{"title":"Hybrid Molecules of Small Molecular and Peptidic HIV Fusion Inhibitors.","authors":"Kohei Tsuji, Takuya Kobayakawa, Peter Bolah, Soshi Nishimura, Tsutomu Murakami, Hirokazu Tamamura","doi":"10.1002/cbic.202500230","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cbic.202500230","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Since the membrane fusion step is the last chance to block the virus extracellularly, membrane fusion is an important target for anti-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) agents. Previously, the dimeric derivatives of C34, which are contained in the HIV-1 envelope protein gp41 are found, linked by a disulfide bridge or a pegylated linker at its C-terminus have more potent anti-HIV activity than the C34 peptide monomer, and that bivalent inhibitors crosslinking two peptidomimetic small compounds have more potent anti-HIV activity than the parent small compounds. In the present study, the hybrids of small compounds (7-9) and peptides (SC34 (2) and SC22EK (3)) are designed as heterodimeric molecules (10-15) to compensate for the drawbacks of the above homodimeric molecules. Some hybrid molecules of small compounds (7-9) and peptide SC22EK (3) have remarkably higher anti-HIV activity than peptide SC22EK (3). Crosslinking small compounds and peptides (3) is found to be critical for an increase in anti-HIV activity. Hybrid molecules with small compounds and peptides are useful HIV-1 fusion inhibitors.</p>","PeriodicalId":140,"journal":{"name":"ChemBioChem","volume":" ","pages":"e2500230"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143956407","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChemBioChemPub Date : 2025-04-24DOI: 10.1002/cbic.202401076
Merlin Klußmann, Martin Matijass, Ines Neundorf
{"title":"Impact of Mutational Status on Intracellular Effects of Cell-Permeable CaaX Peptides in Pancreatic Cancer Cells","authors":"Merlin Klußmann, Martin Matijass, Ines Neundorf","doi":"10.1002/cbic.202401076","DOIUrl":"10.1002/cbic.202401076","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Prenyltransferases add a lipid group to the cysteine of a CaaX motif of proteins. This posttranslational modification enables proteins to attach to membranes where they are essential hubs for signaling, trafficking, and apoptosis. Recently, cell-permeable CaaX-peptides are developed as possible tools to interfere with the prenylation machinery. These peptides cause cytotoxic effects, particularly in KRas mutant pancreatic cancer cells (PANC-1) in which they also alter downstream signaling of Ras proteins. Herein, the aim is to get more clues about the relevance of the mutational status of KRas. Therefore, the activity of CaaX-peptides in KRas wildtype BxPC-3 and KRas mutated PANC-1 cells is compared. CaaX-peptides differently influence these two cell lines, although they internalize pretty much to the same extent. Indeed, an altered KRas plasma membrane localization in PANC-1 cells is observed, probably induced by disturbed KRas prenylation based on the presence of CaaX-peptides. The impact of CaaX-peptides on KRas signaling is likely dependent on the KRas mutation in PANC-1 cells in which they further trigger effects on KRas-dependent regulators, e.g., Neurofibromin −1 (NF1) and son of sevenless homolog 1 (SOS1). All in all, CaaX peptides are identified as promising tools for studying and manipulating the function of therapeutically important prenylated proteins.</p>","PeriodicalId":140,"journal":{"name":"ChemBioChem","volume":"26 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cbic.202401076","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144052854","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChemBioChemPub Date : 2025-04-23DOI: 10.1002/cbic.202500195
Wolfgang Link, Salvatore Princiotto, Lucía Jiménez, Lucía Domínguez, João G N Sequeira, Cristiana Mourato, Alba Orea-Soufi, Bruno Santos, Sabrina Dallavalle, Miguel Machuqueiro, Bibiana I Ferreira
