Design of a drug discovery course for non-science majors

“Drug Discovery” is a 13-week lecture and laboratory-based course that was developed to introduce non-science majors to foundational chemistry and biochemistry concepts as they relate to the unifying theme of drug discovery. The first part of this course strives to build students\u27 understanding of molecules, their properties, the differences that enable them to be separated from one another, and their abilities to bind to biological receptors and elicit physiological effects. After building students\u27 molecular worldview, the course then focuses on four classes of drugs: antimicrobials, drugs that affect the mind, steroid-based drugs, and anti-cancer drugs. During each of these modules, an emphasis is placed on how understanding the basis of disease and molecular-level interactions empowers us to identify novel medicinal compounds. Periodic in class discussions based on articles pertinent to class topics ranging from the spread of antibiotic resistance, to the molecular basis of addiction, to rational drug design, are held to enable students to relate course material to pressing problems of national and daily concern. In addition to class time, weekly inquiry-based laboratories allow students to critically analyze data related to course concepts, and later in the semester give students an opportunity to design and implement their own experiments to screen for antimicrobial activity. This course provides students with an understanding of the importance of chemistry and biochemistry to human health while emphasizing the process, strategies, and challenges related to drug discovery. © 2018 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 46:327–335, 2018

Dismantling the bacterial glycocalyx: Chemical tools to probe, perturb, and image bacterial glycans

The bacterial glycocalyx is a quintessential drug target comprised of structurally distinct glycans. Bacterial glycans bear unusual monosaccharide building blocks whose proper construction is critical for bacterial fitness, survival, and colonization in the human host. Despite their appeal as therapeutic targets, bacterial glycans are difficult to study due to the presence of rare bacterial monosaccharides that are linked and modified in atypical manners. Their structural complexity ultimately hampers their analytical characterization. This review highlights recent advances in bacterial chemical glycobiology and focuses on the development of chemical tools to probe, perturb, and image bacterial glycans and their biosynthesis. Current technologies have enabled the study of bacterial glycosylation machinery even in the absence of detailed structural information

Glycans in pathogenic bacteria - potential for targeted covalent therapeutics and imaging agents

A substantial obstacle to the existing treatment of bacterial diseases is the lack of specific probes that can be used to diagnose and treat pathogenic bacteria in a selective manner while leaving the microbiome largely intact. To tackle this problem, there is an urgent need to develop pathogen-specific therapeutics and diagnostics. Here, we describe recent evidence that indicates distinctive glycans found exclusively on pathogenic bacteria could form the basis of targeted therapeutic and diagnostic strategies. In particular, we highlight the use of metabolic oligosaccharide engineering to covalently deliver therapeutics and imaging agents to bacterial glycans. © 2014 The Partner Organisations

A semester-long project-oriented biochemistry laboratory based on Helicobacter pylori urease

Here we present the development of a 13 week project-oriented biochemistry laboratory designed to introduce students to foundational biochemical techniques and then enable students to perform original research projects once they have mastered these techniques. In particular, we describe a semester-long laboratory that focuses on a biomedically relevant enzyme-Helicobacter pylori (Hp) urease-the activity of which is absolutely required for the gastric pathogen Hp to colonize the human stomach. Over the course of the semester, students undertake a biochemical purification of Hp urease, assess the success of their purification, and investigate the activity of their purified enzyme. In the final weeks of the semester, students design and implement their own experiments to study Hp urease. This laboratory provides students with an understanding of the importance of biochemistry in human health while empowering them to engage in an active area of research

Deciphering the bacterial glycocode: Recent advances in bacterial glycoproteomics

Bacterial glycoproteins represent an attractive target for new antibacterial treatments, as they are frequently linked to pathogenesis and contain distinctive glycans that are absent in humans. Despite their potential therapeutic importance, many bacterial glycoproteins remain uncharacterized. This review focuses on recent advances in deciphering the bacterial glycocode, including metabolic glycan labeling to discover and characterize bacterial glycoproteins, lectin-based microarrays to monitor bacterial glycoprotein dynamics, crosslinking sugars to assess the roles of bacterial glycoproteins, and harnessing bacterial glycosylation systems for the efficient production of industrially important glycoproteins. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd

Recruiting the Host\u27s Immune System to Target Helicobacter pylori\u27s Surface Glycans

Due to the increased prevalence of bacterial strains that are resistant to existing antibiotics, there is an urgent need for new antibacterial strategies. Bacterial glycans are an attractive target for new treatments, as they are frequently linked to pathogenesis and contain distinctive structures that are absent in humans. We set out to develop a novel targeting strategy based on surface glycans present on the gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori (Hp). In this study, metabolic labeling of bacterial glycans with an azide-containing sugar allowed selective delivery of immune stimulants to azide-covered Hp. We established that Hp\u27s surface glycans are labeled by treatment with the metabolic substrate peracetylated N-azidoacetylglucosamine (Ac4GlcNAz). By contrast, mammalian cells treated with Ac4GlcNAz exhibited no incorporation of the chemical label within extracellular glycans. We further demonstrated that the Staudinger ligation between azides and phosphines proceeds under acidic conditions with only a small loss of efficiency. We then targeted azide-covered Hp with phosphines conjugated to the immune stimulant 2,4-dinitrophenyl (DNP), a compound capable of directing a host immune response against these cells. Finally, we report that immune effector cells catalyze selective damage in vitro to DNP-covered Hp in the presence of anti-DNP antibodies. The technology reported herein represents a novel strategy to target Hp based on its glycans. © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

