Anti-Protozoan Activities of Polar Fish-Derived Polyalanine Synthetic Peptides
Ellynes Amancio Correia Nunes,
Maria Cláudia da Silva,
Marlon Henrique Cardoso,
Sergio Leandro Espíndola Preza,
Lucas Silva de Oliveira,
Breno Emanuel Farias Frihling,
Sébastien Olivier Charneau,
Philippe Grellier,
Octávio Luiz Franco,
Ludovico Migliolo
Affiliations
Ellynes Amancio Correia Nunes
Postgraduate Program in Biochemistry, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal 59078-900, Brazil
Maria Cláudia da Silva
S-Inova Biotech, Graduate Program in Biotechnology, Dom Bosco Catholic University, Campo Grande 79117-900, Brazil
Marlon Henrique Cardoso
S-Inova Biotech, Graduate Program in Biotechnology, Dom Bosco Catholic University, Campo Grande 79117-900, Brazil
Sergio Leandro Espíndola Preza
S-Inova Biotech, Graduate Program in Biotechnology, Dom Bosco Catholic University, Campo Grande 79117-900, Brazil
Lucas Silva de Oliveira
Laboratory of Biochemistry and Protein Chemistry, Department of Cell Biology, Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Brasília, Brasilia 73345-010, Brazil
Breno Emanuel Farias Frihling
S-Inova Biotech, Graduate Program in Biotechnology, Dom Bosco Catholic University, Campo Grande 79117-900, Brazil
Sébastien Olivier Charneau
Laboratory of Biochemistry and Protein Chemistry, Department of Cell Biology, Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Brasília, Brasilia 73345-010, Brazil
Philippe Grellier
UMR 7245 Molécules de Communication et Adaptation des Micro-Organismes, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, CNRS, 75005 Paris, France
Octávio Luiz Franco
S-Inova Biotech, Graduate Program in Biotechnology, Dom Bosco Catholic University, Campo Grande 79117-900, Brazil
Ludovico Migliolo
Postgraduate Program in Biochemistry, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal 59078-900, Brazil
Chagas disease, sleeping sickness and malaria are infectious diseases caused by protozoan parasites that kill millions of people worldwide. Here, we performed in vitro assays of Pa-MAP, Pa-MAP1.9, and Pa-MAP2 synthetic polyalanine peptides derived from the polar fish Pleuronectes americanus toward Trypanosoma cruzi, T. brucei gambiense and Plasmodium falciparum activities. We demonstrated that the peptides Pa-MAP1.9 and Pa-MAP2 were effective to inhibit T. brucei growth. In addition, structural analyses using molecular dynamics (MD) studies showed that Pa-MAP2 penetrates deeper into the membrane and interacts more with phospholipids than Pa-MAP1.9, corroborating the previous in vitro results showing that Pa-MAP1.9 acts within the cell, while Pa-MAP2 acts via membrane lysis. In conclusion, polyalanine Pa-MAP1.9 and Pa-MAP2 presented activity against bloodstream forms of T. b. gambiense, thus encouraging further studies on the application of these peptides as a treatment for sleeping sickness.
