Background: Recently, novel gold(III)-dithiocarbamato peptidomimetics, designed to target peptide transporters upregulated in several tumor cells have shown promise as anticancer agents.
Results: The biological behavior of the most promising derivatives AuD8 and AuD9 was studied in PC3 and DU145 prostate cancer cells. They exert higher cytotoxicity in vitro than the reference drug cisplatin and induce apoptosis, promoting mitochondrial membrane permeabilization and stimulating reactive oxygen species generation. Moreover, they inhibit both selenoenzyme thioredoxin reductase and proteasome activity. Additionally, AuD8 effectively reduces tumor growth in prostate tumor-bearing nude mice with minimal systemic toxicity.
Conclusion: Altogether, our results provide insights into the anticancer activity of these gold(III)-dithiocarbamato peptidomimetics and support their potential as new agents for prostate cancer treatment.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.4155/fmc.14.81 | DOI Listing |
Sci Adv
January 2025
Center for Synaptic Neuroscience and Technology (NSYN@UniGe), Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Largo Rosanna Benzi, 10, 16132 Genova, Italy.
The blood-brain barrier (BBB) maintains brain homeostasis but also prevents most drugs from entering the brain. No paracellular diffusion of solutes is allowed because of tight junctions that are made impermeable by the expression of claudin5 (CLDN5) by brain endothelial cells. The possibility of regulating the BBB permeability in a transient and reversible fashion is in strong demand for the pharmacological treatment of brain diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChembiochem
January 2025
University of Pittsburgh, Department of Chemistry, 219 Parkman Ave., 15260, Pittsburgh, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
The α-helix is an abundant and functionally important element of protein secondary structure, which has motivated intensive efforts toward chemical strategies to stabilize helical folds. One such method is the incorporation of non-canonical backbone composition through an additional methyl substituent at the Cα atom. Examples of monomers include the achiral 2-aminoisobutyric acid (Aib) with geminal dimethyl substitution and chiral analogues with one methyl and one non-methyl substituent.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPolym Chem
August 2024
Department of Chemistry, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA.
While the conformational ensembles of disordered peptides and peptidomimetics are complex and challenging to characterize, they are a critical component in the paradigm connecting macromolecule sequence, structure, and function. In molecules that do not adopt a single predominant conformation, the conformational ensemble contains rich structural information that, if accessible, can provide a fundamental understanding related to desirable functions such as cell penetration of a therapeutic or the generation of tunable enzyme-mimetic architecture. To address the fundamental challenge of describing broad conformational ensembles, we developed a model system of peptidomimetics comprised of polar glycine and hydrophobic -butylglycine to characterize using a suite of analytical techniques.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProteins
January 2025
Department of Biotechnology, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology, Haringhata, India.
The structural plasticity of proteins at the molecular level is largely dictated by backbone torsion angles, which play a critical role in ligand recognition and binding. To establish the anion-induced cooperative arrangement of the main-chain (mc) torsion, herein, we analyzed a set of naturally occurring CαNN motifs as "static models" for their anion-binding competence through docking and molecular dynamics simulations and decoded its torsion angle influenced mc-driven anion recognition potential. By comparing a pool of 20 distinct sets of CαNN motif with identical sequences in their "anion bound/present, aP" and "anion free/absent, aA" versions, we could discern that there exists a positive correlation between the "difference of anion residence time (ΔR)" and "difference among the main-chain torsion angle" of the aP and aA population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Med Chem
January 2025
Shanghai Applied Radiation Institute, School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, P. R. China.
The prevalence of drug-resistant bacteria is a major challenge throughout the world, especially with respect to Gram-negative bacteria, such as drug-resistant , which are regarded as the greatest bacterial threat to human health by the World Health Organization (WHO). In this work, 1,3,4-thiadiazole was introduced into the main skeleton of the classical peptidomimetic peptide deformylase (PDF) inhibitor in pursuit of highly efficient and broad-spectrum bacteriostatic drugs. Upon detailed structure-activity relationship study, PDF inhibitors that possess satisfactory activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria as well as a lower potential for methemoglobin toxicity were screened out.
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