In vitro study of DNA interaction with melamine and its related compounds

In vitro studies on the interactions between native herring sperm DNA (HS-DNA) and melamine as well as its related compounds (MARCs), that is, ammeline, ammelide, and cyanuric acid, have been investigated by spectrophotometric, spectrofluorometric, melting temperature, and viscosimetric techniques. It was found that any of the MARCs might interact with HS-DNA by a groove mode of binding via hydrogen bonds. The interaction constants between any of the MARCs and HS-DNA were at 10?-10? L mol?1, determined by both spectrophotometric and spectrofluorometric methods. The thermodynamic studies suggested that the interaction processes were exothermic favored (ΔH?相似文献   

噬菌体phi29 DNA包装马达磷脂膜嵌合体在单分子检测及纳米医学领域的应用

生命系统包含了具有不同功能的纳米机器和高度有序的大分子结构。所有的双链线性DNA病毒使用由ATP驱动的纳米分子马达将其基因包装在蛋白质外壳内。噬菌体phi29 DNA包装马达的核心组成部分连接器已被成功嵌入到脂双层中,极为稳定且可用于离子和DNA转运的精确测量。它在包装DNA时具有单向通行的阀门机制,同时其关闭和打开可由人工控制。这对于详细研究分子马达的操作机制及未来医药应用中DNA的包装、测序、采样和投递都具有重要意义。     

凋亡相关基因Bcl-2、Bax及细胞色素C在糖尿病胃组织壁细胞中的表达

目的观察糖尿病大鼠胃组织中Bcl-2、Bax及细胞色素C表达变化。方法SD雄性大鼠腹腔注射链脲佐菌素(STZ)复制糖尿病动物模型,分别于4周、12周后测体重和血糖,胃内色素排空检测,光镜观察胃组织形态学变化,免疫组织化学观察Bcl-2、Bax及细胞色素C蛋白表达变化。结果糖尿病组大鼠胃内色素残留率显著增加,胃壁细胞胞质空泡改变。与正常对照组比较糖尿病组大鼠胃壁细胞Bax及细胞色素C表达随病程延长显著增加,而Bcl-2随病程延长表达减弱。结论Bcl-2、Bax及细胞色素C在糖尿病胃组织壁细胞中出现了一定的变化规律。引起壁细胞凋亡增加,导致胃粘膜功能异常,这可能是糖尿病胃瘫的重要发病机制之一。     

Rheb1 is required for mTORC1 and myelination in postnatal brain development

mTor kinase is involved in cell growth, proliferation, and differentiation. The roles of mTor activators, Rheb1 and Rheb2, have not been established in?vivo. Here, we report that Rheb1, but not Rheb2, is critical for embryonic survival and mTORC1 signaling. Embryonic deletion of Rheb1 in neural progenitor cells?abolishes mTORC1 signaling in developing brain and increases mTORC2 signaling. Remarkably, embryonic and early postnatal brain development appears grossly normal in these Rheb1f/f,Nes-cre mice with the notable exception of deficits of myelination. Conditional expression of Rheb1 transgene in neural progenitors increases mTORC1 activity and promotes myelination in the brain. In addition the Rheb1 transgene rescues mTORC1 signaling and hypomyelination in the Rheb1f/f,Nes-cre mice. Our study demonstrates that Rheb1 is essential for mTORC1 signaling and myelination in the brain, and suggests that mTORC1 signaling plays a role in selective cellular adaptations, rather than general cellular viability.     

Comparison of rNIS and hNIS as reporter genes for noninvasive imaging of bone mesenchymal stem cells transplanted into infarcted rat myocardium

The purpose of this study was to investigate and compare the feasibility of rat sodium iodide symporter (rNIS) and human sodium iodide symporter (hNIS) as reporter genes for noninvasive monitoring of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (rBMSCs) transplanted into infarcted rat myocardium. rBMSCs were isolated from rat bone marrow. Adenovirus (Ad) was reconstructed to contain rNIS-enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) or hNIS-eGFP. The transfection efficiency of Ad/eGFP/rNIS and Ad/eGFP/hNIS to rBMSCs was measured by real-time polymerase chain reaction, flow cytometry, Western blot, and immunofluorescence staining. The transfected rBMSCs were transplanted into infarcted rat myocardium followed by a single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) study with (99m)Tc-pertechnetate as the radiotracer and by autoradiography. The isolated rBMSCs were CD29, CD44, and CD90 positive and CD34, CD45, and CD11b negative. The expression of rNIS and hNIS in the transfected rBMSCs at both gene and protein levels was obviously higher than that without transfection. The myocardium of rats transplanted with transfected rBMSCs could be visualized by SPECT owing to the accumulation of (99m)Tc-pertechnetate in rBMSCs mediated by exogenous NIS genes. The accumulation of (99m)Tc-pertechnetate in myocardium mediated by rNIS was higher than that by hNIS, which was also confirmed by autoradiography. Both rNIS and hNIS are useful reporter genes to monitor BMSCs transplanted into infarcted myocardium in vivo with rNIS being superior to hNIS as the reporter gene.     

