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Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Jan 2023Transmembrane transport of small organic and inorganic molecules is one of the cornerstones of cellular metabolism. Among transmembrane transporters, solute carrier... (Review)
Review
Transmembrane transport of small organic and inorganic molecules is one of the cornerstones of cellular metabolism. Among transmembrane transporters, solute carrier (SLC) proteins form the largest, albeit very diverse, superfamily with over 400 members. It was recognized early on that xenobiotics can directly interact with SLCs and that this interaction can fundamentally determine their efficacy, including bioavailability and intertissue distribution. Apart from the well-established prodrug strategy, the chemical ligation of transporter substrates to nanoparticles of various chemical compositions has recently been used as a means to enhance their targeting and absorption. In this review, we summarize efforts in drug design exploiting interactions with specific SLC transporters to optimize their therapeutic effects. Furthermore, we describe current and future challenges as well as new directions for the advanced development of therapeutics that target SLC transporters.
Topics: Membrane Transport Proteins; Biological Transport; Solute Carrier Proteins; Drug Delivery Systems; Prodrugs
PubMed: 36770817
DOI: 10.3390/molecules28031151 -
Genes Mar 2022Gemcitabine is a nucleoside analog that has been used widely as an anticancer drug for the treatment of a variety of conditions, including ovarian, bladder,... (Review)
Review
Gemcitabine is a nucleoside analog that has been used widely as an anticancer drug for the treatment of a variety of conditions, including ovarian, bladder, non-small-cell lung, pancreatic, and breast cancer. However, enzymatic deamination, fast systemic clearance, and the emergence of chemoresistance have limited its efficacy. Different prodrug strategies have been explored in recent years, seeking to obtain better pharmacokinetic properties, efficacy, and safety. Different drug delivery strategies have also been employed, seeking to transform gemcitabine into a targeted medicine. This review will provide an overview of the recent developments in gemcitabine prodrugs and their effectiveness in treating cancerous tumors.
Topics: Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung; Cell Line, Tumor; Deoxycytidine; Humans; Lung Neoplasms; Prodrugs; Gemcitabine
PubMed: 35328020
DOI: 10.3390/genes13030466 -
World Journal of Gastroenterology May 2022Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic illness characterized by relapsing inflammation of the intestines. The disorder is stratified according to the severity and... (Review)
Review
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic illness characterized by relapsing inflammation of the intestines. The disorder is stratified according to the severity and is marked by its two main phenotypical representations: Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. Pathogenesis of the disease is ambiguous and is expected to have interactivity between genetic disposition, environmental factors such as bacterial agents, and dysregulated immune response. Treatment for IBD aims to reduce symptom extent and severity and halt disease progression. The mainstay drugs have been 5-aminosalicylates (5-ASAs), corticosteroids, and immunosuppressive agents. Parenteral, oral and rectal routes are the conventional methods of drug delivery, and among all, oral administration is most widely adopted. However, problems of systematic drug reactions and low specificity in delivering drugs to the inflamed sites have emerged with these regular routes of delivery. Novel drug delivery systems have been introduced to overcome several therapeutic obstacles and for localized drug delivery to target tissues. Enteric-coated microneedle pills, various nano-drug delivery techniques, prodrug systems, lipid-based vesicular systems, hybrid drug delivery systems, and biologic drug delivery systems constitute some of these novel methods. Microneedles are painless, they dislodge their content at the affected site, and their release can be prolonged. Recombinant bacteria such as genetically engineered and eukaryotic cells, including GM immune cells and red blood cells as nanoparticle carriers, can be plausible delivery methods when evaluating biologic systems. Nano-particle drug delivery systems consisting of various techniques are also employed as nanoparticles can penetrate through inflamed regions and adhere to the thick mucus of the diseased site. Prodrug systems such as 5-ASAs formulations or their derivatives are effective in reducing colonic damage. Liposomes can be modified with both hydrophilic and lipophilic particles and act as lipid-based vesicular systems, while hybrid drug delivery systems containing an internal nanoparticle section for loading drugs are potential routes too. Leukosomes are also considered as possible carrier systems, and results from mouse models have revealed that they control anti- and pro-inflammatory molecules.
