Publications by authors named "Lina Baranauskiene"

Background And Purpose: Tumour hypoxia frequently presents a major challenge in the treatment of neuroblastoma (NBL). The neuroblastoma cells produce carbonic anhydrase IX (CA IX), an enzyme crucial for the survival of cancer cells in low-oxygen environments.

Experimental Approach: We designed and synthesised a novel high-affinity inhibitor of CA IX.

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Carbonic anhydrase (CA) was among the first proteins whose X-ray crystal structure was solved to atomic resolution. CA proteins have essentially the same fold and similar active centers that differ in only several amino acids. Primary sulfonamides are well defined, strong and specific binders of CA.

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Introduction: Modern drug discovery revolves around designing ligands that target the chosen biomolecule, typically proteins. For this, the evaluation of affinities of putative ligands is crucial. This has given rise to a multitude of dedicated computational and experimental methods that are constantly being developed and improved.

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We introduce a protein-ligand binding database (PLBD) that presents thermodynamic and kinetic data of reversible protein interactions with small molecule compounds. The manually curated binding data are linked to protein-ligand crystal structures, enabling structure-thermodynamics correlations to be determined. The database contains over 5500 binding datasets of 556 sulfonamide compound interactions with the 12 catalytically active human carbonic anhydrase isozymes defined by fluorescent thermal shift assay, isothermal titration calorimetry, inhibition of enzymatic activity and surface plasmon resonance.

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Numerous human cancers, especially hypoxic solid tumors, express carbonic anhydrase IX (CAIX), a transmembrane protein with its catalytic domain located in the extracellular space. CAIX acidifies the tumor microenvironment, promotes metastases and invasiveness, and is therefore considered a promising anticancer target. We have designed a series of high affinity and high selectivity fluorescein-labeled compounds targeting CAIX to visualize and quantify CAIX expression in cancer cells.

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The formation of amyloid fibril plaques in the brain creates inflammation and neuron death. This process is observed in neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Alpha-synuclein is the main protein found in neuronal inclusions of patients who have suffered from Parkinson's disease.

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Twelve carbonic anhydrase (CA) isoforms catalyze carbon dioxide hydration to bicarbonate and acid protons and are responsible for many biological functions in human body. Despite their vital functions, they are also responsible for, or implicated in, numerous ailments and diseases such as glaucoma, high altitude sickness, and cancer. Because CA isoforms are highly homologous, clinical drugs designed to inhibit enzymatic activity of a particular isoform, can also bind to others with similar affinity causing toxic side effects.

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A key part of the optimization of small molecules in pharmaceutical inhibitor development is to vary the molecular design to enhance complementarity of chemical features of the compound with the positioning of amino acids in the active site of a target enzyme. Typically this involves iterations of synthesis, to modify the compound, and biophysical assay, to assess the outcomes. Selective targeting of the anti-cancer carbonic anhydrase isoform XII (CA XII), this process is challenging because the overall fold is very similar across the twelve CA isoforms.

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This Standard Operating Protocol (SOP) describes the key steps of experimental setup for an inhibition assay of enzymatic activity. The protocol begins with the design of an experiment, including the choice of a catalytic reaction, optimal conditions, fraction and concentration of the active enzyme, substrate and inhibitor concentrations and the positive and negative controls. The protocol ends with the data analysis followed by a typical example of an experiment.

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The protein POT1 (Protection of Telomeres 1) is an integral part of the shelterin complex that protects the ends of human chromosomes from degradation or end fusions. It is the only component of shelterin that binds single-stranded DNA. We describe here the application of two separate fluorescent thermal shift assays (FTSA) that provide quantitative biophysical characterization of POT1 stability and its interactions.

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Monoclonal and recombinant antibodies are widely used for the diagnostics and therapy of cancer. They are generated to interact with cell surface proteins which are usually involved in the development and progression of cancer. Carbonic anhydrase XII (CA XII) contributes to the survival of tumors under hypoxic conditions thus is considered a candidate target for antibody-based therapy.

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The pore-forming toxins, inerolysin (INY) and vaginolysin (VLY), produced by vaginal bacteria Lactobacillus iners and Gardnerella vaginalis were studied using the artificial cholesterol-rich tethered bilayer membranes (tBLMs) by electrochemical techniques. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) of tBLMs attested for the toxin-induced impairment of the integrity of phospholipid membranes. This observation was in line with the atomic force microscopy data demonstrating formation of oligomeric protein assemblies in tBLMs.

