scholarly journals In Silico Insights into the Mechanism of Action of Epoxy-α-Lapachone and Epoxymethyl-Lawsone in Leishmania spp.

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (12) ◽  
pp. 3537
Author(s):  
Juliana Figueiredo Peixoto ◽  
Adriane da Silva Oliveira ◽  
Patrícia Queiroz Monteiro ◽  
Luiz Filipe Gonçalves-Oliveira ◽  
Valter Viana Andrade-Neto ◽  
...  

Epoxy-α-lapachone (Lap) and Epoxymethyl-lawsone (Law) are oxiranes derived from Lapachol and have been shown to be promising drugs for Leishmaniases treatment. Although, it is known the action spectrum of both compounds affect the Leishmania spp. multiplication, there are gaps in the molecular binding details of target enzymes related to the parasite’s physiology. Molecular docking assays simulations were performed using DockThor server to predict the preferred orientation of both compounds to form stable complexes with key enzymes of metabolic pathway, electron transport chain, and lipids metabolism of Leishmania spp. This study showed the hit rates of both compounds interacting with lanosterol C-14 demethylase (−8.4 kcal/mol to −7.4 kcal/mol), cytochrome c (−10.2 kcal/mol to −8.8 kcal/mol), and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (−8.5 kcal/mol to −7.5 kcal/mol) according to Leishmania spp. and assessed compounds. The set of molecular evidence reinforces the potential of both compounds as multi-target drugs for interrupt the network interactions between parasite enzymes, which can lead to a better efficacy of drugs for the treatment of leishmaniases.

2011 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pooja Singh-Rawal ◽  
Ottó Zsiros ◽  
Sudhakar Bharti ◽  
Győző Garab ◽  
Anjana Jajoo

2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (12) ◽  
pp. 3361-3363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioana Macasoi ◽  
Marius Mioc ◽  
Delia Berceanu Vaduva ◽  
Roxana Ghiulai ◽  
Alexandra Mioc ◽  
...  

Mitochondria play an important role in regulating cell viability. Mitochondrial dysfunction has been associated with many known pathologies including cancer. Mitocans are a class of compounds that alter important mitochondrial functions in cancer cells thus inducing cellular death. New pentacyclic triterpene derivatives are constantly developed with the aim of obtaining highly active antiproliferative agents. In this study a set of previously synthesized rhodamine B triterpene conjugates, designed as mitocans, were in silico evaluated with the purpose of elucidating their targeted mithocondrial mechanism of action. Molecular docking revealed that the compounds would predominantly interact with proteins that are part of the mithocondrial electron transport chain (ETC), such as NAD(P)H-quinone oxidoreductase (NDH) and succinate dehydrogenase (SDH).


2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 1318.2-1318
Author(s):  
H. R. Lee ◽  
S. J. Yoo ◽  
J. Kim ◽  
I. S. Yoo ◽  
C. K. Park ◽  
...  

Background:Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and T helper 17 (TH17) cells have been known to play an important role in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, the interrelationship between ROS and TH17 remains unclear in RAObjectives:To explore whether ROS affect TH17 cells in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of RA patients, we analyzed ROS expressions among T cell subsets following treatment with mitochondrial electron transport chain complex inhibitors.Methods:Blood samples were collected from 40 RA patients and 10 healthy adult volunteers. RA activity was divided according to clinical parameter DAS28. PBMC cells were obtained from the whole blood using lymphocyte separation medium density gradient centrifugation. Following PBMC was stained with Live/Dead stain dye, cells were incubated with antibodies for CD3, CD4, CD8, and CD25. After fixation and permeabilization, samples were stained with antibodies for FoxP3 and IL-17A. MitoSox were used for mitochondrial specific staining.Results:The frequency of TH17 cells was increased by 4.83 folds in moderate disease activity group (5.1>DAS28≥3.2) of RA patients compared to healthy control. Moderate RA activity patients also showed higher ratio of TH17/Treg than healthy control (3.57 folds). All RA patients had elevated expression of mitochondrial specific ROS than healthy control. When PBMC cells were treated with 2.5uM of antimycin A (mitochondrial electron transport chain complex III inhibitor) for 16 h, the frequency of TH17 cells was significantly decreased.Conclusion:The mitochondrial electron transport chain complex III inhibitor markedly downregulated the frequency of TH17 cells in moderate disease activity patients with RA. These findings provide a novel approach to regulate TH17 function in RA through mitochondrial metabolism related ROS production.References:[1]Szekanecz, Z., et al., New insights in synovial angiogenesis. Joint Bone Spine, 2010. 77(1): p. 13-9.[2]Prevoo, M.L., et al., Modified disease activity scores that include twenty-eight-joint counts. Development and validation in a prospective longitudinal study of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheum, 1995. 38(1): p. 44-8.Disclosure of Interests:None declared


Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 276
Author(s):  
Wanying Chen ◽  
Bo Jia ◽  
Junyu Chen ◽  
Yujiao Feng ◽  
Yue Li ◽  
...  

The mutual shading among individual field-grown maize plants resulting from high planting density inevitably reduces leaf photosynthesis, while regulating the photosynthetic transport chain has a strong impact on photosynthesis. However, the effect of high planting density on the photosynthetic electron transport chain in maize currently remains unclear. In this study, we simultaneously measured prompt chlorophyll a fluorescence (PF), modulated 820 nm reflection (MR) and delayed chlorophyll a fluorescence (DF) in order to investigate the effect of high planting density on the photosynthetic electron transport chain in two maize hybrids widely grown in China. PF transients demonstrated a gradual reduction in their signal amplitude with increasing planting density. In addition, high planting density induced positive J-step and G-bands of the PF transients, reduced the values of PF parameters PIABS, RC/CSO, TRO/ABS, ETO/TRO and REO/ETO, and enhanced ABS/RC and N. MR kinetics showed an increase of their lowest point with increasing high planting density, and thus the values of MR parameters VPSI and VPSII-PSI were reduced. The shapes of DF induction and decay curves were changed by high planting density. In addition, high planting density reduced the values of DF parameters I1, I2, L1 and L2, and enhanced I2/I1. These results suggested that high planting density caused harm on multiple components of maize photosynthetic electron transport chain, including an inactivation of PSII RCs, a blocked electron transfer between QA and QB, a reduction in PSI oxidation and re-reduction activities, and an impaired PSI acceptor side. Moreover, a comparison between PSII and PSI activities demonstrated the greater effect of plant density on the former.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jong Hyun Kim ◽  
Samuel Ofori ◽  
Sean Parkin ◽  
Hemendra Vekaria ◽  
Patrick G. Sullivan ◽  
...  

Expanding the chemical diversity of metal complexes provides a robust platform to generate functional bioactive reagents.


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