Pharmacologic analysis of non-synonymous coding 5-HT2A SNPs reveals alterations psychedelic drug potencies and efficacies

Serotonin (5-Hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) 2A receptor (5-HT2AR) signaling is essential for the actions of classical psychedelic drugs. In this study, we examined whether random sequence variations in the gene (single nucleotide polymorphisms, SNPs) encoding the 5-HT2AR affect the signaling of four commonly used psychedelic drugs. We examined the in vitro pharmacology of seven non-synonymous SNPs, which give rise to S12N, T25N, D48N, I197V, A230T, A447V, and H452Y variant 5-HT2A serotonin receptors. We found that these non-synonymous SNPs exert statistically significant, although modest, effects on the efficacy and potency of four therapeutically relevant hallucinogens. Significantly, the in vitro pharmacological effects of the SNPs drug actions at 5-HT2AR are drug specific.

Testing the Stability of Drug Resistance on Cryopreserved, Gene-Engineered Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) have emerged as a powerful tool for in vitro modelling of diseases with broad application in drug development or toxicology testing. These assays usually require large quantities of hiPSC, which can entail long-term storage via cryopreservation of the same cell charges. However, it is essential that cryopreservation does not oppose durable changes on the cells. In this project, we characterize one parameter of functionality of one that is well established in the field, in a different research context, an applied hiPSC line (iPS11), namely their resistance to a medium size library of chemo interventions (>160 drugs). We demonstrate that cells, before and after cryopreservation, do not change their relative overall drug response phenotypes, as defined by identification of the top 20 interventions causing dose-dependent reduction of cell growth. Importantly, also frozen cells that are exogenously enforced for stable overexpression of oncogenes myelocytomatosis (cMYC) or tumor protein 53 mutation (TP53R175H), respectively, are not changed in their relative top 20 drugs response compared to their non-frozen counterparts. Taken together, our results support iPSCs as a reliable in vitro platform for in vitro pharmacology, further raising hopes that this technology supports biomarker-associated drug development. Given the general debate on ethical and economic problems associated with the reproducibly crisis in biomedicine, our results may be of interest to a wider audience beyond stem cell research.

Current trends in anticancer drug prototype in vitro pharmacology: bibliometric analysis 2019–2021

Identification of novel low molecular weight compounds with antitumor activity is the first important step towards the development of candidate drugs and a popular trend in in vitro pharmacology. The aim of the study was to assess the key trends and rank the scientific priorities in anticancer drug design using bibliometric analysis. The protocol involved using the panel of bibliographic databases (PubMed, Scopus, Cortellis) and analytical web-based tools PubChem, FACTA +, ClustVis, Reaxys, PathwayStudio and VOSviewer software to review a sample of 1657 papers issued 2020–2021.The work was also focused on 70 new promising basic structures and derivatives targeted at inhibiting both individual pro-tumor proteins and signaling cascades. It was found that serine-threonine protein kinases, receptor tyrosine kinases, DNA topoisomerases and tubulins as well as signaling pathways PI3K, mTOR, AKT1, STAT3, HIF-1a, and p53 account for up to 60% of the total structure of cellular targets for the design of anticancer drugs. The increasing scientific interest in innovative inhibitors of tumor-associated protein complexes, transcription factors and metabolic enzymes has been found. The compounds, which belong to heterocycles, glycosides, quinones and terpenes, were mentioned in 71% of papers as the basic structures for antitumor derivatives design. Papers, published in 2019, in which the compounds, such as lapachone, luteolin, quercetin, monastrol, and crisosplenol D are studied in the context of the design of new drug prototypes, have the highest citation rate. The systematic bibliometric approach involving the use of a panel of analytical resources makes it possible to assess R&D trends and scientific priorities in anticancer drug design, thus organically complementing the classic reviews in periodicals.

Mechanism of baricitinib supports artificial intelligence-predicted testing in COVID-19 patients

Baricitinib, is an oral Janus kinase (JAK)1/JAK2 inhibitor approved for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) that was independently hypothesized, using artificial intelligence (AI)-algorithms, to be useful for the treatment of COVID-19 infection via a proposed anti-cytokine effects and as an inhibitor of host cell viral propagation1,2. We validated the AI-predicted biochemical inhibitory effects of baricitinib on human numb-associated kinase (hNAK) members measuring nanomolar affinities for AAK1, BIKE, and GAK. Inhibition of NAKs led to reduced viral infectivity with baricitinib using human primary liver spheroids, which express hAAK1 and hGAK. We evaluated the in vitro pharmacology of baricitinib across relevant leukocyte subpopulations coupled to its in vivo pharmacokinetics and showed it inhibited signaling of cytokines implicated in COVID-19 infection. In a case series of patients with bilateral COVID-19 pneumonia, baricitinib treatment was associated with clinical and radiologic recovery, a rapid decline in SARS-CoV-2 viral load, inflammatory markers, and IL-6 levels. This represents an important example of an AI-predicted treatment showing scientific and clinical promise during a global health crisis. Collectively, these data support further evaluation of the AI-derived hypothesis on anti-cytokine and anti-viral activity and supports its assessment in randomized trials in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Utilizing Genome-Wide mRNA Profiling to Identify the Cytotoxic Chemotherapeutic Mechanism of Triazoloacridone C-1305 as Direct Microtubule Stabilization

Rational drug design and in vitro pharmacology profiling constitute the gold standard in drug development pipelines. Problems arise, however, because this process is often difficult due to limited information regarding the complete identification of a molecule’s biological activities. The increasing affordability of genome-wide next-generation technologies now provides an excellent opportunity to understand a compound’s diverse effects on gene regulation. Here, we used an unbiased approach in lung and colon cancer cell lines to identify the early transcriptomic signatures of C-1305 cytotoxicity that highlight the novel pathways responsible for its biological activity. Our results demonstrate that C-1305 promotes direct microtubule stabilization as a part of its mechanism of action that leads to apoptosis. Furthermore, we show that C-1305 promotes G2 cell cycle arrest by modulating gene expression. The results indicate that C-1305 is the first microtubule stabilizing agent that also is a topoisomerase II inhibitor. This study provides a novel approach and methodology for delineating the antitumor mechanisms of other putative anticancer drug candidates.

Synthesis and Initial Pharmacology of Heterobivalent Ligands Targeting Putative Complexes of Integrin αVβ3 and PAR2

Unpublished data from our labs led us to hypothesize that activated Protein C (aPC) may initiate an anti-inflammatory signal in endothelial cells by modulating both the integrin αVβ3 and Protease-Activated Receptor 2 (PAR2), which may exist in close proximity on the cellular surface. To test this hypothesis and to probe the possible inflammation-related pathway, we designed and synthesized heterobivalent ligands composed of modified versions of two αVβ3 ligands and two agonists of PAR2. These novel ligands were connected via copper-catalyzed alkyne-azide cycloadditions with polyethylene glycol (PEG) spacers of variable length. Initial in vitro pharmacology with EA.hy926 and HUVEC endothelial cells indicated that these bivalent ligands are effective binders of αVβ3 and potent agonists of PAR2. These bivalent ligands were also used in preliminary studies investigating their effects on PAR2 signaling in the presence of inflammatory agents, and represent the first examples of ligands targeting both PARs and integrins.