Bacterial Inclusion Bodies for Anti-Amyloid Drug Discovery: Current and Future Screening Methods

Discovery of Dual Aβ/Tau Inhibitors and Evaluation of Their Therapeutic Effect on a Drosophila Model of Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common type of dementia, currently represents an extremely challenging and unmet medical need worldwide. Amyloid-β (Aβ) and Tau proteins are prototypical AD hallmarks, as well as validated drug targets. Accumulating evidence now suggests that they synergistically contribute to disease pathogenesis. This could not only help explain negative results from anti-Aβ clinical trials but also indicate that therapies solely directed at one of them may have to be reconsidered. Based on this, herein, we describe the development of a focused library of 2,4-thiazolidinedione (TZD)-based bivalent derivatives as dual Aβ and Tau aggregation inhibitors. The aggregating activity of the 24 synthesized derivatives was tested in intact Escherichia coli cells overexpressing Aβ₄₂ and Tau proteins. We then evaluated their neuronal toxicity and ability to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB), together with the in vitro interaction with the two isolated proteins. Finally, the most promising (most active, nontoxic, and BBB-permeable) compounds 22 and 23 were tested in vivo, in a Drosophila melanogaster model of AD. The carbazole derivative 22 (20 μM) showed extremely encouraging results, being able to improve both the lifespan and the climbing abilities of Aβ₄₂ expressing flies and generating a better outcome than doxycycline (50 μM). Moreover, 22 proved to be able to decrease Aβ₄₂ aggregates in the brains of the flies. We conclude that bivalent small molecules based on 22 deserve further attention as hits for dual Aβ/Tau aggregation inhibition in AD.

Eukaryotic Aggresomes: Protocols and Tips for Their Production, Purification , and Handling

Aggresomes are insoluble protein aggregates found in eukaryotic cells when the intracellular machinery is overtitered by, for example, the overexpression of a recombinant protein. These protein nanoparticles have become excellent models in studies devoted to elucidate protein aggregation processes in eukaryotic cells, like those involved in "conformational disorders" linked to neurodegenerative diseases. Since the presence of such protein aggregates is a hallmark of these conditions, they constitute an excellent target for new therapeutic approaches for such devastating pathologies. Moreover, and following the pathway opened a few years ago by bacterial inclusion bodies, eukaryotic aggresomes have been proposed as a new type of carrier-free, self-immobilized biocatalysts for use in biotechnology and biomedicine. Altogether, unraveling the characteristics and putative applications of naturally occurring protein aggregates has received an increasing interest during the last years. For that, availability of protocols allowing the production and purification of aggresomes constitute a valuable tool to boost research in the abovementioned fields. In this chapter, we describe both upstream and downstream protocols to obtain aggresomes produced in human cells, using as a model the recombinant human enzyme alpha-galactosidase A (GLA), together with technical tips and advices when working and analyzing eukaryotic aggresomes.

Bacterial Protein Homeostasis Disruption as a Therapeutic Intervention

Cells have evolved a complex molecular network, collectively called the protein homeostasis (proteostasis) network, to produce and maintain proteins in the appropriate conformation, concentration and subcellular localization. Loss of proteostasis leads to a reduction in cell viability, which occurs to some degree during healthy ageing, but is also the root cause of a group of diverse human pathologies. The accumulation of proteins in aberrant conformations and their aggregation into specific beta-rich assemblies are particularly detrimental to cell viability and challenging to the protein homeostasis network. This is especially true for bacteria; it can be argued that the need to adapt to their changing environments and their high protein turnover rates render bacteria particularly vulnerable to the disruption of protein homeostasis in general, as well as protein misfolding and aggregation. Targeting bacterial proteostasis could therefore be an attractive strategy for the development of novel antibacterial therapeutics. This review highlights advances with an antibacterial strategy that is based on deliberately inducing aggregation of target proteins in bacterial cells aiming to induce a lethal collapse of protein homeostasis. The approach exploits the intrinsic aggregation propensity of regions residing in the hydrophobic core regions of the polypeptide sequence of proteins, which are genetically conserved because of their essential role in protein folding and stability. Moreover, the molecules were designed to target multiple proteins, to slow down the build-up of resistance. Although more research is required, results thus far allow the hope that this strategy may one day contribute to the arsenal to combat multidrug-resistant bacterial infections.

