A Relationship Between Replication Protein A and Occurrence and Prognosis of Esophageal Carcinoma

Esophageal carcinoma (EC) is an aggressive and the third most common cancer of the digestive tract with poor prognosis. Replication protein A (RPA) is critically required for DNA replication and its elevated expression has been observed in many malignant tumors. In this study, we investigated the expression of RPA1 and RPA2, subunits of RPA, and assessed their prognostic value in EC patients. We analyzed immunohistochemically the expression of RPA1 and RPA2 proteins in 48 EC resection specimens in relation with clinicopathological parameters and survival. We observed a significant elevated (P < 0.001) RPA1 and RPA2 expressions (labeling index) in the tumor than adjacent non-tumor tissues. In addition, both RPA1 and RPA2 labeling index in lymph node metastasis patients was significantly higher (both P = 0.000) than patients without lymph node metastasis. However, RPA1 and RPA2 labeling index in early stage was significantly lower (P = 0.000 and P = 0.002, respectively) than that of late stage EC patients. Importantly, patient’s survival at early stage was significantly higher (P = 0.016) than late stage EC and lymph node metastasis and RPA1 expression was associated with adverse patient’s outcome in multivariate analysis (P < 0.05 and P < 0.00, respectively). In conclusion, RPA1 could be a useful prognostic indicator in patients with esophageal carcinoma and might be a future attractive therapeutic target for regulation by tumor suppressors.     

Efficient secretion of lipase r27RCL in Pichia pastoris by enhancing the disulfide bond formation pathway in the endoplasmic reticulum

The lipase r27RCL from Rhizopus chinensis CCTCC M201021 was heterologously expressed in Pichia pastoris GS115 by simultaneous co-expression with two secretion factors ERO1p and PDI involved in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Compared to the expression of the lipase alone (12,500 U/ml), co-expression with these two proteins resulted in the production of larger total quantities of enzymes. The largest increase was seen when the combined ERO1p/PDI system was co-expressed, resulting in approximately 30 % higher enzyme yields (16,200 U/ml) than in the absence of co-expressed secretion factors. The extracellular protein concentration of the recombinant strain Co XY RCL-5 reached 9.39 g/l in the 7-l fermentor. Simultaneously, the fermentation time was also shortened by about 8 h compared to that of the control. The substrate-specific consumption rate (Qs) and the product-specific production rate (Qp) were both investigated in this research. In conclusion, the space–time yield was improved by co-expression with ERO1p and PDI. This is a potential strategy for high level expression of other heterologous proteins in P. pastoris.     

PICK1 and ICA69 Control Insulin Granule Trafficking and Their Deficiencies Lead to Impaired Glucose Tolerance

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder characterized by hyperglycemia. Insulin, which is secreted by pancreatic beta cells, is recognized as the critical regulator of blood glucose, but the molecular machinery responsible for insulin trafficking remains poorly defined. In particular, the roles of cytosolic factors that govern the formation and maturation of insulin granules are unclear. Here we report that PICK1 and ICA69, two cytosolic lipid-binding proteins, formed heteromeric BAR-domain complexes that associated with insulin granules at different stages of their maturation. PICK1-ICA69 heteromeric complexes associated with immature secretory granules near the trans-Golgi network (TGN). A brief treatment of Brefeldin A, which blocks vesicle budding from the Golgi, increased the amount of PICK1 and ICA69 at TGN. On the other hand, mature secretory granules were associated with PICK1 only, not ICA69. PICK1 deficiency in mice caused the complete loss of ICA69 and led to increased food and water intake but lower body weight. Glucose tolerance tests demonstrated that these mutant mice had high blood glucose, a consequence of insufficient insulin. Importantly, while the total insulin level was reduced in PICK1-deficient beta cells, proinsulin was increased. Lastly, ICA69 knockout mice also displayed similar phenotype as the mice deficient in PICK1. Together, our results indicate that PICK1 and ICA69 are key regulators of the formation and maturation of insulin granules.

