Background: Bombesin (BBN) is a short peptide with a high affinity for receptors that are expressed on the surface of various types of cancer cells. However, a full length BBN molecule has low stability.
Objective: In our study, we propose the use of peptide toxins, derived from animal and plant toxins, as scaffold molecules to enhance the bioavailability and stability of bombesin. These peptides possess a unique structure known as an inhibitory cystine knot.
Methods: We synthesized structures in which short bombesin was incorporated into various domains of arthropod and plant toxins using solid-phase peptide synthesis. The stability under different conditions was assessed through high-performance liquid chromatography, and binding to cell cultures expressing the bombesin receptor was analyzed. Additionally, toxicity to cell cultures was evaluated using fluorescence microscopy.
Results: The data obtained demonstrated that placing the short peptide between the first and second cysteine residues in arachnid toxins results in increased stability and bioavailability, as well as low cytotoxicity.
Conclusion: Arachnid toxins with an inhibitory cystine knot can be considered as a scaffold for increasing the stability of therapeutic peptides.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/0115680096285288240118090050 | DOI Listing |
Sci Adv
January 2025
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
Designing binders to target undruggable proteins presents a formidable challenge in drug discovery. In this work, we provide an algorithmic framework to design short, target-binding linear peptides, requiring only the amino acid sequence of the target protein. To do this, we propose a process to generate naturalistic peptide candidates through Gaussian perturbation of the peptidic latent space of the ESM-2 protein language model and subsequently screen these novel sequences for target-selective interaction activity via a contrastive language-image pretraining (CLIP)-based contrastive learning architecture.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Extracell Vesicles
January 2025
Institut de Recherche en Santé Digestive (IRSD), Université de Toulouse, INSERM, INRAE, ENVT, UPS, Toulouse, France.
CprA is a short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase (SDR) that contributes to resistance against colistin and antimicrobial peptides. The cprA gene is conserved across Pseudomonas aeruginosa clades and its expression is directly regulated by the two-component system PmrAB. We have shown that cprA expression leads to the production of outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) that block autophagic flux and have a greater capacity to activate the non-canonical inflammasome pathway.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHua Xi Kou Qiang Yi Xue Za Zhi
February 2025
Dept. of Implantology, School and Hospital of Stomatology, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University & Shandong Key Laboratory of Oral Tissue Regeneration & Shandong Engineering Research Center of Dental Materials and Oral Tissue Regeneration & Shandong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, Jinan 250012, China.
Objectives: To study the clinical effect of the L-shape technique combined with concentrated growth factor on the horizontal bone defects of maxillary anterior teeth.
Methods: Twenty-five implants from 25 patients who underwent single maxillary anterior tooth implantation with simultaneous bone grafting were selected as the study subjects. Based on the bone grafting techniques, the patients were divided into a test group (L-shaped technique with guided bone regeneration combined with concentrated growth factor, 11 cases) and a control group (traditional guided bone regeneration combined with concentrated growth factor, 14 cases).
Front Bioeng Biotechnol
January 2025
Department of Periodontology, School and Hospital of Stomotology, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Oral Soft and Hard Tissues Restoration and Regeneration, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China.
The combination of hydrophilic arginine residues and hydrophobic tryptophan residues is considered to be the first choice for designing short-chain antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) due to their potent antibacterial activity. Based on this, we designed an arginine- and tryptophan-rich short peptide, VR-12. Peri-implantitis is a significant microbial inflammatory disorder characterized by the inflammation of the soft tissues surrounding an implant, which ultimately leads to the progressive resorption of the alveolar bone.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Pharmacol
January 2025
School of Pharmacy, Xinjiang Medical University, Urumchi, China.
Background: In the Kazakh community of Xinjiang, China, fermented camel milk has been traditionally used to manage diabetes. This study evaluates the effects of composite probiotics derived from fermented camel milk (CPCM) on metabolic disturbances in a rat model of Type 2 diabetes (T2DM).
Methods: T2DM was induced in Wistar rats using streptozotocin.
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