scholarly journals Identification and Analysis of Bacterial Protein Secretion Inhibitors Utilizing a SecA-LacZ Reporter Fusion System

2000 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 1418-1427 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. E. Alksne ◽  
P. Burgio ◽  
W. Hu ◽  
B. Feld ◽  
M. P. Singh ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Protein secretion is an essential process for bacterial growth, yet there are few if any antimicrobial agents which inhibit secretion. An in vivo, high-throughput screen to detect secretion inhibitors was developed based on the translational autoregulation of one of the central protein components, SecA. The assay makes use of a SecA-LacZ fusion reporter construct in Escherichia coli which is induced when secretion is perturbed. Several compounds, including two natural product extracts, which had the ability to induce the reporter fusion were identified and the MICs of these compounds forStaphylococcus aureus strain MN8 were found to be ≤128 μg/ml. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, Western blotting, and immunoprecipitation techniques were used to analyze the affects of these compounds on protein secretion. Six representative compounds presented here appear to be bona fide secretion inhibitors but were found to have deleterious effects on membranes. It was concluded that, while the method described here for identifying inhibitors of secretion is valid, screens such as this, which are directed against the membrane-bound portion of a pathway, may preferentially identify compounds which affect membrane integrity.

mBio ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel D. Ernst ◽  
Amber Cornelius ◽  
Miriam Bolz

ABSTRACTSecretion of specific proteins contributes to pathogenesis and immune responses in tuberculosis and other bacterial infections, yet the kinetics of protein secretion and fate of secreted proteinsin vivoare poorly understood. We generated new monoclonal antibodies that recognize theMycobacteriumtuberculosissecreted protein Ag85B and used them to establish and characterize a sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to quantitate Ag85B in samples generatedin vitroandin vivo. We found that nutritional or culture conditions had little impact on the secretion of Ag85B and that there is considerable variation in Ag85B secretion by distinct strains in theM. tuberculosiscomplex: compared with the commonly used H37Rv strain (lineage 4),Mycobacteriumafricanum(lineage 6) secretes less Ag85B, and two strains from lineage 2 secrete more Ag85B. We also used the ELISA to determine that the rate of secretion of Ag85B is 10- to 100-fold lower than that of proteins secreted by Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, respectively. ELISA quantitation of Ag85B in lung homogenates ofM. tuberculosisH37Rv-infected mice revealed that although Ag85B accumulates in the lungs as the bacterial population expands, the amount of Ag85B per bacterium decreases nearly 10,000-fold at later stages of infection, coincident with the development of T cell responses and arrest of bacterial population growth. These results indicate that bacterial protein secretionin vivois dynamic and regulated, and quantitation of secreted bacterial proteins can contribute to the understanding of pathogenesis and immunity in tuberculosis and other infections.IMPORTANCEBacterial protein secretion contributes to host-pathogen interactions, yet the process and consequences of bacterial protein secretion during infection are poorly understood. We developed a sensitive ELISA to quantitate a protein (termed Ag85B) secreted byM. tuberculosisand used it to find that Ag85B secretion occurs with slower kinetics than for proteins secreted by Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and that accumulation of Ag85B in the lungs is markedly regulated as a function of the bacterial population density. Our results demonstrate that quantitation of bacterial proteins during infection can reveal novel insights into host-pathogen interactions.


Blood ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 118 (21) ◽  
pp. 4068-4068
Author(s):  
Xiuli Wu ◽  
Yinkui Chen ◽  
Qifa Liu ◽  
Li Xuan ◽  
Yiwen Ling ◽  
...  

