A chemical genetics approach to examine the functions of AAA proteins

The structural conservation across the AAA (ATPases associated with diverse cellular activities) protein family makes designing selective chemical inhibitors challenging. Here, we identify a triazolopyridine-based fragment that binds the AAA domain of human katanin, a microtubule-severing protein. We have developed a model for compound binding and designed ASPIR-1 (allele-specific, proximity-induced reactivity-based inhibitor-1), a cell-permeable compound that selectively inhibits katanin with an engineered cysteine mutation. Only in cells expressing mutant katanin does ASPIR-1 treatment increase the accumulation of CAMSAP2 at microtubule minus ends, confirming specific on-target cellular activity. Importantly, ASPIR-1 also selectively inhibits engineered cysteine mutants of human VPS4B and FIGL1-AAA proteins, involved in organelle dynamics and genome stability, respectively. Structural studies confirm our model for compound binding at the AAA ATPase site and the proximity-induced reactivity-based inhibition. Together, our findings suggest a chemical genetics approach to decipher AAA protein functions across essential cellular processes and to test hypotheses for developing therapeutics.