A combined approach for predicting the cytotoxic effect of drug-nanoaggregates.

Abstract

We present a combined spectroscopic and computational approach aimed to elucidate the mechanism of formation and activity of etoposide nanoaggregates upon release from dextran-etoposide conjugates. Etoposide is an anticancer drug that inhibits cell growth by blocking Topoisomerase II, the key enzyme involved in re-ligation of the DNA chains during the replication process. In silico and spectroscopic analysis indicate that released etoposide nanoaggregates have a different structure, stability, and bioactivity, which depend on the pH experienced during the release. Molecular dynamics simulation and in silico docking of etoposide dimers suggest that the aggregation phenomena inhibit etoposide bioactivity, yet without drastically preventing Topoisomerase II binding. We correlated the diminished cytotoxic activity exerted by dextran-etoposide conjugates on the A549 lung cancer cells, compared to the free drug, to the formation and stability of drug nanoaggregates.

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Published Version (Please cite this version)

10.1039/c6tb02105k

Publication Info

Wojnilowicz, M, M Tortora, BG Bobay, E Santiso, M Caruso, L Micheli, M Venanzi, S Menegatti, et al. (2016). A combined approach for predicting the cytotoxic effect of drug-nanoaggregates. Journal of materials chemistry. B, 4(40). pp. 6516–6523. 10.1039/c6tb02105k Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/28906.

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Bobay

Benjamin Bobay

Assistant Professor in Radiology

I am the Assistant Director of the Duke University NMR Center and an Assistant Professor in the Duke Radiology Department. I was originally trained as a structural biochemist with an emphasis on utilizing NMR and continue to use this technique daily helping collaborators characterize protein structures and small molecules through a diverse set of NMR experiments. Through the structural characterization of various proteins, from both planta and eukaryotes, I have developed a robust protocol of utilizing computational biology for describing binding events, mutations, post-translations modifications (PTMs), and/or general behavior within in silico solution scenarios. I have utilized these techniques in collaborations ranging from plant pathologists at the Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences department at the University of Amsterdam to biomedical engineers at North Carolina State University to professors in the Pediatrics department at Duke University. These studies have centered around the structural and functional consequences of PTMs (such as phosphorylation), mutation events, truncation of multi-domain proteins, dimer pulling experiments, to screening of large databases of ligands for potential binding events. Through this combination of NMR and computational biology I have amassed 50 peer-reviewed published articles and countless roles on scientific projects, as well as the development of several tutorials concerning the creation of ligand databases and high-throughput screening of large databases utilizing several different molecular dynamic and computational docking programs.


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