6 documents found, page 1 of 1
Repurposing anti-cancer porphyrin derivative drugs to target SARS-CoV-2 envelope
Mendonça, Diogo A.; Cadima Couto, Carla Iris; Buga, Carolina C.; Arnaut, Zoe A.; Schaberle, Fabio A.; Arnaut, Luis G.; Castanho, Miguel A. R. B.Antiviral medicines to treat COVID-19 are still scarce. Porphyrins and porphyrin derivatives (PDs) usually present broad-spectrum antiviral activity with low risk of resistance development. In fact, some PDs are clinicall approved to be used in anti-cancer photodynamic therapy and repurposing clinically approved PDs might be an alternative to treat COVID-19. Here, we characterize the ability of temoporfin, vert...
Parainfluenza fusion peptide promotes membrane fusion by assembling into oligom...
Valério, Mariana; Mendonça, Diogo A.; Morais, João; Buga, Carolina C.; Cruz, Carlos H.; Castanho, Miguel A. R. B.; Melo, Manuel N.; Soares, Cláudio M.Paramyxoviruses are enveloped viruses harboring a negative-sense RNA genome that must enter the host’s cells to replicate. In the case of the parainfluenza virus, the cell entry process starts with the recognition and attachment to target receptors, followed by proteolytic cleavage of the fusion glycoprotein (F) protein, exposing the fusion peptide (FP) region. The FP is responsible for binding to the target me...
Targeting Zika virus with new brain- and placenta-crossing peptide–porphyrin co...
Todorovski, Toni; Mendonça, Diogo A.; Fernandes-Siqueira, Lorena O.; Cruz-Oliveira, Christine; Guida, Giuseppina; Valle, Javier; Cavaco, MarcoViral disease outbreaks affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide and remain a serious threat to global health. The current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and other recent geographically-confined viral outbreaks (severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Ebola, dengue, zika and ever-recurring seasonal influenza), also with devastating tolls at sanitary and socio-economic levels, are sobering reminders in this respec...
Penetrating the blood brain barrier with new peptide porphyrin conjugates havin...
Mendonça, Diogo A.; Bakker, Mariët; Cruz-Oliveira, Christine; Neves, Vera; Angeles Jiménez, Maria; Defaus, Sira; Cavaco, Marco; Veiga, Ana SaloméPassing through the blood-brain barrier (BBB) to treat neurological conditions is one of the main hurdles in modern medicine. Many drugs with promising in vitro profiles become ineffective in vivo due to BBB restrictive permeability. In particular, this includes drugs such as antiviral porphyrins, with the ability to fight brain-resident viruses causing diseases such as HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (...
Structural determinants conferring unusual long life in human serum to rattlesn...
Pérez‐Peinado, Clara; Dias, Susana; Mendonça, Diogo A.; Castanho, Miguel A. R. B.; Veiga, Ana Salomé; Andreu, DavidCtn[15-34], a downsized version of the snake venom cathelicidin-like peptide crotalicidin (Ctn), shows an unusually high lifespan (t1/2 , approximately 12 h) in human serum, which significantly adds to its promise as an antimicrobial and antitumor agent. Herein we investigate the role of Ctn[15-34] structure on serum survival. Using a set of analogs, we show that C-terminal amidation, as well as the specific la...
Structure-stability-function mechanistic links in the anti-measles virus action...
Figueira, Tiago Nascimento; Mendonça, Diogo A.; Gaspar, Diana; Melo, Manuel N.; Moscona, Anne; Porotto, Matteo; Castanho, Miguel A. R. B.Measles remains one of the leading causes of child mortality worldwide and is re-emerging in some countries due to poor vaccine coverage, concomitant with importation of measles virus (MV) from endemic areas. The lack of specific chemotherapy contributes to negative outcomes, especially in infants or immunodeficient individuals. Fusion inhibitor peptides derived from the MV Fusion protein C-terminal Heptad Repe...