Tricyclic aminopyrimidine histamine H4 receptor antagonists

This report discloses the development of a series of tricyclic histamine H(4) receptor antagonists. Starting with a low nanomolar benzofuranopyrimidine HTS hit devoid of pharmaceutically acceptable properties, we navigated issues with metabolism and solubility to furnish a potent, stable and water soluble tricyclic histamine H(4) receptor antagonist with desirable physiochemical parameters which demonstrated efficacy a mouse ova model.     

Identification of in vivo HSP90-interacting proteins reveals modularity of HSP90 complexes is dependent on the environment in psychrophilic bacteria

Heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) is a conserved molecular chaperone that functions as part of complexes in which different client proteins target it to diverse sets of substrates. In this paper, HSP90 complexes were investigated in γ-proteobacteria from mild (Shewanella oneidensis) and cold environments (Shewanella frigidimarina and Psychrobacter frigidicola), to determine changes in HSP90 interactions with client proteins in response to the adaptation to cold environments. HSP90 participation in cold adaptation was determined using the specific inhibitor 17-allylamino-geldanamycin. Then, HSP90 was immunoprecipitated from bacterial cultures, and the proteins in HSP90 complexes were analyzed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. According to HSP90-associated protein analysis, only 15 common proteins were found in both species from the same genus, S. oneidensis and S. frigidimarina, whereas a significant higher number of common proteins were found in both psychrophilic species S. frigidimarina and P. frigidicola 21 (p < 0.001). Only two HSP90-interacting proteins, the chaperone proteins DnaK and GroEL, were common to the three species. Interestingly, some proteins related to energy metabolism (isocitrate lyase, succinyl-CoA synthetase, alcohol dehydrogenase, NAD(+) synthase, and malate dehydrogenase) and some translation factors only interacted with HSP90 in psychrophilic bacteria. We can conclude that HSP90 and HSP90-associated proteins might take part in the mechanism of adaptation to cold environments, and interestingly, organisms living in similar environments conserve similar potential HSP90 interactors in opposition to phylogenetically closely related organisms of the same genus but from different environments.     

High-throughput Saccharification Assay for Lignocellulosic Materials

Polysaccharides that make up plant lignocellulosic biomass can be broken down to produce a range of sugars that subsequently can be used in establishing a biorefinery. These raw materials would constitute a new industrial platform, which is both sustainable and carbon neutral, to replace the current dependency on fossil fuel. The recalcitrance to deconstruction observed in lignocellulosic materials is produced by several intrinsic properties of plant cell walls. Crystalline cellulose is embedded in matrix polysaccharides such as xylans and arabinoxylans, and the whole structure is encased by the phenolic polymer lignin, that is also difficult to digest ¹. In order to improve the digestibility of plant materials we need to discover the main bottlenecks for the saccharification of cell walls and also screen mutant and breeding populations to evaluate the variability in saccharification ². These tasks require a high throughput approach and here we present an analytical platform that can perform saccharification analysis in a 96-well plate format. This platform has been developed to allow the screening of lignocellulose digestibility of large populations from varied plant species. We have scaled down the reaction volumes for gentle pretreatment, partial enzymatic hydrolysis and sugar determination, to allow large numbers to be assessed rapidly in an automated system.This automated platform works with milligram amounts of biomass, performing ball milling under controlled conditions to reduce the plant materials to a standardised particle size in a reproducible manner. Once the samples are ground, the automated formatting robot dispenses specified and recorded amounts of material into the corresponding wells of 96 deep well plate (Figure 1). Normally, we dispense the same material into 4 wells to have 4 replicates for analysis. Once the plates are filled with the plant material in the desired layout, they are manually moved to a liquid handling station (Figure 2). In this station the samples are subjected to a mild pretreatment with either dilute acid or alkaline and incubated at temperatures of up to 90°C. The pretreatment solution is subsequently removed and the samples are rinsed with buffer to return them to a suitable pH for hydrolysis. The samples are then incubated with an enzyme mixture for a variable length of time at 50°C. An aliquot is taken from the hydrolyzate and the reducing sugars are automatically determined by the MBTH colorimetric method.     