Topics: Animals; Biological Products; Chronic Disease; Drug Delivery Systems; Humans; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases; Lipids; Mice; Prodrugs
PubMed: 35664964
DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v28.i18.1922 -
Cell Research Jul 2020Cellular senescence, a persistent state of cell cycle arrest, accumulates in aged organisms, contributes to tissue dysfunction, and drives age-related phenotypes. The...
Cellular senescence, a persistent state of cell cycle arrest, accumulates in aged organisms, contributes to tissue dysfunction, and drives age-related phenotypes. The clearance of senescent cells is expected to decrease chronic, low-grade inflammation and improve tissue repair capacity, thus attenuating the decline of physical function in aged organisms. However, selective and effective clearance of senescent cells of different cell types has proven challenging. Herein, we developed a prodrug strategy to design a new compound based on the increased activity of lysosomal β-galactosidase (β-gal), a primary characteristic of senescent cells. Our prodrug SSK1 is specifically activated by β-gal and eliminates mouse and human senescent cells independently of senescence inducers and cell types. In aged mice, our compound effectively cleared senescent cells in different tissues, decreased the senescence- and age-associated gene signatures, attenuated low-grade local and systemic inflammation, and restored physical function. Our results demonstrate that lysosomal β-gal can be effectively leveraged to selectively eliminate senescent cells, providing a novel strategy to develop anti-aging interventions.
Topics: Aging; Animals; Cell Death; Cell Survival; Cellular Senescence; Disease Models, Animal; Drug Design; Fibroblasts; Humans; Inflammation; Lung Injury; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Prodrugs; beta-Galactosidase
PubMed: 32341413
DOI: 10.1038/s41422-020-0314-9 -
Nucleic Acids Research Jan 2022Drug discovery relies on the knowledge of not only drugs and targets, but also the comparative agents and targets. These include poor binders and non-binders for...
Drug discovery relies on the knowledge of not only drugs and targets, but also the comparative agents and targets. These include poor binders and non-binders for developing discovery tools, prodrugs for improved therapeutics, co-targets of therapeutic targets for multi-target strategies and off-target investigations, and the collective structure-activity and drug-likeness landscapes of enhanced drug feature. However, such valuable data are inadequately covered by the available databases. In this study, a major update of the Therapeutic Target Database, previously featured in NAR, was therefore introduced. This update includes (a) 34 861 poor binders and 12 683 non-binders of 1308 targets; (b) 534 prodrug-drug pairs for 121 targets; (c) 1127 co-targets of 672 targets regulated by 642 approved and 624 clinical trial drugs; (d) the collective structure-activity landscapes of 427 262 active agents of 1565 targets; (e) the profiles of drug-like properties of 33 598 agents of 1102 targets. Moreover, a variety of additional data and function are provided, which include the cross-links to the target structure in PDB and AlphaFold, 159 and 1658 newly emerged targets and drugs, and the advanced search function for multi-entry target sequences or drug structures. The database is accessible without login requirement at: https://idrblab.org/ttd/.
Topics: Databases, Factual; Drug Discovery; Humans; Molecular Targeted Therapy; Prodrugs; Structure-Activity Relationship
PubMed: 34718717
DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkab953 -
Science Advances Nov 20226-Diazo-5-oxo-l-norleucine (DON) is a glutamine antagonist that suppresses cancer cell metabolism but concurrently enhances the metabolic fitness of tumor CD8 T cells....
6-Diazo-5-oxo-l-norleucine (DON) is a glutamine antagonist that suppresses cancer cell metabolism but concurrently enhances the metabolic fitness of tumor CD8 T cells. DON showed promising efficacy in clinical trials; however, its development was halted by dose-limiting gastrointestinal (GI) toxicities. Given its clinical potential, we designed DON peptide prodrugs and found DRP-104 [isopropyl()-2-(()-2-acetamido-3-(1-indol-3-yl)-propanamido)-6-diazo-5-oxo-hexanoate] that was preferentially bioactivated to DON in tumor while bioinactivated to an inert metabolite in GI tissues. In drug distribution studies, DRP-104 delivered a prodigious 11-fold greater exposure of DON to tumor versus GI tissues. DRP-104 affected multiple metabolic pathways in tumor, including decreased glutamine flux into the TCA cycle. In efficacy studies, both DRP-104 and DON caused complete tumor regression; however, DRP-104 had a markedly improved tolerability profile. DRP-104's effect was CD8 T cell dependent and resulted in robust immunologic memory. DRP-104 represents a first-in-class prodrug with differential metabolism in target versus toxicity tissue. DRP-104 is now in clinical trials under the FDA Fast Track designation.
Topics: Humans; Prodrugs; Diazooxonorleucine; Glutamine; CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes; Neoplasms; Enzyme Inhibitors
PubMed: 36383674
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abq5925 -
EBioMedicine Jun 2020The rapid development of nanotechnology results in the emergence of nanomedicines, but the effective delivery of drugs to tumor sites remains a great challenge.... (Review)
Review
The rapid development of nanotechnology results in the emergence of nanomedicines, but the effective delivery of drugs to tumor sites remains a great challenge. Prodrug-based cancer nanomedicines thus emerged due to their unique advantages, including high drug load efficiency, reduced side effects, efficient targeting, and real-time controllability. A distinctive characteristic of prodrug-based nanomedicines is that they need to be activated by a stimulus or multi-stimulus to produce an anti-tumor effect. A better understanding of various responsive approaches could allow researchers to perceive the mechanism of prodrug-based nanomedicines effectively and further optimize their design strategy. In this review, we highlight the stimuli-responsive pathway of prodrug-based nanomedicines and their anticancer applications. Furthermore, various types of prodrug-based nanomedicines, recent progress and prospects of stimuli-responsive prodrug-based nanomedicines and patient data in the clinical application are also summarized. Additionally, the current development and future challenges of prodrug-based nanomedicines are discussed. We expect that this review will be valuable for readers to gain a deeper understanding of the structure and development of prodrug-based cancer nanomedicines to design rational and effective drugs for clinical use.
Topics: Humans; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Nanoparticles; Neoplasms; Oxidative Stress; Prodrugs
PubMed: 32505922
DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2020.102821 -
Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Feb 2021Many cancer diseases, e.g., prostate cancer and lung cancer, develop very slowly. Common chemotherapeutics like vincristine, vinblastine and taxol target cancer cells in... (Review)
Review
Many cancer diseases, e.g., prostate cancer and lung cancer, develop very slowly. Common chemotherapeutics like vincristine, vinblastine and taxol target cancer cells in their proliferating states. In slowly developing cancer diseases only a minor part of the malignant cells will be in a proliferative state, and consequently these drugs will exert a concomitant damage on rapidly proliferating benign tissue as well. A number of toxins possess an ability to kill cells in all states independently of whether they are benign or malignant. Such toxins can only be used as chemotherapeutics if they can be targeted selectively against the tumors. Examples of such toxins are mertansine, calicheamicins and thapsigargins, which all kill cells at low micromolar or nanomolar concentrations. Advanced prodrug concepts enabling targeting of these toxins to cancer tissue comprise antibody-directed enzyme prodrug therapy (ADEPT), gene-directed enzyme prodrug therapy (GDEPT), lectin-directed enzyme-activated prodrug therapy (LEAPT), and antibody-drug conjugated therapy (ADC), which will be discussed in the present review. The review also includes recent examples of protease-targeting chimera (PROTAC) for knockdown of receptors essential for development of tumors. In addition, targeting of toxins relying on tumor-overexpressed enzymes with unique substrate specificity will be mentioned.
