The MIF Antagonist ISO-1 Attenuates Corticosteroid-Insensitive Inflammation and Airways Hyperresponsiveness in an Ozone-Induced Model of COPD

Introduction

Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is an inflammatory cytokine associated with acute and chronic inflammatory disorders and corticosteroid insensitivity. Its expression in the airways of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a relatively steroid insensitive inflammatory disease is unclear, however.

Methods

Sputum, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) macrophages and serum were obtained from non-smokers, smokers and COPD patients. To mimic oxidative stress-induced COPD, mice were exposed to ozone for six-weeks and treated with ISO-1, a MIF inhibitor, and/or dexamethasone before each exposure. BAL fluid and lung tissue were collected after the final exposure. Airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) and lung function were measured using whole body plethysmography. HIF-1α binding to the Mif promoter was determined by Chromatin Immunoprecipitation assays.

Results

MIF levels in sputum and BAL macrophages from COPD patients were higher than those from non-smokers, with healthy smokers having intermediate levels. MIF expression correlated with that of HIF-1α in all patients groups and in ozone-exposed mice. BAL cell counts, cytokine mRNA and protein expression in lungs and BAL, including MIF, were elevated in ozone-exposed mice and had increased AHR. Dexamethasone had no effect on these parameters in the mouse but ISO-1 attenuated cell recruitment, cytokine release and AHR.

Conclusion

MIF and HIF-1α levels are elevated in COPD BAL macrophages and inhibition of MIF function blocks corticosteroid-insensitive lung inflammation and AHR. Inhibition of MIF may provide a novel anti-inflammatory approach in COPD.     

Advanced Intestinal Cancers often Maintain a Multi-Ancestral Architecture

A widely accepted paradigm in the field of cancer biology is that solid tumors are uni-ancestral being derived from a single founder and its descendants. However, data have been steadily accruing that indicate early tumors in mice and humans can have a multi-ancestral origin in which an initiated primogenitor facilitates the transformation of neighboring co-genitors. We developed a new mouse model that permits the determination of clonal architecture of intestinal tumors in vivo and ex vivo, have validated this model, and then used it to assess the clonal architecture of adenomas, intramucosal carcinomas, and invasive adenocarcinomas of the intestine. The percentage of multi-ancestral tumors did not significantly change as tumors progressed from adenomas with low-grade dysplasia [40/65 (62%)], to adenomas with high-grade dysplasia [21/37 (57%)], to intramucosal carcinomas [10/23 (43%]), to invasive adenocarcinomas [13/19 (68%)], indicating that the clone arising from the primogenitor continues to coexist with clones arising from co-genitors. Moreover, neoplastic cells from distinct clones within a multi-ancestral adenocarcinoma have even been observed to simultaneously invade into the underlying musculature [2/15 (13%)]. Thus, intratumoral heterogeneity arising early in tumor formation persists throughout tumorigenesis.     

A Novel Model of Intravital Platelet Imaging Using CD41-ZsGreen1 Transgenic Rats

Platelets play pivotal roles in both hemostasis and thrombosis. Although models of intravital platelet imaging are available for thrombosis studies in mice, few are available for rat studies. The present effort aimed to generate fluorescent platelets in rats and assess their dynamics in a rat model of arterial injury. We generated CD41-ZsGreen1 transgenic rats, in which green fluorescence protein ZsGreen1 was expressed specifically in megakaryocytes and thus platelets. The transgenic rats exhibited normal hematological and biochemical values with the exception of body weight and erythroid parameters, which were slightly lower than those of wild-type rats. Platelet aggregation, induced by 20 μM ADP and 10 μg/ml collagen, and blood clotting times were not significantly different between transgenic and wild-type rats. Saphenous arteries of transgenic rats were injured with 10% FeCl₃, and the formation of fluorescent thrombi was evaluated using confocal microscopy. FeCl₃ caused time-dependent increases in the mean fluorescence intensity of injured arteries of vehicle-treated rats. Prasugrel (3 mg/kg, p.o.), administered 2 h before FeCl₃, significantly inhibited fluorescence compared with vehicle-treated rats (4.5 ± 0.4 vs. 14.9 ± 2.4 arbitrary fluorescence units at 30 min, respectively, n = 8, P = 0.0037). These data indicate that CD41-ZsGreen1 transgenic rats represent a useful model for intravital imaging of platelet-mediated thrombus formation and the evaluation of antithrombotic agents.     

Illuminating the Prevalence of Trypanosoma brucei s.l. in Glossina Using LAMP as a Tool for Xenomonitoring

Background

As the reality of eliminating human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) by 2020 draws closer, the need to detect and identify the remaining areas of transmission increases. Here, we have explored the feasibility of using commercially available LAMP kits, designed to detect the Trypanozoon group of trypanosomes, as a xenomonitoring tool to screen tsetse flies for trypanosomes to be used in future epidemiological surveys.

