Characterization of peptidyl boronic acid inhibitors of mammalian 20 S and 26 S proteasomes and their inhibition of proteasomes in cultured cells

Proteasomes are large multisubunit proteinases which have several distinct catalytic sites. In this study a series of di- and tri-peptidyl boronic acids have been tested on the chymotrypsin-like activity of purified mammalian 20 S and 26 S proteasomes assayed with succinyl-Leu-Leu-Val-Tyr-amidomethylcoumarin (suc-Leu-Leu-Val-Tyr-AMC) as substrate. The inhibition of 20 S proteasomes is competitive but only slowly reversible. The K-i values for the best inhibitors were in the range 10-100 nM with suc-Leu-Leu-Val-Tyr-AMC as substrate, but the compounds tested were much less effective on other proteasome activities measured with other substrates. Free boronic acid inhibitors exhibited equivalent potency to their pinacol esters. Both benzoyl (Bz)-Phe-boroLeu and benzyloxycarbonyl (Cbz)-Leu-Leu-boroLeu pinacol ester inhibited 20 S and 26 S proteasomes with non-ideal behaviour, differences in inhibition of the two forms of proteasomes becoming apparent at high inhibitor concentrations (above 3 x K-i). Both of these compounds were also potent inhibitors of 20 S and 26 S proteasomes in cultured cells. However, gel filtration of cell extracts prepared from cells treated with radiolabelled phenacetyl-Leu-Leu-boroLeu showed that only 20 S proteasomes were strongly labelled, demonstrating differences in the characteristics of inhibition of 20 S and 26 S proteasomes. The usefulness of peptidyl boronic acid inhibitors for investigations of proteasome-mediated protein degradation was confirmed by the observation that Bz-Phe-boroLeu and Cbz-Leu-Leu-boroLeu pinacol ester inhibited NF kappa B activation with IC50 values comparable to their K-i values for purified proteasomes. The latter result supports the view that the chymotrypsin-like activity of proteasomes assayed with suc-Leu-Leu-Val-Tyr-AMC is a critical one for protein degradation in cells.