Cover Features

Dolastatin 10

2024 – Drs. Hendrik Luesch & Yousong Ding

Organic Letters

Dolastatin 10, a potent tubulin-targeting marine anticancer natural product, provided the basis for the development of six FDA-approved antibody–drug conjugates. Through the screening of cyanobacterial Caldora penicillata environmental DNA libraries and metagenome sequencing, we identified its biosynthetic gene cluster. Functional prediction of 10 enzymes encoded in the 39 kb cluster supports the dolastatin 10 biosynthesis. The nonheme diiron monooxygenase DolJ was biochemically characterized to mediate the terminal thiazole formation in dolastatin 10.

RSC Medicinal Chemistry

2023 – Dr. RobERT Huigens

RSC Medicinal Chemistry

In this study, we report the design, chemical synthesis, and biological investigations of nitroarene-based HP prodrugs that leverage intracellular nitroreductase (NTR) enzymes for activation and subsequent release of active HP antibacterial agents. Based on the findings in this study, we believe that HP-nitroarene prodrugs could provide a future avenue to develop useful agents that eradicate antibiotic resistant bacteria.

JNP January 2023

2023 – Dr. Yousong Ding & Dr. Hendrik Luesch

Journal of Natural Products

Lyngbyastatin (Lbn) 1 and 3 were identified from the field-collected marine cyanobacterium Okeania sp. Their biosynthetic gene cluster was predicted from the metagenome-assembled genome and confirmed by bioinformatic analysis and biochemical studies of selected adenylation domains. Two Lbn-like gene clusters were further mined from publicly available cyanobacterial genomes.

This is a cover photo, Bioconjugate Chem

2022- Dr. lina cui

Bioconjugate Chemistry

Heparanase is an enzyme involved in tissue healing, cancers, inflammation, and viral infection. Its importance as a therapeutic target warrants further study, but chemistry for heparanase-activatable probes and drugs is limited. Here, a universal scaffold is reported to facilitate the development of heparanase-responsive probes and drugs.

ACS Infectious Diseases Cover July 2022

2022 – Dr. Hendrik Luesch

ACS Infectious Diseases

Apratoxin S4 in action against SARS-CoV-2: This host-directed antiviral shuts off spike protein production and trafficking (top) and prevents double membrane vesicle formation and assembly of progeny virions (bottom).

RSC Chemical Biology Cover April 2022

2022 – Dr. Yousong Ding

RSC Chemical Biology

The nitroreductase of Haemophilus influenzae metabolizes clinically used nitroimidazoles, generates dimeric metabolites and anaerobically sensitizes an E. coli mutant to antibiotics. UF College of Pharmacy researchers further uncover its biochemical and structural details.

This is a cover photo, J Med Chem

2021- Dr. Lina cui

Journal of Medicinal Chemistry

A self-immobilizing near-infrared (NIR) fluorogenic probe enables the efficient noninvasive detection of cellular senescence, a cellular response mechanism for various stresses that develop during therapy or aging. The cover art is attached.

iScience Ding Cover

2021 – Dr. Yousong Ding

iScience

This review discusses multiple strategies and examples in using native and engineered biosynthetic enzymes for the production of both ribosomally and nonribosomally synthesized peptides and the screening for bioactive leads. These peptides are an important class of bioactive molecules for drug research. Chemical synthesis has been established for some PNPs and their analogues but all suffered from negative environmental impacts and unsustainability. The use of native and engineered enzymes will aid the development of more green approaches for chemical synthesis in general.

Rob Huigens Cover

2021 – DR. ROBERT HUIGENS

Journal of Medicinal Chemistry

UF medicinal chemists report promising results from a study focused on new ways to of treating several types of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, advances that may help in the battle against MRSA, tuberculosis and other infectious pathogens.

RSC Medicinal Chemistry Cover Feb. 2021

2021 – DrS. chris Mccurdy and Hebaalla agha

RSC Medicinal Chemistry

This review discusses the principles of molecular imaging with known sigma-1 receptor (S1R) radioligands, along with S1Rs labeling applications in various disease states. Highlighted here are S1R radioligands that have demonstrated considerable potential as biomarkers in humans with the ultimate goal of better healthcare outcomes.

ACS Chemical Neuroscience

2020 – Dr. Chris McCurdy

ACS Pharmacology and Translational Science

Mitragynine is the most abundant alkaloid in kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) which is widely consumed for the self-treatment of pain and opioid withdrawal symptoms. An active metabolite of mitragynine, 7-hydroxymitragynine, is a potent and efficacious opioid. Exclusively in human plasma, 7-hydroxymitragynine metabolizes to the even more potent opioid, mitragynine pseudoindoxyl.

