Anionic poly(amino acid)s dissolve F-actin and DNA bundles, enhance DNase activity, and reduce the viscosity of cystic fibrosis sputum

Bundles of F-actin and DNA present in the sputum of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients but absent from normal airway fluid contribute to the altered viscoelastic properties of sputum that inhibit clearance of infected airway fluid and exacerbate the pathology of CF. Previous strategies to remove these filamentous aggregates have focused on DNase to enzymatically depolymerize DNA to constituent monomers and gelsolin to sever F-actin to small fragments. The high densities of negative surface charge on DNA and F-actin suggest that the bundles of these filaments, which alone exhibit a strong electrostatic repulsion, may be stabilized by multivalent cations such as histones, antimicrobial peptides, and other positively charged molecules prevalent in airway fluid. This study reports that bundles of DNA or F-actin formed after addition of histone H1 or lysozyme are efficiently dissolved by soluble multivalent anions such as polymeric aspartate or glutamate. Addition of poly-aspartate or poly-glutamate also disperses DNA and actin-containing bundles in CF sputum and lowers the elastic moduli of these samples to levels comparable to those obtained after treatment with DNase I or gelsolin. Addition of poly-aspartic acid also increased DNase activity when added to samples containing DNA bundles formed with histone H1. When added to CF sputum, polyaspartic acid significantly reduced the growth of bacteria, suggesting activation of endogenous antibacterial factors. These findings suggest that soluble multivalent anions have potential alone or in combination with other mucolytic agents to selectively dissociate the large bundles of charged biopolymers that form in CF sputum.