Blockade of PDGFR-β activation eliminates morphine analgesic tolerance

For centuries, opioid drugs have been the mainstay of chronic pain treatment. However, over time analgesic tolerance develops, leaving few treatment options. Here we show that platelet-derived growth factor receptor-β (PDGFR-β)-mediated signaling plays a key role in morphine tolerance. PDGFR-β inhibition selectively eliminates morphine tolerance in rats. PDGFR-β inhibitors are widely used and well tolerated, suggesting that clinical translation of our findings could reduce the suffering endured by individuals with intractable pain.     

Ingenuity pathways analysis of urine metabolomics phenotypes toxicity of Chuanwu in Wistar rats by UPLC-Q-TOF-HDMS coupled with pattern recognition methods

Chuanwu (CW), a valuable traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), is the mother root of Aconitum carmichaelii Debx. The cause of CW-induced toxicity is still under ongoing research, although this is limited by the lack of sensitive and reliable biomarkers. Ingenuity pathway analysis (IPA) was performed to analyzing global metabolomics in order to characterize the phenotypically biochemical perturbations and potential mechanisms of the CW-induced toxicity. CW was administered to Wistar rats (0.027 g/200 g and 0.108 g/200 g bw, oral) for 6 months and urine samples were collected. The urinary metabolomics was performed by UPLC-Q-TOF-HDMS, and the mass spectra signals of the detected metabolites were systematically deconvoluted and analyzed by pattern recognition methods (PCA, PLS-DA, and OPLS-DA), revealing a time- and dose-dependency of the biochemical perturbations induced by CW toxicity. As a result, several metabolites responsible for pentose and glucuronate interconversions, alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism, starch and sucrose metabolism, amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism, purine metabolism, tryptophan metabolism, taurine and hypotaurine metabolism, fructose and mannose metabolism, fatty acid metabolism were characterized, and it was confirmed that biochemical perturbations can be foreseen from these biomarkers. The urinary metabolomics based IPA with pattern recognition methods also revealed that CW produced serious heart and liver toxicity, consistent with clinical biochemistry and histopathology. Significant changes of 17 metabolites were identified and validated as phenotypic biomarkers of CW toxicity. Overall, our work demonstrated the metabolomics has brought enormous opportunities for improved detection of toxicity and biomarker discovery, highlighting the powerful predictive potential of the IPA to study of drug toxicity.     

Boosting the free fatty acid synthesis of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Escherichia coli</Emphasis> by expression of a cytosolic <Emphasis Type="Italic">Acinetobacter baylyi</Emphasis> thioesterase

Background

Thioesterases remove the fatty acyl moiety from the fatty acyl-acyl carrier proteins (ACPs), releasing them as free fatty acids (FFAs), which can be further used to produce a variety of fatty acid-based biofuels, such as biodiesel, fatty alcohols and alkanes. Thioesterases play a key role in the regulation of the fatty acid synthesis in Escherichia coli. Therefore, exploring more promising thioesterases will contribute to the development of industrial microbial lipids production.

Results

We cloned and expressed a cytosolic Acinetobacter baylyi thioesterase (‘AcTesA) in E. coli by deleting its leader sequence. Protein sequence alignment, structure modeling and site-directed mutagenesis demonstrated that Ser¹⁰, Gly⁴⁸, Asn⁷⁷, Asp¹⁵⁸ and His¹⁶¹ residues composed the active centre of ‘AcTesA. The engineered strain that overexpressed ‘AcTesA achieved a FFAs titer of up to 501.2 mg/L in shake flask, in contrast to only 20.5 mg/L obtained in wild-type E. coli, demonstrating that the expression of ‘AcTesA indeed boosted the synthesis of FFAs. The ‘AcTesA exhibited a substrate preference towards the C8-C16 acyl groups, with C14:0, C16:1, C12:0 and C8:0 FFAs being the top four components. Optimization of expression level of ‘AcTesA made the FFAs production increase to 551.3 mg/L. The FFAs production further increased to 716.1 mg/L by optimization of the culture medium. Fed-batch fermentation was also carried out to evaluate the FFAs production in a scaleable process. Finally, 3.6 g/L FFAs were accumulated within 48 h, and a maximal FFAs yield of 6.1% was achieved in 12–16 h post induction.

Conclusions

For the first time, an A. baylyi thioesterase was cloned and solubly expressed in the cytosol of E. coli. This leaderless thioesterase (‘AcTesA) was found to be capable of enhancing the FFAs production of E. coli. Without detailed optimization of the strain and fermentation, the finally achieved 3.6 g/L FFAs is encouraging. In addition, ‘AcTesA exhibited different substrate specificity from other thioesterases previously reported, and can be used to supply the fatty acid-based biofuels with high quality of FFAs. Altogether, this study provides a promising thioesterase for FFAs production, and is of great importance in enriching the library of useful thioesterases.

     

Chemical properties and antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of slovenian propolis

The chemical composition as well as the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of two EtOH extracts of propolis (PEEs) from Slovenia were determined. EtOH was used as extracting solvent at 70 and 96%, providing the extracts PEE70 and PEE96, respectively. The extraction with 70% EtOH was more efficient than that with 96% EtOH, as the PEE70 was richer in total phenolic compounds than the PEE96. The Slovenian propolis was characterized by different phenolic acids and flavonoids. The PEE96 was slightly richer in three specific compounds, i.e., caffeic acid, ferulic acid, and luteolin, while all other substances detected showed higher contents in the PEE70. The PEE70 showed a stronger reducing power and ability to scavenge free radicals and metal ions than the PEE96. Both PEEs were in the main more effective against Gram-positive bacteria than against fungi and Gram-negative bacteria like Salmonella and Escherichia coli, with the exception of Campylobacter. The PEE96 decreased the intracellular oxidation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae in a dose-dependent manner. The antimicrobial activities and antioxidant properties were related to the total phenolic contents. The two PEEs have the potential for use as natural antimicrobial and antioxidant additives in foods.     

