Double heterozygous Hb O Arab/beta-thalassemia in a Tunisian child

A study realized in a Tunisian family of 22 persons has revealed a double heterozygoty Hb O Arab/beta(0) thalassemia in a child of 16 years old. The father of this child presents a beta thalassemia and his mother is haemoglobine O Arab homozygote.     

Loss of CD45R and gain of UCHL1 reactivity is a feature of primed T cells

A group of mAb recognizing the 200- and/or 220-kDa determinants (CD45R) of the leukocyte common Ag such as 2H4, WR16, MD4.3, and SN130 cross-block each other showing that they recognize a closely related epitope. The antibody UCHL1 reacts with a 180-kDa determinant of the leukocyte common Ag and exhibits a reciprocal T subset distribution pattern to the CD45R group. Peripheral blood T cells were 40% positive for UCHL1 and 58 to 65% positive for the CD45R antibodies; less than 1% of cells stained for both. On activation of CD45R+,UCHL1- T cells by PHA, up to 40% of cells became positive for both CD45R and UCHL1 by day 3. By day 7, CD45R+,UCHL1- cells fell from 90 to less than 21% whereas UCHL1+,CD45R- cells rose from 2 to 93%. Conversely, PHA-stimulated UCHL1+,CD45R- cells remained UCHL1+,CD45R- during the 7 days in culture showing that phenotypic change was unidirectional from CD45R+ to UCHL1+. In primary allogeneic mixed lymphocyte reactions, activated CD45R+ T cells also showed a change to UCHL1+. When these cells were rechallenged by the original alloantigen, the UCHL1+ cells showed 7- to 20-fold greater proliferation than the CD45R+ cells on day 3 after rechallenge. The recovery of virtually all alloantigen induced secondary proliferative response in the UCHL1+,CD45R- T cell population suggests that UCHL1 identifies a primed population of T cells which may include memory cells.     

Reproduction in the Malayan freshwater cerithiacean gastropod Melanoides tuberculata

Melanoides tuberculata in the Kuala Lumpur area of Malaysia were found to be entirely female, reproducing parthenogenetically. The reproductive system is extremely simple in structure and histology, lacking all the glandular developments common in most mesogastropods. Eggs pass into a cephalic brood-pouch where they develop to juveniles of 5–6 shell whorls before emergence. Numbers of developing young in the brood-pouches increased with shell height of the parents except for a decline in the few very largest snails. The highest brood-pouch count was 265, but average counts were much lower. 85 % of developing young in the brood-pouches were very early stages from eggs to embryos of one whorl only, perhaps implying that many eggs fail to develop successfully to young snails. Three localities studied yielded consistently different brood-pouch counts, implying variation in fecundity. Juveniles emerge from the brood-pouch most commonly between nightfall and midnight and normal emergence seems to require diurnal alternation of light and dark. In continuous darkness, brood-pouch counts increased markedly, perhaps as a result of greater activity and feeding during darkness. Several features of the reproductive biology suggest that Melanoides might become a useful experimental animal in freshwater studies.     

白癜风患者病变表皮与正常表皮的比较蛋白质组学研究（英文）

目的 本文通过开展白癜风患者病变表皮与正常表皮的比较蛋白质组学研究，发现和鉴定白癜风患者病变表皮与正常表皮之间的差异表达蛋白，以探讨白癜风患者表皮发生病变的分子机制。方法 首先，建立和优化了表皮样品中蛋白质的最佳酶切条件。其次，采用基于串联质谱标签（TMT）标记的定量蛋白质组学技术策略开展了稳定期白癜风患者病变表皮与正常表皮的比较蛋白质组学研究，并筛选了差异表达蛋白。最后通过生物信息学分析工具及数据库（GO、KEGG、STRING、GSEA）对差异蛋白进行功能富集分析。结果 优化所得到的最佳酶解条件是由Lys-C （酶∶底物，1∶100）和胰酶（酶∶底物，1∶50）组合而成的顺序酶切。比较蛋白质组学研究共鉴定4 496个蛋白质，其中181个蛋白质为白癜风患者病变表皮中的差异表达蛋白。生物信息学分析表明差异表达蛋白主要与代谢、免疫、氧化还原和细胞黏附相关。其中119个上调蛋白主要参与角质化、转录、氧化应激及蛋白酶解等过程。62个下调蛋白主要参与细胞内物质运输、谷胱甘肽代谢和肌动蛋白细丝封端等过程。结论 比较蛋白质组学研究揭示了白癜风患者病变表皮与正常表皮之间主要存在角质化、免疫、脂质代谢...     

