Melanocytes of the hair follicle produce melanin and are essential in determining the differences in hair color. Pigment cell-specific MELanocyte Protein (PMEL17) plays a crucial role in melanogenesis. One of the critical steps is the amyloid-like functional oligomerization of PMEL17. Beta Site APP Cleaving Enzyme-2 (BACE2) and γ-secretase have been shown to be key players in generating the proteolytic fragments of PMEL17. The β-secretase (BACE1) is responsible for the generation of amyloid-β (Aβ) fragments in the brain and is therefore proposed as a therapeutic target for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Currently BACE1 inhibitors, most of which lack selectivity over BACE2, have demonstrated efficacious reduction of amyloid-β peptides in animals and the CSF of humans. BACE2 knock-out mice have a deficiency in PMEL17 proteolytic processing leading to impaired melanin storage and hair depigmentation. Here, we confirm BACE2-mediated inhibition of PMEL17 proteolytic processing in vitro in mouse and human melanocytes. Furthermore, we show that wildtype as well as bace2+/− and bace2−/− mice treated with a potent dual BACE1/BACE2 inhibitor NB-360 display dose-dependent appearance of irreversibly depigmented hair. Retinal pigmented epithelium showed no morphological changes. Our data demonstrates that BACE2 as well as additional BACE1 inhibition affects melanosome maturation and induces hair depigmentation in mice.

The transmembrane protein-tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) DEP-1 (density-enhanced phosphatase) is a candidate tumor suppressor in the colon epithelium. We have explored the function of DEP-1 in colon epithelial cells by inducible re-expression in a DEP-1-deficient human colon cancer cell line. Density-enhanced phosphatase-1 reexpression led to profound inhibition of cell proliferation and cell migration, and was associated with cytoskeletal rearrangements. These effects were dependent on the PTP activity of DEP-1 as they were not observed with cells expressing the catalytically inactive DEP-1 C1239S variant. shRNA-mediated suppression of DEP-1 in a colon epithelial cell line with high endogenous DEP-1 levels enhanced proliferation, further supporting the antiproliferative function of DEP-1. Nutrients, which are considered to be chemoprotective with respect to colon cancer development, including butyrate, green tea and apple polyphenols, had the capacity to elevate transcription of endogenous DEP-1 mRNA and expression of DEP-1 protein. Upregulation of DEP-1 expression, and in turn inhibition of cell growth and migration may present a previously unrecognized mechanism of chemoprevention by nutrients.Oncogene ( . The capacity of DEP-1 to antagonize signaling of these tyrosine kinases may relate to its antitransforming activity. Furthermore, the locus Scc-1, which has been linked with susceptibility to colon cancer in mice, harbors the PTPRJ gene (Ruivenkamp et al., 2002). Loss of heterozygosity for DEP-1 has previously been described in about 71% (25 of 35) cases of colon carcinoma and 47% (22 of 47) of colon adenoma samples (Ruivenkamp et al., 2003).Little is known about DEP-1 expression in colon carcinoma at the protein level. We therefore, analysed a panel of colon cell lines for DEP-1 protein expression. As shown in Figure 1a, expression in the analysed cell lines varies from relatively high levels in LT 97 adenoma cells and HT 29, DLD-1, HCT-16, COGA-1 and COGA-12 colon carcinoma cells, to relatively low levels in LOVO, Colo-320, COGA-2 and COGA-3 cells, and no detectable DEP-1 protein expression in SW 480 cells. To analyse the functional effects of DEP-1 expression, we chose the DEP-1-negative SW 480 cell line to reexpress the PTP. cDNA encoding wild-type human DEP-1, or the catalytically inactive DEP-1 C1239S was transferred into the bicistronic, tetracycline-regulated (tet-off) expression vector pNRTIS21 (Tenev et al., 2000). SW 480 cells were transfected with the corresponding constructs, and resistant cell clones were selected and screened for inducible DEP-1 expression. In selected cell clones, expression of DEP-1 wild-type or the DEP-1 CS mutant to comparable levels occurred in the absence of anhydrotetracylin (ATC), whereas only very low levels of DEP-1 protein were detectable in its presence (Figure 1b).These cell lines were analysed for biological effects of DEP-1 re-expression. Cell proliferation in presence of wild-type DEP-1 was clearly reduced as compared to cells with suppressed DEP-1 expression (Fig...

Although skin is the largest organ of the human body, cutaneous drug metabolism is often overlooked, and existing experimental models are insufficiently validated. This proof-of-concept study investigated phase II biotransformation of 11 test substrates in fresh full-thickness human skin explants, a model containing all skin cell types. Results show that skin explants have significant capacity for glucuronidation, sulfation, N-acetylation, catechol methylation, and glutathione conjugation. Novel skin metabolites were identified, including acyl glucuronides of indomethacin and diclofenac, glucuronides of 17b-estradiol, N-acetylprocainamide, and methoxy derivatives of 4-nitrocatechol and 2,3-dihydroxynaphthalene. Measured activities for 10 mM substrate incubations spanned a 1000-fold: from the highest 4.758 pmol·mg skin ·h -1 for 17b-estradiol 17-glucuronidation. Interindividual variability was 1.4-to 13.0-fold, the highest being 4-methylumbelliferone and diclofenac glucuronidation. Reaction rates were generally linear up to 4 hours, although 24-hour incubations enabled detection of metabolites in trace amounts. All reactions were unaffected by the inclusion of cosubstrates, and freezing of the fresh skin led to loss of glucuronidation activity. The predicted whole-skin intrinsic metabolic clearances were significantly lower compared with corresponding whole-liver intrinsic clearances, suggesting a relatively limited contribution of the skin to the body's total systemic phase II enzymemediated metabolic clearance. Nevertheless, the fresh full-thickness skin explants represent a suitable model to study cutaneous phase II metabolism not only in drug elimination but also in toxicity, as formation of acyl glucuronides and sulfate conjugates could play a role in skin adverse reactions.

The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants with potential resistance to existing drugs emphasizes the need for new therapeutic modalities with broad variant activity. Here we show that ensovibep, a trispecific DARPin (designed ankyrin repeat protein) clinical candidate, can engage the three units of the spike protein trimer of SARS-CoV-2 and inhibit ACE2 binding with high potency, as revealed by cryo-electron microscopy analysis. The cooperative binding together with the complementarity of the three DARPin modules enable ensovibep to inhibit frequent SARS-CoV-2 variants, including Omicron sublineages BA.1 and BA.2. In Roborovski dwarf hamsters infected with SARS-CoV-2, ensovibep reduced fatality similarly to a standard-of-care monoclonal antibody (mAb) cocktail. When used as a single agent in viral passaging experiments in vitro, ensovibep reduced the emergence of escape mutations in a similar fashion to the same mAb cocktail. These results support further clinical evaluation of ensovibep as a broad variant alternative to existing targeted therapies for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).