Cavins: 胞膜窖相关蛋白新视野

胞膜窖 (Caveolae) 是细胞膜内陷形成的一种特殊的脂筏结构,含有丰富的胆固醇和鞘磷脂,并在调节细胞信号转导中发挥重要作用。大量的研究显示caveolae相关蛋白窖蛋白 (Caveolins) 在维持caveolae的结构及其功能的调节中发挥重要作用。然而,最近研究发现caveolae的形成同样需要另一类蛋白家族cavins蛋白家族的参与。此外,cavins蛋白家族成员之一cavin-1能够与caveolins主要成员窖蛋白-1 (Caveolin-1) 相互作用参与调节caveolae的结构和功能。文中将就近年来cavins与caveolins的关系及其在调节caveolae中的作用进行综述。     

胞膜窖与钾离子通道

胞膜窖（caveolae）是细胞质膜内陷形成的凹陷小窝,参与细胞内多种重要的生理活动的调节.近年研究表明,电压门控钾离子通道、钙离子 激活的电压门控钾离子通道和ATP敏感的钾离子通道等多种钾离子通道家族 成员的功能调节与胞膜窖有关.本文概括介绍了胞膜窖和钾离子通道调节关系的研究进展．     

脂质筏在信号转导中的作用

细胞质膜对膜上受体的细胞外到细胞内的跨膜信号转导具有十分重要的意义。目前的研究表明膜上受体在介导跨膜信号转导时,通常是在细胞质膜上的胞膜窖和脂质筏结构中进行的。胞膜窖和脂质筏都是细胞膜上富含胆固醇和鞘磷脂的脂质有序结构域。其中,胞膜窖是一种有窖蛋白包被的特殊的脂质筏结构,通常在细胞膜上形成内陷的小窝。许多细胞膜上的受体都已经被发现位于胞膜窖和脂质筏中。同时,在脂质筏的胞质侧富集了大量的细胞内信号分子,这些信号分子集聚形成信号分子复合体,使得受体的细胞内结构域很容易就与大量的细胞内信号分子发生相互作用,为信号的起始和交叉作用提供了一个结构平台。     

窖蛋白-1在细胞增殖和肝再生中的作用

窖蛋白-1(caveolin-1,Cav-1)是组成胞膜窖(caveolae)的主要功能蛋白.作为质膜上的独立结构,胞膜窖参与多种细胞活动,如胆固醇运输、信号转导以及细胞膜的组装等.通常,窖蛋白-1可以通过其N端的窖蛋白脚手架区(caveolin scaffolding domain,CSD)寡聚细胞外信号激酶(Erk1/2)的上游蛋白,抑制Erk1/2的活化,从而抑制细胞增殖和肿瘤转移.新近研究表明,窖蛋白-1通过促进甘油三酯的储存和利用而对肝再生起重要的调控作用.因此,窖蛋白-1可能是调控肝实质细胞增殖的关键蛋白.     

窖蛋白-3及其与人类肌肉疾病的关系

窖蛋白-3(caveolin-3,Cav-3)是整合在窖上的肌细胞特异性蛋白质。人cav-3基因定位于3p25,其主要突变包括跨膜区的错义突变及支架区的染色体微缺失,所导致的表现型包括肢带型肌营养不良(1imb-girdle muscular dystrophy-1C,LGMD-1C)、杜氏肌营养不良(Duchenne muscular dystrophy,DMD)、自发性和家族性高CK血症(hyper CKemia,HCK)、末端肌病(distal myopathy,DM)和波形肌肉疾病(rippling muscle disease．RMD)等。Cav-3不仅与肌肉营养不良症相关,也是维持心脏正常功能的必要因素。     

窖蛋白-1在干细胞增殖、分化及组织修复中的作用

干细胞(stem cell)是一类具有自我复制能力(self-renewing)的多潜能细胞.在一定条件下,它可以分化成多种功能细胞,是组织修复和再生的重要资源.胞膜窖(caveolae)是细胞膜内陷形成的一种特殊的脂筏结构, 含有丰富的胆固醇和鞘磷脂,在调节细胞內吞作用、蛋白质转运及细胞的信号转导中发挥重要作用.窖蛋白-1(caveolin-1,Cav-1)是组成胞膜窖的主要功能蛋白质,它不但参与胞膜窖的形成,在胆固醇平衡、膜泡运输等方面也发挥重要作用.最新研究发现,Cav-1在干细胞的增殖、分化及组织修复中发挥一定的作用.这里将Cav-1在干细胞中的主要作用进行综述     

