0000000001237913
AUTHOR
Ettore Novellino
Identification of a new series of amides as non-covalent proteasome inhibitors
Proteasome inhibition has emerged as an important therapeutic strategy for the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM) and some forms of lymphoma, with potential application in other types of cancers. 20S proteasome consists of three different catalytic activities known as chymotrypsin-like (ChT-L), trypsin-like (T-L), and, post-glutamyl peptide hydrolyzing (PGPH) or caspase-like (C-L), which are located respectively on the β5, β2, and β1 subunits of each heptameric β rings. Currently a wide number of covalent proteasome inhibitors are reported in literature; however, the less widely investigated non-covalent inhibitors might be a promising alternative to employ in therapy, because of the lack o…
Design, Synthesis, and Evaluation of New Tripeptides as COX-2 Inhibitors
Cyclooxygenase (COX) is a key enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway leading to the formation of prostaglandins, which are mediators of inflammation. It exists mainly in two isoforms COX-1 and COX-2. The conventional nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have gastrointestinal side effects because they inhibit both isoforms. Recent data demonstrate that the overexpression of these enzymes, and in particular of cyclooxygenases-2, promotes multiple events involved in tumorigenesis; in addition, numerous studies show that the inhibition of cyclooxygenases-2 can delay or prevent certain forms of cancer. Agents that inhibit COX-2 while sparing COX-1 represent a new attractive therapeutic deve…
A compound-based proteomic approach discloses 15-ketoatractyligenin methyl ester as a new PPARγ partial agonist with anti-proliferative ability
AbstractProteomics based approaches are emerging as useful tools to identify the targets of bioactive compounds and elucidate their molecular mechanisms of action. Here, we applied a chemical proteomic strategy to identify the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) as a molecular target of the pro-apoptotic agent 15-ketoatractyligenin methyl ester (compound 1). We demonstrated that compound 1 interacts with PPARγ, forms a covalent bond with the thiol group of C285 and occupies the sub-pocket between helix H3 and the β-sheet of the ligand-binding domain (LBD) of the receptor by Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR), mass spectrometry-based studies and docking experiments. 1 displayed…
Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of novel aminobisphosphonates possessing an in vivo antitumor activity through a gammadelta-T lymphocytes-mediated activation mechanism.
A small series of aminobisphosphonates (N-BPs) structurally related to zoledronic acid was synthesized with the aim of improving activity toward activation of human gammadelta T cells and in turn their in vivo antitumor activity. The absence of the 1-OH moiety, together with the position and the different basicity of the nitrogen, appears crucial for antitumor activity. In comparison to zoledronic acid, compound 6a shows a greater ability to activate gammadelta T cells expression (100 times more) and a proapoptotic effect that is better than zoledronic acid. The potent activation of gammadelta T cells, in addition to evidence of the in vivo antitumor activity of 6a, suggests it may be a new…
Amino Acid derivatives as new zinc binding groups for the design of selective matrix metalloproteinase inhibitors.
A number of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are important medicinal targets for conditions ranging from rheumatoid arthritis to cardiomyopathy, periodontal disease, liver cirrhosis, multiple sclerosis, and cancer invasion and metastasis, where they showed to have a dual role, inhibiting or promoting important processes involved in the pathology. MMPs contain a zinc (II) ion in the protein active site. Small-molecule inhibitors of these metalloproteins are designed to bind directly to the active site metal ions. In an effort to devise new approaches to selective inhibitors, in this paper, we describe the synthesis and preliminary biological evaluation of amino acid derivatives as new zinc b…
Development of novel dipeptide-like rhodesain inhibitors containing the 3-bromoisoxazoline warhead in a constrained conformation.
Novel dipeptide-like rhodesain inhibitors containing the 3-bromoisoxazoline warhead in a constrained conformation were developed; some of them possess K(i) values in the micromolar range. We studied the structure-activity relationship of these derivatives and we performed docking studies, which allowed us to find out the key interactions established by the inhibitors with the target enzyme. Biological results indicate that the nature of the P2 and P3 substituents and their binding to the S2/S3 pockets is strictly interdependent.
