Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Sathish Kumar Marimuthu, Krishnanand Nagarajan, Sathish Kumar Perumal, Selvamani Palanisamy, Latha Subbiah
Summary: Host defense peptides or antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are short sequences of amino acids with positive or negative charges that exhibit broad-spectrum antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal activity. AMPs rich in tryptophan, arginine, and proline are considered promising sources for the development of next-generation antibiotics. This study analyzed and classified 2924 AMPs based on their amino acid sequences and investigated their structures and stability using modeling and simulations.
JOURNAL OF BIOMOLECULAR STRUCTURE & DYNAMICS
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Nadia A. Samak, Mohamed S. Selim, Zhifeng Hao, Jianmin Xing
Summary: In this study, cyclic dodecapeptides rich in Arg-Trp were synthesized and immobilized on an RGO/MnO2 nanocomposite, showing excellent antimicrobial activity and ability to degrade biofilms.
JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Lourdes Perez, Maria Teresa Garcia, Aurora Pinazo, Edgar Perez-Matas, Zakaria Hafidi, Elena Bautista
Summary: Cationic surfactants have been explored for their potential as drug vehicles, gene therapy tools, and antimicrobial agents. This study synthesized a library of amino acid-based surfactants and systematically modified their head group architecture and hydrophobic moiety. The structure-activity relationships established here may offer insights for designing effective biodegradable antimicrobial materials.
Article
Chemistry, Medicinal
Eman H. M. Mohammed, Sandeep Lohan, Tarra Ghaffari, Shilpi Gupta, Rakesh K. Tiwari, Keykavous Parang
Summary: We designed a library of cyclic peptides containing arginine and tryptophan residues to study their antibacterial activity. Among these peptides, two showed the highest antimicrobial activity and demonstrated synergism when combined with commercially available antibiotics. One of the peptides exhibited selective lethal action against bacteria by disrupting their membranes. It also showed stability in human plasma and minimal potential for the development of resistance in pathogens.
JOURNAL OF MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Sergii Afonin, Serhii Koniev, Laetitia Preau, Masanari Takamiya, Alexander Strizhak, Oleg Babii, Andrii Hrebonkin, Vasyl G. Pivovarenko, Margitta Dathe, Ferdinand le Noble, Sepand Rastegar, Uwe Straehle, Anne S. Ulrich, Igor Komarov
Summary: This study successfully utilized fluorescent labeling of peptides with an amino acid bearing a fluorophore, demonstrating the importance of fluorescent labeling in studying peptide activity. The behavior of labeled peptides was observed in human cells and zebrafish embryos using various techniques.
FRONTIERS IN CHEMISTRY
(2021)
Review
Chemistry, Medicinal
Mariana C. Almeida, Diana I. S. P. Resende, Paulo M. da Costa, Madalena M. M. Pinto, Emilia Sousa
Summary: This review highlights the potential of marine alkaloids derived from tryptophan as antimicrobial agents, discussing their importance in drug discovery, current research progress, and future prospects.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY
(2021)
Review
Chemistry, Medicinal
Komal Sharma, Krishna K. Sharma, Amit Mahindra, Naina Sehra, Nitin Bagra, Shams Aaghaz, Rajesh Parmar, Gajanan K. Rathod, Rahul Jain
Summary: Modified and synthetic alpha-amino acids have diverse applications, and histidine is one such amino acid that can be subjected to synthetic modifications. Modified histidines have various applications ranging from biological activities to catalysis, nanotechnology, and polymer chemistry. Histidine plays an important role in scientific research.
MEDICINAL RESEARCH REVIEWS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Motoharu Hirano, Hidetomo Yokoo, Chihiro Goto, Makoto Oba, Takashi Misawa, Yosuke Demizu
Summary: We have developed cell-penetrating stapled peptides based on the amphipathic antimicrobial peptide magainin 2 for efficient intracellular delivery of nucleic acids including pDNA, mRNA, and siRNA. The peptide st7-5_R can form stable complexes with these nucleic acids and efficiently deliver them into cells.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Motoharu Hirano, Hidetomo Yokoo, Chihiro Goto, Makoto Oba, Takashi Misawa, Yosuke Demizu
Summary: We have developed cell-penetrating stapled peptides based on the amphipathic antimicrobial peptide magainin 2 for efficient intracellular delivery of nucleic acids such as pDNA, mRNA, and siRNA. The stapled peptide st7-5 and its variant st7-5_R can form stable complexes with nucleic acids and successfully deliver them into cells.
