Key Points
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ATPases form a large family of enzymes that use the energy made available by the hydrolysis of ATP to drive energetically unfavourable processes.
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These enzymes are involved in many diseases, and are therefore the targets of several drugs that are under development or already on the market. Most of these drugs inhibit their target ATPase without binding directly at the nucleotide-binding site.
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Alternatively, the design of competitive ATP inhibitors could be envisaged as a new way of targeting ATPases.
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The study of the structure of various ATPases shows that they contain different types of nucleotide-binding site and interact in a different manner with the nucleotide. Moreover, cavities that are not occupied by the nucleotide are present at the active site of many ATPases. This indicates that several ATPases contain at their nucleotide-binding site the structural features required for the design of competitive inhibitors of ATP.
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The recent synthesis of low-molecular-mass compounds that compete with ATP and inhibit Hsp90 and DNA gyrase B shows that competitive inhibitors of ATP can be obtained.
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Therefore, as is the case for another family of nucleotide-binding proteins, the protein kinases, competitive inhibitors of ATP could be used to inhibit ATPases. However, so far, such inhibitors have been obtained only for a subfamily of ATPases, and it remains to be seen whether this approach can be generalized for other ATPases.
Abstract
ATPases are involved in several cellular functions, and are at the origin of various human diseases. They are therefore attractive drug targets, and various ATPase inhibitors are already on the market. However, most of these drugs are active without binding directly to the nucleotide-binding site. An alternative strategy to inhibit ATPases is to design competitive ATP inhibitors. This approach, which has been used successfully to design protein-kinase inhibitors, depends on the structure of the nucleotide-binding site. This review describes the structural features of the nucleotide-binding site of various ATPases and analyses how this structural information can be exploited for drug discovery.
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Glossary
- AAA-ATPase FAMILY
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The AAA (for ATPases associated with various cellular activities) ATPase superfamily is characterized by a highly conserved module of ∼230 amino-acid residues, including one or two copies of an ATP-binding consensus sequence.
- BIOAVAILABILITY
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The amount of a drug that is absorbed into the body.
- HYDROGEN BOND
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(H-bond). A weak electrostatic link between an electronegative atom, such as oxygen, and a hydrogen atom that is linked covalently to another electronegative atom, such as nitrogen.
- HYDROPHOBIC
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Hydrophobic regions of proteins are formed by nonpolar amino acids. They are usually located in the interior of proteins.
- DIPOLE MOMENT
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An electric dipole is constituted by two distant electric charges of opposite sign. The dipole moment is defined as the product of the total amount of positive or negative charge and the distance between them.
- GHL ATPase FAMILY
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The name of a subfamily of ATPases that have the same type of nucleotide-binding site as the one found in DNA gyrase B, Hsp90 and MutL proteins.
- EXOCYCLIC
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A chemical substitution on a cyclic molecule.
- PUCKERS
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The term pucker reflects that the five atoms that constitute the five-membered ring of the sugar are not in the same plane.
- SOLVATION SHELL
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The layer of water molecules that surrounds a solute in a solvent.
- ENTHALPIC
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In a chemical reaction, the enthalpy represents approximately the difference between the energy that needs to be put in to break the chemical bonds, and the energy gained from new chemical-bond formation.
- ENTROPIC
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The entropy measures the amount of disorder in a system.
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Chène, P. ATPases as drug targets: learning from their structure. Nat Rev Drug Discov 1, 665–673 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd894
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd894