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International Journal of Antimicrobial... Jul 2023Data indicate that certain combination antiretroviral treatment (cART) regimens, particularly protease inhibitor (PI)-based regimens, and cART initiation before... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
Maternal antiretroviral treatment for HIV infection and risk of small-for-gestational-age birth: A systematic review and meta-analysis of protease inhibitor-based treatment and timing of treatment.
BACKGROUND
Data indicate that certain combination antiretroviral treatment (cART) regimens, particularly protease inhibitor (PI)-based regimens, and cART initiation before conception may be associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. The risk of having a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant was examined among pregnant HIV-infected mothers on 1) PI-based compared to non-PI-based cART, and 2) any cART initiated before compared to after conception.
METHODS
A search was conducted using PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library, and a systematic review was performed of studies published since Dec 1, 1995. Effect estimates with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were extracted and meta-analyses with random-effects models were conducted. The certainty of evidence was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation tool.
FINDINGS
Of 783 identified studies, 28 fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis indicated that PI-based cART was associated with a possible slightly increased risk of SGA compared with non-PI-based cART (pooled odds ratio [OR]: 1·09; CI: 0·76, 1·55). Initiation of cART before conception was also associated with a possible slightly increased risk of SGA compared with after conception (pooled OR: 1·08; CI: 0·95, 1·22). The overall certainty of evidence was very low and low for the first and second research questions, respectively.
INTERPRETATION
Although the benefits of cART largely outweigh the risks, these findings indicate the possibility of slightly increased risks of having an SGA infant. This indicates that careful monitoring of fetuses exposed to PI-based cART or cART before pregnancy might be reasonable. Based on the uncertainty of evidence, further research may change this conclusion.
Topics: Pregnancy; Infant; Female; Humans; HIV Infections; Anti-HIV Agents; Pregnancy Outcome; Protease Inhibitors
PubMed: 37121443
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2023.106823 -
Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) May 2022Cell adhesion and migration are crucial for cancer progression and malignancy. Drugs available for the treatment of metastatic melanoma are expensive and unfit for...
Cell adhesion and migration are crucial for cancer progression and malignancy. Drugs available for the treatment of metastatic melanoma are expensive and unfit for certain patients. Therefore, there is still a need to identify new drugs that block tumor cell development. We investigated the effects of trypsin inhibitor (EcTI), a protease inhibitor, on cell viability, cell migration, invasion, cell adhesion, and cell death (hallmarks of cancer) in vitro using human melanoma cells (SK-MEL-28 and CHL-1). Although EcTI did not affect non-tumor cells, it significantly inhibited the proliferation, migration, invasion, and adhesion of melanoma cells. Investigation of the underlying mechanisms revealed that EcTI triggered apoptosis and nuclear shrinkage, increased PI uptake, activated effector caspases-3/7, and produced reactive oxygen species (ROS). Furthermore, EcTI disrupted the mitochondrial membrane potential, altered calcium homeostasis, and modified proteins associated with survival and apoptosis/autophagy regulation. Acridine orange staining indicated acidic vesicular organelle formation upon EcTI treatment, demonstrating a cell death display. Electronic microscopy corroborated the apoptotic pattern by allowing the visualization of apoptotic bodies, mitochondrial cristae disorganization, and autophagic vesicles. Taken together, these results provide new insights into the anti-cancer properties of the natural EcTI protein, establishing it as a promising new therapeutic drug for use in melanoma treatment.
Topics: Apoptosis; Cell Line, Tumor; Cell Proliferation; Down-Regulation; Fabaceae; Humans; Melanoma; Neoplastic Processes; Protease Inhibitors; Trypsin Inhibitors
PubMed: 35566311
DOI: 10.3390/molecules27092956 -
Aspartic protease inhibitor enhances resistance to potato virus Y and A in transgenic potato plants.BMC Plant Biology May 2022Viruses are the major threat to commercial potato (Solanum tuberosum) production worldwide. Because viral genomes only encode a small number of proteins, all stages of...
BACKGROUND
Viruses are the major threat to commercial potato (Solanum tuberosum) production worldwide. Because viral genomes only encode a small number of proteins, all stages of viral infection rely on interactions between viral proteins and host factors. Previously, we presented a list of the most important candidate genes involved in potato plants' defense response to viruses that are significantly activated in resistant cultivars. Isolated from this list, Aspartic Protease Inhibitor 5 (API5) is a critical host regulatory component of plant defense responses against pathogens. The purpose of this study is to determine the role of StAPI5 in defense of potato against potato virus Y and potato virus A, as well as its ability to confer virus resistance in a transgenic susceptible cultivar of potato (Desiree). Potato plants were transformed with Agrobacterium tumefaciens via a construct encoding the potato StAPI5 gene under the control of the Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S promoter.
