Antimalarial pantothenamide metabolites target acetyl-coenzyme A biosynthesis in Plasmodium falciparum.

Malaria eradication is critically dependent on new therapeutics that target resistant Plasmodium parasites and block transmission of the disease. Here, we report that pantothenamide bioisosteres were active against blood-stage Plasmodium falciparum parasites and also blocked transmission of sexual stages to the mosquito vector. These compounds were resistant to degradation by serum pantetheinases, showed favorable pharmacokinetic properties, and cleared parasites in a humanized mouse model of P. falciparum infection. Metabolomics revealed that coenzyme A biosynthetic enzymes converted pantothenamides into coenzyme A analogs that interfered with parasite acetyl-coenzyme A anabolism. Resistant parasites generated in vitro showed mutations in acetyl-coenzyme A synthetase and acyl-coenzyme A synthetase 11. Introduction and reversion of these mutations in P. falciparum using CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing confirmed the roles of these enzymes in the sensitivity of the malaria parasites to pantothenamides. These pantothenamide compounds with a new mode of action may have potential as drugs against malaria parasites.

Stable pantothenamide bioisosteres: novel antibiotics for Gram-positive bacteria.

The emergence of multidrug resistant bacteria has prioritized the development of new antibiotics. N-substituted pantothenamides, analogs of the natural compound pantetheine, were reported to target bacterial coenzyme A biosynthesis, but these compounds have never reached the clinic due to their instability in biological fluids. Plasma-stable pantothenamide analogs could overcome these issues. We first synthesized a number of bioisosteres of the prototypic pantothenamide N7-Pan. A compound with an inverted amide bond (CXP18.6-012) was found to provide plasma-stability with minimal loss of activity compared to the parent compound N7-Pan. Next, we synthesized inverted pantothenamides with a large variety of side chains. Among these we identified a number of novel stable inverted pantothenamides with selective activity against Gram-positive bacteria such as staphylococci and streptococci, at low micromolar concentrations. These data provide future direction for the development of pantothenamides with clinical potential.

Pharmacological Inhibition of Vanin Activity Attenuates Transplant Vasculopathy in Rat Aortic Allografts.

BACKGROUND: Development of transplant vasculopathy is a major cause of graft loss and mortality in solid organ transplant recipients. Previous studies in mice have indicated that vanin-1, a member of the vanin protein family with pantetheinase activity, is possibly involved in neointima formation. Here, we investigated if RR6, a recently developed vanin inhibitor, could attenuate development of transplant vasculopathy. METHODS: Abdominal allogeneic aorta transplantation from Dark Agouti to Brown Norway rats was performed. Surface neointima was quantified 2 and 4 weeks after transplantation. Systemic vanin activity was measured, and allograft leukocyte infiltration, glutathione-synthesizing capacity, matrix metalloproteinase 9 expression and neointimal smooth muscle cell (SMC) proliferation were assessed by immunohistochemistry. In vitro, the effects of RR6 on SMC proliferation (water-soluble tetrazolium-1 assay) and cytokine-induced apoptosis (flow cytometry) were investigated. RESULTS: RR6 treatment significantly reduced systemic pantetheinase activity during the 4-week follow-up period. RR6 attenuated neointima formation 4 weeks after transplantation. Neointimal SMC proliferation and medial SMC matrix metalloproteinase 9 expression were not altered by RR6. However, RR6 significantly reduced neointimal macrophage influx that was accompanied by increased GCLC messenger RNA expression. In vitro, RR6 inhibited platelet-derived growth factor-induced SMC proliferation and protected SMCs from TNF-α-induced apoptosis. CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacological inhibition of vanin activity attenuates development of transplant vasculopathy. This was accompanied by reduced macrophage infiltration and increased glutathione-synthesizing capacity. In vitro, RR6 reduced SMC proliferation and apoptosis that was not confirmed in vivo. Further in-depth studies are warranted to reveal the underlying mechanism(s) of RR6-induced attenuation of transplant vasculopathy in vivo.

Novel pantothenate derivatives for anti-malarial chemotherapy.

BACKGROUND: A number of synthetic pantothenate derivatives, such as pantothenamides, are known to inhibit the growth of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, by interfering with the parasite Coenzyme A (CoA) biosynthetic pathway. The clinical use of pantothenamides is limited by their sensitivity to breakdown by ubiquitous human pantetheinases of the vanin family. METHODS: A number of pantothenate derivatives (pantothenones) with potent and specific inhibitory activity against mammalian vanins were tested in a proliferation assay of asexual P. falciparum blood stages alone, and in combination with pantothenamides. RESULTS: The vanin inhibitors were found to protect pantothenamides against breakdown by plasma vanins, thereby preserving the in vitro anti-malarial activity. Moreover, some of the vanin inhibitors showed in vitro anti-malarial activity in the low micromolar range. The most potent antimalarial in this series of compounds (RR8), was found to compete with pantothenate in a combination proliferation assay. No correlation, however, was found between anti-vanin and anti-malarial activity, nor was pantetheinase activity detected in P. falciparum extracts. CONCLUSIONS: Growth inhibition is most likely due to competition with pantothenate, rather than pantetheinase inhibition. As vanin inhibitors of the pantothenone class are stable in biological fluids and are non-toxic to mammalian cells, they may represent novel pantothenate-based anti-malarials, either on their own or in combination with pantothenamides.

