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Clemastine/tamoxifen hybrids as easily accessible antileishmanial drug leads (2024)
Journal Article
Agostino, V. S., Buerdsell, M. L., Uliana, S. R. B., Denny, P. W., Coelho, A. C., & Steel, P. G. (2024). Clemastine/tamoxifen hybrids as easily accessible antileishmanial drug leads. Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, https://doi.org/10.1039/d3ob02091f

A library of hybrid molecules is developed based on the common chemical features shared by clemastine and tamoxifen both of which are well known for their antileishmanial activities. In the initial screening against Leishmania major and L. amazonensi... Read More about Clemastine/tamoxifen hybrids as easily accessible antileishmanial drug leads.

Amphotericin B resistance in Leishmania mexicana: Alterations to sterol metabolism and oxidative stress response (2022)
Journal Article
Alpizer-Sosa, E., Ithnin, N., Wei, W., Pountain, A., Weidt, A., Donachie, A., …Barrett, M. (2022). Amphotericin B resistance in Leishmania mexicana: Alterations to sterol metabolism and oxidative stress response. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 16(9), Article e0010779. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010779

Amphotericin B is increasingly used in treatment of leishmaniasis. Here, fourteen independent lines of Leishmania mexicana and one L. infantum line were selected for resistance to either amphotericin B or the related polyene antimicrobial, nystatin.... Read More about Amphotericin B resistance in Leishmania mexicana: Alterations to sterol metabolism and oxidative stress response.

Genome deletions to overcome the directed loss of gene function in Leishmania (2022)
Journal Article
Alpizar-Sosa, E., Kumordzi, Y., Wei, W., Whitfield, P., Barrett, M., & Denny, P. (2022). Genome deletions to overcome the directed loss of gene function in Leishmania. Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, 12, https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2022.988688

With the global reach of the Neglected Tropical Disease leishmanaisis increasing, coupled with a tiny armoury of therapeutics which all have problems with resistance, cost, toxicity and/or administration, the validation of new drug targets in the cau... Read More about Genome deletions to overcome the directed loss of gene function in Leishmania.

Illuminating Host-Parasite Interaction at the Cellular and Subcellular Levels with Infrared Microspectroscopy (2022)
Journal Article
Elsheikha, H. M., Al-Sandaqchi, A. T., Harun, M. S., Winterton, F., Altharawi, A., Elsaied, N. A., …Chan, K. L. A. (2022). Illuminating Host-Parasite Interaction at the Cellular and Subcellular Levels with Infrared Microspectroscopy. Cells, 11(5), Article 811. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells11050811

Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is an opportunistic protozoan that can cause brain infection and other serious health consequences in immuno-compromised individuals. This parasite has a remarkable ability to cross biological barriers and exploit the ho... Read More about Illuminating Host-Parasite Interaction at the Cellular and Subcellular Levels with Infrared Microspectroscopy.

Transcriptome-Wide Identification of Coding and Noncoding RNA-Binding Proteins Defines the Comprehensive RNA Interactome of Leishmania mexicana (2022)
Journal Article
Kalesh, K., Wei, W., Mantilla, B., Roumeliotis, T., Choudhary, J., & Denny, P. (2022). Transcriptome-Wide Identification of Coding and Noncoding RNA-Binding Proteins Defines the Comprehensive RNA Interactome of Leishmania mexicana. Microbiology Spectrum, 10(1), e02422-21. https://doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.02422-21

Proteomic profiling of RNA-binding proteins in Leishmania is currently limited to polyadenylated mRNA-binding proteins, leaving proteins that interact with nonadenylated RNAs, including noncoding RNAs and pre-mRNAs, unidentified. Using a combination... Read More about Transcriptome-Wide Identification of Coding and Noncoding RNA-Binding Proteins Defines the Comprehensive RNA Interactome of Leishmania mexicana.

Reading Clay: The Temporal and Transformative Potential of Clay in Contemporary Scientific Practice (2022)
Journal Article
Bryant, L., Jamie, K., & Sharples, G. (2023). Reading Clay: The Temporal and Transformative Potential of Clay in Contemporary Scientific Practice. Journal of Material Culture, 28(1), 87-105. https://doi.org/10.1177/13591835221074159

Clay has a long history in the global south and has been extensively studied by ‘Western’ social scientists particularly anthropologists and archeologists in relation to histories of earlier civilisations and cultural practices. Clay in relation to c... Read More about Reading Clay: The Temporal and Transformative Potential of Clay in Contemporary Scientific Practice.

