Human triosephosphate isomerase (HsTIM) is a central glycolytic enzyme and is overexpressed in cancer cells with accelerated glycolysis. Triple-negative breast cancer is highly dependent on glycolysis and is typically treated with a... more
Human triosephosphate isomerase (HsTIM) is a central glycolytic enzyme and is overexpressed in cancer cells with accelerated glycolysis. Triple-negative breast cancer is highly dependent on glycolysis and is typically treated with a combination of surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. Deamidated HsTIM was recently proposed as a druggable target. Although thiol-reactive drugs affect cell growth in deamidated HsTIM-complemented cells, the role of this protein as a selective target has not been demonstrated. To delve into the usefulness of deamidated HsTIM as a selective target, we assessed its natural accumulation in breast cancer cells. We found that deamidated HsTIM accumulates in breast cancer cells but not in noncancerous cells. The cancer cells are selectively programmed to undergo cell death with thiol-reactive drugs that induced the production of methylglyoxal (MGO) and advanced glycation-end products (AGEs). In vivo, a thiol-reactive drug effectively inhibits the growt...
Giardiasis represents a latent problem in public health due to the exceptionally pathogenic strategies of the parasite Giardia lamblia for evading the human immune system. Strains resistant to first-line drugs are also a challenge.... more
Giardiasis represents a latent problem in public health due to the exceptionally pathogenic strategies of the parasite Giardia lamblia for evading the human immune system. Strains resistant to first-line drugs are also a challenge. Therefore, new antigiardial therapies are urgently needed. Here, we tested giardial arginine deiminase (GlADI) as a target against giardiasis. GlADI belongs to an essential pathway in Giardia for the synthesis of ATP, which is absent in humans. In silico docking with six thiol-reactive compounds was performed; four of which are approved drugs for humans. Recombinant GlADI was used in enzyme inhibition assays, and computational in silico predictions and spectroscopic studies were applied to follow the enzyme’s structural disturbance and identify possible effective drugs. Inhibition by modification of cysteines was corroborated using Ellman’s method. The efficacy of these drugs on parasite viability was assayed on Giardia trophozoites, along with the inhibi...
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Resumen es: La deficiencia de Glucosa-6-fosfato deshidrogenasa (G6PD) es la enzimopatia mas frecuente, con una prevalencia global del 4,9% y con alrededor de 330 a ...
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26 Giardiasis is highly prevalent in the developing world and treatment failures with standard 27 care drugs are common. This work deals with the proposal of omeprazole as a novel 28 antigiardial drug focusing on a giardial glycolytic... more
26 Giardiasis is highly prevalent in the developing world and treatment failures with standard 27 care drugs are common. This work deals with the proposal of omeprazole as a novel 28 antigiardial drug focusing on a giardial glycolytic enzyme to follow the cytotoxic effect at 29 molecular level. We used recombinant technology and enzyme inactivation to demonstrate 30 the capacity of omeprazole to inactivate giardial triosephosphate isomerase with no adverse 31 effects in its human counterpart. To establish the specific target into the enzyme, we used 32 single mutants of every cysteine residue in triosephosphate isomerase. The effect on 33 cellular triosephosphate isomerase was evaluated following the remnant enzyme activity on 34 trophozoites treated with omeprazole. Interaction of omeprazole with giardial proteins was 35 analyzed by fluorescence spectroscopy. Susceptibility to omeprazole by drug-sensitive and 36 drug-resistant strains of G. lamblia was evaluated to demonstrate its ...
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Human TPI (HsTPI) is a central and essential glycolytic enzyme for energy supply and is overexpressed in cancer cells. Here, we investigated HsTPI as a potential target for inducing cell death in triple-hormone receptor-negative breast... more
Human TPI (HsTPI) is a central and essential glycolytic enzyme for energy supply and is overexpressed in cancer cells. Here, we investigated HsTPI as a potential target for inducing cell death in triple-hormone receptor-negative breast cancer, which is highly dependent on glycolysis, and therapies for its treatment are limited. We found endogenous accumulation of deamidated HsTPI in human breast cancer cells, which might be caused by the lower activity of the HsTPI-degrading caspase-1 in breast cancer cells. In silico and in vitro analyses of deamidated HsTPI demonstrated the efficacy of thiol-reactive drugs in blocking enzyme activity. The cancer cells were selectively programmed to undergo apoptosis with thiol-reactive drugs by inducing the production of methylglyoxal (MGO) and advanced glycation-end products (AGEs). In vivo in mice, the thiol-reactive drug effectively inhibited the growth of human tumors by targeting HsTPI as underlying mechanism. Our findings demonstrate deamida...
