Project description:Large numbers of genetic disorders are caused by nonsense mutations for which compound-induced readthrough of premature termination codons (PTCs) might be exploited as a potential treatment strategy. We have successfully developed a sensitive and quantitative high-throughput screening (HTS) assay, protein transcription/translation (PTT)-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), for identifying novel PTC-readthrough compounds using ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) as a genetic disease model. This HTS PTT-ELISA assay is based on a coupled PTT that uses plasmid templates containing prototypic A-T mutated (ATM) mutations for HTS. The assay is luciferase independent. We screened approximately 34,000 compounds and identified 12 low-molecular-mass nonaminoglycosides with potential PTC-readthrough activity. From these, two leading compounds consistently induced functional ATM protein in ATM-deficient cells containing disease-causing nonsense mutations, as demonstrated by direct measurement of ATM protein, restored ATM kinase activity, and colony survival assays for cellular radiosensitivity. The two compounds also demonstrated readthrough activity in mdx mouse myotube cells carrying a nonsense mutation and induced significant amounts of dystrophin protein.
Project description:Readthrough therapy relies on the use of small molecules that enable premature termination codons in mRNA open reading frames to be misinterpreted by the translation machinery, thus allowing the generation of full-length, potentially functional proteins from mRNA carrying nonsense mutations. In patients with hemophilia A, nonsense mutations potentially sensitive to readthrough agents represent approximately 16% of the point mutations. The aim of this study was to measure the readthrough effect of different compounds and to analyze the influence of premature termination codon context in selected nonsense mutations causing hemophilia A. To this end, primary fibroblasts from three patients with hemophilia A caused by nonsense mutations (p.W1586X, p.Q1636X and p.R1960X) and Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells transfected with 12 different plasmids encoding mutated F8 (p.Q462X, p.Q1705X, p.Q1764X, p.W274X, p.W1726X, p.W2015X, p.W2131X, p.R1715X, p.R1822X, p.R1960X, p.R2071X and p.R2228X) were treated with gentamicin, geneticin, PTC124, RTC13 or RTC14. Responses were assessed by analyzing not only F8 mRNA expression and FVIII biosynthesis (FVIII antigen by ELISA, western blot and immunofluorescence) but also the FVIII activity (by chromogenic assay). In the patients' fibroblasts, readthrough agents neither stabilized F8 mRNA nor increased FVIII protein or activity to detectable levels. In CHO cells, only in five of the 12 F8 variants, readthrough treatment increased both FVIII antigen and activity levels, which was associated with a reduction in intracellular accumulation of truncated forms and an increase in full-length proteins. These results provide experimental evidence of genetic context dependence of nonsense suppression by readthrough agents and of factors predicting responsiveness.
Project description:Premature-termination codons (PTCs) in CFTR (cystic fibrosis [CF] transmembrane conductance regulator) result in nonfunctional CFTR protein and are the proximate cause of ∼11% of CF-causing alleles, for which no treatments exist. The CFTR corrector lumacaftor and the potentiator ivacaftor improve CFTR function with terminal PTC mutations and enhance the effect of readthrough agents. Novel correctors GLPG2222 (corrector 1 [C1]), GLPG3221 (corrector 2 [C2]), and potentiator GLPG1837 compare favorably with lumacaftor and ivacaftor in vitro. Here, we evaluated the effect of correctors C1a and C2a (derivatives of C1 and C2) and GLPG1837 alone or in combination with the readthrough compound G418 on CFTR function using heterologous Fischer rat thyroid (FRT) cells, the genetically engineered human bronchial epithelial (HBE) 16HBE14o- cell lines, and primary human cells with PTC mutations. In FRT lines pretreated with G418, GLPG1837 elicited dose-dependent increases in CFTR activity that exceeded those from ivacaftor in FRT-W1282X and FRT-R1162X cells. A three-mechanism strategy consisting of G418, GLPG1837, and two correctors (C1a + C2a) yielded the greatest functional improvements in FRT and 16HBE14o- PTC variants, noting that correction and potentiation without readthrough was sufficient to stimulate CFTR activity for W1282X cells. GLPG1837 + C1a + C2a restored substantial function in G542X/F508del HBE cells and restored even more function for W1282X/F508del cells, largely because of the corrector/potentiator effect, with no additional benefit from G418. In G542X/R553X or R1162X/R1162X organoids, enhanced forskolin-induced swelling was observed with G418 + GLPG1837 + C1a + C2a, although GLPG1837 + C1a + C2a alone was sufficient to improve forskolin-induced swelling in W1282X/W1282X organoids. Combination of CFTR correctors, potentiators, and readthrough compounds augments the functional repair of CFTR nonsense mutations, indicating the potential for novel correctors and potentiators to restore function to truncated W1282X CFTR.
