Browsing by Author "Ni, Jake"
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Item Identification of Novel Compounds That Increase SMN Protein Levels Using an Improved SMN2 Reporter Cell Assay(Journal of Biomolecular Screening, 2013-12) Cherry, Jonathan J.; Evans, Matthew C.; Ni, Jake; Cuny, Gregory D.; Glicksman, Marcie A.; Androphy, Elliot J.Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by progressive loss of motor neuron function. It is caused by the homozygous loss of the SMN1 (survival of motor neuron 1) gene and a decrease in full-length SMN protein. SMN2 is a nearly identical homolog of SMN1 that, due to alternative splicing, expresses predominantly truncated SMN protein. SMN2 represents an enticing therapeutic target. Increasing expression of full-length SMN from the SMN2 gene might represent a treatment for SMA. We describe a newly designed cell-based reporter assay that faithfully and reproducibly measures full-length SMN expression from the SMN2 gene. This reporter can detect increases of SMN protein by an array of compounds previously shown to regulate SMN2 expression and by the overexpression of proteins that modulate SMN2 splicing. It also can be used to evaluate changes at both the transcriptional and splicing level. This assay can be a valuable tool for the identification of novel compounds that increase SMN2 protein levels and the optimization of compounds already known to modulate SMN2 expression. We present here preliminary data from a high-throughput screen using this assay to identify novel compounds that increase expression of SMN2.Item Small-Molecule Activators of Insulin-Degrading Enzyme Discovered through High-Throughput Compound Screening(PLoS ONE, 4/22/2009) Cabrol, Christelle; Huzarska, Malwina A.; Dinolfo, Christopher; Rodriguez, Maria C.; Reinstatler, Lael; Ni, Jake; Yeh, Li-An; Cuny, Gregory D.; Stein, Ross L.; Selkoe, Dennis J.; Leissring, Malcolm A.Background-Hypocatabolism of the amyloid ?-protein (A?) by insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE) is implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease (AD), making pharmacological activation of IDE an attractive therapeutic strategy. However, it has not been established whether the proteolytic activity of IDE can be enhanced by drug-like compounds. Methodology/Principal Findings- Based on the finding that ATP and other nucleotide polyphosphates modulate IDE activity at physiological concentrations, we conducted parallel high-throughput screening campaigns in the absence or presence of ATP and identified two compounds—designated Ia1 and Ia2—that significantly stimulate IDE proteolytic activity. Both compounds were found to interfere with the crosslinking of a photoaffinity ATP analogue to IDE, suggesting that they interact with a bona fide ATP-binding domain within IDE. Unexpectedly, we observed highly synergistic activation effects when the activity of Ia1 or Ia2 was tested in the presence of ATP, a finding that has implications for the mechanisms underlying ATP-mediated activation of IDE. Notably, Ia1 and Ia2 activated the degradation of A? by ?700% and ?400%, respectively, albeit only when A? was presented in a mixture also containing shorter substrates. Conclusions/Significance-This study describes the first examples of synthetic small-molecule activators of IDE, showing that pharmacological activation of this important protease with drug-like compounds is achievable. These novel activators help to establish the putative ATP-binding domain as a key modulator of IDE proteolytic activity and offer new insights into the modulatory action of ATP. Several larger lessons abstracted from this screen will help inform the design of future screening campaigns and facilitate the eventual development of IDE activators with therapeutic utility.