Chandler, F., Narayana Reddy, P.A., Bhutda, S. et al. (21 more authors) (2025) Molecular glues that inhibit deubiquitylase activity and inflammatory signalling. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. ISSN 1545-9993
Abstract
Deubiquitylases (DUBs) are crucial in cell signaling and are often regulated by interactions within protein complexes. The BRCC36 isopeptidase complex (BRISC) regulates inflammatory signaling by cleaving K63-linked polyubiquitin chains on type I interferon receptors (IFNAR1). As a Zn²⁺-dependent JAMM/MPN (JAB1, MOV34, MPR1, Pad1 N-terminal) DUB, BRCC36 is challenging to target with selective inhibitors. Here, we discover first-in-class inhibitors, termed BRISC molecular glues (BLUEs), which stabilize a 16-subunit human BRISC dimer in an autoinhibited conformation, blocking active sites and interactions with the targeting subunit, serine hydroxymethyltransferase 2. This unique mode of action results in selective inhibition of BRISC over related complexes with the same catalytic subunit, splice variants and other JAMM/MPN DUBs. BLUE treatment reduced interferon-stimulated gene expression in cells containing wild-type BRISC and this effect was abolished when using structure-guided, inhibitor-resistant BRISC mutants. Additionally, BLUEs increase IFNAR1 ubiquitylation and decrease IFNAR1 surface levels, offering a potential strategy to mitigate type I interferon-mediated diseases. Our approach also provides a template for designing selective inhibitors of large protein complexes by promoting rather than blocking protein–protein interactions.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > School of Molecular and Cellular Biology (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Wellcome Trust 222531/Z/21/Z MRC (Medical Research Council) MR/T029471/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 10 Mar 2025 11:50 |
Last Modified: | 04 Apr 2025 15:09 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Nature Research |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41594-025-01517-5 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:224183 |