窖蛋白-1与乳腺癌

 窖蛋白(caveolin)是分子量为21～24 kD的整合膜蛋白,是胞膜窖(caveolae)的标志性结构分子.目前已克隆并鉴定出窖蛋白基因家族的3个成员：窖蛋白-1,窖蛋白-2和窖蛋白-3.其中窖蛋白-1参与细胞内的许多生命活动,如胆固醇的运输,细胞膜的组装,细胞信号传导,细胞周期调控,细胞转化和肿瘤形成.窖蛋白-1还可以与转录因子相互作用,调节相关基因的表达,抑制肿瘤发生.另外,在乳腺癌、前列腺癌、胃癌、肝癌等多种恶性肿瘤中均发现窖蛋白-1的异常;近年来发现,窖蛋白-1与乳腺上皮细胞转化和乳腺癌发生密切相关.本文概括介绍了窖蛋白-1的结构特点、窖蛋白-1介导的信号通路及与乳腺癌发生的关系方面的研究进展.     

斑马鱼窖蛋白-1基因cDNA克隆及功能初步研究

窖蛋白-1(Cav-1)是胞膜窖的主要结构蛋白, 可与多种信号分子相互作用, 调节细胞的增殖、分化和凋亡, 其异常表达与多种人体疾病的发生和发展密切相关, 而在斑马鱼发育中的功能尚不很清楚。研究克隆出斑马鱼窖蛋白-1基因两个亚型的全长cDNA, 与其他物种窖蛋白-1的氨基酸序列进行比较, 发现该蛋白在脊椎动物中非常保守。利用逆转录多聚酶链反应检测发现, 在斑马鱼多个成年组织中窖蛋白-1的两个亚型均有转录表达。利用胚胎整体原位杂交检测组织或器官特异基因的时空表达变化发现, 过表达或利用Morpholino反义寡聚核苷酸(MO)抑制cav-1α的表达可影响脊索和体节的发育, 而过表达或MO抑制cav-1β可导致肝脏发育的异常;此外, 过表达或MO抑制cav-1α或-1β均可影响斑马鱼神经系统的发育。因此, 斑马鱼Cav-1在维持组织器官的生理功能和调控胚胎的正常发育中起着重要作用。       

膜窖的区室化调节功能及药物设计策略探讨

膜窖是脂筏的一种特殊类型,在哺乳动物的内皮细胞、脂肪细胞及平滑肌细胞质膜上分布尤为丰富。近年来对于膜窖的区室化调节与生理功能及其应用于药物设计方面的研究日益受到关注,如利用基因剔除、荧光共振能量转移等技术研究窖蛋白功能及膜窖内信号蛋白的互相作用,从而为新型药物的设计打下理论基础。     

窖泥群落结构及功能微生物研究进展

窖泥是浓香型白酒的特征发酵载体,包含多种功能微生物,这些功能微生物对浓香型白酒的风格特征和品质有着重要的影响。本文对不同窖龄窖泥、不同浓香型白酒产地的窖泥及不同质量窖泥的窖泥微生物研究进展进行总结分析,并在此基础上对窖泥主体微生物的功能进行阐述。以期为窖泥微生物的研究提供思路,为浓香型白酒的质量和香味成分研究提供思考,促进窖泥微生物的研究,加深对浓香型白酒窖泥的认知。     

微囊蛋白基因及其与疾病关系研究进展

微囊蛋白(caveolin)基因家族已鉴定出3个成员:微囊蛋白-1、微囊蛋白-2、微囊蛋白-3,并被定位于抑癌基因位点区域.微囊蛋白-1是细胞质膜微囊的标记蛋白,其中间疏水区域在细胞膜内形成发夹结构,并使其N端区域与C端区域在细胞膜内表面聚合形成支架结构.微囊蛋白-1与微囊蛋白-2以组成异源寡聚体的形式存在,在脂肪细胞、内皮细胞和成纤维细胞中表达最丰富,微囊蛋白-3则特异表达于肌肉.离体与活体研究结果均表明微囊蛋白-1可能具有抑癌功能,并可能在细胞信号传导中起刹车作用.微囊蛋白-1基因敲除小鼠心血管NO与Ca²⁺信号途径受损、功能异常,肺泡上皮细胞出现异常扩增,脂质代谢失衡,身体消瘦.微囊蛋白-2基因敲除小鼠肺功能与耐力均严重受损,与微囊蛋白-1基因敲除小鼠的表型非常相似.微囊蛋白-3为维持心脏正常功能所必需,可能还与一些肌肉营养不良症有关.     

