A BODIPY-embedding miltefosine analog linked to cell-penetrating Tat(48-60) peptide favors intracellular delivery and visualization of the antiparasitic drug

Therapeutic application of many drugs is often hampered by poor or denied access to intracellular targets. A case in point is miltefosine (MT), an orally active antiparasitic drug, which becomes ineffective when parasites develop dysfunctional uptake systems. We report here the synthesis of a fluore...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: García de la Torre, Beatriz, Hornillos, Valentín, Luque-Ortega, Juan Román, Abengozar, M. A., Amat-Guerri, Francisco, Ulises Acuña, A., Rivas, Luis, Andreu, David
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2014
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/97131
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/97131
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:BODIPY
Cell-penetrating peptides
Miltefosine
Dual fluorescent labeling
Reversion of resistance
Monitoring of intracellular drug delivery
Descripción
Sumario:Therapeutic application of many drugs is often hampered by poor or denied access to intracellular targets. A case in point is miltefosine (MT), an orally active antiparasitic drug, which becomes ineffective when parasites develop dysfunctional uptake systems. We report here the synthesis of a fluorescent BODIPY-embedding MT analogue with appropriate thiol functionalization allowing linkage to the cell-penetrating Tat(48-60) peptide through disulfide or thioether linkages. The resulting constructs are efficiently internalized into the otherwise MT-invulnerable R40 Leishmania strain, resulting in fast parasite killing, and hence successful avoidance of the resistance. In the disulfide-linked conjugate, an additional fluoro tag on the Tat moiety allows to monitor its reductive cleavage within the cytoplasm. Terminally differentiated cells such as peritoneal macrophages, impervious to MT unless infected by Leishmania, can uptake the drug in its Tat-conjugated form. The results afford proof-of-principle for using CPP vectors to avert drug resistance in parasites, and/or for tackling leishmaniasis by modulating macrophage uptake. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Wien.