Pk. Dash et An. Moore, A PEPTIDE-CONTAINING THE LEUCINE-ZIPPER DOMAIN SPECIFICALLY INHIBITS CREB BINDING AND TRANSCRIPTION, Cellular and molecular biology, 39(1), 1993, pp. 35-43
Formation of dimers via leucine zippers is an absolute requirement for
several transcription factors to express their activity. Using circul
ar dichroism spectroscopy, it was found that synthetic peptides which
mimic the leucine zippers from CREB, Jun and Myc are alpha-helices in
solution. The CREB leucine zipper peptide specifically inhibited the b
inding of wild type CREB protein and transcription from the CRE contai
ning c-fos promoter in vitro. This inhibition is most likely caused by
competition of the peptide to form complex with CREB monomers through
leucine zippers.