Consecutive Aromatic Residues Are Required for Improved Efficacy of ß-Sheet Breakers.

Alzheimer's disease is a fatal neurodegenerative malady which up to very recently did not have approved therapy modifying its course. After controversial approval of aducanumab (monoclonal antibody clearing ß-amyloid plaques) by FDA for use in very early stages of disease, possibly new avenue opened for the treatment of patients. In line with this approach is search for compounds blocking aggregation into amyloid oligomers subsequently forming fibrils or compounds helping in getting rid of plaques formed by ß-amyloid fibrils. Here we present in silico work on 627 sixtapeptide ß-sheet breakers (BSBs) containing consecutive three aromatic residues. Three of these BSBs caused dissociation of one or two ß-amyloid chains from U-shaped ß-amyloid protofibril model 2BEG after docking and subsequent molecular dynamics simulations. Thorough analysis of our results let us postulate that the first steps of binding these successful BSBs involve π-π interactions with stacked chains of F19 and later also with F20 (F3 and F4 in 2BEG model of protofibril). The consecutive location of aromatic residues in BSBs makes them more attractive for chains of stacked F3 and F4 within the 2BEG model. Spotted by us, BSBs may be prospective lead compounds for an anti-Alzheimer's therapy.

ß-sheet breakers with consecutive phenylalanines: Insights into mechanism of dissolution of ß-amyloid fibrils.

ß-sheet breakers (BSB) constitute a class of peptide inhibitors of amyloidogenesis, a process which is a hallmark of many diseases called amyloidoses, including Alzheimer's disease (AD); however, the molecular details of their action are still not fully understood. Here we describe the results of the computational investigation of the three BSBs, iaß6 (LPFFFD), iaß5 (LPFFD), and iaß6_Gly (LPFGFD), in complex with the fibril model of Aß42 and propose the kinetically probable mechanism of their action. The mechanism involves the binding of BSB to the central hydrophobic core (CHC) region (LVFFA) of Aß fibril and the π-stacking of its Phe rings both internally and with the Aß fibril. In the process, the Aß fibril undergoes distortion accumulating on the side of chain A (located on the odd tip of the fibril). In a single replica of extended molecular dynamics run of one of the iaß6 poses, the distortion concludes in a dissociation of chain A from the fibril model of Aß42. Altogether, we postulate that including consecutive Phe residues into BSBs docked around Phe 20 in the CHC region of Aß42 improve their potency for dissolution of fibrils.

Molecular Mechanism of Thymidylate Synthase Inhibition by N4-Hydroxy-dCMP in View of Spectrophotometric and Crystallographic Studies.

Novel evidence is presented allowing further clarification of the mechanism of the slow-binding thymidylate synthase (TS) inhibition by N4-hydroxy-dCMP (N4-OH-dCMP). Spectrophotometric monitoring documented time- and temperature-, and N4-OH-dCMP-dependent TS-catalyzed dihydrofolate production, accompanying the mouse enzyme incubation with N4-OH-dCMP and N5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate, known to inactivate the enzyme by the covalent binding of the inhibitor, suggesting the demonstrated reaction to be uncoupled from the pyrimidine C(5) methylation. The latter was in accord with the hypothesis based on the previously presented structure of mouse TS (cf. PDB ID: 4EZ8), and with conclusions based on the present structure of the parasitic nematode Trichinella spiralis, both co-crystallized with N4-OH-dCMP and N5,10-methylenetetrahdrofolate. The crystal structure of the mouse TS-N4-OH-dCMP complex soaked with N5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate revealed the reaction to run via a unique imidazolidine ring opening, leaving the one-carbon group bound to the N(10) atom, thus too distant from the pyrimidine C(5) atom to enable the electrophilic attack and methylene group transfer.

Advanced Spectroscopy and APBS Modeling for Determination of the Role of His190 and Trp103 in Mouse Thymidylate Synthase Interaction with Selected dUMP Analogues.

