Expression of MMP-2 and MMP-13 in Bullous Pemphigoid

Objective:To investigate the expression and significance of matrix metalloproteinase-2(MMP-2)and matrix metalloproteinase-13(MMP-13)in bullous pemphigoid(BP)skin lesions.Methods:Immunohistochemical SP method was used to detect the expression of MMP-2 and MMP-13 in 32 BP skin lesions,and compared with 15 normal skin tissues.Results:The expression of MMP-2 in the case group was significantly increased(38.56±10.06)compared to the normal control group(21.20±5.98);the expression of MMP-13 in the case group was significantly augmented(18.62±5.90)compared to the normal control group(11.47±8.484).The expressions of MMP-2 and MMP-13 in the skin lesions of patients with bullous pemphigoid were statistically different from those of normal people(both P<0.05).Compared with the expression of MMP-2 and MMP-13 in bullous pemphigoid,the expression of MMP-2 and MMP-13 was moderately correlated(correlation coefficient was 0.523).Conclusion:The expression of MMP-2 and MMP-13 is significantly increased in bullous pemphigoid skin lesions,suggesting that they may play an important role in the pathogenesis of BP.There is a certain correlation between the expression of MMP-2 and MMP-13,suggesting that the high expression of MMP-13 may play a role in the mechanism that further leads to the high expression of MMP-2.

Structure-based Screening for the Non-zinc-chelating Selective MMP-13 Inhibitors of Natural Products

Matrix metalloproteinase-13(MMP-13) has been considered as a promising therapeutic target for osteoarthritis. In this work, the experimental crystal structures of five MMP-13-ligand complexes are used to build the multiple structure-based pharmacophore model of MMP-13 inhibitors. The reliability of pharmacophore model is validated using a decoy set. The pharmacophore model contains four chemical features: two hydrogen bond acceptor(HBA), one hydrophobic(HY) feature, and one ring aromatic(RA) feature. Particularly, the HY feature is found to orient the MMP-13 inhibitors deep into the S1’ pocket of MMP-13 to produce selective inhibition. By carrying out the screening of pharmacophore model and subsequent molecular docking, the four non-zinc-chelating selective MMP-13 inhibitors of natural products(NP-015973, NP-000814, STOCK1 N-24933, and STOCK1 N-69443) are identified. It is found that the binding modes of MMP-13 with our screened four natural products are very similar to the reported experimental binding mode of MMP-13 with the most active inhibitor(GG12003, IC50: 0.67 n M), and each of them involves the interactions of a ligand with the three amino acid residues Thr226, Lys119, and His201 of MMP-13 receptor. This shows that our modeling results are in good agreement with the relevant experimental results, which strongly supports our screened MMP-13 inhibitors of natural products. These screened natural products may be used as the lead compounds of MMP-13 inhibitors in the future studies of structural modifications.