High-affinity cyclic peptide matriptase inhibitors
Pedro Quimbar1, Uru Malik2,Christian P. Sommerhoff3, Quentin Kaas2,Lai Y. Chan2, Yen-Hua Huang2, Maresa Grundhuber3, Kerry Dunse1, David J. Craik4, Marilyn A. Anderson1 and Norelle L. Daly5,*
Author Affiliations
1 La Trobe University, Australia;
2 The University of Queensland, Australia;
3 Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Germany;
4 University of Queensland, Australia;
5 James Cook University, Australia
Capsule
Background: SFTI-1 and MCoTI-II are potent protease inhibitors comprising a cyclic backbone.
Results: Elucidation of structure-activity relationships for SFTI-1 and MCoTI-II was used to design inhibitors with enhanced inhibitory activity.
Conclusion: An analogue of MCoTI-II is one of the most potent inhibitors of matriptase.
Significance: These results provide a solid basis for the design of selective peptide inhibitors of matriptase with therapeutic potential.
Abstract
The type II transmembrane serine protease matriptase is a key activator of multiple signaling pathways associated with cell proliferation and modification of the extracellular matrix. Deregulated matriptase activity correlates with a number of diseases, including cancer and hence highly selective matriptase inhibitors may have therapeutic potential. The plant-derived cyclic peptide, sunflower trypsin inhibitor-1 (SFTI-1), is a promising drug scaffold with potent matriptase inhibitory activity. In the current study we have analyzed the structure-activity relationships of SFTI-1 and MCoTI-II, a structurally divergent trypsin inhibitor from Momordica cochinchinensis that also contains a cyclic backbone. We show that MCoTI-II is a significantly more potent matriptase inhibitor than SFTI-1 and that all alanine mutants of both peptides, generated using positional scanning mutagenesis, have decreased trypsin affinity, whereas several mutations either maintain or result in enhanced matriptase inhibitory activity. These intriguing results were used to design one of the most potent matriptase inhibitors known to-date with a 290 pM equilibrium dissociation constant, and provide the first indication on how to modulate affinity for matriptase over trypsin in cyclic peptides. This information might be useful for the design of more selective and therapeutically relevant inhibitors of matriptase.