A homo-dimeric enzyme, thymidylate synthase (TS), has been a long-standing molecular target in chemotherapy. To further elucidate properties and interactions with ligands of wild-type mouse thymidylate synthase (mTS) and its two single mutants, H190A and W103G, spectroscopic and theoretical investigations have been employed. In these mutants, histidine at position 190 and tryptophan at position 103 are substituted with alanine and glycine, respectively. Several emission-based spectroscopy methods used in the paper demonstrate an especially important role for Trp 103 in TS ligands binding. In addition, the Advanced Poisson-Boltzmann Solver (APBS) results show considerable differences in the distribution of electrostatic potential around Trp 103, as compared to distributions observed for all remaining Trp residues in the mTS family of structures. Together, spectroscopic and APBS results reveal a possible interplay between Trp 103 and His190, which contributes to a reduction in enzymatic activity in the case of H190A mutation. Comparison of electrostatic potential for mTS complexes, and their mutants, with the substrate, dUMP, and inhibitors, FdUMP and N4-OH-dCMP, suggests its weaker influence on the enzyme-ligand interactions in N4OH-dCMP-mTS compared to dUMP-mTS and FdUMP-mTS complexes. This difference may be crucial for the explanation of the "abortive reaction" inhibitory mechanism of N4OH-dCMP towards TS. In addition, based on structural analyses and the H190A mutant capacity to form a denaturation-resistant complex with N4-OH-dCMP in the mTHF-dependent reaction, His190 is apparently responsible for a strong preference of the enzyme active center for the anti rotamer of the imino inhibitor form.

Interactions between motor domains in kinesin-14 Ncd - a molecular dynamics study.

Minus-end directed, non-processive kinesin-14 Ncd is a dimeric protein with C-terminally located motor domains (heads). Generation of the power-stroke by Ncd consists of a lever-like rotation of a long superhelical 'stalk' segment while one of the kinesin's heads is bound to the microtubule. The last ∼30 amino acids of Ncd head play a crucial but still poorly understood role in this process. Here, we used accelerated molecular dynamics simulations to explore the conformational dynamics of several systems built upon two crystal structures of Ncd, the asymmetrical T436S mutant in pre-stroke/post-stroke conformations of two partner subunits and the symmetrical wild-type protein in pre-stroke conformation of both subunits. The results revealed a new conformational state forming following the inward motion of the subunits and stabilized with several hydrogen bonds to residues located on the border or within the C-terminal linker, i.e. a modeled extension of the C-terminus by residues 675-683. Forming of this new, compact Ncd conformation critically depends on the length of the C-terminus extending to at least residue 681. Moreover, the associative motion leading to the compact conformation is accompanied by a partial lateral rotation of the stalk. We propose that the stable compact conformation of Ncd may represent an initial state of the working stroke.

Combining Rosetta with molecular dynamics (MD): A benchmark of the MD-based ensemble protein design.

Computational protein design is a set of procedures for computing amino acid sequences that will fold into a specified structure. Rosetta Design, a commonly used software for protein design, allows for the effective identification of sequences compatible with a given backbone structure, while molecular dynamics (MD) simulations can thoroughly sample near-native conformations. We benchmarked a procedure in which Rosetta design is started on MD-derived structural ensembles and showed that such a combined approach generates 20-30% more diverse sequences than currently available methods with only a slight increase in computation time. Importantly, the increase in diversity is achieved without a loss in the quality of the designed sequences assessed by their resemblance to natural sequences. We demonstrate that the MD-based procedure is also applicable to de novo design tasks started from backbone structures without any sequence information. In addition, we implemented a protocol that can be used to assess the stability of designed models and to select the best candidates for experimental validation. In sum our results demonstrate that the MD ensemble-based flexible backbone design can be a viable method for protein design, especially for tasks that require a large pool of diverse sequences.

Properties of phosphorylated thymidylate synthase.

