Q1 · MEDICINE
Article
Author: Milla, Marcos E. ; Krawczuk, Paul J. ; Herman, Krystal L. ; Nelen, Marina I. ; Patrick, Aaron N. ; Lebsack, Alec D. ; Mirzadegan, Taraneh ; Liu, Annie X. ; Lumb, Kevin J. ; Blevitt, Jonathan M. ; Steinbacher, Stefan ; Hack, Michael D. ; Jackson, Paul F.
A prevalent observation in high-throughput screening and drug discovery programs is the inhibition of protein function by small-molecule compound aggregation. Here, we present the X-ray structural description of aggregation-based inhibition of a protein-protein interaction involving tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα). An ordered conglomerate of an aggregating small-molecule inhibitor (JNJ525) induces a quaternary structure switch of TNFα that inhibits the protein-protein interaction between TNFα and TNFα receptors. SPD-304 may employ a similar mechanism of inhibition.