Developing Novel Therapeutic Agents for Acanthamoeba Infection and Investigating the Process of Encystment
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Developing novel therapeutic agents for Acanthamoeba infection and investigating the process of encystment Anas Abdullah Hamad (BSc, MSc) A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2020 Declaration This work or any part thereof has not previously been presented in any form to the University or to any other body whether for the purposes of assessment, publication or for any other purpose (unless otherwise indicated in page 3). Save for any express acknowledgements, references and/or bibliographies cited in the work, I confirm that the intellectual content of the work is the result of my own efforts and of no other person. The right of Anas Abdullah Hamad to be identified as author of this work is asserted in accordance with ss.77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. At this date copyright is owned by the author. Signature………………………………………. Date……………………………………………. 15/10/2020 2 List of posters and publication related to the work presented in this thesis: Heaselgrave, W., Hamad, A., Coles, S. and Hau, S., 2019. In Vitro Evaluation of the Inhibitory Effect of Topical Ophthalmic Agents on Acanthamoeba Viability. Translational vision science & technology, 8(5), pp.17-17. Manuscript published. Hamad, A. and Heaselgrave, W., 2017. Developing novel treatments for the blinding protozoan eye infection Acanthamoeba keratitis. Proceedings of the Internal Annual Research Symposium, Poster no. 23, University of Wolverhampton, UK. Hamad, A. and Heaselgrave, W., 2018. Developing new treatments and optimising existing treatment strategies for the corneal infection Acanthamoeba keratitis. Proceedings of the Internal Annual Research Symposium, Poster no. 18, University of Wolverhampton, UK. Hamad, A. and Heaselgrave, W. Impact of commonly used topical agents and anti-acanthamoeba drugs on Acanthamoeba spp. viability. Proceedings of the 6th World Congress and Expo on Applied Microbiology Conference; October 21-22, 2019, Rome, Italy, iMedPub; 2019. Abstract vol. 05, p. 31. 3 Abstract Acanthamoeba Keratitis (AK) is a vision-threatening disease which can lead to blinding corneal tissue infection. Many patients who have been infected with Acanthamoeba in their eye do not respond to the current medical treatments involving polyhexamethylene biguanide or chlorhexidine despite the in vitro sensitivity of Acanthamoeba to these drugs. There is an urgent need for new therapeutic agents to eradicate the AK infection. This study focuses on the mechanism by which Acanthamoeba may distinguish between trophozoite, cyst and the newly identified lifecycle known as protocyst. The current study has tested 56 novel and existing therapeutic agents for their activity against Acanthamoeba spp. and their toxicity against a human epithelial cell line. The results of this research have revealed several compounds of interest for further study on their potential use in the treatment of AK. These compounds included, octenidine hydrochloride, alexidine, miltefosine and quaternary ammonium (didecyldimethylammonium chloride). The anti-amoebic effect of benzalkonium chloride, povidone iodine and tetracaine are superior to the current diamidines and slightly lower to the biguanides applied in the treatment for AK. The formulation of novel amidoamine compounds including myristoleyl-amidopropyl- dimethylamine (MOPD) and palmitoleyl-amidopropyl-dimethylamine (POPD) into contact lens solutions showed complete kill at a 4.5-log reduction against trophozoites compared with myristamidopropyl dimethylamine (MAPD) as an existing compound. The combination of biguanide compounds with lipid–based carriers has improved the antimicrobial activity from 1-fold to around 7-fold against cysts of Acanthamoeba spp. compared with the use of biguanides alone. The findings of encystment investigation (the transformation of trophozoites into cysts) showed that the agonists in particular the β ultra-long against indacaterol stimulated the encystment and the antagonists β₁ metoprolol blocked the formation of cysts and protocysts. Two different herbicides including 2,6- dichlorobenzonitrile (DCB) and isoxaben were tested to target the biosynthesis of cellulose in the cyst form and also to evaluate their effects on the formation of protocyst of Acanthamoeba. The results of this study showed that the DCB at a high concentration of 500 µM, reduced encystment to 17.7% and protocyst 4 production of Acanthamoeba at 24.6%, whereas isoxaben inhibited the transformation of trophozoites into cysts to only 45% and the percentage was decreased for protocyst formation by 37.2%. The test results for DCB and isoxaben individually at concentration of 100 uM