Methods and Findings

The DNA extraction method was simplified and worked with the LAMP kits to detect a single positive fly when pooled with 19 negative flies, and the absolute lowest limit of detection that the kits were able to work at was the equivalent of 0.1 trypanosome per ml. The DNA from Trypanosoma brucei brucei could be detected six days after the fly had taken a blood meal containing dead trypanosomes, and when confronted with a range of non-target species, from both laboratory-reared flies and wild-caught flies, the kits showed no evidence of cross-reacting.

Conclusion

We have shown that it is possible to use a simplified DNA extraction method in conjunction with the pooling of tsetse flies to decrease the time it would take to screen large numbers of flies for the presence of Trypanozoon trypanosomes. The use of commercially-available LAMP kits provides a reliable and highly sensitive tool for xenomonitoring and identifying potential sleeping sickness transmission sites.     

Promoter engineering to optimize recombinant periplasmic Fab′ fragment production in Escherichia coli

Fab’ fragments have become an established class of biotherapeutic over the last two decades. Likewise, developments in synthetic biology are providing ever more powerful techniques for designing bacterial genes, gene networks and entire genomes that can be used to improve industrial performance of cells used for production of biotherapeutics. We have previously observed significant leakage of an exogenous therapeutic Fab’ fragment into the growth medium during high cell density cultivation of an Escherichia coli production strain. In this study we sought to apply a promoter engineering strategy to address the issue of Fab’ fragment leakage and its consequent bioprocess challenges. We used site directed mutagenesis to convert the P_tac promoter, present in the plasmid, pTTOD‐A33 Fab’, to a P_tic promoter which has been shown by others to direct expression at a 35% reduced rate compared to P_tac. We characterized the resultant production trains in which either P_tic or P_tac promoters direct Fab’ fragment expression. The P_tic promoter strain showed a 25?30% reduction in Fab’ expression relative to the original P_tac strain. Reduced Fab’ leakage and increased viability over the course of a fed‐batch fermentation were also observed for the P_tic promoter strain. We conclude that cell design steps such as the P_tac to P_tic promoter conversion reported here, can yield significant process benefit and understanding with respect to periplasmic Fab’ fragment production. It remains an open question as to whether the influence of transgene expression on periplasmic retention is mediated by global metabolic burden effects or periplasm overcapacity. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 32:840–847, 2016     

Detecting cell lysis using viscosity monitoring in E. coli fermentation to prevent product loss

Monitoring the physical or chemical properties of cell broths to infer cell status is often challenging due to the complex nature of the broth. Key factors indicative of cell status include cell density, cell viability, product leakage, and DNA release to the fermentation broth. The rapid and accurate prediction of cell status for hosts with intracellular protein products can minimise product loss due to leakage at the onset of cell lysis in fermentation. This article reports the rheological examination of an industrially relevant E. coli fermentation producing antibody fragments (Fab'). Viscosity monitoring showed an increase in viscosity during the exponential phase in relation to the cell density increase, a relatively flat profile in the stationary phase, followed by a rapid increase which correlated well with product loss, DNA release and loss of cell viability. This phenomenon was observed over several fermentations that a 25% increase in broth viscosity (using induction‐point viscosity as a reference) indicated 10% product loss. Our results suggest that viscosity can accurately detect cell lysis and product leakage in postinduction cell cultures, and can identify cell lysis earlier than several other common fermentation monitoring techniques. This work demonstrates the utility of rapidly monitoring the physical properties of fermentation broths, and that viscosity monitoring has the potential to be a tool for process development to determine the optimal harvest time and minimise product loss. © 2016 The Authors. Biotechnology Progress published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American Institute of Chemical Engineers, 32:1069–1076, 2016     

Pollen—Tiny and ephemeral but not forgotten: New ideas on their ecology and evolution

Ecologists and evolutionary biologists have been interested in the functional biology of pollen since the discovery in the 1800s that pollen grains encompass tiny plants (male gametophytes) that develop and produce sperm cells. After the discovery of double fertilization in flowering plants, botanists in the early 1900s were quick to explore the effects of temperature and maternal nutrients on pollen performance, while evolutionary biologists began studying the nature of haploid selection and pollen competition. A series of technical and theoretic developments have subsequently, but usually separately, expanded our knowledge of the nature of pollen performance and how it evolves. Today, there is a tremendous diversity of interests that touch on pollen performance, ranging from the ecological setting on the stigma, structural and physiological aspects of pollen germination and tube growth, the form of pollen competition and its role in sexual selection in plants, virus transmission, mating system evolution, and inbreeding depression. Given the explosion of technical knowledge of pollen cell biology, computer modeling, and new methods to deal with diversity in a phylogenetic context, we are now more than ever poised for a new era of research that includes complex functional traits that limit or enhance the evolution of these deceptively simple organisms.