Hepatitis associated with micafungin use in a preterm infant.

Micafungin is an echinocandin-class antifungal agent licensed for treatment of invasive disease in adults. The optimal dosing regimens have not been established for infants. We describe a premature infant who developed hepatitis and cholestasis during micafungin therapy initiated for protracted candidemia. Practitioners should be aware of this potential adverse effect if using micafungin in young patients.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of purine-containing butenolides.

6-Chloropurine derivatives of gamma-(Z)-ethylidene-2,3-dimethoxybutenolide 3a, gamma-(Z)-ethylidene-2-methoxy-3-(4-nitro)benzyloxybutenolide 3b, gamma-(Z)-ethylidene-2-(4-nitro)benzyloxy-3-methoxybutenolide 3c, gamma-(Z)-ethylidene-2,3-di(4-nitro)benzyloxybutenolide 3d, and dimethylphosphono-gamma-(Z)-ethylidene-2,3-dimethoxybutenolide 11 as well as the adenine derivative of gamma-(Z)-ethylidene-2,3-dimethoxybutenolide 6 were synthesized. The key steps in the high-yield synthesis of 6 involved hydration/dehydration of the C(4)=C(5) in the precursor 3a. In the presence of NH4OH at elevated temperature, 3a underwent a reverse Michael-type addition with water to produce hydrate 5. At 37 degrees C, 6 was also hydrated in the presence of S-adenosyl-L-homocysteine hydrolase to afford 5. Butenolide 6 exhibited an inhibitory property toward the enzyme. Such type II (enzyme-mediated addition of water across C(4)=C(5)) mechanism is the first example of "enzyme-substrate intermediate" inactivation of S-adenosyl-L-homocysteine hydrolase. In contrast with type I mechanism-based inactivation, reduction of enzyme-bound NADP(+) to NADPH was not observed. Upon treatment with HCl, stereoselective dehydration of 5 occurred to give the target molecule 6. At ambident temperature, 3a was hydrated in the presence of NH4OH or pig liver esterase to produce 6-chloropurine derivative 4. An unambiguous proof of the structures of 3-5 was obtained by X-ray crystallographic analysis. For the synthesis of phosphonate derivative 11, the key step involved chlorination of phosphonate 9 by use of CF3SO2Cl and 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene in CH2Cl2. 6-Chloropurine-containing butenolide 3d, 6-chloropurine derivative of 4-hydroxybutenolide 4, and adenine-containing 4-hydroxybutenolide 5 did not show anticancer and antiviral activities. 6-Chloropurine-containing ethylidene-2,3-dialkoxybutenolides 3a-c and phosphonate 11, however, exhibited inhibitory activity against murine leukemias (L1210 and P388), breast carcinoma (MCF7), and human T-lymphoblasts (Molt4/C8 and CEM/0) cell lines. They were also notably active toward thymidine kinase-deficient varicella-zoster virus (TK(-)VZV). Adenine-containing ethylidene-2,3-dimethoxybutenolide 6 exhibited marked selectivity in cytostatic activity against the murine leukemia (P388) cell line.

Aerotolerance and peroxide resistance in peroxidase and PerR mutants of Streptococcus pyogenes.

Survival in aerobic conditions is critical to the pathogenicity of many bacteria. To investigate the means of aerotolerance and resistance to oxidative stress in the catalase-negative organism Streptococcus pyogenes, we used a genomics-based approach to identify and inactivate homologues of two peroxidase genes, encoding alkyl hydroperoxidase (ahpC) and glutathione peroxidase (gpoA). Single and double mutants survived as well as the wild type under aerobic conditions. However, they were more susceptible than the wild type to growth suppression by paraquat and cumene hydroperoxide. In addition, we show that S. pyogenes demonstrates an inducible peroxide resistance response when treated with sublethal doses of peroxide. This resistance response was intact in ahpC and gpoA mutants but not in mutants lacking PerR, a repressor of several genes including ahpC and catalase (katA) in Bacillus subtilis. Because our data indicate that these peroxidase genes are not essential for aerotolerance or induced resistance to peroxide stress in S. pyogenes, genes for a novel mechanism of managing peroxide stress may be regulated by PerR in streptococci.

Identification of new members of a carbohydrate kinase-encoding gene family.

In a sequence database search using the human glycerol kinase-encoding sequence (HUMGLYKINB) as a query, we identified six previously unidentified carbohydrate kinase sequences. Five of the six newly identified sequences appear to be known types of carbohydrate kinases, four are glycerol kinases and one is a gluconokinase. The sixth newly identified sequence, the Caenorhabditis elegans gene, CER08D7.7-CEF59B2.1, shows similarity to the family of carbohydrate kinases including other glycerol kinases, xylulokinases, gluconokinases, ribulokinases, rhamnulokinases, and fucokinases. A phylogenetic comparison of this newly identified Caenorhabditis elegans gene with the other members of the carbohydrate kinase family demonstrated that this sequence cannot be assigned to one of the known classes of carbohydrate kinases.

Identification of a eukaryotic-like protein kinase gene in Archaebacteria.

Primary sequence patterns based on known conserved sites in eukaryotic protein kinases were used to search for eukaryotic-like protein kinase sequences in a six-frame translation of the bacterial subsection of GenBank. This search identified a previously unrecognized eukaryotic-like protein kinase gene in three related methanogenic archaebacteria, Methanococcus vannielii, M. voltae, and M. thermolithotrophicus. The proposed coding sequences are located in orthologous open reading frames (ORFs): ORF547, ORF294, and ORF114, respectively. The C-terminus of the ORFs contains 9 of the 11 subdomains characteristically conserved within the eukaryotic protein kinase catalytic domain. The N-terminus of the ORFs is similar to a putative glycoprotease in Pasteurella haemolytica and its homologue in Escherichia coli, the orfX gene. This is the first report of a eukaryotic-like protein kinase sequence observed in Archaebacteria.