A Drug Screening Method Based on the Autophagy Pathway and Studies of the Mechanism of Evodiamine against Influenza A Virus

In this research, we have established a drug screening method based on the autophagy signal pathway using the bimolecular fluorescence complementation - fluorescence resonance energy transfer (BiFC-FRET) technique to develop novel anti-influenza A virus (IAV) drugs. We selected Evodia rutaecarpa Benth out of 83 examples of traditional Chinese medicine and explored the mechanisms of evodiamine, the major active component of Evodia rutaecarpa Benth, on anti-IAV activity. Our results showed that evodiamine could significantly inhibit IAV replication, as determined by a plaque inhibition assay, an IAV vRNA promoter luciferase reporter assay and the Sulforhodamine B method using cytopathic effect (CPE) reduction. Additionally, evodiamine could significantly inhibit the accumulation of LC3-II and p62, and the dot-like aggregation of EGFP-LC3. This compound also inhibited the formation of the Atg5-Atg12/Atg16 heterotrimer, the expressions of Atg5, Atg7 and Atg12, and the cytokine release of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-8 after IAV infection. Evodiamine inhibited IAV-induced autophagy was also dependent on its action on the AMPK/TSC2/mTOR signal pathway. In conclusion, we have established a new drug screening method, and selected evodiamine as a promising anti-IAV compound.     

鲤鱼SOCS-4基因克隆、鉴定及表达模式分析

细胞因子是调节机体免疫和神经内分泌功能的生物活性物质,其信号的激发、放大和持续在时间和空间上都受到严格调控。细胞因子信号传导抑制因子(Suppressorof cytokine signaling,SOCS)是细胞因子信号通路的负调节因子,通过负反馈抑制细胞因子的信号传递,防止过度的信号反应干扰机体代谢平衡和细胞功能。在哺乳动物中,SOCS系统对生长激素(GH)、表皮生长因子     

川西高原季节性雪被覆盖对窄叶鲜卑花凋落物分解和养分动态的影响

2010年1-5月在川西高原采用人工雪厚度梯度试验(0、30和100 cm),应用网袋分解法对窄叶鲜卑花叶片凋落物进行分解试验,测定了凋落物的分解速率及其养分动态.结果表明:在无雪被覆盖的样地上分解5个月后的凋落物质量损失率为29.9％,而中雪和深雪样地的凋落物质量损失率分别为33.8％和35.2％.分解过程中,凋落物氮存在一定的富集现象,磷处于波动的富集状态,碳质量分数和碳氮比均呈现前期急剧下降后期逐渐上升的趋势.雪被覆盖显著增加了凋落物的质量损失率和氮含量,而对碳和磷含量无显著影响.在川西高原地区,30 cm以上的持续雪被覆盖能够改变凋落物的分解过程,从而可能对土壤营养物质转化和植物群落构建产生实质性的影响.     

Exploring the substructural space of indole-3-carboxamide derivatives binding to renin: a novel active-site spatial partitioning approach

Renin has recently attracted much attention in the antihypertensive community, since this enzyme starts the angiotensin-converting cascade and forms the rate-limiting step in this cascade. In the present study, we describe a new method called active-site spatial partitioning (ASSP) for quantitatively characterizing the nonbonding interaction profile between renin and the substructures of indole-3-carboxamide derivatives-a novel class of achiral renin inhibitors that exhibit both high affinity and strong specificity for renin, thus blocking its active state-on the basis of structural models of protein-ligand complexes. It is shown that the ASSP-derived potential parameters are highly correlated with the experimentally measured activities of indole-3-carboxamides; the statistical models linking the parameters and activities using a sophisticated partial least squares regression technique show much promise as an effective and powerful tool for generalizing and predicting the pharmaceutical potencies and the physicochemical properties of other modified derivatives. Furthermore, by visually examining substructure-color plots generated by the ASSP procedure, it is found that the relative importance of nonbonding contributions to the recognition and binding of a ligand by renin is as follows: steric < hydrophobic < electrostatic. The polar and charged moieties that float on the surface of the ligand molecule play a critical role in conferring electrostatic stability and specificity to renin-ligand complexes, whereas the aromatic rings embedded in the core region of the ligand are the main source of hydrophobic and steric potentials that lead to substantial stabilization of the complex architecture.     

