Antiplasmodial and trypanocidal activity of violacein and deoxyviolacein produced from synthetic operons

Author(s)

Bilsland, Elizabeth ^{[1, 2, 3, 4]} ; Tavella, Tatyana A. ^[3] ; Krogh, Renata ^[5] ; Stokes, Jamie E. ^[6] ; Roberts, Annabelle ^{[2, 4]} ; Ajioka, James ^[7] ; Spring, David R. ^[6] ; Andricopulo, Adriano D. ^[5] ; Costa, Fabio T. M. ^[3] ; Oliver, Stephen G. ^{[2, 4]}

Affiliation

^[1] Univ Estadual Campinas, Inst Biol, Dept Struct & Funct Biol, Campinas, SP - Brazil

^[2] Univ Cambridge, Cambridge Syst Biol Ctr, Cambridge - England

^[3] Univ Estadual Campinas, Dept Genet Evolut Microbiol & Immunol, Lab Trop Dis Prof Dr Luiz Jacintho da Silva, Campinas, SP - Brazil

^[4] Univ Cambridge, Dept Biochem, Cambridge - England

^[5] Univ Sao Paulo, Lab Med & Computat Chem, Sao Carlos, SP - Brazil

^[6] Univ Cambridge, Dept Chem, Cambridge - England

^[7] Univ Cambridge, Dept Pathol, Cambridge - England

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: BMC Biotechnology; v. 18, APR 11 2018.
• Web of Science Citations: 2

Abstract

Background: Violacein is a deep violet compound that is produced by a number of bacterial species. It is synthesized from tryptophan by a pathway that involves the sequential action of 5 different enzymes (encoded by genes vioA to vioE). Violacein has antibacterial, antiparasitic, and antiviral activities, and also has the potential of inducing apoptosis in certain cancer cells. Results: Here, we describe the construction of a series of plasmids harboring the complete or partial violacein biosynthesis operon and their use to enable production of violacein and deoxyviolacein in E. coli. We performed in vitro assays to determine the biological activity of these compounds against Plasmodium, Trypanosoma, and mammalian cells. We found that, while deoxyviolacein has a lower activity against parasites than violacein, its toxicity to mammalian cells is insignificant compared to that of violacein. Conclusions: We constructed E. coli strains capable of producing biologically active violacein and related compounds, and propose that deoxyviolacein might be a useful starting compound for the development of antiparasite drugs. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 15/03553-6 - Engineering yeast cells for drug discovery
• Grantee: Elizabeth Bilsland
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Young Investigators Grants
• FAPESP's process: 12/16525-2 - Plasmodium vivax: pathogenesis and infectivity
• Grantee: Fabio Trindade Maranhão Costa
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants