was further determined by molecular replacement in Molrep using the already available human APE-1 structure (PDB: 5CFG). For the first time, we observed the dimerization of APE/Ref-1 protein formed under oxidative conditions, which may contribute to the redox regulation of APE/Ref-1. Such structural transformation of APE/Ref-1 protein under distinct redox conditions may pave the way for future drug development and optimization. The binding affinity of the candidate compounds with ∆40APE-1wt protein was also determined using Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR), and the Ki values were analyzed. One of the potent inhibitors developed by our group by structure-based approach, exhibited promising anti-melanoma activities both in vitro and in vivo. Future studies on the structure-activity association are warranted.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:chapman.edu/oai:digitalcommons.chapman.edu:pharmaceutical_sciences_theses-1007 |
| Date | 19 December 2019 |
| Creators | Sharifi, Bella |
| Publisher | Chapman University Digital Commons |
| Source Sets | Chapman University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Pharmaceutical Sciences (MS) Theses |
| Rights | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
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