RNA drug targets are pervasive in cells but methods to design small molecules that target them are sparse. Herein, we report a general approach to score the affinity and selectivity of RNA motif-small molecule interactions identified via selection. Named High Throughput Structure-Activity Relationships Through Sequencing (HiT-StARTS), HiT-StARTS is statistical in nature and compares input nucleic acid sequences to selected library members that bind a ligand via high throughput sequencing. The approach allowed facile definition of the fitness landscape of hundreds of thousands of RNA motif-small molecule binding partners. These results were mined against folded RNAs in the human transcriptome and identified an avid interaction between a small molecule and the Dicer nuclease-processing site in the oncogenic microRNA (miR)-18a hairpin precursor, which is a member of the miR-17-92 cluster. Application of the small molecule, Targapremir-18a, to prostate cancer cells inhibited production of miR-18a from the cluster, de-repressed serine/threonine protein kinase 4 protein (STK4), and triggered apoptosis. Profiling the cellular targets of Targapremir-18a via Chemical Cross Linking and isolation by Pull Down (Chem-CLIP), a covalent small molecule-RNA cellular profiling approach, and other studies showed specific binding of the compound to the miR-18a precursor, revealing broadly applicable factors that govern small molecule drugging of non-coding RNAs.
                            RNA药物靶点在细胞中广泛存在,但设计针对它们的小分子的方法很少。在这里,我们报告了一种评分RNA结构-小分子相互作用亲和力和选择性的通用方法,该方法是通过筛选识别的。命名为高通量结构活性关系通过测序(HiT-STAR
TS),HiT-STAR
TS在统计性质上比较输入核酸序列与通过高通量测序结合
配体的选定库成员。这种方法便于定义成千上万个RNA结构-小分子结合伙伴的适应性景观。这些结果与人类转录组中的折叠RNA相互作用,并确定了一个小分子与致癌微RNA(miR)-18a发夹前体中的Dicer
核酸酶加工位点之间的强烈相互作用,该前体是miR-17-92簇的成员。将这种小分子Targapremir-18a应用于前列腺癌细胞,抑制了miR-18a从簇中的产生,解除了
丝氨酸/苏
氨酸蛋白激酶4蛋白(STK4)的抑制,并引发了凋亡。通过
化学交联和下拉分离(Chem-CLIP)对Targapremir-18a的细胞靶标进行分析,这是一种共价小分子-RNA
细胞分析方法,以及其他研究显示该化合物特异性结合到miR-18a前体,揭示了影响小分子药物对非编码RNA进行药物化的广泛适用因素。