RESULTS
Transgenic plants overexpressing StAPI5 exhibited comparable virus resistance to non-transgenic control plants, indicating that StAPI5 functions in gene regulation during virus resistance. The endogenous StAPI5 and CaMV 35S promoter regions shared nine transcription factor binding sites. Additionally, the net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductivity, and maximum photochemical efficiency of photosystem II were significantly higher in virus-infected transgenic plants than in wild-type plants.
CONCLUSION
Overall, these findings indicate that StAPI5 may be a viable candidate gene for engineering plant disease resistance to viruses that inhibit disease development.
Topics: Aspartic Acid Proteases; Disease Resistance; Plant Diseases; Plants, Genetically Modified; Potyvirus; Protease Inhibitors; Solanum tuberosum
PubMed: 35549883
DOI: 10.1186/s12870-022-03596-8 -
International Journal of Molecular... Dec 2021Since December 2019, the new SARS-CoV-2-related COVID-19 disease has caused a global pandemic and shut down the public life worldwide. Several proteins have emerged as... (Review)
Review
Since December 2019, the new SARS-CoV-2-related COVID-19 disease has caused a global pandemic and shut down the public life worldwide. Several proteins have emerged as potential therapeutic targets for drug development, and we sought out to review the commercially available and marketed SARS-CoV-2-targeted libraries ready for high-throughput virtual screening (HTVS). We evaluated the SARS-CoV-2-targeted, protease-inhibitor-focused and protein-protein-interaction-inhibitor-focused libraries to gain a better understanding of how these libraries were designed. The most common were ligand- and structure-based approaches, along with various filtering steps, using molecular descriptors. Often, these methods were combined to obtain the final library. We recognized the abundance of targeted libraries offered and complimented by the inclusion of analytical data; however, serious concerns had to be raised. Namely, vendors lack the information on the library design and the references to the primary literature. Few references to active compounds were also provided when using the ligand-based design and usually only protein classes or a general panel of targets were listed, along with a general reference to the methods, such as molecular docking for the structure-based design. No receptor data, docking protocols or even references to the applied molecular docking software (or other HTVS software), and no pharmacophore or filter design details were given. No detailed functional group or chemical space analyses were reported, and no specific orientation of the libraries toward the design of covalent or noncovalent inhibitors could be observed. All libraries contained pan-assay interference compounds (PAINS), rapid elimination of swill compounds (REOS) and aggregators, as well as focused on the drug-like model, with the majority of compounds possessing their molecular mass around 500 g/mol. These facts do not bode well for the use of the reviewed libraries in drug design and lend themselves to commercial drug companies to focus on and improve.
Topics: Antiviral Agents; Databases, Chemical; Drug Design; High-Throughput Screening Assays; Humans; Molecular Docking Simulation; Protease Inhibitors; Protein Interaction Domains and Motifs; SARS-CoV-2; Small Molecule Libraries
PubMed: 35008818
DOI: 10.3390/ijms23010393 -
Biomolecules Jul 2019Anuran amphibian skin secretions are a rich source of peptides, many of which represent novel protease inhibitors and can potentially act as a source for protease...
Anuran amphibian skin secretions are a rich source of peptides, many of which represent novel protease inhibitors and can potentially act as a source for protease inhibitor drug discovery. In this study, a novel bioactive Bowman-Birk type inhibitory hexadecapeptide of the Ranacyclin family from the defensive skin secretion of the Fukien gold-striped pond frog, , was successfully isolated and identified, named PPF-BBI. The primary structure of the biosynthetic precursor was deduced from a cDNA sequence cloned from a skin-derived cDNA library, which contains a consensus motif representative of the Bowman-Birk type inhibitor. The peptide was chemically synthesized and displayed a potent inhibitory activity against trypsin (Ki of 0.17 µM), as well as an inhibitory activity against tryptase (Ki of 30.73 µM). A number of analogues of this peptide were produced by rational design. An analogue, which substituted the lysine (K) at the predicted P position with phenylalanine (F), exhibited a potent chymotrypsin inhibitory activity (Ki of 0.851 µM). Alternatively, a more potent protease inhibitory activity, as well as antimicrobial activity, was observed when P was replaced by lysine, forming K-PPF-BBI. The addition of the cell-penetrating peptide Tat with a trypsin inhibitory loop resulted in a peptide with a selective inhibitory activity toward trypsin, as well as a strong antifungal activity. This peptide also inhibited the growth of two lung cancer cells, H460 and H157, demonstrating that the targeted modifications of this peptide could effectively and efficiently alter its bioactivity.
