Driving Precision Medicine through Proteomics and Metabolomics - 12th Central and Eastern European Proteomic Conference (CEEPC), Bucharest,Romania

As Romanians prepared to celebrate 100 years of the '‘Great Unification of 1918?' which united all provinces into one Romania, the 12^th Central and Eastern European Proteomic Conference (CEEPC) jointly with the 39^th Anniversary of the Institute of Cellular Biology and Pathology '‘N. Simionescu’' (ICBP-NS), held their inaugural meeting at the Romanian Academy in Bucharest – a national forum of highest scientific recognition. With an exciting theme entitled, ‘Advances in Proteomics and Progress in Precision Medicine’, delegates gathered to debate Precision medicine’s revolution in diagnosis and treatment, which now accounts for predictive, preventative, and targeted treatment strategies with informed decisions according to individual’s unique clinical, molecular and genetic profile. Proteomics has a pivotal role to play in furthering precision health and medicine for the benefit of mankind. To this end, CEEPC continues to drive advances in proteomics, metabolomics, and diseases as well as raising awareness of pressing global humanitarian and health-care issues including mental health diseases, aging, chronic diseases, global epidemics and environmental issues. Today, CEEPC is a well-recognized major annual conference with a focused vision and a highly valued ideology as it continues to propagate scientific, medical and proteomic collaborations whilst expanding as more Eastern European countries prepare to join.     

Domain-specific Quantification of Prion Protein in Cerebrospinal Fluid by Targeted Mass Spectrometry

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Highlights

• •Targeted mass spectrometry assay to quantify prion protein (PrP) in spinal fluid.
• •Precise measurement of PrP peptide concentration across protein domains.
• •Peptides are uniformly decreased in symptomatic prion disease patients.
• •Assay applicable to humans and preclinical species for drug development.

     

Fibroblasts rescue oral squamous cancer cell from metformin-induced apoptosis via alleviating metabolic disbalance and inhibiting AMPK pathway

Metformin is an antidiabetic drug widely used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Growing evidence suggests that it may exert antitumor effects in vivo and in vitro. However, even with the promising potency on defeating cancer cells, the pre-clinical and epidemiological studies of metformin on various kinds of cancers are not satisfactory, and the reasons and underlying mechanisms remain unknown. Since cancer is a complex system, dependent on a promoting microenvironment, we hypothesize that the interactions between cancer cells and their neighborhood fibroblasts are essential for metformin resistance. To test this, we used a cell co-culture model closely mimicking the in vivo interactions and metabolic exchanges between normal stromal cells (NOFs) and oral squamous cancer cells (OSCC). Here we show that while metformin can significantly inhibit cell growth and induce apoptosis of OSCC cultured alone in a dose-dependent manner through activating p-AMPK^T172 and modulating Bcl-2, Bax, and cleaved PARP. However, when OSCC are co-cultured with NOFs the metformin effects on OSCC cells are annihilated. NOFs are rescuing OSCC from metformin – induced apoptosis, at least partially, through inhibiting the activity of AMPK and PARP, maintaining mitochondrial membrane potential and increasing the oxidative stress. Our results indicate that metformin effects on oral cancer cells are modulated by the microenvironment and that this has to be taken into consideration in the context of developing a new combination of drugs for oral cancer treatment.     

Proteome Analysis of Human Neutrophil Granulocytes From Patients With Monogenic Disease Using Data-independent Acquisition

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Highlights

• •Data-independent acquisition proteomics analysis of naive neutrophils from patients with rare monogenic diseases.
• •Proteomics analysis helps guide targeted genetic diagnostics of patients for which routine clinical diagnostics proved inconclusive.

     

Quantitative Microproteomics Based Characterization of the Central and Peripheral Nervous System of a Mouse Model of Krabbe Disease

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Highlights

• •Quantitative microproteomics to study the CNS and PNS of the Twitcher mouse.
• •10plex TMT experiments on corpus callosum, motor cortex and sciatic nerves extracts.
• •More than 400 proteins groups deregulated between Twitcher and wildtype mice.
• •New insights into the molecular mechanisms of Krabbe disease.