Recording Large-scale Neuronal Ensembles with Silicon Probes in the Anesthetized Rat

Large scale electrophysiological recordings from neuronal ensembles offer the opportunity to investigate how the brain orchestrates the wide variety of behaviors from the spiking activity of its neurons. One of the most effective methods to monitor spiking activity from a large number of neurons in multiple local neuronal circuits simultaneously is by using silicon electrode arrays^1-3.Action potentials produce large transmembrane voltage changes in the vicinity of cell somata. These output signals can be measured by placing a conductor in close proximity of a neuron. If there are many active (spiking) neurons in the vicinity of the tip, the electrode records combined signal from all of them, where contribution of a single neuron is weighted by its ''electrical distance''. Silicon probes are ideal recording electrodes to monitor multiple neurons because of a large number of recording sites (+64) and a small volume. Furthermore, multiple sites can be arranged over a distance of millimeters, thus allowing for the simultaneous recordings of neuronal activity in the various cortical layers or in multiple cortical columns (Fig. 1). Importantly, the geometrically precise distribution of the recording sites also allows for the determination of the spatial relationship of the isolated single neurons⁴. Here, we describe an acute, large-scale neuronal recording from the left and right forelimb somatosensory cortex simultaneously in an anesthetized rat with silicon probes (Fig. 2).     

Permanent genetic resources added to Molecular Ecology Resources Database 1 December 2010-31 January 2011

This article documents the addition of 238 microsatellite marker loci to the Molecular Ecology Resources Database. Loci were developed for the following species: Alytes dickhilleni, Arapaima gigas, Austropotamobius italicus, Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici, Cobitis lutheri, Dendroctonus ponderosae, Glossina morsitans morsitans, Haplophilus subterraneus, Kirengeshoma palmata, Lysimachia japonica, Macrolophus pygmaeus, Microtus cabrerae, Mytilus galloprovincialis, Pallisentis (Neosentis) celatus, Pulmonaria officinalis, Salminus franciscanus, Thais chocolata and Zootoca vivipara. These loci were cross-tested on the following species: Acanthina monodon, Alytes cisternasii, Alytes maurus, Alytes muletensis, Alytes obstetricans almogavarii, Alytes obstetricans boscai, Alytes obstetricans obstetricans, Alytes obstetricans pertinax, Cambarellus montezumae, Cambarellus zempoalensis, Chorus giganteus, Cobitis tetralineata, Glossina fuscipes fuscipes, Glossina pallidipes, Lysimachia japonica var. japonica, Lysimachia japonica var. minutissima, Orconectes virilis, Pacifastacus leniusculus, Procambarus clarkii, Salminus brasiliensis and Salminus hilarii.     

The Vesicular Acetylcholine Transporter Is Required for Neuromuscular Development and Function

