苍白球γ-氨基丁酸能神经传递及其与神经系统疾病的关系

苍白球是基底神经节间接环路的重要核团,在机体运动功能调节中发挥重要作用。近年来,苍白球在基底神经节正常及异常功能调节中的重要性已日渐受到重视。然而,目前对苍白球内各种神经递质系统的功能活动了解较少。GABA是苍白球主要的神经递质。采用电生理记录、免疫组织化学及行为测试等实验方法,人们对大鼠苍白球GABA能神经传递系统的受体分布及功能活动有了新的认识。形态学研究揭示,苍白球存在GABAA受体及其苯二氮卓结合位点和GABAB受体。在亚细胞水平,GABAA受体主要位于对称性突触(GABA能突触)的突触后膜,而GABAB受体则位于对称性突触和非对称性突触(兴奋性突触)的突触前膜及突触后膜。功能学研究进一步揭示,激活苍白球突触前膜GABAB自身和异源性受体可分别减少GABA和谷氨酸释放;激活突触后膜GABAB受体,可引起苍白球神经元超极化。除GABAB受体外,激活苍白球GABAA受体苯二氮卓结合位点及阻断GABA重摄取可延长GABA电流持续时间,从而改变苍白球神经元兴奋性。与离体实验结果相一致,激活苍向球GABAB受体和苯二氮卓结合位点及阻断GABA重摄取可引起整体动物旋转行为。苍白球GABA神经递质系统与帕金森病病因学及癫痫发病有关。已证实,苍白球神经元放电频率的降低及簇状放电的产生与帕金森病运动减少及静止性震颤等症状直接相关。此外,电牛理及行为学实验发现,新型抗癫痫药物替加平可调节苍白球神经元功能活动．这为进一步了解苍白球与癫痫发病的关系提供了新的理论及实验依据。     

Floral development of Kingdonia (Ranunculaceae s. l., Ranunculales)

The flower of Kingdonia has a terminal position, thus the rhizome is sympodial. The floral organs initiate in spiral phyllotaxis. The androecium is centripetal in initiation but the sterile stamens are retarded in development compared with the fertile ones. The apex of the young carpel does not participate in the conduplication. The floral organs have single vascular traces and unilacunar nodes.The study was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (No. 30370095 and 30130030).     

Transformation of verapamil by Cunninghamella blakesleeana

A filamentous fungus, Cunninghamella blakesleeana AS 3.153, was used as a microbial model of mammalian metabolism to transform verapamil, a calcium channel antagonist. The metabolites of verapamil were separated and assayed by the liquid chromatography-ion trap mass spectrometry method. After 96 h of incubation, nearly 93% of the original drug was metabolized to 23 metabolites. Five major metabolites were isolated by semipreparative high-performance liquid chromatography and were identified by proton nuclear magnetic resonance and electrospray mass spectrometry. Other metabolites were characterized according to their chromatographic behavior and mass spectral data. The major metabolic pathways of verapamil transformation by the fungus were N dealkylation, O demethylation, and sulfate conjugation. The phase I metabolites of verapamil (introduction of a functional group) by C. blakesleeana paralleled those in mammals; therefore, C. blakesleeana could be a useful tool for generating the mammalian phase I metabolites of verapamil.     

Cloning and characterization of an mRNA encoding a novel G protein alpha-subunit abundant in mantle and gill of pearl oyster Pinctada fucata