Ontogenetic differences in the spatial ecology of immature Komodo dragons

The early life-history stages of reptiles are extremely important to an individual's fitness, but in an ecological sense, among the most difficult to observe. Here, we used radio-tracking techniques to describe the differences in movement patterns, habitat use and home range between hatchling and juvenile Komodo dragons Varanus komodoensis on Komodo Island, Indonesia. The movement of hatchlings from their nests was largely linear and suggested a natal dispersal event. The movement patterns of juvenile Komodo dragons exhibited a greater spatial overlap than hatchlings, indicating greater site fidelity and thus use of a more defined activity area. The rates of daily movement were significantly less for hatchlings compared with juvenile dragons. The activity areas of hatchlings were significantly smaller than juvenile dragons. Both age classes preferred utilizing dry monsoon forest compared with other habitat types. Hatchlings were predominantly arboreal compared with juveniles and the degree of arboreal activity was strongly correlated with an individual's size. These distinct differences in spatial ecology between immature life-history stages suggest that different selection pressures may affect different size classes of Komodo dragons.     

Molecular dynamic simulations of nanomechanic chaperone peptide and effects of in silico His mutations on nanostructured function

The nanoscale peptide YSGVCHTDLHAWHGDWPLPVK exhibits molecular chaperone activity and prevents protein aggregation under chemical and/or thermal stress. Here, His mutations of this peptide and their impact on chaperone activity were evaluated using theoretical techniques. Molecular dynamic (MD) simulations with simulated annealing (SA) of different mutant nanopeptides were employed to determine the contribution of the scaffolding His residues (H45, H49, H52), when mutated to Pro, on chaperone action in vitro. The in silico mutations of His residues to Pro (H45P, H49P, H52P) revealed loss of secondary ordered strand structure. However, a small part of the strand conformation was formed in the middle region of the native chaperone peptide. The His‐to‐Pro mutations resulted in decreased gyration radius (R_g) values and surface accessibility of the mutant peptides under the simulation times. The invariant dihedral angle (ϕ) values and the disrupting effects of the Pro residues indicated the coil conformation of mutant peptides. The failure of the chaperone‐like action in the Pro mutant peptides was consistent with their decreased effective accessible surfaces. The high variation of Φ value for His residues in native chaperone peptide leads to high flexibility, such as a minichaperone acting as a nanomachine at the molecular level. Our findings demonstrate that the peptide strand conformation motif with high flexibility at nanoscale is critical for chaperone activity. Copyright © 2008 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spermine as a porcine pancreatic elastase activator: spectroscopic and molecular simulation studies

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the spermine effect on the thermal denaturation, conformation and activity of elastase at three temperatures of 303, 313 and 323?K in the Tris buffer, at pH 8.5, using UV–vis spectrophotometry, spectrofluorometry and circular dichroism as well as molecular docking and molecular simulation. The increased absorption of elastase in the presence of spermine suggested a change in the environment of tryptophan. It was found that under the influence of spermine, the emission intensity of elastase extremely was reduced, and the use of the Stern-Volmer equation showed that some static quenching had occurred. The thermodynamic parameters values (enthalpy and entropy) and the molecular docking technique also revealed that van der Waals forces or hydrogen bonding interactions played an important role in the binding process. The spermine–elastase complex formation led to increasing the value of the catalytic constant (k_cat). So it could be considered as an activator. Slight changes were observed in the second structure of elastase (1.06% increase for the α-helix and 0.048% decrease the β-sheet) and the thermal stability effect. Molecular docking results also demonstrated that spermine could bind to porcine pancreatic elastase, and van der Waals forces or hydrogen bonding interactions played the major role in the binding process. Overall, our results showed that spermine could induce structural alterations in elastase, acting as a partial stabilizer and an activator for the enzyme.

Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma