白细胞介素－2中某些残基替换对活性的影响

用基因定点突变法研究了白细胞介素－２（ＩＬ－２）中某些氨基酸对生物活性的影响。将ＩＬ－２中３９Ｍｅｔ和４３Ｌｙｓ分别改为Ｐｒｏ,企图破坏此处α螺旋,突变体的ＣＤ图谱和生物活性均,不变,说明此处可能原来就不存在α螺旋．而将５２Ｇｌｕ．５３Ｌｅｕ,５４Ｌｙｓ分别改为Ｐｒｏ后,ＣＤ谱发生了变化,生物活性也显著下降。表明这些氨基酸处在α螺旋中,将它们改为Ｐｒｏ后,影响了ＩＬ－２的结构,并导致活性下降     

白细胞介素－2的PEG化

用自制的氨基ＰＥＧ化试剂ｒＩＬ－２进行化学修饰,研究了试剂浓度,溶液ｐＨ,反应时间等与ＰＥｃａ－ｒＩＬ－２产率及ＩＬ－２活性保持之间的关系,建立了一套获得稳定修饰度的ＰＥＧ－ｒＩＬ－２的方法。研究发现,反应时间跟修饰度关系不大;溶液ｐＨ对修饰度有一定的影响,中性ｐＨ以上反应都可进行;而试剂浓度直接决定修饰度的高低,过量越多,修饰度越高,而生物活性保留也越低;但低度修饰,对活性几乎没有影响,可保留活性在９５％左右。     

Cell-Specific Detection of miR-375 Downregulation for Predicting the Prognosis of Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma by miRNA In Situ Hybridization

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in the regulation of genes associated with cancer development and progression. By the more deeply characterization of miRNAs’ effect in cancer development, it requires a useful tool to investigate expression and distribution of a miRNA in cancer cells and tissues. To fulfill this application demand, we developed a miRNA in situ hybridization (MISH) approach using the 2′-Fluoro modified miRNA probe in combination with enzyme-labeled fluorescence (ELF) signal amplification approach. MISH was used to study expression of miR-375 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) cell lines and tissues using a tissue microarray (TMA) containing 300 cases. The results showed that our MISH approach is a practical way to detect expression and distribution of a tested miRNA in both cultured cells and archive tissue sections. MISH results also showed that miR-375 was frequently downregulated in ESCCs, which was significantly associated with advanced clinical stage (p = 0.003) tumor metastasis (p = 0.04) and poor outcome (p = 0.04) of ESCC. Moreover, the accuracy of MISH results could be confirmed by QRT-PCR. Our results demonstrated that MISH is a useful and reliable tool to study miRNA expression in solid tumors. Downregulation of miR-375 can be used as a biomarker to predict the outcome of ESCC.     

Lithium Down-regulates Histone Deacetylase 1 (HDAC1) and Induces Degradation of Mutant Huntingtin

Lithium is an effective mood stabilizer that has been clinically used to treat bipolar disorder for several decades. Recent studies have suggested that lithium possesses robust neuroprotective and anti-tumor properties. Thus far, a large number of lithium targets have been discovered. Here, we report for the first time that HDAC1 is a target of lithium. Lithium significantly down-regulated HDAC1 at the translational level by targeting HDAC1 mRNA. We also showed that depletion of HDAC1 is essential for the neuroprotective effects of lithium and for the lithium-mediated degradation of mutant huntingtin through the autophagic pathway. Our studies explain the multiple functions of lithium and reveal a novel mechanism for the function of lithium in neurodegeneration.     

