<p>U ovoj doktorskoj disertaciji&nbsp; razvijen&nbsp; je fluorescentni test u kvascu za identifikaciju potencijalnih prirodnih ili sintetičkih liganada&nbsp; ER&alpha;, ER&beta; ili AR i kvantifikaciju&nbsp; njihovog&nbsp; afiniteta&nbsp; vezivanja sa mogućno&scaron;ću testiranja čitavih biblioteka modifikovanih steroida i ksenoestrogena. Takođe, opisana&nbsp; je primena optimizovanog biosenzora&nbsp; za&nbsp; procenu&nbsp; estrogenog&nbsp; potencijala sintetskih steroida i odabranih biljnih ekstrakata bogatih jedinjenjima fitoestrogenih osobina. U cilju potpunijeg sagledavanja mehanizma&nbsp; delovanja&nbsp; odabranih&nbsp; modifikovanih&nbsp; steroida&nbsp; ispitana&nbsp; je&nbsp; njihova antiproliferativna aktivnost prema ćelijskim&nbsp; linijama estrogen receptor pozitivnog kancera dojke&nbsp; (MCF-7) i kancera prostate (PC-3), dok su&nbsp; in silico metodom molekularnog&nbsp; dokinga&nbsp; predviđene&nbsp; energije&nbsp; i&nbsp; geometrije&nbsp; vezivanja&nbsp; ovih&nbsp; jedinjenja za ligand-vezujuće&nbsp; domene&nbsp; ER&alpha; i ER&beta;. Drugi deo ovog rada obuhvata razvoj testa za&nbsp; ispitivanje aktivnosti humanog enzima aromataze,&nbsp; heterologno eksprimiranog u ćelijama&nbsp; kvasca&nbsp; Saccharomyces cerevisiae&nbsp; i/ili&nbsp; bakterija Escherichia coli, u prisustvu&nbsp; ili&nbsp; odsustvu&nbsp; inhibitora.&nbsp; Interakcije modifikovanih&nbsp; steroida, odabranih na osnovu strukture,&nbsp; sa&nbsp; aromatazom&nbsp; ispitane&nbsp; su&nbsp; osetljivim spektroskopskim metodama, praćenjem promene spinskog stanja Fe iz hem grupe ili promene fluorescencije ostatka&nbsp; triptofana&nbsp; iz&nbsp; aktivnog&nbsp; centra usled konformacione&nbsp; promene&nbsp; proteina, izazvane interakcijom sa ligandom. Razvijeni in vitro testovi bez upotrebe radioaktivnih izotopa su, osim&nbsp; visoke efikasnosti&nbsp; i&nbsp; bezbednosti&nbsp; po&nbsp; korisnika&nbsp; i&nbsp; okolinu, pokazali&nbsp; specifičnost&nbsp; i&nbsp; ekonomičnost&nbsp; u preliminarnom&nbsp; skriningu&nbsp; liganada&nbsp; steroidnih receptora&nbsp; i inhibitora aromataze. Jedinjenja&nbsp; kod kojih je detektovana&nbsp; značajna biolo&scaron;ka aktivnost mogu potencijalno poslužiti kao osnova za razvoj terapeutika u lečenju hormon-zavisnih bolesti i stanja, koja danas predstavljaju globalni zdravstveni problem.</p> / <p>In&nbsp; this&nbsp; doctoral&nbsp; dissertation,&nbsp; a&nbsp; fluorescent&nbsp; assay&nbsp; in&nbsp; yeast&nbsp; was&nbsp; developed&nbsp; for&nbsp; identification&nbsp; of&nbsp; potential&nbsp; natural or synthetic ligands of ER&alpha;, ER&beta; or AR and<br />quantification&nbsp; of&nbsp; their&nbsp; binding&nbsp; affinity,&nbsp; as&nbsp; well&nbsp; asevaluation&nbsp; of&nbsp; the&nbsp; estrogenic&nbsp; potential&nbsp; of&nbsp; synthetic steroids&nbsp; and&nbsp; selected&nbsp; plant&nbsp; extracts&nbsp; rich&nbsp; in phytoestrogen&nbsp; content.&nbsp; The&nbsp; assay&nbsp; could&nbsp; be&nbsp; used&nbsp; to&nbsp; screen&nbsp; libraries&nbsp; of&nbsp; modified&nbsp; steroids&nbsp; and xenoestrogens.&nbsp; In&nbsp; order&nbsp; to&nbsp; better&nbsp; understand&nbsp; the biomedical&nbsp; potential&nbsp; of&nbsp; selected&nbsp; modified&nbsp; steroids, results&nbsp; were&nbsp; compared&nbsp; to&nbsp; antiproliferative&nbsp; activity against&nbsp; estrogen&nbsp; receptor&nbsp; positive&nbsp; breast&nbsp; cancer (MCF-7)&nbsp; and&nbsp; prostate&nbsp; cancer&nbsp; (PC-3)&nbsp; cell&nbsp; lines. Binding&nbsp; energies&nbsp; and&nbsp; the&nbsp; geometry&nbsp; of&nbsp; binding&nbsp; of these&nbsp; compounds&nbsp; for&nbsp; ER&alpha;&nbsp; and&nbsp; ER&beta;&nbsp; ligand&nbsp; binding domains&nbsp; were&nbsp; predicted&nbsp; in&nbsp; silico&nbsp; by&nbsp; molecular&nbsp; docking&nbsp; methods.&nbsp; The&nbsp; second&nbsp; part&nbsp; of&nbsp; this&nbsp; study includes development&nbsp; of&nbsp; an&nbsp; assay&nbsp; for&nbsp; study&nbsp; of&nbsp; aromatase&nbsp; activity&nbsp; in&nbsp; the&nbsp; presence&nbsp; or&nbsp; absence&nbsp; of inhibitors&nbsp; by&nbsp; heterologous&nbsp; expression&nbsp; of&nbsp; human aromatase&nbsp; in&nbsp; Saccharomyces&nbsp; cerevisiae&nbsp; and/or Escherichia&nbsp; coli&nbsp; cells,&nbsp; as&nbsp; model-organisms. Furthermore, interactions between modified steroids, selected&nbsp; according&nbsp; to&nbsp; their&nbsp; structure,&nbsp; and&nbsp; aromatase were&nbsp; tested&nbsp; using&nbsp; sensitive&nbsp; spectroscopic&nbsp; methods based on ligand-induced changes&nbsp; in&nbsp; the&nbsp; spin state of Fe&nbsp; from&nbsp; the&nbsp; heme&nbsp; group&nbsp; or&nbsp; changes&nbsp; in&nbsp; the fluorescence&nbsp; of&nbsp; a&nbsp; tryptophan&nbsp; residue&nbsp; in&nbsp; the&nbsp; active site.&nbsp; The&nbsp; non-radioactive&nbsp; in&nbsp; vitro&nbsp; assays&nbsp; developed&nbsp; here, besides high efficiency, user and environmental safety,&nbsp; also&nbsp; have&nbsp; greater&nbsp; specificity&nbsp; and&nbsp; are&nbsp; more cost-effective&nbsp; for&nbsp; preliminary&nbsp; screening&nbsp; of&nbsp; steroid receptor&nbsp; ligands&nbsp; and&nbsp; aromatase&nbsp; inhibitors. Additionally,&nbsp; compounds&nbsp; identified&nbsp; to&nbsp; express significant biological activity can serve as a basis for the&nbsp; development&nbsp; of&nbsp; potential&nbsp; therapeutics&nbsp; in&nbsp; the treatment&nbsp; of&nbsp; hormone-dependent&nbsp; diseases&nbsp; and conditions, a global health issue today.</p>

Thiopurine S-methyltransferase (TPMT) belongs to the Class I S-adenosylmethionine-dependent methyltransferase (SAM-MT) super family of structurally related proteins. Common to the members of this large protein family is the catalysis of methylation reactions using S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) as a methyl group donor, although SAM-MTs act on a wide range of different substrates and carry out numerous biologically important functions. While the natural function of TPMT is unknown, this enzyme is involved in the metabolism of thiopurines, a class of pharmaceutical substances administered in treatment of immune-related disorders. Specifically, methylation by TPMT inactivates thiopurines and their metabolic intermediates, which reduces the efficacy of clinical treatment and increases the risk of adverse side effects. To further complicate matters, TPMT is a polymorphic enzyme with over 40 naturally occurring variants known to date, most of which exhibit lowered methylation activity towards thiopurines. Consequently, there are individual variations in TPMTmediated thiopurine inactivation, and the administered dose has to be adjusted prior to clinical treatment to avoid harmful side effects. Although the clinical relevance of TPMT is well established, few studies have investigated the molecular causes of the reduced methylation activity of variant proteins. In this thesis, the results of biophysical characterization of two variant proteins, TPMT*6 (Y180F) and TPMT*8 (R215H), are