Caveolin与脑功能关系的研究进展

Caveolin作为细胞质膜微囊——Caveolae的标志蛋白,参与Caveolae的形成、定位,并具有介导膜泡运输、维持细胞胆固醇稳态和调控信号转导等功能.近年来发现,Caveolin与脑功能的生理或病理变化有关,在神经发育、突触可塑性以及神经退行性疾病中起着重要的作用.结合最新的研究进展和前期实验结果,简单介绍Caveolin的结构和功能,并对其在脑功能中的调控作用作一阐述与展望.     

人巨细胞病毒编码miRNA功能及其作用机制

人巨细胞病毒（human cytomegalovirus, HCMV）是疱疹病毒β亚科中的代表成员之一,是一种具有囊膜包裹的DNA双链病毒,对免疫耐受群体和先天性感染的婴幼儿具有很高的发病率。HCMV具有潜伏感染和裂解感染两种感染状态。这两种感染过程中均有不同的miRNA表达模式。这些miRNA不仅参与胞内宿主或病毒自身基因表达调控与病毒复制,也能调节胞内物质的转运和病毒感染状态的转变等过程。本文就HCMV编码的miRNA,其生物合成机制和生物学功能进行简要综述,为深入研究其生物功能和作用机制奠定基础。     

Role of Endosomes and Lysosomes in Human Disease

In addition to their roles in normal cell physiology, endocytic processes play a key role in many diseases. In this review, three diseases are discussed as examples of the role of endocytic processes in disease. The uptake of cholesterol via LDL is central to our understanding of atherosclerosis, and the study of this disease led to many of the key breakthroughs in understanding receptor-mediated endocytosis. Alzheimer’s disease is a growing burden as the population ages. Endosomes and lysosomes play important but only partially understood roles in both the formation and the degradation of the amyloid fibrils that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Inherited lysosomal storage diseases are individually rare, but collectively they affect many individuals. Recent advances are leading to improved enzyme replacement therapy and are also leading to small-molecule drugs to treat some of these diseases.Endocytosis plays many vital roles in normal cell physiology, and as described in this article, endocytic processes can also play significant roles in pathology. Nutrient uptake is one of the essential functions of endocytosis. Two of the best-characterized examples of this are the uptake of cholesterol via the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor (Goldstein and Brown 2009) and the uptake of iron via transferrin and the transferrin receptor (Aisen et al. 2001). Another important role for endocytosis is the regulation of cell-surface expression of membrane proteins, especially receptors and transporters. The balance between recycling or trafficking to storage organelles or to late endosomes and lysosomes (LE/Ly) is often a determining factor in regulating surface expression levels of membrane proteins. Thus, the membrane sorting that occurs in endosomes is important for regulating cell physiology. The pH levels in endosomes play an important role in many functions of endocytosis, including release of iron from transferrin, release of LDL and other ligands from their receptors, and activation of lysosomal hydrolases. As discussed herein, many of these same processes can also play a role in human diseases. A few specific diseases—atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, and lysosomal storage diseases—are used to illustrate this.     

The Role of Human IL-17 Immunity in Fungal Disease

Candida species are major causes of invasive and mucocutaneous fungal infections. Various recognition pathways and effector mechanisms are involved in triggering intrinsic, innate and adaptive host immune responses to these fungi. Invasive candidiasis may involve almost any internal organ or anatomic site and is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised individuals, including, in particular, those with primary immunodeficiency disorders (PIDs) affecting phagocytic cells. Other PIDs characterized by an impairment of IL-17 T cell-mediated immunity confer predisposition to mucocutaneous Candida infections, with Candida albicans in particular. We discuss here inborn errors of immunity leading to an impairment of IL-17-mediated host defense and the occurrence of mucocutaneous candidiasis.     

