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Fawzi SF, Michel HE, Menze ET, Tadros MG, George MY. Clotrimazole ameliorates chronic mild stress-induced depressive-like behavior in rats; crosstalk between the HPA, NLRP3 inflammasome, and Wnt/β-catenin pathways. Int Immunopharmacol 2024; 127:111354. [PMID: 38103406 DOI: 10.1016/j.intimp.2023.111354] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2023] [Revised: 12/05/2023] [Accepted: 12/06/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023]
Abstract
Depression is a major emotional disorder that has a detrimental effect on quality of life. The chronic mild stress (CMS)-depression model was adopted in rats to evaluate the neurotherapeutic effect of Clotrimazole (CLO) and investigate the possible mechanisms of its antidepressant action via its impact on the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis and the stress hormone, cortisol. It was found that azole antifungals affect steroidogenesis and the HPA axis. Behavioral, histopathological, inflammatory, and apoptotic pathways were assessed. Serum cortisol, inflammasome biomarkers, hippocampal NLRP3, caspase-1, and IL-18, and the canonical Wnt/β-catenin neurogenesis biomarkers, Wnt3a, and non-phosphorylated β-catenin levels were also determined. Different stressors were applied for 28 days to produce depressive-like symptoms, and CLO was administered at a daily dose of 30 mg/kg body weight. Subsequently, behavioral and biochemical tests were carried out to assess the depressive-like phenotype in rats. Stressed rats showed increased immobility time in the forced swimming test (FST), decreased grooming time in the splash test (ST), increased serum cortisol levels, increased inflammasome biomarkers, and decreased neurogenesis. However, administration of CLO produced significant antidepressant-like effects in rats, which were accompanied by a significant decrease in immobility time in FST, an increase in grooming time in ST, a decrease in serum cortisol level, a decrease in inflammasome biomarkers, and an increase in neurogenesis biomarkers. The antidepressant mechanism of CLO involves the HPA axis and the anti-inflammatory effect, followed by neurogenesis pathway activation. Therefore, CLO may have the potential to be a novel antidepressant candidate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sylvia F Fawzi
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Badr University in Cairo (BUC), Cairo, Egypt
| | - Haidy E Michel
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ain Shams University, 11566, Cairo, Egypt
| | - Esther T Menze
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ain Shams University, 11566, Cairo, Egypt
| | - Mariane G Tadros
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ain Shams University, 11566, Cairo, Egypt
| | - Mina Y George
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ain Shams University, 11566, Cairo, Egypt.
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Esteban-Martos A, Brokate-Llanos AM, Real LM, Melgar-Locatelli S, de Rojas I, Castro-Zavala A, Bravo MJ, Mañas-Padilla MDC, García-González P, Ruiz-Galdon M, Pacheco-Sánchez B, Polvillo R, Rodriguez de Fonseca F, González I, Castilla-Ortega E, Muñoz MJ, Rivera P, Reyes-Engel A, Ruiz A, Royo JL. A Functional Pipeline of Genome-Wide Association Data Leads to Midostaurin as a Repurposed Drug for Alzheimer's Disease. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:12079. [PMID: 37569459 PMCID: PMC10418421 DOI: 10.3390/ijms241512079] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2023] [Revised: 07/24/2023] [Accepted: 07/25/2023] [Indexed: 08/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) constitute a powerful tool to identify the different biochemical pathways associated with disease. This knowledge can be used to prioritize drugs targeting these routes, paving the road to clinical application. Here, we describe DAGGER (Drug Repositioning by Analysis of GWAS and Gene Expression in R), a straightforward pipeline to find currently approved drugs with repurposing potential. As a proof of concept, we analyzed a meta-GWAS of 1.6 × 107 single-nucleotide polymorphisms performed on Alzheimer's disease (AD). Our pipeline uses the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) and Drug Gene Interaction (DGI) databases for a rational prioritization of 22 druggable targets. Next, we performed a two-stage in vivo functional assay. We used a C. elegans humanized model over-expressing the Aβ1-42 peptide. We assayed the five top-scoring candidate drugs, finding midostaurin, a multitarget protein kinase inhibitor, to be a protective drug. Next, 3xTg AD transgenic mice were used for a final evaluation of midostaurin's effect. Behavioral testing after three weeks of 20 mg/kg intraperitoneal treatment revealed a significant improvement in behavior, including locomotion, anxiety-like behavior, and new-place recognition. Altogether, we consider that our pipeline might be a useful tool for drug repurposing in complex diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alvaro Esteban-Martos
- Department of Surgery, Biochemistry and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Malaga, Boulevard Louis Pasteur s/n, 29071 Malaga, Spain; (A.E.-M.); (L.M.R.); (M.J.B.); (M.R.-G.); (I.G.); (A.R.-E.)
| | - Ana Maria Brokate-Llanos
- Departamento de Biología Molecular e Ingeniería Bioquímica, Centro Andaluz de Biología del Desarrollo (CABD), Universidad Pablo de Olavide (UPO), UPO/CSIC/JA, Ctra Utrera Km1, 41013 Sevilla, Spain; (A.M.B.-L.); (R.P.); (M.J.M.)
| | - Luis Miguel Real
- Department of Surgery, Biochemistry and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Malaga, Boulevard Louis Pasteur s/n, 29071 Malaga, Spain; (A.E.-M.); (L.M.R.); (M.J.B.); (M.R.-G.); (I.G.); (A.R.-E.)
