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Polycythemia vera (PV) is a chronic myeloproliferative neoplasm characterized by excessive levels of platelets (PLT), white blood cells (WBC), and hematocrit (HCT). Givinostat (ITF2357) is a potent histone-deacetylase inhibitor that showed a good safety/efficacy profile in PV patients during phase I/II studies. A phase III clinical trial had been planned and an adaptive dosing protocol had been proposed where givinostat dose is iteratively adjusted every 28 days (one cycle) based on PLT, WBC, and HCT. As support, a simulation platform to evaluate and refine the proposed givinostat dose adjustment rules was developed. A population pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic model predicting the givinostat effects on PLT, WBC, and HCT in PV patients was developed and integrated with a control algorithm implementing the adaptive dosing protocol. Ten in silico trials in ten virtual PV patient populations were simulated 500 times. Considering an eight-treatment cycle horizon, reducing/increasing the givinostat daily dose by 25 mg/day step resulted in a higher percentage of patients with a complete hematological response (CHR), that is, PLT ≤400 × 10 9 /L, WBC ≤10 × 10 9 /L, and HCT < 45% without phlebotomies in the last three cycles, and a lower percentage of patients with grade II toxicity events compared with 50 mg/day adjustment steps. After the eighth cycle, 85% of patients were predicted to receive a dose ≥100 mg/day and 40.90% (95% prediction interval = [34, 48.05]) to show a CHR. These results were confirmed at the end of 12th, 18th, and 24th cycles, showing a stability of the response between the eighth and 24th cycles., (© 2024 The Authors. CPT: Pharmacometrics & Systems Pharmacology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.)

The conditions which favor dissociation of oligomeric Mycobacterium tuberculosis chaperonin 10 and the solution structure of the monomer were studied by analytical ultracentrifugation, size exclusion chromatography, fluorescence, and circular dichroism spectroscopies. At neutral pH and in the absence of divalent cations, the protein is fully monomeric below approximately a 4.7 microM concentration. Under these conditions the monomer forms completely unfolded and partially folded conformers which are in equilibrium with each other. One conformer accumulates over the others which is stable within a very narrow range of temperatures. It contains a beta-sheet-structured C-terminal half and a mostly disordered N-terminal half. Other components of the equilibrium include partially helical structures which do not completely unfold at high temperature or under strong acidic conditions. Complete unfolding of the monomer occurs in the presence of denaturants or below 14 degrees C. Cold-denaturation is detected at an unusually high temperature and this may be due to the concentration of hydrophobic residues, which is larger in chaperonins than in other globular proteins. Finally, the monomer self-associates in the pH range 5.8-2.9, where it forms small oligomers. A structure-activity relationship was investigated with the sequences known to be involved in the various biological activities of the monomer.

Through the joint use of CD, Fourier transform ir (FTIR), and attenuated total reflectance FTIR we have found that synthetic polypeptide models of the Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite (CS) protein repeat domain bind calcium ions in helicogenic environments. Ca(2+)-(NANP)n complexes (n greater than or equal to 20) interact vectorially with model phospholipid membranes orienting their polypeptide axes preferentially along those of the lipid acyl chains. It is proposed that the P. falciparum CS protein central region, rather than acting as a molecular lure helping the parasite to evade host immune control, plays, as a specific Ca2+ macroligand, a critical functional role during attachment, invasion, and development of the malaria parasite in the hepatic cell.

The characteristics of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) immobilized onto Sepharose by a photochemical-initiated graft copolymerization are presented. Active copolymers were synthesized using different amounts of glycidylmethacrylate (GMA), bisacryloylpiperazine (BAP), or 1,3,5-hexhydrotriacryloyl-(s)-triazine (HTsT) as functional monomer. The activities, the K'(m) values (pGMA) copolymers: 0.53-0.76 x 10(-4)M; pBAP copolymers: 0.90-1.4 x 10(-4); pHTsT copolymers: 1.8-2.6 x 10(-4)M and the thermal stabilities of the enzyme copolymers were strictly connected to the type of polymer. By varying the polymer amount present in a given copolymer, significant differences were found in the thermostability properties of pBAP and pHTsT copolymers both when checked in water or in phosphate buffer. No differences were found for pGMA copolymers. The samples in which there are the lowest pBAP or pHTsT content resulted the most stable. The activity retained after 240 min at 60 degrees C by free HRP and pGMA-HRP was 30% whereas by pBAP-HRP and pHTsT-HRP it was 50 and 75% of the original. Operational stability of the materials was in agreement with thermostability data. These results are discussed in terms of enzyme microenvironment which is strongly affected by the different network of the three polymers.