Biology subjects

Edgington-Mitchell, L.

Publications and source records attributed to Edgington-Mitchell, L..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Temporal N-terminomics analysis reveals proteome remodeling following brensocatib-mediated cathepsin C inhibition in promyeloblast cells

Cathepsin C (CatC) is known to activate neutrophil serine proteases (NSPs) involved in innate immune function although its broader impact on cellular proteolytic networks remains poorly defined. Here, we characterized the proteolytic landscape of HL-60 neutrophil progenitor cells following treatment with the CatC inhibitor brensocatib. Activity-based probes confirmed sustained inhibition of CatC by brensocatib, accompanied by progressive suppression of downstream elastase-like protease activation over 16 h, 72 h, and 7 days. An enrichment-free N-terminomics workflow was used to compare control and brensocatib-treated HL-60 cells. Following prolonged CatC inhibition, NSPs were reduced in abundance, while lysosomal cathepsins and endogenous protease inhibitors increased. These findings are consistent with remodeling of the protease-antiprotease network. Cleavage site analysis identified a pronounced, time-dependent NSP-associated P1 cleavage signature enriched for Val, Thr, Ala, Ile, and Cys in control cells that was progressively lost following brensocatib treatment. We also identified established and candidate CatC-dependent cleavage events, together with proteolytic adaptations that emerged in the absence of CatC activity. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that CatC inhibition extends beyond suppression of canonical NSP activation to progressive remodeling of the broader protease-antiprotease network, providing new mechanistic insight into the cellular consequences of therapeutic CatC inhibition.

biochemistry↗

bioRxiv2025

PfK13-associated artemisinin resistance slows drug activation and enhances antioxidant defence, which can be overcome with sulforaphane.

Artemisinin resistance is globally prevalent, including in Africa, raising concerns and highlighting the need to better understand the cellular mechanisms behind this resistance. In Plasmodium falciparum, artemisinin resistance is primarily attributed to mutations in the PfKelch13 (PfK13) gene. In this study, we performed proteomic analysis on a range of sensitive and artemisinin-resistant parasites (both laboratory-generated and field isolates), revealing specific dysregulation of PfK13 protein abundance. Reduced PfK13 levels were linked to impaired hemoglobin digestion, decreased free heme levels, and consequently, decreased artemisinin activation. Artemisinin resistant parasites also exhibited elevated thiol levels, indicating a more reduced cellular state. Targeting the parasite redox capacity with sulforaphane potentiated artemisinin activity in vitro and in an in vivo rodent Plasmodium berghei model, offering a potential strategy to overcome resistance. Our findings provide critical insights into the molecular mechanisms of artemisinin resistance and suggest novel therapeutic interventions to restore drug sensitivity. One Sentence Summary: PfK13 mutations drive artemisinin resistance in Plasmodium parasites by enhancing antioxidant defences, which can be targeted by redox modulators such as sulforaphane.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2025

Intralysosomal pathogens differentially influence the proteolytic potential of their niche

Avoiding lysosomal degradation is vital to the success of intracellular pathogens. The Gram-negative bacterium Coxiella burnetii and protozoan parasites of the Leishmania genus are unique in being able to replicate within the mature phagolysosomal compartment of host cells, though the exact mechanisms utilised to withstand this hostile environment are not clearly defined. We recently reported that C. burnetii removes the lysosomal protease cathepsin B during infection of mammalian cells. Here, we aimed to determine if this virulence strategy was also employed by the intralysosomal pathogen, Leishmania mexicana. In contrast to C. burnetii, decreases in the activity of specific cathepsins were not detected in L. mexicana-infected host cells as determined using immunoblotting and protease activity-based probes. Co-infection of THP-1 macrophage-like cells with both pathogens resulted in a proteolytic and secretory phenotype consistent with C. burnetii infection, suggesting that C. burnetii-induced remodelling of the lysosome is not influenced by L. mexicana. The host cell proteome and secretome of L. mexicana infected cells was defined using mass spectrometry. This confirmed that, unlike C. burnetii, L. mexicana does not induce increased abundance of lysosomal proteins either intracellularly or in the extracellular milieu. Collectively, this study reveals that although C. burnetii and L. mexicana reside in a phagolysosomal intracellular niche, they employ divergent mechanisms to survive within this hostile compartment.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2019

