Increasing creatine kinase activity protects against hypoxia / reoxygenation injury but not against anthracycline toxicity in vitro
PLOS ONE
Authors: Zervou, Sevasti; Whittington, Hannah J.; Ostrowski, Philip J.; Cao, Fang; Tyler, Jack; Lake, Hannah A.; Neubauer, Stefan; Lygate, Craig A.
Abstract
The creatine kinase (CK) phosphagen system is fundamental to cellular energy homeostasis. Cardiomyocytes express three CK isoforms, namely the mitochondrial sarcomeric CKMT2 and the cytoplasmic CKM and CKB. We hypothesized that augmenting CK in vitro would preserve cell viability and function and sought to determine efficacy of the various isoforms. The open reading frame of each isoform was cloned into pcDNA3.1, followed by transfection and stable selection in human embryonic kidney cells (HEK293). CKMT2CKM-and CKB-HEK293 cells had increased protein and total CK activity compared to non-transfected cells. Overexpressing any of the three CK isoforms reduced cell death in response to 18h hypoxia at 1% O-2 followed by 2h re-oxygenation as assayed using propidium iodide: by 33% in CKMT2, 47% in CKM and 58% in CKB compared to non-transfected cells (P<0.05). Loading cells with creatine did not modify cell survival. Transient expression of CK isoforms in HL-1 cardiac cells elevated isoenzyme activity, but only CKMT2 overexpression protected against hypoxia (0.1% for 24h) and reoxygenation demonstrating 25% less cell death compared to non-transfected control (P<0.01). The same cells were not protected from doxorubicin toxicity (250nM for 48h), in contrast to the positive control. These findings support increased CK activity as protection against ischaemia-reperfusion injury, in particular, protection via CKMT2 in a cardiac-relevant cell line, which merits further investigation in vivo.
Pharmacokinetic characterization of kalata B1 and related therapeutics built on the cyclotide scaffold
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICS
Authors: Poth, Aaron G.; Huang, Yen-Hua; Le, Thao T.; Kan, Meng-Wei; Craik, David J.
Abstract
Oral activity has been described for cyclotide-containing traditional medicines, and demonstrated for reengineered cyclotides bearing grafted therapeutic epitopes, highlighting their potential for translation to the clinic. Here we report preclinical pharmacokinetic parameters for the prototypic cyclotide kalata B1 (kB1) and two orally active grafted analogues, ckb-KAL and ckb-KIN, to provide the first in vivo dose-exposure metrics for cyclotides. Native and grafted kB1 molecules exhibited multiple compartment kinetics and measurable but limited oral bioavailability of similar magnitude to several orally administered peptide drugs in the clinic. Cyclotides are mostly associated with the central compartment, and display small (0.07-0.13 L kg(-1) for kB1 and ckb-KIN) to moderate (1 L kg(-1) for ckb-KAL) steady state volumes of distribution. This study provides new data essential to the evaluation of cyclotides as therapeutics, validating them as a viable drug design scaffold with tunable pharmacokinetic properties.