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Qiao D, Zhao Y, Pei C, Zhao X, Jiang X, Zhu L, Zhang J, Li L, Kong X. Genome-wide identification, evolutionary analysis, and antimicrobial activity prediction of CC chemokines in allotetraploid common carp, Cyprinus carpio. FISH & SHELLFISH IMMUNOLOGY 2022; 130:114-131. [PMID: 36084887 DOI: 10.1016/j.fsi.2022.09.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2022] [Revised: 08/29/2022] [Accepted: 09/01/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Chemokines are a group of secreted small molecules which are essential for cell migration in physiological and pathological conditions by binding to specific chemokine receptors. They are structurally classified into five groups, namely CXC, CC, CX3C, XC and CX. CC chemokine group is the largest one among them. In this study, we identified and characterized 61 CC chemokines from allotetraploid common carp (Cyprinus carpio). The sequence analyses showed that the majority of CC chemokines had an N-terminal signal peptide, and an SCY domain, and all CC chemokines were located in the extracellular region. Phylogenetic, evolutionary and syntenic analyses confirmed that CC chemokines were annotated as 11 different types (CCL19, CCL20, CCL25, CCL27, CCL32, CCL33, CCL34, CCL35, CCL36, CCL39, and CCL44), which exhibited unique gene arrangement pattern and chromosomal location respectively. Furthermore, genome synteny analyses between common carp and four representative teleost species indicated expansion of common carp CC chemokines resulted from the whole genome duplication (WGD) event. Additionally, the continuous evolution of gene CCL25s in teleost afforded a novel viewpoint to explain the WGD event in teleost. Then, we predicted the three-dimensional structures and probable function regions of common carp CC chemokines. All the CC chemokines core structures were constituted of an N-loop, a three-stranded β-sheet, and a C-terminal helix. Finally, 43 CC chemokines were predicted to have probable general antimicrobial activity. Their tertiary structures, cationic and amphiphilic physicochemical property supported the viewpoint. To verify the prediction, six recombinant CCL19s proteins were prepared and the antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Aeromonas hydrophila were verified. The results supported our prediction that rCCL19a.1s (rCCL19a.1_a, rCCL19a.1_b) and rCCL19bs (rCCL19b_a, rCCL19b_b), especially rCCL19bs, exhibited extremely significant inhibition to the growth of both E. coli and A. hydrophila. On the contrary, two rCCL19a.2s had no significant inhibitory effect. These studies suggested that CC chemokines were essential in immune system evolution and not monofunctional during pathogen infection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dan Qiao
- Engineering Lab of Henan Province for Aquatic Animal Disease Control, College of Fisheries, Henan Normal University, Henan province, PR China
| | - Yanjing Zhao
- Engineering Lab of Henan Province for Aquatic Animal Disease Control, College of Fisheries, Henan Normal University, Henan province, PR China
| | - Chao Pei
- Engineering Lab of Henan Province for Aquatic Animal Disease Control, College of Fisheries, Henan Normal University, Henan province, PR China
| | - Xianliang Zhao
- Engineering Lab of Henan Province for Aquatic Animal Disease Control, College of Fisheries, Henan Normal University, Henan province, PR China
| | - Xinyu Jiang
- Engineering Lab of Henan Province for Aquatic Animal Disease Control, College of Fisheries, Henan Normal University, Henan province, PR China
| | - Lei Zhu
- Engineering Lab of Henan Province for Aquatic Animal Disease Control, College of Fisheries, Henan Normal University, Henan province, PR China
| | - Jie Zhang
- Engineering Lab of Henan Province for Aquatic Animal Disease Control, College of Fisheries, Henan Normal University, Henan province, PR China
| | - Li Li
- Engineering Lab of Henan Province for Aquatic Animal Disease Control, College of Fisheries, Henan Normal University, Henan province, PR China
| | - Xianghui Kong
- Engineering Lab of Henan Province for Aquatic Animal Disease Control, College of Fisheries, Henan Normal University, Henan province, PR China.
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Ferruz N, Schmidt S, Höcker B. ProtGPT2 is a deep unsupervised language model for protein design. Nat Commun 2022; 13:4348. [PMID: 35896542 PMCID: PMC9329459 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32007-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 125] [Impact Index Per Article: 62.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2022] [Accepted: 07/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Protein design aims to build novel proteins customized for specific purposes, thereby holding the potential to tackle many environmental and biomedical problems. Recent progress in Transformer-based architectures has enabled the implementation of language models capable of generating text with human-like capabilities. Here, motivated by this success, we describe ProtGPT2, a language model trained on the protein space that generates de novo protein sequences following the principles of natural ones. The generated proteins display natural amino acid propensities, while disorder predictions indicate that 88% of ProtGPT2-generated proteins are globular, in line with natural sequences. Sensitive sequence searches in protein databases show that ProtGPT2 sequences are distantly related to natural ones, and similarity networks further demonstrate that ProtGPT2 is sampling unexplored regions of protein space. AlphaFold prediction of ProtGPT2-sequences yields well-folded non-idealized structures with embodiments and large loops and reveals topologies not captured in current structure databases. ProtGPT2 generates sequences in a matter of seconds and is freely available.