Metabolomic profiling to identify potential serum biomarkers for schizophrenia and risperidone action

Despite recent advances in understanding the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and the mechanisms of antipsychotic drug action, the development of biomarkers for diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring in schizophrenia remains challenging. Metabolomics provides a powerful approach to discover diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers by analyzing global changes in an individual's metabolic profile in response to pathophysiological stimuli or drug intervention. In this study, we performed gas chromatography-mass spectrometry based metabolomic profiling in serum of unmedicated schizophrenic patients before and after an 8-week risperidone monotherapy, to detect potential biomarkers associated with schizophrenia and risperidone treatment. Twenty-two marker metabolites contributing to the complete separation of schizophrenic patients from matched healthy controls were identified, with citrate, palmitic acid, myo-inositol, and allantoin exhibiting the best combined classification performance. Twenty marker metabolites contributing to the complete separation between posttreatment and pretreatment patients were identified, with myo-inositol, uric acid, and tryptophan showing the maximum combined classification performance. Metabolic pathways including energy metabolism, antioxidant defense systems, neurotransmitter metabolism, fatty acid biosynthesis, and phospholipid metabolism were found to be disturbed in schizophrenic patients and partially normalized following risperidone therapy. Further study of these metabolites may facilitate the development of noninvasive biomarkers and more efficient therapeutic strategies for schizophrenia.     

Diagnosis of early stage ovarian cancer by 1H NMR metabonomics of serum explored by use of a microflow NMR probe

We show that (1)H NMR based metabonomicsof serum allows the diagnosis of early stage I/II epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) required for successful treatment. Because patient specimens are highly precious, we conducted an exploratory study using a microflow probe requiring only 20 μL of serum. By use of logistic regression on principal components (PCs) of the NMR profiles, we built a 4-variable model for early stage EOC prediction (training set: 69 EOC specimens, 84 healthy controls; test set: 40 EOC, 44 controls) with operating characteristics estimated for the test set at 80% specificity [95% confidence interval (CI): 65-90%], 63% sensitivity (95% CI: 46-77%), and an area under the Receiver Operator Characteristic Curve (AUC) of 0.796. Independent validation (50 EOC, 50 controls) of the model yielded 95% specificity (95% CI: 86-99.5%), 68% sensitivity (95% CI: 53-80%) and an AUC of 0.949. A test on cancer type specificity showed that women diseased with renal cell carcinoma were not incorrectly diagnosed with EOC, indicating that metabonomics bears significant potential for cancer type-specific diagnosis. Our model can potentially be applied for women at high risk for EOC, and our study promises to contribute to developing a screening protocol for the general population.     

Synthesis, characterization, and in vivo biodistribution of 125I-labeled Dex-g-PMAGGCONHTyr

Dextran graft poly (N-methacryloylglycylglycine) copolymer-tyrosine conjugates (dextran-g-PMAGGCONHTyr) were synthesized and characterized. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) results indicated that the graft copolymers are soluble in pH 7.4 PBS and 0.9% saline solutions. The graft copolymers were labeled with (125)I, and the labeling stability in 0.9% saline solution was investigated. Pharmacokinetics studies showed a rapid clearance of (125)I-labeled graft copolymers from the blood pool. Biodistribution images confirmed the preferable liver and spleen accumulation within 1 h after injection and rapid clearance from all the organs over time. The graft copolymer with molecular weight of 9.8 kDa was eliminated from the kidney significantly faster than those with higher molecular weight. The effect of the numbers of -COOH groups on the graft copolymers on the biodistribution was also investigated. It was found that the graft copolymers with the average number of -COOH groups per glucopyranose unit (DS(-COOH)) of 0.57 and 0.18 are mainly distributed in liver and spleen at 1 h after injection, whereas the graft copolymer with DS(-COOH) of 0.07 is mainly accumulated in kidney.