Biology subjects

Toste, F. D.

Publications and source records attributed to Toste, F. D..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Chiral methionine oxidation reagents reveal stereospecific proteome modifications

Life is predicated on chirality, a molecular asymmetry akin to the left and right versions of human hands. Here we show that privileged protein residues are predisposed for chiral regulation. We developed enantiomeric oxaziridine reagents that systematically identify pro-(S) and pro-(R) methionine oxidation sites across proteomes that can be erased by stereospecific methionine sulfoxide reductase enzymes A and B, respectively. These probes reveal that chiral regulation of methionine oxidation-reduction processes can allosterically regulate protein function, as shown in cell and murine models of oxidative stress where selective (R)-methionine sulfoxide formation on M69 of biphenyl hydrolase-like protein leads to hydrolase inhibition and amplification of proteome N-homocysteinylation modifications. This work introduces a platform for characterizing sites of asymmetric methionine oxidation and the functional consequences concomitant with an individual chiral single-atom modification.

biochemistry↗

bioRxiv2025

Development of Second-Generation Acyl Silane Photoaffinity Probes for Cellular Chemoproteomic Profiling

Deconvolution of the protein targets of hit compounds from phenotypic screens, often conducted in live cells, is critical for understanding mechanism of action and identifying potentially hazardous off-target interactions. While photoaffinity labeling and chemoproteomics are long-established approaches for discovering small-molecule-protein interactions in live cells, there are a relatively small number of photoaffinity labeling strategies that can be applied in intracellular settings. Recently, we reported a novel chemical framework for photoaffinity labeling based on the photo-Brook rearrangement of acyl silanes and demonstrated its ability, when appended to protein-targeting ligands, to label recombinant proteins. Here, we report the application of these probes to live cell photoaffinity workflows, demonstrate their complementarity to current state-of-the-art minimalist diazirine-based photoaffinity probes, and introduce a modular synthetic route to access acyl silane scaffolds with improved labeling properties.

biochemistry↗

bioRxiv2022

Discovery of Potent Pyrazoline-Based Covalent SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Inhibitors

While vaccines and antivirals are now being deployed for the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, we require additional antiviral therapeutics to not only effectively combat SARS-CoV-2 and its variants, but also future coronaviruses. All coronaviruses have relatively similar genomes that provide a potential exploitable opening to develop antiviral therapies that will be effective against all coronaviruses. Among the various genes and proteins encoded by all coronaviruses, one particularly "druggable" or relatively easy-to-drug target is the coronavirus Main Protease (3CLpro or Mpro), an enzyme that is involved in cleaving a long peptide translated by the viral genome into its individual protein components that are then assembled into the virus to enable viral replication in the cell. Inhibiting Mpro with a small-molecule antiviral would effectively stop the ability of the virus to replicate, providing therapeutic benefit. In this study, we have utilized activity-based protein profiling (ABPP)-based chemoproteomic approaches to discover and further optimize cysteine-reactive pyrazoline-based covalent inhibitors for the SARS-CoV-2 Mpro. Structure-guided medicinal chemistry and modular synthesis of di- and tri-substituted pyrazolines bearing either chloroacetamide or vinyl sulfonamide cysteine-reactive warheads enabled the expedient exploration of structure-activity relationships (SAR), yielding nanomolar potency inhibitors against Mpro from not only SARS-CoV-2, but across many other coronaviruses. Our studies highlight promising chemical scaffolds that may contribute to future pan-coronavirus inhibitors.

biochemistry↗

bioRxiv2019

Systematic identification of engineered methionines and oxaziridines for efficient, stable, and site-specific antibody bioconjugation

Chemical modification of antibodies is one of the most important bioconjugations utilized by biologists and biotechnology. To date, the field has been dominated by random modification of lysines or more site-specific labeling of cysteines, each with attendant challenges. Recently we have developed oxaziridine chemistry for highly selective and efficient sulfimide modification of methionine called redox-activated chemical tagging (ReACT). Here, we systematically scanned methionines throughout one of the most popular antibody scaffolds, trastuzumab, for antibody engineering and drug conjugation. We tested the expression, reactivities, and stabilities of 123 single engineered methionines distributed over the surface of the antibody when reacted with oxaziridine. We found uniformly high expression for these mutants and generally good reaction efficiencies with the panel of oxaziridines. Remarkably, the stability to hydrolysis of the sulfimide varied more than ten-fold depending on temperature and the site of the engineered methionine. Interestingly, the most stable and reactive sites were those that were partially buried, likely because of their reduced access to water. There was also a ten-fold variation in stability depending on the nature of the oxaziridine, which we determined was inversely correlated with the electrophilic nature of the sulfimide. Importantly, the stabilities of the best analogs and antibody drug conjugate potencies were comparable to those reported for cysteine-maleimide modifications of trastuzumab. We also found our antibody drug conjugates to be potent in a breast cancer mouse xenograft model. These studies provide a roadmap for broad application of ReACT for efficient, stable, and site-specific antibody and protein bioconjugation.

bioengineering↗