Cyclopalladated Compound 7a Induces Apoptosis- and Autophagy-Like Mechanisms in Paracoccidioides and Is a Candidate for Paracoccidioidomycosis Treatment.

Paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM), caused by Paracoccidioides species, is the main cause of death due to systemic mycoses in Brazil and other Latin American countries. Therapeutic options for PCM and other systemic mycoses are limited and time-consuming, and there are high rates of noncompliance, relapses, toxic side effects, and sequelae. Previous work has shown that the cyclopalladated 7a compound is effective in treating several kinds of cancer and parasitic Chagas disease without significant toxicity in animals. Here we show that cyclopalladated 7a inhibited the in vitro growth of Paracoccidioides lutzii Pb01 and P. brasiliensis isolates Pb18 (highly virulent), Pb2, Pb3, and Pb4 (less virulent) in a dose-response manner. Pb18 was the most resistant. Opportunistic Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans were also sensitive. BALB/c mice showed significantly lighter lung fungal burdens when treated twice a day for 20 days with a low cyclopalladated 7a dose of 30 µg/ml/day for 30 days after intratracheal infection with Pb18. Electron microscopy images suggested that apoptosis- and autophagy-like mechanisms are involved in the fungal killing mechanism of cyclopalladated 7a. Pb18 yeast cells incubated with the 7a compound showed remarkable chromatin condensation, DNA degradation, superoxide anion production, and increased metacaspase activity suggestive of apoptosis. Autophagy-related killing mechanisms were suggested by increased autophagic vacuole numbers and acidification, as indicated by an increase in LysoTracker and monodansylcadaverine (MDC) staining in cyclopalladated 7a-treated Pb18 yeast cells. Considering that cyclopalladated 7a is highly tolerated in vivo and affects yeast fungal growth through general apoptosis- and autophagy-like mechanisms, it is a novel promising drug for the treatment of PCM and other mycoses.

The pathogenic fungus Paracoccidioides brasiliensis exports extracellular vesicles containing highly immunogenic α-Galactosyl epitopes.

Exosome-like vesicles containing virulence factors, enzymes, and antigens have recently been characterized in fungal pathogens, such as Cryptococcus neoformans and Histoplasma capsulatum. Here, we describe extracellular vesicles carrying highly immunogenic α-linked galactopyranosyl (α-Gal) epitopes in Paracoccidioides brasiliensis. P. brasiliensis is a dimorphic fungus that causes human paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM). For vesicle preparations, cell-free supernatant fluids from yeast cells cultivated in Ham's defined medium-glucose were concentrated in an Amicon ultrafiltration system and ultracentrifuged at 100,000 × g. P. brasiliensis antigens were present in preparations from phylogenetically distinct isolates Pb18 and Pb3, as observed in immunoblots revealed with sera from PCM patients. In an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), vesicle components containing α-Gal epitopes reacted strongly with anti-α-Gal antibodies isolated from both Chagas' disease and PCM patients, with Marasmius oreades agglutinin (MOA) (a lectin that recognizes terminal α-Gal), but only faintly with natural anti-α-Gal. Reactivity was inhibited after treatment with α-galactosidase. Vesicle preparations analyzed by electron microscopy showed vesicular structures of 20 to 200 nm that were labeled both on the surface and in the lumen with MOA. In P. brasiliensis cells, components carrying α-Gal epitopes were found distributed on the cell wall, following a punctuated confocal pattern, and inside large intracellular vacuoles. Lipid-free vesicle fractions reacted with anti-α-Gal in ELISA only when not digested with α-galactosidase, while reactivity with glycoproteins was reduced after ß-elimination, which is indicative of partial O-linked chain localization. Our findings open new areas to explore in terms of host-parasite relationships in PCM and the role played in vivo by vesicle components and α-galactosyl epitopes.

Adverse psychosocial working conditions and minor psychiatric disorders among bank workers.

