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A neutral diphosphate mimic crosslinks the active site of human O-GlcNAc transferase

Nature Chemical Biology volume 8, pages 72–77 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

Glycosyltransferases (Gtfs) catalyze the formation of a diverse array of glycoconjugates. Small-molecule inhibitors to manipulate Gtf activity in cells have long been sought as tools for understanding Gtf function. Success has been limited because of challenges in designing inhibitors that mimic the negatively charged diphosphate substrates. Here we report the mechanism of action of a small molecule that inhibits O-linked N-acetylglucosamine transferase (OGT), an essential human enzyme that modulates cell signaling pathways by catalyzing a unique intracellular post-translational modification, β-O-GlcNAcylation. The molecule contains a five-heteroatom dicarbamate core that functions as a neutral diphosphate mimic. One dicarbamate carbonyl reacts with an essential active site lysine that anchors the diphosphate of the nucleotide-sugar substrate. A nearby cysteine then reacts with the lysine adduct to form a carbonyl crosslink in the OGT active site. Though this unprecedented double-displacement mechanism reflects the unique architecture of the OGT active site, related dicarbamate scaffolds may inhibit other enzymes that bind nucleotide-containing substrates.

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Figure 1: Inactivation of OGT by BZX compounds.
Figure 2: Proposed double-displacement scheme for the reaction of 2 with OGT. A simplified double-displacement scheme to form a carbonyl crosslink is proposed.
Figure 3: Active site comparison of crosslinked and uncrosslinked OGT.
Figure 4: The dicarbamate docks into the same site as the diphosphate.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. Brugge (Harvard Medical School) for the MCF-10A ErbB2 cells, L. Tabak (US National Institutes of Health, NIH) for ppGalNAcT2 protein, T. Lupoli (Harvard University) for MurG protein, C. Walsh, N. Gray (Harvard Medical School), E. Jacobson and D. Ford (Harvard University) for helpful discussions and A. Saghatelian (Harvard University) for critical reading of the manuscript. LC/MS data was acquired on an Agilent 6520 Q-TOF spectrophotometer supported by the Taplin Funds for Discovery Program (S. Walker). This work was supported in part by the NIH (GM076710) and the Harvard Biomedical Accelerator Fund.

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Author notes

  1. Jiaoyang Jiang and Michael B Lazarus: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Jiaoyang Jiang, Michael B Lazarus, Lincoln Pasquina & Suzanne Walker

  2. Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Michael B Lazarus

  3. Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Piotr Sliz

  4. Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Piotr Sliz

Authors
  1. Jiaoyang Jiang
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Contributions

S.W. oversaw all aspects of the experiments and manuscript preparation. J.J. carried out all experiments except those involving X-ray crystallography and molecular docking. M.B.L. obtained OGT-inhibitor crystals, acquired data and solved the structure of the crosslinked protein. L.P. conducted molecular docking experiments. P.S. guided refinement of the X-ray crystal structure and molecular docking. J.J. and S.W. wrote the manuscript, and all coauthors participated in figure preparation and editing.

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Correspondence to Suzanne Walker.

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Jiang, J., Lazarus, M., Pasquina, L. et al. A neutral diphosphate mimic crosslinks the active site of human O-GlcNAc transferase. Nat Chem Biol 8, 72–77 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.711

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