Sylvia Van Dorpe

Api88 Is a Novel Antibacterial Designer Peptide To Treat Systemic Infections with Multidrug-Resistant Gram-Negative Pathogens

The emergence of multiple-drug-resistant (MDR) bacterial pathogens in hospitals (nosocomial infections) presents a global threat of growing importance, especially for Gram-negative bacteria with extended spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) or the novel New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase 1 (NDM-1) resistance. Starting from the antibacterial peptide apidaecin 1b, we have optimized the sequence to treat systemic infections with the most threatening human pathogens, such as Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Acinetobacter baumannii. The lead compound Api88 enters bacteria without lytic effects at the membrane and inhibits chaperone DnaK at the substrate binding domain with a K(D) of 5 μmol/L. The Api88-DnaK crystal structure revealed that Api88 binds with a seven residue long sequence (PVYIPRP), in two different modes. Mice did not show any sign of toxicity when Api88 was injected four times intraperitoneally at a dose of 40 mg/kg body weight (BW) within 24 h, whereas three injections of 1.25 mg/kg BW and 5 mg/kg BW were sufficient to rescue all animals in lethal sepsis models using pathogenic E. coli strains ATCC 25922 and Neumann, respectively. Radioactive labeling showed that Api88 enters all organs investigated including the brain and is cleared through both the liver and kidneys at similar rates. In conclusion, Api88 is a novel, highly promising, 18-residue peptide lead compound with favorable in vitro and in vivo properties including a promising safety margin.

In vitro metabolic stability of obestatin: Kinetics and identification of cleavage products

The in vitro metabolic stability testing on synthetic obestatin peptides from two different species (human hOb and mouse mOb) using HPLC analysis is described. A reversed-phase C(18) column of 300A pore size was used, with a gradient system based on aqueous formic acid and acetonitrile. Electrospray ionization (ESI) ion trap mass spectrometry was used for identification of the chromatographic eluting peptide metabolic products, while UV (DAD) and fluorescence served quantitative purposes. Differences in the metabolic degradation kinetics of hOb and mOb were found in plasma, liver and kidney homogenate, with half-lives ranging between 12.6 and 138.0min. Proteolytic hydrolysis at the N-terminal Phe residue and cleavage at Pro(4)-Phe(5) were found to be two major metabolic pathways, accounting for more than 50% of the metabolic degradation. Several other labile peptide bonds were located. The influence of a standard protease inhibitor cocktail was investigated, as well as the metabolism of iodinated human obestatin in liver homogenate. Our results indicate that the major instability of obestatin peptides, as currently used in biomedical investigations, should be taken into account in the interpretation of the obtained results.

Hydrophilic interaction LC of peptides: Columns comparison and clustering

A wide variety of hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) stationary phase surface chemistries are currently available. Although their selectivity can be considerably different, column comparison or clustering using peptides is limited. In this study, ten pharmaceutically relevant model peptides are analyzed on seven different HILIC columns (bare silica, amide, poly-hydroxyethyl aspartamide, diol and zwitterionic) for the evaluation of their performance and classification. The responses examined include single and multiple responses: plate number, asymmetry factor, LOD, geometric mean resolution, resolution product, time corrected resolution product, peak capacity and chromatographic response function. Column classification was performed using hierarchical clustering and principal component analysis. Moreover, the overall performance quality of the HILIC columns was compared using a linear desirability function. Hierarchical clustering and principal component analysis showed consistent clusters. The zwitterionic phase was clustered apart from the other HILIC columns and both poly-aspartamide columns were clustered together. In addition, the two bare silica phases represent two different clusters, and thus different selectivities. Overall, the responses showed the best performance for one of the bare silica columns (Alltima-Alltech), followed by the zwitterionic phase (ZIC)-HILIC. Thus, these columns, belonging to different clusters, were found to be the best performing systems in pharmaceutical peptide analysis for the selected peptide set.

Brainpeps: the blood–brain barrier peptide database

Peptides are able to cross the blood–brain barrier (BBB) through various mechanisms, opening new diagnostic and therapeutic avenues. However, their BBB transport data are scattered in the literature over different disciplines, using different methodologies reporting different influx or efflux aspects. Therefore, a comprehensive BBB peptide database (Brainpeps) was constructed to collect the BBB data available in the literature. Brainpeps currently contains BBB transport information with positive as well as negative results. The database is a useful tool to prioritize peptide choices for evaluating different BBB responses or studying quantitative structure–property (BBB behaviour) relationships of peptides. Because a multitude of methods have been used to assess the BBB behaviour of compounds, we classified these methods and their responses. Moreover, the relationships between the different BBB transport methods have been clarified and visualized.

Analytical characterization and comparison of the blood–brain barrier permeability of eight opioid peptides

Opioid drugs, including the newly developed peptides, should penetrate the blood-brain barrier (BBB) for pain management activity. Although BBB transport is fragmentarily described for some mu-opioid peptides, a complete and comparative overview is currently lacking. In this study, the BBB transport of eight opioid peptides (EM-1, EM-2, CTAP, CTOP, DAMGO, dermorphin, TAPP and TAPS) is described and compared. In addition, the metabolic stability in plasma and brain was evaluated. The highest influx rate was obtained for dermorphin (K(in)=2.18 microl/(g x min)), followed by smaller rates for EM-1, EM-2 and TAPP (K(in)=1.06-1.14 microl/(g x min)). Negligible influx was observed for DAMGO, CTOP and TAPS (K(in)=0.18-0.40 microl/(g x min)) and no influx for CTAP. Capillary depletion revealed that all peptides reached brain parenchyma for over 75%. Efflux was shown for TAPP (t(1/2)=2.82 min) and to a lesser extent for EM-1, EM-2 and DAMGO (t(1/2)=10.66-21.98 min), while no significant efflux was observed for the other peptides. All peptides were stable in mouse plasma and brain, with generally higher stability in brain, except for EM-1 and EM-2 which showed plasma half-life stabilities of a few minutes only.

