Hyperthermophilic asparaginase mutants with enhanced substrate affinity and antineoplastic activity: structural insights on their mechanism of action

Thermophilic l-asparaginases display high stability and activity at elevated temperatures. However, they are of limited use in leukemia therapy because of their low substrate affinity and reduced activity under physiological conditions. In an attempt to combine stability with activity at physiological conditions, 3 active-site mutants of Pyrococcus furiosus l-asparaginase (PfA) were developed. The mutants, specifically K274E, showed improved enzymatic properties at physiological conditions as compared to the wild type. All variants were thermodynamically stable and resistant to proteolytic digestion. None of the enzymes displayed glutaminase activity, a highly desirable therapeutic property. All variants showed higher and significant killing of human cell lines HL60, MCF7, and K562 as compared to the Escherichia coli l-asparaginase. Our study revealed that increased substrate accessibility through the active site loop plays a major role in determining activity. A new mechanistic insight has been proposed based on molecular dynamics simulated structures, where dynamic flipping of a critical Tyr residue is responsible for the activity of thermophilic l-asparaginases. Our study not only resulted in development of PfA mutants with combination of desirable properties but also gave a mechanistic insight about their activity.     

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Monoaminergic and Nitriergic Modulation for Antidepressant-like Activity of Naringin in Unstressed and Acute Immobilization-Induced Stressed Mice

Neurochemical Research -     

The Cbln family of proteins interact with multiple signaling pathways

Cerebellin precursor protein (Cbln1) is essential for synapse integrity in cerebellum through assembly into complexes that bridge pre-synaptic β-neurexins (Nrxn) to post-synaptic GluRδ2. However, GluRδ2 is largely cerebellum-specific, yet Cbln1 and its little studied family members, Cbln2 and Cbln4, are expressed throughout brain. Therefore, we investigated whether additional proteins mediate Cbln family actions. Whereas Cbln1 and Cbln2 bound to GluRδ2 and Nrxns1-3, Cbln4 bound weakly or not at all, suggesting it has distinct binding partners. In a candidate receptor-screening assay, Cbln4 (but not Cbln1 or Cbln2) bound selectively to the netrin receptor, (deleted in colorectal cancer (DCC) in a netrin-displaceable fashion. To determine whether Cbln4 had a netrin-like function, Cbln4-null mice were generated. Cbln4-null mice did not phenocopy netrin-null mice. Cbln1 and Cbln4 were likely co-localized in neurons thought to be responsible for synaptic changes in striatum of Cbln1-null mice. Furthermore, complexes containing Cbln1 and Cbln4 had greatly reduced affinity to DCC but increased affinity to Nrxns, suggesting a functional interaction. However, Cbln4-null mice lacked the striatal synaptic changes seen in Cbln null mice. Thus, Cbln family members interact with multiple receptors/signaling pathways in a subunit composition-dependent manner and have independent functions with Cbln4 potentially involved in the less well-characterized role of netrin/DCC in adult brain.     

Advanced glycation end products enhance reactive oxygen and nitrogen species generation in neutrophils in vitro

Increased oxidative stress (OS) in diabetes mellitus is one of the major factors leading to diabetic pathology. However, the mediators and mechanism that provoke OS in diabetes is not fully understood, and it is possible that accumulation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) formed secondary to hyperglycemic conditions may incite circulating polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this report, we aim to investigate the effect of AGE on reactive oxygen and nitrogen species generation and subsequent OS in PMN. AGE-HSA exert dose- and time-dependent enhancement of ROS and reactive nitrogen intermediates (RNI) generation by PMN. Increased ROS and RNI generation were found to be mediated through the upregulation of NADPH oxidase and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), respectively, as evident from the fact that AGE-treated neutrophils failed to generate ROS and RNI in presence of diphenyleneiodonium, a flavoprotein inhibitor for both enzymes. Further increased generation of ROS and RNI ceased when the cells were incubated with anti-RAGE antibody suggesting the involvement of AGE-RAGE interaction. Also increased malondialdehyde (MDA) and protein carbonyl formation in AGE-exposed PMN suggest induction of OS by AGE. This study provides evidence that AGEs may play a key role in the induction of oxidative stress through the augmentation of PMN-mediated ROS and RNI generation and this may be in part responsible for development of AGE-induced diabetic pathology.     

