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We present a small molecule chemotype, identified by an orthogonal drug screen, exhibiting nanomolar activity against members of all the six viral families causing most human respiratory viral disease, with a demonstrated barrier to resistance development. Antiviral activity is shown in mammalian cells, including human primary bronchial epithelial cells cultured to an air-liquid interface and infected with SARS-CoV-2. In animals, efficacy of early compounds in the lead series is shown by survival (for a coronavirus) and viral load (for a paramyxovirus). The drug target is shown to include a subset of the protein 14-3-3 within a transient host multi-protein complex containing components implicated in viral lifecycles and in innate immunity. This multi-protein complex is modified upon viral infection and largely restored by drug treatment. Our findings suggest a new clinical therapeutic strategy for early treatment upon upper respiratory viral infection to prevent progression to lower respiratory tract or systemic disease. One Sentence Summary: A host-targeted drug to treat all respiratory viruses without viral resistance development.

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The structural maintenance of chromosomes (SMC) proteins play a vital role in genome stability and chromosome organization in all domains of life. Previous reports show that smc deletion causes decondensation of chromosome and an increased frequency of anucleated cells in bacteria. However, smc deletion in both Mycobacterium smegmatis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis did not affect chromosome condensation or the frequency of anucleated cells. In an attempt to understand this difference in M. smegmatis, we investigated the function of MksB (MsMksB), an alternate SMC-like protein. Like other bacterial SMCs, MsMksB is also an elongated homodimer, in which a central hinge domain connects two globular ATPase head domains via two coiled-coil arms. We show that full-length MsMksB binds to different topological forms of DNA without any preferences. However, the hinge and headless domains prefer binding to single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) and linear double-stranded DNA (dsDNA), respectively. The binding of MsMksB to DNA was independent of ATP as its ATP hydrolysis deficient mutant was also proficient in DNA binding. Further, the cytological profiling studies revealed that only the full-length MsMksB and none of its structural domains could condense the bacterial chromosome. This observation indicates the plausibility of the concerted action of different structural domains of SMC to bind and condense the chromosome. Moreover, MsMksB exhibited DNA stimulated ATPase activity, in addition to its intrinsic ATPase activity. Taken together, we have elucidated the function of an alternate bacterial condensin protein MksB and its structural domains in DNA binding and condensation.

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We present an unconventional approach to antiviral drug discovery, which is used to identify potent small molecules against rabies virus. First, we conceptualized viral capsid assembly as occurring via a host-catalyzed biochemical pathway, in contrast to the classical view of capsid formation by self-assembly. This suggested opportunities for antiviral intervention by targeting previously unappreciated catalytic host proteins, which were pursued. Second, we hypothesized these host proteins to be components of heterogeneous, labile, and dynamic multi-subunit assembly machines, not easily isolated by specific target protein-focused methods. This suggested the need to identify active compounds before knowing the precise protein target. A cell-free translation-based small molecule screen was established to recreate the hypothesized interactions involving newly synthesized capsid proteins as host assembly machine substrates. Hits from the screen were validated by efficacy against infectious rabies virus in mammalian cell culture. Used as affinity ligands, advanced analogs were shown to bind a set of proteins that effectively reconstituted drug sensitivity in the cell-free screen and included a small but discrete subfraction of cellular ATP-binding cassette family E1 (ABCE1), a host protein previously found essential for HIV capsid formation. Taken together, these studies advance an alternate view of capsid formation (as a host-catalyzed biochemical pathway), a different paradigm for drug discovery (whole pathway screening without knowledge of the target), and suggest the existence of labile assembly machines that can be rendered accessible as next-generation drug targets by the means described.

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Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating motor neuron degenerative disease whose etiology and pathogenesis remain poorly understood. Most cases of ALS ( approximately 90%) are sporadic (SALS), occurring in the absence of genetic associations. Approximately 20% of familial ALS (FALS) cases are due to known mutations in the copper, zinc superoxide dismutase (SOD1) gene. Molecular evidence for a common pathogenesis of SALS and FALS has remained elusive. Here we use covalent chemical modification to reveal an attribute of spinal cord SOD1 common to both SOD1-linked FALS and SALS, but not present in normal or disease-affected tissues from other neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's diseases and spinal muscular atrophy, a non-ALS motor neuron disease. Biotinylation reveals a 32-kDa, covalently cross-linked SOD1-containing protein species produced not only in FALS caused by SOD1 mutation, but also in SALS. These studies use chemical modification as a novel tool for the detection of a disease-associated biomarker. Our results identify a shared molecular event involving a known target gene and suggest a common step in the pathogenesis between SALS and FALS.

