Inhibition of protein kinases by balanol: Specificity within the serine/threonine protein kinase subfamily

Academic Article
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publication date

  • August 1999

abstract

  • Balanol is a potent inhibitor of cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase and protein kinase C, acting competitively with ATP with an affinity 3000 times that of ATP. We tested the capacity of balanol to inhibit representative serine- and threonine-specific protein kinases from the protein kinase subfamily that shares a common conserved catalytic core with cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase. Balanol's pattern of interactions indicates considerable diversity of the ATP/balanol-binding sites of protein kinases within familial groups and even among isoforms of the same kinase. We propose that balanol is a protean structure that may be modified to produce selective, high-affinity inhibitors and probes of the ATP-binding sites of serine/threonine protein kinases.