The vesicular acetylcholine (ACh) transporter (VAChT) mediates ACh storage by synaptic vesicles. However, the VAChT-independent release of ACh is believed to be important during development. Here we generated VAChT knockout mice and tested the physiological relevance of the VAChT-independent release of ACh. Homozygous VAChT knockout mice died shortly after birth, indicating that VAChT-mediated storage of ACh is essential for life. Indeed, synaptosomes obtained from brains of homozygous knockouts were incapable of releasing ACh in response to depolarization. Surprisingly, electrophysiological recordings at the skeletal-neuromuscular junction show that VAChT knockout mice present spontaneous miniature end-plate potentials with reduced amplitude and frequency, which are likely the result of a passive transport of ACh into synaptic vesicles. Interestingly, VAChT knockouts exhibit substantial increases in amounts of choline acetyltransferase, high-affinity choline transporter, and ACh. However, the development of the neuromuscular junction in these mice is severely affected. Mutant VAChT mice show increases in motoneuron and nerve terminal numbers. End plates are large, nerves exhibit abnormal sprouting, and muscle is necrotic. The abnormalities are similar to those of mice that cannot synthesize ACh due to a lack of choline acetyltransferase. Our results indicate that VAChT is essential to the normal development of motor neurons and the release of ACh.Cholinergic neurotransmission has key functions in life, as it regulates several central and peripheral nervous system outputs. Acetylcholine (ACh) is synthesized in the cytoplasm by the enzyme choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) (16). Choline supplied by the high-affinity choline transporter (CHT1) is required to maintain ACh synthesis (52). A lack of ChAT (4, 35) or the high-affinity choline transporter (21) in genetically modified mice is incompatible with life. ACh plays an important role in wiring the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) during development (38, 43). Embryonic synthesis of ACh is fundamental for the development of proper nerve-muscle patterning at the mammalian NMJ, as ChAT-null mice present aberrant nicotinic ACh receptor (nAChR) localization and increased motoneuron (MN) survival, axonal sprouting, and branching (4, 35).The vesicular ACh transporter (VAChT) exchanges cytoplasmic ACh for two vesicular protons (37, 41). Previously reported electrophysiological studies showed that quantal size is decreased by vesamicol, an inhibitor of VAChT, but only in nerve terminals that have been electrically stimulated (19, 59, 60, 63). VAChT overexpression in developing Xenopus MNs increases both the size and frequency of miniature-end-plate currents (54). In Caenorhabditis elegans, mutations in VAChT affect behavior (65). Moreover, a decrease in VAChT expression has functional consequences for mammals, as mutant mice with a 70% reduction in the expression levels of this transporter (VAChT knockdown [KD^HOM] mice) are myasthenic and have cognitive deficits (47). Hence, vesicular transport activity is rate limiting for neurotransmission “in vivo” (18, 47).Exocytosis of synaptic vesicle contents is the predominant mechanism for the regulated secretion of neurotransmitters (55). However, alternative mechanisms of secretion have been proposed (20, 56, 61). Quantal ACh release, comparable to that seen in developing nerve terminals, has been detected in myocytes and fibroblasts in culture, which presumably do not express VAChT (14, 24). More recently, it was found that the correct targeting of Drosophila photoreceptor axons is disrupted in flies with null mutations in ChAT (64). Remarkably, the inactivation of VAChT did not produce the same result (64). The result suggests that the release of ACh during development is not dependent on VAChT, perhaps because it is nonvesicular or because vesicular storage can occur without VAChT.To test if the VAChT-independent secretion of ACh has any physiological role in the mammalian nervous system, we generated a mouse line in which the VAChT gene is deleted. These mice lack the stimulated release of ACh from synaptosomes, die after birth, and show several alterations in neuromuscular wiring consistent with a severe decrease in the cholinergic input to muscles during development. These experiments indicate that VAChT has an important role in maintaining activity-dependent ACh release that supports life and the correct patterning of innervation at the NMJ.     

Novel tetrahydroisoquinolines are histamine H3 antagonists and serotonin reuptake inhibitors

A series of novel 4-aryl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline-based histamine H(3) ligands that also have serotonin reuptake transporter inhibitor activity is described. The synthesis, in vitro biological data, and select pharmacokinetic data for these novel compounds are discussed.     

Changing patterns of nest predation and predator communities along a tropical elevation gradient

Tropical montane communities host the world's highest beta diversity of birds, a phenomenon usually attributed to community turnover caused by changes in biotic and abiotic factors along elevation gradients. Yet, empirical data on most biotic factors are lacking. Nest predation is thought to be especially important because it appears to be common and can change selective pressures underlying life history traits, which can alter competitive interactions. We monitored 2538 nests, 338 of which had known nest predators, to evaluate if nest predation changes along a tropical elevational gradient. We found that nest predation decreased with elevation, reflecting the loss of lowland predators that do not tolerate colder climates. We found different “super” nest predators at each elevation that accounted for a high percentage of events, suggesting that selection pressures exerted by nest predator communities may be less diffuse than has been hypothesized, at least for birds nesting in the understory.