Adsorption of peptides at the sample drying step : Influence of solvent evaporation technique, vial material and solution additive

Although the efficient and careful removal of solvent from samples by centrifugal evaporation or freeze-drying methods is an important step in peptidomics, the recovery of peptides has not yet been fully investigated with these sample drying methods. Moreover, the surface adsorption of the peptides by the container and efforts to reduce this adsorption by organic additives is only scarcely elaborated until now. In this experiment, the recovery of five model peptides, i.e. bovine insulin, mouse obestatin, goserelin, buserelin and leucine-enkephalin was investigated applying dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), dimethylformamide (DMF), polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG 400), mannitol and n-nonyl-beta-d-glucopyranoside (C(9)-Glu) in function of the two applied solvent evaporation processes (freeze-drying vs. centrifugal evaporation) and vial types, i.e. polypropylene (PP) and glass. Under our experimental conditions, drying resulted in a decreased recovery of the model peptides by 10% on average. Insulin showed the lowest recovery value relative to the other model peptides. For both drying methods, recovery of the model peptides was increased when C(9)-Glu was present. Overall, the use of PP vials is proposed for freeze-drying, while glass vials are found to be more suitable for centrifugal evaporation. The presence of PEG 400 in PP vials caused significantly reduced recoveries for all model peptides using centrifugal evaporation, although this was not observed in glass vials. As a general conclusion, applying C(9)-Glu as an additive along with choosing appropriate vial type (i.e. PP for lyophilization and glass for centrifugal evaporation) can avoid or diminish peptide loss during the evaporation procedure.

Variation of the net charge, lipophilicity, and side chain flexibility in Dmt(1)-DALDA: Effect on Opioid Activity and Biodistribution.

The influence of the side chain charges of the second and fourth amino acid residues in the peptidic μ opioid lead agonist Dmt-d-Arg-Phe-Lys-NH(2) ([Dmt(1)]-DALDA) was examined. Additionally, to increase the overall lipophilicity of [Dmt(1)]-DALDA and to investigate the Phe(3) side chain flexibility, the final amide bond was N-methylated and Phe(3) was replaced by a constrained aminobenzazepine analogue. The in vitro receptor binding and activity of the peptides, as well as their in vivo transport (brain in- and efflux and tissue biodistribution) and antinociceptive properties after peripheral administration (ip and sc) in mice were determined. The structural modifications result in significant shifts of receptor binding, activity, and transport properties. Strikingly, while [Dmt(1)]-DALDA and its N-methyl analogue, Dmt-d-Arg-Phe-NMeLys-NH(2), showed a long-lasting antinociceptive effect (>7 h), the peptides with d-Cit(2) generate potent antinociception more rapidly (maximal effect at 1h postinjection) but also lose their analgesic activity faster when compared to [Dmt(1)]-DALDA and [Dmt(1),NMeLys(4)]-DALDA.

Dry heat stress stability evaluation of casein peptide mixture

During food processing, peptide-containing products often experience thermal stress, which can be voluntary heat treatments to prolong expiration date, or unwanted side-effects, e.g. local heating during powder compaction or milling. No information is currently available on the primary structure stability of peptides when heated in the dry state. Therefore, the short-term dry heat stress stability of casein hydrolysate was evaluated by exposure to temperatures of 100, 140 and 180°C during 1, 3 and 5min time intervals. Moreover, the impact of oxidising and reducing agents, as well as photolytic stability were assessed. Contrary to the general belief that peptides are heat-labile, based on degradation results in solution, all peptides remained stable up to 3min at 180°C. The influence of a reducing environment was found to be minimal, while the impact of an oxidising environment was significant. Our findings open perspectives for thermal peptide processing techniques.

Stability-indicating HPLC-DAD/UV-ESI/MS impurity profiling of the anti-malarial drug lumefantrine

BackgroundLumefantrine (benflumetol) is a fluorene derivative belonging to the aryl amino alcohol class of anti-malarial drugs and is commercially available in fixed combination products with β-artemether. Impurity characterization of such drugs, which are widely consumed in tropical countries for malaria control programmes, is of paramount importance. However, until now, no exhaustive impurity profile of lumefantrine has been established, encompassing process-related and degradation impurities in active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and finished pharmaceutical products (FPPs).MethodsUsing HPLC-DAD/UV-ESI/ion trap/MS, a comprehensive impurity profile was established based upon analysis of market samples as well as stress, accelerated and long-term stability results. In-silico toxicological predictions for these lumefantrine related impurities were made using Toxtree® and Derek®.ResultsSeveral new impurities are identified, of which the desbenzylketo derivative (DBK) is proposed as a new specified degradant. DBK and the remaining unspecified lumefantrine related impurities are predicted, using Toxtree® and Derek®, to have a toxicity risk comparable to the toxicity risk of the API lumefantrine itself.ConclusionsFrom unstressed, stressed and accelerated stability samples of lumefantrine API and FPPs, nine compounds were detected and characterized to be lumefantrine related impurities. One new lumefantrine related compound, DBK, was identified and characterized as a specified degradation impurity of lumefantrine in real market samples (FPPs). The in-silico toxicological investigation (Toxtree® and Derek®) indicated overall a toxicity risk for lumefantrine related impurities comparable to that of the API lumefantrine itself.

Desirability function combining metabolic stability and functionality of peptides

The evaluation of peptides as potential therapeutic or diagnostic agents requires the consideration of several criteria that are targeted around two axes: functionality and metabolic stability. Most often, a compromise has to be made between these mutually opposing characteristics.