Berberine Directly Targets the NEK7 Protein to Block the NEK7–NLRP3 Interaction and Exert Anti-inflammatory Activity
- 1 December 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Chemical Society (ACS) in Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
- Vol. 64 (1), 768-781
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.0c01743
Abstract
Berberine (BBR), a traditional Chinese medicine, has therapeutic effects on a variety of inflammation-related diseases, but its direct proteomic targets remain unknown. Using activity-based protein profiling, we first demonstrated that BBR directly targets the NEK7 protein via the hydrogen bond between the 2,3-methylenedioxy and 121-arginine (R121) residues. The fact that R121 is located precisely within the key domain involved in the NEK7–NLRP3 interaction allows BBR to specifically block the NEK7–NLRP3 interaction and successively inhibit IL-1β release, independent of the NF-κB and TLR4 signaling pathways. Moreover, BBR displays in vivo anti-inflammatory efficacy in a NEK7-dependent manner. Therefore, we consider NEK7 to be a key target of BBR in the treatment of NLRP3-related inflammatory diseases, and the development of novel NEK7–NLRP3 interaction inhibitors might be easily achieved using NEK7 as a target.Keywords
Funding Information
- Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China (2018ZX09711-001)
- Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (2016-I2M-1-011)
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