All peptides were synthesized by CPC Scientific Inc. For fluorogenic assays, peptides were flanked with the fluorophore-quencher pair 5-FAM-CPQ2. For in vivo urine experiments, peptides were barcoded with Glu-Fib–derived and heavy isotope–labeled peptides. PEGylated peptides were pooled prepared before in vivo experiments and stored at 4°C in phosphate-buffered saline.

Abstract

Noninvasive detection of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), the progressive form of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, promises to improve patient screening, accelerate drug trials, and reduce health care costs. On the basis of protease dysregulation of the biological pathways of fibrotic NASH, we developed the Glympse Bio Test System (GBTS) for multiplexed quantification of liver protease activity. GBTS-NASH comprises a mixture of 19 mass-barcoded PEGylated peptides that is administered intravenously and senses liver protease activity by releasing mass-barcoded reporters into urine for analysis by mass spectrometry. To identify a protease signature of NASH, transcriptomic analysis of 355 human liver biopsies identified a 13-protease panel that discriminated clinically relevant NASH ≥F2 fibrosis from F0-F1 with high classification accuracy across two independent patient datasets. We screened 159 candidate substrates to identify a panel of 19 peptides that exhibited high activity for our 13-protease panel. In the choline-deficient, L-amino acid-defined, high-fat diet (CDAHFD) mouse model, binary classifiers trained on urine samples discriminated fibrotic NASH from simple steatosis and healthy controls across a range of nondisease conditions and indicated disease regression upon diet change [area under receiver operating characteristics (AUROCs) > 0.97]. Using a hepatoprotective triple combination treatment (FXR agonist, ACC and ASK1 inhibitors) in a rat model of NASH, urinary classification distinguished F0-F1 from ≥F2 animals and indicated therapeutic response as early as 1 week on treatment (AUROCs >0.91). Our results support GBTS-NASH to diagnose fibrotic NASH via an infusion of peptides, monitor changes in disease severity, and indicate early treatment response.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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  • Diao, J., Komura, R., Sano, T., Pantua, H., Storek, K.M., Inaba, H., Ogawa, H., Noland, C.L., Peng, Y., Gloor, S.L. and Yan, D. bioRxiv (2020): 2020-10.

    • Departments of Infectious Diseases, Structural Biology, Biochemical and Cellular Pharmacology, Translational Immunology, Pathology, and Early Discovery Biochemistry, Genentech, South San Francisco, CA 94080 USA

    The standard assay consists of 6 μL reaction mixture with 3 nM Lgt-DDM, 50 μM phosphatidylglycerol (1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-(1’-rac-glycerol), Avanti), 12.5 μM Pal-IAAC peptide substrate derived from the Pal lipoprotein (MQLNKVLKGLMIALPVMAIAACSSNKN, synthesized by CPC Scientific)

    October 5th, 2020Citations
  • Pantua, H., Skippington, E., Braun, M.G., Noland, C.L., Diao, J., Peng, Y., Gloor, S.L., Yan, D., Kang, J., Katakam, A.K. and Reeder, J. MBio 11, no. 5 (2020): 10-1128.

    • Departments of Infectious Diseases, OMNI Bioinformatics, Chemistry, Structural Biology, Biochemical and Cellular Pharmacology, Translational Immunology, Pathology, Molecular Biology, Genentech, South San Francisco, California, USA

    MQLNKV-L(U13C6,15N)-KGL(U13C6,15N)MIALPVMAIAA-dipalmitoyl2C-SSNKNGG-K-biotin, which upon cleavage by LspA, yields the product peptide dipalmitoyl2C-SSNKNGG-K-biotin. A product standard [dipalmitoyl2C-SSNKNAAK-(NHCH2CH2NH)-biotin; CPC Scientific] was in the reaction mixture as an internal standard for normalization of product quantitation.

  • Makris, G.; Bandari, R. P.; Kuchuk, M.; Jurisson, S. S.; Smith, C. J.; Hennkens, H. M., Molecular Imaging and Biology, 2021, 23 (1), 52-61.