Article
Biology
Hari Kumar Peguda, Rajamani Lakshminarayanan, Nicole A. Carnt, Zi Gu, Mark D. P. Willcox
Summary: This study assessed the anti-amoebic activity of polyhomoarginines against Acanthamoeba castellanii trophozoites and cysts. The results showed that polyhomoarginines demonstrated good anti-acanthamoeba activity against both trophozoites and cysts, and had broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity. This suggests that polyhomoarginines could be developed into a potential therapeutic agent for Acanthamoeba keratitis.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Wenlu Tu, Ke Xue, Shaofeng Lou, Chunlei Zhu, Zhilin Yu
Summary: This study presents a strategy for designing antibacterial peptides derived from virulent amyloids, which self-assemble into nanostructures with remarkable antibacterial activity. The mutated peptides showed great potential in disrupting bacterial membranes and exhibited significant antibacterial activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. This approach provides a new strategy for developing assembled antibacterial peptides by mimicking virulent amyloids.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Bruno Casciaro, Maria Rosa Loffredo, Floriana Cappiello, Niamh O'Sullivan, Carola Tortora, Rizwan Manzer, Sougata Karmakar, Alan Haskell, Syed K. Hasan, Maria Luisa Mangoni
Summary: Antimicrobial resistance continues to be a problem, but a newly designed peptide called KDEON WK-11 shows strong antimicrobial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa with low cytotoxicity and potential anti-lipopolysaccharide qualities, making it a promising agent against sepsis.
FRONTIERS IN CHEMISTRY
(2022)
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Lu Shang, Yuting Wu, Nan Wei, Fayu Yang, Mi Wang, Lifang Zhang, Chenzhong Fei, Yingchun Liu, Feiqun Xue, Feng Gu
Summary: The engineered peptide Pep 6 demonstrates great potential in combating E. coli and S. aureus, even after long-term serial passages. Additionally, it exhibits robust biofilm-inhibiting activity against MRSA.
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
(2022)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Peifen Wu, Jie Yang, Chi Chen, Ruili Li, Shunxian Chen, Yanlin Weng, Yayi Lin, Zhiying Chen, Fengfan Yu, Xucong Lu, Li Ni, Jinzhi Han
Summary: Infections caused by drug-resistant pathogens pose a significant challenge to wound healing. This study successfully designed a new antimicrobial peptide, AB7, through truncation, amino acid replacement, and heterozygosity, and found that it displayed broad-spectrum and potent antimicrobial activity against drug-resistant bacteria. Experimental results demonstrated that AB7 had good anti-infection ability in a MRSA-infected skin wound model and promoted wound healing and angiogenesis.
APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Zhanyi Yang, Yingxin Wei, Wanpeng Wu, Licong Zhang, Jiajun Wang, Anshan Shan
Summary: Researchers designed a set of derived nonapeptides based on a specific peptide sequence template, and screened to find two nonapeptides with excellent antimicrobial properties. These two nonapeptides exhibited membrane-disruptive and ROS accumulation mechanisms, showing potent broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity without cytotoxicity. They also demonstrated favorable antimicrobial stability under high ionic strength, heat, and acid-base conditions, making them suitable for chicken meat preservation.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Daniel Obitz, Karmel S. Gkika, Marvin Heller, Tia E. Keyes, Nils Metzler-Nolte
Summary: A lanthanide(iii) complex connected to a light harvesting antenna was synthesized and tested as a potential photosensitizer in photodynamic therapy. The complex showed significant phototoxic activity on cancer cells upon irradiation, with ROS production identified as the compound's phototoxic mode of action. In cell viability assays, a 10-fold decrease in IC50 value was observed compared to the dark control.
