| 1. |
- Altay, Özlem, et al.
(author)
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Combined Metabolic Activators with Different NAD+ Precursors Improve Metabolic Functions in the Animal Models of Neurodegenerative Diseases
- 2024
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In: Biomedicines. - : MDPI AG. - 2227-9059. ; 12:4
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Mitochondrial dysfunction and metabolic abnormalities are acknowledged as significant factors in the onset of neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Our research has demonstrated that the use of combined metabolic activators (CMA) may alleviate metabolic dysfunctions and stimulate mitochondrial metabolism. Therefore, the use of CMA could potentially be an effective therapeutic strategy to slow down or halt the progression of PD and AD. CMAs include substances such as the glutathione precursors (L-serine and N-acetyl cysteine), the NAD+ precursor (nicotinamide riboside), and L-carnitine tartrate. Methods: Here, we tested the effect of two different formulations, including CMA1 (nicotinamide riboside, L-serine, N-acetyl cysteine, L-carnitine tartrate), and CMA2 (nicotinamide, L-serine, N-acetyl cysteine, L-carnitine tartrate), as well as their individual components, on the animal models of AD and PD. We assessed the brain and liver tissues for pathological changes and immunohistochemical markers. Additionally, in the case of PD, we performed behavioral tests and measured responses to apomorphine-induced rotations. Findings: Histological analysis showed that the administration of both CMA1 and CMA2 formulations led to improvements in hyperemia, degeneration, and necrosis in neurons for both AD and PD models. Moreover, the administration of CMA2 showed a superior effect compared to CMA1. This was further corroborated by immunohistochemical data, which indicated a reduction in immunoreactivity in the neurons. Additionally, notable metabolic enhancements in liver tissues were observed using both formulations. In PD rat models, the administration of both formulations positively influenced the behavioral functions of the animals. Interpretation: Our findings suggest that the administration of both CMA1 and CMA2 markedly enhanced metabolic and behavioral outcomes, aligning with neuro-histological observations. These findings underscore the promise of CMA2 administration as an effective therapeutic strategy for enhancing metabolic parameters and cognitive function in AD and PD patients.
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| 2. |
- Ashraf, Sajda, et al.
(author)
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Synthesis, spectroscopic characterization, DFT and molecular docking of N-(3-cyano-4,5,6,7-tetrahydrobenzo[b]thiophen-2-yl) naphthalene-1-sulfonamide derivatives
- 2024
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In: Journal of Molecular Structure. - : Elsevier B.V.. - 0022-2860 .- 1872-8014. ; 1312
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Liver pyruvate kinase (PKL) is a key player in controlling metabolic pathways and ATP production within the liver's glycolysis pathway. Since PKL modulators have been identified as a promising target for treating hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), our research is centered on the development and synthesis of derivatives of N-(3-cyano-4,5,6,7-tetrahydrobenzo[b]thiophen-2-yl) naphthalene-1-sulfonamide with the aim of modulating PLK. To improve PKL specificity, we used structural analysis and modeling as a guide. Notably, compound PKL-05 became the series' only active ingredient. DFT, Hirshfeld surface analysis, and molecular docking were used in our study to thoroughly examine the connection between compound structures and their computational functions. The global hardness and softness energy values, as well as the HOMO-LUMO energy gap value, were computed in order to forecast the chemical reactivity of this newly synthesized molecule. These energy values indicate that this molecule tends to be chemically stable and has little chemical reactivity. The results demonstrated a strong agreement between theoretical forecasts and experimental findings. In particular, PKL-05 exhibits encouraging traits that establish it as a useful starting point for additional research in the search for innovative PKL modulators to tackle the treatment issues associated with NAFLD and HCC.
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| 3. |
- Barde, Swapnali, et al.
