7
4
W. Hakamata et al. / Bioorg. Med. Chem. 23 (2015) 73–79
Figure 1. Structure of commercially available fluorescent substrates for
a
-mannosidase and b-galactosidase in cultured cells.
recognizes the penultimate sugar moiety at the non-reducing end.
our QMC platform in discovering novel glycan-processing
enzymes, we sought to identify exo-acting b-allosidase activity as
an undiscovered activity in human cells. Allose, which is an epimer
of glucose at the C-3 hydroxyl group, is a rare sugar. Yanagita et al.
7–9
Hydrolysis occurs between subsites À1 and +1.
Using small
synthetic molecules to design the substrate, we previously
reported the molecular recognition of an active site in ER glucosi-
dases functioning as N-glycan processing enzymes.1
0,11
To develop
reported the anti-proliferative activity of 6-O-acyl-D-allose against
1
4
practical substrates that are operational in cells, it is essential to
base the precise molecular design of substrates on known struc-
tural information for glycan-processing enzymes.
the human leukemia MOLT-4F cell line. If b-allosidase activity is
observed in human cells, we can postulate the existence of b-allos-
idase as an important player of an undiscovered physiological
function. Moreover, b-allosidases potentially regulate novel path-
ways of N- and O-glycan processing and may serve as novel targets
for drug discovery. We report herein the design and synthesis of a
QMC platform based on novel fluorescent substrates for measuring
b-allosidase activity in human cultured cells. Using these sub-
strates, we also localized the b-allosidase activity to the Golgi
apparatus in human cultured cells with bright fluorescence.
Commercially available fluorescent substrates targeting the
modeled enzyme subsites bind subsite +1 poorly, which may be
due to steric hindrance and a flat, non-sugar-like structure on the
part of the fluorophore. Reducing the size of fluorophores is
impractical because small-sized fluorescent moieties have low
quantum yields, decreasing their sensitivity. Therefore, a different
substrate-design platform is required to design fluorescent sub-
strates for exo glycan-processing enzymes. Our group reported
the development of a substrate-design platform using quinone
methide cleavage (QMC) reactions to study the activity of an ER-
localized endogenous carboxyl esterase as a pro-drug activation
enzyme. The multicolor fluorescence probes detected carboxyl
esterases in the ER via two-step reactions: ester hydrolysis and
spontaneous QMC reaction at the cellular level. These probes pen-
etrate into the ERs, after hydrolysis, the release and accumulation
of water insoluble fluorophores from these probes specifically
2
2
. Material and methods
.1. Substrate synthesis
Structures of all designed substrates 1–6 are shown in Figure 5.
The fluorescent substrates 1–3 and 6 were synthesized to evaluate
b-allosidase activities in living cells. Details of the synthetic
scheme of 1–3 and 6 are outlined in Figure S1. The starting
1
2,13
stained ERs with bright fluorescence in 3 human cell lines.
To
material (4-formylphenyl b-
D
-allopyranoside) of 1–3 and 6 was
acetylated, and an aldehyde of obtained acetyl derivative was
reduced to a benzyl alcohol derivative using NaBH . In the next
were used to react the
benzyl alcohol derivative with the fluorophores resorufin, TFMU,
1
5
develop probes with improved binding to subsite +1 of the enzyme
active site, we applied the QMC platform for substrate design of an
exo glycan-processing enzyme involved in N- and O-glycan pro-
cessing (Fig. 2). The sugar and benzyl moieties of the substrates
occupy subsite À1 and subsite +1, respectively. The substrate fluo-
rophore is located outside of the enzyme active site. A schematic
representation of our designed substrates and commercially avail-
able substrates bound to enzyme subsites is shown in Figure 3A
and 3B, respectively.
4
1
2,13
step, Mitsunobu reaction conditions
1
6,17
or 2MeTG,
yielding substrates 1–3, respectively. Substrate 4
was synthesized by deacetylation of compound 3. The materials
used for substrate synthesis, the synthesis details, and the
instrumental analysis of substrates 1–3 and 6 are described in
the Supplementary data.
The present study describes a new imaging technology for
identifying glycan-processing enzymes using fluorescently labeled
substrates, based on the QMC platform. These substrates can also
be used to conduct mechanistic experiments in living cells by con-
focal microscopy. Thus, our platform may also reveal novel glycan-
processing enzymes in living cells. To demonstrate the potential of
2
.2. Cell-based assays
Cell-base assays for measuring b-allosidase activity were
performed using substrates 1–3, substrate 6, and Golgi-ID Green
with HT-1080, HeLa, and SK-N-SH cells. Co-staining assays with
Figure 2. Rational design of substrates for an exo glycan-processing enzyme, based on the QMC platform.