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Therapeutic strategies for the treatment of any severe disease are based on the discovery and validation of druggable targets. The human genome encodes only 600–1500 targets for small-molecule drugs, but posttranslational modifications... more
Therapeutic strategies for the treatment of any severe disease are based on the discovery and validation of druggable targets. The human genome encodes only 600–1500 targets for small-molecule drugs, but posttranslational modifications lead to a considerably larger druggable proteome. The spontaneous conversion of asparagine (Asn) residues to aspartic acid or isoaspartic acid is a frequent modification in proteins as part of the process called deamidation. Triosephosphate isomerase (TIM) is a glycolytic enzyme whose deamidation has been thoroughly studied, but the prospects of exploiting this phenomenon for drug design remain poorly understood. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the properties of deamidated human TIM (HsTIM) as a selective molecular target. Using in silico prediction, in vitro analyses, and a bacterial model lacking the tim gene, this study analyzed the structural and functional differences between deamidated and nondeamidated HsTIM, which account for the e...
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The microsporidia are a large group of intracellular parasites with a broad range of hosts, including humans. Encephalitozoon intestinalis is the second microsporidia species most frequently associated with gastrointestinal disease in... more
The microsporidia are a large group of intracellular parasites with a broad range of hosts, including humans. Encephalitozoon intestinalis is the second microsporidia species most frequently associated with gastrointestinal disease in humans, especially immunocompromised or immunosuppressed individuals, including children and the elderly. The prevalence reported worldwide in these groups ranges from 0 to 60%. Currently, albendazole is most commonly used to treat microsporidiosis caused by Encephalitozoon species. However, the results of treatment are variable, and relapse can occur. Consequently, efforts are being directed toward identifying more effective drugs for treating microsporidiosis, and the study of new molecular targets appears promising. These parasites lack mitochondria, and oxidative phosphorylation therefore does not occur, which suggests the enzymes involved in glycolysis as potential drug targets. Here, we have for the first time characterized the glycolytic enzyme ...
HDM2 and HDMX are key negative regulatory factors of the p53 tumor suppressor under normal conditions by promoting its degradation or preventing itstransactivity, respectively. It has more recently been shown that both proteins can also... more
HDM2 and HDMX are key negative regulatory factors of the p53 tumor suppressor under normal conditions by promoting its degradation or preventing itstransactivity, respectively. It has more recently been shown that both proteins can also act as positive regulators of p53 after DNA damage. This involves phosphorylation by ATM on serine residues HDM2(S395) and HDMX(S403), promoting their respective interaction with thep53mRNA. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of how these phosphorylation events switch HDM2 and HDMX from negative to positive regulators of p53 is not known. Our results show that these phosphorylation events reside within intrinsically disordered domains and change the conformation of the proteins. The modifications promote the exposition of N-terminal interfaces that support the formation of a new HDMX-HDM2 heterodimer independent of the C-terminal RING-RING interaction. The E3 ubiquitin ligase activity of this complex toward p53 is prevented by thep53mRNA li...
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The analysis of transcript levels of specific genes is important for understanding transcriptional regulation and for the characterization of gene function. Real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-qPCR) has become a powerful... more
The analysis of transcript levels of specific genes is important for understanding transcriptional regulation and for the characterization of gene function. Real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-qPCR) has become a powerful tool to quantify gene expression. The objective of this study was to identify reliable housekeeping genes in Giardia lamblia. Twelve genes were selected for this purpose, and their expression was analyzed in the wild type WB strain and in two strains with resistance to nitazoxanide (NTZ) and metronidazole (MTZ), respectively. RefFinder software analysis showed that the expression of the genes is different in the three strains. The integrated data from the four analyses showed that the NADH oxidase (NADH) and aldolase (ALD) genes were the most steadily expressed genes, whereas the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase gene was the most unstable. Additionally, the relative expression of seven genes were quantified in the NTZ- and MTZ-resistant strains by RT-qPCR, using the aldolase gene as the internal control, and the results showed a consistent differential pattern of expression in both strains. The housekeeping genes found in this work will facilitate the analysis of mRNA expression levels of other genes of interest in G. lamblia.
