Angewandte
Chemie
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201207771
Enzyme Labeling
Novel Activity-Based Probes for Broad-Spectrum Profiling of
Retaining b-Exoglucosidases In Situ and In Vivo**
Wouter W. Kallemeijn, Kah-Yee Li, Martin D. Witte, Andrꢀ R. A. Marques, Jan Aten,
Saskia Scheij, Jianbing Jiang, Lianne I. Willems, Tineke M. Voorn-Brouwer,
Cindy P. A. A. van Roomen, Roelof Ottenhoff, Rolf G. Boot, Hans van den Elst,
Marthe T. C. Walvoort, Bogdan I. Florea, Jeroen D. C. Codꢀe, Gijsbert A. van der Marel,
Johannes M. F. G. Aerts,* and Herman S. Overkleeft*
Retaining b-exoglucosidases are a broad class of glycosidases
widely found in nature. In humans, four members of this
family are known to date. Of these, the lysosomal enzyme
glucocerebrosidase (GBA1) and the non-lysosomal glucosyl-
ceramidase (GBA2) catalyze the hydrolysis of glucosylcer-
amide.[1–6] Deficiency of GBA1 forms the basis for the most
common inherited lysosomal storage disorder, Gaucher
disease.[2] Recently, mutations of GBA1 have been reported
to markedly increase the risk for Parkinsonism,[7–9] and
excessive degradation of glucosylceramide by GBA2 may
play a role in neuropathology.[4,10–12] The cytosolic broad-
specificity b-glucosidase (GBA3) is thought to be involved in
degrading xenobiotic b-glucosides.[13,14] The intestinal lactase/
phlorizin hydrolase (LPH) is able to hydrolyze lactose as well
as some hydrophobic b-glucosides including glucosylcera-
mide.[15] Deficient LPH activity underlies lactose intoler-
ance.[16]
have received growing interest in medicinal chemistry.[17,18]
An important issue is the target specificity of such com-
pounds, particularly given the limited knowledge of the
physiological role of GBA2/3. Until recently, few tools were
available to monitor active retaining b-exoglucosidases in
living cells, and the effect of potential inhibitors on these
cells.[19] Recently, fluorescent activity-based probes (ABPs)
have been developed that allow labeling of active GBA1
molecules.[20] These cyclophellitol epoxide-based ABPs 1 and
2 covalently bind to the nucleophile (residue E340) of GBA1
and allow visualization of active enzyme in living cells and
mice (Figure 1a,b). The BODIPY extension at C6 markedly
increases the affinity for binding to the GBA1 catalytic
pocket.[20] At the same time, GBA2, GBA3, and LPH do not
or only poorly bind ABPs 1 and 2. All the b-exoglucosidases
studied to date can, however, hydrolyze the artificial substrate
4-methylumbelliferyl-b-d-glucopyranoside, in which the agly-
con is located at the C1 position. Based on this we decided to
add a reporter group near this position in the ABP, and used
the aziridine-analogue of cyclophellitol as a scaffold to
develop broad-spectrum retaining b-exoglucosidase ABPs.
Cyclophellitol-aziridine has been found to be a potent
mechanism-based retaining b-exoglucosidase inhibitor.[21–24]
Herein, we reveal the development of aziridine ABPs 3 and
4 and demonstrate their merits as broad-spectrum retaining b-
exoglucosidase probes capable of tagging the human and
murine enzymes GBA, GBA2, GBA3, and LPH as well as
a wide variety of non-mammalian b-exoglucosidases.
The synthesis of ABPs 3 and 4 is described in the
Supporting Information (Scheme S1). Whereas epoxides
1 and 2 are selective nanomolar GBA1 inhibitors, aziridines
3 and 4 inhibit GBA1, GBA2, and GBA3 in the low
nanomolar to high picomolar range (IC50 values are given in
Figure S1) Recombinant human GBA1 (Imiglucerase, Gen-
zyme) was used to further study the potency of 3. GBA1 is
a retaining b-exoglucosidase in which E340 acts as a nucleo-
phile and E235 as an acid/base during catalysis.[25] Pre-
incubation of GBA1 with the irreversible inhibitors condur-
itol b-epoxide (CBE), (azido-)cyclophellitol, and ABP 2
completely blocked covalent labeling by ABP 3 (Figure 2a).
As expected, pre-incubation with non-fluorescent ABP 8 (see
Scheme S1 for the formula of 8) also blocked labeling by 3, as
did high concentrations of the competitive inhibitor AMP-
DNM.[4] These findings confirm that covalent labeling of
GBA1 with 3 involves the active site, and in particular E340.
In recent years, small molecules that interact with b-
glucosidases, either as inhibitors or as molecular chaperones,
[*] W. W. Kallemeijn,[+] A. R. A. Marques, S. Scheij, T. M. Voorn-Brouwer,
C. P. A. A. van Roomen, R. Ottenhoff, Dr. R. G. Boot,
Prof. Dr. J. M. F. G. Aerts
Department of Medicinal Biochemistry, Academic Medical Center
Meibergdreef 15, 1105 AZ, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
E-mail: j.m.aerts@amc.uva.nl
K.-Y. Li,[+] Dr. M. D. Witte, J. Jiang, L. I. Willems, H. van den Elst,
M. T. C. Walvoort, Dr. B. I. Florea, Dr. J. D. C. Codꢀe,
Prof. Dr. G. A. van der Marel, Prof. Dr. H. S. Overkleeft
Leiden Institute of Chemistry and the Netherlands Proteomics
Centre
P.O. box 9502, 2300 RA Leiden (The Netherlands)
E-mail: h.s.overkleeft@chem.leidenuniv.nl
Dr. J. Aten
Department of Pathology
Meibergdreef 15, 1105 AZ Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
[+] These authors contributed equally to this work.
[**] This work was supported by The Netherlands Organization for
Scientific Research (NWO-CW) and The Netherlands Genomics
Initiative. We thank K. T. Senel for technical assistance.
Supporting information for this article (experimental details) is
201207771. Details of synthesis, purification and analysis of ABPs 3
and 4 and intermediates are provided, as are full details of enzyme
activity, molecular cloning, site-directed mutagenesis, and fluores-
cence microscopy. Full gels are also provided in the Supporting
Information.
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 12529 –12533
ꢀ 2012 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
12529