Combination of pantothenamides with vanin inhibitors as a novel antibiotic strategy against gram-positive bacteria.

The emergence of resistance against current antibiotics calls for the development of new compounds to treat infectious diseases. Synthetic pantothenamides are pantothenate analogs that possess broad-spectrum antibacterial activity in vitro in minimal media. Pantothenamides were shown to be substrates of the bacterial coenzyme A (CoA) biosynthetic pathway, causing cellular CoA depletion and interference with fatty acid synthesis. In spite of their potential use and selectivity for bacterial metabolic routes, these compounds have never made it to the clinic. In the present study, we show that pantothenamides are not active as antibiotics in the presence of serum, and we found that they were hydrolyzed by ubiquitous pantetheinases of the vanin family. To address this further, we synthesized a series of pantetheinase inhibitors based on a pantothenate scaffold that inhibited serum pantetheinase activity in the nanomolar range. Mass spectrometric analysis showed that addition of these pantetheinase inhibitors prevented hydrolysis of pantothenamides by serum. We found that combinations of these novel pantetheinase inhibitors and prototypic pantothenamides like N5-Pan and N7-Pan exerted antimicrobial activity in vitro, particularly against Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Streptococcus pyogenes) even in the presence of serum. These results indicate that pantothenamides, when protected against degradation by host pantetheinases, are potentially useful antimicrobial agents.

Discovery of small molecule vanin inhibitors: new tools to study metabolism and disease.

Vanins are enzymes with pantetheinase activity and are presumed to play a role in the recycling of pantothenic acid (vitamin B5) from pantetheine. Pantothenic acid is an essential nutrient required to synthesize coenzyme A, a cofactor involved in many biological processes such as fatty acid synthesis and oxidation of pyruvate to fuel the citric acid cycle. Hydrolysis of pantetheine also liberates cysteamine, a known antioxidant. Vanin-1 is highly expressed in liver and is under transcriptional control of PPAR-α and nutritional status, suggesting a role in energy metabolism. The lack of potent and specific inhibitors of vanins has hampered detailed investigation of their function. We hereby report the design, synthesis, and characterization of a novel pantetheine analogue, RR6, that acts as a selective, reversible, and competitive vanin inhibitor at nanomolar concentration. Oral administration of RR6 in rats completely inhibited plasma vanin activity and caused alterations of plasma lipid concentrations upon fasting, thereby illustrating its potential use in chemical biology research.

Complementary chemoenzymatic routes to both enantiomers of febrifugine.

Two complementary strategies for the synthesis of febrifugine are detailed based on previously developed chemoenzymatic approaches to the 3-hydroxypiperidine skeleton. The introduction of the quinazolone-containing side chain in both strategies was based on an N-acyliminium ion-mediated coupling reaction.

PegPhos: a monodentate phosphoramidite ligand for enantioselective rhodium-catalysed hydrogenation in water.

A BICOL derived monodentate phosphoramidite ligand gives ee's up to 89% in the enantioselective Rh-catalysed hydrogenation of N-acyl dehydroalanine using water as the solvent.

Diastereoselective cationic tandem cyclizations to N-heterocyclic scaffolds: total synthesis of (-)-dysibetaine PP.

[reaction: see text] Herein, we report a short and diastereoselective synthesis of the natural product (-)-dysibetaine PP. The key step in the synthetic sequence is a novel highly diastereoselective tandem-cyclization reaction of an enantiomerically pure dipeptide. This cyclization methodology is applied in the synthesis of a broader range of N-heterocyclic scaffolds.

Total synthesis of (+)-epiquinamide.

The stereoselective total synthesis of the novel quinolizidine alkaloid (+)-epiquinamide is presented, starting from the amino acid l-allysine ethylene acetal. Key steps in the synthesis involved a highly diastereoselective N-acyliminium ion allylation and a ring-closing metathesis reaction to provide the bicyclic skeleton. [reaction: see text]

Diastereoselective synthesis of (2S,5R)-5-hydroxypipecolic acid and 6-substituted derivatives.

[reaction: see text] Herein, we report a diastereoselective synthesis of the natural product (2S,5R)-5-hydroxypipecolic acid and 6-substituted derivatives thereof. The key step in the synthetic sequence is a novel highly diastereoselective epoxidation reaction of an enantiomerically pure cyclic enamide intermediate.