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Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are extensively used in clinical practice because of their effectiveness and safety. Omeprazole is one of the best-selling drugs worldwide and, with other PPIs, has been proposed to be potential drugs for the... more
Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are extensively used in clinical practice because of their effectiveness and safety. Omeprazole is one of the best-selling drugs worldwide and, with other PPIs, has been proposed to be potential drugs for the treatment of several diseases. We demonstrated that omeprazole shows cytotoxic effects in Giardia and concomitantly inactivates giardial triosephosphate isomerase (GlTIM). Therefore, we evaluated the efficiency of commercially available PPIs to inactivate this enzyme. We assayed the effect of PPIs on the GlTIM WT, single Cys mutants, and the human counterpart, following enzyme activity, thermal stability, exposure of hydrophobic regions, and susceptibility to limited proteolysis. PPIs efficiently inactivated GlTIM; however, rabeprazole was the best inactivating drug and was nearly ten times more effective. The mechanism of inactivation by PPIs was through the modification of the Cys 222 residue. Moreover, there are important changes at the structural level, the thermal stability of inactivated-GlTIM was drastically diminished and the structural rigidity was lost, as observed by the exposure of hydrophobic regions and their susceptibility to limited proteolysis. Our results demonstrate that rabeprazole is the most potent PPI for GlTIM inactivation and that all PPIs tested have substantial abilities to alter GITIM at the structural level, causing serious damage. This is the first report demonstrating the effectiveness of commercial PPIs on a glycolytic parasitic enzyme, with structural features well known. This study is a step forward in the use and understanding the implicated mechanisms of new antigiardiasic drugs safe in humans.
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Deamidation, the loss of the ammonium group of asparagine and glutamine to form aspartic and glutamic acid, is one of the most commonly occurring post-translational modifications in proteins. Since deamidation rates are encoded in the... more
Deamidation, the loss of the ammonium group of asparagine and glutamine to form aspartic and glutamic acid, is one of the most commonly occurring post-translational modifications in proteins. Since deamidation rates are encoded in the protein structure, it has been proposed that they can serve as molecular clocks for the timing of biological processes such as protein turnover, development and aging. Despite the importance of this process, there is a lack of detailed structural information explaining the effects of deamidation on the structure of proteins. Here, we studied the effects of deamidation on human triosephosphate isomerase (HsTIM), an enzyme for which deamidation of N15 and N71 has been long recognized as the signal for terminal marking of the protein. Deamidation was mimicked by site directed mutagenesis; thus, three mutants of HsTIM (N15D, N71D and N15D/N71D) were characterized. The results show that the N71D mutant resembles, structurally and functionally, the wild type...
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Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) catalyzes the first step of the pentose phosphate pathway. In erythrocytes, the functionality of the pathway is crucial to protect these cells against oxidative damage. G6PD deficiency is the most... more
Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) catalyzes the first step of the pentose phosphate pathway. In erythrocytes, the functionality of the pathway is crucial to protect these cells against oxidative damage. G6PD deficiency is the most frequent enzymopathy in humans with a global prevalence of 4.9 %. The clinical picture is characterized by chronic or acute hemolysis in response to oxidative stress, which is related to the low cellular activity of G6PD in red blood cells. The disease is heterogeneous at genetic level with around 160 mutations described, mostly point mutations causing single amino acid substitutions. The biochemical studies aimed to describe the detrimental effects of mutations on the functional and structural properties of human G6PD are indispensable to understand the molecular physiopathology of this disease. Therefore, reliable systems for efficient expression and purification of the protein are highly desirable. In this work, human G6PD was heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli and purified by immobilized metal affinity chromatography in a single chromatographic step. The structural and functional characterization indicates that His-tagged G6PD resembles previous preparations of recombinant G6PD. In contrast with previous protein yield systems, our method is based on commonly available resources and fully accessible laboratory equipment; therefore, it can be readily implemented.