The macroecology of sustainability

The discipline of sustainability science has emerged in response to concerns of natural and social scientists, policymakers, and lay people about whether the Earth can continue to support human population growth and economic prosperity. Yet, sustainability science has developed largely independently from and with little reference to key ecological principles that govern life on Earth. A macroecological perspective highlights three principles that should be integral to sustainability science: 1) physical conservation laws govern the flows of energy and materials between human systems and the environment, 2) smaller systems are connected by these flows to larger systems in which they are embedded, and 3) global constraints ultimately limit flows at smaller scales. Over the past few decades, decreasing per capita rates of consumption of petroleum, phosphate, agricultural land, fresh water, fish, and wood indicate that the growing human population has surpassed the capacity of the Earth to supply enough of these essential resources to sustain even the current population and level of socioeconomic development.     

黄粉虫胰蛋白酶样酶基因TMTLSP全长cDNA的克隆和序列分析

以黄粉虫(Tenebrio molitor)幼虫全RNA逆转录得到的cDNA为模板,参照地鳖（Eupolyphaga sinensis）纤溶酶（fibrinolytic enzyme）简并引物,进行温度梯度PCR．以得到的扩增产物为基础,采用RACE得到基因全长cDNA,命名为黄粉虫胰蛋白酶样丝氨酸蛋白酶(Tenebrio molitor trypsin-like serine protease,TMTLSP)．TMTLSP全长869 bp(GenBank No. JN662461),开放阅读框为777 bp,编码258个氨基酸,并具有蛋白酶样特有的起始位点、活性中心预计底物结合位点．经过比对分析,该基因编码的氨基酸序列与赤拟谷盗、谷蠹、光亮扁角水虻、美洲大蠊等多种昆虫的胰蛋白酶或丝氨酸蛋白酶有较高的相似性．本研究将为胰蛋白酶样丝氨酸蛋白酶的提取及研究提供更为广泛的材料及研究依据．     

An entropy-based approach for testing genetic epistasis underlying complex diseases

The genetic basis of complex diseases is expected to be highly heterogeneous, with complex interactions among multiple disease loci and environment factors. Due to the multi-dimensional property of interactions among large number of genetic loci, efficient statistical approach has not been well developed to handle the high-order epistatic complexity. In this article, we introduce a new approach for testing genetic epistasis in multiple loci using an entropy-based statistic for a case-only design. The entropy-based statistic asymptotically follows a χ² distribution. Computer simulations show that the entropy-based approach has better control of type I error and higher power compared to the standard χ² test. Motivated by a schizophrenia data set, we propose a method for measuring and testing the relative entropy of a clinical phenotype, through which one can test the contribution or interaction of multiple disease loci to a clinical phenotype. A sequential forward selection procedure is proposed to construct a genetic interaction network which is illustrated through a tree-based diagram. The network information clearly shows the relative importance of a set of genetic loci on a clinical phenotype. To show the utility of the new entropy-based approach, it is applied to analyze two real data sets, a schizophrenia data set and a published malaria data set. Our approach provides a fast and testable framework for genetic epistasis study in a case-only design.     

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus latent gene vFLIP inhibits viral lytic replication through NF-kappaB-mediated suppression of the AP-1 pathway: a novel mechanism of virus control of latency

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) latency is central to the evasion of host immune surveillances and induction of KSHV-related malignancies. The mechanism of KSHV latency remains unclear. Here, we show that the KSHV latent gene vFLIP promotes viral latency by inhibiting viral lytic replication. vFLIP suppresses the AP-1 pathway, which is essential for KSHV lytic replication, by activating the NF-kappaB pathway. Thus, by manipulating two convergent cellular pathways, vFLIP regulates both cell survival and KSHV lytic replication to promote viral latency. These results also indicate that the effect of the NF-kappaB pathway on KSHV replication is determined by the status of the AP-1 pathway and hence provide a mechanistic explanation for the contradictory role of the NF-kappaB pathway in KSHV replication. Since the NF-kappaB pathway is commonly activated during infection of gammaherpesviruses, these findings might have general implications for the control of gammaherpesviral latency.