BACKGROUND: In most countries, the financial service sector has undergone great organizational changes in the past decades, with potential negative impact on bank workers' mental health. The aim of this paper is to estimate the prevalence of minor psychiatric disorders (MPD) among Brazilian bank workers and to investigate whether they are associated with an adverse psychosocial working environment. METHODS: A cross-sectional study of a random sample of 2,500 workers in a Brazilian state bank in 2008. The presence of MPD was determined by the General Health Questionnaire.(GHQ). Psychosocial work conditions were assessed by means of the Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) and Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ). The presence and magnitude of the independent associations between MPD and adverse psychosocial working conditions were determined by Prevalence Ratios, obtained by Poisson regression. RESULTS: From 2,337 eligible workers, 88% participated. The prevalence of MPD was greater among women (45% vs. 41%; p > 0.05). In the multivariate analysis, the prevalence of MPD was twice as high among bank workers exposed to high psychological demand and low control at work and under high effort and low reward working conditions. The lack of social support at work and the presence of over-commitment were also associated with higher prevalence of MPD. A negative interaction effect was found between over-commitment and effort-reward imbalance. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of MPD is high among bank workers. The results reinforce the association between MPD and adverse psychosocial working conditions, assessed by the JCQ and ERI models. The direction of the interaction observed between over-commitment and ERI was contrary to what was expected.

Short report: benznidazole efficacy among Trypanosoma cruzi-infected adolescents after a six-year follow-up.

Data from a six-year follow-up of Trypanosoma cruzi-infected adolescents enrolled in a randomized, double-blind, clinical trial of benznidazole showed successful chemotherapy in 64.7% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 50.2-78.7) and 84.7% (95% CI = 66.8-92.9), respectively, by intention-to treat and by per protocol analysis measured by seronegativity in a chemiluminescent enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with a purified trypomastigote mucin antigen. No incident case of cardiomyopathy was detected by electrocardiogram assessment in this cohort of adolescents who had been infected in childhood. The persistent and consistently long-term negative serologic reactions suggest the absence of the parasite in the treated patients and reinforces the recommendation of early benznidazole chemotherapy for T. cruzi-infected infants as a public health policy in endemic areas.

C-Npys (S-3-nitro-2-pyridinesulfenyl) and peptide derivatives can inhibit a serine-thiol proteinase activity from Paracoccidioides brasiliensis.

The inhibitory capacity of C-Npys (S-[3-nitro-2-pyridinesulfenyl]) derivatives over thiol-containing serine proteases has never been tested. In the present work we used an extracellular serine-thiol proteinase activity from the fungal pathogen Paracoccidioides brasiliensis (PbST) to describe a potent inhibitory capacity of Bzl-C(Npys)KRLTL-NH(2) and Bzl-MKRLTLC(Npys)-NH(2). The assays were performed with PbST enriched upon affinity chromatography in a p-aminobenzamidine (pABA)-Sepharose column. Although PbST can cleave the fluorescence resonance energy transfer peptide Abz-MKRLTL-EDDnp between L-T, the C(Npys) derivatives were not substrates nor were they toxic in a cell detachment assay, allowing therapeutic use. The best inhibitor was Bzl-C(Npys)KRLTL-NH(2) (K(i)=16nM), suggesting that the peptide sequence promoted a favorable interaction, especially when C(Npys) was placed at a further position from the L-T bond, at the N-terminus. Inhibition was completely reverted with dithioerythritol, indicating that it was due to the reactivity of the C(Npys) moiety with a free SH- group.

Cyclopalladated compounds as chemotherapeutic agents: antitumor activity against a murine melanoma cell line.

Palladacycle compounds obtained from N, N-dimethyl-1-phenethylamine (dmpa), phenyl-2-pyridinyl-acetylene and 1-phenyl-3-N, N-dimethylamine-propine, respectively, were complexed to 1, 2 ethanebis (diphenylphosphine) (dppe) ligand to synthesize antitumor cyclopalladated complexes that were tested in vitro and in vivo against syngeneic B16F10-Nex2 murine melanoma cells of low immunogenicity implanted subcutaneously in mice. Complexes were not toxic to mice injected 3 times i.p. with as much as 60 microM/animal/week. Of 3 cyclopalladated complexes that were inhibitory in vitro at low concentrations (<1.25 microM), complex 7a was the most active in vivo, delaying tumor growth and prolonging animal survival. In vitro, binucleate complex 7a caused a collapse of respiratory activity with an abrupt decrease of extracellular acidification on short incubation (up to 100 min), followed by DNA degradation after 24 hr. The apoptosis-like reaction to this Pd-complex was not accompanied by increased levels of caspases 1 and 3. Complex 7a bound to a bacterial plasmid DNA, causing late conformational changes after 24 hr. Two other complexes with different C, N-cycles were also apoptotic and 2 binucleated ones were inactive. These results introduce the palladacycle-dppe complexes as promising antitumor drugs with exquisite structural specificities and for action in vivo and in vitro.