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We studied microsatellite frequency and distribution in 21.76-Mb random genomic sequences, 0.67-Mb BAC sequences from the Z chromosome, and 6.3-Mb EST sequences of Bombyx mori. We mined microsatellites of >/=15 bases of mononucleotide repeats and >/=5 repeat units of other classes of repeats. We estimated that microsatellites account for 0.31% of the genome of B. mori. Microsatellite tracts of A, AT, and ATT were the most abundant whereas their number drastically decreased as the length of the repeat motif increased. In general, tri- and hexanucleotide repeats were overrepresented in the transcribed sequences except TAA, GTA, and TGA, which were in excess in genomic sequences. The Z chromosome sequences contained shorter repeat types than the rest of the chromosomes in addition to a higher abundance of AT-rich repeats. Our results showed that base composition of the flanking sequence has an influence on the origin and evolution of microsatellites. Transitions/transversions were high in microsatellites of ESTs, whereas the genomic sequence had an equal number of substitutions and indels. The average heterozygosity value for 23 polymorphic microsatellite loci surveyed in 13 diverse silkmoth strains having 2-14 alleles was 0.54. Only 36 (18.2%) of 198 microsatellite loci were polymorphic between the two divergent silkworm populations and 10 (5%) loci revealed null alleles. The microsatellite map generated using these polymorphic markers resulted in 8 linkage groups. B. mori microsatellite loci were the most conserved in its immediate ancestor, B. mandarina, followed by the wild saturniid silkmoth, Antheraea assama.

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Eukaryotic initiation factor 2alpha (eIF-2alpha) kinases are involved in the translational regulations that occur in response to various types of environmental stress, and play an important role in the cellular defense system operating under unfavorable conditions. The identification of additional eIF-2alpha kinases and the elucidation of their functions are necessary to understand how different eIF-2alpha kinases can specifically respond to distinct stimuli. Here, we report a novel eIF-2alpha kinase, termed BeK, from the silkworm, Bombyx mori. This gene encodes 579 amino acids and contains all 11 catalytic domains of protein-serine/threonine kinases. Most notably, it contains an "Ile-Gln-Met-Xaa-Xaa-Cys" motif, which is highly conserved from yeast to mammalian eIF-2alpha kinases. BeK does not show any significant homology in the NH(2) terminal regulatory domain, suggesting a distinct regulatory mechanism of this novel eIF-2alpha kinase. BeK is ubiquitously expressed in the various tissues throughout the final larval stage. Importantly, BeK is activated in Drosophila Schneider cells following heat shock and osmotic stress, and activated-BeK has been shown to phosphorylate an eIF-2alpha subunit at the Ser(50) site. However, other forms of stress, such as immune stress, endoplasmic reticulum stress and oxidative stress, cannot significantly elicit BeK activity. Interestingly, the baculovirus gene product, PK2, can inhibit BeK enzymatic activity, suggesting that BeK may be an endogenous target for a viral gene product. Taken together, these data indicate that BeK is a novel eIF-2alpha kinase involved in the stress response in B. mori.

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Mariner like elements (MLEs) are widely distributed type II transposons with an open reading frame (ORF) for transposase. We studied comparative phylogenetic evolution and inverted terminal repeat (ITR) conservation of MLEs from Indian saturniid silkmoth, Antheraea mylitta with other full length MLEs submitted in the database. Full length elements from A. mylitta were inactive with multiple mutations. Many conserved amino acid blocks were identified after aligning transposase sequences. Mariner signature sequence, DD(34)D was almost inva ri able although a few new class of elements had different signatures. A. mylitta MLEs (Anmmar) get phylogene ti cally classified under cecropia subfamily and cluster closely with the elements from other Bombycoidea superfamily members implying vertical transmission from a common ancestor. ITR analysis showed a conserved sequence of AGGT(2-8N)ATAAGT for forward repeat and AGGT(2-8N)ATGAAAT for reverse repeat. These results and additional work may help us to understand the dynamics of MLE distribution in A. mylitta and construction of appropriate vectors for mariner mediated transgenics.

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