Publications by authors named "Abu-Baker M Abdel-Aal"

The immune system is essential for the defense against infections and is critically implicated in various disorders, including immunodeficiency, autoimmunity, inflammation and cancer. The current study includes a new design of palmitoylated derivatives of thioglycolic acids (PTGAs) capable of triggering innate immune responses. The new series were accessible through a three-step synthetic route, including N-palmitoylation, Claisen-Schmidt condensation and thia-Michael addition.

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Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a common chronic disease that significantly impacts the quality of life. Lidocaine is known to have anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects. This study evaluated the effect of lidocaine analogs in a (DP)-induced AR mouse model.

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Lidocaine, a local anesthetic, is known to possess anti-inflammatory properties. However, its clinical use is limited by inconveniences, such as its local synesthetic effects. This study evaluated lidocaine analogs designed and synthesized to overcome the disadvantages of lidocaine, having anti-inflammatory properties.

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  • Cancer is linked to increased tubulin and microtubule activity, crucial for cell movement and spread; new fatty acid-conjugated chalcones are developed to inhibit tubulin polymerization as potential anticancer treatments.
  • These compounds demonstrated significant effectiveness in blocking tubulin polymerization and killing cancer cells in lab tests, particularly in breast and lung cancer cell lines, without harming normal cells.
  • A study on the compounds' characteristics showed that their effectiveness is influenced by their molecular properties, specifically their dipole moment and reactivity, showing promise for future cancer therapies.
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Essential oils obtained from medicinal plants show high therapeutic potential against several types of pathologies, including Alzheimer's disease. The purpose of this work was to study the chemical composition and anticholinesterase inhibitory activity of the essential oil obtained from leaves collected from Malaysia. Twenty-four components were identified using gas chromatography-flame ionization detection (GC-FID) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS), which represent 99.

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Background And Objectives: is a significant source of morbidity and mortality for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Prolonged use of fluconazole as empirical antifungal prophylaxis in AML patients leads to overexpression of efflux pump genes that resulted in the emergence of azole-resistant species. Consequently, the introduction of a new strategy to improve the management of infections is an urgent need.

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The ubiquitylation of NF-κB essential modulator (NEMO) is part of the intracellular immune signalling pathway. Monoubiquitylated NEMO is required for exploring the mechanism of NEMO linear ubiquitylation by LUBAC (linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex), but is not accessible by biological techniques. Here we perform the chemical ubiquitylation of NEMO using a ligation auxiliary, which only requires a two-step synthesis, and is easily installed onto the lysine side-chain.

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Solubility is a key property of peptides and of central importance to the success of solid-phase peptide synthesis and subsequent peptide purification and handling. Substitution of the backbone amide bond can dramatically increase peptide solubility. Backbone amide bond protection works by preventing the formation of interchain association and can be used both to synthesize aggregation-prone peptide sequences on solid phase and to improve solubility of a peptide post synthesis.

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A backbone amide bond protecting group, 2-hydroxy-4-methoxy-5-nitrobenzyl (Hmnb), improved the synthesis of aggregation and aspartimide-prone peptides. Introduction of Hmnb is automated and carried out during peptide assembly by addition of 4-methoxy-5-nitrosalicylaldehyde to the peptidyl-resin and on-resin reduction to the secondary amine. Acylation of the hindered secondary amine is aided by the formation of an internal nitrophenol ester that undergoes a favourable O,N intramolecular acyl transfer.

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The synthesis of peptides rich in aggregation prone sequences can be improved with backbone protection. We report the automated introduction of backbone protection to a peptide. This new method was applied in a fully-automated synthesis, giving improved handling, quality and yield of several challenging target sequences.

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The mucin MUC1 is overexpressed and aberrantly glycosylated by many epithelial cancer cells manifested by truncated O-linked saccharides. Although tumor-associated MUC1 has generated considerable attention because of its potential for the development of a therapeutic cancer vaccine, it has been difficult to design constructs that consistently induce cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs) and ADCC-mediating antibodies specific for the tumor form of MUC1. We have designed, chemically synthesized, and immunologically examined vaccine candidates each composed of a glycopeptide derived from MUC1, a promiscuous Thelper peptide, and a TLR2 (Pam3 CysSK4 ) or TLR9 (CpG-ODN 1826) agonist.

