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Publication Abstract from PubMed

O-GlcNAcylation is an essential, dynamic and inducible posttranslational glycosylation of cytosolic proteins in metazoa and can show interplay with protein phosphorylation. Inhibition of O-GlcNAcase (OGA), the enzyme that removes O-GlcNAc from O-GlcNAcylated proteins, is a useful strategy to probe the role of this modification in a range of cellular processes. Here, we report the rational design and evaluation of GlcNAcstatins, a family of potent, competitive and selective inhibitors of human OGA. Kinetic experiments with recombinant human OGA reveal that the GlcNAcstatins are the most potent human OGA inhibitors reported to date, inhibiting the enzyme in the sub-nanomolar to nanomolar range. Modification of the GlcNAcstatin N-acetyl group leads to up to 160-fold selectivity against the human lysosomal hexosaminidases which employ a similar substrate-assisted catalytic mechanism. Mutagenesis studies in a bacterial OGA, guided by the structure of a GlcNAcstatin complex, provides insight into the role of conserved residues in the human OGA active site. GlcNAcstatins are cell-permeable and, at low nanomolar concentrations, effectively modulate intracellular O-GlcNAc levels through inhibition of OGA, in a range of human cell lines. Thus, these compounds are potent, selective tools to study the cell biology of O-GlcNAc.

GlcNAcstatins are nanomolar inhibitors of human O-GlcNAcase inducing cellular hyper-O-GlcNAcylation.,Dorfmueller HC, Borodkin VS, Schimpl M, van Aalten DM Biochem J. 2009 Mar 10. PMID:19275764^[1]

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