Dual Inhibitors of Amyloid-β and Tau Aggregation with Amyloid-β Disaggregating Properties: Extended In Cellulo, In Silico, and Kinetic Studies of Multifunctional Anti-Alzheimer's Agents

In Alzheimer’s disease, neurons slowly degenerate due to the accumulation of misfolded amyloid β and tau proteins. In our research, we performed extended studies directed at amyloid β and tau aggregation inhibition using in cellulo (Escherichia coli model of protein aggregation), in silico, and in vitro kinetic studies. We tested our library of 1-benzylamino-2-hydroxyalkyl multifunctional anti-Alzheimer’s agents and identified very potent dual aggregation inhibitors. Among the tested derivatives, we selected compound 18, which exhibited a unique profile of biological activity. This compound was the most potent and balanced dual aggregation inhibitor (Aβ₄₂ inhibition (inh.) 80.0%, tau inh. 68.3% in 10 μM), with previously reported in vitro inhibitory activity against hBuChE, hBACE1, and Aβ (hBuChE IC₅₀ = 5.74 μM; hBACE1 IC₅₀ = 41.6 μM; Aβ aggregation (aggr.) inh. IC₅₀ = 3.09 μM). In docking studies for both proteins, we tried to explain the different structural requirements for the inhibition of Aβ vs tau. Moreover, docking and kinetic studies showed that compound 18 could inhibit the amyloid aggregation process at several steps and also displayed disaggregating properties. These results may help to design the next generations of dual or selective aggregation inhibitors.

Multidirectional in vitro and in cellulo studies as a tool for identification of multi-target-directed ligands aiming at symptoms and causes of Alzheimer's disease

Effective therapy of Alzheimer's disease (AD) requires treatment with a combination of drugs that modulate various pathomechanisms contributing to the disease. In our research, we have focused on the development of multi-target-directed ligands - 5-HT₆ receptor antagonists and cholinesterase inhibitors - with disease-modifying properties. We have performed extended in vitro (FRET assay) and in cellulo (Escherichia coli model of protein aggregation) studies on their β-secretase, tau, and amyloid β aggregation inhibitory activity. Within these multifunctional ligands, we have identified compound 17 with inhibitory potency against tau and amyloid β aggregation in in cellulo assay of 59% and 56% at 10 µM, respectively, hBACE IC₅₀=4 µM, h5TH6 K _i=94 nM, hAChE IC₅₀=26 nM, and eqBuChE IC₅₀=5 nM. This study led to the development of multifunctional ligands with a broad range of biological activities crucial not only for the symptomatic but also for the disease-modifying treatment of AD.

Pathological ATX3 Expression Induces Cell Perturbations in E. coli as Revealed by Biochemical and Biophysical Investigations

Amyloid aggregation of human ataxin-3 (ATX3) is responsible for spinocerebellar ataxia type 3, which belongs to the class of polyglutamine neurodegenerative disorders. It is widely accepted that the formation of toxic oligomeric species is primarily involved in the onset of the disease. For this reason, to understand the mechanisms underlying toxicity, we expressed both a physiological (ATX3-Q24) and a pathological ATX3 variant (ATX3-Q55) in a simplified cellular model, Escherichia coli. It has been observed that ATX3-Q55 expression induces a higher reduction of the cell growth compared to ATX3-Q24, due to the bacteriostatic effect of the toxic oligomeric species. Furthermore, the Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy investigation, supported by multivariate analysis, made it possible to monitor protein aggregation and the induced cell perturbations in intact cells. In particular, it has been found that the toxic oligomeric species associated with the expression of ATX3-Q55 are responsible for the main spectral changes, ascribable mainly to the cell envelope modifications. A structural alteration of the membrane detected through electron microscopy analysis in the strain expressing the pathological form supports the spectroscopic results.