Thymidylate synthase (TS) may undergo phosphorylation endogenously in mammalian cells, and as a recombinant protein expressed in bacterial cells, as indicated by the reaction of purified enzyme protein with Pro-Q® Diamond Phosphoprotein Gel Stain (PGS). With recombinant human, mouse, rat, Trichinella spiralis and Caenorhabditis elegans TSs, expressed in Escherichia coli, the phosphorylated, compared to non-phosphorylated recombinant enzyme forms, showed a decrease in Vmax(app), bound their cognate mRNA (only rat enzyme studied), and repressed translation of their own and several heterologous mRNAs (human, rat and mouse enzymes studied). However, attempts to determine the modification site(s), whether endogenously expressed in mammalian cells, or recombinant proteins, did not lead to unequivocal results. Comparative ESI-MS/analysis of IEF fractions of TS preparations from parental and FdUrd-resistant mouse leukemia L1210 cells, differing in sensitivity to inactivation by FdUMP, demonstrated phosphorylation of Ser(10) and Ser(16) in the resistant enzyme only, although PGS staining pointed to the modification of both L1210 TS proteins. The TS proteins phosphorylated in bacterial cells were shown by (31)P NMR to be modified only on histidine residues, like potassium phosphoramidate (KPA)-phosphorylated TS proteins. NanoLC-MS/MS, enabling the use of CID and ETD peptide fragmentation methods, identified several phosphohistidine residues, but certain phosphoserine and phosphothreonine residues were also implicated. Molecular dynamics studies, based on the mouse TS crystal structure, allowed one to assess potential of several phosphorylated histidine residues to affect catalytic activity, the effect being phosphorylation site dependent.

Crystal structure of phosphoramide-phosphorylated thymidylate synthase reveals pSer127, reflecting probably pHis to pSer phosphotransfer.

Crystal structure is presented of the binary complex between potassium phosphoramidate-phosphorylated recombinant C. elegans thymidylate synthase and dUMP. On each monomer a single phosphoserine residue (Ser127) was identified, instead of expected phosphohistidine. As (31)P NMR studies of both the phosphorylated protein and of potassium phosphoramidate potential to phosphorylate different amino acids point to histidine as the only possible site of the modification, thermodynamically favored intermolecular phosphotransfer from histidine to serine is suggested.

Computational study of the effects of protein tyrosine nitrations on the catalytic activity of human thymidylate synthase.

Tyrosine nitration is a widespread post-translational modification capable of affecting both the function and structure of the host protein molecule. Enzyme thymidylate synthase (TS), a homodimer, is a molecular target for anticancer therapy. Recently purified TS preparations, isolated from mammalian tissues, were found to be nitrated, suggesting this modification to appear endogenously in normal and tumor tissues. Moreover, human TS (hTS) nitration in vitro led to a by twofold lowered catalytic activity following nitration in average of 1 tyrosine residue per monomer (Dabrowska-Mas et al. in Org Biomol Chem 10:323-331, 2012), with the modification identified by mass spectrometry at seven different sites (Y33, Y65, Y135, Y213, Y230, Y258 and Y301). In the present paper, combined computational approach, including molecular and essential dynamics and free energy computations, was used to predict the influence on the activity of hTS of nitration of each of the seven tyrosine residues. The simulations were based on the crystal structure of hTS ternary complex with dUMP and Tomudex (PDB code: 1I00), with the Tomudex molecule replaced by the molecule of TS cofactor analogue, tetrahydrofolate. The present results indicate that while with nitration of five out of seven residues (Y33, Y135, Y230, Y258 and Y301), single residue modification appears to have a strong reducing effect on the activity, with the remaining two, Y65 and Y213, no or a weaker influence is apparent. Taken together, these results demonstrate that tyrosine nitrations in the hTS enzyme show clear tendency to influence the structure and dynamics and, in turn, catalytic properties of the host enzyme. These effects are overall distance-dependent.

The ß-sheet breakers and π-stacking.

Fibrillation of ß-amyloid is recognized as a key process leading to the development of Alzheimer's disease. Small peptides called ß-sheet breakers were found to inhibit the process of ß-amyloid fibrillation and to dissolve amyloid fibrils in vitro, in vivo, and in cell culture studies [1,2]. The mechanism by which peptide inhibition takes place remains elusive and a detailed model needs to be established. Here, we present new insights into the possible role of consecutive Phe residues, present in the structure of ß-sheet breakers, supported by the results obtained by means of MD simulations. We performed a 30-ns MD of two ß-sheet breakers: iAß5 (LPFFD) and iAß6 (LPFFFD) which have two and three consecutive Phe residues, respectively. We have found that Phe rings in these peptides tend to form stacked conformations. For one of the peptides--iAß6--the calculated electrostatic contribution to free energy of one of the conformers with three rings stacked (c2) is significantly lower than that corresponding to the unstacked one (c1), two rings stacked (c0) and second conformer with three rings stacked (c3). This may favor the interaction of the c2 conformer with the target on amyloid fibril. We hypothesize that the mechanism of inhibition of amyloidogenesis by ß-sheet breaker involves competition among π-stacked Phe residues of the inhibitor and π-stacking within the ß-amyloid fibril. iAß6 may be a promising candidate for a lead compound of amyloidogenesis inhibitors.

