Abstract
Screening peptide libraries is a proven strategy for identifying inhibitors of protein–ligand interactions. Compounds identified in these screens often bind to their targets with low affinities. When the target protein is present at a high density on the surface of cells or other biological surfaces, it is sometimes possible to increase the biological activity of a weakly binding ligand by presenting multiple copies of it on the same molecule. We isolated a peptide from a phage display library that binds weakly to the heptameric cell-binding subunit of anthrax toxin and prevents the interaction between cell-binding and enzymatic moieties. A molecule consisting of multiple copies of this nonnatural peptide, covalently linked to a flexible backbone, prevented assembly of the toxin complex in vitro and blocked toxin action in an animal model. This result demonstrates that protein–protein interactions can be inhibited by a synthetic, polymeric, polyvalent inhibitor in vivo.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by grants to R.J.C., G.M.W., and B.R.S. from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and to G.M.W. from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA; Arlington, VA). M.M. received a fellowship from the French Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DSP/DGA) and the Philippe Fondation. J.M. was supported in part by a Medical Research Council of Canada postdoctoral fellowship. P.D. is a Fonds pour la Formation de Chercheurs et l'Aide à la Recherche (FCAR; Québec, PQ) research fellow. R.J.C. has financial interest in AVANT Immunotherapeutics, Inc.
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Mourez, M., Kane, R., Mogridge, J. et al. Designing a polyvalent inhibitor of anthrax toxin. Nat Biotechnol 19, 958–961 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1001-958
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1001-958
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