Redox process is crucial for inhibitory properties of aurintricarboxylic acid against activity of YopH: virulence factor of Yersinia pestis

Kuban-Jankowska, Alicja; Sahu, Kamlesh K; Niedzialkowski, Pawel; Gorska, Magdalena; Tuszynski, Jack A; Ossowski, Tadeusz; Wozniak, Michal

One of the most effective YopH inhibitors is aurintricarboxylic acid ( Figure 1A) , with an IC 50 value around 10 nM, which was evaluated by the Liang group [5] and confirmed by our results ( Figure 1B ). Aurintricarboxylic acid (ATA), a polyaromatic carboxylic acid derivative exhibiting polyanionic properties ( Figure 1A) , is a red dye and is not only known to inhibit protein tyrosine phosphatases but also nucleic acid binding enzymes, such as reverse transcriptase, DNA and RNA polymerase, topoisomerase and nuclease [17] . It is considered to be a potential anti-AIDS compound by preventing binding of HIV coat protein, gp120, to its CD4 receptor [17] . It has been demonstrated that ATA can inhibit the replication of viruses from several different families, such as the human immunodeficiency virus, also coronavirus, vesicular stomatitis virus and vaccinia virus. It does so by the inhibition of phosphatase activity of viral enzyme [18] . Because of its binding with cellular endonucleases, topoisomerases and various important signaling pathways, ATA has also been found to prevent apoptosis in a variety of cell models [19] .