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Two Functional Guanidine Groups Are Responsible For the Biologica
Journal of Chromatography & Separation Techniques

Journal of Chromatography & Separation Techniques
Open Access

ISSN: 2157-7064

+44 1300 500008

Editorial - (2014) Volume 5, Issue 6

Two Functional Guanidine Groups Are Responsible For the Biological Activity of Streptomycin and Functionally Equivalent Molecules

Aly Moussa*
National Agency for Sanitary Environmental Laboratoire de Lyon, France
*Corresponding Author: Aly Moussa, National Agency for Sanitary Environmental Laboratoire de Lyon, France, Tel: 33 617460952 Email:

Here is presented some results obtained with a group of molecules composed of two antibiotics and 4 chemicals having in common the presence of two guanidine groups each possess an imine group and aminoacetal functional group. These molecules when added in low concentrations interact rapidly with the infectious prion proteins (PrPsc) via hydrogen bond transfer between each of the guanidine groups and amino acids on one or several peptides and so increases the apparent molecular weight of the protein. With increased quantities and incubation with the PrPsc for one hour at 37°C; these molecules form multimolecular protein aggregates and allowed its recovery via a low centrifugation step. Also other consequences of these interactions are either a drop or even a complete reduction of the prion PrPsc infectivity. These molecules though their interaction with microbes provoked an anti-bacterial activity.

The guanidine-containing compounds constitute a very important class of therapeutic agents suitable for the treatment of a wide spectrum of diseases as well as disinfecting agents. Several molecules possesses two guanidine groups as streptomycin, dihydrostreptomycin, triethylenetetramine, bis-3-aminoproylamine, guanidine hydrochloride, and spermine tetra-hydrochloride. The presence of these 2 functional guanidine groups within a non-polymeric hydrophilic molecular system was suspected to be the chemical structure of streptomycin implicated in the interaction with proteins [1]. This interaction takes place through hydrogen bond transfer among the 2 guanidine groups on streptomycin and the amino-acids of one or several prion peptides. The addition of low concentration of streptomycin to a constant amount of non-soluble fraction of the infectious prion protein (PrPsc) followed by electrophoresis on polyacrylamide gel and immuno detection revealed an increase in the apparent molecular mass of each of the three bands and this increase of the protein molecular mass was proportional to the added streptomycin quantity. When higher streptomycin concentration were added and incubated with PrPsc for one hour at 37°C aggregation and flocculation of the prion protein occurred due to cross-linking by such a proportionally small streptomycin molecule and the PrPsc isoforms or fragments [1].

Streptomycin induced infectivity reduction after inoculating into mice of a mixture of the PrPsc and streptomycin. The drop in infectivity can be attributed to changes of the surface electrostatic charges due to hydrogen bond transfer between the two guanidine groups present on streptomycin and the different amino acids on the PrPsc peptides [2] but didn’t interfere with proteinase K resistance. Similarly guanidine hydrochloride markedly reduced and, at higher concentrations, even destroyed the infectivity of PrPsc [3] but can reduce also the PrPsc resistance to proteinase K. Finally as streptomycin and dihydrostreptomycin possess antibacterial activity also guanidine containing molecules possessed antibacterial activity.

To prove that chemicals as triethylenetetramine, bis-3- aminoproylamine, guanidine hydrochloride, and spermine tetrahydrochloride similarly interact with proteins as streptomycin the following experiments were under taken.

Adding 0, 30, 60, 120, 180 and 240 mM triethylenetetramine (tri) or 0, 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 μl of 0.5 M bis-3-aminoproylamine (Bis) to a constant quantity of the PrPsc, vortexing, heating 5 min. at 100°C, centrifugation at 12,000 g for 5 minutes, recovering supernatants, loading, on SDSPAGE, electrophoresis, transfer and monoclonal antibodies immunodetection showed an increase of the molecular weight of the prion proteins proportional to the concentration of the added molecule. The PrPsc three bands tend to migrate altogether in a smeared distribution of aggregated proteins Figure 1.

chromatography-separation-techniques-migrate-altogether

Figure 1: The PrPsc three bands tend to migrate altogether in a smeared distribution of aggregated proteins.

Guanidine called also carbamidine and has biotechnological application in protein purification and as a protein denaturant and is used as fungicides or disinfectant. Also guanidine hydrochloride increased the apparent molecular mass of the 3 prion protein bands proportional to its concentration added when tested as in the previous experiment Figure 2.

chromatography-separation-techniques-protein-bands

Figure 2: Molecular mass of the 3 prion protein bands proportional to its concentration added when tested.

Spermine is a polyamine and its intervention occurs during replication of eukaryote and prokaryote cells. Here we present 2 different experiments, in (A) directly after mixing spermine and PrPsc, heating, centrifugation, then collection of the supernatants and loading onto SDS-PAGE. In (B) the spermine and PrPsc mixtures were first incubated at 37°C for one hour before collecting the supernatants and suspending the pellets in 50% SDS-Laemmli buffer as below.

In experiment (A) spermine tetra-hydrochloride was added as 0, 1, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4 and 5 mg to a constant volume of 6 μl of PrPsc extracted from 3000 μg equivalent BSE infected cattle brain. After vortexing, heating at 100°C for 5 minutes, centrifugation, collection of the supernatants and loading onto SDS-PAGE followed by transfer and immuno-blotting. The results (Figure 3) show an increase of the molecular weight of the 3 PrPsc peptides proportional to the spermine quantity added and in a similar way as the other tested aggregating molecules.

chromatography-separation-techniques-peptides-proportional

Figure 3: The results show an increase of the molecular weight of the 3 PrPsc peptides proportional to the spermine quantity added and in a similar way as the other tested aggregating molecules.