CHEMICAL COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Inorganic & Nuclear
Marion Graf, Jasmine Ochs, Nils Metzler-Nolte, Peter Mayer, Hans-Christian Bottcher
Summary: This paper describes the synthesis and characterization of six new organometallic half-sandwich iridium(III) compounds with modified bipyridine ligands. The cytotoxic properties of the compounds against two cancer cell lines were evaluated, and compound 3 showed the most remarkable biological activity with significantly enhanced toxicity compared to cisplatin.
ZEITSCHRIFT FUR ANORGANISCHE UND ALLGEMEINE CHEMIE
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Paramita Sarkar, Kathakali De, Malvika Modi, Geetika Dhanda, Richa Priyadarshini, Julia E. Bandow, Jayanta Haldar
Summary: Resistance to vancomycin requires developing alternative therapeutics. In this study, vancomycin derivatives with mechanisms beyond d-Ala-d-Ala binding were reported. The lead molecule, VanQAmC(10), inhibits bacterial cell division, which is a previously unknown property for glycopeptide antibiotics.
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Boudewijn Hollebrands, Jos A. Hageman, Jasper W. van de Sande, Bauke Albada, Hans-Gerd Janssen
Summary: Peptides play a significant role in determining the taste of food products, with their taste impressions depending on the amino acids present and their sequence. Identifying short peptides in foods is challenging, but a method was developed to accurately predict retention times of short peptides using reversed phase separation. By training a model using a combination of peptide descriptors and a newly derived set of amino acid index derived sequence-specific peptide descriptors, the model achieved a high accuracy in predicting retention times and elution order for 93% of the short peptides.
ANALYTICAL AND BIOANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Bauke Albada
Summary: Bioconjugation of chemical entities to biologically active proteins has provided valuable insights into cellular processes and yielded innovative therapeutic agents. However, a current challenge lies in efficiently generating uniform conjugates of native proteins in their natural environment. By combining various features of protein-modifying enzymes, artificial constructs have been developed. This review evaluates the current status of this approach, with a focus on the protein-binding anchor, modification chemistry, linker, and suggests the incorporation of trigger-responsive switches for regulating protein modification.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Johannes A. M. Damen, Jorge Escorihuela, Han Zuilhof, Floris L. van Delft, Bauke Albada
Summary: The rates of reaction between strained cycloalkynes and cycloalkenes with 1,2-quinone were studied using stopped flow UV-Vis spectroscopy and computational analysis. The results showed that strained alkyne BCN OH 3 reacted over 150 times faster than strained alkene TCO-OH 5, and the introduction of a carbamate derivative reduced the rate constant by almost half. Additionally, the 8-membered strained alkyne BCN OH 3 reacted 16 times faster than the more strained 7-membered THS 2. Thermodynamic activation parameters were determined using the linearized Eyring equation, providing valuable insights into these rapid click reactions.
CHEMISTRY-A EUROPEAN JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Medicinal
Irina Kollmorgen, Nathalie Bachmann, Michael Dal Molin, Carsten Degenhart, Eldar Zent, Vikram Pareek, Uwe Koch, Jan Rybniker, Nils Metzler-Nolte, Raphael Stoll, Bert Klebl, Julia Elisabeth Bandow, Jurgen Scherkenbeck
Summary: Due to increasing resistances, there is a need for antibacterial compounds with unique modes of action. One such compound, moiramide B, shows strong activity against gram-positive bacteria but weaker activity against gram-negative bacteria. The structure-activity relationship of moiramide B presents a challenge for optimization strategies, while the fatty acid tail is considered as a transport vehicle. However, the sorbic acid unit is found to be relevant for ACC inhibition and allows the development of moiramide derivatives with altered antibacterial profiles.
