Unveiling Sticholysin II and plasmid DNA interaction: Implications for developing non-viral vectors.

Non-viral gene delivery systems offer significant potential for gene therapy due to their versatility, safety, and cost advantages over viral vectors. However, their effectiveness can be hindered by the challenge of efficiently releasing the genetic cargo from endosomes to prevent degradation in lysosomes. To overcome this obstacle, functional components can be incorporated into these systems.

Marine Invertebrates: A Promissory Still Unexplored Source of Inhibitors of Biomedically Relevant Metallo Aminopeptidases Belonging to the M1 and M17 Families.

Proteolytic enzymes, also known as peptidases, are critical in all living organisms. Peptidases control the cleavage, activation, turnover, and synthesis of proteins and regulate many biochemical and physiological processes. They are also involved in several pathophysiological processes.

Bufadienolides preferentially inhibit aminopeptidase N among mammalian metallo-aminopeptidases; relationship with effects on human melanoma MeWo cells.

Bufadienolides are steroids that inhibit Na/K-ATPase; recent evidence shows that bufalin inhibits the activity of porcine aminopeptidase N (pAPN). We evaluated the selectivity of some bufadienolides on metallo-aminopeptidases. Among the enzymes of the M1 and M17 families, pAPN and porcine aminopeptidase A (pAPA) were the only targets of some bufadienolides.