Publications

The bacterial cell wall has been a celebrated target for antibiotics and holds real promise for the discovery of new antibacterial chemical matter. In addition to peptidoglycan, the walls of Gram-positive bacteria contain large amounts of the polymer teichoic acid, covalently attached to peptidoglycan. Recently, wall teichoic acid was shown to be essential to the […]

Finding specific small-molecule inhibitors of protein-protein interactions remains a significant challenge. Recently, attention has grown toward « hot spot » interactions where binding is dominated by a limited number of amino acid contacts, theoretically offering an increased opportunity for disruption by small molecules. Inhibitors of the interaction between BRCT (the C-terminal portion of BRCA1, a key tumor […]

In recent years, increasing levels of resistance to the four FDA-approved anti-influenza virus drugs have been described and vaccine manufacturers have experienced demands that exceed their capacity. This situation underlines the urgent need for novel antivirals as well as innovations in vaccine production in preparation for the next influenza epidemic. Here we report the development […]

Epigenetic regulation of gene expression is essential in embryonic development and contributes to cancer pathology. We used a cell-based imaging assay that measures derepression of a silenced green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter to identify novel classes of compounds involved in epigenetic regulation. This locus derepression (LDR) assay was screened against a 69,137-member chemical library using […]

Non-coding CUG repeat expansions interfere with the activity of human Muscleblind-like (MBNL) proteins contributing to myotonic dystrophy 1 (DM1). To understand this toxic RNA gain-of-function mechanism we developed a Drosophila model expressing 60 pure and 480 interrupted CUG repeats in the context of a non-translatable RNA. These flies reproduced aspects of the DM1 pathology, most […]

The overexpression of P-glycoprotein, encoded by the ATP Binding Cassette B1 (ABCB1) gene, contributes to multidrug resistance (MDR) and is considered one of the major obstacles to successful cancer chemotherapy. The authors previously developed a T-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) cell line that overexpresses ABCB1 and exhibits MDR to daunorubicin (DNR), prednisolone, and vincristine. Using […]

High-throughput screening (HTS) of chemical libraries has become a critical tool in basic biology and drug discovery. However, its implementation and the adaptation of high-content assays to human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) have been hampered by multiple technical challenges. Here we present a strategy to adapt hESCs to HTS conditions, resulting in an assay suitable […]

BACKGROUND: Prion-based diseases are incurable transmissible neurodegenerative disorders affecting animals and humans.nnMETHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we report the discovery of the in vivo antiprion activity of Guanabenz (GA), an agonist of alpha2-adrenergic receptors routinely used in human medicine as an antihypertensive drug. We isolated GA in a screen for drugs active in vivo against two different […]

The screening of a commercially available library of compounds has proved a successful strategy for the identification of a lead compound in a drug discovery programme. Here, we analysed 880 off-patent drugs, which initially comprised the Prestwick Chemical library, as sources of bacterial endotoxin neutralizers. We identified 3,3′,5-triiodo-thyroacetic acid (tiratricol) as a non-antibacterial compound that […]