Rapamycin can restore the negative regulatory function of transforming growth factor beta 1 in high grade lymphomas

TGF-β1 (transforming growth factor beta 1) is a negative regulator of lymphocytes, inhibiting proliferation and switching on the apoptotic program in normal lymphoid cells. Lymphoma cells often lose their sensitivity to proapoptotic/anti-proliferative regulators such as TGF-β1. Rapamycin can influence both mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) and TGF-β signaling, and through these pathways it is able to enhance TGF-β induced anti-proliferative and apoptotic responses. In the present work we investigated the effect of rapamycin and TGF-β1 combination on cell growth and on TGF-β and mTOR signalling events in lymphoma cells.Rapamycin, an inhibitor of mTORC1 (mTOR complex 1) did not elicit apoptosis in lymphoma cells; however, the combination of rapamycin with exogenous TGF-β1 induced apoptosis and restored TGF-β1 dependent apoptotic machinery in several lymphoma cell lines with reduced TGF-β sensitivity in vitro. In parallel, the phosphorylation of p70 ribosomal S6 kinase (p70S6K) and ribosomal S6 protein, targets of mTORC1, was completely eliminated. Knockdown of Smad signalling by Smad4 siRNA had no influence on apoptosis induced by the rapamycin + TGF-β1, suggesting that this effect is independent of Smad signalling. However, apoptosis induction was dependent on early protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) activity, and in part on caspases. Rapamycin + TGF-β1 induced apoptosis was not completely eliminated by a caspase inhibitor.These results suggest that high mTOR activity contributes to TGF-β resistance and lowering mTORC1 kinase activity may provide a tool in high grade B-cell lymphoma therapy by restoring the sensitivity to normally available regulators such as TGF-β1.     

Association of Blood Glucose Control and Outcomes in Patients with COVID-19 and Pre-existing Type 2 Diabetes

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Prohibitin is a cholesterol‐sensitive regulator of cell cycle transit

Cholesterol is essential in establishing most functional animal cell membranes; cells cannot grow or proliferate in the absence of sufficient cholesterol. Consequently, almost every cell, tissue, and animal tightly regulates cholesterol homeostasis, including complex mechanisms of synthesis, transport, uptake, and disposition of cholesterol molecules. We hypothesize that cellular recognition of cholesterol insufficiency causes cell cycle arrest in order to avoid a catastrophic failure in membrane synthesis. Here, we demonstrate using unbiased proteomics and standard biochemistry that cholesterol insufficiency causes upregulation of prohibitin, an inhibitor of cell cycle progression, through activation of a cholesterol‐responsive promoter element. We also demonstrate that prohibitin protects cells from apoptosis caused by cholesterol insufficiency. This is the first study tying cholesterol homeostasis to a specific cell cycle regulator that inhibits apoptosis. J. Cell. Biochem. 111: 1367–1374, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

The effect of substitution of Phe181 and Phe182 with Ala on activity,substrate specificity and stabilization of substrate at the active site of Bacillus thermocatenulatus lipase

Steric hindrance leads to limitation in the access of substrate into the enzyme active site. In order to decrease steric hindrance, two conserved residues, Phe¹⁸¹ and Phe¹⁸², in the lid domain of Bacillus thermocatenulatus lipase were substituted with alanine by using site-directed mutagenesis. As a result, three mutant lipases were produced. Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy showed that the secondary structure of all lipases is similar to one another. F181A mutation increased the distance between phe¹⁸¹ and catalytic ser¹¹⁴, which is buried in the active site by 3.24 Å. It can be suggested that such an increase in distance may lead to a decrease in steric hindrance. F181A mutation increased overall lipase activity by up to 2.6-fold (4670 U mg⁻¹) toward C8 substrate. It also resulted in optimal lipase activity at 65 °C rather than 55 °C. F182A mutation increased the distance between phe¹⁸² and catalytic ser¹¹⁴ by 1.54 Å but failed to induce any significant effect on lipase activity. However, F181A–F182A mutation significantly decreased the activity due to decreased van der Waals interactions between the phenyl group of phenylalanines and the acyl chain of triacylglycerol. These results indicate that presence of one of the two residues, Phe¹⁸¹ or Phe¹⁸², is important for stabilizing triacylglycerols in active site.     

