Imipramine Is an Orally Active Drug against Both Antimony Sensitive and Resistant Leishmania donovani Clinical Isolates in Experimental Infection

Background: In an endeavor to find an orally active and affordable antileishmanial drug, we tested the efficacy of a cationic amphiphilic drug, imipramine, commonly used for the treatment of depression in humans. The only available orally active antileishmanial drug is miltefosine with long half life and teratogenic potential limits patient compliance. Thus there is a genuine need for an orally active antileishmanial drug. Previously it was shown that imipramine, a tricyclic antidepressant alters the protonmotive force in promastigotes, but its in vivo efficacy was not reported. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here we show that the drug is highly active against antimony sensitive and resistant Leishmania donovani in both promastigotes and intracellular amastigotes and in LD infected hamster model. The drug wasfound to decrease the mitochondrial transmembrane potential of Leishmania donovani (LD) promastigotes and purified amastigotes after 8 h of treatment, whereas miltefosine effected only a marginal change even after 24 h. The drug restores defective antigen presenting ability of the parasitized macrophages. The status of the host protective factors TNF a, IFN c and iNOS activity increased with the concomitant decrease in IL 10 and TGF b level in imipramine treated infected hamsters and evolution of matured sterile hepatic granuloma. The 10-day therapeutic window as a monotherapy, showing about 90% clearance of organ parasites in infected hamsters regardless of their SSG sensitivity. Conclusions: This study showed that imipramine possibly qualifies for a new use of an old drug and can be used as an effective orally active drug for the treatment of Kala-azar

UV-induzierte Veränderungen der Genexpression bei marinen Makroalgen.

Makroalgen stellen als Primärproduzenten eine bedeutende Komponente von marinen Küstenökosystemen der gemäßigten und hohen Breiten dar. Sie können dort, je nach vertikaler Verbreitung, biologisch relevanten Dosen der schädlichen UV-Strahlung ausgesetzt sein. Welche Auswirkungen eine erhöhte UV-Belastung auf der Ebene der Genexpression nach sich zieht, wurde bei verschiedenen Vertretern der Grün- und Braunalgen untersucht. Die dabei identifizierten Gene lassen sich in verschiedene funktionelle Gruppen einordnen und stehen mehrheitlich in einem offensichtlichen Kontext zu Anpassungs- und Schutzmechanismen gegenüber der UV-Strahlung

A conformationally frozen peptoid boosts CXCR4 affinity and anti-HIV activity.

There can be only one: Using a peptoid motif obtained by shifting the arginine side chain of a pentapeptide previously developed by Fujii et al. to the neighboring nitrogen atom restricts the conformational freedom and yields a conformationally homogeneous peptide (see picture) with a 100-fold higher binding affinity to the chemokine receptor CXCR4 in the picomolar range. Its efficiency to inhibit HIV-1 infections is also demonstrated. Copyright © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

A conformationally frozen peptoid boosts CXCR4 affinity and anti-HIV activity

There can be only one: Using a peptoid motif obtained by shifting the arginine side chain of a pentapeptide previously developed by Fujii et al. to the neighboring nitrogen atom restricts the conformational freedom and yields a conformationally homogeneous peptide (see picture) with a 100-fold higher binding affinity to the chemokine receptor CXCR4 in the picomolar range. Its efficiency to inhibit HIV-1 infections is also demonstrated. Copyright © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

Supramolecular combinations of humic polyanions as potent microbicides with polymodal anti-HIV-activities.

This article focuses on linking structures of fractionated humic polyanions (PAs), which were molecularly defined using ultrahigh resolution Fourier transform mass spectrometry (FTMS), to their antiviral activities with respect to laboratory HIV-1 strains. Anti-HIV-1 activity was proven using a full HIV-1 replication system validated for antiviral testing. We demonstrated that all humic PAs tested in our study were capable of inhibiting HIV fusion. The most hydrophobic fractions of humic and hymatomelanic PAs also strongly inhibited HIV-1 reverse transcriptase. The structure-activity analysis revealed the direct relationship of antiviral activities with contribution of CHO molecules in humic PA composition and lipophilicity index, and the inverse relationship with their carboxylic and total acidity. This was explained by the supramolecular character of humic PAs, the properties of which are ruled rather by the contribution of most potent scaffolds than by the total charge density. It is concluded that all humic PAs tested in this study can be considered as promising precursors for developing cost-effective combinatorial microbicides with polymodal anti-HIV activity and low cytotoxicity capable of preventing HIV-1 transmission