Sonia Cantel

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019 Aug 27;116(35):17525-17530. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1905105116. Epub 2019 Aug 15

Ferré G, Louet M, Saurel O, Delort B, Czaplicki G, M’Kadmi C, Damian M, Renault P, Cantel S, Gavara L, Demange P, Marie J, Fehrentz JA, Floquet N, Milon A, Banères JL.

Abstract

Ghrelin plays a central role in controlling major biological processes. As for other G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) peptide agonists, the structure and dynamics of ghrelin bound to its receptor remain obscure. Using a combination of solution-state NMR and molecular modeling, we demonstrate that binding to the growth hormone secretagogue receptor is accompanied by a conformational change in ghrelin that structures its central region, involving the formation of a well-defined hydrophobic core. By comparing its acylated and nonacylated forms, we conclude that the ghrelin octanoyl chain is essential to form the hydrophobic core and promote access of ghrelin to the receptor ligand-binding pocket. The combination of coarse-grained molecular dynamics studies and NMR should prove useful in improving our mechanistic understanding of the complex conformational space explored by a natural peptide agonist when binding to its GPCR. Such information should also facilitate the design of new ghrelin receptor-selective drugs.

Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, 2016, Volume: 14, Issue: 34, Pages: 8101-8108, DOI: 10.1039/C6OB01450J

E. Cordeau, S. Cantel, D. Gagne, A. Lebrun, J. Martinez, G. Subra, C. Enjalbal 

Abstract

In the search for new peptide ligands contg. selenium in their sequences, we investigated L-4-selenazolidine-carboxylic acid (selenazolidine, Sez) as a proline analog with the chalcogen atom in the γ-position of the ring.  In contrast to proteinogenic selenocysteine (Sec) and selenomethionine (SeMet), the incorporation within a peptide sequence of such a non-natural amino acid has never been studied.  There is thus a great interest in increasing the possibility of selenium insertion within peptides, esp. for sequences that do not possess a sulfur contg. amino acid (Cys or Met), by offering other selenated residues suitable for peptide synthesis protocols.  Herein, we have evaluated selenazolidine in Boc/Bzl (Boc = tert-butoxycarbonyl) and Fmoc/tBu (Fmoc = 9-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl) strategies through the synthesis of a model tripeptide, both in soln. and on a solid support.  Special attention was paid to the stability of the Sez residue in basic conditions.  Thus, generic protocols have been optimized to synthesize Sez-contg. peptides, through the use of an Fmoc-Xxx-Sez-OH dipeptide unit.  As an example, a new analog of the vasopressin receptor-1A antagonist was prepd., in which Pro was replaced with Sez [3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-propionyl-D-Tyr(Me)-Phe-Gln-Asn-Arg-Sez-Arg-NH₂].  Both proline and such pseudo-proline contg. peptides exhibited similar pharmacol. properties and endopeptidase stabilities indicating that the presence of the selenium atom has minimal functional effects.  Taking into account the straightforward handling of Sez as a dipeptide building block in a conventional Fmoc/tBu SPPS strategy, this result suggested a wide range of potential uses of the Sez amino acid in peptide chem., for instance as a viable proline surrogate as well as a selenium probe, complementary to Sec and SeMet, for NMR and mass spectrometry anal. purposes.

PLoS One, 2016, Volume: 11, Issue: 6, Pages: e0157943/1-e0157943/18, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0157943

E. Cordeau, C.  Arnaudguilhem, B. Bouyssiere, A. Hagege, J. Martinez,  G. Subra, S. Cantel, C. Enjalbal

Abstract

In the search of new robust and environmental-friendly anal. methods able to answer quant. issues in pharmacol., we explore liq. chromatog. (LC) assocd. with elemental mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to monitor peptides in such complex biol. matrixes.  The novelty is to use mass spectrometry to replace radiolabelling and radioactivity measurements, which represent up-to now the gold std. to measure org. compd. concns. in life science.  As a proof of concept, we choose the vasopressin (AVP)/V1A receptor system for model pharmacol. assays.  The capacity of ICP-MS to provide highly sensitive quantitation of metallic and hetero elements, whatever the sample medium, prompted us to investigate this technique in combination with appropriate labeling of the peptide of interest.  Selenium, that is scarcely present in biol. media, was selected as a good compromise between ICP-MS response, covalent tagging ability using conventional sulfur chem. and peptide detection specificity.  Applying selenium monitoring by elemental mass spectrometry in pharmacol. is challenging due to the very high salt content and org. material complexity of the samples that produces polyat. aggregates and thus potentially mass interferences with selenium detection.  Hyphenation with a chromatog. sepn. was found compulsory.  Noteworthy, we aimed to develop a straightforward quant. protocol that can be performed in any lab. equipped with a std. macrobore LC-ICP-MS system, in order to avoid time-consuming sample treatment or special implementation of instrumental set-up, while allowing efficient suppression of all mass interferences to reach the targeted sensitivity.  Significantly, a quantification limit of 57 ng Se L-1 (72 fmol of injected Se) was achieved, the samples issued from the pharmacol. assays being directly introduced into the LC-ICP-MS system.  The established method was successfully validated and applied to the measurement of the vasopressin ligand affinity for its V1A receptor through the detn. of the dissocn. const. (Kd) which was compared to the one recorded with conventional radioactivity assays.

ChemMedChem, 2016, Volume: 11, Issue: 23, Pages: 2582-2587, DOI: 10.1002/cmdc.201600447

M. Rossato,  G. Miralles, C. M’Kadmi, M. Maingot, M. Amblard, B. Mouillac, D. Gagne, J. Martinez, G. Subra, C. Enjalbal, S. Cantel, 

Abstract

Radiolabeling of ligands is still the gold std. in the study of high-affinity receptor-ligand interactions. In an effort toward safer and simpler alternatives to the use of radioisotopes, we developed a quant. and highly sensitive matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) method that relies on the use of chem. tagged ligands designed to be specifically detectable when present as traces in complex biol. mixts. such as cellular lysates. This innovative technol. allows easy, sensitive detection and accurate quantification of analytes at the sub-nanomolar level. After statistical validation, we were able to perform pharmacol. evaluations of G protein-coupled receptor (V1A-R)-ligand interactions. Both satn. and competitive binding assays were successfully processed.

Journal of Proteomics, Volume, 2014, 108, Pages: 369-372,  DOI: 10.1016/j.jprot.2014.06.005

C. Fleith, S. Cantel, G. Subra, A. Mehdi, J. Ciccione, J. Martinez, C. Enjalbal

Abstract

We report applications of new hybrid org.-inorg. silica based materials as laser desorption/ionization (LDI)-promoting surfaces for high-throughput identification of peptides.  The driving force of our work was to design a new material composed of a conventional MALDI matrix covalently attached to silica with a high org./inorg. ratio in order to improve the UV absorption by such LDI hybrid matrixes.  Amorphous CHCA-functionalized silica presenting an org. content up to 1.3 mmol g^-1 (around 40% in wt. from TGA and elementary anal. measurements) gave very interesting LDI performances in terms of detection sensitivity as well as relative ionization discrepancy (spectral suppression) through the analyses of small synthetic peptide mixts. (550-1300 Da) taking CHCA and amorphous silica as model matrixes for control expts.