Glycine fluoromethylketones as SENP-specific activity based probes

We report here the synthesis and biochemical properties of a new peptidyl activity-based probe 1 for SUMO proteases, SENPs. The activity-based probe has at its C terminus a glycine-derived fluoromethylketone moiety as a reactive group designed to target the active-site cysteine of SENPs. Based on a study of the interactions between SENPs and SUMOs, we introduced further design elements that allow the activity-based probe to selectively target SENPs at low micromolar to high nanomolar concentrations. Moreover, 1 out-competes SUMO1 from the reversible SUMO1-SENP1 complex, thus suggesting that 1 and SUMO1 share a common binding site on SENP1.