外泌体miRNA的生物学功能及其在肺纤维化疾病中的调控作用

外泌体是一种微型纳米级细胞外囊泡,由于能够直接参与细胞间信息的传递和物质的运输,被认为是细胞间通讯、免疫调节、疾病诊断和预后循环生物学标志物的重要载体,其携带的核酸和蛋白质等内含物能够影响受体细胞的生理状态.作为一种内源性非编码微小RNA,microRNA (miRNA)对疾病诊断和治疗有着重要的研究价值,有大量证据表明该类分子对肺部疾病的发病进程起着控制调节作用.本文聚焦于近年来细胞外泌体来源miRNA的生物学特性和功能领域,综述了近年来生物医学研究中的热点分子外泌体miRNA在肺部疾病尤其是肺纤维化中调控功能和机制的研究,因此不仅能为肺纤维化疾病的诊断提供新的标志物分子,并且还能够为肺纤维化的外泌体干预治疗建议新的干预策略.     

Critical Role of Cys168 in Noggin Protein's Biological Function

Previous studies have indicated that noggin exerts its neural inducing effect by binding andantagonizing bone morphogenetic protein 4(BMP4).In order to further clarify the relationship between thestructure and the function of noggin,and elucidate the possible mechanism responsible for noggin-BMP4interaction,we generated three noggin mutants,C168S,C174S and C197S,by using a site-directed mu-tagenesis method.Ectopic expression of wild-type(WT)noggin,C174S or C197S,in Xenopus animal caps(ACs)by mRNA injection converted the explants(prospective ectoderm)into neural tissue,as indicated bythe neural-like morphology and expression of the neural cell adhesion molecule(NCAM)in the ACs.Incontrast,ACs expressing C 168S suffered an epidermal fate similar to the control caps.Similarly,among the threemutants,only C 168S lost the dorsalizing function.These studies highlight the critical role played by Cys168in noggin's biological activities.It probably participates in the formation of an intermolecular disulfide bridge.     

谷氧还蛋白的生物学活性及其与人类疾病的关系

谷氧还蛋白(glutaredoxin,Grx),又称巯基转移酶(thioltransferase,TTase),是巯基-二硫键氧化还原酶家族的重要组分。Grx最早由Holmgren发现,在生物界普遍存在,是一种依赖谷胱甘肽(GSH)催化氧化状态的蛋白质二硫键还原为巯基,修复蛋白质活性的小分子酶蛋白。它具有多种生物学活性,在调节机体的氧化还原反应和细胞生长、抑制凋亡方面起重要作用,与人类某些疾病,如心脑血管疾病、白内障、糖尿病、AIDS、自身免疫性疾病、肿瘤和感染等的发生、发展,以及干预治疗有关。     

The Role of Conformational Dynamics and Allostery in the Disease Development of Human Ferritin

Determining the three-dimensional structure of myoglobin, the first solved structure of a protein, fundamentally changed the way protein function was understood. Even more revolutionary was the information that came afterward: protein dynamics play a critical role in biological functions. Therefore, understanding conformational dynamics is crucial to obtaining a more complete picture of protein evolution. We recently analyzed the evolution of different protein families including green fluorescent proteins (GFPs), β-lactamase inhibitors, and nuclear receptors, and we observed that the alteration of conformational dynamics through allosteric regulation leads to functional changes. Moreover, proteome-wide conformational dynamics analysis of more than 100 human proteins showed that mutations occurring at rigid residue positions are more susceptible to disease than flexible residue positions. These studies suggest that disease-associated mutations may impair dynamic allosteric regulations, leading to loss of function. Thus, in this study, we analyzed the conformational dynamics of the wild-type light chain subunit of human ferritin protein along with the neutral and disease forms. We first performed replica exchange molecular dynamics simulations of wild-type and mutants to obtain equilibrated dynamics and then used perturbation response scanning (PRS), where we introduced a random Brownian kick to a position and computed the fluctuation response of the chain using linear response theory. Using this approach, we computed the dynamic flexibility index (DFI) for each position in the chain for the wild-type and the mutants. DFI quantifies the resilience of a position to a perturbation and provides a flexibility/rigidity measurement for a given position in the chain. The DFI analysis reveals that neutral variants and the wild-type exhibit similar flexibility profiles in which experimentally determined functionally critical sites act as hinges in controlling the overall motion. However, disease mutations alter the conformational dynamic profile, making hinges more loose (i.e., softening the hinges), thus impairing the allosterically regulated dynamics.