presented. While the properties of TPMT*8 were indistinguishable from those of the wild-type protein, TPMT*6 was found to be somewhat destabilized. Interestingly, the TPMT*6 amino acid substitution did not affect the functionality or folding pattern of the variant protein. Therefore, the decreased in vivo functionality reported for TPMT*6 is probably caused by increased proteolytic degradation in response to the reduced stability of this protein variant, rather than loss of function. Also presented herein are novel methodological approaches for studies of TPMT and its variants. Firstly, the advantages of using 8-anilinonaphthalene-1-sulfonic acid (ANS) to probe TPMT tertiary structure and active site integrity are presented. ANS binds exclusively to the native state of TPMT with high affinity (KD ~ 0.2 μm) and a 1:1 ratio. The stability of TPMT was dramatically increased by binding of ANS, which was shown to co-localize with the structurally similar adenine moiety of the cofactor SAM. Secondly, an enzyme activity assay based on isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) is presented. Using this approach, the kinetics of 6-MP and 6-TG methylation by TPMT has been characterized.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / ALDH isoenzymes are known to impact the sensitivity of certain neoplastic cells toward cyclophosphamides and its analogs. Despite its bone marrow toxicity, cyclophos-phamide is still used to treat various recalcitrant forms of cancer. When activated, cyclo-phosphamide forms aldophosphamide that can spontaneously form the toxic phospho-ramide mustard, an alkylating agent unless detoxified by ALDH isozymes to the carbox-yphosphamide metabolite. Prior work has demonstrated that the ALDH1A1 and ALDH3A1 isoenzymes can convert aldophosphamide to carboxyphosphamide. This has also been verified by over expression and siRNA knockdown studies. Selective small molecule inhibitors for these ALDH isoenzymes are not currently available. We hypothe-sized that novel and selective small molecule inhibitors of ALDH3A1 would enhance cancer cells’ sensitivity toward cyclophosphamide. If successful, this approach can widen the therapeutic treatment window for cyclophosphamides; permitting lower effective dos-ing regimens with reduced toxicity. An esterase based absorbance assay was optimized in a high throughput setting and 101, 000 compounds were screened and two new selective inhibitors for ALDH3A1, which have IC50 values of 0.2 µM (CB7) and 16 µM (CB29) were discovered. These two compounds compete for aldehyde binding, which was vali-dated both by kinetic and crystallographic studies. Structure activity relationship dataset has helped us determine the basis of potency and selectivity of these compounds towards ALDH3A1 activity. Our data is further supported by mafosfamide (an analog of cyclo-phosphamide) chemosensitivity data, performed on lung adenocarcinoma (A549) and gli-oblastoma (SF767) cell lines. Overall, I have identified two compounds, which inhibit ALDH3A1’s dehydrogenase activity selectively and increases sensitization of ALDH3A1 positive cells to aldophosphamide and its analogs. This may have the potential in improving chemotherapeutic efficacy of cyclophosphamide as well as to help us understand better the role of ALDH3A1 in cells. Future work will focus on testing these compounds on other cancer cell lines that involve ALDH3A1 expression as a mode of chemoresistance.