Tyrosine nitration affects thymidylate synthase properties.

Highly purified preparations of thymidylate synthase, isolated from calf thymus, and L1210 parental and FdUrd-resistant cells, were found to be nitrated, as indicated by a specific reaction with anti-nitro-tyrosine antibodies, suggesting this modification to appear endogenously in normal and tumor tissues. Each human, mouse and Ceanorhabditis elegans recombinant TS preparation, incubated in vitro in the presence of NaHCO(3), NaNO(2) and H(2)O(2) at pH 7.5, underwent tyrosine nitration, leading to a V(max)(app) 2-fold lower following nitration of 1 (with human or C. elegans TS) or 2 (with mouse TS) tyrosine residues per monomer. Enzyme interactions with dUMP, meTHF or 5-fluoro-dUMP were not distinctly influenced. Nitration under the same conditions of model tripeptides of a general formula H(2)N-Gly-X-Gly-COOH (X = Phe, Tyr, Trp, Lys, Arg, His, Ser, Thr, Cys, Gly), monitored by NMR spectroscopy, showed formation of nitro-species only for H-Gly-Tyr-Gly-OH and H-Gly-Phe-Gly-OH peptides, the chemical shifts for nitrated H-Gly-Tyr-Gly-OH peptide being in a very good agreement with the strongest peak found in (15)N-(1)H HMBC spectrum of nitrated protein. MS analysis of nitrated human and C. elegans proteins revealed several thymidylate synthase-derived peptides containing nitro-tyrosine (at positions 33, 65, 135, 213, 230, 258 and 301 in the human enzyme) and oxidized cysteine (human protein Cys(210), with catalytically critical Cys(195) remaining apparently unmodified) residues.

Mechanism of influence of phosphorylation on serine 124 on a decrease of catalytic activity of human thymidylate synthase.

Regulation by phosphorylation is a well-established mechanism for controlling biological activity of proteins. Recently, phosphorylation of serine 124 in human thymidylate synthase (hTS) has been shown to lower the catalytic activity of the enzyme. To clarify a possible mechanism of the observed influence, molecular dynamics (MD), essential dynamics (ED) and MM-GBSA studies were undertaken. Structures derived from the MD trajectories reveal incorrect binding alignment between the pyrimidine ring of the substrate, dUMP, and the pterine ring of the cofactor analogue, THF, in the active site of the phosphorylated enzyme. The ED analysis indicates changes in the behavior of collective motions in the phosphorylated enzyme, suggesting that the formation of the closed ternary complex is hindered. Computed free energies, in agreement with structural analysis, predict that the binding of dUMP and THF to hTS is favored in the native compared to phosphorylated state of the enzyme. The paper describes at the structural level how phosphorylation at the distant site influences the ligand binding. We propose that the 'phosphorylation effect' is transmitted from the outside loop of Ser 124 into the active site via a subtle mechanism initiated by the long-range electrostatic repulsion between the phosphate groups of dUMP and Ser124. The mechanism can be described in terms of the interplay between the two groups of amino acids: the link (residues 125-134) and the patch (residues 189-192), resulting in the change of orientation of the pyrimidine ring of dUMP, which, in turn, prevents the correct alignment between the latter ring and the pterin ring of THF.

The aromaticity of 5,6-dihydroborauracil, borauracil and benzoborauracil systems.

The nucleus-independent chemical shift (NICS) indices of aromaticity, calculated for four boron compounds, 4-hydroxy-5,6-dihydroborauracil, 4-hydroxyborauracil, borazine and 4-hydroxybenzoborauracil, and parent uracil, were analyzed in parallel with the NMR properties, in order to learn more about the aromaticity of those heterocyclic systems. The existence of a unique solvent-dependent aromaticity of 4-hydroxyborauracil is indicated.

ANO5 mutations in the Polish limb girdle muscular dystrophy patients: Effects on the protein structure.