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: In pharmaceutical design where future drugs are developed by targeting a specific chosen protein, the evaluation of ligand affinity is crucial. For this very purpose are a multitude of diverse methods which are continuously being improved, which, in turn, makes it difficult to choose which techniques to use in practice. : In this review, the authors discuss both experimental and computational approaches for affinity evaluation.

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Isothermal titration calorimetry is widely used to measure the affinities and enthalpies of interaction between proteins and/or small molecules. The quantitative nature of the technique is especially useful in the characterization of recombinant proteins while determining the fraction of protein capable of binding a specific ligand and thus the protein purity. The revealed thermodynamic information sheds light on the binding mechanism, important for the targeted drug design of the biologics.

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The well-known genotypic and phenotypic diversity of G. vaginalis resulted in its classification into at least four subgroups (clades) with diverse genomic properties. To evaluate the virulence potential of G.

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Human carbonic anhydrase (CA) IX has emerged as a promising anticancer target and a diagnostic biomarker for solid hypoxic tumors. Novel fluorinated CA IX inhibitors exhibited up to 50 pM affinity towards the recombinant human CA IX, selectivity over other CAs, and direct binding to Zn(II) in the active site of CA IX inducing novel conformational changes as determined by X-ray crystallography. Mass spectrometric gas-analysis confirmed the CA IX-based mechanism of the inhibitors in a CRISPR/Cas9-mediated CA IX knockout in HeLa cells.

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The aim of rational drug design is to develop small molecules using a quantitative approach to optimize affinity. This should enhance the development of chemical compounds that would specifically, selectively, reversibly, and with high affinity interact with a target protein. It is not yet possible to develop such compounds using computational (i.

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Membrane-associated carbonic anhydrase (CA) isoform IV participates in carbon metabolism and pH homeostasis and is implicated in the development of eye diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa and glaucoma. A series of substituted benzenesulfonamides were designed and their binding affinity to CA IV was determined by fluorescent thermal shift assay and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). Compound [(4-chloro-2-phenylsulfanyl-5-sulfamoyl-benzoyl)amino]propyl acetate (19) bound CA IV with the K of 1.

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Hypoxia occurs in most solid tumors, and it has been shown to be an independent prognostic indicator of a poor clinical outcome for patients with various cancers. Therefore, constructing a nanosystem specifically targeting cancer cells under hypoxia conditions is a promising approach for cancer therapy. Herein, we develop a porous silicon (PSi)-based nanosystem for targeted cancer therapy.

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Structural features of nanoparticles have recently been explored for different types of applications. To explore specific particles as nanomedicine and physically destroy cancer is interesting, which might avoid many obstacles in cancer treatment, for example, drug resistance. However, one key element and technical challenge of those systems is to selectively target them to cancer cells.

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Herbicides of the dinitroaniline chemical class, widely used oryzalin and trifluralin, and also nitralin were tested as inhibitors of recombinant human carbonic anhydrases (CAs). Oryzalin bound and inhibited 11 out of 12 catalytically active CA isoforms present in the human body with the affinities in the same range as clinically used CA drugs, while no effect was detected for the other two compounds. Binding of all three herbicides was examined by fluorescence-based thermal shift assay, isothermal titration calorimetry, and the inhibition of carbon dioxide hydratase activity.

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Human carbonic anhydrase XIV (CA XIV), a transmembrane protein, highly expressed in the central nervous system, is difficult to recombinantly express and purify in large scale for the measurements of inhibitor binding and drug design. CA XIV belongs to the family of twelve catalytically active CA isoforms in the human body. Disorders in the expression of CA XIV cause serious diseases and CA XIV has been described as a possible drug target for the treatment of epilepsy, some retinopathies, and skin tumors.

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Epigenetic modifications of histone tails play an essential role in the regulation of eukaryotic transcription. Writer and eraser enzymes establish and maintain the epigenetic code by creating or removing posttranslational marks. Specific binding proteins, called readers, recognize the modifications and mediate epigenetic signalling.

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Article Synopsis
  • A variety of diseases are linked to the formation of amyloid fibrils, which share common structural features like beta-sheet-rich aggregates, regardless of the specific proteins involved.
  • Researchers are interested in developing generic inhibitors for these fibril formations to treat amyloid-related diseases.
  • A study identified five effective flavone derivatives and the compound EGCG that inhibit the aggregation of alpha-synuclein, but none of the tested compounds affected beta-amyloid aggregation.
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Human carbonic anhydrase IX (CA IX) is highly expressed in tumor tissues, and its selective inhibition provides a potential target for the treatment of numerous cancers. Development of potent, highly selective inhibitors against this target remains an unmet need in anticancer therapeutics. A series of fluorinated benzenesulfonamides with substituents on the benzene ring was designed and synthesized.

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