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Amebiasis is caused by infection with the protozoan parasite  Entamoeba histolytica . Although metronidazole has been a drug of choice against amebiasis for decades, it shows side effects and low efficacy against asymptomatic cyst carriers. In addition, metronidazole resistance has been documented for bacteria and protozoa that share its targets, anaerobic energy metabolism. Therefore, drugs with new mode of action or targets are urgently needed. L-cysteine is the major thiol and an essential amino acid for proliferation and anti-oxidative defense of  E. histolytica  trophozoites.  E. histolytica  possesses the  de novo  L-cysteine biosynthetic pathway, consisting of two reactions catalyzed by serine acetyltransferase and cysteine synthase (CS,  O -acetylserine sulfhydrylase). As the pathway is missing in humans, it is considered to be a rational drug target against amebiasis. In this study, we established a protocol to screen both a library of structurally known compounds and microbial culture extracts to discover compounds that target  de novo  cysteine biosynthesis of  E. histolytica . The new screening system allowed us to identify the compounds that differentially affect the growth of the trophozoites in the cysteine-deprived medium compared to the cysteine-containing medium. A total of 431 structurally defined compounds of the Kitasato Natural Products Library and 6,900 microbial culture broth extracts were screened on the system described above. Five compounds, aspochalasin B, chaetoglobosin A, prochaetoglobosin III, cerulenin, and deoxyfrenolicin, from the Kitasato Natural Products Library, showed differential antiamebic activities in the cysteine-deprived medium when compared to the growth in the cysteine-containing medium. The selectivity of three cytochalasans apparently depends on their structural instability. Eleven microbial extracts showed selective antiamebic activities, and one fungal secondary metabolite, pencolide, was isolated. Pencolide showed cysteine deprivation-dependent antiamebic activity (7.6 times lower IC 50  in the absence of cysteine than that in the presence of cysteine), although the IC 50  value in the cysteine-deprived medium was rather high (283 μM). Pencolide also showed inhibitory activity against both CS1 and CS3 isoenzymes with comparable IC 50  values (233 and 217 μM, respectively). These results indicated that antiamebic activity of pencolide is attributable to inhibition of CS. Cytotoxicity of pencolide was 6.7 times weaker against mammalian MRC-5 cell line than  E. histotytica . Pencolide has the maleimide structure, which is easily attacked by Michael donors including the thiol moiety of cysteine. The cysteine-adducts of pencolide were detected by mass spectrometric analysis as predicted. As CS inhibition by the pencolide adducts was weak and their IC 50  values to CS was comparable to that to the parasite in the cysteine-containing medium, the cysteine-adducts of pencolide likely contribute to toxicity of pencolide to the parasite in the cysteine-rich conditions. However, we cannot exclude a possibility that pencolide inactivates a variety of targets other than CSs in the absence of cysteine. Taken together, pencolide is the first compound that inhibits CS and amebic cell growth in a cysteine-dependent manner with relatively low mammalian cytotoxicity.

frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology

Discovery of Antiamebic Compounds That Inhibit Cysteine Synthase From the Enteric Parasitic Protist Entamoeba histolytica by Screening of Microbial Secondary Metabolites