Interaction between heat shock proteins and antimicrobial peptides.

Drosocin, pyrrhocoricin, and apidaecin, representing the short (18-20 amino acid residues) proline-rich antibacterial peptide family, originally isolated from insects, were shown to act on a target bacterial protein in a stereospecific manner. Native pyrrhocoricin and one of its analogues designed for this purpose protect mice from bacterial challenge and, therefore, may represent alternatives to existing antimicrobial drugs. Furthermore, this mode of action can be a basis for the design of a completely novel set of antibacterial compounds, peptidic or peptidomimetic, if the interacting bacterial biopolymers are known. Recently, apidaecin was shown to enter Escherichia coli and subsequently kill bacteria through sequential interactions with diverse target macromolecules. In this paper report, we used biotin- and fluorescein-labeled pyrrhocoricin, drosocin, and apidaecin analogues to identify biopolymers that bind to these peptides and are potentially involved in the above-mentioned multistep killing process. Through use of a biotin-labeled pyrrhocoricin analogue, we isolated two interacting proteins from E. coli. According to mass spectrometry, Western blot, and fluorescence polarization, the short, proline-rich peptides bound to DnaK, the 70-kDa bacterial heat shock protein, both in solution and on the solid-phase. GroEL, the 60-kDa chaperonin, also bound in solution. Control experiments with an unrelated labeled peptide showed that while binding to DnaK was specific for the antibacterial peptides, binding to GroEL was not specific for these insect sequences. The killing of bacteria and DnaK binding are related events, as an inactive pyrrhocoricin analogue made of all-D-amino acids failed to bind. The pharmaceutical potential of the insect antibacterial peptides is underscored by the fact that pyrrhocoricin did not bind to Hsp70, the human equivalent of DnaK. Competition assay with unlabeled pyrrhocoricin indicated differences in GroEL and DnaK binding and a probable two-site interaction with DnaK. In addition, all three antibacterial peptides strongly interacted with two bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) preparations in solution, indicating that the initial step of the bacterial killing cascade proceeds through LPS-mediated cell entry.

Flt3-ligand induces transient tumor regression in an ectopic treatment model of major histocompatibility complex-negative prostate cancer.

We assessed the in vivo efficacy of Flt3-ligand (Flt3-L) treatment in C57BL/6 mice bearing a well-established MHC class I-negative prostate carcinoma TRAMP-C1. Flt3-L immunotherapy was initiated approximately 30 days after tumor inoculation, a time when > or =80% of the mice had palpable TRAMP-C1 tumors. Treatment with Flt3-L at 10 microg/day for 21 consecutive days suppressed TRAMP-C1 tumor growth and induced tumor stabilization (P = 0.0337). Enhanced tumor regression was demonstrated at a higher dose of 30 microg/day (P < 0.0001). Tumors excised from mice treated with Flt3-L were smaller than carrier-treated controls and contained a more pronounced mixed inflammatory cell infiltrate primarily composed of mphi. In regressor nice, tumors reappeared at the site of injection when Flt3-L therapy was terminated. When the experiment was repeated with MHC class I-positive TRAMP-C1 cells, tumor stabilization and/or regression was again observed after treatment (P < 0.0001); however, once again, tumors reappeared after the termination of therapy despite an extended treatment schedule (35 days). MHC class I-negative variants were present in tumors isolated from carrier- and Flt3-L-treated mice, and this phenotype could be reversed by IFN-gamma treatment in vitro. Thus, Flt3-L treatment of mice with preexisting transplantable prostate tumors results in tumor regression that is dose-dependent and accompanied by a pronounced mixed-cell inflammatory tumor infiltrate. However, disease relapse was invariably observed after the termination of therapy, which suggests that Flt3-L treatment of advanced MHC- prostate cancers will require adjuvant modalities to achieve a durable response.