Identification and characterization of novel somatostatin antagonists.

The study of the five somatostatin receptor subtypes (SSTx, where x is the subtype number) has been hampered by the lack of high affinity antagonists. Potent and selective antagonists would increase our understanding of SST structure, function, and regulation. In this study, the identification of novel disulfide-linked cyclic octapeptide antagonists of somatostatin is described. The antagonists contain a core structure of a DL-cysteine pair at positions 2 and 7 of the peptides. Substitution of a D-cysteine at position 2 with an L-cysteine converts the full antagonist into a full agonist. All somatostatin receptor subtypes are coupled to inhibition of adenylate cyclase. The functional properties of these peptides have been determined in radioligand binding assays, in functional coupling of the SST2 subtype to yeast pheromone response pathway, and in cAMP accumulations. One peptide antagonist [Ac-4-NO2-Phe-c(D-Cys-Tyr-D-Trp-Lys-Thr-Cys)-D-Tyr-NH2] displays a binding affinity to SST2 comparable with that observed for the native hormone (Ki = 0.2 nM) and reverses somatostatin-mediated inhibition of cAMP accumulation in rat somatomammotroph GH4C1 cells, cells transfected with the SST2 and SST5 subtypes, as well as somatostatin-stimulated growth of yeast cells expressing the SST2 subtype. This class of somatostatin antagonists, which are the first to be described, should be useful for determination of somatostatin's diverse functions in vivo and in vitro.

Periodicity of polar and nonpolar amino acids is the major determinant of secondary structure in self-assembling oligomeric peptides.

The tendency of a polypeptide chain to form alpha-helical or beta-strand secondary structure depends upon local and nonlocal effects. Local effects reflect the intrinsic propensities of the amino acid residues for particular secondary structures, while nonlocal effects reflect the positioning of the individual residues in the context of the entire amino acid sequence. In particular, the periodicity of polar and nonpolar residues specifies whether a given sequence is consistent with amphiphilic alpha-helices or beta-strands. The importance of intrinsic propensities was compared to that of polar/nonpolar periodicity by a direct competition. Synthetic peptides were designed using residues with intrinsic propensities that favored one or the other type of secondary structure. The polar/nonpolar periodicities of the peptides were designed either to be consistent with the secondary structure favored by the intrinsic propensities of the component residues or in other cases to oppose these intrinsic propensities. Characterization of the synthetic peptides demonstrated that in all cases the observed secondary structure correlates with the periodicity of the peptide sequence--even when this secondary structure differs from that predicted from the intrinsic propensities of the component amino acids. The observed secondary structures are concentration dependent, indicating that oligomerization of the amphiphilic peptides is responsible for the observed secondary structures. Thus, for self-assembling oligomeric peptides, the polar/nonpolar periodicity can overwhelm the intrinsic propensities of the amino acid residues and serves as the major determinant of peptide secondary structure.

Epitope mapping and analysis of a growth-enhancing monoclonal antibody by limited tryptic digestion of porcine GH.

In this study, the epitope of a murine PS-7.6 monoclonal antibody (mAb) which was raised against the recombinant porcine GH (pGH) and subsequently shown to enhance the growth-promoting activity of pGH in a hypophysectomized rat model, was mapped by the limited tryptic digestion of pGH. A pGH fragment corresponding to amino acid residues 70-95 was separated by reverse-phase HPLC and also immunoprecipitated by PS-7.6 mAb. This fragment was found in an RIA to compete with radiolabelled pGH for the binding of PS-7.6 mAb in a dose-dependent fashion. Several peptides covering this potential epitope region of pGH(70-95) were synthesized and assayed by competitive RIA. The results suggested that pGH(75-90) was the optimal sequence recognized by PS-7.6 mAb. Sequential alanine substitution of each residue of pGH(75-90) revealed that the side chains of Leu76, Ile83 and Leu87 were critical for binding to PS-7.6 mAb. Other residues could be replaced by alanine without substantially altering the binding affinity. The region of amino acids 75-95 comprises the C-terminal end of the second helix of pGH and the repeating pattern of i and i + 3 (i + 7) of the critical amino acids appears consistent with PS-7.6 mAb binding to the hydrophobic side of the helix. The sequence and the helical structure of the epitope of PS-7.6 mAb provide the basis for designing the effective peptide vaccines to enhance the growth performance of animals.

"Glycylcyclines". 3. 9-Aminodoxycyclinecarboxamides.

A series of 9-(acylamino)doxycycline derivatives has been prepared. These analogs exhibit good activity against both tetracycline sensitive and tetracycline resistant Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram-negative (Escherichia coli) bacteria that are encoded with the efflux and ribosomal resistance gene factors. N,N-Dialkylglycylamido derivatives possessed the highest activity. Replacement of glycine moiety with other amino acids did not further enhance the activity.

Vanilloids. 1. Analogs of capsaicin with antinociceptive and antiinflammatory activity.

As part of a program to establish structure-activity relationships for vanilloids, analogs of the pungent principle capsaicin, the alkyl chain portion of the parent structure (and related compounds derived from homovanillic acid) was varied. In antinociceptive and antiinflammatory assays (rat and mouse hot plate and croton oil-inflamed mouse ear), compounds with widely varying alkyl chain structures were active. Short-chain compounds were active by systemic administration in the assays mentioned above but they retained the high pungency and acute toxicity characteristic of capsaicin. In contrast, the long chain cis-unsaturates, NE-19550 (vanillyloleamide) and NE-28345 (oleylhomovanillamide), were orally active, less pungent, and less acutely toxic than capsaicin. The potential of these compounds as antiinflammatory/analgesic agents is discussed in light of recent data on the mechanism of action of vanilloids on sensory nerve fibers.