Topics: Antifungal Agents; Drug Design; Gene Library; Protease Inhibitors
PubMed: 31337113
DOI: 10.3390/biom9070280 -
International Journal of Molecular... Feb 2024Predicting the potency of inhibitors is key to in silico screening of promising synthetic or natural compounds. Here we describe a predictive workflow that provides...
Predicting the potency of inhibitors is key to in silico screening of promising synthetic or natural compounds. Here we describe a predictive workflow that provides calculated inhibitory values, which concord well with empirical data. Calculations of the free interaction energy ΔG with the YASARA plugin FoldX were used to derive inhibition constants K from PDB coordinates of protease-inhibitor complexes. At the same time, corresponding K values were obtained from the PRODIGY server. These results correlated well with the experimental values, particularly for serine proteases. In addition, analyses were performed for inhibitory complexes of cysteine and aspartic proteases, as well as of metalloproteases, whereby the PRODIGY data appeared to be more consistent. Based on our analyses, we calculated theoretical K values for trypsin with sunflower trypsin inhibitor (SFTI-1) variants, which yielded the more rigid Pro14 variant, with probably higher potency than the wild-type inhibitor. Moreover, a hirudin variant with an Arg1 and Trp3 is a promising basis for novel thrombin inhibitors with high potency. Further examples from antibody interaction and a cancer-related effector-receptor system demonstrate that our approach is applicable to protein interaction studies beyond the protease field.
Topics: Serine Endopeptidases; Trypsin Inhibitors; Trypsin; Helianthus; Peptide Hydrolases; Protease Inhibitors
PubMed: 38397107
DOI: 10.3390/ijms25042429 -
Biomaterials Jun 2022The catastrophic global effects of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic highlight the need to develop novel therapeutics strategies to prevent and treat viral infections of the...
The catastrophic global effects of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic highlight the need to develop novel therapeutics strategies to prevent and treat viral infections of the respiratory tract. To enable this work, we need scalable, affordable, and physiologically relevant models of the human lung, the primary organ involved in the pathogenesis of COVID-19. To date, most COVID-19 in vitro models rely on platforms such as cell lines and organoids. While 2D and 3D models have provided important insights, human distal lung models that can model epithelial viral uptake have yet to be established. We hypothesized that by leveraging techniques of whole organ engineering and directed differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) we could model human distal lung epithelium, examine viral infection at the tissue level in real time, and establish a platform for COVID-19 related research ex vivo. In the present study, we used type 2 alveolar epithelial cells (AT2) derived from human iPSCs to repopulate whole rat lung acellular scaffolds and maintained them in extended biomimetic organ culture for 30 days to induce the maturation of distal lung epithelium. We observed emergence of a mixed type 1 and type 2 alveolar epithelial phenotype during tissue formation. When exposing our system to a pseudotyped lentivirus containing the spike of wildtype SARS-CoV-2 and the more virulent D614G, we observed progression of the infection in real time. We then found that the protease inhibitor Camostat Mesyalte significantly reduced viral transfection in distal lung epithelium. In summary, our data show that a mature human distal lung epithelium can serve as a novel moderate throughput research platform to examine viral infection and to evaluate novel therapeutics ex vivo.
Topics: Animals; Antiviral Agents; COVID-19; Esters; Guanidines; Humans; Lung; Protease Inhibitors; Rats; SARS-CoV-2; Virus Internalization
PubMed: 35533440
DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2022.121509 -
Computers in Biology and Medicine Mar 2022Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has adversely affected global health since its...
