Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EPIC (Exploiting Protein Complexes that Induce Cell-death)
Période du rapport: 2018-01-01 au 2019-12-31
Realizing this aim is currently limited by the absence of assays for complex formation that are suitable for screening purposes. Solving this problem requires a multi-disciplinary approach and the integration of research activities that are spread across different research groups. Completion of the project will provide new approaches to detect and investigate protein complexes that determine cell fate, providing new strategies for both drug-discovery and for in vitro toxicity testing.
The key advances made by researchers on the EPIC project are:
• Construction and validation of a screening assay for apoptosome activators and inhibitors
• Identification of a novel apoptosome inhibitor from a new Zooanthid (a deep sea animal) and elucidation of the inhibitor’s chemical structure
• Identification of the mechanism of action of a small molecule inhibitor of apoptosis
• Identification of the binding sites of small molecules through molecular modelling
• Demonstrating the non-apoptotic role of the apoptosome in cell differentiation
• Construction and validation of biosensors for detecting the interaction of necrosome proteins
• Construction and validation of biosensors for detecting the interaction of inflammasome proteins
Apaf-1 interactions (NUI Galway, UGOT and Tarbiat Modares University)
1. Construction of Apaf-1 split luciferase reporters as well as truncation and point mutants of Apaf-1 that allow validation of the assay.
2. Validation of the assay in a cell-free format that allows detection of Apaf-1 - Apaf-1 interactions and that allows high throughput screening of small molecule libraries.
3. Screening of a toxicant library to identify toxicants that block Apaf-1 - Apaf-1 interactions.
4. Identification of a toxicant that blocks Apaf-1 - Apaf-1 interactions, a finding that provides the first molecular explanation for the toxicant's reproductive toxicity.
5. Identification of key Apaf-1 residues that lock Apaf-1 in an inactive conformation by a combination of modelling and slit luciferase complementation assay.
6. Screening of a unique library of marine natural products collected in the North Atlantic by an Irish funded marine biodiscovery programme.
7. Identification of a novel natural product Apaf-1 inhibitor produced by an uncharacterised cnidarian collected from the North Atlantic at a depth of 1000 m.
8. Identification of the mechanism of action of the apoptosis inhibitor M50054.
9. Demonstration of apoptosome formation during muscle cell differentiation.
Caspase-9 interactions (NUI Galway and Tarbiat Modares University)
1. Construction of caspase-9 split luciferase biosensors and detection of caspase-9:Apaf-1 interactions using split luciferase complementation assay.
2. Construction of XIAP split luiciferase biosensors and detection of XIAP: caspase-9 interactions using a split luciferase complementation assay.
RIP kinase and necrosome interactions (VIB, NUI Galway and Tarbiat Modares University)
1. Investigation of biosensors for interactions of homotypic and heterotypic interactions between RIPK1, RIPK3, FADD and TRADD and a demonstration that the interactions are sensitive to known RIPk1 and RIPK3 inhibitors.
In silico work to identify small molecule inhibitors and activators (NUI Galway and ProtoQSAR and ProtoQSAR and UGOT)
1. Development of an automated QSAR pipeline using open source tools an initial analysis of Apaf-1 activity assay data. Further exploration of ‘chemical space’ adjacent to active compounds and in silico identification of potential ligand binding sites on Apaf-1 in silico identification of novel Apaf-1 ligands.
Inflammasome interactions (FVIB, NUI Galway and Tarbiat Modares University)
1. Validation of a split luciferase complementation assay for the inflammasome and a demonstration of its utility for highthroughput screening.