Design, synthesis, and evaluation of a selective chemosensor for leucine-rich repeat kinase 2

We describe the design, synthesis, and evaluation of a selective activity probe for leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2), a possible molecular target for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Our optimal chemosensor design, termed Nictide-S2, incorporates a phosphorylation-sensitive sulfonamido-oxine fluorophore at an engineered cysteine within the substrate sequence. This design allows for the direct, real-time analysis of LRRK2 kinase activity with a detection limit of 2.5 nM. Under optimized conditions, we measured a Z' factor of 0.7 demonstrating the potential utility of this assay for inhibitor screening. Off-target kinases capable of phosphorylating Nictide-S2 are identified and an optimized inhibitor cocktail for suppressing background signal is provided. The resulting chemosensor could be utilized to identify LRRK2 inhibitors as well as selectively report on LRRK2 activity in the presence of off-target kinases.