Ribosome structure and protein synthesis inhibitors

Abstract

The invention provides methods for producing high resolution crystals of ribosomes and ribosomal subunits as well as crystals produced by such methods. The invention also provides high resolution structures of ribosomal subunits either alone or in combination with protein synthesis inhibitors. The invention provides methods for identifying ribosome-related ligands and methods for designing ligands with specific ribosome-binding properties as well as ligands that may act as protein synthesis inhibitors. Thus, the methods and compositions of the invention may be used to produce ligands that are designed to specifically kill or inhibit the growth of any target organism.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 09 / 635,708, filed Aug. 9, 2000, and claims the benefit of (i) U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 223,977, filed Aug. 9, 2000, (ii) U.S. Provisional Application No. [Atty. Docket No. RIB-002PR], entitled “The Kink-Turn: a New RNA Secondary Structure Motif,” filed Jul. 20, 2001, and (iii) U.S. Provisional Application No. [Atty. Docket No. RIB-002PR2], entitled “The Kink-Turn: a New RNA,” filed Aug. 1, 2001, the disclosures of each of the foregoing of which are incorporated by reference herein.GOVERNMENT LICENSE RIGHTS [0002] Certain work described herein was supported, in part, by Federal Grant Nos. NIH-GM22778 and NIH-GM54216, awarded by the National Institutes of Health. The Government may have certain rights in the invention.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0003] The present invention relates generally to the field of protein biosynthesis and to modulators, for example, inhibitors, of protei...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The high-resolution structural models allow for the identification of novel protein synthesis inhibitors that can selectively target bacterial ribosomes without affecting human ribosomes, providing a basis for developing new therapeutic agents to combat antibiotic-resistant pathogens.

Problems solved by technology

However, these low resolution electron density maps proved to be spurious (Ban et al.

Studies have shown that it was possible to prepare particles that retained peptidyl transferase activity by increasingly vigorous deproteinizations of large ribosomal subunits, however, it was not possible to produce active particles that were completely protein-free.

Each atom in a crystal scatters X-rays in all directions, but crystalline diffraction is observed only when a crystal is oriented relative to the X-ray beam so that the atomic scattering interferes constructively.

Unfortunately, the phase information essential for computing electron distributions cannot be measured directly from diffraction patterns.

In fact, however, some interference is negative; consequently, following heavy-metal substitution, some spots increase in intensity, others decrease, and many show no detectable difference.

That interpretation is made more complex by several limitations in the data.

First, the map itself contains errors, mainly due to errors in the phase angles.

Building the initial model is a trial-and-error process.

The residual difference is a consequence of errors and imperfections in the data.

Although the art provides crystals of the 50S ribosomal subunit, and 9 Å and 5 Å resolution X-ray crystallographic maps of the structure of the 50S ribosome, the prior art crystals and X-ray diffraction data are not sufficient to establish the three-dimensional structures of all 31 proteins and 3,043 nucleotides of the 50S ribosomal subunit.

Thus, the prior art crystals and maps are inadequate for the structure-based design of active agents, such as herbicides, drugs, insecticides, and animal poisons.

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