Antibacterial Activity of Clay Soils against Food-Borne Salmonella typhimurium and Staphylococcus aureus (2021)
Journal Article
Azmi, N. N., Mahyudin, N. A., Wan Omar, W. H., Mahmud Ab Rashid, N., Ishak, C. F., Abdullah, A. H., & Sharples, G. J. (2022). Antibacterial Activity of Clay Soils against Food-Borne Salmonella typhimurium and Staphylococcus aureus. Molecules, 27(1), Article 170. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27010170

Natural clays have recently been proven to possess antibacterial properties. Effective natural antimicrobial agents are needed to combat bacterial contamination on food contact surfaces, which are increasingly more prevalent in the food chain. This s... Read More about Antibacterial Activity of Clay Soils against Food-Borne Salmonella typhimurium and Staphylococcus aureus.

Insights into the antibacterial mechanism of action of chelating agents by selective deprivation of iron, manganese and zinc (2021)
Journal Article
Paterson, J. R., Beecroft, M. S., Mulla, R. S., Osman, D., Reeder, N. L., Caserta, J. A., …Sharples, G. J. (2022). Insights into the antibacterial mechanism of action of chelating agents by selective deprivation of iron, manganese and zinc. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, https://doi.org/10.1128/aem.01641-21

Bacterial growth and proliferation can be restricted by limiting the availability of metal ions in their environment. Humans sequester iron, manganese and zinc to help prevent infection by pathogens, a system termed nutritional immunity. Commercially... Read More about Insights into the antibacterial mechanism of action of chelating agents by selective deprivation of iron, manganese and zinc.

Nature‐Inspired Substrate‐Independent Omniphobic and Antimicrobial Slippery Surfaces (2021)
Journal Article
Cox, H. J., Gibson, C. P., Sharples, G. J., & Badyal, J. P. S. (2022). Nature‐Inspired Substrate‐Independent Omniphobic and Antimicrobial Slippery Surfaces. Advanced Engineering Materials, 24(6), Article 2101288. https://doi.org/10.1002/adem.202101288

Inspired by the carnivorous Nepenthes pitcher plant, a range of highly liquid repellent lubricant-infused surfaces has been devised (low water droplet contact angle hysteresis and sliding angle values). This entails matching functional pulsed plasma... Read More about Nature‐Inspired Substrate‐Independent Omniphobic and Antimicrobial Slippery Surfaces.

The Histidine Ammonia Lyase of Trypanosoma cruzi is Involved in Acidocalcisome Alkalinization and is Essential for Survival under Starvation Conditions (2021)
Journal Article
Mantilla, B., Azevedo, C., Denny, P., Saiardi, A., & Docampo, R. (2021). The Histidine Ammonia Lyase of Trypanosoma cruzi is Involved in Acidocalcisome Alkalinization and is Essential for Survival under Starvation Conditions. mBio, 12(6), https://doi.org/10.1128/mbio.01981-21

Trypanosoma cruzi, the agent of Chagas disease, accumulates polyphosphate (polyP) and Ca2+ inside acidocalcisomes. The alkalinization of this organelle stimulates polyP hydrolysis and Ca2+ release. Here, we report that histidine ammonia lyase (HAL),... Read More about The Histidine Ammonia Lyase of Trypanosoma cruzi is Involved in Acidocalcisome Alkalinization and is Essential for Survival under Starvation Conditions.

Chalcones identify cTXNPx as a potential antileishmanial drug target (2021)
Journal Article
Escrivani, D. O., Charlton, R. L., Caruso, M. B., Burle-Caldas, G. A., Borsodi, M. P. G., Zingali, R. B., …Steel, P. G. (2021). Chalcones identify cTXNPx as a potential antileishmanial drug target. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 15(11), Article e0009951. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009951

With current drug treatments failing due to toxicity, low efficacy and resistance; leishmaniasis is a major global health challenge that desperately needs new validated drug targets. Inspired by activity of the natural chalcone 2’,6’-dihydroxy-4’-met... Read More about Chalcones identify cTXNPx as a potential antileishmanial drug target.

Tea–Essential Oil–Metal Hybrid Nanocoatings for Bacterial and Viral Inactivation (2021)
Journal Article
Cox, H. J., Sharples, G. J., & Badyal, J. P. S. (2021). Tea–Essential Oil–Metal Hybrid Nanocoatings for Bacterial and Viral Inactivation. ACS Applied Nano Material, 4(11), 12619-12628. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsanm.1c03151

Natural plant-derived antimicrobial nanocoatings have been synthesized by mixing brewed tea with cinnamaldehyde oil. Concurrent addition of copper or silver salts produces hybrid tea–cinnamaldehyde–copper or tea–cinnamaldehyde–silver nanocoatings, re... Read More about Tea–Essential Oil–Metal Hybrid Nanocoatings for Bacterial and Viral Inactivation.