    "NOTA/NODAGA-6Ahx- DPhe-Gln-Trp-Ala-Val-Gly-His-Sta-Leu-NH2 ; NOTA: 2,2′,2″-(1,4,7-triazacyclononane-1,4,7-triyl)triacetic acid and NODAGA: 2-(4,7-bis( carboxymethyl)-1,4,7-triazonan-1-yl)pentanedioic acid] were purchased from CPC Scientific [..]"

  • Macrocyclization Whitepaper

    Protein-protein and protein-peptide interactions play critical roles in all types of cellular processing. Peptides are natural partners to proteins and, as ligands, bind to proteins with high affinity due to their capacity to adapt to the often flexible protein surface. Despite this, peptides have drawbacks as drug candidates that include low plasma bioavailability, instability from proteolytic enzymes, and poor passive membrane permeability. Some success has been achieved with linear peptides, particularly peptides that maintain α-helical secondary structures. These motifs can be introduced to stabilized α-helical motifs by common “peptide-stapling” approaches, but stapled peptides can suffer from low bioactivity and poor solubility. Another strategy to maintain peptide secondary structure is modification by macrocyclization.

    September 3rd, 2020publications, White Papers
  • SAN JOSE, CA., Sept 3, 2020 /CPCNewswire/ — CPC Scientific Inc. is pleased to announce that the European Commission (EC) has granted the Conditional Marketing Authorization (CMA) for MYR Pharmaceuticals lead compound HEPCLUDEX®. CPC Scientific serves as a supplier and partner to MYR Pharmaceuticals for the development and manufacturing of bulevirtide (Hepcludex). This drug is […]

    September 3rd, 2020Press Releases
  • double stapled peptide COVID-19

    Curreli, Francesca, Sofia MB Victor, Shahad Ahmed, Aleksandra Drelich, Xiaohe Tong, Chien-Te K. Tseng, Christopher D. Hillyer, and Asim K. Debnath. Mbio 11, no. 6 (2020): e02451-20.

    We have synthesized (CPC Scientific, Inc.) four stapled peptides, as depicted in Figure 2. We also synthesized the linear peptide, NYBSP-C, as a control. Besides, we purchased a linear peptide, SBP1, to use as a control, which was reported recently to bind to SARS-CoV-2 RBD with high affinity (KD = 47nM).

  • Abdulganiyyu, I. A.; Kaczmarek, K.; Zabrocki, J.; Nachman, R. J.; Marchal, E.; Schellens, S.; Verlinden, H.; Broeck, J. V.; Marco, H.; Jackson, G. E. Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 2020, 103362.

    A head-to-tail cyclic, octapeptide analog of Locmi-AKH-I, cycloAKH (cyclo[LNFTPNWG]) was synthesized to severely restrict the conformational freedom of the AKH structure.

    August 14th, 2020Citations, Peptide Macrocycles
  • Clairfeuille, T., Buchholz, K.R., Li, Q., Verschueren, E., Liu, P., Sangaraju, D., Park, S., Noland, C.L., Storek, K.M., Nickerson, N.N. and Martin, L. Nature 584, no. 7821 (2020): 479-483.

    • Departments of Structural Biology, Infectious Diseases, Microchemistry, Proteomics & Lipidomics, Drug Metabolism & Pharmacokinetics, Translational Immunology, BioMolecular Resources, Biochemical & Cellular Pharmacology, Bioinformatics & Computational Biology, Discovery Chemistry Departments, Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, CA, USA.

    LAB peptides ([..], CPC Scientific, [..] l, standard solid-phase peptide synthesis) at 10 mM in 50 mM Tris, pH 8, and 100 mM NaCl were diluted in MHB II cation adjusted broth (800 μM top concentration) or LB. Where indicated, EDTA was added to a final concentration of 0.5 mM.

    August 12th, 2020Citations
  • Chan, Leslie W., Melodi N. Anahtar, Ta-Hsuan Ong, Kelsey E. Hern, Roderick R. Kunz, and Sangeeta N. Bhatia. Nature Nanotechnology (2020): 1-9.

    HFA-modifed peptides were synthesized by CPC Scientifc (>95% purity). Briefy, the peptide substrate, Ac-CKKK(Cy5)-PEG4-Nle(O-Bzl)-Met(O)2-Oic-Abu-OH, was synthesized on Fmoc-Abu-CTC resin via standard Fmoc solid phase peptide synthesis.

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