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Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) catalyzes the first step of the pentose phosphate pathway. In erythrocytes, the functionality of the pathway is crucial to protect these cells against oxidative damage. G6PD deficiency is the most... more
Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) catalyzes the first step of the pentose phosphate pathway. In erythrocytes, the functionality of the pathway is crucial to protect these cells against oxidative damage. G6PD deficiency is the most frequent enzymopathy in humans with a global prevalence of 4.9 %. The clinical picture is characterized by chronic or acute hemolysis in response to oxidative stress, which is related to the low cellular activity of G6PD in red blood cells. The disease is heterogeneous at genetic level with around 160 mutations described, mostly point mutations causing single amino acid substitutions. The biochemical studies aimed to describe the detrimental effects of mutations on the functional and structural properties of human G6PD are indispensable to understand the molecular physiopathology of this disease. Therefore, reliable systems for efficient expression and purification of the protein are highly desirable. In this work, human G6PD was heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli and purified by immobilized metal affinity chromatography in a single chromatographic step. The structural and functional characterization indicates that His-tagged G6PD resembles previous preparations of recombinant G6PD. In contrast with previous protein yield systems, our method is based on commonly available resources and fully accessible laboratory equipment; therefore, it can be readily implemented.
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Research Interests: Genetics, Kinetics, Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, Biocatalysis, Ethanol, and 10 moreTemperature, Molecular sciences, Gas Chromatography/mass Spectrometry, Amino Acid Sequence, Protein Denaturation, Alcohol Dehydrogenase, Oxidation-Reduction, Isotope Labeling, Aldehydes, and Molecular Sequence Data
Giardiasis, the most prevalent intestinal parasitosis in humans, is caused by Giardia lamblia. Current drug therapies have adverse effects on the host, and resistant strains against these drugs have been reported, demonstrating an urgent... more
Giardiasis, the most prevalent intestinal parasitosis in humans, is caused by Giardia lamblia. Current drug therapies have adverse effects on the host, and resistant strains against these drugs have been reported, demonstrating an urgent need to design more specific antigiardiasic drugs. ATP production in G. lamblia depends mainly on glycolysis; therefore, all enzymes of this pathway have been proposed as potential drug targets. We previously demonstrated that the glycolytic enzyme triosephosphate isomerase from G. lamblia (GlTIM), could be completely inactivated by low micromolar concentrations of thiol-reactive compounds, whereas, in the same conditions, the activity of human TIM (HuTIM) was almost unaltered. We found that the chemical modification (derivatization) of at least one Cys, of the five Cys residues per monomer in GlTIM, causes this inactivation. In this study, structural and functional studies were performed to describe the molecular mechanism of GlTIM inactivation by thiol-reactive compounds. We found that the Cys222 derivatization is responsible for GlTIM inactivation; this information is relevant because HuTIM has a Cys residue in an equivalent position (Cys217). GlTIM inactivation is associated with a decrease in ligand affinity, which affects the entropic component of ligand binding. In summary, this work describes a mechanism of inactivation that has not been previously reported for TIMs from other parasites and furthermore, we show that the difference in reactivity between the Cys222 in GlTIM and the Cys217 in HuTIM, indicates that the surrounding environment of each Cys residue has unique structural differences that can be exploited to design specific antigiardiasic drugs.
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In the native state several proteins exhibit a quenching of fluorescence of their tryptophans. We studied triosephosphate isomerase from Giardia lamblia (GlTIM) to dissect the mechanisms that account for the quenching of fluorescence of... more
In the native state several proteins exhibit a quenching of fluorescence of their tryptophans. We studied triosephosphate isomerase from Giardia lamblia (GlTIM) to dissect the mechanisms that account for the quenching of fluorescence of its Trp. GlTIM contains four Trp per monomer (Trp75, Trp162, Trp173, and Trp196) distributed throughout the 3D structure. The fluorescence of the denatured enzyme is 3-fold higher than that of native GlTIM. To ascertain the origin of this phenomenon, single and triple mutants of Trp per Phe were made. The intrinsic fluorescence was determined, and the data were interpreted on the basis of the crystal structure of the enzyme. Our data show that the fluorescence of all Trp residues is quenched through two different mechanisms. In one, fluorescence is quenched by aromatic-aromatic interactions due to the proximity and orientation of the indole groups of Trp196 and Trp162. The magnitude of the quenching of fluorescence in Trp162 is higher than in the other three Trp. Fluorescence quenching is also due to energy transfer to the charged residues that surround Trp 75, 173 and 196. Further analysis of the fluorescence of GlTIM showed that, among TIMs from other parasites, Trp at position 12 exhibits rather unique properties.