Abstract Abstract 4068 Human leucocyte antigen G (HLA-G) is a nonclassical HLA class I molecule, the tolerogenic role of HLA-G is highly supported in pregnancy immunization, tumor immune escape and organ transplant. HLA-G molecules also act as an inhibitor of the T-lymphocytes, NK cells and antigen presenting cells. HLA-G can be expressed as 7 different isoforms including 4 membrane-bound (HLA-G1 to -G4) and 3 soluble (HLA-G5 to-G7) proteins. The soluble HLA-G5 isoform encoded by intron-4 retaining spliced transcript has been previously detected in vivo in sera and grafts from solid transplanted patients who had significantly better graft acceptance. In the present study, we analyzed the expression levels of HLA-G in patients after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and investigated the relationship between HLA-G and GVHD. The levels of soluble HLA-G (sHLA-G) in the plasma of peripheral blood from 90 patients underwent HSCT were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Flow cytometry was used to detect the expression of membrane bound HLA-G (mHLA-G). The levels of mHLA-G of patients at pre-HSCT, +15d post-HSCT and +30d post-HSCT were similar with the normal individuals. High levels of sHLA-G in the plasma of recipients were found after allogeneic HSCT (allo-HSCT). The soluble HLA-G5 and HLA-G6 levels in the plasma of recipients at +15d post-HSCT and +30d post-HSCT were significantly higher than that at pre-HSCT, but the soluble HLA-G7 levels in the plasma of recipients at +15d post-HSCT or +30d post-HSCT were similar with that at pre-HSCT. In contrast, the levels of sHLA-G in the plasma of recipients had no significant change after autologous HSCT (auto-HSCT). High level secretion of HLA-G5 after allo-HSCT (the levels of sHLA-G increased more than 1.0 fold compared to the pre-HSCT group) significantly reduced the incidence of acute GVHD and chronic GVHD; High level secretion of HLA-G6 after allo-HSCT also significantly reduced the incidence of chronic GVHD, but had no influence to the incidence of acute GVHD; High level secretion of HLA-G7 after allo-HSCT had no influence to the incidence of acute GVHD or chronic GVHD. The increased levels of HLA-G5 after allo-HSCT which compared with the pre-HSCT group had a significant negative correlation with the severity of GVHD. In conclusion, the high level secretion of HLA-G5 might inhibit the incidence of acute and chronic GVHD. Detected the secretion level of HLA-G5 after HSCT might benefit to predict and evaluate the GVHD. Disclosures: Liu: National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.30971300), Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province of China (No.2009A030200007): Research Funding.


1971 ◽  
Vol 123 (5) ◽  
pp. 983-991 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. D. Wills

1. Induction of the formation of lipid peroxide in suspensions of liver microsomal preparations by incubation with ascorbate or NADPH, or by treatment with ionizing radiation, leads to a marked decrease of the activity of glucose 6-phosphatase. 2. The effect of peroxidation can be imitated by treating microsomal suspensions with detergents such as deoxycholate or with phospholipases. 3. The substrate, glucose 6-phosphate, protects the glucose 6-phosphatase activity of microsomal preparations against peroxidation or detergents. 4. The loss of glucose 6-phosphatase activity is not due to the formation of hydroperoxide or formation of malonaldehyde or other breakdown products of peroxidation, all of which are not toxic to the enzyme. 5. All experiments lead to the conclusion that the loss of activity of glucose 6-phosphatase resulting from peroxidation is a consequence of loss of membrane structure essential for the activity of the enzyme. 6. In addition to glucose 6-phosphatase, oxidative demethylation of aminopyrine or p-chloro-N-methylaniline, hydroxylation of aniline, NADPH oxidation and menadione-dependent NADPH oxidation are also strongly inhibited by peroxidation. However, another group of enzymes separated with the microsomal fraction, including NAD+/NADP+ glycohydrolase, adenosine triphosphatase, esterase and NADH–cytochrome c reductase are not inactivated by peroxidation. This group is not readily inactivated by treatment with detergents. 7. Lipid peroxidation, by controlling membrane integrity, may exert a regulating effect on the oxidative metabolism and carbohydrate metabolism of the endoplasmic reticulum in vivo.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiufeng Zhang ◽  
Wenguang Xiong ◽  
Xianfeng Peng ◽  
Yixing Lu ◽  
Jie Hao ◽  
...  