{"title":"Chromenone derivatives as CRM1 Inhibitors for Targeting Glioblastoma.","authors":"Wolfgang Link, Salvatore Princiotto, Lucía Jiménez, Lucía Domínguez, João G N Sequeira, Cristiana Mourato, Alba Orea-Soufi, Bruno Santos, Sabrina Dallavalle, Miguel Machuqueiro, Bibiana I Ferreira","doi":"10.1002/cbic.202500195","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cbic.202500195","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Glioblastoma (GBM) is one of the most aggressive and deadly cancers. Due to the complexity and redundancy within signaling networks in GBM, targeted inhibitors of specific pathways have shown only limited success. The nuclear export receptor Chromosome Region Maintenance 1 (CRM1) has recently emerged as a promising therapeutic target, as its inhibition can simultaneously disrupt multiple key oncogenic drivers. In this study, we explore whether chromenone derivatives, known for detecting thiol-containing molecules, can function as CRM1 inhibitors. We synthesized several chromenone-based derivatives and demonstrated that they inhibit CRM1-driven nuclear export in a structure- and dose-dependent manner. A preliminary structure-activity relationship (SAR) was established, providing a rationale for selective CRM1 binding based on molecular docking studies. Additionally, we showed that the active chromenone derivatives effectively inhibit the nuclear export of endogenous nuclear export signal (NES)-containing substrates in glioblastoma cells. Several of these compounds exhibit selective cytotoxicity against glioblastoma cell lines, highlighting their potential as targeted therapies for GBM.</p>","PeriodicalId":140,"journal":{"name":"ChemBioChem","volume":" ","pages":"e202500195"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143961571","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChemBioChemPub Date : 2025-04-23DOI: 10.1002/cbic.202500216
Zhihao Xu, Xiaowei Ma, Jing Ye, Pengfei Hou, Caiqing Yuan, Li Pan, Donglei Yang, Xue Li, Pengfei Wang
{"title":"Visual Detection and Identification of Influenza A Viruses by Nucleic Acid Probe-Enabled Lateral Flow Assay.","authors":"Zhihao Xu, Xiaowei Ma, Jing Ye, Pengfei Hou, Caiqing Yuan, Li Pan, Donglei Yang, Xue Li, Pengfei Wang","doi":"10.1002/cbic.202500216","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cbic.202500216","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Diagnosis of influenza A viral infection is crucial for preventing disease transmission and providing effective clinical treatments. There is an increasing need for convenient detection methods to enable simple yet precise identification of viral infections. Herein, a nucleic acid probe-enabled lateral flow assay (NALFA) is developed to realize visual detection and identification of influenza A viral infections (H1N1 and H3N2) of high sensitivity and specificity. Viral RNA targets are recognized by a padlock probe, which is circularized to induce rolling circle amplification (RCA). RCA products are enzymatically cleaved into short amplicons to complex with capture DNA probes for gold colloidal-induced visual lateral flow assay. NALFA achieved attomolar (aM) sensitivity for both standard viral RNAs, along with high specificity. While applying clinical samples (16 H1N1 patients, 12 healthy controls), NALFA exhibited high detection accuracy to successfully discriminate infected samples from noninfected samples. NALFA represents a potent and convenient nucleic acid detection assay that shall find its applications in fields of viral detection and beyond.</p>","PeriodicalId":140,"journal":{"name":"ChemBioChem","volume":" ","pages":"e2500216"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143958584","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChemBioChemPub Date : 2025-04-23DOI: 10.1002/cbic.202500095
Po-han Lin, Xuefei Huang
{"title":"Recent Advances in Enzymes and Chemoenzymatic Synthesis of Tetrasaccharide Linkage Region of Proteoglycans","authors":"Po-han Lin, Xuefei Huang","doi":"10.1002/cbic.202500095","DOIUrl":"10.1002/cbic.202500095","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Proteoglycans (PGs) play roles in many important biological events, including growth factor signaling, wound repair, blood coagulation, brain development, and neural stem cell migration. As the glycosaminoglycan chain of PGs is attached to the core protein through a tetrasaccharide linkage region, it is important to decipher the intricate control of the multitude of enzymes engaged in biosynthesis of the linkage region. During the past two decades, significant advances have been achieved in our understanding of the identity and interactions of these enzymes as well as the control of their activities. Furthermore, the knowledge gained on biosynthesis of the linkage region has enabled the synthesis of structurally well-defined proteoglycan-associated glycopeptides. The expression, activity, and substrate profile of enzymes and the latest development of chemoenzymatic synthesis of linkage region-bearing glycopeptides are summarized in this review.</p>","PeriodicalId":140,"journal":{"name":"ChemBioChem","volume":"26 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cbic.202500095","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143951674","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChemBioChemPub Date : 2025-04-22DOI: 10.1002/cbic.202401012
