Stereochemical engineering of a peptide macrocycle allosteric inhibitor of phospho-Akt2 controls cell penetration by fine-tuning macrocycle-cell membrane interactions

We report the development of a cell-penetrant cyclic loop biligand that selectively binds, in vitro, to the phosphorylated Ser474 site of Protein Kinase B (p-Akt2) with high affinity (KD = 10 nM). The cyclic loop biligand consists of a linear peptide joined to a macrocycle peptide through triazole linkage, and it was isolated through two iterative in situ screens. This biligand allosterically inhibited kinase activity of Akt2 but it was cell-impermeable, as isolated from the screening process. Since Akt2 is an oncoprotein hyperactivated via phosphorylation at Ser474 in cancers, we sought to visualize p-Akt2 in live cancer cells using the developed biligand. To this end, we matured this biligand into a cell-penetrant reagent through systematic iterations of its chemical structure to promote cell-penetrating properties, while retaining its binding and inhibition for p-Akt2. Two retro-inverso, N-methylated versions of the macrocyclic ligand were developed which were uptaken by live cancer cells, while retaining their high affinities for pAkt2. Interestingly, the stereochemistry of two amino acid residues in the cell-penetrant ligands exhibited strong influence on their extent of cell penetration. This phenomenon of difference in cell penetration was explored through metadynamics simulations of each ligand in the cell membrane. It was found that the ligand uptaken to a greater extent by cells had more intramolecular interactions with itself and had fewer cholesterol molecules associated with it, which aided in its cell-penetration.