The Quorum Sensing Auto-Inducer 2 (AI-2) Stimulates Nitrogen Fixation and Favors Ethanol Production over Biomass Accumulation in Zymomonas mobilis (2021)
Journal Article
Alencar, V. C., Silva, J. D. F. D. S., Vilas Boas, R. O., Farnézio, V. M., de Maria, Y. N., Aciole Barbosa, D., …Nunes, L. R. (2021). The Quorum Sensing Auto-Inducer 2 (AI-2) Stimulates Nitrogen Fixation and Favors Ethanol Production over Biomass Accumulation in Zymomonas mobilis. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 22(11), https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22115628

Autoinducer 2 (or AI-2) is one of the molecules used by bacteria to trigger the Quorum Sensing (QS) response, which activates expression of genes involved in a series of alternative mechanisms, when cells reach high population densities (including bi... Read More about The Quorum Sensing Auto-Inducer 2 (AI-2) Stimulates Nitrogen Fixation and Favors Ethanol Production over Biomass Accumulation in Zymomonas mobilis.

Quantitative Proteomics Reveals that Hsp90 Inhibition Dynamically Regulates Global Protein Synthesis in Leishmania mexicana (2021)
Journal Article
Karunakaran, K., Sundriyal, S., Perera, H., Cobb, S. L., & Denny, P. W. (2021). Quantitative Proteomics Reveals that Hsp90 Inhibition Dynamically Regulates Global Protein Synthesis in Leishmania mexicana. mSystems, https://doi.org/10.1128/msystems.00089-21

Heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) is a conserved molecular chaperone responsible for the folding and maturation of nascent proteins. Hsp90 is regarded as a master regulator of protein homeostasis in the cell, and its inhibition affects the functions of a... Read More about Quantitative Proteomics Reveals that Hsp90 Inhibition Dynamically Regulates Global Protein Synthesis in Leishmania mexicana.

Bioinspired and eco-friendly high efficacy cinnamaldehyde antibacterial surfaces (2021)
Journal Article
Cox, H. J., Li, J., Saini, P., Paterson, J. R., Sharples, G. J., & Badyal, J. P. S. (2021). Bioinspired and eco-friendly high efficacy cinnamaldehyde antibacterial surfaces. Journal of Materials Chemistry B: Materials for biology and medicine, 9(12), 2918-2930. https://doi.org/10.1039/d0tb02379e

Antimicrobial essential oils are incorporated into mussel-inspired and natural plant polyphenol coatings as part of a single-step fabrication process. Polydopamine–cinnamaldehyde, polyethyleneimine–cinnamaldehyde, and tannic acid–cinnamaldehyde coati... Read More about Bioinspired and eco-friendly high efficacy cinnamaldehyde antibacterial surfaces.

Antileishmanial Chemotherapy through Clemastine Fumarate Mediated Inhibition of the Leishmania Inositol Phosphorylceramide Synthase (2020)
Journal Article
Mina, J. G., Charlton, R. L., Alpizar-Sosa, E., Escrivani, D. O., Brown, C., Alqaisi, A., …Steel, P. G. (2021). Antileishmanial Chemotherapy through Clemastine Fumarate Mediated Inhibition of the Leishmania Inositol Phosphorylceramide Synthase. ACS Infectious Diseases, 7(1), 47-63. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsinfecdis.0c00546

Current chemotherapeutics for leishmaniasis have multiple deficiencies, and there is a need for new safe, efficacious, and affordable medicines. This study describes a successful drug repurposing approach that identifies the over-the-counter antihist... Read More about Antileishmanial Chemotherapy through Clemastine Fumarate Mediated Inhibition of the Leishmania Inositol Phosphorylceramide Synthase.

Volcanism and global plague pandemics: Towards an interdisciplinary synthesis (2020)
Journal Article
Fell, H. G., Baldini, J. U., Dodds, B., & Sharples, G. J. (2020). Volcanism and global plague pandemics: Towards an interdisciplinary synthesis. Journal of Historical Geography, 70, 36-46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2020.10.001

Understanding the prevalence and dissemination of bacterial pathogens such as Yersinia pestis, the bacterial agent of plague, is key to identifying the origins and demographic impact of historic pandemic episodes and mitigating future risk. Climate m... Read More about Volcanism and global plague pandemics: Towards an interdisciplinary synthesis.