Identification of noncovalent proteasome inhibitors with high selectivity for chymotrypsin-like activity by a multistep structure-based virtual screening.
Noncovalent proteasome inhibitors introduce an alternative mechanism of inhibition to that of covalent inhibitors, e.g. carfilzomib, used in cancer therapy. A multistep hierarchical structure-based virtual screening (SBVS) of the 65,375 NCI lead-like compound library led to the identification of two compounds (9 and 28) which noncovalently inhibited the chymotrypsin-like (ChT-L) activity (Ki = 2.18 and 2.12 μM, respectively) with little or no effects on the other two major proteasome proteolytic activities, trypsin-like (T-L) and post-glutamyl peptide hydrolase (PGPH) activities. A subsequent hierarchical similarity search over the full NCI database with the most active tripeptide-based inh…
ARIA digital anamorphosis: Digital transformation of health and care in airway diseases from research to practice: Review
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Combined HAT/EZH2 modulation leads to cancer-selective cell death
Contains fulltext : 197351.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Epigenetic alterations have been associated with both pathogenesis and progression of cancer. By screening of library compounds, we identified a novel hybrid epi-drug MC2884, a HAT/EZH2 inhibitor, able to induce bona fide cancer-selective cell death in both solid and hematological cancers in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo xenograft models. Anticancer action was due to an epigenome modulation by H3K27me3, H3K27ac, H3K9/14ac decrease, and to caspase-dependent apoptosis induction. MC2884 triggered mitochondrial pathway apoptosis by up-regulation of cleaved-BID, and strong down-regulation of BCL2. Even aggressive models of cancer, …
Production of enniatins A, A1, B, B1, B4, J1 by Fusarium tricinctum in solid corn culture: structural analysis and effects on mitochondrial respiration.
Enniatins (ENs) are secondary fungal metabolites with hexadepsipeptidic chemical structure and they possess a number of potent biological activities that can contaminate several kind of food and foodstuffs increasing the exposure risk for consumers. ENs are produced by several Fusariun strains including Fusarium subglutinans, Fusarium proliferatum and Fusarium tricinctum. Production of a mixture of ENs was performed by culturing F. tricinctum ITEM 9496 on white corn as substrate. The solid culture components were dried and subsequently extracted with water/methanol (50/50 v/v, 0.5% NaCl), homogenised, filtered, extracted by ethyl acetate and analysed by liquid chromatography with diode arra…
Investigation of new 2-aryl substituted Benzothiopyrano[4,3-d[pyrimidines as kinase inhibitors targeting vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2
Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) pathway has emerged as one of the most important positive modulators of Angiogenesis, a central process implicated in tumour growth and metastatic dissemination. This led to the design and development of anti-VEGF monoclonal antibodies and small-molecule ATP-competitive VEGFR-inhibitors. In this study, we describe the synthesis and the biological evaluation of novel 2-aryl substituted benzothiopyrano-fused pyrimidines 1a-i, 2a-i and 3a-i. The ability of the compounds to target the VEGF pathway was determined in vitro exploiting the compounds' antiproliferative efficacy against HUVEC cells. The VEGFR-2 inhibition was confirmed by enzymatic assays on …
Optimization of peptidomimetic boronates bearing a P3 bicyclic scaffold as proteasome inhibitors
Abstract A new series of pseudopeptide boronate proteasome inhibitors (2–3) was developed, through optimization of our previously described analogs of bortezomib, bearing a bicyclic 1,6-naphthyridin-5(6H)-one scaffold as P3 fragment (1). The biological evaluation on human 20S proteasome displayed a promising inhibition profile, especially for compounds bearing a P2 ethylene fragment, which exhibited Ki values in the nanomolar range for the ChT-L activity (e.g. 2a, Ki = 0.057 μM) and considerable selectivity for proteasome over bovine pancreatic α-chymotrypsin. Docking experiments into the yeast 20S proteasome revealed that the ligands are accommodated predominantly into the ChT-L site and t…
Intragenic G-quadruplex structure formed in the human CD133 and its biological and translational relevance.
Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been identified in several solid malignancies and are now emerging as a plausible target for drug discovery. Beside the questionable existence of CSCs specific markers, the expression of CD133 was reported to be responsible for conferring CSC aggressiveness. Here, we identified two G-rich sequences localized within the introns 3 and 7 of the CD133 gene able to form G-quadruplex (G4) structures, bound and stabilized by small molecules. We further showed that treatment of patient-derived colon CSCs with G4-interacting agents triggers alternative splicing that dramatically impairs the expression of CD133. Interestingly, this is strongly associated with a loss of C…
Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) Phase 4 (2018): Change management in allergic rhinitis and asthma multimorbidity using mobile technology
Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) has evolved from a guideline by using the best approach to integrated care pathways using mobile technology in patients with allergic rhinitis (AR) and asthma multimorbidity. The proposed next phase of ARIA is change management, with the aim of providing an active and healthy life to patients with rhinitis and to those with asthma multimorbidity across the lifecycle irrespective of their sex or socioeconomic status to reduce health and social inequities incurred by the disease. ARIA has followed the 8-step model of Kotter to assess and implement the effect of rhinitis on asthma multimorbidity and to propose multimorbid guidelines. A second c…
Development of Novel Selective Peptidomimetics Containing a Boronic Acid Moiety, Targeting the 20S Proteasome as Anticancer Agents
This paper describes the design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of peptidomimetic boronates as inhibitors of the 20S proteasome, a validated target in the treatment of multiple myeloma. The synthesized compounds showed a good inhibitory profile against the ChT-L activity of 20S proteasome. Compounds bearing a β-alanine residue at the P2 position were the most active, that is, 3-ethylphenylamino and 4-methoxyphenylamino (R)-1-{3-[4-(substituted)-2-oxopyridin-1(2H)-yl]propanamido}-3-methylbutylboronic acids (3 c and 3 d, respectively), and these derivatives showed inhibition constants (Ki ) of 17 and 20 nM, respectively. In addition, they co-inhibited post glutamyl peptide hydrolase act…
Immunomodulatory activity of Humulus lupulus bitter acids fraction: Enhancement of natural killer cells function by NKp44 activating receptor stimulation
Abstract Humulus lupulus (Hop) contains numerous metabolites with anticancer potential. Despite this, their immunomodulatory activity, and in particular of bitter acids, is unknown. In this study, we demonstrated that a Hop pellet extract fraction containing bitter acids possesses immunomodulatory activity by enhancing Natural Killer (NK) cells function. After fractionation by semi-preparative Liquid Chromatography, three different fractions were obtained. The phytocomplex and the fractions were tested to verify the ability to modulate the NK compartment. Cytofluorimetric analysis revealed that a fraction containing bitter acids was able to up-regulate of NKG2D and NKp44 activating receptor…
Development of peptidomimetic boronates as proteasome inhibitors.
Abstract Proteasome inhibition has emerged over the past decade as an effective therapeutic approach for the treatment of hematologic malignancies. It is a multicatalytic complex, whose proteolytic activity relies in three types of subunits: chymotrypsin-like (β5), trypsin-like (β2) and caspase-like (β1). Most important for the development of effective antitumor agents is the inhibition of the β5 subunits. In this context, the dipeptide boronate bortezomib (Velcade ® ) represents the first proteasome inhibitor approved by the FDA and the lead compound in drug discovery. This paper describes the synthesis and biological evaluation of a series of conformationally constrained pseudopeptide bor…
Cabbage and fermented vegetables: from death rate heterogeneity in countries to candidates for mitigation strategies of severe COVID-19
International audience; Large differences in COVID-19 death rates exist between countries and between regions of the same country. Some very low death rate countries such as Eastern Asia, Central Europe, or the Balkans have a common feature of eating large quantities of fermented foods. Although biases exist when examining ecological studies, fermented vegetables or cabbage have been associated with low death rates in European countries. SARS-CoV-2 binds to its receptor, the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). As a result of SARS-CoV-2 binding, ACE2 downregulation enhances the angiotensin II receptor type 1 (AT1 R) axis associated with oxidative stress. This leads to insulin resistance …