Identification of global inhibitors of cellular glycosylation

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  • Erandi Lira-Navarrete
  • Alex E Clark
  • Aaron F Garretson
  • Richard Karlsson
  • Johan F A Pijnenborg
  • Xin Yin
  • Sumit K Chanda
  • Thomas J Boltje
  • Jeffrey D Esko
  • Aaron F Carlin
  • Ramon Hurtado-Guerrero
  • Roberto Weigert

Small molecule inhibitors of glycosylation enzymes are valuable tools for dissecting glycan functions and potential drug candidates. Screening for inhibitors of glycosyltransferases are mainly performed by in vitro enzyme assays with difficulties moving candidates to cells and animals. Here, we circumvent this by employing a cell-based screening assay using glycoengineered cells expressing tailored reporter glycoproteins. We focused on GalNAc-type O-glycosylation and selected the GalNAc-T11 isoenzyme that selectively glycosylates endocytic low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR)-related proteins as targets. Our screen of a limited small molecule compound library did not identify selective inhibitors of GalNAc-T11, however, we identify two compounds that broadly inhibited Golgi-localized glycosylation processes. These compounds mediate the reversible fragmentation of the Golgi system without affecting secretion. We demonstrate how these inhibitors can be used to manipulate glycosylation in cells to induce expression of truncated O-glycans and augment binding of cancer-specific Tn-glycoprotein antibodies and to inhibit expression of heparan sulfate and binding and infection of SARS-CoV-2.

Original languageEnglish
Article number948
JournalNature Communications
Volume14
Issue number1
Number of pages19
ISSN2041-1723
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

© 2023. The Author(s).

    Research areas

  • Animals, Glycosylation, SARS-CoV-2/metabolism, COVID-19, Glycoproteins/metabolism, Polysaccharides/metabolism

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