A review of the herbal phosphodiesterase inhibitors; Future perspective of new drugs

Phosphodiesterase inhibitors (PDEIs) are a class of drugs that are widely used because of their various pharmacological properties including cardiotonic, vasodilator, smooth muscle relaxant, antidepressant, antithrombotic, bronchodilator, antiinflammatory and enhancer of cognitive function. In the recent years, interest in drugs of plant origin has been progressively increased. Some pharmacologically active substances that come from plants demonstrate PDEI activity. They mainly belong to alkaloids, flavonoids, and saponins. In this review, studies on herbal PDEI were reviewed and their possible therapeutic applications were discussed. Screening plants for PDE inhibitory activity may help to develop standardized phytotherapeutic products or find new sources for new lead structures with PDEI pharmacological activity. The studies discussed in this paper are mainly in vitro and for more reasonable and conclusive results, it is required to conduct in vivo and finally human and clinical tests.     

外源物质对灵芝多糖和β-葡聚糖发酵的影响

研究了14种外源物质（化合物）对灵芝细胞生长和发酵合成多糖和β-葡聚糖的影响。结果表明,连翘水提物（3g/L）对灵芝细胞生长具有显著促进作用;薏苡仁酯（3g/L）对灵芝胞内多糖和β-葡聚糖的合成均具有促进作用;而桔梗水提物、硝酸铈铵、硝酸镨、茉莉酸甲酯和硝普钠对灵芝细胞生长和产物合成均具有抑制作用。进一步通过Box-Behnken试验设计和响应面法分析,建立了添加薏苡仁酯发酵产β-葡聚糖的二次多项式模型,经分析得到产β-葡聚糖的最优条件为：薏苡仁酯添加量10.5g/L、接种量16%、添加时间第88小时、发酵初始pH 7.00。在此条件下获得β-葡聚糖的产量可达(40.67±8.43)mg/L,与未添加薏苡仁酯的对照组相比,提高了41.86%;多糖产量为(0.99±0.21)g/L,与对照组相比,提高了31.99%。结果提示所得添加薏苡仁酯的优化条件可定向诱导灵芝β-葡聚糖的合成,同时也表明在灵芝液体发酵体系中添加薏苡仁酯发酵产多糖和β-葡聚糖具有一定的实用价值。     

野生田头菇菌株的驯化及其子实体营养成分分析

采自湖南洞庭湖大通湖区芦苇湿地的野生菌株,经鉴定为田头菇Agrocybe praecox。通过驯化实现人工栽培,栽培原料以芦苇屑为主,使用液体菌种和覆土栽培方式,初潮菇平均生物转化率为45.6%。营养成分分析表明：以芦苇屑为栽培培养基,子实体中矿物元素含量分别为K（2 190mg/kg）、Fe（16.2mg/kg）、Mg（59.7mg/kg）、Ca（33.4mg/kg）,必需氨基酸含量占比高达44.85%,谷氨酸、蛋氨酸、天冬氨酸含量高,是一种高蛋白、低脂肪、高钾低钠的食用菌。     

Prognostic value and immune cell infiltration of hypoxic phenotype‐related gene signatures in glioblastoma microenvironment

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a malignant intracranial tumour with the highest proportion and lethality. It is characterized by invasiveness and heterogeneity. However, the currently available therapies are not curative. As an essential environmental cue that maintains glioma stem cells, hypoxia is considered the cause of tumour resistance to chemotherapy and radiation. Growing evidence shows that immunotherapy focusing on the tumour microenvironment is an effective treatment for GBM; however, the current clinicopathological features cannot predict the response to immunotherapy and provide accurate guidance for immunotherapy. Based on the ESTIMATE algorithm, GBM cases of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data set were classified into high‐ and low‐immune/stromal score groups, and a four‐gene tumour environment‐related model was constructed. This model exhibited good efficiency at forecasting short‐ and long‐term prognosis and could also act as an independent prognostic biomarker. Additionally, this model and four of its genes (CLECL5A, SERPING1, CHI3L1 and C1R) were found to be associated with immune cell infiltration, and further study demonstrated that these four genes might drive the hypoxic phenotype of perinecrotic GBM, which affects hypoxia‐induced glioma stemness. Therefore, these might be important candidates for immunotherapy of GBM and deserve further exploration.