Receptor Tyrosine Kinase KIT: Mutation-Induced Conformational Shift Promotes Alternative Allosteric Pockets

Receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) KIT is key regulator of cellular signalling, and its deregulation contributes to the development and progression of many serious diseases. Several mutations lead to the constitutive activation of the cytoplasmic domain of KIT, causing the aberrant intracellular signalling observed in malignant tumours. Elucidating the molecular basis of mutation-induced effects at the atomistic level is absolutely required. We report the first dynamic 3D model (DYNASOME) of the full-length cytoplasmic domain of the oncogenic mutant KITD816V generated through unbiased long-timescale MD simulations under conditions mimicking the natural environment of KIT. The comparison of the structural and dynamical properties of multidomain KITD816V with those of wild type KIT (KITWT) allowed us to evaluate the impact of the D816V mutation on each protein domain, including multifunctional well-ordered and intrinsically disordered (ID) regions. The two proteins were compared in terms of free energy landscape and intramolecular coupling. The increased intrinsic disorder and gain of coupling within each domain and between distant domains in KITD816V demonstrate its inherent self-regulated constitutive activation. The search for pockets revealed novel allosteric pockets (POCKETOME) in each protein, KITD816V and KITWT. These pockets open an avenue for the development of new highly selective allosteric modulators specific to KITD816V.