Tissue-ABPP enables high-resolution confocal fluorescence imaging of serine hydrolase activity in cryosections - Application to glioma brain unveils activity hotspots originating from tumor-associated neutrophils

Serine hydrolases (SHs) are a functionally diverse family of enzymes playing pivotal roles in health and disease and have emerged as important therapeutic targets in many clinical conditions. Activity-based protein profiling (ABPP) using fluorophosphonate (FP) probes has been a powerful chemoproteomic approach in studies unveiling roles of SHs in various biological systems. The ABPP approach utilizes cell/tissue proteomes and features the FP warhead, linked to a fluorescent reporter for in-gel fluorescence imaging or a biotin tag for streptavidin enrichment and LC-MS/MS-based target identification. Here, we advance the ABPP methodology to glioma brain cryosections, enabling high-resolution confocal fluorescence imaging of SH activity in different cell types of the tumor microenvironment, identified by using extensive immunohistochemistry on activity probe labeled sections. We name this technique tissue-ABPP to distinguish it from conventional gel-based ABPP. We show heightened SH activity in glioma vs. normal brain and unveil activity hotspots originating from tumor-associated neutrophils. Thorough optimization and validation is provided by parallel gel-based ABPP combined with LC-MS/MS-based target verification. Tissue-ABPP enables a wide range of applications for confocal imaging of SH activity in any type of tissue or animal species.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2019

Loss of O-linked protein glycosylation in Burkholderia cenocepacia impairs biofilm formation and siderophore production via alteration of quorum sensing regulation

O-linked protein glycosylation is a conserved feature of the Burkholderia genus. For Burkholderia cenocepacia, the addition of the trisaccharide {beta}-Gal-(1,3)--GalNAc-(1,3)-{beta}-GalNAc to membrane exported proteins is required for virulence and resistance to environmental stress. However, the underlying causes of the defects observed in the absence of glycosylation are unclear. This study demonstrates that the global B. cenocepacia proteome undergoes dramatic changes consistent with alterations in global transcriptional regulation in the absence of glycosylation. Using luciferase reporter assays and DNA cross-linking analysis, we confirm the repression of the master quorum sensing regulon CepR/I in response to the loss of glycosylation, which leads to the abolition of biofilm formation, defects in siderophore production, and reduced virulence. The abundance of most of the known glycosylated proteins did not significantly change in the glycosylation-defective mutants except for BCAL1086 and BCAL2974, which were found in reduced amount, suggesting they could be degraded. However, the loss of these two proteins was not responsible for driving the proteomic alterations, as well as for reduced virulence and siderophore production. Together, our results show that loss of glycosylation in B. cenocepacia results in a global cell reprogramming via alteration of the CepR/I regulon, which cannot be explained by the abundance changes in known B. cenocepacia glycoproteins.\n\nIMPORTANCEProtein glycosylation is increasingly recognised as a common protein modification in bacterial species. Despite this commonality our understanding of the role of most glycosylation systems in bacterial physiology and pathogenesis is incomplete. In this work, we investigated the effect of the disruption of O-linked glycosylation in the opportunistic pathogen Burkholderia cenocepacia using a combination of proteomic, molecular and phenotypic assays. We find that in contrast to recent findings on the N-linked glycosylation systems of Campylobacter jejuni, O-linked glycosylation does not appear to play a role in proteome stabilization of most glycoproteins. Our results reveal that virulence attenuation observed within glycosylation-null B. cenocepacia strains are consistent with alteration of the master virulence regulator CepR. The repression of CepR transcription and its associated phenotypes support a model in which the virulence defects observed in glycosylation-null strains are at least in part due to transcriptional alteration and not the direct result of the loss of glycosylation per-se. This research unravels the pleotropic effects of O-linked glycosylation in B. cenocepacia, demonstrating that its loss does not simply affect the stability of the glycoproteome, but also interferes with transcription and the broader proteome.

microbiology↗