Design, synthesis, and characterization of an ATP-peptide conjugate inhibitor of protein kinase A.

An ATP-peptide conjugate was synthesized as a bisubstrate analogue inhibitor of the serine/threonine kinase protein kinase A. The compound was found to be a linear, competitive inhibitor with respect to ATP substrate, exhibiting a Ki of 3.8 microM. The compound was noncompetitive with respect to peptide substrate. The inhibitor was shown to be selective for protein kinase A versus the closely related protein kinase C as well as tyrosine kinase Csk. This analysis provides new evidence for the dissociative transition state of protein serine/threonine kinases and illustrates a simple method to convert a low affinity peptide substrate to a selective and moderately potent inhibitor for these enzymes.