Segmental Isotope Labelling of an Individual Bromodomain of a Tandem Domain BRD4 Using Sortase A

PLoS One. 2016 Apr 29;11(4):e0154607. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0154607. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Bromodomain and extra-terminal (BET) family of proteins are one of the major readers of epigenetic marks and an important target class in oncology and other disease areas. The importance of the BET family of proteins is manifested by the explosion in the number of inhibitors against these targets that have successfully entered clinical trials. One important BET family member is bromodomain containing protein 4 (BRD4). Structural and biophysical studies of BRD4 are complicated by its tertiary-structure consisting of two bromodomains connected by a flexible inter-domain linker of approximately 180 amino acids. A detailed understanding of the interplay of these bromodomains will be key to rational drug design in BRD4, yet there are no reported three-dimensional structures of the multi-domain BRD4 and NMR studies of the tandem domain are hampered by the size of the protein. Here, we present a method for rapid Sortase A-mediated segmental labelling of the individual bromodomains of BRD4 that provides a powerful strategy that will enable NMR studies of ligand-bromodomain interactions with atomic detail. In our labelling strategy, we have used U-[2H,15N]-isotope labelling on the C-terminal bromodomain with selective introduction of 13CH3 methyl groups on Ile (δ1), Val and Leu, whereas the N-terminal bromodomain remained unlabelled. This labelling scheme resulted in significantly simplified NMR spectra and will allow for high-resolution interaction, structure and dynamics studies in the presence of ligands.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Aminoacyltransferases*
  • Bacterial Proteins*
  • Biophysical Phenomena
  • Cell Cycle Proteins
  • Cysteine Endopeptidases*
  • Humans
  • Isotope Labeling / methods*
  • Models, Molecular
  • Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular
  • Nuclear Proteins / chemistry*
  • Nuclear Proteins / genetics
  • Protein Domains
  • Recombinant Proteins / chemistry
  • Recombinant Proteins / genetics
  • Transcription Factors / chemistry*
  • Transcription Factors / genetics

Substances

  • BRD4 protein, human
  • Bacterial Proteins
  • Cell Cycle Proteins
  • Nuclear Proteins
  • Recombinant Proteins
  • Transcription Factors
  • Aminoacyltransferases
  • sortase A
  • Cysteine Endopeptidases

Grants and funding

All authors were employees of Astrazeneca at the time of writing. AstraZeneca provided support in the form of salaries for all authors, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of the authors are articulated in the “author contributions” section.