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Infecciosas (CIBERINFEC), 28029 Madrid, Spain
| | - Sonia Melgar-Locatelli
- Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, 29590 Malaga, Spain; (S.M.-L.); (A.C.-Z.); (M.d.C.M.-P.); (B.P.-S.); (F.R.d.F.); (E.C.-O.); (P.R.)
- Departamento de Psicobiología y Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de Málaga, 29071 Malaga, Spain
| | - Itziar de Rojas
- Research Center and Memory Clinic, Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona—Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, 08017 Barcelona, Spain; (I.d.R.); (P.G.-G.); (A.R.)
- Network Center for Biomedical Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED), National Institute of Health Carlos III, 28029 Madrid, Spain
| | - Adriana Castro-Zavala
- Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, 29590 Malaga, Spain; (S.M.-L.); (A.C.-Z.); (M.d.C.M.-P.); (B.P.-S.); (F.R.d.F.); (E.C.-O.); (P.R.)
- Departamento de Psicobiología y Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de Málaga, 29071 Malaga, Spain
| | - Maria Jose Bravo
- Department of Surgery, Biochemistry and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Malaga, Boulevard Louis Pasteur s/n, 29071 Malaga, Spain; (A.E.-M.); (L.M.R.); (M.J.B.); (M.R.-G.); (I.G.); (A.R.-E.)
| | - Maria del Carmen Mañas-Padilla
- Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, 29590 Malaga, Spain; (S.M.-L.); (A.C.-Z.); (M.d.C.M.-P.); (B.P.-S.); (F.R.d.F.); (E.C.-O.); (P.R.)
- Departamento de Psicobiología y Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de Málaga, 29071 Malaga, Spain
| | - Pablo García-González
- Research Center and Memory Clinic, Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona—Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, 08017 Barcelona, Spain; (I.d.R.); (P.G.-G.); (A.R.)
- Network Center for Biomedical Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED), National Institute of Health Carlos III, 28029 Madrid, Spain
| | - Maximiliano Ruiz-Galdon
- Department of Surgery, Biochemistry and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Malaga, Boulevard Louis Pasteur s/n, 29071 Malaga, Spain; (A.E.-M.); (L.M.R.); (M.J.B.); (M.R.-G.); (I.G.); (A.R.-E.)
| | - Beatriz Pacheco-Sánchez
- Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, 29590 Malaga, Spain; (S.M.-L.); (A.C.-Z.); (M.d.C.M.-P.); (B.P.-S.); (F.R.d.F.); (E.C.-O.); (P.R.)
- Unidad de Gestion Clinica de Salud Mental, Hospital Universitario Regional de Malaga, 29010 Malaga, Spain
| | - Rocío Polvillo
- Departamento de Biología Molecular e Ingeniería Bioquímica, Centro Andaluz de Biología del Desarrollo (CABD), Universidad Pablo de Olavide (UPO), UPO/CSIC/JA, Ctra Utrera Km1, 41013 Sevilla, Spain; (A.M.B.-L.); (R.P.); (M.J.M.)
| | - Fernando Rodriguez de Fonseca
- Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, 29590 Malaga, Spain; (S.M.-L.); (A.C.-Z.); (M.d.C.M.-P.); (B.P.-S.); (F.R.d.F.); (E.C.-O.); (P.R.)
- Unidad de Gestion Clinica de Salud Mental, Hospital Universitario Regional de Malaga, 29010 Malaga, Spain
| | - Irene González
- Department of Surgery, Biochemistry and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Malaga, Boulevard Louis Pasteur s/n, 29071 Malaga, Spain; (A.E.-M.); (L.M.R.); (M.J.B.); (M.R.-G.); (I.G.); (A.R.-E.)
| | - Estela Castilla-Ortega
- Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, 29590 Malaga, Spain; (S.M.-L.); (A.C.-Z.); (M.d.C.M.-P.); (B.P.-S.); (F.R.d.F.); (E.C.-O.); (P.R.)
- Departamento de Psicobiología y Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de Málaga, 29071 Malaga, Spain
| | - Manuel J. Muñoz
- Departamento de Biología Molecular e Ingeniería Bioquímica, Centro Andaluz de Biología del Desarrollo (CABD), Universidad Pablo de Olavide (UPO), UPO/CSIC/JA, Ctra Utrera Km1, 41013 Sevilla, Spain; (A.M.B.-L.); (R.P.); (M.J.M.)
| | - Patricia Rivera
- Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, 29590 Malaga, Spain; (S.M.-L.); (A.C.-Z.); (M.d.C.M.-P.); (B.P.-S.); (F.R.d.F.); (E.C.-O.); (P.R.)
