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Yu Z, Tang H, Cong W, Gao F, Li H, Hu H, Wang X, He S. Hydrocarbon stapling modification of peptide alyteserin-2a: Discovery of novel stapled peptide antitumor agents. J Pept Sci 2022; 28:e3401. [PMID: 34989078 DOI: 10.1002/psc.3401] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2021] [Revised: 11/24/2021] [Accepted: 12/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
Alyteserin-2a (ILGKLLSTAAGLLSNL.NH2 ) is isolated from the skin exudates of midwife toad and has a wide range of biological applications. However, the use of alyteserin-2a as an antitumor agent is limited due to its structural flexibility. In this study, a series of stapled peptides were prepared through hydrocarbon stapling modification without destroying the key residues, and their chemical and biological properties were further evaluated for enhancing the application potential of alyteserin-2a in the field of antitumor drugs development. Among them, alyteserin-2a-Sp3 displayed significant improvement in helicity levels, protease resistance, and antitumor activity compared to that of the template peptide alyteserin-2a, indicating that alyteserin-2a-Sp3 had a potential to become a lead compound for the development of novel antitumor drugs. This study confirms the important effect of hydrocarbon stapling strategy on the secondary structure, hydrolase stability and biological activity of alyteserin-2a.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ziqiang Yu
- College of Sciences, Shanghai University, China
| | - Hua Tang
- Institute of Translational Medicine, Shanghai University, China
| | - Wei Cong
- Institute of Translational Medicine, Shanghai University, China
| | - Fei Gao
- Institute of Translational Medicine, Shanghai University, China
| | - Huaqiang Li
- Institute of Translational Medicine, Shanghai University, China
| | - Honggang Hu
- Institute of Translational Medicine, Shanghai University, China
| | - Xiaoyan Wang
- Chongqing Health Center for Women and Children, Chongqing, China
| | - Shipeng He
- Institute of Translational Medicine, Shanghai University, China
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Cuesta SA, Reinoso C, Morales F, Pilaquinga F, Morán-Marcillo G, Proaño-Bolaños C, Blasco-Zúñiga A, Rivera M, Meneses L. Novel antimicrobial cruzioseptin peptides extracted from the splendid leaf frog, Cruziohyla calcarifer. Amino Acids 2021; 53:853-868. [PMID: 33942149 DOI: 10.1007/s00726-021-02986-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2020] [Accepted: 04/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) constitute part of a broad range of bioactive compounds present on diverse organisms, including frogs. Peptides, produced in the granular glands of amphibian skin, constitute a component of their innate immune response, providing protection against pathogenic microorganisms. In this work, two novel cruzioseptins peptides, cruzioseptin-16 and -17, extracted from the splendid leaf frog Cruziohyla calcarifer are presented. These peptides were identified using molecular cloning and tandem mass spectrometry. Later, peptides were synthetized using solid-phase peptide synthesis, and their minimal inhibitory concentration and haemolytic activity were tested. Furthermore, these two cruzioseptins plus three previously reported (CZS-1, CZS-2, CZS-3) were computationally characterized. Results show that cruzioseptins are 21-23 residues long alpha helical cationic peptides, with antimicrobial activity against E. coli, S. aureus, and C. albicans and low haemolytic effect. Docking results agree with the principal action mechanism of cationic AMPs that goes through cell membrane disruption due to electrostatic interactions between cationic residues in the cruzioseptins and negative phosphate groups in the pathogen cell membrane. An action mechanism through enzymes inhibition was also tried, but no conclusive results about this mechanism were obtained.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sebastian A Cuesta
- Laboratorio de Química Computacional, Escuela de Ciencias Químicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Av. 12 de octubre 1076 Apartado: 17-01-2184, Quito, Ecuador
| | - Camila Reinoso
- Laboratorio de Química Computacional, Escuela de Ciencias Químicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Av. 12 de octubre 1076 Apartado: 17-01-2184, Quito, Ecuador
| | - Felipe Morales
- Laboratorio de Química Computacional, Escuela de Ciencias Químicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Av. 12 de octubre 1076 Apartado: 17-01-2184, Quito, Ecuador
| | - Fernanda Pilaquinga
- Laboratorio de Química Computacional, Escuela de Ciencias Químicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Av. 12 de octubre 1076 Apartado: 17-01-2184, Quito, Ecuador
| | - Giovanna Morán-Marcillo
- Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Biomolecules Discovery Group, Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam, Km 7 ½ vía Muyuna, 150150, Tena, Ecuador
| | - Carolina Proaño-Bolaños
- Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Biomolecules Discovery Group, Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam, Km 7 ½ vía Muyuna, 150150, Tena, Ecuador
- Natural Drug Discovery Group, School of Pharmacy, Queen's University Belfast, 97 Lisburn Road, BT9 7BL, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
| | - Ailín Blasco-Zúñiga
- Laboratorio de Investigación en Citogenética y Biomoléculas de Anfibios (LICBA), Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Centro de Investigación para la Salud en América Latina-CISeAL, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Av. 12 de octubre 1076 Apartado: 17-01-2184, Quito, Ecuador
- Dirección Nacional de Biodiversidad, Ministerio del Ambiente del Ecuador, Madrid 1159 y Andalucía, Quito, Ecuador
| | - Miryan Rivera
- Laboratorio de Investigación en Citogenética y Biomoléculas de Anfibios (LICBA), Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Centro de Investigación para la Salud en América Latina-CISeAL, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Av. 12 de octubre 1076 Apartado: 17-01-2184, Quito, Ecuador
| | - Lorena Meneses
- Laboratorio de Química Computacional, Escuela de Ciencias Químicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Av. 12 de octubre 1076 Apartado: 17-01-2184, Quito, Ecuador.
