Iterative Design and in Vivo Evaluation of an Oncolytic Antilymphoma Peptide.

Oncolytic peptides represent a promising new strategy within the field of cancer immunotherapy. Here we describe the systematic design and evaluation of short antilymphoma peptides within this paradigm. The peptides were tested in vitro and in vivo to identify a lead compound for further evaluation as novel oncolytic immunotherapeutic. In vitro tests revealed peptides with high activity against several lymphoma types and low cytotoxicity toward normal cells. Treated lymphoma cells exhibited a reduced mitochondrial membrane potential that resulted in an irreversible disintegration of their plasma membranes. No caspase activation or ultrastructural features of apoptotic cell death were observed. One of these peptides, 11, was shown to induce complete tumor regression and protective immunity following intralesional treatment of murine A20 B-lymphomas. Due to its selectivity for lymphoma cells and its ability to induce tumor-specific immune responses, 11 has the potential to be used in intralesional treatment of accessible lymphoma tumors.

Bulky nonproteinogenic amino acids permit the design of very small and effective cationic antibacterial peptides.

The rate of multidrug-resistant infections is rapidly rising. Cationic antibacterial peptides are active against resistant pathogens and have low propensity for resistance development, but because of their unfavorable medicinal properties, cationic antibacterial peptides have been a limited clinical success. We have found that introduction of nongenetically coded amino acids and other lipophilic modifications opens the opportunity for development of extremely short and highly active antibacterial peptides with improved medicinal properties.

The pharmacophore of short cationic antibacterial peptides.

Cationic antibacterial peptides have been proclaimed as new drugs against multiresistant bacteria. Their limited success so far is partially due to the size of the peptides, which gives rise to unresolved issues regarding administration, bioavailability, metabolic stability, and immunogenicity. We have systematically investigated the minimum antibacterial motif of cationic antibacterial peptides regarding charge and lipophilicity/bulk and found that the pharmacophore was surprisingly small, opening the opportunity for development of short antibacterial peptides for systemic use.

Antitumoral and mechanistic studies of ianthelline isolated from the Arctic sponge Stryphnus fortis.

BACKGROUND: Ianthelline was isolated from the Arctic sponge Stryphnus fortis. The structure of the compound has been previously described. However, only limited bioactivity data are available and little has been reported about the cytotoxic potential of ianthelline since its discovery. In addition, no study has so far aimed at identifying which cellular mechanisms are affected by ianthelline to generate cytotoxicity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The cytotoxicity of ianthelline was tested against one non-malignant and ten malignant cell lines. The effects of ianthelline on key cell division events were studied in sea urchin embryos. Tyrosine kinase ABL (ABL), cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA), protein-tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B), and a panel of 131 kinases were further tested for sensitivity to ianthelline. RESULTS: Ianthelline inhibits cellular growth in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Disturbed mitotic spindle formation was found in sea urchin embryos exposed to ianthelline. In addition, pronuclear migration and cytokinesis were severely inhibited. No effect on DNA synthesis was detectable. Ianthelline did not significantly inhibit ABL, but did provoke weak dose-dependent inhibition of PKA and PTP1B. It strongly inhibited the activity of 1 out of 131 tested kinases (to residual activity <10 %), with a Gini co-efficient of 0.22 for the degree of selectivity of kinase inhibition. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrate that ianthelline is a cytotoxic marine compound, which exerts its antiproliferative effects by several mechanisms that include inhibition of mitotic spindle formation and inhibition of protein kinase activity.

Prediction of antibiotic activity and synthesis of new pentadecapeptides based on lactoferricins.

The antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus has been studied for a number of modified pentadecapeptides based on lactoferricins of different origin. The peptides were classified by multivariate methods and quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR) were developed using theoretically derived variables for the amino acids. For the modified peptides based on bovine lactoferricin (LFB) a model was calculated and used for prediction of new peptides that were then tested for antibacterial activity in order to improve peptide activity and to check the validity of the model. Models were also calculated including lactoferricins of different origin. Theories of the mechanism of action of the peptides are briefly discussed.