Inhibition of ghrelin O-acyltransferase (GOAT) by octanoylated pentapeptides.

ABSTRACT: The discovery of ghrelin O-acyltransferase (GOAT) opens the way to the design of drugs that block the attachment of an octanoyl group to the appetite-stimulating peptide hormone ghrelin, potentially preventing obesity. Here, we develop a biochemical assay that uses membranes from insect cells infected with baculovirus encoding mouse GOAT. The GOAT-containing membranes transferred the [(3)H]octanoyl group from [(3)H]octanoyl CoA to recombinant proghrelin in vitro. Transfer depended on the serine at residue 3 of proghrelin, which is the known site of acylation. GOAT also transferred [(3)H]octanoyl to a pentapeptide containing only the N-terminal five amino acids of proghrelin. GOAT activity could be inhibited by an octanoylated ghrelin pentapeptide, and its potency was enhanced 45-fold when

SUBMITTER: Yang J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2504781 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature