Polysialic acid facilitates tumor invasion by glioma cells

Polysialic acid (PSA) is thought to attenuate neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) adhesion, thereby facilitating neural cell migration and regeneration. Although the expression of PSA has been shown to correlate with the progression of certain tumors such as small cell lung carcinoma, there have been no studies to determine the roles of PSA in gliomas, the most common type of primary brain tumor in humans. In this study, we first revealed that among patients with glioma, PSA was detected more frequently in diffuse astrocytoma cells, which spread extensively. To determine directly the role of PSA in glioma cell invasion, we transfected C6 glioma cells with polysialyltransferases to express PSA. In those transfected cells, PSA is attached mainly to NCAM-140, whereas the mock-transfected C6 cells express equivalent amounts of PSA-free NCAM-140. Both PSA negative and positive C6 cell lines exhibited almost identical growth rates measured in vitro. However, PSA positive C6 cells exhibited increased invasion to the corpus callosum, where the mock-transfected C6 glioma cells rarely invaded when inoculated into the brain. By contrast, the invasion to the corpus callosum by both the mock-transfected and PSA positive C6 cells was observed in NCAM-deficient mice. These results combined indicate that PSA facilitates tumor invasion of glioma in the brain, and that NCAM-NCAM interaction is likely attenuated in the PSA-mediated tumor invasion.     

Chestnut goby, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Gymnogobius castaneus</Emphasis> (O’Shaughnessy 1875), as a suitable host of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Anemina arcaeformis</Emphasis> (Heude 1877) in floodplain water bodies,Hokkaido, Northern Japan

This study examined a host-parasite relationship between chestnut goby Gymnogobius castaneus (O’Shaughnessy 1875) and a unionid mussel Anemina arcaeformis (Heude 1877) in three floodplain water bodies of the Ishikari River. Field observations of gravidity between summer (July 2016) and spring (May 2017) revealed that female A. arcaeformis began incubating eggs in September, and all reached a fully ripe-glochidia-gravid stage by May with a decreasing trend in the proportion of gravid individuals. Two laboratory experiments, in which field-caught G. castaneus were artificially infected by glochidia of A. arcaeformis, showed that transformation rates were among the highest ever reported for A. arcaeformis (an average across all the surviving individuals: 47.9%) with a shorter development time in warmer environments. Transformation rates did not differ among sympatric or allopatric pairs, nor decrease when infected twice. Relatively high transformation rates were attributed to high glochidia attachments to gills and mouth cavity (approximately 30% of initially attached individuals) following the highest to fins, or a reduced immunity against infection due to colder environments. Overall, our study demonstrated that chestnut goby (G. castaneus) served as a suitable host of winter-breeding A. arcaeformis. Together with records of the expanded distribution of these two species in the past 30 years, it might be relatively recently that these two have colonized the study areas after extensive land changes, with A. arcaeformis having benefited from a successful host-parasite relationship.     

Not lipoteichoic acid but lipoproteins appear to be the dominant immunobiologically active compounds in Staphylococcus aureus

Lipoteichoic acid (LTA) derived from Staphylococcus aureus is reported to be a ligand of TLR2. However, we previously demonstrated that LTA fraction prepared from bacterial cells contains lipoproteins, which activate cells via TLR2. In this study, we investigated the immunobiological activity of LTA fraction obtained from S. aureus wild-type strain, lipoprotein diacylglycerol transferase deletion (delta lgt) mutant, which lacks palmitate-labeled lipoproteins, and its complemented strain and evaluated the activity of LTA molecule. LTA fraction was prepared by butanol extraction of the bacteria followed by hydrophobic interaction chromatography. Although all LTA fractions activated cells through TLR2, the LTA from delta lgt mutant was 100-fold less potent than those of wild-type and complemented strains. However, no significant structural difference in LTA was observed in NMR spectra. Further, alanylation of LTA molecule showed no effect in immunobiological activity. These results showed that not LTA molecule but lipoproteins are dominant immunobiologically active TLR2 ligand in S. aureus.     

Ultrasound-mediated interferon β gene transfection inhibits growth of malignant melanoma

We investigated the effects of ultrasound-mediated transfection (sonotransfection) of interferon β (IFN-β) gene on melanoma (C32) both in vitro and in vivo. C32 cells were sonotransfected with IFN-β in vitro. Subcutaneous C32 tumors in mice were sonicated weekly immediately after intra-tumor injection with IFN-β genes mixed with microbubbles. Successful sonotransfection with IFN-β gene in vitro was confirmed by ELISA, which resulted in C32 growth inhibition. In vivo, the growth ratio of tumors transfected with IFN-β gene was significantly lower than the other experimental groups. These results may lead to a new method of treatment against melanoma and other hard-to-treat cancers.