Mengjie Qiu, Wen Zhu, Xiaoxu Zheng, Zhong Chen, Yanqin Lin
{"title":"NMR Pure Shift Spectroscopy and Its Potential Applications in the Pharmaceutical Industry.","authors":"Mengjie Qiu, Wen Zhu, Xiaoxu Zheng, Zhong Chen, Yanqin Lin","doi":"10.1002/cbic.202401012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cbic.202401012","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><sup>1</sup>H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy plays an important role in the pharmaceutical industry, but for complex substances, spectral analysis is challenging due to the narrow chemical shift range and signal splitting caused by scalar coupling. Pure shift techniques can suppress scalar coupling, improving spectral resolution. This article provides a review of pure shift techniques, including the main homonuclear broadband decoupling experiments and the methods for obtaining optimal pure shift spectra with the assistance of deep learning. Furthermore, it explores the potential application directions of pure shift techniques in the pharmaceutical industry, supported by relevant scientific examples. By summarizing recent advances and application opportunities, this article aims to promote the development and practical implementation of pure shift NMR techniques in the pharmaceutical industry.</p>","PeriodicalId":140,"journal":{"name":"ChemBioChem","volume":" ","pages":"e2401012"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143957965","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChemBioChemPub Date : 2025-04-22DOI: 10.1002/cbic.202500075
Zhixi Zhu, Zhi Zhou
{"title":"Artificial Enzyme Design with Novel Functions via Site-Specific Chemical Modification","authors":"Zhixi Zhu, Zhi Zhou","doi":"10.1002/cbic.202500075","DOIUrl":"10.1002/cbic.202500075","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The design of artificial enzymes represents a transformative advancement in biocatalysis, enabling the creation of bespoke biocatalysts for nonnatural reactions. A key innovation in this field is the introduction of unnatural catalytic residues through site-specific chemical modification, which significantly expands the chemical repertoire of natural enzymes. This approach combines precision engineering with cutting-edge methodologies, including chemical ligation, noncanonical amino acid incorporation and directed evolution. These strategies facilitate the development of enzymes with novel catalytic activities, modify substrate specificities, and enhance stability under nonphysiological conditions. This concept examines the methodologies, challenges, and future directions in the design of enzymes with unnatural catalytic residues via site-specific chemical modification, with a focus on their functional impact and transformative potential in synthetic chemistry and biocatalysis.</p>","PeriodicalId":140,"journal":{"name":"ChemBioChem","volume":"26 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143954803","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChemBioChemPub Date : 2025-04-18DOI: 10.1002/cbic.202580801
Jöri E. Wehrmüller, Julia C. Frei, Torsten Hechler, Michael Kulke, Andreas Pahl, Martin Béhé, Roger Schibli, Philipp R. Spycher
{"title":"Front Cover: Site-Specific Modification of Native IgGs with Flexible Drug-Load (ChemBioChem 8/2025)","authors":"Jöri E. Wehrmüller, Julia C. Frei, Torsten Hechler, Michael Kulke, Andreas Pahl, Martin Béhé, Roger Schibli, Philipp R. Spycher","doi":"10.1002/cbic.202580801","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cbic.202580801","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The cover shows the direct and site-specific modification of a native antibody and the generation of an antibody-conjugate using click-chemistry. First, the positively-charged peptide (shown in yellow) carrying a functional group (highlighted in orange) is conjugated to the antibody by microbial transglutaminase followed by a click-reaction with a functional payload to generate the antibody-conjugate. More details can be found in article 10.1002/cbic.202400511 by Roger Schibli, Philipp R. Spycher, and co-workers. Illustration created by Bara Krautz.\u0000 <figure>\u0000 <div><picture>\u0000 <source></source></picture><p></p>\u0000 </div>\u0000 </figure>\u0000 </p>","PeriodicalId":140,"journal":{"name":"ChemBioChem","volume":"26 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cbic.202580801","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143846142","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChemBioChemPub Date : 2025-04-17DOI: 10.1002/cbic.202500261
