Knockdown of phosphotyrosyl phosphatase activator induces apoptosis via mitochondrial pathway and the attenuation by simultaneous tau hyperphosphorylation

Phosphotyrosyl phosphatase activator (PTPA) is decreased in the brains of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and the AD transgenic mouse models. Here, we investigated whether down‐regulation of PTPA affects cell viability and the underlying mechanisms. We found that PTPA was located in the integral membrane of mitochondria, and knockdown of PTPA induced cell apoptosis in HEK293 and N2a cell lines. PTPA knockdown decreased mitochondrial membrane potential and induced Bax translocation into the mitochondria with a simultaneous release of Cyt C, activation of caspase‐3, cleavage of poly (DNA ribose) polymerase (PARP), and decrease in Bcl‐xl and Bcl‐2 protein levels. Over‐expression of Protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) catalytic subunit (PP2A_C) did not rescue the apoptosis induced by PTPA knockdown, and PTPA knockdown did not affect the level of and their phosphorylation of mitogen‐activated protein kinases (MAPKs), indicating that PP2A and MAPKs were not involved in the apoptosis induced by PTPA knockdown. In the cells with over‐expression of tau, PTPA knockdown induced PP2A inhibition and tau hyperphosphorylation but did not cause significant cell death. These data suggest that PTPA deficit causes apoptotic cell death through mitochondrial pathway and simultaneous tau hyperphosphorylation attenuates the PTPA‐induced cell death.

     

Dynamic 1H NMR-based extracellular metabonomic analysis of oligodendroglia cells infected with herpes simplex virus type 1

Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) is a large, neurotropic, double-stranded DNA virus that establishes a lifelong latent infection in neurons and glial cells. Previous studies reveal that several metabolic perturbations are associated with HSV-1 infection. However, the extracellular metabolic alterations associated with HSV-1 infection have not been systematically profiled in human cells. Here, a proton nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabonomic approach was applied to differentiate the extracellular metabonomic profiles of HSV-1 infected human oligodendroglia cells (n = 18) and matched control cells (n = 18) at three time points (12, 24, and 36 h post-infection). Resulting spectra were analyzed by chemometric and statistical methods. Metabonomic profiling revealed perturbations in 21 extracellular metabolites. Partial least squares discriminant analysis demonstrated that the whole metabolic patterns enabled statistical discrimination between HSV-1 infected human oligodendroglia cells and control cells. Eight extracellular metabolites, seven of which were amino acids, were primarily responsible for score plot discrimination between HSV-1 infected human oligodendroglia cells and control cells at 36 h post-infection: alanine, glycine, isoleucine, leucine, glutamate, glutamine, histidine, and lactate. HSV-1 infection alters amino acid metabolism in human oligodendroglia cells cultured in vitro. HSV-1 infection may disturb these host cellular pathways to support viral replication. Through elucidating the extracellular metabolic changes incident to HSV-1 infection, this study also provides future directions for investigation into the pathogenic mechanism of HSV-1.     

Cell Labeling and Targeting with Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles

Targeted delivery of cells and therapeutic agents would benefit a wide range of biomedical applications by concentrating the therapeutic effect at the target site while minimizing deleterious effects to off-target sites. Magnetic cell targeting is an efficient, safe, and straightforward delivery technique. Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) are biodegradable, biocompatible, and can be endocytosed into cells to render them responsive to magnetic fields. The synthesis process involves creating magnetite (Fe₃O₄) nanoparticles followed by high-speed emulsification to form a poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) coating. The PLGA-magnetite SPIONs are approximately 120 nm in diameter including the approximately 10 nm diameter magnetite core. When placed in culture medium, SPIONs are naturally endocytosed by cells and stored as small clusters within cytoplasmic endosomes. These particles impart sufficient magnetic mass to the cells to allow for targeting within magnetic fields. Numerous cell sorting and targeting applications are enabled by rendering various cell types responsive to magnetic fields. SPIONs have a variety of other biomedical applications as well including use as a medical imaging contrast agent, targeted drug or gene delivery, diagnostic assays, and generation of local hyperthermia for tumor therapy or tissue soldering.     

Dynamic modification of cortical orientation tuning mediated by recurrent connections

Receptive field properties of visual cortical neurons depend on the spatiotemporal context within which the stimuli are presented. We have examined the temporal context dependence of cortical orientation tuning using dynamic visual stimuli with rapidly changing orientations. We found that tuning to the orientation of the test stimulus depended on a briefly presented preceding stimulus, with the preferred orientation shifting away from the preceding orientation. Analyses of the spatial-phase dependence of the shift showed that the effect cannot be explained by purely feedforward mechanisms, but can be accounted for by activity-dependent changes in the recurrent interactions between different orientation columns. Thus, short-term plasticity of the intracortical circuit can mediate dynamic modification of orientation tuning, which may be important for efficient visual coding.     

