Exploring carbonic anhydrase inhibition with multimeric coumarins displayed on a fullerene scaffold

This study reports the first synthesis of multimeric suicide inhibitors of carbonic anhydrases.</p

Force nanoscopy as a versatile platform for quantifying the activity of antiadhesion compounds targeting bacterial pathogens

The development of bacterial strains that are resistant to multiple antibiotics has urged the need for new antibacterial therapies. An exciting approach to fight bacterial diseases is the use of antiadhesive agents capable to block the adhesion of the pathogens to host tissues, the first step of infection. We report the use of a novel atomic force microscopy (AFM) platform for quantifying the activity of antiadhesion compounds directly on living bacteria, thus without labeling or purification. Novel fullerene-based mannoconjugates bearing 10 carbohydrate ligands and a thiol bond were efficiently prepared. The thiol functionality could be exploited as a convenient handle to graft the multimeric species onto AFM tips. Using a combination of single-molecule and single-cell AFM assays, we demonstrate that, unlike mannosidic monomers, multivalent glycofullerenes strongly block the adhesion of uropathogenic Escherichia coli bacteria to their carbohydrate receptors. We expect that the nanoscopy technique developed here will help designing new antiadhesion drugs to treat microbial infections, including those caused by multidrug resistant organisms

Direct Evaluation of Live Uropathogenic Escherichia coli Adhesion and Efficiency of Antiadhesive Compounds Using a Simple Microarray Approach

Many pathogens use host glycans as docking points for adhesion. Therefore, the use of compounds blocking carbohydrate-binding adhesins is a promising strategy for fighting infections. In this work, we describe a simple and rapid microarray approach for assessing the bacterial adhesion and efficiency of antiadhesive compounds targeting uropathogenic Escherichia coli UTI89, which displays mannose-specific adhesin FimH at the tip of fimbriae. The approach consisted in direct detection of live fluorescently labeled bacteria bound to mannan printed onto microarray slides. The utility of the arrays for binding/inhibition assays was first validated by comparing array-derived results for the model mannose-binding lectin concanavalin A with data obtained by isothermal titration calorimetry. Growth phase-dependent binding of UTI89 to the arrays was observed, proving the usefulness of the setup for detecting differences in FimH expression. Importantly, bacteria labeling and binding assays entailed minimal manipulation, helping to preserve the integrity of fimbriae. The efficiency of three different dodecamannosylated fullerenes as FimH-targeted antiadhesives was next evaluated in competition assays. The results revealed a superior activity of the mannofullerenes (5- to 18-fold per mannose residue) over methyl ¿-d-mannopyranoside. Moreover, differences in activity were detected for mannofullerenes differing in the structure/length of the spacer used for grafting mannose onto the fullerene core, further demonstrating the sensitivity of the assay. Overall, the approach combines straightforward and time-saving protocols for microarray preparation, bacteria labeling, and binding assays, and it can be easily tailored to other bacteria bearing carbohydrate-binding adhesins.Peer Reviewe

Multimeric xanthates as carbonic anhydrase inhibitors

The field of multivalent inhibition of enzymes is growing exponentially from the first reported multivalent effect on a glycosidase enzyme. However, the investigations have generally remained restricted to carbohydrate-processing enzymes. Carbonic anhydrases are ubiquitous metallo-enzymes involved in many key biological processes, that catalyze the reversible hydration/dehydration of . This study reports the first synthesis of multimeric xanthates addressing the selectivity and potency of CA multivalent inhibition. Six multivalent compounds containing three, four, and six xanthate moieties were prepared and assayed against four relevant CA isoforms together with their monovalent analogues. Some of the multimers were stronger inhibitors than the monomeric species. For hCA I, the two best molecules 18 and 20 showed an improvement of the ligand affinity of 4.8 and 2.3 per xanthate units (valence-corrected values), respectively, which corresponds to a clear multivalent effect. Moreover, the biochemical assays demonstrated that the multimeric presentation of xanthates, also affected the selectivity of the relative inhibition among the four CAs assayed