Gut mucosal injury in neonates is marked by macrophage infiltration in contrast to pleomorphic infiltrates in adult: evidence from an animal model

Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is an inflammatory bowel necrosis of premature infants. In tissue samples of NEC, we identified numerous macrophages and a few neutrophils but not many lymphocytes. We hypothesized that these pathoanatomic characteristics of NEC represent a common tissue injury response of the gastrointestinal tract to a variety of insults at a specific stage of gut development. To evaluate developmental changes in mucosal inflammatory response, we used trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS)-induced inflammation as a nonspecific insult and compared mucosal injury in newborn vs. adult mice. Enterocolitis was induced in 10-day-old pups and adult mice (n = 25 animals per group) by administering TNBS by gavage and enema. Leukocyte populations were enumerated in human NEC and in murine TNBS-enterocolitis using quantitative immunofluorescence. Chemokine expression was measured using quantitative polymerase chain reaction, immunoblots, and immunohistochemistry. Macrophage recruitment was investigated ex vivo using intestinal tissue-conditioned media and bone marrow-derived macrophages in a microchemotaxis assay. Similar to human NEC, TNBS enterocolitis in pups was marked by a macrophage-rich leukocyte infiltrate in affected tissue. In contrast, TNBS-enterocolitis in adult mice was associated with pleomorphic leukocyte infiltrates. Macrophage precursors were recruited to murine neonatal gastrointestinal tract by the chemokine CXCL5, a known chemoattractant for myeloid cells. We also demonstrated increased expression of CXCL5 in surgically resected tissue samples of human NEC, indicating that a similar pathway was active in NEC. We concluded that gut mucosal injury in the murine neonate is marked by a macrophage-rich leukocyte infiltrate, which contrasts with the pleomorphic leukocyte infiltrates in adult mice. In murine neonatal enterocolitis, macrophages were recruited to the inflamed gut mucosa by the chemokine CXCL5, indicating that CXCL5 and its cognate receptor CXCR2 merit further investigation as potential therapeutic targets in NEC.     

Inhibition of hepatitis C virus NS5A by fluoro-olefin based γ-turn mimetics

The HCV non-structural protein NS5A has been established as a viable target for the development of direct acting antiviral therapy. From computational modeling studies strong intra-molecular hydrogen bonds were found to be a common structural moiety within known NS5A inhibitors that have low pico-molar replicon potency. Efforts to reproduce these γ-turn-like substructures provided a novel NS5A inhibitor based on a fluoro-olefin isostere. This fluoro-olefin containing inhibitor exhibited picomolar activity (EC(50)=79 pM) against HCV genotype 1b replicon without measurable cytotoxicity. This level of activity is comparable to the natural peptide-based inhibitors currently under clinic evaluation, and demonstrates that a peptidomimetic approach can serve as a useful strategy to produce potent and structurally unique inhibitors of HCV NS5A.     

The interactive effects of temperature and light on biological nitrogen fixation in boreal forests

Plant productivity is predicted to increase in northern latitudes as a result of climate warming; however, this may depend on whether biological nitrogen (N)-fixation also increases. We evaluated how the variation in temperature and light affects N-fixation by two boreal feather mosses, Pleurozium schreberi and Hylocomium splendens, which are the primary source of N-fixation in most boreal environments. We measured N-fixation rates 2 and 4 wk after exposure to a factorial combination of environments of normal, intermediate and high temperature (16.3, 22.0 and 30.3°C) and light (148.0, 295.7 and 517.3 μmol m(-2) s(-1)). Our results showed that P. schreberi achieved higher N-fixation rates relative to H. splendens in response to warming treatments, but that the highest warming treatment eventually caused N-fixation to decline for both species. Light strongly interacted with warming treatments, having positive effects at low or intermediate temperatures and damaging effects at high temperatures. These results suggest that climate warming may increase N-fixation in boreal forests, but that increased shading by the forest canopy or the occurrence of extreme temperature events could limit increases. They also suggest that P. schreberi may become a larger source of N in boreal forests relative to H. splendens as climate warming progresses.     

Synthesis and antileukemic activity of 16E-[4-(2-carboxy)ethoxybenzylidene]-androstene amides

In order to determine the structural requirements for cytotoxicity against various tumor cell lines, a new series of 16E-arylidene androstene amides with varying degrees of unsaturation in ring A has been synthesized. Characterization and invitro cytotoxic studies of the newly synthesized compounds are discussed. The compounds on evaluation against various tumor cell lines exhibited significant growth inhibition on leukemia cell lines. 3-Chloro-16E-{[4-(4-methylpiperazin-1-yl)-2-oxoethoxy]benzylidene}androst-5-en-17-one (10) emerged as the most potent compound of the series with GI(50) values of 3.94, 2.61, 6.90 and 1.79μM against CCRF-CEM, K-562, RPMI-8226 and SR leukemia cell lines, respectively.