Topics: Antineoplastic Agents; Apoptosis; Calicheamicins; Cell Proliferation; Delayed-Action Preparations; Drug Carriers; Drug Design; Drug Liberation; Enzyme Therapy; Gene Knockdown Techniques; Humans; Lung Neoplasms; Male; Maytansine; Molecular Targeted Therapy; Peptide Hydrolases; Prodrugs; Prostatic Neoplasms; Thapsigargin; Toxins, Biological
PubMed: 33673582
DOI: 10.3390/molecules26051292 -
International Journal of Molecular... Sep 2022The DNA-alkylating derivative chlorambucil was coordinated in the axial position to atypical cytotoxic, heterocyclic, and non-DNA coordinating platinum(IV) complexes of...
The DNA-alkylating derivative chlorambucil was coordinated in the axial position to atypical cytotoxic, heterocyclic, and non-DNA coordinating platinum(IV) complexes of type, (where H is 1,10-phenanthroline, 5-methyl-1,10-phenanthroline or 5,6-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline, A is 1,2-diaminocyclohexane). The resultant platinum(IV)-chlorambucil prodrugs, , , and , were characterized using high-performance liquid chromatography, nuclear magnetic resonance, ultraviolet-visible, circular dichroism spectroscopy, and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. The prodrugs displayed remarkable antitumor potential across multiple human cancer cell lines compared to chlorambucil, cisplatin, oxaliplatin, and carboplatin, as well as their platinum(II) precursors, , , and . Notably, was exceptionally potent in HT29 colon, Du145 prostate, MCF10A breast, MIA pancreas, H460 lung, A2780, and ADDP ovarian cell lines, with GI values ranging between 2.7 and 21 nM. Moreover, significant production of reactive oxygen species was detected in HT29 cells after treatment with , , and up to 72 h compared to chlorambucil and the platinum(II) and (IV) precursors.
Topics: Antineoplastic Agents; Carboplatin; Cell Line, Tumor; Chlorambucil; Cisplatin; Female; Humans; Male; Organoplatinum Compounds; Ovarian Neoplasms; Oxaliplatin; Platinum; Prodrugs; Reactive Oxygen Species
PubMed: 36142383
DOI: 10.3390/ijms231810471 -
Biochimie Feb 2023Bacteria protect themselves from the toxicity of antimicrobial metabolites they produce through several strategies. In one resistance mechanism, bacteria assemble a... (Review)
Review
Bacteria protect themselves from the toxicity of antimicrobial metabolites they produce through several strategies. In one resistance mechanism, bacteria assemble a non-toxic precursor on an N-acyl-d-asparagine prodrug motif in the cytoplasm, then export it to the periplasm where a dedicated d-amino peptidase hydrolyzes the prodrug motif. These prodrug-activating peptidases contain an N-terminal periplasmic S12 hydrolase domain and C-terminal transmembrane domains (TMDs) of varying lengths: type I peptidases contain three transmembrane helices, and type II peptidases have an additional C-terminal ABC half-transporter. We review studies which have addressed the role of the TMD in function, the substrate specificity, and the biological assembly of ClbP, the type I peptidase that activates colibactin. We use modeling and sequence analyses to extend those insights to other prodrug-activating peptidases and ClbP-like proteins which are not part of prodrug resistance gene clusters. These ClbP-like proteins may play roles in the biosynthesis or degradation of other natural products, including antibiotics, may adopt different TMD folds, and have different substrate specificity compared to prodrug-activating homologs. Finally, we review the data supporting the long-standing hypothesis that ClbP interacts with transporters in the cell and that this association is important for the export of other natural products. Future investigations of this hypothesis as well as of the structure and function of type II peptidases will provide a complete account of the role of prodrug-activating peptidases in the activation and secretion of bacterial toxins.
Topics: Peptide Hydrolases; Prodrugs; Escherichia coli; Escherichia coli Proteins
PubMed: 36803695
DOI: 10.1016/j.biochi.2022.07.019