ACS Chemical Biology

2020 – dr. yousong ding

ACS Chemical Biology

This work reports the biochemical, genetic, and structural characterization of cyanobacterial dihydroxyacid dehydratase essential to the biosynthesis of branched-chain amino acids. Selective inhibition of the cyanobacterial enzyme by aspterric acid but not tartronic acid leads to the growth inhibition of representative bloom-forming cyanobacterial strains, a promising strategy for bloom management.

ACS Chemical Neuroscience

2020 – Dr. Hendrik Luesch

ACS Chemical Neuroscience

Surfing across the blood-brain barrier with a purpose and a splash: The marine natural product and potent class I HDAC inhibitor largazole has activity against glioblastoma cells and induces neuroprotective and antiproliferative functional responses in the brain through modulation of gene expression of entire networks underlying CNS diseases.

Cancer Prevention Research

2020 – Dr. Chengguo Xing

Cancer Prevention Research

Smoking is the dominant risk factor for lung cancer, but many smokers fail to quit due to addiction. An intervention, not only inhibiting tobacco-associated lung carcinogenesis but also reducing smoking, may be necessary to minimize lung cancer risk. Built upon the stimulating epidemiological indication, ample lab animal lung carcinogenesis data, and armed with innovative mechanism-based non-invasive quantitative biomarkers, our group in collaboration with clinicians performed a pilot human trial of one-wee kava use among addicted smokers. The results published in Cancer Prevention Research for the first time demonstrate the potential of kava to not only reduce the risk of lung carcinogenesis but also help smokers reduce tobacco use.

Cancer Prevention Resarch

2020 – Dr. Lina Cui

ChemBioChem

Fluorophores are greatly influenced by their environment. In their full paper, L. Cui et al. show that triggering the aggregation of a self‐condensing scaffold labeled with a fluorophore induces changes in the emission spectrum, polarization, and lifetime. The aggregates exhibited a shorter lifetime detectable in cells by fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy, thus suggesting that triggered aggregation strategies can be used in the probes for various biological events through lifetime imaging.

ACS Infectious Diseases

2020 – DR. ROBERT HUIGENS

ACS Infectious Diseases

This cover shows a novel antiplasmodial agent attacking Plasmodium falciparum parasites in infected red blood cells. This new compound was re-engineered from the indole alkaloid yohimbine using a “ring distortion” chemical synthesis approach reported by the Huigens lab. Artwork created by Ella Marushchenko

Journal of Medicinal Chemistry

2020 – DR. ROBERT HUIGENS

Journal of Medicinal Chemistry

Re-engineering biological activities of the plant-derived indole alkaloid vincamine through dramatic synthetic alterations of its complex structure for target-based screens by the Huigens lab and co-workers at the University of Florida. Artwork created by Ella Marushchenko.

Organic Letters Journal

2019 – DR. HENDRIK LUESCH

Organic Letters

The cover image illustrates the multidisciplinary research that linked a natural product discovered from the depicted marine cyanobacteria to GPCR modulation. The portrayed peptide, amantamide, was isolated, synthesized, and characterized as a selective CXCR7 agonist. Molecular modeling of amantamide provides the starting point for rational optimization.

ChemBioChem

2019 – Dr. yousong ding

ChemBioChem

The front cover picture shows a versatile biocatalytic synthesis of hydroxylated di‐N‐methylated aromatic diketopiperazines (ADKPs). Di‐N‐methylated ADKPs were synthesized from two amino acids with TxtA and TxtB (yellow) from Streptomyces scabies, or from ADKP with one N‐methyltransferase Amir_4628 (green) from Actinosynnema mirum. Human methionine adenosyltransferase hMAT2A (purple) was recruited to synthesize the methyl donor SAM. The P450 TxtC (pink) along with the NADPH‐recycling glucose dehydrogenase (cyan) from Bacillus subtilis promoted aliphatic and/or aromatic C−H hydroxylation on di‐N‐methylated ADKPs.

CHEMBIOCHEM journal cover

2018 – DR. HENDRIK LUESCH

ChemBioChem

The cover feature picture shows Ahp-cyclodepsipeptides, the producing marine cyanobacterium overgrowing a coral, and the compounds’ anticancer effects. These cyclodepsipeptides inhibit human neutrophil elastase and, as a consequence, the migration of invasive breast cancer cells through the modulation of gene expression and proteolytic processing of membrane proteins.