Author Summary

Insulin is a key regulator of blood glucose and insufficient insulin leads to diabetes. Insulin is synthesized as proinsulin, processed in endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi, and eventually packaged into insulin granules, a type of dense core vesicles. Despite its importance, the molecular mechanisms governing the biogenesis and maturation of insulin granules are not fully understood. In this study, we identified two cytosolic proteins, PICK1 and ICA69, as important regulators of insulin granule biogenesis and maturation. Both PICK1 and ICA69 have the banana-shaped BAR domain that can bend the lipid membrane and help the formation of dense core vesicles. We show that without PICK1 or ICA69, insulin granules cannot be properly formed and, as a result, proinsulin cannot be effectively processed into mature insulin. Mice lacking functional PICK1 or ICA69 genes have reduced insulin but increased proinsulin. Consequently, these mice have high levels of glucose, a prominent feature found in diabetes patients. These results add to previous findings that PICK1 is important for the generation of proacrosomal granules found in cells of the testis, and thereby support a wider role for PICK1 and ICA69 in regulating dense core vesicle biogenesis and maturation.     

PAI-1 -675 4G/5G Polymorphism in Association with Diabetes and Diabetic Complications Susceptibility: a Meta-Analysis Study

A meta-analysis was performed to assess the association between the PAI-1 -675 4G/5G polymorphism and susceptibility to diabetes mellitus (DM), diabetic nephropathy (DN), diabetic retinopathy (DR) and diabetic coronary artery disease (CAD). A literature-based search was conducted to identify all relevant studies. The fixed or random effect pooled measure was calculated mainly at the allele level to determine heterogeneity bias among studies. Further stratified analyses and sensitivity analyses were also performed. Publication bias was examined by the modified Begg’s and Egger’s test. Twenty published articles with twenty-seven outcomes were included in the meta-analysis: 6 studies with a total of 1,333 cases and 3,011 controls were analyzed for the PAI-1 -675 4G/5G polymorphism with diabetes risk, 7 studies with 1,060 cases and 1,139 controls for DN risk, 10 studies with 1,327 cases and 1,557 controls for DR and 4 studies with 610 cases and 1,042 controls for diabetic CAD risk respectively. Using allelic comparison (4G vs. 5G), the PAI-1 -675 4G/5G polymorphism was observed to have no significant association with diabetes (REM OR 1.07, 95% CI 0.96, 1.20), DN (REM OR 1.10, 95% CI 0.98, 1.25), DR (REM OR 1.09, 95% CI 0.97, 1.22) or diabetic CAD risk (REM OR 1.07, 95% CI 0.81, 1.42), and similar results were obtained in the dominant, recessive and co-dominant models. Our meta-analyses suggest that the PAI-1 -675 4G/5G polymorphism might not be a risk factor for DM, DN, DR or diabetic CAD risk in the populations investigated. This conclusion warrants confirmation by further studies.     

Unsupervised Clustering of Subcellular Protein Expression Patterns in High-Throughput Microscopy Images Reveals Protein Complexes and Functional Relationships between Proteins

Protein subcellular localization has been systematically characterized in budding yeast using fluorescently tagged proteins. Based on the fluorescence microscopy images, subcellular localization of many proteins can be classified automatically using supervised machine learning approaches that have been trained to recognize predefined image classes based on statistical features. Here, we present an unsupervised analysis of protein expression patterns in a set of high-resolution, high-throughput microscope images. Our analysis is based on 7 biologically interpretable features which are evaluated on automatically identified cells, and whose cell-stage dependency is captured by a continuous model for cell growth. We show that it is possible to identify most previously identified localization patterns in a cluster analysis based on these features and that similarities between the inferred expression patterns contain more information about protein function than can be explained by a previous manual categorization of subcellular localization. Furthermore, the inferred cell-stage associated to each fluorescence measurement allows us to visualize large groups of proteins entering the bud at specific stages of bud growth. These correspond to proteins localized to organelles, revealing that the organelles must be entering the bud in a stereotypical order. We also identify and organize a smaller group of proteins that show subtle differences in the way they move around the bud during growth. Our results suggest that biologically interpretable features based on explicit models of cell morphology will yield unprecedented power for pattern discovery in high-resolution, high-throughput microscopy images.     

