Aspergillus flavus squalene synthase as an antifungal target: Expression, activity, and inhibition.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun
; 512(3): 517-523, 2019 05 07.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-30904161
ABSTRACT
Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is a life-threatening disease impacting immunocompromised individuals. Standard treatments of IA, including polyenes and azoles, suffer from high toxicity and emerging resistance, leading to the need to develop new antifungal agents with novel mechanisms of action. Ergosterol biosynthesis is a classic target for antifungals, and squalene synthase (SQS) catalyzes the first committed step in ergosterol biosynthesis in Aspergillus spp. making SQS of interest in the context of antifungal development. Here, we cloned, expressed, purified and characterized SQS from the pathogen Aspergillus flavus (AfSQS), confirming that it produced squalene. To identify potential leads targeting AfSQS, we tested known squalene synthase inhibitors, zaragozic acid and the phosphonosulfonate BPH-652, finding that they were potent inhibitors. We then screened a library of 744 compounds from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Diversity Set V for inhibition activity. 20 hits were identified and IC50 values were determined using dose-response curves. 14 compounds that interfered with the assay were excluded and the remaining 6 compounds were analyzed for drug-likeness, resulting in one compound, celastrol, which had an AfSQS IC50 value of 830â¯nM. Enzyme inhibition kinetics revealed that celastrol binds to AfSQS in a noncompetitive manner, but did not bind covalently. Since celastrol is also known to inhibit growth of the highly virulent Aspergillus fumigatus by inhibiting flavin-dependent monooxygenase siderophore A (SidA, under iron starvation conditions), it may be a promising multi-target lead for antifungal development.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Aspergillus flavus
/
Farnesil Difosfato Farnesil Transferasa
/
Inhibidores Enzimáticos
/
Antifúngicos
Tipo de estudio:
Prognostic_studies
Límite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Biochem Biophys Res Commun
Año:
2019
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
China