Organic Biomolecular Chemistry

2017 – DR. ROBERT HUIGENS

Organic Biomolecular Chemistry

The Huigens lab reports a new series of antimicrobial peptide-inspired NH125 analogues that rapidly kill bacterial and fungal pathogens, including surface-attached biofilms.

Chemistry A European Journal - Huigens1

2017 – DR. ROBERT HUIGENS

Chemistry – A European Journal

The 2‐position of the halogenated quinoline (HQ) scaffold can be dramatically tuned through diverse and practical synthetic pathways, including reductive amination and alkylation reactions. New HQs discovered during these investigations potently eradicate methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis (MRSE) and vancomycin‐resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE) biofilms, which display high levels of tolerance towards conventional antibiotic therapies. The background image is reproduced with permission and copyright of the British Editorial Society of Bone and Joint Surgery (Bone Joint J. 2013, 95B, 678–682; Figure 2 b).

ChemBioChem

2017 – DR. ROBERT HUIGENS

ChemBioChem

The cover picture shows the destruction of a bacterial membrane by a new NH125 analogue. Through chemical synthesis and biological evaluation, the Huigens lab has identified potent N‐arylated compounds that rapidly kill MRSA persister cells and eradicate surface‐attached bacterial biofilms of multiple Gram‐positive pathogens. These N‐arylated NH125 analogues demonstrated enhanced activity in killing persister cells and eradicating biofilm when tested alongside a structurally diverse panel of membrane‐active agents.

Chemistry A European Journal - Huigens

2017 – DR. ROBERT HUIGENS

Chemistry – A European Journal

A tryptoline‐based ring distortion strategy enabled rapid access to an array of complex and diverse molecular scaffolds synthesized from the indole alkaloid, yohimbine. During these investigations, 70 complex and diverse small molecules were synthesized and subjected to a panel phenotype screen. These efforts led to the identification of several biologically active hit compounds, including one compound that demonstrates HIF‐dependent antiproliferative activity in HCT116 (colorectal cancer) cells.

Current Drug Targets

2012 – DR. HENDRIK LUESCH

Current Drug Targets

Small molecules that modulate histone acetylation by targeting key enzymes mediating this posttranslational modification – histone acetyltransferases and histone deacetylases – are validated chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment of cancer. Secondary metabolites from various biological sources target this epigenetic modification through distinct mechanisms of enzyme regulation by utilizing a diverse array of pharmacophores. We review the discovery of these compounds and discuss their modes of inhibition together with their downstream biological effects.

Concepts-Frontispiece-2010_200h

2010 – dR. hENDRIK lUESCH

Chemistry – A European Journal

Natural products are secondary metabolites that confer survival advantages to the producing organism. Many require activation before they exert their biological effects, perhaps as part of the organism's self‐resistance strategy or to aid targeted delivery. In this Concept article Luesch and Kwan outline several examples of “Weapons in Disguise”, natural products that use protecting group chemistry or intricate chemical cascades for activation beyond simple “prodrug” paradigms.

The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

2010 – DR. HENDRIK LUESCH

The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

The Luesch lab previously described the bioassay-guided isolation, structure determination, synthesis, and target identification of largazole, a marine-derived antiproliferative natural product that is a prodrug that releases the most potent natural inhibitor of class I histone deacetylases (HDACs), validated targets for cancer therapy. The cover highlights structure-activity studies using biochemical and molecular docking approaches. The article describes the characterization of the anticancer activity of largazole using in vitro and in vivo cancer models, including comparative transcriptomics, pharmacology, biochemical validation, stability, and efficacy studies.

Natural Products Reports

2010 – dR. hENDRIK lUESCH

Natural Product Reports

Hendrik Luesch’s discovery of largazole and its producing cyanobacterium are featured in this annual Marine Natural Products review and on the journal cover, respectively.

Molecular Biosystems

2006 – dR. HENDRIK LUESCH

Molecular BioSystems

Genome-scale analysis has been extended from gene expression profiling to parallel cell-based functional profiling, allowing the characterization of gene function and small molecule actions in yeast and in mammalian cells.

Nature Chemical Bio journal cover

2006 – Dr. Hendrik luesch

Nature Chemical Biology

This is the first report that uses an unbiased functional genomics approach in cancer cells to study the mode of action of a potent cyanobacterial cytotoxin and also visualizes “apratoxin A in action” in zebrafish.