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Affiliation(s)
- Noelia Ferruz
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany.
- Institute of Informatics and Applications, University of Girona, Girona, Spain.
| | - Steffen Schmidt
- Computational Biochemistry, University of Bayreuth, 95447, Bayreuth, Germany
| | - Birte Höcker
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
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Yari A, Heidari F, Veijouye SJ, Nobakht M. Hair follicle stem cells promote cutaneous wound healing through the SDF-1α/CXCR4 axis: an animal model. J Wound Care 2021; 29:526-536. [PMID: 32924817 DOI: 10.12968/jowc.2020.29.9.526] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE An appropriate source of adult stem cells for therapeutic use is stem cells deriving from the hair follicle bulge. Following injury, ischaemic tissues produce a variety of cytokines and growth factors that are essential for tissue repair. This study sought to investigate the temporal effects of hair follicle bulge stem cells (HFSCs) on cutaneous wound healing in rats using the SDF-1α/CXCR4 axis. METHOD HFSCs obtained from rat vibrissa, labeled with DiI and then special markers, were detected using flow cytometry. The animals were divided into five groups: control (non-treated, n=18), sham (PBS, n=18), AMD (treated with AMD3100, n=18), HFSC + AMD (treated with HFSCs + AMD3100, n=18) and HFSC (treated with HFSCs, n=18). A full-thickness excisional wound model was created and DiI-labeled HFSCs were injected around the wound bed. Wound healing was recorded with digital photographs. The animals were sacrificed 3, 7 and 14 days after the surgery and were used for histological (H&E, Masson's trichrome staining) and molecular (ELISA and q-PCR) assays. RESULTS The flow cytometry results demonstrated that HFSCs were CD34-positive, nestin-positive, but Kr15-negative. The morphological analysis of the HFSC-treated wounds showed accelerated wound closure. The histological analysis of the photomicrographs exhibited more re-epithelialisation and dermal structural regeneration in the HFSC-treated wounds compared with the control group. In the HFSC + AMD group, the histological parameters improved on the same days, but showed a significant decrease compared with the HFSC group in all the days assayed. In the AMD group, there was a significant reduction in the noted parameters. qRT-PCR and ELISA showed a high expression level of SDF-1α, CXCR4 and VEGFR-2 in the HFSC-treated wounded skin tissue, but the expression of CXCR4 and VEGFR-2 showed a significant reduction in the HFSC + AMD group compared with the HFSC group. CONCLUSIONS Based on the findings of this study, HFSC transplantation affects wound closure parameters and the expression of SDF-1α and CXCR4. As the SDF-1α expression level increases in the injured area, the HFSCs contribute to wound repair through the SDF-1α/CXCR4 axis. This result is extremely valuable because it raises the possibility of wounds healed by isolating autologous HFSCs from the patient.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abazar Yari
- Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Karaj, Iran.,Dietary Supplements and Probiotics Research Center, Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Karaj, Iran
| | - Fatemeh Heidari
- Cellular and Molecular Research Center, Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom, Iran
| | - Sanaz Joulai Veijouye
- Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Maliheh Nobakht
- Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.,Antimicrobial Resistance Research Center, Institute of Immunology and Infectious Infectious Diseases, Iran.,Physiology Research Center, Iran, University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
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Kleynhans J, Kruger HG, Cloete T, Zeevaart JR, Ebenhan T. In Silico Modelling in the Development of Novel Radiolabelled Peptide Probes. Curr Med Chem 2020; 27:7048-7063. [DOI: 10.2174/0929867327666200504082256] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2019] [Revised: 01/28/2020] [Accepted: 02/19/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
This review describes the usefulness of in silico design approaches in the design of
new radiopharmaceuticals, especially peptide-based radiotracers (including peptidomimetics).
Although not part of the standard arsenal utilized during radiopharmaceutical design, the use
of in silico strategies is steadily increasing in the field of radiochemistry as it contributes to a
more rational and scientific approach. The development of new peptide-based radiopharmaceuticals
as well as a short introduction to suitable computational approaches are provided in
this review. The first section comprises a concise overview of the three most useful computeraided
drug design strategies used, namely i) a Ligand-based Approach (LBDD) using pharmacophore
modelling, ii) a Structure-based Design Approach (SBDD) using molecular docking
strategies and iii) Absorption-Distribution-Metabolism-Excretion-Toxicity (ADMET)
predictions. The second section summarizes the challenges connected to these computer-aided
techniques and discusses successful applications of in silico radiopharmaceutical design in
peptide-based radiopharmaceutical development, thereby improving the clinical procedure in
Nuclear Medicine. Finally, the advances and future potential of in silico modelling as a design
strategy is highlighted.
