Chemical tools to expand the ligandable proteome: Diversity-oriented synthesis-based photoreactive stereoprobes

Abstract

Chemical proteomics enables the global analysis of small molecule-protein interactions in native biological systems and has emerged as a versatile approach for ligand discovery. The range of small molecules explored by chemical proteomics has, however, remained limited. Here, we describe a diversity-oriented synthesis (DOS)-inspired library of stereochemically defined compounds bearing diazirine and alkyne units for UV light-induced covalent modification and click chemistry enrichment of interacting proteins, respectively. We find that these “photo-stereoprobes” interact in a stereoselective manner with hundreds of proteins from various structural and functional classes in human cells and demonstrate that these interactions can form the basis for high-throughput screening-compatible NanoBRET assays. Integrated phenotypic screening and chemical proteomics identified photo-stereoprobes that modulate autophagy by engaging the mitochondrial serine protease CLPP. Our findings show the utility of DOS-inspired photo-stereoprobes for expanding the ligandable proteome, furnishing target engagement assays, and facilitating the discovery and characterization of bioactive compounds in phenotypic screens.