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Updated: Jun 16, 2026

Analysis of Translation Initiation During Stress Conditions by Polysome Profiling
Published on: May 19, 2014
Inhibition of eukaryotic translation elongation by cycloheximide and lactimidomycin
Tilman Schneider-Poetsch1, Jianhua Ju, Daniel E Eyler
1Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Abstract:
Although the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide (CHX) has been known for decades, its precise mechanism of action remains incompletely understood. The glutarimide portion of CHX is seen in a family of structurally related natural products including migrastatin, isomigrastatin and lactimidomycin (LTM). We found that LTM, isomigrastatin and analogs have a potent antiproliferative effect on tumor cell lines and selectively inhibit translation. A systematic comparative study of the effects of CHX and LTM on protein synthesis revealed both similarities and differences between the two inhibitors. Both LTM and CHX were found to block the translocation step in elongation. Footprinting experiments revealed protection of a single cytidine nucleotide (C3993) in the E-site of the 60S ribosomal subunit, thus defining a common binding pocket for the two inhibitors in the ribosome. These results shed new light on the molecular mechanism of inhibition of translation elongation by both CHX and LTM.
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