The structural determinants of macrolide-actin binding: in silico insights

How Combined Macrolide Nanomaterials are Effective Against Resistant Pathogens? A Comprehensive Review of the Literature

Macrolide drugs are among the broad-spectrum antibiotics that are considered as "miracle drugs" against infectious diseases that lead to higher morbidity and mortality rates. Nevertheless, their effectiveness is currently at risk owing to the presence of devastating, antimicrobial-resistant microbes. In view of this challenge, nanotechnology-driven innovations are currently being anticipated for promising approaches to overcome antimicrobial resistance. Nowadays, various nanostructures are being developed for the delivery of antimicrobials to counter drug-resistant microbial strains through different mechanisms. Metallic nanoparticle-based delivery of macrolides, particularly using silver and gold nanoparticles (AgNPs & AuNPs), demonstrated a promising outcome with worthy stability, oxidation resistance, and biocompatibility. Similarly, macrolide-conjugated magnetic NPs resulted in an augmented antimicrobial activity and reduced bacterial cell viability against resistant microbes. Liposomal delivery of macrolides also showed favorable synergistic antimicrobial activities in vitro against resistant strains. Loading macrolide drugs into various polymeric nanomaterials resulted in an enhanced zone of inhibition. Intercalated nanomaterials also conveyed an outstanding macrolide delivery characteristic with efficient targeting and controlled drug release against infectious microbes. This review abridges several nano-based delivery approaches for macrolide drugs along with their recent achievements, challenges, and future perspectives.

The Potential of Indonesian Heterobranchs Found around Bunaken Island for the Production of Bioactive Compounds

The species diversity of marine heterobranch sea slugs found on field trips around Bunaken Island (North Sulawesi, Indonesia) and adjacent islands of the Bunaken National Marine Park forms the basis of this review. In a survey performed in 2015, 80 species from 23 families were collected, including 17 new species. Only three of these have been investigated previously in studies from Indonesia. Combining species diversity with a former study from 2003 reveals in total 140 species from this locality. The diversity of bioactive compounds known and yet to be discovered from these organisms is summarized and related to the producer if known or suspected (might it be down the food chain, de novo synthesised from the slug or an associated bacterium). Additionally, the collection of microorganisms for the discovery of natural products of pharmacological interest from this hotspot of biodiversity that is presented here contains more than 50 species that have never been investigated before in regard to bioactive secondary metabolites. This highlights the great potential of the sea slugs and the associated microorganisms for the discovery of natural products of pharmacological interest from this hotspot of biodiversity.

Synthesis of a 35-member stereoisomer library of bistramide A: evaluation of effects on actin state, cell cycle and tumor cell growth

Synthesis and preliminary biological evaluation of a 35-member library of bistramide A stereoisomers are reported. All eight stereoisomers of the C1-C13 tetrahydropyran fragment of the molecule were prepared utilizing crotylsilane reagents 9 and 10 in our [4+2]-annulation methodology. In addition, the four isomers of the C14-C18 gamma-amino acid unit were accessed via a Lewis acid mediated crotylation reaction with use of both enantiomers of organosilane 11. The spiroketal subunit of bistramide A was modified at the C39-alcohol to give another point of stereochemical diversification. The fragments were coupled by using a standard peptide coupling protocol to provide 35 stereoisomers of the natural product. These stereochemical analogues were screened for their effects on cellular actin and cytotoxicity against cancer cell lines (UO-31 renal and SF-295 CNS). The results of these assays identified one analogue, 1.21, with enhanced potency relative to the natural product, bistramide A.

Molecular docking and QSAR of aplyronine A and analogues: potent inhibitors of actin

Actin-binding natural products have been identified as a potential basis for the design of cancer therapeutic agents. We report flexible docking and QSAR studies on aplyronine A analogues. Our findings show the macrolide 'tail' to be fundamental for the depolymerisation effect of actin-binding macrolides and that it is the tail which forms the initial interaction with the actin rather than the macrocycle, as previously believed. Docking energy scores for the compounds were highly correlated with actin depolymerisation activity. The 3D-QSAR models were predictive, with the best model giving a q(2) value of 0.85 and a r(2) of 0.94. Results from the docking simulations and the interpretation from QSAR "coeff*stdev" contour maps provide insight into the binding mechanism of each analogue and highlight key features that influence depolymerisation activity. The results herein may aid the design of a putative set of analogues that can help produce efficacious and tolerable anti-tumour agents. Finally, using the best QSAR model, we have also made genuine predictions for an independent set of recently reported aplyronine analogues.

Actin-binding toxin "tail" wags the dog

Actin-binding marine macrolides exhibit significant structural and functional diversity. In this issue, Perrins et al. demonstrate that a long stereochemically conserved aliphatic side chain, known as the "tail", found in many of these compounds is the functional determinant of cytotoxicity (Perrins et al., 2008).