Re-emerging Aspartic Protease Targets: Examining Cryptococcus neoformans Major Aspartyl Peptidase 1 as a Target for Antifungal Drug Discovery.

Cryptococcosis is an invasive infection that accounts for 15% of AIDS-related fatalities. Still, treating cryptococcosis remains a significant challenge due to the poor availability of effective antifungal therapies and emergence of drug resistance. Interestingly, protease inhibitor components of antiretroviral therapy regimens have shown some clinical benefits in these opportunistic infections. We investigated Major aspartyl peptidase 1 (May1), a secreted Cryptococcus neoformans protease, as a possible target for the development of drugs that act against both fungal and retroviral aspartyl proteases. Here, we describe the biochemical characterization of May1, present its high-resolution X-ray structure, and provide its substrate specificity analysis. Through combinatorial screening of 11,520 compounds, we identified a potent inhibitor of May1 and HIV protease. This dual-specificity inhibitor exhibits antifungal activity in yeast culture, low cytotoxicity, and low off-target activity against host proteases and could thus serve as a lead compound for further development of May1 and HIV protease inhibitors.

Inhibition of the precursor and mature forms of HIV-1 protease as a tool for drug evaluation.

HIV-1 protease (PR) is a homodimeric enzyme that is autocatalytically cleaved from the Gag-Pol precursor. Known PR inhibitors bind the mature enzyme several orders of magnitude more strongly than the PR precursor. Inhibition of PR at the precursor level, however, may stop the process at its rate-limiting step before the proteolytic cascade is initiated. Due to its structural heterogeneity, limited solubility and autoprocessing, the PR precursor is difficult to access by classical methods, and limited knowledge regarding precursor inhibition is available. Here, we describe a cell-based assay addressing precursor inhibition. We used a reporter molecule containing the transframe (TFP) and p6* peptides, PR, and N-terminal fragment of reverse transcriptase flanked by the fluorescent proteins mCherry and EGFP on its N- and C- termini, respectively. The level of FRET between EGFP and mCherry indicates the amount of unprocessed reporter, allowing specific monitoring of precursor inhibition. The inhibition can be quantified by flow cytometry. Additionally, two microscopy techniques confirmed that the reporter remains unprocessed within individual cells upon inhibition. We tested darunavir, atazanavir and nelfinavir and their combinations against wild-type PR. Shedding light on an inhibitor's ability to act on non-mature forms of PR may aid novel strategies for next-generation drug design.

Human DNA-Damage-Inducible 2 Protein Is Structurally and Functionally Distinct from Its Yeast Ortholog.

Although Ddi1-like proteins are conserved among eukaryotes, their biological functions remain poorly characterized. Yeast Ddi1 has been implicated in cell cycle regulation, DNA-damage response, and exocytosis. By virtue of its ubiquitin-like (UBL) and ubiquitin-associated (UBA) domains, it has been proposed to serve as a proteasomal shuttle factor. All Ddi1-like family members also contain a highly conserved retroviral protease-like (RVP) domain with unknown substrate specificity. While the structure and biological function of yeast Ddi1 have been investigated, no such analysis is available for the human homologs. To address this, we solved the 3D structures of the human Ddi2 UBL and RVP domains and identified a new helical domain that extends on either side of the RVP dimer. While Ddi1-like proteins from all vertebrates lack a UBA domain, we identify a novel ubiquitin-interacting motif (UIM) located at the C-terminus of the protein. The UIM showed a weak yet specific affinity towards ubiquitin, as did the Ddi2 UBL domain. However, the full-length Ddi2 protein is unable to bind to di-ubiquitin chains. While proteomic analysis revealed no activity, implying that the protease requires other factors for activation, our structural characterization of all domains of human Ddi2 sets the stage for further characterization.

Design of highly potent urea-based, exosite-binding inhibitors selective for glutamate carboxypeptidase II.

We present here a structure-aided design of inhibitors targeting the active site as well as exosites of glutamate carboxypeptidase II (GCPII), a prostate cancer marker, preparing potent and selective inhibitors that are more than 1000-fold more active toward GCPII than its closest human homologue, glutamate carboxypeptidase III (GCPIII). Additionally, we demonstrate that the prepared inhibitor conjugate can be used for sensitive and selective imaging of GCPII in mammalian cells.