- Unidad de Gestion Clinica de Salud Mental, Hospital Universitario Regional de Malaga, 29010 Malaga, Spain
| | - Armando Reyes-Engel
- Department of Surgery, Biochemistry and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Malaga, Boulevard Louis Pasteur s/n, 29071 Malaga, Spain; (A.E.-M.); (L.M.R.); (M.J.B.); (M.R.-G.); (I.G.); (A.R.-E.)
| | - Agustin Ruiz
- Research Center and Memory Clinic, Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona—Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, 08017 Barcelona, Spain; (I.d.R.); (P.G.-G.); (A.R.)
- Network Center for Biomedical Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED), National Institute of Health Carlos III, 28029 Madrid, Spain
| | - Jose Luis Royo
- Department of Surgery, Biochemistry and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Malaga, Boulevard Louis Pasteur s/n, 29071 Malaga, Spain; (A.E.-M.); (L.M.R.); (M.J.B.); (M.R.-G.); (I.G.); (A.R.-E.)
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Foster MJ, Patlewicz G, Shah I, Haggard DE, Judson RS, Paul Friedman K. Evaluating structure-based activity in a high-throughput assay for steroid biosynthesis. COMPUTATIONAL TOXICOLOGY (AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS) 2022; 24:1-23. [PMID: 37841081 PMCID: PMC10569244 DOI: 10.1016/j.comtox.2022.100245] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/17/2023]
Abstract
Data from a high-throughput human adrenocortical carcinoma assay (HT-H295R) for steroid hormone biosynthesis are available for >2000 chemicals in single concentration and 654 chemicals in multi-concentration (mc). Previously, a metric describing the effect size of a chemical on the biosynthesis of 11 hormones was derived using mc data referred to as the maximum mean Mahalanobis distance (maxmMd). However, mc HT-H295R assay data remain unavailable for many chemicals. This work leverages existing HT-H295R assay data by constructing structure-activity relationships to make predictions for data-poor chemicals, including: (1) identification of individual structural descriptors, known as ToxPrint chemotypes, associated with increased odds of affecting estrogen or androgen synthesis; (2) a random forest (RF) classifier using physicochemical property descriptors to predict HT-H295R maxmMd binary (positive or negative) outcomes; and, (3) a local approach to predict maxmMd binary outcomes using nearest neighbors (NNs) based on two types of chemical fingerprints (chemotype or Morgan). Individual chemotypes demonstrated high specificity (85-98%) for modulators of estrogen and androgen synthesis but with low sensitivity. The best RF model for maxmMd classification included 13 predicted physicochemical descriptors, yielding a balanced accuracy (BA) of 71% with only modest improvement when hundreds of structural features were added. The best two NN models for binary maxmMd prediction demonstrated BAs of 85 and 81% using chemotype and Morgan fingerprints, respectively. Using an external test set of 6302 chemicals (lacking HT-H295R data), 1241 were identified as putative estrogen and androgen modulators. Combined results across the three classification models (global RF model and two local NN models) predict that 1033 of the 6302 chemicals would be more likely to affect HT-H295R bioactivity. Together, these in silico approaches can efficiently prioritize thousands of untested chemicals for screening to further evaluate their effects on steroid biosynthesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- M J Foster
- Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, 27711, USA
- National Student Services Contractor, Oak Ridge Associated Universities
| | - G Patlewicz
- Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, 27711, USA
| | - I Shah
- Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, 27711, USA
| | - D E Haggard
- Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, 27711, USA
| | - R S Judson
- Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, 27711, USA
| | - K Paul Friedman
- Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, 27711, USA
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Draskau MK, Svingen T. Azole Fungicides and Their Endocrine Disrupting Properties: Perspectives on Sex Hormone-Dependent Reproductive Development. FRONTIERS IN TOXICOLOGY 2022; 4:883254. [PMID: 35573275 PMCID: PMC9097791 DOI: 10.3389/ftox.2022.883254] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2022] [Accepted: 03/31/2022] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Azoles are antifungal agents used in both agriculture and medicine. They typically target the CYP51 enzyme in fungi and, by so doing, disrupt cell membrane integrity. However, azoles can also target various CYP enzymes in mammals, including humans, which can disrupt hormone synthesis and signaling. For instance, several azoles can inhibit enzymes of the steroidogenic pathway and disrupt steroid hormone biosynthesis. This is of particular concern during pregnancy, since sex hormones are integral to reproductive development. In other words, exposure to azole fungicides during fetal life can potentially lead to reproductive disease in the offspring. In addition, some azoles can act as androgen receptor antagonists, which can further add to the disrupting potential following exposure. When used as pharmaceuticals, systemic concentrations of the azole compounds can become significant as combatting fungal infections can be very challenging and require prolonged exposure to high doses. Although most medicinal azoles are tightly regulated and used as prescription drugs after consultations with medical professionals, some are sold as over-the-counter drugs. In this review, we discuss various azole fungicides known to disrupt steroid sex hormone biosynthesis or action with a focus on what potential consequences exposure during pregnancy can have on the life-long reproductive health of the offspring.
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