A New Strategy for Mapping Epitopes of LACK and PEPCK Proteins of Leishmania amazonensis Specific for Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I.

Leishmaniasis represents a complex of diseases with a broad clinical spectrum and epidemiological diversity, considered a major public health problem. Although there is treatment, there are still no vaccines for cutaneous leishmaniasis. Because Leishmania spp. is an intracellular protozoan with several escape mechanisms, a vaccine must provoke cellular and humoral immune responses. Previously, we identified the Leishmania homolog of receptors for activated C kinase (LACK) and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) proteins as strong immunogens and candidates for the development of a vaccine strategy. The present work focuses on the in silico prediction and characterization of antigenic epitopes that might interact with mice or human major histocompatibility complex class I. After immunogenicity prediction on the Immune Epitope Database (IEDB) and the Database of MHC Ligands and Peptide Motifs (SYFPEITHI), 26 peptides were selected for interaction assays with infected mouse lymphocytes by flow cytometry and ELISpot. This strategy identified nine antigenic peptides (pL1-H2, pPL3-H2, pL10-HLA, pP13-H2, pP14-H2, pP15-H2, pP16-H2, pP17-H2, pP18-H2, pP26-HLA), which are strong candidates for developing a peptide vaccine against leishmaniasis.

Enantioselective, Noncovalent, Substrate-Directable Heck-Matsuda and Oxidative Heck Arylations of Unactivated Five-Membered Carbocyclic Olefins.

Highly diastereo- and enantioselective, noncovalent, substrate-directable Heck desymmetrizations of cyclopentenyl olefins containing hydroxymethyl and carboxylate functional groups are presented. These conformationally unbiased cyclic olefins underwent effective arylations in yields of up to 97 %, diastereoselectivity up to >20:1, and enantiomeric excesses of up to 99 %. Noncovalent directing effects were shown to be prevalent in both Heck-Matsuda and oxidative Heck reactions, allowing the preferential formation of cis-substituted aryl cyclopentenes containing two stereocenters, including quaternary stereocenters. These results further validate the internal out-of-coordination-sphere ion-dipole interaction concept directing the reaction diastereoselectivity to the cis-Heck product. This approach is complementary to existing methods using bis-phosphine monoxide ligands to give the opposite trans-diastereoisomer. The applicability of the method is showcased by the straightforward synthesis of a potent phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor in a diastereo- and enantioselective manner. The reaction is operationally simple and has broad scope with regard to the nature of the arenediazonium salt and boronic acid employed. The mechanism and origin of stereoselectivity were investigated with control experiments and DFT calculations that fully supported the stabilizing internal out-of-coordination-sphere ion-dipole interaction between the resident functional group and cationic palladium.