(author)
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Substance P, NPY, CCK and their receptors in five brain regions in major depressive disorder with transcriptomic analysis of locus coeruleus neurons
- 2024
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In: European Neuropsychopharmacology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0924-977X .- 1873-7862. ; 78, s. 54-63
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a serious disease and a burden to patients, families and society. Rodent experiments and human studies suggest that several neuropeptide systems are involved in mood regulation. The aim of this study is two-fold: (i) to monitor, with qPCR, transcript levels of the substance P/tachykinin (TAC), NPY and CCK systems in bulk samples from control and suicide subjects, targeting five postmortem brain regions including locus coeruleus (LC); and (ii) to analyse expression of neuropeptide family transcripts in LC neurons of 'normal' postmortem brains by using laser capture microdissection with Smart-Seq2 RNA sequencing. qPCR revealed distinct regional expression patterns in male and female controls with higher levels for the TAC system in the dorsal raphe nucleus and LC, versus higher transcripts levels of the NPY and CCK systems in prefrontal cortex. In suicide patients, TAC, TAC receptors and a few NPY family transcript levels were increased mainly in prefrontal cortex and LC. The second study on 'normal' noradrenergic LC neurons revealed expression of transcripts for GAL, NPY, TAC1, CCK, and TACR1 and many other peptides (e.g. Cerebellin4 and CARTPT) and receptors (e.g. Adcyap1R1 and GPR173). These data and our previous results on suicide brains indicates that the tachykinin and galanin systems may be valid targets for developing antidepressant medicines. Moreover, the perturbation of neuropeptide systems in MDD patients, and the detection of further neuropeptide and receptor transcripts in LC, shed new light on signalling in noradrenergic LC neurons and on mechanisms possibly associated with mood disorders.
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| 4. |
- Dannemeyer, Melanie, et al.
(author)
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Fast and robust recombinant protein production utilizing episomal stable pools in WAVE bioreactors
- 2024
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In: Protein Expression and Purification. - : Elsevier BV. - 1046-5928 .- 1096-0279. ; 221
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Protein reagents are essential resources for several stages of drug discovery projects from structural biology and assay development through lead optimization. Depending on the aim of the project different amounts of pure protein are required. Small-scale expressions are initially used to determine the reachable levels of production and quality before scaling up protein reagent supply. Commonly, amounts of several hundreds of milligrams to grams are needed for different experiments, including structural investigations and activity evaluations, which require rather large cultivation volumes. This implies that cultivation of large volumes of either transiently transfected cells or stable pools/stable cell lines is needed. Hence, a production process that is scalable, speeds up the development projects, and increases the robustness of protein reagent quality throughout scales. Here we present a protein production pipeline with high scalability. We show that our protocols for protein production in Chinese hamster ovary cells allow for a seamless and efficient scale-up with robust product quality and high performance. The flexible scale of the production process, as shown here, allows for shorter lead times in drug discovery projects where there is a reagent demand for a specific protein or a set of target proteins.
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| 5. |
- Iqbal, Shazia, et al.
(author)
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Design and synthesis of novel JNK inhibitors targeting liver pyruvate kinase for the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma
- 2024
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In: Bioorganic chemistry. - : Elsevier BV. - 0045-2068. ; 147
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) comprises a broad range of liver disease including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with is no FDA-approved drug. Liver pyruvate kinase (PKL) is a major regulator of metabolic flux and ATP generation in liver presenting a potential target for the treatment of NAFLD. Based on our recent finding of JNK-5A's effectiveness in inhibiting PKLR expression through a drug repositioning pipeline, this study aims to improve its efficacy further. We synthesized a series of JNK-5A analogues with targeted modifications, guided by molecular docking studies. These compounds were evaluated for their activities on PKL expression, cell viability, triacylglyceride (TAG) levels, and the expressions of steatosis-related proteins in the human HepG2 cell line. Subsequently, the efficacy of these compounds was assessed in reducing TAG level and toxicity. Compounds 40 (SET-151) and 41 (SET-152) proved to be the most efficient in reducing TAG levels (11.51 ± 0.90 % and 10.77 ± 0.67 %) and demonstrated lower toxicity (61.60 ± 5.00 % and 43.87 ± 1.42 %) in HepG2 cells. Additionally, all synthesized compounds were evaluated for their anti-cancer properties revealing that compound 74 (SET-171) exhibited the highest toxicity in cell viability with IC50 values of 8.82 µM and 2.97 µM in HepG2 and Huh7 cell lines, respectively. To summarize, compounds 40 (SET-151) and 41 (SET-152) show potential for treating NAFLD, while compound 74 (SET-171) holds potential for HCC therapy.