Article
Chemistry, Organic
Jasper W. van de Sande, Bauke Albada
Summary: The researchers reported the total synthesis of post-translationally modified peptides, including beta-1,2-linked L-arabinosylated Fmoc-protected hydroxyproline building blocks and sulfated tyrosine and hydroxyproline, which are important regulating molecules for living organisms. Clean glycopeptides were obtained by removing acetyl groups from the L-arabinose and neopentyl-protected sulfated tyrosine before deprotection.
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Melissa Vazquez-Hernandez, Stephanie L. Leedom, Kenneth C. Keiler, Julia Elisabeth Bandow
Summary: Trans-translation is the most effective ribosome rescue system in bacteria, but Bacillus subtilis possesses two alternative ribosome rescue mechanisms. In this study, the proteomes of B. subtilis 168 and a ssrA mutant were compared using quantitative proteomics. The mutant strain showed lower growth rate and protein synthesis rates, altered motility and chemotaxis phenotype, and alterations in the abundance of ribosomal proteins and proteins related to amino acid biosynthesis, reflecting slow ribosome recycling.
Article
Infectious Diseases
Leonie Sagurna, Sascha Heinrich, Lara-Sophie Kaufmann, Christian Rueckert-Reed, Tobias Busche, Alexander Wolf, Jan Eickhoff, Bert Klebl, Joern Kalinowski, Julia E. Bandow
Summary: Bacteria of the genus Streptomyces produce various specialized metabolites. Single biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) can give rise to different products with varying biological activities. In this study, alnumycin and 1,6-dihydro 8-propylanthraquinone were isolated from a Streptomyces strain containing the alnumycin BGC. Both compounds exhibited antimicrobial activity, with 1,6-dihydro 8-propylanthraquinone showing higher activity against E. coli & UDelta;tolC compared to alnumycin. The modes of action of these compounds are worth further investigation.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Ahmed M. Kamal El-sagheir, Ireny Abdelmesseh Nekhala, Mohammed K. Abd El-Gaber, Ahmed S. Aboraia, Jonatan Persson, Ann-Britt Schafer, Michaela Wenzel, Farghaly A. Omar
Summary: In this study, 24 new derivatives of norfloxacin were synthesized, which showed enhanced antibacterial activity and the ability to establish additional bonds with target enzymes. The derivatives exhibited significant inhibition of bacterial cells both in vitro and in living organisms. Some derivatives also showed effects on cell wall synthesis and/or the cytoplasmic membrane, contributing to their increased antibacterial activity.
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Jaccoline Zegers, Maartje Peters, Bauke Albada
Summary: This article summarizes the importance of stabilizing guanine quadruplexes (G4s) for cancer treatment and explores the methods and techniques for stabilizing G4s using metal complexes. By analyzing the G4-stabilizing capacity and bioactivity data of 74 metal-based ligands, guidelines for future studies in this field are proposed.
JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL INORGANIC CHEMISTRY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Tim Dirks, Marco Krewing, Katharina Vogel, Julia E. Bandow
Summary: Cold atmospheric pressure plasmas have a significant impact on protein aggregation, and Hsp33 plays an important role in preventing protein aggregation. It has been found that over-production of Hsp33 can increase bacterial resistance to cold plasmas.
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY INTERFACE
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Tim Dirks, Abdulkadir Yayci, Sabrina Klopsch, Marco Krewing, Wuyuan Zhang, Frank Hollmann, Julia E. Bandow
Summary: This study demonstrates that immobilization universally protects enzymes under plasma-operating conditions and improves their activity, opening up new possibilities for emerging applications.
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY INTERFACE
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Ahmed M. Kamal El-sagheir, Ireny Abdelmesseh Nekhala, Mohammed K. Abd El-Gaber, Ahmed S. Aboraia, Jonatan Persson, Ann-Britt Schaefer, Michaela Wenzel, Farghaly A. Omar
Summary: This study synthesized novel norfloxacin hydroxamic acid derivatives with additional metal-chelating and hydrophobic pharmacophores. The compounds showed equal or better activity than norfloxacin against various bacteria, and further investigations revealed their inhibition of gyrase and topoisomerase IV, as well as polypharmacological effects on peptidoglycan synthesis.
RSC MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY
(2023)