Oncology Expanded Access and FDA's Project Facilitate.

The Oncology Center of Excellence at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration launched Project Facilitate on May 31, 2019, to assist oncology health care providers with Expanded Access requests for investigational drugs. Expanded Access, sometimes called "compassionate use," is a regulatory pathway for physicians caring for patients who have a life-threatening condition or a serious disease to gain access to an investigational drug for treatment when no comparable or satisfactory alternative treatment options are available. Herein we describe the Project Facilitate program and the process for requesting Expanded Access to an investigational drug.

Structural characterization of a blue chromoprotein and its yellow mutant from the sea anemone Cnidopus japonicus.

Green fluorescent protein (GFP) and its relatives (GFP protein family) have been isolated from marine organisms such as jellyfish and corals that belong to the phylum Cnidaria (stinging aquatic invertebrates). They are intrinsically fluorescent proteins. In search of new members of the family of green fluorescent protein family, we identified a non-fluorescent chromoprotein from the Cnidopus japonicus species of sea anemone that possesses 45% sequence identity to dsRed (a red fluorescent protein). This newly identified blue color protein has an absorbance maximum of 610 nm and is hereafter referred to as cjBlue. Determination of the cjBlue 1.8 A crystal structure revealed a chromophore comprised of Gln(63)-Tyr(64)-Gly(65). The ring stacking between Tyr(64) and His(197) stabilized the cjBlue trans chromophore conformation along the Calpha2-Cbeta2 bond of 5-[(4-hydroxyphenyl)methylene]-imidazolinone, which closely resembled that of the "Kindling Fluorescent Protein" and Rtms5. Replacement of Tyr(64) with Leu in wild-type cjBlue produced a visible color change from blue to yellow with a new absorbance maximum of 417 nm. Interestingly, the crystal structure of the yellow mutant Y64L revealed two His(197) imidazole ring orientations, suggesting a flip-flop interconversion between the two conformations in solution. We conclude that the dynamics and structure of the chromophore are both essential for the optical appearance of these color proteins.

Characterization of dual substrate binding sites in the homodimeric structure of Escherichia coli mRNA interferase MazF.

MazF and MazE constitute a so-called addiction module that is critical for bacterial growth arrest and eventual cell death in response to stress. The MazF toxin was recently shown to possess mRNA interferase (MIase) activity, and acts as a protein synthesis inhibitor by cleaving cellular mRNA. As a cognate regulator, the short-lived antitoxin, MazE, inhibits MazF MIase activity and hence maintains the delicate homeostasis between these two components. In the present study, we have shown that the MazF homodimer contains two symmetric binding sites, each of which is capable of interacting with a MazE C-terminal peptide, MazEp(54-77). The slow exchange phenomenon between free and peptide-bound MazF on the NMR timescale indicates relatively high affinities for MazEp(54-77) at both sites (Kd,K'd < 10(-7) M). However, the observed sequential binding behavior suggests a negative cooperativity between the two sites (Kd < K'd). A 13 base single-stranded DNA, employed as an uncleavable RNA substrate analog, can also bind to both sites on the MazF homodimer with moderate affinity (Kd approximately 10(-5) -10(-6) M). Chemical shift perturbation data deduced from NMR experiments indicates that the two binding sites for the MazEp peptide coincided with those for the single-stranded DNA competitive inhibitor. These dual substrate-binding sites are located on the concave interface of the MazF homodimer, consisting of a highly basic region underneath the S1-S2 loop and two hydrophobic regions containing the H1 helix of one subunit and the S3-S4 loop of the opposing subunit. We show that the MazF homodimer is a bidentate endoribonuclease equipped with two identical binding sites for mRNA processing and that a single MazE molecule occupying one of the binding sites can affect the conformation of both sites, hence efficiently hindering the activity of MazF.