Volume 16 Issue 7, July 2020

Glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) stands at the head of the pentose phosphate pathway, which is responsible for nucleotide synthesis. The identification and thorough validation of an improved G6PD inhibitor provide a valuable new tool compound for studying metabolism.

The enzyme 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX) initiates the biosynthesis of leukotrienes (LT), potent mediators of the inflammatory response. The first crystal structures of two complexes of inhibitor bound to 5-LOX reveal the functional consequences of the binding, including a change in the regiospecificity toward a 12/15-lipoxygenating enzyme.

This Review provides insights into transcriptional regulation, and vulnerabilities of cancer cells to disruption of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)-mediated regulation of Pol II transcription, revealed with small-molecule CDK inhibitors.

Domain insertion into the loop region of AcrIIC1 leads to a variant with enhanced inhibitory activity toward Neisseria meningitides Cas9, while structure-guided design turns AcrIIC1 into a potent inhibitor of Staphylococcus aureus Cas9.

Identification of an improved glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) inhibitor G6PDi-1 blocks G6PD activity more robustly than the widely cited antagonist DHEA. G6PDi-1 treatment blocks T cell cytokine production and neutrophil oxidative burst.

Evolution of a group of plant cellulose synthase-like enzymes into specialized glycosyltransferases in the endoplasmic reticulum membrane confers the ability to glucuronidate triterpenoid saponins and other specialized metabolites.

A negative allosteric modulator of the G-protein-coupled receptor β₂-adrenergic receptor binds to a membrane-facing surface adjacent to a molecular switch for receptor activation, and its binding disrupts a water-mediated polar network stabilizing an inactive switch conformation.

The side chain interaction within the short disordered segment of yeast prion protein Sup35 could affect the conformation of the main chain, alter the transmission barrier between species and regulate its cross-seeding activity.

Cellular glycosylation facilitates molecular recognition of cells and biomolecules. A two-step N-glycan editing method enables selective glycoform ‘deletion’ and ‘insertion’ of new glycans, which can be used to probe their biological functions.

Structures of the ketosynthase–chain length factor complex from ishigamide biosynthesis, cross-linked to the acyl carrier protein, reveal the molecular interactions between these domains and how the reaction pocket limits rounds of product extension.

Structures of 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX) reveal that NDGA disturbs regions that shield the active site while AKBA binds an allosteric site. NDGA inhibits 5-LOX activity using its redox-active function, while AKBA changes the enzyme’s regiospecificity

Drug combinations consisting of two cell death-targeting drugs are enriched for antagonism and ‘single-agent dominance’, where the faster-acting drug suppresses the slower-acting drug due to inhibitory crosstalk between cell death pathways.

Patrick et al. used single-molecule optical tweezers to study the enzymatic activity and dynamics of product release of telomerase and provide direct evidence for the presence of an anchor site in elongating telomerase.