showed 31.8% and 68.8% respectively for the conversion of trophozoites into cysts. In addition, a similar concentration of both DCB and isoxaben was evaluated for protocyst formation and the inhibition was observed at 36.9% for DCB and a much higher rate of protocysts production was recorded at 63 % for isoxaben. The combination of both isoxaben and DCB at a concentration of 100 µM caused a reduction in encystment to 49.1% and lowered the transformation of trophozoites into protocysts to 45.7%, these findings suggested that an antagonistic effect was occurred relative to the use of DCB alone. Finally, the data from LC/MS analysis for sugars suggested that the protocyst and cyst are different stages of Acanthamoeba, as the analysis of cyst walls indicated the presence of cellulose while the protocyst wall analysis showed the existing of cellulose and methylated sugar possibly corresponded to a methylated analogue of N-acetylglucosamine. 5 Acknowledgement Praise to Allah, Lord of the Worlds for giving me the blessing, health and patience to complete this stage of my life. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my first director of study Dr. Wayne Heaselgrave for his guidance, encouragement, continuous support and advice. I am grateful to my co-supervisor Dr. Daniel Keddie for his assistance, motivating and critical discussion with the chemistry part of my PhD project. Special thanks to my sponsor the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MHESR) in Iraq–Baghdad for their financial support. I would like to thank the Iraqi cultural attaché in London who is the official representative of the MHESR in the United Kingdom for their help and encouragement during my PhD study. I would like to express my special and deepest gratitude to my dearest parents for supporting and encouraging me since I left my brother, sisters, my house and home country "Iraq" to undertake such a long and exciting academic journey, as well as personal development. I would like to thank Dr. Sharon Moore for helping in HPLC analysis. My sincere gratitude goes to Dr. Iain Nicholl for the generous gift of Aspirin analogues. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to my laboratory mates, Ibrahim Khalil, Ogechi Onuoha, Noor Alantary, Muhammad Idrees, Adam Elbakkali, Sam Swingler, Abhishek Gupta and Elisabeth Achan for the important discussion and amazing time. Lastly, my sincere thanks go to the technicians staff, Surila Darbar, Keith Holding, Lawrence Eagle, ,David Luckhurst, Henrick Townsend, Andy Brook and Enas Al-Ani for their help. Also, I would like to thank Angela Williams for her support for ordering the laboratory materials/chemicals. “Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.” William A. Foster. 6 Dedication This thesis is dedicated to my wonderful parents, my brother, my sisters and to my nephew and niece for their love, encouragement and prayers, words cannot express my gratitude. 7 Abbreviations ACAID Anterior chamber-associated immune deviation ACN Acetonitrile AgNPs Silver nanoparticles AK Acanthamoeba Keratitis ANOVA Analysis of variance ATCC American Type Culture Collection BAC Benzalkonium chloride cAMP Cyclic adenosine monophosphate CESA Cellulose synthase CHLX Chlorhexidine cm Centimetre CNS Central Nervous System COX Cyclooxygenase CO2 Carbon dioxide CSI Cellulose synthesis inhibitors DCB 2,6-dichlorobenzonitrile DMAD Dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate DMEM Dulbecco’s Phosphate Buffer Saline DMSO Dimethyl sulphoxide DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid DNase Deoxyribonuclease DPBS Dulbecco’s phosphate buffered saline DPPC Phospholipids dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine 8 DTH Delayed-type hypersensitivity EDTA Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid GAE Granulomatous Amoebic Encephalitis GC–MS Gas chromatography – mass spectrometry GPCRs G-protein coupled receptors g gram Hep2 Human epithelial cells type 2 HPLC High Performance Liquid Chromatography IgA Immunoglobulin A ISO Organization for Standardization Isox Isoxaben IVCM In vivo confocal microscopy kDa kilodalton KH2PO4 Potassium phosphate (monobasic) LC–MS Liquid chromatography – mass spectrometry LC Langerhans cells LQ Lipodisq® MAPD Myristamidopropyl Dimethylamine MBP Mannose-Binding Protein MCC Minimum Cysticidal Concentration MCT Minimum Cytotoxic Concentration MeOH Methanol MgCl2 Magnesium Chloride MIC Minimum Inhibitory Concentration Min Minutes 9 MOPD Myristoleyl-amidopropyl-dimethylamine MTAC Minimum Trophozoite Amoebicidal Concentration MTIC Minimum Trophozoite Inhibitory Concentration NaCl Sodium chloride NADPH Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate NEM Neff’s encystment medium NSAIDs Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs PAM Primary