Antimicrobial peptides and proteins in mycobacterial therapy: current status and future prospects.

Tuberculosis (TB), an infectious disease caused by the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), kills about 1.5 million people every year worldwide. An increase in the prevalence of drug-resistant strains of Mtb in the last few decades now necessitates the development of novel drugs that combat infections by both drug-sensitive and resistant Mtb. Moreover, as Mtb can persist in host cells by modulating their immune responses, it is essential that anti-TB agents be able to penetrate macrophages and kill the pathogen intracellularly without harming the host cells. In this context, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and proteins are being harnessed as anti-infective agents for the treatment of various diseases. Due to their direct and rapid bactericidal activity it is unlikely that pathogens acquire resistance against AMPs. Several short and potent AMP derivatives have been prepared by peptide engineering, and several of them are currently evaluated in clinical trials. The present review summarizes the role of endogenously expressed AMPs and proteins in the treatment of tuberculosis infections. In addition, mechanisms of direct anti-mycobacterial activity, manipulation of host immune responses, and future prospects of AMPs as therapeutic agents are discussed.

Mutations in subunit interface and B-cell epitopes improve antileukemic activities of Escherichia coli asparaginase-II: evaluation of immunogenicity in mice.

L-Asparaginase-II from Escherichia coli (EcA) is a central component in the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). However, the therapeutic efficacy of EcA is limited due to immunogenicity and a short half-life in the patient. Here, we performed rational mutagenesis to obtain EcA variants with a potential to improve ALL treatment. Several variants, especially W66Y and Y176F, killed the ALL cells more efficiently than did wild-type EcA (WT-EcA), although nonleukemic peripheral blood monocytes were not affected. Several assays, including Western blotting, annexin-V/propidium iodide binding, comet, and micronuclei assays, showed that the reduction in viability of leukemic cells is due to the increase in caspase-3, cytochrome c release, poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase activation, down-regulation of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-XL, an arrest of the cell cycle at the G0/G1 phase, and eventually apoptosis. Both W66Y and Y176F induced significantly more apoptosis in lymphocytes derived from ALL patients. In addition, Y176F and Y176S exhibited greatly decreased glutaminase activity, whereas K288S/Y176F, a variant mutated in one of the immunodominant epitopes, showed reduced antigenicity. Further in vivo immunogenicity studies in mice showed that K288S/Y176F was 10-fold less immunogenic as compared with WT-EcA. Moreover, sera obtained from WT-EcA immunized mice and ALL patients who were given asparaginase therapy for several weeks recognized the K288S/Y176F mutant significantly less than the WT-EcA. Further mechanistic studies revealed that W66Y, Y176F, and K288S/Y176F rapidly depleted asparagine and also down-regulated the transcription of asparagine synthetase as compared with WT-EcA. These highly desirable attributes of these variants could significantly advance asparaginase therapy of leukemia in the future.