Development and application of microwave-assisted extraction technique in biological sample preparation for small molecule analysis

Microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) has emerged as an efficient extraction technique for various kinds of biological samples due to its low usage of extraction solvents and shorter extraction time. This review will focus on the recent developments and advantages of incorporating MAE in sample preparation protocols for the analysis of small molecules in plant, food and clinical samples in recent years. The operating principles of this technique and the key parameters influencing its extraction efficiency, including the nature of solvent, temperature, power and extraction time and their limitations are first mentioned. This is followed by a discussion on the advantages of applying MAE to extract organic contaminants in food for routine food safety analysis and active ingredients recovery. The successful application of MAE technique to recover bioactive compounds from plants in drug discovery studies and quality control purposes is then described. Additionally, the feasibility of using green solvents such as water, micelle and ionic liquids with MAE for plant metabolite profiling studies is evaluated and the associated challenges discussed. Finally, the application of MAE in clinical samples is highlighted. The use of MAE in this field is currently limited to the targeted detection of small molecules in human samples, due to a lack of knowledge of its effects on thermally labile metabolites. Consequently, the need for additional studies on how MAE impacts the recoveries of different metabolite classes in mammalian samples is discussed. The outcome of these studies can potentially broaden MAE applications in the clinical field.     

Formalin-Inactivated EV71 Vaccine Candidate Induced Cross-Neutralizing Antibody against Subgenotypes B1, B4, B5 and C4A in Adult Volunteers

Background

Enterovirus 71 (EV71) has caused several epidemics of hand, foot and mouth diseases (HFMD) in Asia. No effective EV71 vaccine is available. A randomized and open-label phase I clinical study registered with ClinicalTrials.gov #NCT01268787, aims to evaluate the safety, reactogenicity and immunogenicity of a formalin-inactivated EV71 vaccine candidate (EV71vac) at 5- and 10-µg doses. In this study we report the cross-neutralizing antibody responses from each volunteer against different subgenotypes of EV71 and CVA16.

Methods

Sixty eligible healthy adults were recruited and vaccinated. Blood samples were obtained on day 0, 21 and 42 and tested against B1, B4, B5, C2, C4A, C4B and CVA16 for cross-neutralizing antibody responses.

Results

The immunogenicity of both 5- and 10- µg doses were found to be very similar. Approximately 45% of the participants had <8 pre-vaccination neutralization titers (Nt) against the B4 vaccine strain. After the first EV71vac immunization, 95% of vaccinees have >4-fold increase in Nt, but there was no further increase in Nt after the second dose. EV71vac induced very strong cross-neutralizing antibody responses in >85% of volunteers without pre-existing Nt against subgenotype B1, B5 and C4A. EV71vac elicited weak cross-neutralizing antibody responses (∼20% of participants) against a C4B and Coxsackie virus A16. Over 90% of vaccinated volunteers did not develop cross-neutralizing antibody responses (Nt<8) against a C2 strain. EV71vac can boost and significantly enhance the neutralizing antibody responses in volunteers who already had pre-vaccination antibodies against EV71 and/or CVA16.

Conclusion

EV71vac is efficient in eliciting cross-neutralizing antibody responses against EV71 subgenotypes B1, B4, B5, and C4A, and provides the rationale for its evaluation in phase II clinical trials.

Trial Registration

ClinicalTrials.gov __NCT01268787     

Improving Acetate Tolerance of Escherichia coli by Rewiring Its Global Regulator cAMP Receptor Protein (CRP)

The presence of acetate exceeding 5 g/L is a major concern during E. coli fermentation due to its inhibitory effect on cell growth, thereby limiting high-density cell culture and recombinant protein production. Hence, engineered E. coli strains with enhanced acetate tolerance would be valuable for these bioprocesses. In this work, the acetate tolerance of E. coli was much improved by rewiring its global regulator cAMP receptor protein (CRP), which is reported to regulate 444 genes. Error-prone PCR method was employed to modify crp and the mutagenesis libraries (~3×10⁶) were subjected to M9 minimal medium supplemented with 5–10 g/L sodium acetate for selection. Mutant A2 (D138Y) was isolated and its growth rate in 15 g/L sodium acetate was found to be 0.083 h^-1, much higher than that of the control (0.016 h^-1). Real-time PCR analysis via OpenArray^® system revealed that over 400 CRP-regulated genes were differentially expressed in A2 with or without acetate stress, including those involved in the TCA cycle, phosphotransferase system, etc. Eight genes were chosen for overexpression and the overexpression of uxaB was found to lead to E. coli acetate sensitivity.     

Sequencing and Characterisation of Complete Mitogenome DNA for Rasbora hobelmani (Cyprinidae) with Phylogenetic Consideration

Journal of Ichthyology - The Kottelat rasbora Rasbora hobelmani is a small ray-finned fish categorized under the genus Rasbora in the Cyprinidae family. In this study, the complete mitogenome...