Serious infections caused by multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus clearly urge the development of new antimicrobial agents. Drug repositioning has emerged as an alternative approach that enables us to rapidly identify effective drugs. We first reported a guanidine compound, isopropoxy benzene guanidine, had potent antibacterial activity against S. aureus. Unlike conventional antibiotics, repeated use of isopropoxy benzene guanidine had a lower probability of resistance section. We found that isopropoxy benzene guanidine triggered membrane damage by disrupting the cell membrane potential and cytoplasmic membrane integrity. Furthermore, we demonstrated that isopropoxy benzene guanidine is capable of treating invasive MRSA infections in vivo studies. These findings provided strong evidence that isopropoxy benzene guanidine represents a new chemical lead for novel antibacterial agent against multidrug-resistant S. aureus infections.


1977 ◽  
Vol 37 (01) ◽  
pp. 073-080 ◽  
Author(s):  
Knut Gjesdal ◽  
Duncan S. Pepper

SummaryHuman platelet factor 4 (PF-4) showed a reaction of complete identity with PF-4 from Macaca mulatta when tested against rabbit anti-human-PF-4. Such immunoglobulin was used for quantitative precipitation of in vivo labelled PF-4 in monkey serum. The results suggest that the active protein had an intra-platelet half-life of about 21 hours. In vitro 125I-labelled human PF-4 was injected intravenously into two monkeys and isolated by immuno-precipita-tion from platelet-poor plasma and from platelets disrupted after gel-filtration. Plasma PF-4 was found to have a half-life of 7 to 11 hours. Some of the labelled PF-4 was associated with platelets and this fraction had a rapid initial disappearance rate and a subsequent half-life close to that of plasma PF-4. The results are compatible with the hypothesis that granular PF-4 belongs to a separate compartment, whereas membrane-bound PF-4 and plasma PF-4 may interchange.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-70
Author(s):  
Shiv Dev Singh ◽  
Arvind Kumar ◽  
Firoz Babar ◽  
Neetu Sachan ◽  
Arun Kumar Sharma

Background: Thienopyrimidines are the bioisoster of quinazoline and unlike quinazoline exist in three isomeric forms corresponding to the three possible types annulation of thiophene to the pyrimidine ring viz thieno[2,3-d] pyrimidine, thieno[3,2-d] pyrimidine and thieno[3,4-d]pyrimidine. Heterocyclic containing the thienopyrimidinone moiety exhibits various pronounced activities such as anti-hypertensive, analgesic and anti-inflammatory, antiviral, platelet aggregation inhibitory, antiprotozoal bronchodilatory, phosphodiesterase inhibitory, antihistaminic, antipsychotic and antimicrobial activity. Objective: Synthesis of novel 3(N,N-dialkylamino)alkyl/phenyl substituted thieno[2,3-d]pyrimidinones as H1-anti-histaminic and antimicrobial agents. Methods: A series of 3-[(N,N-dialkylamino)alkyl/phenyl]-2-(1H)thioxo-5,6,7,8-tetrahydrobenzo(b) thieno(2,3-d)pyrimidine-4(3H)-ones[4a-d], their oxo analogous [5a-d] and 3-[(N,N-dialkylamino)alkyl]- 2-chlorophenyl-5,6,7,8-tetrahydrobenzo(b)thieno(2,3-d)pyrimidine- 4 (3H)-ones[6a-d]derivative were synthesized from 2-amino-4,5,6,7-tetrahydrobenzo(b)thiophene-3-carboxylic acid by nucleophilic substitution of different N,N-dialkyl alkylene/phenylene diamines on activated 3-acylchloride moiety followed by cyclocondensation with carbon disulfide and ethanolic potassium hydroxide to get [4a-d] and in second reaction by condensation with 4-chlorobenzoyl chloride to get [6a-d] by single pot novel innovative route. The oxo analogous [5a-d] were prepared by treating derivatives [4a-d] with potassium permagnate in ethanolic KOH. The synthesized compound were evaluated for H1-antihistaminic and antimicrobial activities. Results: All synthesized compounds exhibited significant H1-antihistaminic activity by in vitro and in vivo screening methods and data were verified analytically and statistically. The compound 4a, 4b, 5a and 5b showed significant H1-antihistaminiic activity than the reference standard chlorpheniramine maleate. The compound 6d, 6c, 5c and 4c exhibited significant antimicrobial activity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroaki Kanzaki ◽  
Tetsuhiro Chiba ◽  
Junjie Ao ◽  
Keisuke Koroki ◽  
Kengo Kanayama ◽  
...  