挖捕泥丁对红树植物白骨壤幼苗生长影响的模拟

沿海群众为了增加收入挖掘林下滩涂海洋经济动物可口革囊星虫,这是导致中国红树林退化的一个重要原因.本文研究了挖掘深度、弧度和频率3个因素对1年生白骨壤幼苗的苗高、基径、单叶面积、比叶面积、生物量和死根干质量等生长指标的影响,了解挖掘活动对红树林生长的影响机理,并筛选出红树林健康状况的评估指标.结果表明:挖掘活动使白骨壤幼苗的苗高和基径增长量、单叶面积、比叶面积和生物量显著减少,而死根干质量显著增加;挖掘深度和弧度对幼苗生长具有明显影响,但频率的影响不显著;当挖掘深度＜5 cm、弧度＜240°、每月2次以下时,对幼苗的伤害较轻,而挖掘深度＞5 cm则会对幼苗造成严重影响.     

Expression of fungal phytase on the cell surface ofSaccharomyces cerevisiae

Phytase improves the bioavailability of phytate phosphorus in plant foods to humans and animals, and reduces the phosphorus pollution of animal waste. We have engineered the cell surface of the yeast,Saccharomyces cerevisiae by anchoring active fungal phytase on its cell wall, in order to apply it as a dietary supplement containing bioconversional functions in animal foods and a whole cell bio-catalyst for the treatment of waste. The phytase gene (phyA) ofAspergillus niger with a signal peptide of rice amylase 1A (Ramy1A) was fused with the gene encoding the C-terminal half (320 amino acid residues from the C-terminus) of yeast α-agglutinin, a protein which is involved in mating and is covalently anchored to the cell wall. The resulting fusion construct was introduced intoS. cerevisiae and expressed under the control of the constitutive glyceraldehydes-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPD) promoter. Phytase plate assay revealed that the surface-engineered cell exhibited a catalytically active opaque zone which was restricted to the margin of the colony. Additionally, the phytase activity was detected in the cell fraction, but was not detected in the culture medium when it was grown in liquid. These results indicate that the phytase was successfully anchored to the cell surface of yeast and was displayed as its active form. The amount of recombinant phytase on the surface of yeast cells was estimated to be 16,000 molecules per cell.     

水牛瘤胃宏基因组的一个新的b-葡萄糖苷酶基因umcel3G的克隆、表达及其表达产物的酶学特性

以木质纤维素为原料、应用同步糖化共发酵工艺发酵生产酒精时需要酸性中低温高活力纤维素酶包括b-葡萄糖苷酶。本工作分6次构建了水牛瘤胃未培养微生物宏基因组文库, 获得1.26×105个克隆, 文库含外源DNA的总长度 约为4.8×106 kb。从文库中筛选到118个表达b-葡萄糖苷酶活性的独立克隆。发现其中8个克隆表达的b-葡萄糖苷酶在pH5.0、37oC条件下活性较强。对其中一个克隆进行了亚克隆, 序列分析发现一个2223 bp的潜在的编码b-葡萄糖苷酶基因(umcel3G)的开放阅读框(ORF), 其编码产物的氨基酸序列与来自于 Bacillus sp.的一个b-葡萄糖苷酶同源性最高, 具有60%的一致性和73%的相似性。该ORF在E.coli中的表达产物Umcel3G的分子量与预测大小相似, 酶谱分析表明该表达产物具有b-葡萄糖苷酶活性, 证实该基因为一个b-葡萄糖苷酶基因。测定了用Ni-NTA纯化的Umcel3G的酶学特性, 其最适pH和最适温度分别为6.0~6.5和45oC。一些金属离子如Ca2+、Zn2+能显著提高该酶的酶活, 而另外一些金属离子如Fe3+、Cu2+能抑制Umcel3G的活性。在pH4.5、35oC和5 mmol/L的 Ca2+存在的条件下, 用Ni-NTA纯化的重组酶的比活为22.8 IU/mg, 说明该酶在用SSCF工艺发酵生产酒精中有潜在的应用价值。     

Pravastatin increases the expression of the tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase-1 and the oncogene Bax in human aortic abdominal aneurysms

The effect of pravastatin on matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) and the level of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP)-1 and TIMP-2 was studied in explants of human abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) obtained from 13 patients. The effect of pravastatin on the apoptotic status of human AAA explants was also examined. Total MMP-9 content did not differ in human AAA explants incubated in vitro in the presence or absence of pravastatin (10-6 mol/L) for 48 h. TIMP-1 levels were significantly increased in pravastatin-incubated AAA explants, but TIMP-2 production was not modified by pravastatin. Western blot experiments showed that, whereas Bax expression was increased in pravastatin-incubated AAA explants, the expression of Bcl-2 was not modified. On the other hand, the ratio of the expression of Bax to Bcl-2, an apoptotic index, was not modified by pravastatin. In the human AAA explants, the increase in Bax expression, but not the increase in TIMP-1 expression elicited by pravastatin, was reversed by L-mevalonate, a downstream HMG-CoA reductase metabolite, suggesting that the expression of Bax and TIMP-1 followed HMG-CoA reductase-dependent and -independent pathways, respectively. In conclusion, pravastatin increases both TIMP-1 and Bax expression in human AAA explants without changes in either MMP-9 activity or the apoptotic status.