RESEARCH ARTICLE Permeant fluorescent probes visualize the activation of SARM1 and uncover an anti- neurodegenerative drug candidate Wan Hua Li1,2, Ke Huang3, Yang Cai4, Qian Wen Wang1, Wen Jie Zhu1, Yun Nan Hou1, Sujing Wang1, Sheng Cao5, Zhi Ying Zhao1, Xu Jie Xie1, Yang Du5, Chi-Sing Lee3*, Hon Cheung Lee1*, Hongmin Zhang4*, Yong Juan Zhao1,2,6* 1State Key Laboratory of Chemical Oncogenomics, Key Laboratory of Chemical Genomics, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen, China; 2Ciechanover Institute of Precision and Regenerative Medicine, School of Life and Health Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China; 3Department of Chemistry, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, China; 4Department of Biology, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China; 5Kobilka Institute of Innovative Drug Discovery, School of Life and Health Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China; 6Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science-Shenzhen Fundamental Research Institutions, Shenzhen, China Abstract SARM1 regulates axonal degeneration through its NAD-metabolizing activity and is a drug target for neurodegenerative disorders. We designed and synthesized fluorescent conjugates of styryl derivative with pyridine to serve as substrates of SARM1, which exhibited large red shifts after conversion. With the conjugates, SARM1 activation was visualized in live cells following elevation of endogenous NMN or treatment with a cell-permeant NMN-analog. In neurons, imaging documented mouse SARM1 activation preceded vincristine-induced axonal degeneration by hours. *For correspondence: Library screening identified a derivative of nisoldipine (NSDP) as a covalent inhibitor of SARM1 that
[email protected] (C-SL); reacted with the cysteines, especially Cys311 in its ARM domain and blocked its NMN-activation,
[email protected] (HCL); protecting axons from degeneration.