Substrate-mimicking peptides for wild-type or mutant Wnts with a point-mutation, varying in lengths or the number of disulfide bonds were purchased from CPC Scientific (Sunnyvale, CA)..

Abstract

Wnt proteins regulate a large number of processes, including cellular growth, differentiation, and tissue homeostasis, through the highly conserved Wnt signaling pathway in metazoans. Porcupine (PORCN) is an endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-resident integral membrane enzyme that catalyzes posttranslational modification of Wnts with palmitoleic acid, an unsaturated lipid. This unique form of lipidation with palmitoleic acid is a vital step in the biogenesis and secretion of Wnt, and PORCN inhibitors are currently in clinical trials for cancer treatment. However, PORCN-mediated Wnt lipidation has not been reconstituted in vitro with purified enzyme. Here, we report the first successful purification of human PORCN and confirm, through in vitro reconstitution with the purified enzyme, that PORCN is necessary and sufficient for Wnt acylation. By systematically examining a series of substrate variants, we show that PORCN intimately recognizes the local structure of Wnt around the site of acylation. Our in vitro assay enabled us to examine the activity of PORCN with a range of fatty acyl-CoAs with varying length and unsaturation. The selectivity of human PORCN across a spectrum of fatty acyl-CoAs suggested that the kink in the unsaturated acyl chain is a key determinant of PORCN-mediated catalysis. Finally, we show that two putative PORCN inhibitors that were discovered with cell-based assays indeed target human PORCN. Together, these results provide discrete, high-resolution biochemical insights into the mechanism of PORCN-mediated Wnt acylation and pave the way for further detailed biochemical and structural studies.

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  • Diao, J., Komura, R., Sano, T., Pantua, H., Storek, K.M., Inaba, H., Ogawa, H., Noland, C.L., Peng, Y., Gloor, S.L. and Yan, D. bioRxiv (2020): 2020-10.

    • Departments of Infectious Diseases, Structural Biology, Biochemical and Cellular Pharmacology, Translational Immunology, Pathology, and Early Discovery Biochemistry, Genentech, South San Francisco, CA 94080 USA

    The standard assay consists of 6 μL reaction mixture with 3 nM Lgt-DDM, 50 μM phosphatidylglycerol (1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-(1’-rac-glycerol), Avanti), 12.5 μM Pal-IAAC peptide substrate derived from the Pal lipoprotein (MQLNKVLKGLMIALPVMAIAACSSNKN, synthesized by CPC Scientific)

    October 5th, 2020Citations
  • Pantua, H., Skippington, E., Braun, M.G., Noland, C.L., Diao, J., Peng, Y., Gloor, S.L., Yan, D., Kang, J., Katakam, A.K. and Reeder, J. MBio 11, no. 5 (2020): 10-1128.

    • Departments of Infectious Diseases, OMNI Bioinformatics, Chemistry, Structural Biology, Biochemical and Cellular Pharmacology, Translational Immunology, Pathology, Molecular Biology, Genentech, South San Francisco, California, USA

    MQLNKV-L(U13C6,15N)-KGL(U13C6,15N)MIALPVMAIAA-dipalmitoyl2C-SSNKNGG-K-biotin, which upon cleavage by LspA, yields the product peptide dipalmitoyl2C-SSNKNGG-K-biotin. A product standard [dipalmitoyl2C-SSNKNAAK-(NHCH2CH2NH)-biotin; CPC Scientific] was in the reaction mixture as an internal standard for normalization of product quantitation.

  • Makris, G.; Bandari, R. P.; Kuchuk, M.; Jurisson, S. S.; Smith, C. J.; Hennkens, H. M., Molecular Imaging and Biology, 2021, 23 (1), 52-61.

    "NOTA/NODAGA-6Ahx- DPhe-Gln-Trp-Ala-Val-Gly-His-Sta-Leu-NH2 ; NOTA: 2,2′,2″-(1,4,7-triazacyclononane-1,4,7-triyl)triacetic acid and NODAGA: 2-(4,7-bis( carboxymethyl)-1,4,7-triazonan-1-yl)pentanedioic acid] were purchased from CPC Scientific [..]"

