Infectious disease is the second leading cause of death worldwide, the growing number of antibiotic-resistant microbes threatens to further worsen this public crisis, but the pipeline for new antibiotics is running dry. Diabetes affects nearly 26 million people in the US, as many as 1 in 3 American adults will have diabetes in 2050 if present trends continue, and yet current approved therapies suffer from inadequate efficacy and/or liabilities. The discovery of platensimycin (PTM) and platencin (PTN) as selective and potent bacterial and mammalian fatty acid synthase inhibitors and the demonstrated efficacy of PTM and PTN in animal models as a new class of antibacterial and antidiabetic drug leads are therefore of exceptional importance. However, development of PTM and PTN into commercial drugs faces formidable obstacles, including improvement of the drugs' pharmacokinetics and the inevitable emergence of resistance. We propose in this application to: (i) characterize the PTM and PTN biosynthetic pathways, (ii) engineer the PTM and PTN biosynthetic machinery to generate novel analogues, and (iii) investigate PTM and PTN self-resistance in the native producers and acquired resistance in clinically relevant pathogens. Our hypotheses are: (i) studies of PTM and PTN biosynthesis promise to uncover new chemistry and enzymology, (ii) exploration of diterpenoid synthase specificity and tailoring enzyme promiscuity provides an outstanding opportunity to generate novel analogues, (iii) comparison and contrast of PTM and PTN self-resistance in the producers to acquired resistance in pathogens provides an excellent opportunity to understand, and therefore predict and combat future PTM or PTN resistance in clinical settings. The long-term goal of our research is to develop PTM and PTN into a new class of clinically useful antibacterial and antidiabetic drugs.
The specific aims for this grant period are: (i) functional characterization of the PTM and PTN biosynthetic machinery in vivo and biochemical characterization of the novel enzymes for PTM and PTN biosynthesis in vitro, (ii) engineering of the PTM and PTN biosynthetic machinery for novel PTM and PTN analogues, (iii) investigation of the molecular mechanisms of PTM and PTN self-resistance in the producers and acquired resistance in pathogens. The outcomes of the proposed studies will include: (i) PTM and PTN biosynthesis as a model system for bacterial diterpenoid natural products, (ii) novel chemistry and enzymology for diterpenoid biosynthesis, (iii) PTM and PTN analogues with improved pharmacokinetic properties as antibacterial and antidiabetic drug leads, and (iv) molecular mechanisms of PTM and PTN resistance.

Public Health Relevance

Platensimycin (PTM) and platencin (PTN) are potent fatty acid synthase inhibitors and have emerged as promising novel antibacterial and antidiabetic drug leads. This project aims at characterizing the PTM and PTN biosynthetic machineries, engineering novel PTM and PTN analogues, and investigating PTM and PTN resistance mechanisms. The resultant PTM and PTN analogues will be evaluated for the development of clinically useful antibacterial and antidiabetic drugs, while comparison and contrast of PTM and PTN self-resistance in the native producers and acquired resistance in pathogens will help understand, thereby predicting and combating future drug resistance in the clinical settings.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01GM114353-04
Application #
9592147
Study Section
Synthetic and Biological Chemistry B Study Section (SBCB)
Program Officer
Bond, Michelle Rueffer
Project Start
2015-12-01
Project End
2019-11-30
Budget Start
2018-12-01
Budget End
2019-11-30
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2019
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Scripps Florida
Department
Type
DUNS #
148230662
City
Jupiter
State
FL
Country
United States
Zip Code
33458
Rudolf, Jeffrey D; Dong, Liao-Bin; Zhang, Xiao et al. (2018) Cytochrome P450-Catalyzed Hydroxylation Initiating Ether Formation in Platensimycin Biosynthesis. J Am Chem Soc 140:12349-12353
Dong, Liao-Bin; Rudolf, Jeffrey D; Deng, Ming-Rong et al. (2018) Discovery of the Tiancilactone Antibiotics by Genome Mining of Atypical Bacterial Type?II Diterpene Synthases. Chembiochem :
Dong, Liao-Bin; Rudolf, Jeffrey D; Kang, Dingding et al. (2018) Biosynthesis of thiocarboxylic acid-containing natural products. Nat Commun 9:2362
Teijaro, Christiana N; Adhikari, Ajeeth; Shen, Ben (2018) Challenges and opportunities for natural product discovery, production, and engineering in native producers versus heterologous hosts. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol :
Deng, Youchao; Kang, Dingding; Shi, Jie et al. (2018) The semi-synthesis, biological evaluation and docking analysis of the oxime, hydrazine and hydrazide derivatives of platensimycin. Medchemcomm 9:789-794
Qiu, Lin; Tian, Kai; Wen, Zhongqing et al. (2018) Biomimetic Stereoselective Sulfa-Michael Addition Leads to Platensimycin and Platencin Sulfur Analogues against Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus. J Nat Prod 81:316-322
Wang, Nan; Rudolf, Jeffrey D; Dong, Liao-Bin et al. (2018) Natural separation of the acyl-CoA ligase reaction results in a non-adenylating enzyme. Nat Chem Biol 14:730-737
Rudolf, Jeffrey D; Chang, Chin-Yuan; Ma, Ming et al. (2017) Cytochromes P450 for natural product biosynthesis in Streptomyces: sequence, structure, and function. Nat Prod Rep 34:1141-1172
Dong, Liao-Bin; Rudolf, Jeffrey D; Lin, Li et al. (2017) In vivo instability of platensimycin and platencin: Synthesis and biological evaluation of urea- and carbamate-platensimycin. Bioorg Med Chem 25:1990-1996
Falzone, Maria; Crespo, Emmanuel; Jones, Klarissa et al. (2017) Nutritional control of antibiotic production by Streptomyces platensis MA7327: importance of l-aspartic acid. J Antibiot (Tokyo) 70:828-831

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