LGMD2L is a subtype of limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD), caused by recessive mutations in ANO5, encoding anoctamin-5 (ANO5). We present the analysis of five patients with skeletal muscle weakness for whom heterozygous mutations within ANO5 were identified by whole exome sequencing (WES). Patients varied in the age of the disease onset (from 22 to 38 years) and severity of the morphological and clinical phenotypes. Out of the nine detected mutations one was novel (missense p.Lys132Met, accompanied by p.His841Asp) and one was not yet characterized in the literature (nonsense, p.Trp401Ter, accompanied by p.Asp81Gly). The p.Asp81Gly mutation was also identified in another patient carrying a p.Arg758Cys mutation as well. Also, a c.191dupA frameshift (p.Asn64LysfsTer15), the first described and common mutation was identified. Mutations were predicted by in silico tools to have damaging effects and are likely pathogenic according to criteria of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG). Indeed, molecular modeling of mutations revealed substantial changes in ANO5 conformation that could affect the protein structure and function. In addition, variants in other genes associated with muscle pathology were identified, possibly affecting the disease progress. The presented data indicate that the identified ANO5 mutations contribute to the observed muscle pathology and broaden the genetic spectrum of LGMD myopathies.

A molecular modeling study of the interaction of 2'-fluoro-substituted analogues of dUMP/FdUMP with thymidylate synthase.

Molecular dynamics simulations and free energy calculations are presented, exploring previously described experimentally studied interactions of a series of 2'-fluoro-substituted dUMP/FdUMP analogues with thymidylate synthase (TS). The results show the inhibitory behaviors of 2'-F-ara-UMP, 2',2''-diF-dUMP and 2',5-diF-ara-UMP to be dependent upon the binding positions and orientations adopted by the molecules of these compounds in the active site of TS. The binding mode of 2',5-diF-ara-UMP suggests a novel role of the active site residue Trp 80, stabilizing through hydrophobic stacking the binding position of the pyrimidine ring in 2',5-diF-ara-UMP.

Human dihydrofolate reductase and thymidylate synthase form a complex in vitro and co-localize in normal and cancer cells.

Enzymes involved in thymidylate biosynthesis, thymidylate synthase (TS), and dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) are well-known targets in cancer chemotherapy. In this study, we demonstrated for the first time, that human TS and DHFR form a strong complex in vitro and co-localize in human normal and colon cancer cell cytoplasm and nucleus. Treatment of cancer cells with methotrexate or 5-fluorouracil did not affect the distribution of either enzyme within the cells. However, 5-FU, but not MTX, lowered the presence of DHFR-TS complex in the nucleus by 2.5-fold. The results may suggest the sequestering of TS by FdUMP in the cytoplasm and thereby affecting the translocation of DHFR-TS complex to the nucleus. Providing a strong likelihood of DHFR-TS complex formation in vivo, the latter complex is a potential new drug target in cancer therapy. In this paper, known 3D structures of human TS and human DHFR, and some protozoan bifunctional DHFR-TS structures as templates, are used to build an in silico model of human DHFR-TS complex structure, consisting of one TS dimer and two DHFR monomers. This complex structure may serve as an initial 3D drug target model for prospective inhibitors targeting interfaces between the DHFR and TS enzymes.

Crystal structures of nematode (parasitic T. spiralis and free living C. elegans), compared to mammalian, thymidylate synthases (TS). Molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations in search for nematode-specific inhibitors of TS.

Three crystal structures are presented of nematode thymidylate synthases (TS), including Caenorhabditis elegans (Ce) enzyme without ligands and its ternary complex with dUMP and Raltitrexed, and binary complex of Trichinella spiralis (Ts) enzyme with dUMP. In search of differences potentially relevant for the development of species-specific inhibitors of the nematode enzyme, a comparison was made of the present Ce and Ts enzyme structures, as well as binary complex of Ce enzyme with dUMP, with the corresponding mammalian (human, mouse and rat) enzyme crystal structures. To complement the comparison, tCONCOORD computations were performed to evaluate dynamic behaviors of mammalian and nematode TS structures. Finally, comparative molecular docking combined with molecular dynamics and free energy of binding calculations were carried out to search for ligands showing selective affinity to T. spiralis TS. Despite an overall strong similarity in structure and dynamics of nematode vs mammalian TSs, a pool of ligands demonstrating predictively a strong and selective binding to TsTS has been delimited. These compounds, the E63 family, locate in the dimerization interface of TsTS where they exert species-specific interactions with certain non-conserved residues, including hydrogen bonds with Thr174 and hydrophobic contacts with Phe192, Cys191 and Tyr152. The E63 family of ligands opens the possibility of future development of selective inhibitors of TsTS and effective agents against trichinellosis.