  • Macrocyclization Whitepaper

    Protein-protein and protein-peptide interactions play critical roles in all types of cellular processing. Peptides are natural partners to proteins and, as ligands, bind to proteins with high affinity due to their capacity to adapt to the often flexible protein surface. Despite this, peptides have drawbacks as drug candidates that include low plasma bioavailability, instability from proteolytic enzymes, and poor passive membrane permeability. Some success has been achieved with linear peptides, particularly peptides that maintain α-helical secondary structures. These motifs can be introduced to stabilized α-helical motifs by common “peptide-stapling” approaches, but stapled peptides can suffer from low bioactivity and poor solubility. Another strategy to maintain peptide secondary structure is modification by macrocyclization.

    September 3rd, 2020publications, White Papers
  • SAN JOSE, CA., Sept 3, 2020 /CPCNewswire/ — CPC Scientific Inc. is pleased to announce that the European Commission (EC) has granted the Conditional Marketing Authorization (CMA) for MYR Pharmaceuticals lead compound HEPCLUDEX®. CPC Scientific serves as a supplier and partner to MYR Pharmaceuticals for the development and manufacturing of bulevirtide (Hepcludex). This drug is […]

    September 3rd, 2020Press Releases
  • double stapled peptide COVID-19

    Curreli, Francesca, Sofia MB Victor, Shahad Ahmed, Aleksandra Drelich, Xiaohe Tong, Chien-Te K. Tseng, Christopher D. Hillyer, and Asim K. Debnath. Mbio 11, no. 6 (2020): e02451-20.

    We have synthesized (CPC Scientific, Inc.) four stapled peptides, as depicted in Figure 2. We also synthesized the linear peptide, NYBSP-C, as a control. Besides, we purchased a linear peptide, SBP1, to use as a control, which was reported recently to bind to SARS-CoV-2 RBD with high affinity (KD = 47nM).

  • Abdulganiyyu, I. A.; Kaczmarek, K.; Zabrocki, J.; Nachman, R. J.; Marchal, E.; Schellens, S.; Verlinden, H.; Broeck, J. V.; Marco, H.; Jackson, G. E. Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 2020, 103362.

    A head-to-tail cyclic, octapeptide analog of Locmi-AKH-I, cycloAKH (cyclo[LNFTPNWG]) was synthesized to severely restrict the conformational freedom of the AKH structure.

    August 14th, 2020Citations, Peptide Macrocycles
  • Clairfeuille, T., Buchholz, K.R., Li, Q., Verschueren, E., Liu, P., Sangaraju, D., Park, S., Noland, C.L., Storek, K.M., Nickerson, N.N. and Martin, L. Nature 584, no. 7821 (2020): 479-483.

    • Departments of Structural Biology, Infectious Diseases, Microchemistry, Proteomics & Lipidomics, Drug Metabolism & Pharmacokinetics, Translational Immunology, BioMolecular Resources, Biochemical & Cellular Pharmacology, Bioinformatics & Computational Biology, Discovery Chemistry Departments, Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, CA, USA.

    LAB peptides ([..], CPC Scientific, [..] l, standard solid-phase peptide synthesis) at 10 mM in 50 mM Tris, pH 8, and 100 mM NaCl were diluted in MHB II cation adjusted broth (800 μM top concentration) or LB. Where indicated, EDTA was added to a final concentration of 0.5 mM.

    August 12th, 2020Citations
  • Chan, Leslie W., Melodi N. Anahtar, Ta-Hsuan Ong, Kelsey E. Hern, Roderick R. Kunz, and Sangeeta N. Bhatia. Nature Nanotechnology (2020): 1-9.

    HFA-modifed peptides were synthesized by CPC Scientifc (>95% purity). Briefy, the peptide substrate, Ac-CKKK(Cy5)-PEG4-Nle(O-Bzl)-Met(O)2-Oic-Abu-OH, was synthesized on Fmoc-Abu-CTC resin via standard Fmoc solid phase peptide synthesis.

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