[Optimization of technological processes for the preparation of tablets with a low content of warfarin by direct compression]. / Optimalizace technologických postupu pro prípravu tablet s nízkým obsahem warfarinu metodou prímého lisování

Warfarin is a rug with an arrow therapeutic index. It is commercially available in the form of tablets with immediate release from many generic manufacturers. Though attempts are being made to replace it with new drugs, in the U.S.A.it is still the antithrombotic agent of the first choice. In the past there were cases when after replacement of the original brand preparation with the generic one, the patient suffered from complications such as the loss of control of anticoagulation and increased frequency of patients visits to the physician. One of the critical parameters of tablets containing an active substance with an arrow therapeutic index (NTI) is content uniformity, which must comply with the pharmacopoeial requirements as well as the strict criteria of regulatory authorities in the validation of the manufacture of the solid dosage form. Content uniformity is affected by a number of factors such as density, particle shape and size distribution, electrostatic charge, and concentration of the individual components. Of the technological parameters, it is mainly the intensity and length of mixing, shape of the mixing vessel and the mixer, the size of the charge, or the degree of filling of the mixing device, etc. This paper deals with the influence of the mixing time and concentration of the drug on the content uniformity of warfarin-containing tablets. In mixing the mixtures of solid substances, where the active substance is included in alow concentration, there occurs the so-called mixing-out and segregation of the active substance. For this reason it is necessary to optimize the period of mixing. This study managed to optimize the mixing time of mixtures prepared with the use of the patented technology of the Veterinary and Pharmaceutical University Brno and further to prepare tablets with varying content of warfarin (2-10 mg) from acommon blend, which fulfil the pharmacopoeial requirements as well as the requirements of regulatory authorities for content uniformity.

Structural and biochemical characterization of the folyl-poly-γ-l-glutamate hydrolyzing activity of human glutamate carboxypeptidase II.

In addition to its well-characterized role in the central nervous system, human glutamate carboxypeptidase II (GCPII; Uniprot ID Q04609) acts as a folate hydrolase in the small intestine, participating in the absorption of dietary polyglutamylated folates (folyl-n-γ-l-glutamic acid), which are the provitamin form of folic acid (also known as vitamin B9 ). Despite the role of GCPII as a folate hydrolase, nothing is known about the processing of polyglutamylated folates by GCPII at the structural or enzymological level. Moreover, many epidemiologic studies on the relationship of the naturally occurring His475Tyr polymorphism to folic acid status suggest that this polymorphism may be associated with several pathologies linked to impaired folate metabolism. In the present study, we report: (a) a series X-ray structures of complexes between a catalytically inactive GCPII mutant (Glu424Ala) and a panel of naturally occurring polyglutamylated folates; (b) the X-ray structure of the His475Tyr variant at a resolution of 1.83 Å; (c) the study of the recently identified arene-binding site of GCPII through mutagenesis (Arg463Leu, Arg511Leu and Trp541Ala), inhibitor binding and enzyme kinetics with polyglutamylated folates as substrates; and (d) a comparison of the thermal stabilities and folate-hydrolyzing activities of GCPII wild-type and His475Tyr variants. As a result, the crystallographic data reveal considerable details about the binding mode of polyglutamylated folates to GCPII, especially the engagement of the arene binding site in recognizing the folic acid moiety. Additionally, the combined structural and kinetic data suggest that GCPII wild-type and His475Tyr variant are functionally identical.

A high-resolution structure of ligand-free human glutamate carboxypeptidase II.

Human glutamate carboxypeptidase II (GCPII; EC 3.4.17.21) is an established marker for prostate-cancer diagnosis as well as a candidate therapeutic target for the treatment of diverse pathologies that involve glutamatergic transmission. Structural data on GCPII are thus valuable for the design and optimization of GCPII-specific inhibitors and diagnostic probes. The currently available structure of ligand-free GCPII was refined to a resolution of 3.5 A. This work reports the structure of the protein refined to 1.65 A resolution, with crystallographic values of R = 0.207 and R(free) = 0.228. The new structure extends the resolution appreciably and the new model based on this data shows significant differences when compared with the previously published model.