Project description:BRCA1 is a major tumor suppressor that functions in the accurate repair of DNA double-strand breaks via homologous recombination (HR). Nonsense mutations in BRCA1 lead to inactive truncated protein products and are associated with high risk of breast and ovarian cancer. These mutations generate premature termination codons (PTCs). Different studies have shown that aminoglycosides can induce PTC suppression by promoting stop codon readthrough and restoring full-length (FL) protein expression. The use of these compounds has been studied in clinical trials for genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis and Duchenne muscular dystrophy, with encouraging results. Here we show proof-of-concept data demonstrating that the aminoglycoside G418 can induce BRCA1 PTC readthrough and restore FL protein synthesis and function. We first demonstrate that G418 treatment restores BRCA1 FL protein synthesis in HCC1395, a human breast tumor cell line carrying the R1751X mutation. HCC1395 cells treated with G418 also recover HR DNA repair and restore cell cycle checkpoint activation. A set of naturally occurring BRCA1 nonsense variants encoding different PTCs was evaluated in a GFP C-terminal BRCA1 construct model and BRCA1 PTC readthrough levels vary depending on the stop codon context. Because PTC readthrough could generate FL protein carrying pathogenic missense mutations, variants representing the most probable acquired amino acid substitutions in consequence of readthrough were functionally assessed by a validated transcription activation assay. Overall, this is the first study that evaluates the readthrough of PTC variants with clinical relevance in the breast and ovarian cancer-predisposing gene BRCA1.
Project description:We report a novel negamycin derivative TCP-1109 (13x) which serves as a potent readthrough drug candidate against nonsense-associated diseases. We previously demonstrated that TCP-112 (7), a nor-compound of native 3-epi-deoxynegmaycin, showed a higher readthrough activity than (+)-negamycin. In the present study, we performed a structure-activity relationship (SAR) study of compound 7 focused on its 3-amino group in an effort to develop a more potent readthrough compound. Introduction of a variety of natural or unnatural amino acids to the 3-amino group gave us the more potent derivative 13x which has about four times higher readthrough activity than 7 in a cell-based assay using a premature termination codon of TGA derived from Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The activity was dose-dependent and relatively selective for TGA. However, the activities for TAG and TAA were also higher than those of (+)-negamycin and 7. Moreover, compound 13x showed significant cell-based readthrough activity for several nonsense mutations derived from other nonsense-associated diseases. It is suggested that 13x has the potential to be a readthrough drug useful for the treatment of many kinds of nonsense-associated diseases.
Project description:Inherited metabolic diseases (IMDs) belong to the group of rare diseases due to their low individual prevalence. Most of them are inherited in autosomal recessive fashion and represent good candidates for novel therapeutical strategies aimed at recovering partial enzyme function as they lack an effective treatment, and small levels of enzymatic activity have been shown to be associated with improved outcome and milder phenotypes. Recently, a novel therapeutic approach for genetic diseases has emerged, based on the ability of aminoglycosides and other compounds in allowing translation to proceed through a premature termination codon introduced by a nonsense mutation, which frequently constitute a significant fraction of the mutant alleles in a population. In this review we summarize the essentials of what is known as suppression therapy, the different compounds that have been identified by high-throughput screens or developed using a medicinal chemistry approach and the preclinical and clinical trials that are being conducted in general and in the field of IMDs in particular. Several IMDs have shown to be good models for evaluating readthrough compounds using patients' cells carrying nonsense mutations, monitoring for an increase in functional recovery and/or enzyme activity. Overall, the positive results obtained indicate the feasibility of the approach for different diseases and although the levels of protein function reached are low, they may be enough to alleviate the consequences of the pathology. Nonsense suppression thus represents a potential therapy or supplementary treatment for a number of IMD patients encouraging further clinical trials with readthrough drugs with improved functionality and low toxicity.
