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- Lai, Zhennan, et al.
(author)
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Aquaporin gene therapy corrects Sjogren's syndrome phenotype in mice
- 2016
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In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 113:20, s. 5694-5699
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Primary Sjogren's syndrome (pSS) is a chronic autoimmune disease that is estimated to affect 35 million people worldwide. Currently, no effective treatments exist for Sjogren's syndrome, and there is a limited understanding of the physiological mechanisms associated with xerostomia and hyposalivation. The present work revealed that aquaporin 5 expression, a water channel critical for salivary gland fluid secretion, is regulated by bone morphogenetic protein 6. Increased expression of this cytokine is strongly associated with the most common symptom of primary Sjogren's syndrome, the loss of salivary gland function. This finding led us to develop a therapy in the treatment of Sjogren's syndrome by increasing the water permeability of the gland to restore saliva flow. Our study demonstrates that the targeted increase of gland permeability not only resulted in the restoration of secretory gland function but also resolved the hallmark salivary gland inflammation and systemic inflammation associated with disease. Secretory function also increased in the lacrimal gland, suggesting this local therapy could treat the systemic symptoms associated with primary Sjogren's syndrome.
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| 4. |
- Schmidt, Boris, et al.
(author)
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Design, synthesis, and biological activities of four angiotensin IIreceptor ligands with gamma-turn mimetics replacing amino acid residues 3-5
- 1997
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In: Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0022-2623 .- 1520-4804. ; 40, s. 903-919
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Disulfide cyclization is a powerful method for reducing the conformational space of a peptide. This in turn may enable the study of its bioactive conformation. Several analogues of angiotensin II (Ang II) containing a disulfide bridge between amino acids 3 and 5 have been reported. Among these the cyclic octapeptides c[Hcy3,5]-Ang II, c[Cys3,5]-Ang II, and c[Pen 3,5]-Ang II showed significant activity at Ang II receptors. We have performed conformational analysis studies using theoretical calculations and 1H-NMR spectroscopy on tripeptide model compounds of these cyclic octapeptides which show that the cyclic moieties of c[Cys3,5]-Ang II and c[Pen3,5]-Ang II preferentially assume an inverse gamma-turn conformation. On the basis of these results, we substituted amino acid residues 3-5 in Ang II with two different gamma-turn mimetics giving four diastereomeric Ang II analogues. Interestingly, two of these are equipotent to Ang II in binding to AT1 receptors. In the contractile test using rabbit aorta rings, one of the analogues is an agonist with full contractile activity approximately equipotent to c[Pen3,5]-Ang II but 300-fold less potent than Ang II. This low potency may suggest that Ang II does not adopt a gamma-turn in the 3-5 region when interacting with the receptor.
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