Structure of the Human Protein Kinase ZAK in Complex with Vemurafenib. Mathea, S., Abdul Azeez, K., R., Salah, E., Tallant, C., Wolfreys, F., Konietzny, R., Fischer, R., Lou, H., J., Brennan, P., E., Schnapp, G., Pautsch, A., Kessler, B., M., Turk, B., E., & Knapp, S. ACS Chemical Biology, 11(6):1595-1602, 6, 2016.
doi  abstract   bibtex   
The mixed lineage kinase ZAK is a key regulator of the MAPK pathway mediating cell survival and inflammatory response. ZAK is targeted by several clinically approved kinase inhibitors, and inhibition of ZAK has been reported to protect from doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy. On the other hand, unintended targeting of ZAK has been linked to severe adverse effects such as the development of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. Therefore, both specific inhibitors of ZAK, as well as anticancer drugs lacking off-target activity against ZAK, may provide therapeutic benefit. Here we report the first crystal structure of ZAK in complex with the B-RAF inhibitor vemurafenib. The co-crystal structure displayed a number of ZAK specific features including a highly distorted P loop conformation enabling rational inhibitor design. Positional scanning peptide library analysis revealed a unique substrate specificity of the ZAK kinase including unprecedented preferences for histidine residues at positions 1 and +2 relative to the phosphoacceptor site. In addition, we screened a library of clinical kinase inhibitors identifying several inhibitors that potently inhibit ZAK, demonstrating that this kinase is commonly mistargeted by currently used anticancer drugs.
@article{
 title = {Structure of the Human Protein Kinase ZAK in Complex with Vemurafenib},
 type = {article},
 year = {2016},
 pages = {1595-1602},
 volume = {11},
 month = {6},
 id = {b81edb7e-417b-3293-97cd-144864b2073c},
 created = {2016-12-01T10:12:01.000Z},
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 profile_id = {64f7fb50-d000-335d-a02d-06c5f340a97a},
 last_modified = {2018-07-09T12:39:49.588Z},
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 authored = {true},
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 citation_key = {Mathea2016},
 source_type = {JOUR},
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 abstract = {The mixed lineage kinase ZAK is a key regulator of the MAPK pathway mediating cell survival and inflammatory response. ZAK is targeted by several clinically approved kinase inhibitors, and inhibition of ZAK has been reported to protect from doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy. On the other hand, unintended targeting of ZAK has been linked to severe adverse effects such as the development of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. Therefore, both specific inhibitors of ZAK, as well as anticancer drugs lacking off-target activity against ZAK, may provide therapeutic benefit. Here we report the first crystal structure of ZAK in complex with the B-RAF inhibitor vemurafenib. The co-crystal structure displayed a number of ZAK specific features including a highly distorted P loop conformation enabling rational inhibitor design. Positional scanning peptide library analysis revealed a unique substrate specificity of the ZAK kinase including unprecedented preferences for histidine residues at positions 1 and +2 relative to the phosphoacceptor site. In addition, we screened a library of clinical kinase inhibitors identifying several inhibitors that potently inhibit ZAK, demonstrating that this kinase is commonly mistargeted by currently used anticancer drugs.},
 bibtype = {article},
 author = {Mathea, Sebastian and Abdul Azeez, Kamal R. and Salah, Eidarus and Tallant, Cynthia and Wolfreys, Finn and Konietzny, Rebecca and Fischer, Roman and Lou, Hua Jane and Brennan, Paul E. and Schnapp, Gisela and Pautsch, Alexander and Kessler, Benedikt M. and Turk, Benjamin E. and Knapp, Stefan},
 doi = {10.1021/acschembio.6b00043},
 journal = {ACS Chemical Biology},
 number = {6}
}

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