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Publication Abstract from PubMed

DHX9 is a DExH-box RNA helicase that utilizes hydrolysis of all four nucleotide triphosphates (NTPs) to power cycles of 3' to 5' directional movement to resolve and/or unwind double stranded RNA, DNA, and RNA/DNA hybrids, R-loops, triplex-DNA and G-quadraplexes. DHX9 activity is important for both viral amplification and maintaining genomic stability in cancer cells; therefore, it is a therapeutic target of interest for drug discovery efforts. Biochemical assays measuring ATP hydrolysis and oligonucleotide unwinding for DHX9 have been developed and characterized, and these assays can support high-throughput compound screening efforts under balanced conditions. Assay development efforts revealed DHX9 can use double stranded RNA with 18-mer poly(U) 3' overhangs and as well as significantly shorter overhangs at the 5' or 3' end as substrates. The enzymatic assays are augmented by a robust SPR assay for compound validation. A mechanism-derived inhibitor, GTPgammaS, was characterized as part of the validation of these assays and a crystal structure of GDP bound to cat DHX9 has been solved. In addition to enabling drug discovery efforts for DHX9, these assays may be extrapolated to other RNA helicases providing a valuable toolkit for this important target class.

Development of assays to support identification and characterization of modulators of DExH-box helicase DHX9.,Gotur D, Case A, Liu J, Sickmier EA, Holt N, Knockenhauer KE, Yao S, Lee YT, Copeland RA, Buker SM, Boriack-Sjodin PA SLAS Discov. 2023 Aug 23:S2472-5552(23)00063-1. doi: 10.1016/j.slasd.2023.08.006. PMID:37625785^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.