Nacre formation is an ideal model to study biomineralization processes. Although much has been done about biomineralization mechanism of nacre, little is known as to how cellular signaling regulates this process. We are interested in whether G protein signaling plays a role in mineralization. Degenerate primers against conserved amino acid regions of G proteins were employed to amplify cDNA from the pearl oyster Pinctada fucata. As a result, the cDNA encoding a novel G(s)alpha (pfG(s)alpha) from the pearl oyster was isolated. The G(s)alpha cDNA encodes a polypeptide of 377 amino acid residues, which shares high similarity to the octopus (Octopus vulgaris) G(s)alpha. The well-conserved A, C, G (switch I), switch II functional domains and the carboxyl terminus that is a critical site for interaction with receptors are completely identical to those from other mollusks. However, pfG(s)alpha has a unique amino acid sequence, which encodes switch III and interaction sites of adenylyl cyclase respectively. In situ hybridization and Northern blotting analysis revealed that the oyster G(s)alpha mRNA is widely expressed in a variety of tissues, with highest levels in the outer fold of mantle and epithelia of gill, the regions essential for biomineralization. We also show that overexpression of the pfG(s)alpha in mammalian MC3T3-E1 cells resulted in increased cAMP levels. Mutant pfG(s)alpha that has impaired CTX substrate diminished its ability to induce cAMP production. Furthermore, the alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, an indicator for mineralization, is induced by the G(s)alpha in MC3T3-E1 cells. These results indicated that G(s)alpha may be involved in regulation of physiological function, particularly in biological biomineralization.     

Regulation of DNaseY activity by actinin-alpha4 during apoptosis

DNaseY, a Ca(2+)- and Mg(2+)-dependent endonuclease, has been implicated in apoptotic DNA degradation; however, the molecular mechanisms controlling its involvement in this process have not been fully elucidated. We have obtained evidence from yeast two-hybrid screening and coimmunoprecipitation experiments that DNaseY interacted physically with actinin-alpha4 and this interaction significantly enhanced its endonuclease activity. Accordingly, simultaneous overexpression of both proteins in PC12 cells dramatically increased the rate of apoptosis in response to teniposide' VM26. However, overexpression of DNaseY alone neither triggered apoptosis nor facilitated cell death in response to VM26 or serum deprivation. Instead, the overexpression of DNaseY increased the production of single-strand DNA breaks and evoked a profound upregulation of DNA repair pathways. Taken together, our results point to a novel regulatory mechanism of DNaseY activity and offer an explanation for why cells must first cleave key DNA repair and replication proteins before the successful execution of apoptosis.     

Effects of Huangqi （Hex） on Inducing Cell Differentiation and Cell Death in K562 and HEL Cells

InterestintraditionalChineseherbalremedieshasboomedin the western countries. It is very important to study theirmolecular mechanisms and purify effective compoundswith new knowledge and new techniques to meet a greatneed for human health. Ephedrine, the f…     

A high-throughput approach for subcellular proteome: identification of rat liver proteins using subcellular fractionation coupled with two-dimensional liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry and bioinformatic analysis

Four fractions from rat liver (a crude mitochondria (CM) and cytosol (C) fraction obtained with differential centrifugation, a purified mitochondrial (PM) fraction obtained with nycodenz density gradient centrifugation, and a total liver (TL) fraction) were analyzed with two-dimensional liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry analysis. A total of 564 rat proteins were identified and were bioinformatically annotated according to their physicochemical characteristics and functions. While most extreme alkaline ribosomal proteins were identified in the TL fraction, the C fraction mainly included neutral enzymes and the PM fraction enriched alkaline proteins and proteins with electron transfer activity or oxygen binding activity. Such characteristics were more apparent in proteins identified only in the TL, C, or PM fraction. The Swiss-Prot annotation and the bioinformatic prediction results proved that the C and PM fractions had enriched cytoplasmic or mitochondrial proteins, respectively. Combination usage of subcellular fractionation with two-dimensional liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry was proved to be a high-throughput, sensitive, and effective analytical approach for subcellular proteomics research. Using such a strategy, we have constructed the largest proteome database to date for rat liver (564 rat proteins) and its cytosol (222 rat proteins) and mitochondrial fractions (227 rat proteins). Moreover, the 352 proteins with Swiss-Prot subcellular location annotation in the 564 identified proteins were used as an actual subcellular proteome dataset to evaluate the widely used bioinformatics tools such as PSORT, TargetP, TMHMM, and GRAVY.