In experiment (B), 2, 1, 0.5, 0.25, 0.125, 0.0625 and 0.0312 mg concentrations of spermine in 8 μl volume were added to 8 μl volume PrPsc extracted from 4 mg equivalent positive BSE cattle brain followed by vortex stirring, incubation at 37°C for one hour, centrifuged at 12,000 g, collection of the supernatants separately and the pellets were suspended in 8 μl 50% v/v 8M urea and Laemmli denaturing buffer, after vigorous vortexing, 5 minutes heating at 100°C, 2 minutes centrifugation at 12,000 g and collection of the second supernatants. Both supernatants were deposited on SDS-PAGE, electrophoresis, transfer and immunodetection.

The results obtained after one hour incubation (Figure 4) showed the presence of zone phenomena. The lower spermine concentrations 0.0625 and 0.0312mg showed very low interaction with the PrPsc as the prion protein were mostly present in the supernatant (lane 14 and 15) and has a MW of 29 Kd. From lane 2 to 5 (corresponding to decrease in spermine concentration from 1 mg to 0.125 mg) most of the PrPsc were more progressively accumulated and precipitated in the pellets successively. In presence of 0.125 spermine was observed the highest PrPsc accumulation. Few PrPsc amount were still present in the supernatants (lane 10 to 13) with higher molecular mass. No precipitation was revealed in presence of 2 mg spermine and most of the PrPsc was present in the supernatant with increased molecular mass. This result is in accord avec that present in Figure 3 where higher doses of spermine resulted in increase of the molecular weight of the protein bands. Also these observations can be explained by the necessity for a longer incubation after the interaction to bring to aggregates formation. The presence of an equilibrium zone between the amount of PrPsc and the quantity of spermine can explain the zone phenomena.

chromatography-separation-techniques-zone-phenomena

Figure 4: The results obtained after one hour incubation showed the presence of zone phenomena.

In order to show that the interaction with streptomycin did not affect the Proteinase K resistance of the prion protein the following experiment was done. After homogenization of a BSE positive brain at 10% (weight/volume) in glucose 5%, 100 μl were distributes in each of 4 Eppendorf tubes then 0, 5, 10, 20 μl of 07M streptomycin, and finally 10 μl Proteinase K (at 200 μg/ml) were added successively. The tubes were incubated at 37°C for one hour, heat to 100°C for 5 minutes, centrifugation at 12,000g for 5 min. and collection of the supernatants. The pellets were suspended in 100μl of 50% volume:volume 8 M urea and Laemmli denaturing buffer per tube, after vigorous vortexing, heat at 100°C for 5 minutes then centrifugation for 5 minutes at 12,000g and collection of the second supernatant (representing the pellet) Both supernatants were loaded on 15% SDS6PAGE, electrophoresis, transfer and immune-blotted using monoclonal antibodies ( Figure 5).

chromatography-separation-techniques-immune-blotted

Figure 5: Both supernatants were loaded on 15% SDS6PAGE, electrophoresis, transfer and immune-blotted using monoclonal antibodies.

The results obtained showed that with or without streptomycin the PrPsc has a MW of 29KD ( lane1 in suppernetants without streptomycin and lane 2 with streptomycin in pellet). In absence of streptomycin the PrPsc was mainly present in the suppernatent where after addition of more of streptomycin small quantities were still in the suppernatent with a higher molecular mass and progressivly the rest of the protein was aggregated and recuperated in the pellet only. This result gave a proof that streptomycin didn’t affect the PrPsc risistance to Proteinase K.

The prion protein PrPsc is rich in beta-sheets, aggregates into prion rods and show infectivity and proteinase K (PK) resistance. Dissociation of prion rods and breakdown of beta-sheets by denaturation results in loss of both infectivity and PK-sensitivity. The effects of guanidine (Gdn), which solubilizes and denatures proteins by breaking down their higher structure on the infectivity of PrPsc of scrapie strain 263K was assayed by intracerebral inoculation into hamsters. Gdn markedly reduced or, at higher concentrations, even destroyed the infectivity of PrPsc. These results confirmed that all the alternations in the PKresistance and the infectivity of PrPsc caused by Gdn resulted from changes in its higher structure and emphasized that a complete loss of PK-resistance of PrPsc may not necessarily mean its full non-infectivity [3]. In conclusion, infectivity and PK resistance are not associated on the same region on the PrPsc peptide.

References

  1. Moussa A, Coleman AW, Bencsik A, Leclere E, Perret F et al. (2006) Use of streptomycin for precipitation and detection of proteinase K resistant prion protein (PrPsc) in biological samples. ChemCommun (Camb) 9: 973-975.
  2. Moussa A (2014) Reduced accumulation of the prion protein (PrPsc) in mice spleen post inoculation with a mixture of the scrapie C506M3 strain and streptomycin. J Chromatograph SeparatTechniq 5: 214-215.
  3. Gao JM, Zhou XB, Xiao XL, Zhang J, Chen L, et al. (2006) Influence of guanidine on proteinase K resistance in vitro and infectivity of scrapie prion protein PrP(sc)ActaVirol 50: 25-32.
Citation: Moussa A (2014) Two Functional Guanidine Groups Are Responsible For the Biological Activity of Streptomycin and Functionally Equivalent Molecules. J Chromatogr Sep Tech 5:e126.

Copyright: © 2014 Moussa A . This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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