Reactivators are vital for the treatment of organophosphorus nerve agent (OPNA) intoxication but new alternatives are needed due to their limited clinical applicability. The toxicity of OPNAs stems from covalent inhibition of the essential enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE), which reactivators relieve via a chemical reaction with the inactivated enzyme. Here, we present new strategies and tools for developing reactivators. We discover suitable inhibitor scaffolds by using an activity-independent competition assay to study non-covalent interactions with OPNA-AChEs and transform these inhibitors into broad-spectrum reactivators. Moreover, we identify determinants of reactivation efficiency by analysing reactivation and pre-reactivation kinetics together with structural data. Our results show that new OPNA reactivators can be discovered rationally by exploiting detailed knowledge of the reactivation mechanism of OPNA-inhibited AChE.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/chem.202200678 | DOI Listing |
Nat Struct Mol Biol
January 2025
Institute of Biophysical Chemistry and Center for Biomolecular Magnetic Resonance, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany.
Infection of cells with high-risk strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV) causes cancer in various types of epithelial tissue. HPV infections are responsible for ~4.5% of all cancers worldwide.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClin Cancer Res
January 2025
Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, Surrey, United Kingdom.
Purpose: Advanced prostate cancer (PCa) is invariably fatal with the androgen receptor (AR) being a major therapeutic target. AR signaling inhibitors have improved overall survival for men with advanced PCa, but treatment resistance is inevitable and includes reactivation of AR signaling. Novel therapeutic approaches targeting these mechanisms to block tumor growth is an urgent unmet clinical need.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCancer Res
December 2024
Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Toronto, Canada.
IDH-mutant low-grade gliomas (LGGs) are slow-growing brain tumors that frequently progress to aggressive high-grade gliomas that have dismal outcomes. In a recent study, Wu and colleagues provide critical insights into the mechanisms underlying malignant progression by analyzing single-cell gene expression and chromatin accessibility across different tumor grades. Their findings support a two-phase model: in early stages, tumors are primarily driven by oligodendrocyte precursor-like cells and epigenetic alterations that silence tumor suppressors like CDKN2A and activate oncogenes such as PDGFRA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Hallmark features of AD are well defined, however, the generation of in vitro models of sporadic AD poses a significant challenge due to the complex, undefined etiology and slow progression of this disease. Herpes simplex virus type I (HSV-1) is a pathogen that is gaining increasing attention as a potential causative agent in AD pathogenesis. HSV-1 is a DNA virus that typically resides throughout the peripheral nervous system in a latent state.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement
December 2024
Tulane National Primate Research Center, Tulane University, Coviington, LA, USA.
Background: Varicella zoster virus (VZV) is latent in ganglionic neurons in >90% of the world population and reactivates to produce herpes zoster in older adults. Zoster increases dementia risk, of which Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common. However, a critical barrier in studying the mechanisms by which VZV contributes to dementia is that VZV is an exclusively human virus.
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