Peter Bitsch, Sebastian Bitsch, Noah Murmann, Ingo Bork, Janine Becker, Harald Kolmar
{"title":"A Recognition Tag of Human Origin for Bioorthogonal Generation of Antibody-Drug Conjugates using Microbial Biotin Ligase","authors":"Peter Bitsch, Sebastian Bitsch, Noah Murmann, Ingo Bork, Janine Becker, Harald Kolmar","doi":"10.1002/cbic.202500261","DOIUrl":"10.1002/cbic.202500261","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The use of enzymes, such as microbial transglutaminase, lipoate protein ligase A, or sortase A, for the generation of antibody-drug conjugates has proven to be a powerful tool for the site-specific payload conjugation to tumor-specific antibodies. Herein, the extension of this enzymatic toolbox by <i>Pyrococcus horikoshii</i> biotin ligase is reported. To this end, the therapeutic antibody trastuzumab is equipped with p67, the 67 amino acid carboxyl-terminal domain of human propionyl-CoA carboxylase <i>α</i> subunit, at the C-terminus of either the light or heavy chain (Trz-LC:p67 and Trz-HC:p67). Upon incubation with PhBL, the azide-bearing linker desthiobiotin azide is site-specifically coupled to the p67 domains at the antibody. Subsequent strain-promoted azide-alkyne cycloaddition with DBCO-AF488 and DBCO-Val-Cit-PAB-MMAE yielded conjugates near to full conversion. In cellular assays, these constructs exhibit single-digit nanomolar EC50 values in cellular proliferation assays on SK-BR-3 and A431 cells, where no significant difference in the performance between the two variants Trz-LC:p67-MMAE and Trz-HC:p67-MMAE is observed. On high Fc-γIIIa receptor expressing Jurkat cells, Trz-HC:p67-MMAE exhibits higher potency than Trz-LC:p67-MMAE, indicating an Fc-blocking effect of p67 when fused to the light chain.</p>","PeriodicalId":140,"journal":{"name":"ChemBioChem","volume":"26 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cbic.202500261","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143958704","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChemBioChemPub Date : 2025-04-17DOI: 10.1002/cbic.202500181
Fabian Schmitz, Maike Hoffrogge, Katja Koschorreck, Yasuhisa Fukuta, Alessandra Raffaele, Florian Tieves, Thomas Hilberath, Frank Hollmann, Vlada B. Urlacher
{"title":"Identification of Key Active-Site Positions Controlling the Chemoselectivity of Aspergillus Brasiliensis Unspecific Peroxygenase","authors":"Fabian Schmitz, Maike Hoffrogge, Katja Koschorreck, Yasuhisa Fukuta, Alessandra Raffaele, Florian Tieves, Thomas Hilberath, Frank Hollmann, Vlada B. Urlacher","doi":"10.1002/cbic.202500181","DOIUrl":"10.1002/cbic.202500181","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Heme-containing unspecific peroxygenases (UPOs) have attracted significant attention as biocatalysts for oxidation reactions due to their ability to function without expensive nicotinamide cofactors. In the recent study, the UPO from <i>aspergillus brasiliensis</i> (<i>Abr</i>UPO) is found to catalyze the aromatic hydroxylation of substituted benzenes, a feature that distinguishes <i>Abr</i>UPO from other reported wild-type UPOs. To elucidate the underlying factors in the active site and substrate access channel of <i>Abr</i>UPO—which contains fewer phenylalanine residues compared to other UPOs that primarily catalyze benzylic hydroxylation—twenty two <i>Abr</i>UPO variants with single, double, triple, or quadruple amino acid substitutions were constructed to mimic the active sites or substrate access channels of other UPOs. A number of mutated variants exhibited altered activity and selectivity, and several positions were identified that influence enzyme chemoselectivity. Among them, substitution of alanine at position 186 with bulkier residues such as phenylalanine or leucine lead to a shift in chemoselectivity toward alkyl chain hydroxylation of substituted benzenes. Molecular docking studies indicated that the A186F mutation restricts the flexibility and reorientation of ethylbenzene in the active site of <i>Abr</i>UPO, thereby preventing oxidation at the aromatic ring while promoting benzylic hydroxylation.</p>","PeriodicalId":140,"journal":{"name":"ChemBioChem","volume":"26 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cbic.202500181","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143954194","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}