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has adversely affected global health since its emergence in 2019. The lack of effective treatments prompted worldwide efforts to immediately develop therapeutic strategies against COVID-19. The main protease (M) of SARS-CoV-2 plays a crucial role in viral replication, and therefore it serves as an attractive target for COVID-19-specific drug development. Due to the richness and diversity of insect protease inhibitors, we docked SARS-CoV-2 M onto 25 publicly accessible insect-derived protease inhibitors using the ClusPro server, and the regions with high inhibitory potentials against M were used to design peptides. Interactions of these inhibitory peptides with M were further assessed by two directed docking programs, AutoDock and Haddock. AutoDock analysis predicted the highest binding energy (-9.39 kcal/mol) and the lowest inhibition constant (130 nM) for the peptide 1KJ0-7 derived from SGCI (Schistocerca gregaria chymotrypsin inhibitor). On the other hand, Haddock analysis resulted in the discovery of a different peptide designated 2ERW-9 from infestin, a serine protease inhibitor of Triatoma infestans, with the best docking score (-131), binding energy (-11.7 kcal/mol), and dissociation constant (2.6E-09 M) for M. Furthermore, using molecular dynamic simulations, 1KJ0-7 and 2ERW-9 were demonstrated to form stable complexes with M. The peptides also showed suitable drug-likeness properties compared to commercially available drugs based on Lipinski's rule. Our findings present two peptides with possible protease inhibitor activities against M and further demonstrate the potential of insect-derived peptides and computer-aided methods for drug discovery.
Topics: Animals; COVID-19; Coronavirus 3C Proteases; Humans; Insecta; Molecular Docking Simulation; Molecular Dynamics Simulation; Protease Inhibitors; SARS-CoV-2
PubMed: 35051855
DOI: 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2022.105228 -
Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Nov 2020The main objective of the current study was the extraction, purification, and biochemical characterization of a protein protease inhibitor from . Antimicrobial potential...
The main objective of the current study was the extraction, purification, and biochemical characterization of a protein protease inhibitor from . Antimicrobial potential and cytotoxic effects were also examined. The protease inhibitor was extracted in 0.1 M phosphate buffer (pH 6-7). Then, the protease inhibitor, named PDInhibitor, was purified using ammonium sulfate precipitation followed by filtration through a Sephadex G-50 column and had an apparent molecular weight of 25 kDa. The N-terminal sequence of PDInhibitor showed a high level of identity with those of the Kunitz family. PDInhibitor was found to be active at pH values ranging from 5.0 to 11.0, with maximal activity at pH 9.0. It was also fully active at 50 °C and maintained 90% of its stability at over 55 °C. The thermostability of the PDInhibitor was clearly enhanced by CaCl and sorbitol, whereas the presence of Ca and Zn ions, Sodium taurodeoxycholate (NaTDC), Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), Dithiothreitol (DTT), and β-ME dramatically improved the inhibitory activity. A remarkable affinity of the protease inhibitor with available important therapeutic proteases (elastase and trypsin) was observed. PDInhibitor also acted as a potent inhibitor of commercial proteases from and of Proteinase K. The inhibitor displayed potent antimicrobial activity against gram+ and gram- bacteria and against fungal strains. Interestingly, PDInhibitor affected several human cancer cell lines, namely HCT-116, MDA-MB-231, and Lovo. Thus, it can be considered a potentially powerful therapeutic agent.
Topics: Anti-Infective Agents; Antineoplastic Agents; Chromatography, Gel; Conyza; Drug Stability; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; Humans; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; Oxidants; Oxidation-Reduction; Protease Inhibitors; Solvents; Temperature
PubMed: 33233753
DOI: 10.3390/molecules25225452 -
International Journal of Molecular... Apr 2022The action of proteases can be controlled by several mechanisms, including regulation through gene expression; post-translational modifications, such as glycosylation;... (Review)
Review
The action of proteases can be controlled by several mechanisms, including regulation through gene expression; post-translational modifications, such as glycosylation; zymogen activation; targeting specific compartments, such as lysosomes and mitochondria; and blocking proteolysis using endogenous inhibitors. Protease inhibitors are important molecules to be explored for the control of proteolytic processes in organisms because of their ability to act on several proteases. In this context, plants synthesize numerous proteins that contribute to protection against attacks by microorganisms (fungi and bacteria) and/or invertebrates (insects and nematodes) through the inhibition of proteases in these organisms. These proteins are widely distributed in the plant kingdom, and are present in higher concentrations in legume seeds (compared to other organs and other botanical families), motivating studies on their inhibitory effects in various organisms, including humans. In most cases, the biological roles of these proteins have been assigned based mostly on their in vitro action, as is the case with enzyme inhibitors. This review highlights the structural evolution, function, and wide variety of effects of plant Kunitz protease inhibitors, and their potential for pharmaceutical application based on their interactions with different proteases.
Topics: Endopeptidases; Fungi; Humans; Plants; Protease Inhibitors; Serine Proteases
PubMed: 35563133
DOI: 10.3390/ijms23094742