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Rončević T, Gerdol M, Spazzali F, Florian F, Mekinić S, Tossi A, Pallavicini A. Parallel identification of novel antimicrobial peptide sequences from multiple anuran species by targeted DNA sequencing. BMC Genomics 2018; 19:827. [PMID: 30458708 PMCID: PMC6245896 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-018-5225-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2018] [Accepted: 11/06/2018] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are multifunctional effector molecules that often combine direct antimicrobial activities with signaling or immunomodulatory functions. The skin secretions of anurans contain a variety of such bioactive peptides. The identification of AMPs from frog species often requires sacrificing several specimens to obtain small quantities of crude peptides, followed by activity based fractionation to identify the active principles. Results We report an efficient alternative approach to selectively amplify AMP-coding transcripts from very small amounts of tissue samples, based on RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis, followed by PCR amplification and high-throughput sequencing of size-selected amplicons. This protocol exploits the highly conserved signal peptide region of the AMP precursors from Ranidae, Hylidae and Bombinatoridae for the design of family-specific, forward degenerate primers, coupled with a reverse primer targeting the mRNA poly-A tail. Conclusions Analysis of the assembled sequencing output allowed to identify more than a hundred full-length mature peptides, mostly from Ranidae species, including several novel potential AMPs for functional characterization. This (i) confirms the effectiveness of the experimental approach and indicates points for protocol optimization to account for particular cases, and (ii) encourages the application of the same methodology to other multigenic AMP families, also from other genera, sharing common features as in anuran AMPs. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12864-018-5225-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomislav Rončević
- Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Split, 21000, Split, Croatia.
| | - Marco Gerdol
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, 34127, Trieste, Italy
| | - Francesca Spazzali
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, 34127, Trieste, Italy
| | - Fiorella Florian
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, 34127, Trieste, Italy
| | - Stjepan Mekinić
- Public Institution for the Management of Protected Areas in the County of Split and Dalmatia - "Sea and karst", 21000, Split, Croatia
| | - Alessandro Tossi
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, 34127, Trieste, Italy
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Transformation of the naturally occurring frog skin peptide, alyteserin-2a into a potent, non-toxic anti-cancer agent. Amino Acids 2012; 44:715-23. [PMID: 22965637 DOI: 10.1007/s00726-012-1395-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2012] [Accepted: 08/24/2012] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
Alyteserin-2a (ILGKLLSTAAGLLSNL.NH(2)) is a cationic, amphipathic α-helical cell-penetrating peptide, first isolated from skin secretions of the midwife toad Alytes obstetricans. Structure-activity relationships were investigated by synthesizing analogs of alyteserin-2a in which amino acids on the hydrophobic face of the helix were replaced by L-tryptophan and amino acids on the hydrophilic face were replaced by one or more L-lysine or D-lysine residues. The Trp-containing peptides display increased cytotoxic activity against non-small cell lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells (up to 11-fold), but hemolytic activity against human erythrocytes increases in parallel. The potency of the N15K analog against A549 cells (LC(50) = 13 μM) increases sixfold relative to alyteserin-2a and the therapeutic index (ratio of LC(50) for erythrocytes and tumor cells) increases twofold. Incorporation of a D-Lys(11) residue into the N15K analog generates a peptide that retains potency against A549 cells (LC(50) = 15 μM) but whose therapeutic index is 13-fold elevated relative to the native peptide. [G11k, N15K] alyteserin-2a is also active against human hepatocarcinoma HepG2 cells (LC(50) = 26 μM), breast adenocarcinoma MDA-MB-231 cells (LC(50) = 20 μM), and colorectal adenocarcinoma HT-29 cells (LC(50) = 28 μM). [G11k, N15K] alyteserin-2a, in concentrations as low as 1 μg/mL, significantly (P < 0.05) inhibits the release of the immune-suppressive cytokines IL-10 and TGF-β from unstimulated and concanavalin A-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The data suggest a strategy of increasing the cationicity while reducing the helicity of naturally occurring amphipathic α-helical peptides to generate analogs with improved cytotoxicity against tumor cells but decreased activity against non-neoplastic cells.
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