Research Interests: Spectroscopy, Fluorescence, Biological Sciences, Crystal structure, Circular Dichroism, and 12 moreAnimals, Physical sciences, Quenching, Glycolysis, Tryptophan, Enzyme, Energy Transfer, Triosephosphate Isomerase, D structure, Protein Denaturation, Site-directed Mutagenesis, and Fluorescence quenching
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Giardia lamblia depends on glycolysis to obtain ATP, highlighting the suitability of glycolytic enzymes as targets for drug design. We studied triosephosphate isomerase from G. lamblia (GlTIM) as a potential species-specific drug target.... more
Giardia lamblia depends on glycolysis to obtain ATP, highlighting the suitability of glycolytic enzymes as targets for drug design. We studied triosephosphate isomerase from G. lamblia (GlTIM) as a potential species-specific drug target. Cysteine-reactive agents were used as probes, in order to test those regions near to cysteine residues as targets to perturb enzyme structure and activity. Methyl methanethiosulfonate (MMTS) derivatized three of the five Cys per subunit of dimeric GlTIM and induced 50% of inactivation. The 2-carboxyethyl methanethiosulfonate (MTSCE) modified four Cys and induced 97% of inactivation. Inactivation by MMTS or MTSCE did not affect secondary structure, nor induce dimer dissociation; however, Cys modification decreased thermal stability of enzyme. Inactivation and dissociation of the dimer to stable monomers were reached when four Cys were derivatized by 5,5'-dithio-bis(2-nitrobenzoic acid) (DTNB). The effects of DTNB were completely abolished when GlTIM was first treated with MMTS. The effect of thiol reagents on human TIM was also assayed; it is 180-fold less sensitive than GlTIM. Collectively, the data illustrate GlTIM as a good target for drug design.
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Research Interests: Molecular Biology, Kinetics, Macromolecular X-Ray Crystallography, Molecular, Copper, and 20 moreAnimals, GAP, Glycolysis, Enzyme, Hydrogen Bond, Active site, Protein Secondary Structure Prediction, Cysteine, In Silico, Triosephosphate Isomerase, Protein Quaternary Structure, Structure activity Relationship, D structure, Enzymatic Activity, Ligands, Molecular Dynamic Simulation, Protein Transport, Biochemistry and cell biology, Dimerization, and Disulfide bond
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Giardiasis is highly prevalent in the developing world, and treatment failures with the standard drugs are common. This work deals with the proposal of omeprazole as a novel antigiardial drug, focusing on a giardial glycolytic enzyme used... more
Giardiasis is highly prevalent in the developing world, and treatment failures with the standard drugs are common. This work deals with the proposal of omeprazole as a novel antigiardial drug, focusing on a giardial glycolytic enzyme used to follow the cytotoxic effect at the molecular level. We used recombinant technology and enzyme inactivation to demon- strate the capacity of omeprazole to inactivate giardial triosephosphate isomerase, with no adverse effects on its human counterpart. To establish the specific target in the enzyme, we used single mutants of every cysteine residue in triosephos- phate isomerase. The effect on cellular triosephosphate isomerase was evaluated by following the remnant enzyme activity on trophozoites treated with omeprazole. The interaction of omeprazole with giardial proteins was analyzed by fluores- cence spectroscopy. The susceptibility to omeprazole of drug-susceptible and drug-resistant strains of Giardia lamblia was evaluated to demonstrate its potential as a novel antigiardial drug. Our results demonstrate that omeprazole inhibits giardial triosephosphate isomerase in a species-specific manner through interaction with cysteine at position 222. Omeprazole enters the cytoplasmic compartment of the trophozoites and inhibits cellular triosephosphate isomerase activity in a dose-dependent man- ner. Such inhibition takes place concomitantly with the cytotoxic effect caused by omeprazole on trophozoites. G. lamblia tri- osephosphate isomerase (GlTIM) is a cytoplasmic protein which can help analyses of how omeprazole works against the proteins of this parasite and in the effort to understand its mechanism of cytotoxicity. Our results demonstrate the mechanism of giardial triosephosphate isomerase inhibition by omeprazole and show that this drug is effective in vitro against drug-resistant and drug-susceptible strains of G. lamblia.