Cognitive Changes during Prolonged Stay at High Altitude and Its Correlation with C-Reactive Protein

Hypersensitive C-reaction protein (hsCRP) may be a risk factor for cognitive impairment resulting from Alzheimer’s disease (AD), stroke, and vascular dementia. This study explored the correlation of peripheral blood hsCRP level with cognitive decline due to high altitude exposure. The study was conducted on 100 male military participants who had never been to high altitude. Cerebral oxygen saturation monitoring, event related potentials (P300, N200) detection, and neurocognitive assessment was performed and total hsCRP, interleukin-6 (IL-6), and homocysteine was estimated at 500m altitude, 3650m altitude, 3day, 1, and 3 month post arriving at the base camp (4400m), and 1 month after coming back to the 500m altitude. High altitude increased brain oxygen saturation, prolonged P300 and N200 latencies, injured cognitive functions, and raised plasma hsCRP levels. But they all recovered in varying degrees at 1 and 3 month post arriving at the base camp (4400m). P300 latencies and hsCRP levels were strongly correlated to cognitive performances. These results suggested that cognitive deterioration occurred during the acute period of exposure to high altitude and may recover probably owning to acclimatization after extended stay at high altitude. Plasma hsCRP is inversely correlated to neurological cognition and it may be a potential biomarker for the prediction of high altitude induced cognitive dysfunction.     

Phospho-regulated ACAP4-Ezrin Interaction Is Essential for Histamine-stimulated Parietal Cell Secretion

The ezrin-radixin-moesin proteins provide a regulated linkage between membrane proteins and the cortical cytoskeleton and also participate in signal transduction pathways. Ezrin is localized to the apical membrane of parietal cells and couples the protein kinase A activation cascade to the regulated HCl secretion. Our recent proteomic study revealed a protein complex of ezrin-ACAP4-ARF6 essential for volatile membrane remodeling (Fang, Z., Miao, Y., Ding, X., Deng, H., Liu, S., Wang, F., Zhou, R., Watson, C., Fu, C., Hu, Q., Lillard, J. W., Jr., Powell, M., Chen, Y., Forte, J. G., and Yao, X. (2006) Mol. Cell Proteomics 5, 1437–1449). However, knowledge of whether ACAP4 physically interacts with ezrin and how their interaction is integrated into membrane-cytoskeletal remodeling has remained elusive. Here we provide the first evidence that ezrin interacts with ACAP4 in a protein kinase A-mediated phosphorylation-dependent manner through the N-terminal 400 amino acids of ACAP4. ACAP4 locates in the cytoplasmic membrane in resting parietal cells but translocates to the apical plasma membrane upon histamine stimulation. ACAP4 was precipitated with ezrin from secreting but not resting parietal cell lysates, suggesting a phospho-regulated interaction. Indeed, this interaction is abolished by phosphatase treatment and validated by an in vitro reconstitution assay using phospho-mimicking ezrin^S66D. Importantly, ezrin specifies the apical distribution of ACAP4 in secreting parietal cells because either suppression of ezrin or overexpression of non-phosphorylatable ezrin prevents the apical localization of ACAP4. In addition, overexpressing GTPase-activating protein-deficient ACAP4 results in an inhibition of apical membrane-cytoskeletal remodeling and gastric acid secretion. Taken together, these results define a novel molecular mechanism linking ACAP4-ezrin interaction to polarized epithelial secretion.     

Overexpression of malate dehydrogenase in transgenic tobacco leaves: enhanced malate synthesis and augmented Al-resistance

Numerous studies with transgenic plants have demonstrated that overexpression of enzymes related to organic acid metabolism under the control of CaMV 35S promoter increased organic acid exudation and Al-resistance. The synthesis of organic acids requires a large carbon skeleton supply from leaf photosynthesis. Thus, we produced transgenic tobacco overexpressing cytosolic malate dehydrogenase (MDH) cDNA from Arabidopsis thaliana (amdh) and the MDH gene from Escherichia coli (emdh), respectively, under the control of a leaf-specific light-inducible promoter (Rubisco small subunit promoter, PrbcS) in the present study. Our data indicated that an increase (120–130%) in MDH-specific activity in leaves led to an increase in malate content in the transgenic tobacco leaves and roots as well as a significant increase in root malate exudation compared with the WT plants under the acidic (pH 4.5) conditions irrespective of 300 μM Al³⁺ stress absence or presence. After being exposed to 25 μM Al³⁺ in a hydroponic solution, the transgenic plants exhibited stronger Al-tolerance than WT plants and the degree of A1 tolerance in the transgenic plants corresponded with the amount of malate secretion. When grown in an Al-stress perlite medium, the transgenic tobacco lines showed better growth than the WT plants. The results suggested that overexpression of MDH driven by the PrbcS promoter in transgenic plant leaves enhanced malate synthesis and improved Al-resistance.     

Thermal unfolding studies show the disease causing F508del mutation in CFTR thermodynamically destabilizes nucleotide-binding domain 1

Misfolding and degradation of CFTR is the cause of disease in patients with the most prevalent CFTR mutation, an in-frame deletion of phenylalanine (F508del), located in the first nucleotide-binding domain of human CFTR (hNBD1). Studies of (F508del)CFTR cellular folding suggest that both intra- and inter-domain folding is impaired. (F508del)CFTR is a temperature-sensitive mutant, that is, lowering growth temperature, improves both export, and plasma membrane residence times. Yet, paradoxically, F508del does not alter the fold of isolated hNBD1 nor did it seem to perturb its unfolding transition in previous isothermal chemical denaturation studies. We therefore studied the in vitro thermal unfolding of matched hNBD1 constructs ±F508del to shed light on the defective folding mechanism and the basis for the thermal instability of (F508del)CFTR. Using primarily differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and circular dichroism, we show for all hNBD1 pairs studied, that F508del lowers the unfolding transition temperature (T_m) by 6–7°C and that unfolding occurs via a kinetically-controlled, irreversible transition in isolated monomers. A thermal unfolding mechanism is derived from nonlinear least squares fitting of comprehensive DSC data sets. All data are consistent with a simple three-state thermal unfolding mechanism for hNBD1 ± F508del: N(±MgATP) ⇄ I_T(±MgATP) → A_T → (A_T)_n. The equilibrium unfolding to intermediate, I_T, is followed by the rate-determining, irreversible formation of a partially folded, aggregation-prone, monomeric state, A_T, for which aggregation to (A_T)_n and further unfolding occur with no detectable heat change. Fitted parameters indicate that F508del thermodynamically destabilizes the native state, N, and accelerates the formation of A_T.     

Recombinant expression,purification, and characterization of an acyl-CoA binding protein from Aspergillus oryzae

Biotechnology Letters - To characterize biochemically the lipid metabolism-regulating acyl-CoA binding protein (ACBP) from the industrially-important fungus Aspergillus oryzae. A full-length cDNA...