Project description:Many heritable genetic disorders arise from nonsense mutations, which generate premature termination codons (PTCs) in transcribed mRNA. PTCs ablate protein synthesis by prematurely terminating the translation of mutant mRNA, as well as reducing mutant mRNA quantity through targeted degradation by nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) mechanisms. Therapeutic strategies for nonsense mutations include facilitating ribosomal readthrough of the PTC and/or inhibiting NMD to restore protein function. However, the efficacy of combining readthrough agents and NMD inhibitors has not been thoroughly explored. In this study, we examined combinations of known NMD inhibitors and readthrough agents using functional analysis of the CFTR protein in primary cells from a mouse model carrying a G542X nonsense mutation in Cftr. We observed synergy between an inhibitor of the NMD component SMG-1 (SMG1i) and the readthrough agents G418, gentamicin, and paromomycin, but did not observe synergy with readthrough caused by amikacin, tobramycin, PTC124, escin, or amlexanox. These results indicate that treatment with NMD inhibitors can increase the quantity of functional protein following readthrough, and that combining NMD inhibitors and readthrough agents represents a potential therapeutic option for treating nonsense mutations.
Project description:Premature termination codons (PTCs) account for 10 to 20% of genetic diseases in humans. The gene inactivation resulting from PTCs can be counteracted by the use of drugs stimulating PTC readthrough, thereby restoring production of the full-length protein. However, a greater chemical variety of readthrough inducers is required to broaden the medical applications of this therapeutic strategy. In this study, we developed a reporter cell line and performed high-throughput screening (HTS) to identify potential readthrough inducers. After three successive assays, we isolated 2-guanidino-quinazoline (TLN468). We assessed the clinical potential of this drug as a potent readthrough inducer on the 40 PTCs most frequently responsible for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). We found that TLN468 was more efficient than gentamicin, and acted on a broader range of sequences, without inducing the readthrough of normal stop codons (TC).
Project description:The retinoblastoma protein (Rb) is encoded by the RB1 tumor suppressor gene. Inactivation of RB1 by inherited or somatic mutation occurs in retinoblastoma and various other types of tumors. A significant fraction (25.9%) of somatic RB1 mutations are nonsense substitutions leading to a premature termination codon (PTC) in the RB1 coding sequence and expression of truncated inactive Rb protein. Here we show that aminoglycoside G418, a known translational readthrough inducer, can induce full-length Rb protein in SW1783 astrocytoma cells with endogenous R579X nonsense mutant RB1 as well as in MDA-MB-436 breast carcinoma cells transiently transfected with R251X, R320X, R579X or Q702X nonsense mutant RB1 cDNA. Readthrough was associated with increased RB1 mRNA levels in nonsense mutant RB1 cells. Induction of full-length Rb protein was potentiated by the cereblon E3 ligase modulator CC-90009. These results suggest that pharmacological induction of translational readthrough could be a feasible strategy for therapeutic targeting of tumors with nonsense mutant RB1.
Project description:Premature termination codons (PTCs) prevent translation of a full-length protein and trigger nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD). Nonsense suppression (also termed readthrough) therapy restores protein function by selectively suppressing translation termination at PTCs. Poor efficacy of current readthrough agents prompted us to search for better compounds. An NMD-sensitive NanoLuc readthrough reporter was used to screen 771,345 compounds. Among the 180 compounds identified with readthrough activity, SRI-37240 and its more potent derivative SRI-41315, induce a prolonged pause at stop codons and suppress PTCs associated with cystic fibrosis in immortalized and primary human bronchial epithelial cells, restoring CFTR expression and function. SRI-41315 suppresses PTCs by reducing the abundance of the termination factor eRF1. SRI-41315 also potentiates aminoglycoside-mediated readthrough, leading to synergistic increases in CFTR activity. Combining readthrough agents that target distinct components of the translation machinery is a promising treatment strategy for diseases caused by PTCs.