Affinity Enhancement by Ligand Clustering Effect Inspired by Peptide Dendrimers-Shank PDZ Proteins Interactions

PLoS One. 2016 Feb 26;11(2):e0149580. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0149580. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

High-affinity binders are desirable tools to probe the function that specific protein-protein interactions play in cell. In the process of seeking a general strategy to design high-affinity binders, we found a clue from the βPIX (p21-activated kinase interacting exchange factor)-Shank PDZ interaction in synaptic assembly: three PDZ-binding sites are clustered by a parallel coiled-coil trimer but bind to Shank PDZ protein with 1:1 stoichiometry (1 trimer/1 PDZ). Inspired by this architecture, we proposed that peptide dendrimer, mimicking the ligand clustering in βPIX, will also show enhanced binding affinity, yet with 1:1 stoichiometry. This postulation has been proven here, as we synthesized a set of monomeric, dimeric and trimeric peptides and measured their binding affinity and stoichiometry with Shank PDZ domains by isothermal titration calorimetry, native mass spectrometry and surface plasmon resonance. This affinity enhancement, best explained by proximity effect, will be useful to guide the design of high-affinity blockers for protein-protein interactions.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Dendrimers / chemistry*
  • Dimerization
  • Ligands
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins / chemistry*
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins / metabolism*
  • PDZ Domains*
  • Peptidomimetics / chemistry*
  • Peptidomimetics / metabolism*
  • Protein Binding
  • Rho Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factors / metabolism

Substances

  • Dendrimers
  • Ligands
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins
  • Peptidomimetics
  • Rho Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factors

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Research Grants Council, Early Career Scheme grant CUHK 404812 (website: http://www.ugc.edu.hk/eng/rgc/fund/grants.htm#a), the Research Grants Council, General Research Fund grants 403711 and 404413 (website: http://www.ugc.edu.hk/eng/rgc/fund/grants.htm#b), and the Research Grants Council, Areas of Excellence Scheme, AoE/M-09/12 (website: http://www.ugc.edu.hk/eng/ugc/activity/aoes/aoes.htm). Prof. Xia received all the funding. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.