Phosphorylation of thymidylate synthase affects slow-binding inhibition by 5-fluoro-dUMP and N(4)-hydroxy-dCMP.

Endogenous thymidylate synthases, isolated from tissues or cultured cells of the same specific origin, have been reported to show differing slow-binding inhibition patterns. These were reflected by biphasic or linear dependence of the inactivation rate on time and accompanied by differing inhibition parameters. Considering its importance for chemotherapeutic drug resistance, the possible effect of thymidylate synthase inhibition by post-translational modification was tested, e.g. phosphorylation, by comparing sensitivities to inhibition by two slow-binding inhibitors, 5-fluoro-dUMP and N(4)-hydroxy-dCMP, of two fractions of purified recombinant mouse enzyme preparations, phosphorylated and non-phosphorylated, separated by metal oxide/hydroxide affinity chromatography on Al(OH)3 beads. The modification, found to concern histidine residues and influence kinetic properties by lowering Vmax, altered both the pattern of dependence of the inactivation rate on time from linear to biphasic, as well as slow-binding inhibition parameters, with each inhibitor studied. Being present on only one subunit of at least a great majority of phosphorylated enzyme molecules, it probably introduced dimer asymmetry, causing the altered time dependence of the inactivation rate pattern (biphasic with the phosphorylated enzyme) and resulting in asymmetric binding of each inhibitor studied. The latter is reflected by the ternary complexes, stable under denaturing conditions, formed by only the non-phosphorylated subunit of the phosphorylated enzyme with each of the two inhibitors and N(5,10)-methylenetetrahydrofolate. Inhibition of the phosphorylated enzyme by N(4)-hydroxy-dCMP was found to be strongly dependent on [Mg(2+)], cations demonstrated previously to also influence the activity of endogenous mouse TS isolated from tumour cells.

Crystal structure of mouse thymidylate synthase in tertiary complex with dUMP and raltitrexed reveals N-terminus architecture and two different active site conformations.

The crystal structure of mouse thymidylate synthase (mTS) in complex with substrate dUMP and antifolate inhibitor Raltitrexed is reported. The structure reveals, for the first time in the group of mammalian TS structures, a well-ordered segment of 13 N-terminal amino acids, whose ordered conformation is stabilized due to specific crystal packing. The structure consists of two homodimers, differing in conformation, one being more closed (dimer AB) and thus supporting tighter binding of ligands, and the other being more open (dimer CD) and thus allowing weaker binding of ligands. This difference indicates an asymmetrical effect of the binding of Raltitrexed to two independent mTS molecules. Conformational changes leading to a ligand-induced closing of the active site cleft are observed by comparing the crystal structures of mTS in three different states along the catalytic pathway: ligand-free, dUMP-bound, and dUMP- and Raltitrexed-bound. Possible interaction routes between hydrophobic residues of the mTS protein N-terminal segment and the active site are also discussed.

The effect of 5-substitution in the pyrimidine ring of dUMP on the interaction with thymidylate synthase: molecular modeling and QSAR.

Thymidylate synthase (TS) is a target enzyme for a number of anticancer agents including the 5-fluorouracil metabolite, FdUMP. The present paper reports on molecular modeling studies of the effect of substitution at C(5) position in the pyrimidine ring of the TS substrate, dUMP, on the binding affinity for the enzyme. The results of molecular dynamics simulations show that the binding of C(5) analogues of dUMP to TS in the binary complexes does not undergo changes, unless a substituent with a large steric effect, such as the propyl group, is involved. On the other hand, apparent differences in the binding of the TS cofactor, resulting from varying substitution at dUMP C(5), are observed in the modeled structures of the ternary complexes of TS. These binding characteristics are supplemented with a classical QSAR model quantifying the relation between the affinity for TS and the substituent electronic and steric effects of C(5) analogues of dUMP. Based on the findings from the present work, the perspectives for finding promising new C(5) analogues of dUMP as potential agents targeted against TS are discussed.