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Affiliation(s)
- Janke Kleynhans
- Nuclear Medicine Research Infrastructure (NuMeRI) NPC, Pelindaba 0420, South Africa
| | | | - Theunis Cloete
- Center of Excellence for Pharmaceutical Sciences, North-West University, Potchefstroom 2520, South Africa
| | - Jan Rijn Zeevaart
- Nuclear Medicine Research Infrastructure (NuMeRI) NPC, Pelindaba 0420, South Africa
| | - Thomas Ebenhan
- Nuclear Medicine Research Infrastructure (NuMeRI) NPC, Pelindaba 0420, South Africa
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Wedemeyer MJ, Mahn SA, Getschman AE, Crawford KS, Peterson FC, Marchese A, McCorvy JD, Volkman BF. The chemokine X-factor: Structure-function analysis of the CXC motif at CXCR4 and ACKR3. J Biol Chem 2020; 295:13927-13939. [PMID: 32788219 DOI: 10.1074/jbc.ra120.014244] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2020] [Revised: 07/31/2020] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
The human chemokine family consists of 46 protein ligands that induce chemotactic cell migration by activating a family of 23 G protein-coupled receptors. The two major chemokine subfamilies, CC and CXC, bind distinct receptor subsets. A sequence motif defining these families, the X position in the CXC motif, is not predicted to make significant contacts with the receptor, but instead links structural elements associated with binding and activation. Here, we use comparative analysis of chemokine NMR structures, structural modeling, and molecular dynamic simulations that suggested the X position reorients the chemokine N terminus. Using CXCL12 as a model CXC chemokine, deletion of the X residue (Pro-10) had little to no impact on the folded chemokine structure but diminished CXCR4 agonist activity as measured by ERK phosphorylation, chemotaxis, and Gi/o-mediated cAMP inhibition. Functional impairment was attributed to over 100-fold loss of CXCR4 binding affinity. Binding to the other CXCL12 receptor, ACKR3, was diminished nearly 500-fold. Deletion of Pro-10 had little effect on CXCL12 binding to the CXCR4 N terminus, a major component of the chemokine-GPCR interface. Replacement of the X residue with the most frequent amino acid at this position (P10Q) had an intermediate effect between WT and P10del in each assay, with ACKR3 having a higher tolerance for this mutation. This work shows that the X residue helps to position the CXCL12 N terminus for optimal docking into the orthosteric pocket of CXCR4 and suggests that the CC/CXC motif contributes directly to receptor selectivity by orienting the chemokine N terminus in a subfamily-specific direction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael J Wedemeyer
- Department of Biochemistry, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Sarah A Mahn
- Department of Biochemistry, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Anthony E Getschman
- Department of Biochemistry, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Kyler S Crawford
- Department of Biochemistry, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Francis C Peterson
- Department of Biochemistry, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Adriano Marchese
- Department of Biochemistry, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
| | - John D McCorvy
- Department of Cell Biology, Neurobiology, and Anatomy, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Brian F Volkman
- Department of Biochemistry, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.
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Wedemeyer MJ, Mueller BK, Bender BJ, Meiler J, Volkman BF. Comparative modeling and docking of chemokine-receptor interactions with Rosetta. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 2020; 528:389-397. [PMID: 31924303 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2019.12.076] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2019] [Accepted: 12/16/2019] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Chemokine receptors are a subset of G protein-coupled receptors defined by the distinct property of binding small protein ligands in the chemokine family. Chemokine receptors recognize their ligands by a mechanism that is distinct from other class A GPCRs that bind peptides or small molecules. For this reason, structural information on other ligand-GPCR interactions are only indirectly relevant to understanding the chemokine receptor interface. Additionally, the experimentally determined structures of chemokine-GPCR complexes represent less than 3% of the known interactions of this complex, multi-ligand/multi-receptor network. To enable predictive modeling of the remaining 97% of interactions, a general in silico protocol was designed to utilize existing chemokine receptor crystal structures, co-crystal structures, and NMR ensembles of chemokines bound to receptor fragments. This protocol was benchmarked on the ability to predict each of the three published co-crystal structures, while being blinded to the target structure. Averaging ensembles selected from the top-ranking models reproduced up to 84% of the intermolecular contacts found in the crystal structure, with the lowest Cα-RMSD of the complex at 3.3 Å. The chemokine receptor N-terminus, unresolved in crystal structures, was included in the modeling and recapitulates contacts with known sulfotyrosine binding pockets seen in structures derived from experimental NMR data. This benchmarking experiment suggests that realistic homology models of chemokine-GPCR complexes can be generated by leveraging current structural data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael J Wedemeyer
- Department of Biochemistry, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, United States
| | - Benjamin K Mueller
- Department of Chemistry and Center for Structural Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States
| | - Brian J Bender
- Department of Pharmacology and Center for Structural Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States
| | - Jens Meiler
- Department of Chemistry and Center for Structural Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States; Institute for Drug Discovery, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Brian F Volkman
- Department of Biochemistry, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, United States.
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