Title
The fumarprotocetraric acid inhibits tau covalently, avoiding cytotoxicity of aggregates in cells
Date Issued
02 June 2021
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Universidad de Chile
Publisher(s)
MDPI AG
Abstract
Neurodegenerative disorders, including Tauopathies that involve tau protein, base their pathological mechanism on forming proteinaceous aggregates, which has a deleterious effect on cells triggering an inflammatory response. Moreover, tau inhibitors can exert their mechanism of action through noncovalent and covalent interactions. Thus, Michael’s addition appears as a feasible type of interaction involving an α, β unsaturated carbonyl moiety to avoid pathological confirmation and further cytotoxicity. Moreover, we isolated three compounds from Antarctic lichens Cladonia cariosa and Himantormia lugubris: Protolichesterinic acid (1), fumarprotocetraric acid (2), and lichesterinic acid (3). The maleimide cysteine labeling assay showed that compounds 1, 2, and 3 inhibit at 50 µM, but compounds 2 and 3 are statistically significant. Based on its inhibition capacity, we decided to test compound 2 further. Thus, our results suggest that compound 2 remodel soluble oligomers and diminish β sheet content, as demonstrated through ThT experiments. Hence, we added externally treated oligomers with compound 2 to demonstrate that they are harmless in cell culture. First, the morphology of cells in the presence of aggregates does not suffer evident changes compared to the control. Additionally, the externally added aggregates do not provoke a substantial LDH release compared to the control, indicating that treated oligomers do not provoke membrane damage in cell culture compared with aggregates alone. Thus, in the present work, we demonstrated that Michael’s acceptors found in lichens could serve as a scaffold to explore different mechanisms of action to turn tau aggregates into harmless species.
Volume
26
Issue
12
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
BiologÃa celular, MicrobiologÃa
Neurociencias
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85109048521
PubMed ID
Source
Molecules
Sponsor(s)
AC and CA acknowledge the ‘Instituto Antártico Chileno (INACH)’ RT_18-19. FM kindly acknowledges the ANID-Chile and its Fondecyt Program through the project N°1201013 for financial support. The Fondequip EQM 130149 and EQM 170111 and the Dicyt-Usach 041831MH-Postdoc projects contributed to this work with additional support.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción CientÃfica
Scopus