猪流行性腹泻病毒地方株LJB/03分离及培养特性

从黑龙江省某猪场疑为病毒性腹泻的发病猪采集腹泻粪便样品,以RT-PCR法扩增出猪流行性腹泻病毒M基因后,采用细胞培养法进行病毒分离。对细胞培养分离物进行间接免疫荧光、免疫电镜观察、RT-PCR及ELISA法检验,其中间接免疫荧光试验可见培养细胞中存在明显的特异性绿色荧光;免疫电镜下可见大小符合预期、有囊膜、花瓣状的典型冠状病毒结构特征;RT-PCR检测证实存在PEDVM基因;间接ELISA检测中平均P/N比值为7.6;从而确认为分离到一株猪流行性腹泻病毒(Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus,PEDV),命名为PEDVLJB/03株。随后,对该分离毒株的培养特性及如何提高病毒滴度进行探索。通过摸索该分离毒株的蚀斑形成条件,建立了PEDV蚀斑形成方法,并采用该方法进行病毒的蚀斑纯化,纯化得到PEDV大蚀斑克隆株和小蚀斑克隆株。对大、小两种蚀斑克隆株的病毒滴度测定结果表明,大小蚀斑克隆株细胞感染滴度相差明显。     

构建多顺反子表达载体的有效工具——FMDV 2A

近年来肿瘤多基因治疗倍受关注,然而目前缺少一种有效的构建多顺子的工具。传统的构建多顺反子的工具,如IRES等,由于存在结构大,上下游基因表达差异显著等缺陷,严重限制了其应用。FMDV2A,因其具有结构小、剪切效率高等优点为多基因治疗带来了新的希望。主要介绍了FMDV2A的特性、"剪切"活力及其在构建多顺反子载体中的应用。     

Interleukin-17F signaling requires ubiquitination of interleukin-17 receptor via TRAF6

Interleukin-17F (IL-17F), together with interleukin-17A (IL-17 or IL-17A), is a marker of T(H)17 cells, a new lineage of effector CD4(+) T cells to contribute to pathogenesis of a growing list of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, such as experimental autoimmune encephalitis (EAE) and collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). IL-17F, similar to IL-17A, was reported to employ interleukin-17 receptor (IL-17R or IL-17RA) for signaling but the downstream cascades remain largely elusive. Here we report that TRAF6 interacts with IL-17R and mediates ubiquitination of the receptor. We observed that IL-17F and IL-17A could induce IL-17R ubiquitination and DN-TRAF6, a dominant-negative mutant, could block IL-17F- but not IL-17A-triggered ubiquitination of IL-17R. Moreover, we showed that the ubiquitination of IL-17R was positively correlated with the downstream signaling, as evaluated by a luciferase reporter driven by a putative native promoter of 24p3, an IL-17 targeted gene. Our results indicate that ubiquitination of IL-17R mediated by TRAF6 plays a critical role in IL-17F signaling. This study, for the first time, reveals a possible molecular mechanism that the initiation of the IL-17F/IL-17R signaling pathway requires the receptor ubiquitination by TRAF6.     

Identification of genes with allelic imbalance on 6p associated with nasopharyngeal carcinoma in southern Chinese

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a malignancy of epithelial origin. The etiology of NPC is complex and includes multiple genetic and environmental factors. We employed case-control analysis to study the association of chromosome 6p regions with NPC. In total, 360 subjects and 360 healthy controls were included, and 233 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on 6p were examined. Significant single-marker associations were found for SNPs rs2267633 (p = 4.49 × 10(-5)), rs2076483 (most significant, p = 3.36 × 10(-5)), and rs29230 (p=1.43 × 10(-4)). The highly associated genes were the gamma-amino butyric acid B receptor 1 (GABBR1), human leukocyte antigen (HLA-A), and HLA complex group 9 (HCG9). Haplotypic associations were found for haplotypes AAA (located within GABBR1, p-value = 6.46 × 10(-5)) and TT (located within HLA-A, p = 0.0014). Further investigation of the homozygous genotype frequencies between cases and controls suggested that micro-deletion regions occur in GABBR1 and neural precursor cell expressed developmentally down-regulated 9 (NEDD9). Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) using 11 pairs of NPC biopsy samples confirmed the significant decline in GABBR1 and NEDD9 mRNA expression in the cancer tissues compared to the adjacent non-tumor tissue (p<0.05). Our study demonstrates that multiple chromosome 6p susceptibility loci contribute to the risk of NPC, possibly though GABBR1 and NEDD9 loss of function.