东北水生植物区系与周缘地区水生植物区系关系的分析

本文在野外采集、查阅标本和文献考证的基础上,对东北地区水生植物区系与周缘地区水生植物区系的关系进行了初步分析。由于日本在地史起源上曾与大陆相连,且现代气候环境与东北地区的相似,故两者间水生植物的相似性系数最高O在更新世前古嫩辽河与结雅河相连通,使东北与远东地区间的水生植物得以相互交流,同时两区还保存有一些第三纪植物于遗种类,但因远东地区缺少东北暖温带气候,故一些东北产的暖温带种类未能分布该区,使其与东北水生植物种类相似性系数位于第二位。印度次大陆、澳大利亚、东南亚和非洲因与东北地区位于不同的气候带中,故水生植物种类相似性系数较低。在国内各地区中,以华北地区与东北地区水生植物的相似性系数最高,因两者过去同属古黄河水系,近代又接壤;相反,以与华南、台湾和海南岛的水生植物种类相似性系数最低。因相互间即存地理隔离,又无水系相通。     

研究报告: 组织蛋白酶B介导NLRP3小体在砷致小胶质细胞炎症激活中的作用

目的 探究组织蛋白酶B（CTSB）介导NLRP3小体在砷致小胶质细胞（BV-2）炎症激活中的作用。方法 取处于对数生长期的BV-2细胞，分别暴露于终浓度为0、2、4、8 μmol/L亚砷酸钠（NaAsO₂）溶液培养24 h，检测细胞活性，测定各组细胞内CTSB和细胞焦亡相关蛋白NLRP3、Caspase-1、IL-18、IL-1β的表达水平。流式细胞仪检测胞内溶酶体膜稳定性。基于实验结果，增设CTSB抑制剂组（5 μmol/L CA074-Me +8 μmol/L NaAsO₂、10 μmol/L CA074-Me+8 μmol/L NaAsO₂），检测两组细胞内炎症相关蛋白NLRP3、Caspase-1和IL-1β、IL-18的表达水平。结果 与对照组比较，各染砷组细胞抑制率增高，呈现剂量效应关系，溶酶体膜稳定性下降，差异有统计学意义（P<0.01），胞内CTSB、NLRP3、IL-1β、IL-18、Caspase-1表达增高，差异有统计学意义（P<0.01）；与对照组（8 μmol/L NaAsO₂）比较，抑制剂组BV-2细胞胞内CTSB、NLRP3、IL-1β、IL-18、Caspase-1水平均降低，差异有统计学差异（P<0.01）。结论 NaAsO₂通过诱导小胶质细胞内CTSB水平的上升，介导NLRP3炎症小体激活小胶质细胞，促其释放炎性因子，致神经系统损伤。     

Increased gene expression of plasminogen activators and inhibitors in left ventricular hypertrophy

In the early stages of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) acute adaptive changes occur in the coronary vasculature as it remodels. Plasminogen activators (PAs) and inhibitors (PAIs) have the potential effects of proteolytic degradation that is relevant to tissue remodeling and angiogenesis. Our study focused on the possible roles of PAI-1, PAI-2, uPA and tPA in myocyte hypertrophy and angiogenesis in the early and late stages of pressure overload induced left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). We divided seventeen adult swine, weighing 24.2 ± 6.5 kg, into four groups: control, sham-operated, early LVH and late heart failure LVH group. At surgery we placed a fixed constrictor on the ascending aorta immediately above the aortic valve. This increased LV systolic pressure from 133 ± 15 to 193 ± 24 mm Hg after the surgery. We subdivided the early group into groups of 3 animals each that we euthanized at 8, 24 and 72 h after operation and obtained heart samples for analysis. In the late heart failure group individual animals were euthanized at 55, 59, 62 and 72 days after the detection of congestive heart failure. We also obtained tissue samples from the control and sham-operated swine. Sections for histologic analysis were fixed in 10% buffered formalin. We isolated RNA, size fractionated it using 1% formaldehyde-agarose gel electrophoresis and then did Northern blots. The mRNAs from both PAI-1 and PAI-2 showed a remarkable increase at 8 and 24 h after acute aortic constriction and returned to control by 72 h. Regional differences showed that most of the increases were in the endocardium. Three animals in the late heart failure LVH group were determined to be in congestive heart failure at about 2 months after the onset of aortic constriction. In these animals PAI-1 and PAI-2 were increased in both the left and right ventricles but remained low in an animal of the same elevation in aortic pressure seen by the LV who did not have congestive failure. These data suggest that PA and PAI gene expressions change before morphologic changes occur in the early stages of developing LVH. Also at the time of onset of congestive heart failure this increased expression reappears. PAs and PA inhibitors mRNA levels vary in the different regions of the heart reflecting changing wall stresses. Thus, the PAs and PA inhibitors may play an important role in angiogenesis that occurs during the early stages of LVH. The increased expression in the late stage of LVH may reflect further changes in wall stresses since these animals also showed overt clinical signs of heart failure.     

EML4 promotes the loading of NUDC to the spindle for mitotic progression

Echinoderm microtubule-associated protein (EMAP)-like (EML) family proteins are microtubule-associated proteins that have a conserved hydrophobic EMAP-like protein (HELP) domain and multiple WD40 domains. In this study, we examined the role of EML4, which is a member of the EML family, in cell division. Time-lapse microscopy analysis demonstrated that EML4 depletion induced chromosome misalignment during metaphase and delayed anaphase initiation. Further analysis by immunofluorescence showed that EML4 was required for the organization of the mitotic spindle and for the proper attachment of kinetochores to microtubules. We searched for EML4-associating proteins by mass spectrometry analysis and found that the nuclear distribution gene C (NUDC) protein, which is a critical factor for the progression of mitosis, was associated with EML4. This interaction was mediated by the WD40 repeat of EML4 and by the C-terminus of NUDC. In the absence of EML4, NUDC was no longer able to localize to the mitotic spindle, whereas NUDC was dispensable for EML4 localization. Our results show that EML4 is critical for the loading of NUDC onto the mitotic spindle for mitotic progression.