Lingman Ma

The interactions between active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and excipients may lead to API degradation, thereby affecting the safety and efficacy of drug products. Cbf-14 is a synthetic peptide derived from Cathelicidin-BF, showing potential for bacterial and fungal infections. In order to assess impurities in Cbf-14 gel, we developed a two-dimensional liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole/time-of-flight mass spectrometric method. A total of eleven peptide degradation impurities were identified and characterized. Furthermore, the compatibility tests were conducted to evaluate the interactions of Cbf-14 with glycerol and methylcellulose, respectively. The results revealed that the impurities originated from condensation reactions between Cbf-14 and aldehydes caused by glycerol degradation. Several aldehydes were employed to validate this hypothesis. The formation mechanisms were elucidated as Maillard reactions between primary amino groups of Cbf-14 and aldehydes derived from glycerol degradation. Additionally, the compatibility of Cbf-14 with glycerol from different sources and with varying storage times was investigated. Notably, the interaction products in the gel increased with extended storage time, even when fresh glycerol for injection was added. This study offers unique insights into the compatibility study of peptides and glycerol, contributing to the ongoing quality study of Cbf-14 gel. It also serves as a reference for the design of other peptide preparations and excipients selections.

Editorial: How to circumvent the tumour-promoting effect of cytokine in tumour therapy

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignancies, and multidrug resistance (MDR) severely restricts the effectiveness of various anticancer drugs. Therefore, the development of novel anticancer drugs for the treatment of CRC patients with MDR is necessary. Quaternized thiourea main-chain polymer (QTMP) is a self-assembled nanoparticle with good water solubility. Notably, QTMP is not a P-glycoprotein (P-gp) substrate, and it exhibits potent cytotoxic activity against CRC cells, including HCT116/DDP and P-gp-mediated multidrug-resistant Caco2 cells. QTMP also exhibits a strong anticancer activity against SW480 cells in vivo. Interestingly, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) production were increased in a concentration-dependent manner in QTMP-treated HCT116, SW480 and Caco2 cells. Importantly, QTMP causes DNA damage in these CRC cells via direct insertion into the DNA or regulation of ROS and/or RNS production. QTMP also induces caspase-dependent apoptosis via overproduction of ROS and RNS. Therefore, QTMP is a promising anticancer therapeutic agent for patients with CRC, including those cancer cells with P-gp-mediated MDR. The present study also indicates that the design and synthesis of anticancer drugs based on thiourea polymers is promising and valuable, thereby offering a new strategy to address MDR, and provides reference resources for further investigations of thiourea polymers.

The currently available drugs against influenza A virus primarily target neuraminidase (NA) or the matrix protein 2 (M2) ion channel. The emergence of drug-resistant viruses requires the development of new antiviral chemicals. Our study applied a cell-based approach to evaluate the antiviral activity of a series of newly synthesized benzoic acid derivatives, and 4-(2,2-Bis(hydroxymethyl)-5-oxopyrrolidin-l-yl)-3-(5-cyclohexyl-4H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl)amino). benzoic acid, termed NC-5, was found to possess antiviral activity. NC-5 inhibited influenza A viruses A/FM/1/47 (H1N1), A/Beijing/32/92 (H3N2) and oseltamivir-resistant mutant A/FM/1/47-H275Y (H1N1-H275Y) in a dose-dependent manner. The 50% effective concentrations (EC₅₀) for H1N1 and H1N1-H275Y were 33.6 μM and 32.8 μM, respectively, which showed that NC-5 had a great advantage over oseltamivir in drug-resistant virus infections. The 50% cytotoxic concentration (CC₅₀) of NC-5 was greater than 640 μM. Orally administered NC-5 protected mice infected with H1N1 and H1N1-H275Y, conferring 80% and 60% survival at 100 mg/kg/d, reducing body weight loss, and alleviating virus-induced lung injury. NC-5 could suppress NP and M1 protein expression levels during the late stages of viral biosynthesis and inhibit NA activity, which may influence virus release. Our study proved that NC-5 has potent anti-influenza activity in vivo and in vitro, meaning that it could be regarded as a promising drug candidate to treat infection with influenza viruses, including oseltamivir-resistant viruses.