The Early Stage Formation of PI3K-AMPAR GluR2 Subunit Complex Facilitates the Long Term Neuroprotection Induced by Propofol Post-Conditioning in Rats

Previously, we have shown that the phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K) mediated acute (24 h) post-conditioning neuroprotection induced by propofol. We also found that propofol post-conditioning produced long term neuroprotection and inhibited the internalization of α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptor GluR2 subunit up to 28 days post middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). However, the relationship between PI3K with AMPA receptor GluR2 subunit trafficking in propofol post-conditioning has never been explored. Here we showed that propofol post-conditioning promoted the binding of PI3K to the C-terminal of AMPA receptor GluR2 subunit and formed a complex within 1 day after transient MCAO. Interestingly, the enhanced activity of PI3K was observed in the hippocampus of post-conditioning rats at day 1 post ischemia, whereas the decrease of AMPA receptor GluR2 subunit internalization was found up to 28 days in the same group. Administration of PI3K selective antagonist wortmannin inhibited the improvement of spatial learning memory and the increase of neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus up to 28 days post ischemia. It also reversed the inhibition of AMPA receptor GluR2 internalization induced by propofol post-conditioning. Together, our data indicated the critical role of PI3K in regulating the long term neuroprotection induced by propofol post-conditioning. Moreover, this role was established by first day activation of PI3K and formation of PI3K-AMPA receptor GluR2 complex, thus stabilized the structure of postsnaptic AMPA receptor and inhibited the internalization of GluR2 subunit during the early stage of propofol post-conditioning.     

口蹄疫病毒自身核酸片段对病毒样颗粒组装的促进作用

选取能够与口蹄疫病毒结构蛋白相互作用且有特殊结构的核酸片段5′非翻译区(5′UTR)和内部核糖体进入位点(Internal ribosome entry site,IRES)作为支架,进行病毒样颗粒组装的研究。通过对组装产物进行粒径、表面电位、凝胶阻滞、核酸酶消化、尺寸排阻色谱、透射电镜、圆二色光谱等检测,结果表明,核酸片段5′UTR和IRES能与口蹄疫病毒样颗粒共组装并形成病毒样颗粒。通过统计学分析发现VLPs-5′UTR的75S颗粒的组装效率显著高于单纯VLPs组(P0.001)和VLPs-IRES (P0.01),而VLPs-IRES的12S颗粒的组装效率显著高于单纯VLPs组(P0.000 1)和VLPs-5′UTR (P0.000 1),表明口蹄疫病毒自身核酸片段5′UTR更有利于口蹄疫病毒样颗粒的组装。该研究对促进口蹄疫病毒样颗粒组装提出了新的思路和优化策略,有助于病毒样颗粒疫苗的研发。     

Arabidopsis VILLIN4 is involved in root hair growth through regulating actin organization in a Ca2+-dependent manner

? Villin is one of the major actin filament bundling proteins in plants. The function of Arabidopsis VILLINs (AtVLNs) is still poorly understood in living cells. In this report, the biochemical activity and cellular function of AtVLN4 were examined. ? The biochemical property of AtVLN4 was characterized by co-sedimentation assays, fluorescence microscopy and spectroscopy of pyrene fluorescence. The in vivo function of AtVLN4 was analysed by ectopically expressing it in tobacco pollen and examining the phenotypes of its T-DNA insertional plants. ? Recombinant AtVLN4 protein exhibited multiple activities on actin, including actin filament bundling, calcium (Ca(2+))-dependent filament severing and barbed end capping. Expression of AtVLN4 in tobacco pollen induced the formation of supernumerary actin cables and reduced pollen tube growth. Loss of function of AtVLN4 resulted in slowing of root hair growth, alteration in cytoplasmic streaming routes and rate, and reduction of both axial and apical actin bundles. ? Our results demonstrated that AtVLN4 is involved in root hair growth through regulating actin organization in a Ca(2+)-dependent manner.     

Quetiapine attenuates spatial memory impairment and hippocampal neurodegeneration induced by bilateral common carotid artery occlusion in mice

Quetiapine, a new atypical antipsychotic drug, has beneficial effects on cognitive impairment and neuropathological changes in treating chronic neurodegenerative diseases. Our previous studies have demonstrated that quetiapine may have neuroprotective properties. In the present study, we investigated the effects of a 2-week pre-administration of quetiapine (10 mg/kg/day, i.p.) on spatial memory impairment and hippocampal neurodegeneration induced by 60-minute bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (CCAO). Following a 7-day recovery phase from CCAO, the spatial memory of the mice was tested using a modified water maze test. After the behavioural test, the mice were sacrificed and brain sections were stained with NeuN (a neuron-specific soluble nuclear antigen), cresyl violet (Nissl), and Fluoro-Jade B. CCAO significantly induced spatial memory impairment and caused neurodegeneration in the hilus of hippocampus, while quetiapine significantly attenuated these changes. This is the first study showing that quetiapine significantly attenuates CCAO-induced spatial memory impairment and this improvement parallels the alleviative effects of quetiapine on CCAO-induced neurodegeneration in the hilus of hippocampus. The results suggest that quetiapine may have defending effects on the impairments induced by cerebral ischemia, which enhances our understanding about the mechanisms of quetiapine.     

