Papers by Toni Todorovski
Pharmaceutics, Oct 11, 2023
In recent decades, bioactive peptides have been gaining recognition in various biomedical areas, ... more In recent decades, bioactive peptides have been gaining recognition in various biomedical areas, such as intracellular drug delivery (cell-penetrating peptides, CPPs) or anti-infective action (antimicrobial peptides, AMPs), closely associated to their distinct mode of interaction with biological membranes. Exploiting the interaction of membrane-active peptides with diverse targets (healthy, tumoral, bacterial or parasitic cell membranes) is opening encouraging prospects for peptides in therapeutics. However, ordinary peptides formed by L-amino acids are easily decomposed by proteases in biological fluids. One way to sidestep this limitation is to use topoisomers, namely versions of the peptide made up of D-amino acids in either canonic (enantio) or inverted (retroenantio) sequence. Rearranging peptide sequences in this fashion provides a certain degree of native structure mimicry that, in appropriate contexts, may deliver desirable biological activity while avoiding protease degradation. In this review, we will focus on recent accounts of membrane-active topoisomeric peptides with therapeutic applications as CPP drug delivery vectors, or as antimicrobial and anticancer candidates. We will also discuss the most common modes of interaction of these peptides with their membrane targets.
NMR structure of FBP28 WW2 mutant Y438R, L453A DNDC
NMR structure of FBP28 WW2 mutant Y446L
NMR structure of FBP28 WW2 Y438R mutant
Current Issues in Molecular Biology
Tumour suppressor p53 plays a key role in the development of cancer and has therefore been widely... more Tumour suppressor p53 plays a key role in the development of cancer and has therefore been widely studied in recent decades. While it is well known that p53 is biologically active as a tetramer, the tetramerisation mechanism is still not completely understood. p53 is mutated in nearly 50% of cancers, and mutations can alter the oligomeric state of the protein, having an impact on the biological function of the protein and on cell fate decisions. Here, we describe the effects of a number of representative cancer-related mutations on tetramerisation domain (TD) oligomerisation defining a peptide length that permits having a folded and structured domain, thus avoiding the effect of the flanking regions and the net charges at the N- and C-terminus. These peptides have been studied under different experimental conditions. We have applied a variety of techniques, including circular dichroism (CD), native mass spectrometry (MS) and high-field solution NMR. Native MS allows us to detect the...
FBP28 WW2 , mutation Y438R
NMR structure of FBP28 WW2 mutant Y438R DNDC
Pharmaceutics
Infectious diseases caused by microbial pathogens (bacteria, virus, fungi, parasites) claim milli... more Infectious diseases caused by microbial pathogens (bacteria, virus, fungi, parasites) claim millions of deaths per year worldwide and have become a serious challenge to global human health in our century. Viral infections are particularly notable in this regard, not only because humankind is facing some of the deadliest viral pandemics in recent history, but also because the arsenal of drugs to combat the high levels of mutation, and hence the antigenic variability of (mostly RNA) viruses, is disturbingly scarce. Therefore, the search for new antivirals able to successfully fight infection with minimal or no adverse effects on the host is a pressing task. Traditionally, antiviral therapies have relied on relatively small-sized drugs acting as proteases, polymerases, integrase inhibitors, etc. In recent decades, novel approaches involving targeted delivery such as that achieved by peptide–drug conjugates (PDCs) have gained attention as alternative (pro)drugs for tackling viral diseas...
Pharmaceutics, 2022
Viral disease outbreaks affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide and remain a serious thre... more Viral disease outbreaks affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide and remain a serious threat to global health. The current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and other recent geographically- confined viral outbreaks (severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Ebola, dengue, zika and ever-recurring seasonal influenza), also with devastating tolls at sanitary and socio-economic levels, are sobering reminders in this respect. Among the respective pathogenic agents, Zika virus (ZIKV), transmitted by Aedes mosquito vectors and causing the eponymous fever, is particularly insidious in that infection during pregnancy results in complications such as foetal loss, preterm birth or irreversible brain abnormalities, including microcephaly. So far, there is no effective remedy for ZIKV infection, mainly due to the limited ability of antiviral drugs to cross blood–placental and/or blood–brain barriers (BPB and BBB, respectively). Despite its restricted permeability, the BBB is penetrable by a variety of ...
Additional file 2 of Algorithm-supported, mass and sequence diversity-oriented random peptide library design
Additional file 2. List of amino acid permutations for BS 2, from the optimization in Fig. 4.
Additional file 2. List of amino acid permutations for BS 2, from the optimization in Fig. 4.
Additional file 1. Supporting information for Algorithm-supported, mass and sequence diversity-o... more Additional file 1. Supporting information for Algorithm-supported, mass and sequence diversity-oriented random peptide library design
FBP28 WW2 mutant Y438R DN
FBP28 WW2 mutant Y238R L453A DNDC
FBP28 WW2 mutant Y438R DNDC
Nature Communications, 2021
Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease are forms of inflammatory bowel disease whose incidence an... more Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease are forms of inflammatory bowel disease whose incidence and prevalence are increasing worldwide. These diseases lead to chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract as a result of an abnormal response of the immune system. Recent studies positioned Cortistatin, which shows low stability in plasma, as a candidate for IBD treatment. Here, using NMR structural information, we design five Cortistatin analogues adopting selected native Cortistatin conformations in solution. One of them, A5, preserves the anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory activities of Cortistatin in vitro and in mouse models of the disease. Additionally, A5 displays an increased half-life in serum and a unique receptor binding profile, thereby overcoming the limitations of the native Cortistatin as a therapeutic agent. This study provides an efficient approach to the rational design of Cortistatin analogues and opens up new possibilities for the treatment of patients that...
Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease are inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) that lead to chronic... more Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease are inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) that lead to chronic inflammations of the gastrointestinal tract due to an abnormal response of the immune system. Finding new effective drugs to tackle IBD represents a major therapeutic concern since IBD incidence and prevalence is increasing worldwide. Recent studies positioned Cortistatin (CST) as a candidate for IBD treatment due to its anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory activity. Here, we studied the structural properties of CST using NMR and synthesized and characterized new analogs displaying enriched populations of some native conformations. One of them, Analog 5, preserved the activity against IBD with an increased half-life in serum, overcoming the native hormone limitation and opening the door for the use of CST analogs as therapeutic agents. This work represents a new approach to the rational design of molecules to treat IBD and a possibility for patients that fail to respond to other therapies.
ACS Infectious Diseases, 2019
HAL is a multidisciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific re... more HAL is a multidisciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.
Journal of Cheminformatics, 2019
Random peptide libraries that cover large search spaces are often used for the discovery of new b... more Random peptide libraries that cover large search spaces are often used for the discovery of new binders, even when the target is unknown. To ensure an accurate population representation, there is a tendency to use large libraries. However, parameters such as the synthesis scale, the number of library members, the sequence deconvolution and peptide structure elucidation, are challenging when increasing the library size. To tackle these challenges, we propose an algorithm-supported approach to peptide library design based on molecular mass and amino acid diversity. The aim is to simplify the tedious permutation identification in complex mixtures, when mass spectrometry is used, by avoiding mass redundancy. For this purpose, we applied multi (two- and three-)-objective genetic algorithms to discriminate between library members based on defined parameters. The optimizations led to diverse random libraries by maximizing the number of amino acid permutations and minimizing the mass and/or...
Uploads
Papers by Toni Todorovski