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  • Infection with group A streptococcus (GAS) can lead to serious diseases, and targeting the oral-nasal mucosa for vaccination could help prevent these illnesses.
  • The researchers developed a lipopeptide vaccine candidate combining a peptide from GAS M protein (J14), a universal T cell helper epitope, and a lipid moiety to stimulate immune responses.
  • The results showed that intranasal administration of this vaccine candidate generates specific antibodies that can inhibit GAS growth and reduce throat colonization, suggesting its potential as a needle-free vaccine.
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Overexpression of certain tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens (TACA) caused by malignant transformation offers promising targets to develop novel antitumor vaccines, provided the ability to break their inherent low immunogenicity and overcome the tolerance of the immune system. We designed, synthesized, and immunologically evaluated a number of fully synthetic new chimeric constructs incorporating a cluster of the most common TACA (known as Tn antigen) covalently attached to T-cell peptide epitopes derived from polio virus and ovalbumin and included a synthetic built-in adjuvant consisting of two 16-carbon lipoamino acids. Vaccine candidates were able to induce significantly strong antibody responses in mice without the need for any additional adjuvant, carrier protein, or special pharmaceutical preparation (e.

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Streptococcus pyogenes (group A streptococcus, GAS) is a Gram-positive bacterial pathogen responsible for a wide variety of diseases. To date, GAS vaccine development has focused primarily on the M-protein. The M-protein is highly variable at the amino (N)-terminus (determining serotype) but is conserved at the carboxyl (C)-terminus.

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Stimulation of toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) by bacterial lipoproteins induces fast non-specific immune responses against pathogens followed by slow but specific adaptive immune responses. Development of synthetic TLR2 agonists/antagonists would be useful in the prevention of different infectious and immunologic disorders. The current study reports synthesis and TLR2 activity of two simple TLR2 ligands, which feature minimal structural requirement for TLR2 activity (two long lipid chains) and stimulate agonistic activity at nanomolar concentration.

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  • Immunological assessment of GAS lipopeptides shows that the spatial arrangement of vaccine components affects immune response quality and quantity.
  • The most effective immune response came from a lipopeptide with a lipid moiety at the C-terminus, but it did not provide protection against bacteria.
  • The best protection was achieved with a lipopeptide that had a C-terminal J14, linked to P25 and a lipid moiety, highlighting the significance of epitope orientation in vaccine design.
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  • * The research explores how these lipopeptides can activate the NF-kappaB pathway through toll-like receptor-2 (TLR2), detailing the influences of alkyl chain length and dose on this activation.
  • * Findings indicate that longer alkyl chains (16 carbons being most effective) boost NF-kappaB activation, while the location of the lipid moiety on the peptide does not significantly impact the activation, and lipopeptides with multiple LAAs show enhanced effectiveness. *
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Synthesis of four glycolipids with different number of lauroyl groups on glucose or cellobiose as scaffolds is described. Their immunological evaluations either admixed with or covalently linked to J8, a peptide antigen derived from the C-terminus of the antiphagocytic M-protein of group A streptococcus, are also investigated. Administration of mixtures of J8 and glycolipids to B10BR (H-2(k)) mice induced low-levels of J8-specific IgG antibodies.

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  • - Carbohydrates serve as effective carriers for peptide antigens in vaccines, enhancing their recognition by the immune system and protecting them from degradation.
  • - Researchers developed a promising carbohydrate-based vaccine that combines specific peptide antigens from group A streptococcal (GAS) M proteins with carbohydrate cores linked to lipophilic amino acids.
  • - In vivo studies showed that this self-adjuvanting liposaccharide vaccine elicited strong immune responses, demonstrated by high serum IgG antibody levels against the peptide epitopes J8 and J14.
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  • Group A streptococcus (GAS) is linked to various diseases, and researchers are exploring carbohydrate carriers for vaccine development.
  • The study focuses on creating optimized d-glucose and d-galactose carriers that can attach multiple copies of GAS peptide antigens, which could protect against a significant percentage of GAS strains.
  • Preliminary results showed that mice immunized with the new liposaccharide vaccine candidates produced high levels of antibodies against the selected peptide antigens, indicating strong immune responses.
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  • The study created 16 new vaccine candidates targeting group A streptococcus (GAS), incorporating a universal T-cell epitope (P25), a GAS-specific B-cell epitope (J14), and a lipid component for better immune response.
  • Testing in mice showed that these vaccines triggered specific J14-targeted IgG antibodies after immunization without needing added adjuvants.
  • The arrangement of the components significantly impacted the antibody response, with the optimal design placing the lipid moiety at the C-terminus, connected to P25 at the N-terminus and J14 on the lysine side chain.
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