AbstractFGF19/FGFR4 autocrine signaling is one of the main targets for multi-kinase inhibitors (MKIs). However, the molecular mechanisms underlying FGF19/FGFR4 signaling in the antitumor effects to MKIs in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain unclear. In this study, the impact of FGFR4/ERK signaling inhibition on HCC following MKI treatment was analyzed in vitro and in vivo assays. Serum FGF19 in HCC patients treated using MKIs, such as sorafenib (n = 173) and lenvatinib (n = 40), was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Lenvatinib strongly inhibited the phosphorylation of FRS2 and ERK, the downstream signaling molecules of FGFR4, compared with sorafenib and regorafenib. Additional use of a selective FGFR4 inhibitor with sorafenib further suppressed FGFR4/ERK signaling and synergistically inhibited HCC cell growth in culture and xenograft subcutaneous tumors. Although serum FGF19high (n = 68) patients treated using sorafenib exhibited a significantly shorter progression-free survival and overall survival than FGF19low (n = 105) patients, there were no significant differences between FGF19high (n = 21) and FGF19low (n = 19) patients treated using lenvatinib. In conclusion, robust inhibition of FGF19/FGFR4 is of importance for the exertion of antitumor effects of MKIs. Serum FGF19 levels may function as a predictive marker for drug response and survival in HCC patients treated using sorafenib.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qilu Wei ◽  
Ning Kong ◽  
Xiaohui Liu ◽  
Run Tian ◽  
Ming Jiao ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Osteoarthritis (OA) is a disease of the entire joint involving synovial fibrosis and inflammation. Pathological changes to the synovium can accelerate the progression of OA. Pirfenidone (PFD) is a potent anti-fibrotic drug with additional anti-inflammatory properties. However, the influence of PFD on OA is unknown. Methods Proliferation of human fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLSs) after treatment with TGF-β1 or PFD was evaluated using a Cell Counting Kit-8 assay and their migration using a Transwell assay. The expression of fibrosis-related genes (COL1A1, TIMP-1, and ACTA-2) and those related to inflammation (IL-6 and TNF-α) was quantified by real-time quantitative PCR. The protein expression levels of COL1A1, α-SMA (coded by ACTA-2), IL-6 and TNF-α were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. A rabbit model of OA was established and then PFD was administered by gavage. The expression of genes related to fibrosis (COL1A1, TIMP-1, and ADAM-12) and inflammation (IL-6 and TNF-α) was measured using RNA extracted from the synovium. Synovial tissue was examined histologically after staining with H&E, Masson’s trichrome, and immunofluorescence. Synovitis scores, the volume fraction of collagen, and mean fluorescence intensity were calculated. Degeneration of articular cartilage was analyzed using a Safranin O-fast green stain and OARSI grading. Results The proliferation of FLSs was greatest when induced with 2.5 ng/ml TGF-β1 although it did not promote their migration. Therefore, 2.5 ng/ml TGF-β1 was used to stimulate the FLSs and evaluate the effects of PFD, which inhibited the migration of FLSs at concentrations as low as 1.0 mg/ml. PFD decreased the expression of COL1A1 while TGF-β1 increased both mRNA and protein expression levels of IL-6 but had no effect on α-SMA or TNF-α expression. PFD decreased mRNA expression levels of COL1A1, IL-6, and TNF-α in vivo. H&E staining and synovitis scores indicated that PFD reduced synovial inflammation, while Masson’s trichrome and immunofluorescence staining suggested that PFD decreased synovial fibrosis. Safranin O-Fast Green staining and the OARSI scores demonstrated that PFD delayed the progression of OA. Conclusions PFD attenuated synovial fibrosis and inflammation, and postponed the progression of osteoarthritis in a modified Hulth model of OA in rabbits, which was related to its anti-fibrotic and anti-inflammatory properties.


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