SILAC-based chemoproteomics reveals a neoligan analogue as an anti-inflammatory agent targeting IRGM to ameliorate cytokine storm.

Cytokine storm is a key feature of sepsis and severe stage of COVID-19, and the immunosuppression after excessive immune activation is a substantial hazard to human life. Both pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) are recognized by various pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), which lead to the immune response. A number of neolignan analogues were synthesized in this work and showed powerful anti-inflammation properties linked to the response to innate and adaptive immunity, as well as NP-7 showed considerable anti-inflammatory activity at 100 nM. On the sepsis model caused by cecum ligation and puncture (CLP) in C57BL/6J mice, NP-7 displayed a strong regulatory influence on cytokine release. Then a photo-affinity probe of NP-7 was synthesized and chemoproteomics based on stable isotope labeling with amino acids in cell cultures (SILAC) identified Immunity-related GTPase M (IRGM) as a target suppressing cytokine storm, which was verified by competitive pull-down, cellular thermal shift assay (CETSA), drug affinity responsive target stability (DARTS) and molecular dynamics simulations.