     

Time-Restricted Feeding Prevents Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome in Mice Lacking a Circadian Clock

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Deciphering the SUMO code in the kidney

SUMOylation of proteins is an important regulatory element in modulating protein function and has been implicated in the pathogenesis of numerous human diseases such as cancers, neurodegenerative diseases, brain injuries, diabetes, and familial dilated cardiomyopathy. Growing evidence has pointed to a significant role of SUMO in kidney diseases such as DN, RCC, nephritis, AKI, hypertonic stress and nephrolithiasis. Recently, emerging studies in podocytes demonstrated that SUMO might have a protective role against podocyte apoptosis. However, the SUMO code responsible for beneficial outcome in the kidney remains to be decrypted. Our recent experiments have revealed that the expression of both SUMO and SUMOylated proteins is appreciably elevated in hypoxia‐induced tubular epithelial cells (TECs) as well as in the unilateral ureteric obstruction (UUO) mouse model, suggesting a role of SUMO in TECs injury and renal fibrosis. In this review, we attempt to decipher the SUMO code in the development of kidney diseases by summarizing the defined function of SUMO and looking forward to the potential role of SUMO in kidney diseases, especially in the pathology of renal fibrosis and CKD, with the goal of developing strategies that maximize correct interpretation in clinical therapy and prognosis.     

HDAC6 regulates lipid droplet turnover in response to nutrient deprivation via p62-mediated selective autophagy

Autophagy has been evolved as one of the adaptive cellular processes in response to stresses such as nutrient deprivation. Various cellular cargos such as damaged organelles and protein aggregates can be selectively degraded through autophagy. Recently, the lipid storage organelle, lipid droplet(LD), has been reported to be the cargo of starvation-induced autophagy. However, it remains largely unknown how the autophagy machinery recognizes the LDs and whether it can selectively degrade LDs. In this study, we show that Drosophila histone deacetylase 6(dHDAC6), a key regulator of selective autophagy, is required for the LD turnover in the hepatocyte-like oenocytes in response to starvation. HDAC6 regulates LD turnover via p62/SQSTM1(sequestosome 1)-mediated aggresome formation, suggesting that the selective autophagy machinery is required for LD recognition and degradation. Furthermore, our results show that the loss of dHDAC6 causes steatosis in response to starvation. Our findings suggest that there is a potential link between selective autophagy and susceptible predisposition to lipid metabolism associated diseases in stress conditions.     

Lead optimization and efficacy evaluation of quinazoline-based BET family inhibitors for potential treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases

Extensive optimization of quinazoline-based lead 8 is described. The structure-activity relationship studies indicate the S-configuration is preferred for the phenylmorpholine substitution. Together with incorporation of a (2-hydroxyl-2-methylpropyl)pyrazole moiety at the 2-position leads to analogs with comparable potency and marked improvement in the pharmacokinetic profile over our previously reported lead compounds. Further in vivo efficacy studies in Kasumi-1 xenograft mouse model demonstrates that the selected inhibitors are well tolerated and highly efficacious in the inhibition of tumor growth. Additionally, the representative analog 19 also demonstrated significant improvement of arthritis severity in a collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) mouse model. These results indicate potential use of these quinazoline-based BET inhibitors for treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases. A brief discussion of the co-crystallized structure of 19 with BRD4 (BD1) is also highlighted.     

Synthesis and biological evaluation of BMS-986120 and its deuterated derivatives as PAR4 antagonists

BMS-986120 is a PAR4 antagonist that is being investigated as an antiplatelet agent in phase I clinical trial. An improved synthesis of BMS-986120 has been developed. Based on the novel synthetic approach to BMS-986120, a series of deuterated derivatives of BMS-986120 have been synthesized and biologically evaluated to search for more potent antiplatelet agents. The in vitro antiplatelet assay by turbidimetry demonstrated that PC-2 and PC-6 had IC₅₀ values of 6.30?nM and 6.97?nM, respectively, versus BMS-986120 with an IC₅₀ of 7.80?nM. The result of in vitro metabolic stability study showed that all of the deuterated compounds had similar half-life (T_1/2) and intrinsic clearance (Clint) in comparison with BMS-986120. Further probing the metabolic profile of BMS-986120 is worth being conducted.