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| 6. |
- Iqbal, Shazia, et al.
(author)
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Design and synthesis of novel JNK inhibitors targeting liver pyruvate kinase for the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma
- 2024
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In: BIOORGANIC CHEMISTRY. - : Elsevier BV. - 0045-2068 .- 1090-2120. ; 147
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) comprises a broad range of liver disease including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with is no FDA-approved drug. Liver pyruvate kinase (PKL) is a major regulator of metabolic flux and ATP generation in liver presenting a potential target for the treatment of NAFLD. Based on our recent finding of JNK-5A's effectiveness in inhibiting PKLR expression through a drug repositioning pipeline, this study aims to improve its efficacy further. We synthesized a series of JNK-5A analogues with targeted modifications, guided by molecular docking studies. These compounds were evaluated for their activities on PKL expression, cell viability, triacylglyceride (TAG) levels, and the expressions of steatosis-related proteins in the human HepG2 cell line. Subsequently, the efficacy of these compounds was assessed in reducing TAG level and toxicity. Compounds 40 (SET-151) and 41 (SET-152) proved to be the most efficient in reducing TAG levels (11.51 +/- 0.90 % and 10.77 +/- 0.67 %) and demonstrated lower toxicity (61.60 +/- 5.00 % and 43.87 +/- 1.42 %) in HepG2 cells. Additionally, all synthesized compounds were evaluated for their anti-cancer properties revealing that compound 74 (SET-171) exhibited the highest toxicity in cell viability with IC50 values of 8.82 mu M and 2.97 mu M in HepG2 and Huh7 cell lines, respectively. To summarize, compounds 40 (SET-151) and 41 (SET-152) show potential for treating NAFLD, while compound 74 (SET-171) holds potential for HCC therapy.
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| 7. |
- Iqbal, Shazia, et al.
(author)
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Discovery of Cell-Permeable Allosteric Inhibitors of Liver Pyruvate Kinase: Design and Synthesis of Sulfone-Based Urolithins
- 2024
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In: International Journal of Molecular Sciences. - : MDPI AG. - 1661-6596 .- 1422-0067. ; 25:14
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) presents a significant global health challenge, characterized by the accumulation of liver fat and impacting a considerable portion of the worldwide population. Despite its widespread occurrence, effective treatments for MAFLD are limited. The liver-specific isoform of pyruvate kinase (PKL) has been identified as a promising target for developing MAFLD therapies. Urolithin C, an allosteric inhibitor of PKL, has shown potential in preliminary studies. Expanding upon this groundwork, our study delved into delineating the structure-activity relationship of urolithin C via the synthesis of sulfone-based urolithin analogs. Our results highlight that incorporating a sulfone moiety leads to substantial PKL inhibition, with additional catechol moieties further enhancing this effect. Despite modest improvements in liver cell lines, there was a significant increase in inhibition observed in HepG2 cell lysates. Specifically, compounds 15d, 9d, 15e, 18a, 12d, and 15a displayed promising IC50 values ranging from 4.3 µM to 18.7 µM. Notably, compound 15e not only demonstrated a decrease in PKL activity and triacylglycerol (TAG) content but also showed efficient cellular uptake. These findings position compound 15e as a promising candidate for pharmacological MAFLD treatment, warranting further research and studies.
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| 8. |
- Jotanovic, Jelena, et al.