Bone morphogenetic protein-4 is overexpressed in colonic adenocarcinomas and promotes migration and invasion of HCT116 cells

Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP), a member of the TGF-beta superfamily, is involved in development, morphogenesis, cell proliferation and apoptosis. Dysregulation of BMP signaling has been suggested in tumorigenesis. In an analysis of human colon normal mucosa and tumors at different stages by immunohistochemistry, we observed that the intensity of BMP-4 staining in late-adenocarcinomas was stronger than that in normal mucosa and adenomas, while there was no difference in the staining of its receptors (BMPR-IA and BMPR-II) at all stages. The up-regulation of BMP-4 was further validated in another panel of tumor tissues by real-time RT-PCR, showing that BMP-4 mRNA levels in primary colonic carcinomas with liver metastasis were significantly higher than that in the matched normal mucosa. In order to understand the functional relevance of BMP-4 expression in colon cancer progression, BMP-4-overexpressing cell clones were generated from HCT116 cells. Overexpression of BMP-4 did not affect the HCT116 cell growth. The cells overexpressing BMP-4 became resistant to serum-starvation-induced apoptosis and exhibited enhanced migration and invasion characteristics. Overexpression of BMP-4 changed cell morphology to invasive spindle phenotype and induced the expression and activity of urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA). These results indicate that BMP-4 confers invasive phenotype during progression of colon cancer.     

黄花倒水莲花中黄酮苷类成分的分离、鉴定及抗氧化活性研究

该研究采用硅胶、Sephadex LH-20柱色谱和HPLC进行分离纯化,并结合1D-NMR波谱数据和文献比对,研究了黄花倒水莲花中黄酮类成分及抗氧化活性。结果表明：（1）从黄花倒水莲花95%乙醇提取物的乙酸乙酯部位中分离鉴定出6个黄酮苷类化合物,即紫云英苷（1）、槲皮素-3-O-β-D-葡萄糖苷（2）、槲皮素-3-O-β-吡喃木糖苷（3）、槲皮素-3-O-α-L-吡喃阿拉伯糖苷（4）、异鼠李素-3-O-β-葡萄糖苷（5）、芦丁（6）,其中化合物1-6均为首次从该植物中分离得到。（2）分别采用DPPH·自由基清除法及FRAP法对花的不同极性部位和所获得化合物进行总抗氧化能力评价,结果显示化合物1-6均表现出较好的抗氧化作用,其中化合物4的总抗氧化能力达到（4.533±0.13）mmol·g^-1(Vc为5.951±0.25 mmol·g^-1)。该研究结果不仅丰富了黄花倒水莲花的物质基础,而且为其今后的综合开发利用提供了科学依据。     

Gastrodin Inhibits Glutamate-Induced Apoptosis of PC12 Cells via Inhibition of CaMKII/ASK-1/p38 MAPK/p53 Signaling Cascade

Previous research demonstrated that glutamate induces neuronal injury partially by increasing intracellular Ca²⁺ concentrations ([Ca²⁺]_i), and inducing oxidative stress, leading to a neurodegenerative disorder. However, the mechanism of glutamate-induced injury remains elusive. Gastrodin, a major active component of the traditional herbal agent Gastrodia elata (GE) Blume, has been recognized as a potential neuroprotective drug. In the current study, a classical injury model based on glutamate-induced cell death of rat pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells was used to investigate the neuroprotective effect of gastrodin, and its potential mechanisms involved. In this paper, the presence of gastrodin inhibits glutamate-induced oxidative stress as measured by the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), the level of malondialdehyde (MDA), mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), and superoxide dismutase (SOD); gastrodin also prevents glutamate-induced [Ca²⁺]_i influx, blocks the activation of the calmodulin-dependent kinase II (CaMKII) and the apoptosis signaling-regulating kinase-1 (ASK-1), inhibits phosphorylation of p38 mitogen-activated kinase (MAPK). Additionally, gastrodin blocked the expression of p53 phosphorylation, caspase-3 and cytochrome C, reduced bax/bcl-2 ratio induced by glutamate in PC12 cells. All these findings indicate that gastrodin protects PC12 cells from the apoptosis induced by glutamate through a new mechanism of the CaMKII/ASK-1/p38 MAPK/p53-signaling pathway.     

MethylPurify: tumor purity deconvolution and differential methylation detection from single tumor DNA methylomes

We propose a statistical algorithm MethylPurify that uses regions with bisulfite reads showing discordant methylation levels to infer tumor purity from tumor samples alone. MethylPurify can identify differentially methylated regions (DMRs) from individual tumor methylome samples, without genomic variation information or prior knowledge from other datasets. In simulations with mixed bisulfite reads from cancer and normal cell lines, MethylPurify correctly inferred tumor purity and identified over 96% of the DMRs. From patient data, MethylPurify gave satisfactory DMR calls from tumor methylome samples alone, and revealed potential missed DMRs by tumor to normal comparison due to tumor heterogeneity.

Electronic supplementary material

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