Crystal structure of prostate-specific membrane antigen, a tumor marker and peptidase
Abstract
Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is highly expressed in prostate cancer cells and nonprostatic solid tumor neovasculature and is a target for anticancer imaging and therapeutic agents. PSMA acts as a glutamate carboxypeptidase (GCPII) on small molecule substrates, including folate, the anticancer drug methotrexate, and the neuropeptide N-acetyl-l-aspartyl-l-glutamate. Here we present the 3.5-Å crystal structure of the PSMA ectodomain, which reveals a homodimer with structural similarity to transferrin receptor, a receptor for iron-loaded transferrin that lacks protease activity. Unlike transferrin receptor, the protease domain of PSMA contains a binuclear zinc site, catalytic residues, and a proposed substrate-binding arginine patch. Elucidation of the PSMA structure combined with docking studies and a proposed catalytic mechanism provides insight into the recognition of inhibitors and the natural substrate N-acetyl-l-aspartyl-l-glutamate. The PSMA structure will facilitate development of chemotherapeutics, cancer-imaging agents, and agents for treatment of neurological disorders.
Additional Information
© 2005, The National Academy of Sciences. Freely available online through the PNAS open access option. Contributed by Pamela J. Bjorkman, March 15, 2005. We thank members of the Bjorkman laboratory for technical assistance and critical reading of the manuscript, Doug Rees and Michael Chan for helpful discussions, the staff at Stanford Synchrotron and Radiation Laboratory and Advanced Light Source for assistance with synchrotron data collection, Adam Paiz for help with crystallization, Peter Snow and Inder Nangiana of the California Institute of Technology Protein Expression Facility for protein expression, Gary Hathaway of the California Institute of Technology Protein/Peptide Microanalysis Facility for mass spectrometry and N-terminal sequencing, Jens Kaiser for assistance with main and the zinc patch, David Mathog of the California Institute of Technology Sequence and Structure Analysis Facility for help with sequence alignments, and Tomas Bzdega and Joseph Neale (Georgetown University, Washington, DC) for the PSMA gene. This work was supported by a Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Postdoctoral Award (to M.I.D.), an American Liver Foundation Postdoctoral Award (to M.I.D.), and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (to P.J.B.). Author contributions: M.I.D., M.J.B., and P.J.B. designed research; M.I.D. performed research; M.I.D., M.J.B., and P.J.B. analyzed data; M.I.D., M.J.B., and P.J.B. wrote the paper; and L.M.T. assisted with data collection and initial structure solution. Data deposition: The atomic coordinates have been deposited in the Protein Data Bank, www.pdb.org (PDB ID codes 1Z8L). Supplementary material: http://pubmedcentral.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=556220&blobname=pnas_102_17_5981__.htmlAttached Files
Published - DAVpnas05.pdf
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Additional details
- PMCID
- PMC556220
- Eprint ID
- 329
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:DAVpnas05
- Department of Defense
- American Liver Foundation
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)
- Created
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2005-06-01Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2023-06-01Created from EPrint's last_modified field