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Differential In Vitro and In Vivo Toxicities of Antimicrobial Peptide Prodrugs for Potential Use in Cystic Fibrosis.

ABSTRACT: There has been considerable interest in the use of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) as antimicrobial agents for the treatment of many conditions, including cystic fibrosis (CF). The challenging conditions of the CF patient lung require robust AMPs that are active in an environment of high proteolytic activity but that also have low cytotoxicity and immunogenicity. Previously, we developed prodrugs of AMPs that limited the cytotoxic effects of AMP treatment by rendering the antimicrobial activity dependent on the host enzyme neutrophil elastase (NE). However, cytotoxicity remained an issue. Here, we describe the further optimization of the AMP prodrug (pro-AMP) model for CF to produce pro-WMR, a peptide with greatly reduced cytotoxicity (50% inhibitory concentration against CFBE41o- cells, >300 ?M) compared to that of the previous group of pro-AMPs. The bactericidal activity of pro-WMR was increased in NE-rich bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid from CF patients (range, 8.4% ± 6.9% alone to 91.5% ± 5.8% with BAL fluid; P = 0.0004), an activity differential greater than that of previous pro-AMPs. In a murine model of lung delivery, the pro-AMP modification reduced host toxicity, with pro-WMR being less toxic than the active peptide. Previously, host toxicity issues have hampered the clinical application of AMPs. However, the development of application-specific AMPs with modifications that minimize toxicity similar to those described here can significantly advance their potential use in patients. The combination of this prodrug strategy with a highly active AMP has the potential to produce new therapeutics for the challenging conditions of the CF patient lung.

SUBMITTER: Forde E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4862519 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Differential In Vitro and In Vivo Toxicities of Antimicrobial Peptide Prodrugs for Potential Use in Cystic Fibrosis.

Forde Éanna É Schütte André A Reeves Emer E Greene Catherine C Humphreys Hilary H Mall Marcus M Fitzgerald-Hughes Deirdre D Devocelle Marc M

Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy 20160422 5

There has been considerable interest in the use of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) as antimicrobial agents for the treatment of many conditions, including cystic fibrosis (CF). The challenging conditions of the CF patient lung require robust AMPs that are active in an environment of high proteolytic activity but that also have low cytotoxicity and immunogenicity. Previously, we developed prodrugs of AMPs that limited the cytotoxic effects of AMP treatment by rendering the antimicrobial activity de ...[more]

PMID: 26902766

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Project description:Bacteria, plants, and algae produce isoprenoids through the methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathway, an attractive pathway for antimicrobial drug development as it is present in prokaryotes and some lower eukaryotes but absent from human cells. The first committed step of the MEP pathway is catalyzed by 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate reductoisomerase (DXR/MEP synthase). MEP pathway genes have been identified in many biothreat agents, including Francisella, Brucella, Bacillus, Burkholderia, and Yersinia. The importance of the MEP pathway to Francisella is demonstrated by the fact that MEP pathway mutations are lethal. We have previously established that fosmidomycin inhibits purified MEP synthase (DXR) from F. tularensis LVS. FR900098, the acetyl derivative of fosmidomycin, was found to inhibit the activity of purified DXR from F. tularensis LVS (IC(50)=230 nM). Fosmidomycin and FR900098 are effective against purified DXR from Mycobacterium tuberculosis as well, but have no effect on whole cells because the compounds are too polar to penetrate the thick cell wall. Fosmidomycin requires the GlpT transporter to enter cells, and this is absent in some pathogens, including M. tuberculosis. In this study, we have identified the GlpT homologs in F. novicida and tested transposon insertion mutants of glpT. We showed that FR900098 also requires GlpT for full activity against F. novicida. Thus, we synthesized several FR900098 prodrugs that have lipophilic groups to facilitate their passage through the bacterial cell wall and bypass the requirement for the GlpT transporter. One compound, that we termed "compound 1," was found to have GlpT-independent antimicrobial activity. We tested the ability of this best performing prodrug to inhibit F. novicida intracellular infection of eukaryotic cell lines and the caterpillar Galleria mellonella as an in vivo infection model. As a lipophilic GlpT-independent DXR inhibitor, compound 1 has the potential to be a broad-spectrum antibiotic, and should be effective against most MEP-dependent organisms.

Dataset Information

Differential In Vitro and In Vivo Toxicities of Antimicrobial Peptide Prodrugs for Potential Use in Cystic Fibrosis.

Publications

Differential In Vitro and In Vivo Toxicities of Antimicrobial Peptide Prodrugs for Potential Use in Cystic Fibrosis.

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