Lysine acetylation as drug target in fungi: an underexplored potential in Aspergillus spp.

In recent years, the intensification of the use of immunosuppressive therapies has increased the incidence of invasive infections caused by opportunistic fungi. Considering that, the spread of azole resistance and amphotericin B (AmB) inefficiency against some clinical and environmental isolates has been described. Thus, to avoid a global problem when controlling fungal infections and critical failures in medicine, and food security, new approaches for drug target identification and for the development of new treatments that are more effective against pathogenic fungi are desired. Recent studies indicate that protein acetylation is present in hundreds of proteins of different cellular compartments and is involved in several biological processes, i.e., metabolism, translation, gene expression regulation, and oxidative stress response, from prokaryotes and eukaryotes, including fungi, dem- onstrating that lysine acetylation plays an important role in essential mechanisms. Lysine acetyltransferases (KATs) and lysine deacetylases (KDACs), the two enzyme families responsible for regulating protein acetylation levels, have been explored as drug targets for the treatment of several human diseases and infections. Aspergilli have on average 8 KAT genes and 11 KDAC genes in their genomes. This review aims to summarize the available knowledge about Aspergillus spp. azole resistance mechanisms and the role of lysine acetylation in the control of biological processes in fungi. We also want to discuss the lysine acetylation as a potential target for fungal infection treatment and drug target discovery.Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)FAPESP: 2018/09948-0CNPq: 424729/201

Mitochondrial sirtuin TcSir2rp3 affects TcSODA activity and oxidative stress response in Trypanosoma cruzi

Trypanosoma cruzi faces a variety of environmental scenarios during its life cycle, which include changes in the redox environment that requires a !ne regulation of a complex antioxidant arsenal of enzymes. Reversible posttranslational modi!cations, as lysine acetylation, are a fast and economical way for cells to react to environmental conditions. Recently, we found that the main antioxidant enzymes, including the mitochondrial superoxide dismutase A (TcSODA) are acetylated in T. cruzi, suggesting that protein acetylation could participate in the oxidative stress response in T. cruzi. Therefore, we investigated whether mitochondrial lysine deacetylase TcSir2rp3 was involved in the activity control of TcSODA. We observed an increased resistance to hydrogen peroxide and menadione in parasites overexpressing TcSir2rp3. Increased resistance was also found for benznidazole and nifurtimox, known to induce reactive oxidative and nitrosactive species in the parasite, associated to that a reduction in the ROS levels was observed. To better understand the way TcSir2rp3 could contributes to oxidative stress response, we analyzed the expression of TcSODA in the TcSir2rp3 overexpressing parasites and did not detect any increase in protein levels of this enzyme. However, we found that these parasites presented higher levels of superoxide dismutase activity, and also that TcSir2rp3 and TcSODA interacts in vivo. Knowing that TcSODA is acetylated at lysine residues K44 and K97, and that K97 is located at a similar region in the protein structure as K68 in human manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), responsible for regulating MnSOD activity, we generated mutated versions of TcSODA at K44 and K97 and found that replacing K97 by glutamine, which mimics an acetylated lysine, negatively affects the enzyme activity in vitro. By using molecular dynamics approaches, we revealed that acetylation of K97 induces speci!c conformational changes in TcSODA with respect to hydrogen-bonding pattern to neighbor residues,suggesting a key participation of this residue to modulate the af!nity to O!2. Taken together, our results showed for the !rst time the involvement of lysine acetylation in the maintenance of homeostatic redox state in trypanosomatids, contributing to the understanding of mechanisms used by T. cruzi to progress during the infection.Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)FAPESP: 2018/09948-0CNPq: 424729/201

Preclinical Gold Complexes as Oral Drug Candidates to Treat Leishmaniasis Are Potent Trypanothione Reductase Inhibitors

The drugs currently used to treat leishmaniases have limitations concerning cost, e!cacy, and safety, making the search for new therapeutic approaches urgent. We found that the gold(I)-derived complexes were active against L. infantum and L. braziliensis intracellular amastigotes with IC50 values ranging from 0.5 to 5.5 !M. All gold(I) complexes were potent inhibitors of trypanothione reductase (TR), with enzyme IC50 values ranging from 1 to 7.8 !M. Triethylphosphine-derived complexes enhanced reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and decreased mitochondrial respiration after 2 h of exposure, indicating that gold(I) complexes cause oxidative stress by direct ROS production, by causing mitochondrial damage or by impairing TR activity and thus accumulating ROS. There was no cross-resistance to antimony; in fact, SbR (antimony-resistant mutants) strains were hypersensitive to some of the complexes. BALB/c mice infected with luciferase-expressing L. braziliensis or L. amazonensis and treated orally with 12.5 mg/kg/day of AdT Et (3) or AdO Et (4) presented reduced lesion size and parasite burden, as revealed by bioimaging. The combination of (3) and miltefosine allowed for a 50% reduction in miltefosine treatment time. Complexes 3 and 4 presented favorable pharmacokinetic and toxicity pro"les that encourage further drug development studies. Gold(I) complexes are promising antileishmanial agents, with a potential for therapeutic use, including in leishmaniasis caused by antimony-resistant parasites.Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)CNPq: 424729/2018FAPESP: 2018/09948-