(author)
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Transcriptome Analysis Reveals Distinct Patterns Between the Invasive and Noninvasive Pituitary Neuroendocrine Tumors
- 2024
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In: Journal of the Endocrine Society. - : Oxford University Press. - 2472-1972. ; 8:5
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Although most pituitary neuroendocrine tumors (PitNETs)/pituitary adenomas remain intrasellar, a significant proportion of tumors show parasellar invasive growth and 6% to 8% infiltrate the bone structures, thus affecting the prognosis. There is an unmet need to identify novel markers that can predict the parasellar growth of PitNETs. Furthermore, mechanisms that regulate bone invasiveness of PitNETs and factors related to tumor vascularization are largely unknown.We used genome-wide mRNA analysis in a cohort of 77 patients with PitNETs of different types to explore the differences in gene expression patterns between invasive and noninvasive tumors with respect to the parasellar growth and regarding the rare phenomenon of bone invasiveness. Additionally, we studied the genes correlated to the contrast enhancement quotient, a novel radiological parameter of tumor vascularization.Most of the genes differentially expressed related to the parasellar growth were genes involved in tumor invasiveness. Differentially expressed genes associated with bone invasiveness are involved in NF-κB pathway and antitumoral immune response. Lack of clear clustering regarding the parasellar and bone invasiveness may be explained by the influence of the cell lineage-related genes in this heterogeneous cohort of PitNETs.Our transcriptomics analysis revealed differences in the molecular fingerprints between invasive, including bone invasive, and noninvasive PitNETs, although without clear clustering. The contrast enhancement quotient emerged as a radiological parameter of tumor vascularization, correlating with several angiogenesis-related genes. Several of the top genes related to the PitNET invasiveness and vascularization have potential prognostic and therapeutic application requiring further research.
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| 9. |
- Jotanovic, Jelena, et al.
(author)
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Transcriptome Analysis Reveals Distinct Patterns Between the Invasive and Noninvasive Pituitary Neuroendocrine Tumors
- 2024
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In: Journal of the Endocrine Society. - : The Endocrine Society. - 2472-1972. ; 8:5
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Although most pituitary neuroendocrine tumors (PitNETs)/pituitary adenomas remain intrasellar, a significant proportion of tumors show parasellar invasive growth and 6% to 8% infiltrate the bone structures, thus affecting the prognosis. There is an unmet need to identify novel markers that can predict the parasellar growth of PitNETs. Furthermore, mechanisms that regulate bone invasiveness of PitNETs and factors related to tumor vascularization are largely unknown.We used genome-wide mRNA analysis in a cohort of 77 patients with PitNETs of different types to explore the differences in gene expression patterns between invasive and noninvasive tumors with respect to the parasellar growth and regarding the rare phenomenon of bone invasiveness. Additionally, we studied the genes correlated to the contrast enhancement quotient, a novel radiological parameter of tumor vascularization.Most of the genes differentially expressed related to the parasellar growth were genes involved in tumor invasiveness. Differentially expressed genes associated with bone invasiveness are involved in NF-kappa B pathway and antitumoral immune response. Lack of clear clustering regarding the parasellar and bone invasiveness may be explained by the influence of the cell lineage-related genes in this heterogeneous cohort of PitNETs.Our transcriptomics analysis revealed differences in the molecular fingerprints between invasive, including bone invasive, and noninvasive PitNETs, although without clear clustering. The contrast enhancement quotient emerged as a radiological parameter of tumor vascularization, correlating with several angiogenesis-related genes. Several of the top genes related to the PitNET invasiveness and vascularization have potential prognostic and therapeutic application requiring further research.
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| 10. |
- Kaynar, Ali, et al.
(author)
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Discovery of a Therapeutic Agent for Glioblastoma Using a Systems Biology-Based Drug Repositioning Approach
- 2024
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In: International Journal of Molecular Sciences. - : Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI). - 1661-6596 .- 1422-0067. ; 25:14
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Glioblastoma (GBM), a highly malignant tumour of the central nervous system, presents with a dire prognosis and low survival rates. The heterogeneous and recurrent nature of GBM renders current treatments relatively ineffective. In our study, we utilized an integrative systems biology approach to uncover the molecular mechanisms driving GBM progression and identify viable therapeutic drug targets for developing more effective GBM treatment strategies. Our integrative analysis revealed an elevated expression of CHST2 in GBM tumours, designating it as an unfavourable prognostic gene in GBM, as supported by data from two independent GBM cohorts. Further, we pinpointed WZ-4002 as a potential drug candidate to modulate CHST2 through computational drug repositioning. WZ-4002 directly targeted EGFR (ERBB1) and ERBB2, affecting their dimerization and influencing the activity of adjacent genes, including CHST2. We validated our findings by treating U-138 MG cells with WZ-4002, observing a decrease in CHST2 protein levels and a reduction in cell viability. In summary, our research suggests that the WZ-4002 drug candidate may effectively modulate CHST2 and adjacent genes, offering a promising avenue for developing efficient treatment strategies for GBM patients.
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