Advances in effectively screening anti-tumor peptides / 药学学报

Malignant tumor is a disease that severely threaten human health. Common chemotherapeutical drugs currently used in clinical practice have some problems in severe side effects and chemoresistance. In contrast, natural venom peptides and artificially designed targeting peptides have excellent biological activities and potential druggability due to their small molecular weights and high affinity to tumor tissues. Thus, the methods for the discovery of anti-tumor peptides have attracted much attention. In this paper, we summarized the types of anti-tumor peptides from recent literatures. Then, we systematically reviewed screening theories, methods and applications based on traditional chromatographic separation, peptidomics, phage display, phenotypic screening, and artificial intelligence. These strategies and technologies will provide a methodological reference for accelerating anti-tumor peptides research.

Discovery and analysis of Staphylococcus aureus biofilm inhibitors using functional metagenomics approach / 生物工程学报

Although most microbes are not readily cultured in the lab, microbial DNA can be extracted directly from an environmental sample and be functionally expressed in a suitable host for natural products discovery, and this approach has been termed "metagenomics". An E'mei Mountain soil metagenomic library was constructed using an Escherichia coli-Streptomyces shuttle vector for functional based screening of anti-bacterial clones in Streptomyces albus host. Two active clones were obtained and their fermentation broths were studied for the inhibitory effect on Staphylococcus aureus biofilm. Their fermentation products have a good inhibitory effect on the formation of S. aureus biofilm, and the inhibitory effect could exceed 90% when the concentration of sample was 2 MIC (Minimum Inhibitory Concentration). In addition, two samples had significantly effect on S. aureus biofilm dispersal, and the clearance rate of EM110 was higher than EM123. In conclusion, substances with strong bioactivities on biofilm formation and dispersal of S. aureus could be discovered by using metagenomics technology.

Efficient induction of gefitinib-resistant cell line HCC827 GR and its pharmacological properties / 中国药理学通报

Aim To establish a gefitinib-resistant NSCLC cell line, and observe its pharmacological properties. Methods HCC827 cells were treated with hepatocyte growth factor( HGF) and increasing concen-tration of gefitinib to induce cell resistance. MTT assay was used to test cell viability and chemosensitivity. Clone formation and Edu staining were used to verify the inhibitory effect of gefitinib on cell growth. qRT-PCR and Western blot were used to assay the expres-sion of c-Met. Results The use of HGF greatly short-ened the induction time of HCC827GR resistant cells. gefitinib could significantly suppress cell viability, col-ony formation and cell proliferation of HCC827 , but had a weaker inhibitory effect on HCC827GR cells. HCC827GR overexpressed c-Met protein, and was highly sensitive to c-Met inhibitors. Conclusion The gefitinib-resistant HCC827 GR cells were induced suc-cessfully and efficiently. The growth of HCC827GR is dependent on the activity of c-Met protein, and it can be used as a phenotypic screening model of c-Met in-hibitors.