A novel approach to the isolation of rabbit reticulocyte haem-controlled eIF-2α protein kinase

A new strategy for the purification of rabbit reticulocyte haem-controlled eIF-2α kinase is described, based on the fact that this kinase can be self-phosphorylated in several sites. Incubation of partially purified kinase with ATP changes its behaviour on anion exchangers sufficiently to separate it from almost all contaminating proteins.     

Non‐muscle myosin IIB helps mediate TNF cell death signaling independent of actomyosin contractility (AMC)

Non‐muscle myosin II (NM II) helps mediate survival and apoptosis in response to TNF‐alpha (TNF), however, NM II's mechanism of action in these processes is not fully understood. NM II isoforms are involved in a variety of cellular processes and differences in their enzyme kinetics, localization, and activation allow NM II isoforms to have distinct functions within the same cell. The present study focused on isoform specific functions of NM IIA and IIB in mediating TNF induced apoptosis. Results show that siRNA knockdown of NM IIB, but not NM IIA, impaired caspase cleavage and nuclear condensation in response to TNF. NM II's function in promoting cell death signaling appears to be independent of actomyosin contractility (AMC) since treatment of cells with blebbistatin or cytochalasin D failed to inhibit TNF induced caspase cleavage. Immunoprecipitation studies revealed associations of NM IIB with clathrin, FADD, and caspase 8 in response to TNF suggesting a role for NM IIB in TNFR1 endocytosis and the formation of the death inducing signaling complex (DISC). These findings suggest that NM IIB promotes TNF cell death signaling in a manner independent of its force generating property. J. Cell. Biochem. 9999: 1365–1375, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Cell density-dependent regulation of cell surface expression of two types of human tumor necrosis factor receptors and its effect on cellular response

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is a multipotential cytokine known to regulate the growth of a wide variety of normal and tumor cells. It has been shown that the density of cells in culture can modulate the growth regulatory activities of TNF, the mechanism of which, however, is not understood. In this report, we investigated the effect of cell density on the expression of TNF receptors. The receptors were examined on epithelial cells (e.g., HeLa), which primarily express the p60 form, and on myeloid cells (e.g., HL-60) known to express mainly the p80 form. We observed that binding of TNF to both cell lines decreased with increase in cell density. Scatchard analysis of binding on HeLa and HL-60 cells revealed a 4- to 5-fold reduction in the number of TNF receptors without any significant change in receptor affinity in both cell types at high density. The decrease in TNF receptor numbers at high cell density was also observed in several other epithelial and myeloid cell lines. The downmodulation at high cell density was unique to TNF receptors, since minimum change in other cell surface proteins was observed as revealed by fluorescent activated cell sorter analysis. Neutralization of binding with antibodies specific to each type of the receptors revealed that both the p60 and p80 forms of the TNF receptor were equally downmodulated. A decrease in leucine incorporation into proteins was observed with increase in cell density, suggesting a reduction in protein synthesis. Since inhibition of protein synthesis by cycloheximide also leads to a decrease in TNF receptors, it is possible that the density-dependent reduction in TNF receptor number is due to an overall decrease in protein synthesis. The density-dependent decrease in TNF receptors was accompanied by a decrease in intracellular reduced glutathione levels. A reduction in the number of receptors on TNF sensitive tumor cells induced by cell-density correlated with increase in resistance to the cytokine.     

The toad fly Lucilia bufonivora: its evolutionary status and molecular identification

The blow fly genus Lucilia is composed largely of saprophages and facultative myasis agents, including the economically important species Lucilia cuprina (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) and Lucilia sericata (Meigen). Only one species is generally recognized as an obligate agent of myiasis, Lucilia bufonivora Moniez, and this is an obligate parasite of toads. Lucilia silvarum (Meigen), a sister species, behaves mainly as a carrion breeder; however, it has also been reported as a facultative parasite of amphibians. Morphologically, these species are almost identical, and historically this has led to misidentification, taxonomic ambiguity and a paucity of studies of L. bufonivora. In this study, dipterous larvae were analysed from toad myiasis cases from the U.K., The Netherlands and Switzerland, together with adult specimens of fly species implicated in amphibian parasitism: L. bufonivora, L. silvarum and Lucilia elongata Shannon (from North America). Partial sequences of two genes, cox1 and ef1α, were amplified. Seven additional blow fly species were analysed as outgroups. Bayesian inference trees of cox1, ef1α and a combined‐gene dataset were constructed. All larvae isolated from toads were identified as L. bufonivora and no specimens of L. silvarum were implicated in amphibian myiasis. This study confirms L. silvarum and L. bufonivora as distinct sister species and provides unambiguous molecular identification of L. bufonivora.     

M(en)TORship lessons on life and death by the integrated stress response

Cells employ pro-survival and pro-adaptive pathways to cope with different forms of environmental stress. When stress is excessive, and the damage caused by it is unsustainable, cells engage pro-death pathways, which are in place to protect the host from the deleterious effects of harmed cells. Two important pathways that determine the balance between survival and death of stressed cells are the integrated stress response (ISR) and the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), both of which converge at the level of mRNA translation. The two pathways have established avenues of communication to control their activity and determine the fate of stressed cells in a context-dependent manner. The functional interplay between the ISR and mTOR may have significant ramifications in the development and treatment of human diseases such as diabetes, neurodegeneration and cancer.     

Anti‐angiogenic therapy: Adapting strategies to overcome resistant tumors

Healthy cells, as well as benign and malignant tumors, depend upon the body's blood supply to bring in oxygen and nutrients and carry away waste products. Using this property against tumors, anti‐angiogenic therapy targets the tumor vasculature with the aim of starving the tumor, and has demonstrated exceptional clinical efficacy against a number of tumors. This review discusses the current state of knowledge regarding anti‐angiogenic therapies presently available to patients, and garners from both preclinical and clinical literature the benefits and side effects associated with anti‐angiogenic therapies, the unfortunate mechanisms of acquired resistance to these novel therapeutics, and highlights promising next generation anti‐angiogenics that may overcome the limitations encountered with first generation therapies. J. Cell. Biochem. 111: 543–553, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.