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.

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  • Why solid phase peptide synthesis

    Solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) has many advantages over liquid-phase peptide synthesis (LPPS) for preparing and manufacturing synthetic peptides. Except the synthesis of short peptide sequences (i.e., less than five amino acid residues), SPPS is faster, more efficient, and more economical than liquid-phase peptide synthesis (LPPS). Some of the advantages of SPPS include: (1) Excess reagents and products can be easily washed away, (2) using excess reagents to increase reaction rates and drive reactions to completion, (3) intermediates do not require isolation or characterization, (4) access to a broader range of solvents with low volatility and high polarity, (5) tethered peptide provides a ‘pseudo-dilute’ microenvironment, which can inhibit intermolecular reactions, making some modifications easier to accomplish, and (6) compatibility with automated synthesis technology.

    November 14th, 2019White Papers
  • Lo, J.H., Hao, L., Muzumdar, M.D., Raghavan, S., Kwon, E.J., Pulver, E.M., Hsu, F., Aguirre, A.J., Wolpin, B.M., Fuchs, C.S. and Hahn, W.C. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics 17, no. 11 (2018): 2377-2388.

    pTP-TAMRA-iRGD (CH3(CH)15-[GWTLNSAGYLLGKINLKALAALAKKIL-GGK(TAMRA)GGCRGDKGPDC, Cys-Cys bridge]) used in all figures except Fig. S1 was synthesized by CPC Scientific.

  • Ng, Ee Xien, Myat Noe Hsu, Guoyun Sun, and Chia-Hung Chen. Methods in Enzymology 628 (2019): 59-94.

    The peptide sequences of the four FRET-based substrates ([..] CPC Scientific) are as follows: UV: AlexaFluor405-Leu-Ala-Gln-Ala-HompheArg-Ser-Lys (QSY35)-NH2; Blue: Dabcyl-Gly-Pro-Leu-Gly-Met-Arg-Gly-Lys (5-FAM)-NH2; Green: QSY7-Ala-Pro-Phe-Glu..

  • West, J.A., Tsakmaki, A., Huang, J.H., Ghosh, S.S., Parkes, D.G., Wismann, P., Rigbolt, K.T., Pedersen, P.J., Pavlidis, P., Maggs, D. and Lopez-Talavera, J.C. bioRxiv (2019) 822122.

    1. Fractyl Laboratories Inc, Lexington, MA, 02421, USA
    2. Diabetes Research Group, School of Life Course Sciences, Faculty of Life Science and Medicine, King’s College London, London, WC2R 2LS, England, UK

    [..] infusion of vehicle 2 via osmotic minipump; (2) glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonist (0.2 mg/kg liraglutide, SC, QD, Victoza (Novo Nordisk, Bagsværd, Denmark) and continuous infusion of vehicle 2 via osmotic minipump; (3) vehicle 1 (SC, QD) and continuous infusion of a glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide receptor (GIPR) antagonist (∼4.5 mg/kg/day / 56.8 nmol/kg/h GIP[3-30]NH2, CPC Scientific Inc, Sunnyvale, CA, USA) via osmotic minipump;

    October 29th, 2019Citations
  • Artur Javmen, Vladimir Y. Toshchakov, et al. Journal of Leukocyte Biology (2019).

    All CPDPs included the N‐terminal Antennapedia homeodomain sequence RQIKIWFQNRRMKWKK.38 The Cy3‐labeled peptides were produced by CPC Scientific (Sunnyvale, CA, USA). The Cy3 label was placed at the peptide N‐terminus..

    October 22nd, 2019Citations, Dye-Labeled
  • Gilles, Maud-Emmanuelle, Slack, Frank J, et al. Oncotarget, 2019, Vol. 10, (No. 51), pp: 5349-5358

    "Tandem peptide (pTP-iRGD: CH3(CH)15-GWTLNSAGYLLGKINLKALAALAKKIL-GGK(TAMRA)GGCRGDKGPDC, Cys-Cys bridge) was synthesized by CPC Scientific."

  • Garner, Thomas P., Dulguun Amgalan, Denis E. Reyna, Sheng Li, Richard N. Kitsis, and Evripidis Gavathiotis. Nature Chemical Biology 15, no. 4 (2019): 322.

    "Hydrocarbon-stapled peptides corresponding to the BH3 domain of BIM, BIM SAHBA2: N-acetylated- and FITC-Ahx-EIWIAQELRS5IGDS5FNAYYA-CONH2, where S5 represents the non-natural amino acid inserted for olefin metathesis, were synthesized, purified at >95% purity by CPC Scientific Inc. and characterized as previously described."

  • Gibbs, Ebrima, Judith M. Silverman, Beibei Zhao, Xubiao Peng, Jing Wang, Cheryl L. Wellington, Ian R. Mackenzie, Steven S. Plotkin, Johanne M. Kaplan, and Neil R. Cashman. Scientific Reports 9, no. 1 (2019): 1-14.

    The conformational epitope was synthesized as a cyclic peptide with additional N-terminal residues CG and a C-terminal G to recapitulate the predicted structure of HHQK on AβO. Peptide synthesis was performed by CPC Scientific Inc. (Sunnyvale CA, USA) [..] Cyclization was performed via a head-to-tail (C-G) amide bond and c[CGHHQKG] was then conjugated to either keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) or bovine serum albumin (BSA) via maleimide-based coupling.

  • Late-phase product specific German inspection

    SUNNYVALE, US. and Hangzhou, China, June 24th, 2019 /CPCNewswire/ — CPC Scientific Inc. and its affiliate Chinese Peptide Company, a public Hangzhou-based CDMO (Stock Symbol: 002390) is pleased to announce today that their GMP manufacturing facility, has successfully passed its inspection by the competent authority of Germany as an“active substance manufacturer that has been inspected […]

    June 24th, 2019Press Releases

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