Targeted identification of glycosylated proteins in the gastric pathogen helicobacter pylori (Hp)

Virulence of the gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori (Hp) is directly linked to the pathogen\u27s ability to glycosylate proteins; for example, Hp flagellin proteins are heavily glycosylated with the unusual nine-carbon sugar pseudaminic acid, and this modification is absolutely essential for Hp to synthesize functional flagella and colonize the host\u27s stomach. Although Hp\u27s glycans are linked to pathogenesis, Hp\u27s glycome remains poorly understood; only the two flagellin glycoproteins have been firmly characterized in Hp. Evidence from our laboratory suggests that Hp synthesizes a large number of as-yet unidentified glycoproteins. Here we set out to discover Hp\u27s glycoproteins by coupling glycan metabolic labeling with mass spectrometry analysis. An assessment of the subcellular distribution of azide-labeled proteins by Western blot analysis indicated that glycoproteins are present throughout Hp and may therefore serve diverse functions. To identify these species, Hp\u27s azide-labeled glycoproteins were tagged via Staudinger ligation, enriched by tandem affinity chromatography, and analyzed by multidimensional protein identification technology. Direct comparison of enriched azide-labeled glycoproteins with a mock-enriched control by both SDS-PAGE and mass spectrometry-based analyses confirmed the selective enrichment of azide-labeled glycoproteins. We identified 125 candidate glycoproteins with diverse biological functions, including those linked with pathogenesis. Mass spectrometry analyses of enriched azide-labeled glycoproteins before and after cleavage of O-linked glycans revealed the presence of Staudinger ligation-glycan adducts in samples only after beta-elimination, confirming the synthesis of O-linked glycoproteins in Hp. Finally, the secreted colonization factors urease alpha and urease beta were biochemically validated as glycosylated proteins via Western blot analysis as well as by mass spectrometry analysis of cleaved glycan products. These data set the stage for the development of glycosylation-based therapeutic strategies, such as new vaccines based on natively glycosylated Hp proteins, to eradicate Hp infection. Broadly, this report validates metabolic labeling as an effective and efficient approach for the identification of bacterial glycoproteins. © 2013 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc

Helicobacter pylori glycan biosynthesis modulates host immune cell recognition and response

IntroductionThe pathogenic bacterium Helicobacter pylori has evolved glycan-mediated mechanisms to evade host immune defenses. This study tests the hypothesis that genetic disruption of H. pylori glycan biosynthesis alters immune recognition and response by human gastric epithelial cells and monocyte-derived dendritic cells.MethodsTo test this hypothesis, human cell lines were challenged with wildtype H. pylori alongside an array of H. pylori glycosylation mutants. The relative levels of immune response were measured via immature dendritic cell maturation and cytokine secretion.ResultsOur findings indicate that disruption of lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis diminishes gastric cytokine production, without disrupting dendritic cell recognition and activation. In contrast, variable immune responses were observed in protein glycosylation mutants which prompted us to test the hypothesis that phase variation plays a role in regulating bacterial cell surface glycosylation and subsequent immune recognition. Lewis antigen presentation does not correlate with extent of immune response, while the extent of lipopolysaccharide O-antigen elaboration does.DiscussionThe outcomes of this study demonstrate that H. pylori glycans modulate the host immune response. This work provides a foundation to pursue immune-based tailoring of bacterial glycans towards modulating immunogenicity of microbial pathogens

A Strategy for the Selective Imaging of Glycans Using Caged Metabolic Precursors

Glycans can be imaged by metabolic labeling with azidosugars followed by chemical reaction with imaging probes; however, tissue-specific labeling is difficult to achieve. Here we describe a strategy for the use of a caged metabolic precursor that is activated for cellular metabolism by enzymatic cleavage. An N-azidoacetylmannosamine derivative caged with a peptide substrate for the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) protease was converted to cell-surface azido sialic acids in a PSA-dependent manner. The approach has applications in tissue-selective imaging of glycans for clinical and basic research purposes. © 2010 American Chemical Society

A Two-Hybrid Assay to Study Protein Interactions within the Secretory Pathway

Interactions of transcriptional activators are difficult to study using transcription-based two-hybrid assays due to potent activation resulting in false positives. Here we report the development of the Golgi two-hybrid (G2H), a method that interrogates protein interactions within the Golgi, where transcriptional activators can be assayed with negligible background. The G2H relies on cell surface glycosylation to report extracellularly on protein-protein interactions occurring within the secretory pathway. In the G2H, protein pairs are fused to modular domains of the reporter glycosyltransferase, Och1p, and proper cell wall formation due to Och1p activity is observed only when a pair of proteins interacts. Cells containing interacting protein pairs are identified by selectable phenotypes associated with Och1p activity and proper cell wall formation: cells that have interacting proteins grow under selective conditions and display weak wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) binding by flow cytometry, whereas cells that lack interacting proteins display stunted growth and strong WGA binding. Using this assay, we detected the interaction between transcription factor MyoD and its binding partner Id2. Interfering mutations along the MyoD:Id2 interaction interface ablated signal in the G2H assay. Furthermore, we used the G2H to detect interactions of the activation domain of Gal4p with a variety of binding partners. Finally, selective conditions were used to enrich for cells encoding interacting partners. The G2H detects protein-protein interactions that cannot be identified via traditional two-hybrid methods and should be broadly useful for probing previously inaccessible subsets of the interactome, including transcriptional activators and proteins that traffic through the secretory pathway