30种滇西植物β-羟高铁血红素形成抑制活性

疟疾是严重危害人类健康的寄生虫病之一,据世界卫生组织报道每年有数十万人因疟疾而死亡,我国疟疾防治工作虽然取得了长足发展,但在中国云南边境地区和中国西藏林芝地区本地疟疾病例依然存在,再加上西藏自治区和云南省地理位置特殊,与周边疟疾高发的国家接壤,边民来往十分频繁,传染源输入无法杜绝。为了发现植物来源的新型抗疟疾天然产物,该研究依次用75%乙醇和蒸馏水对30种滇西植物进行回流提取,并采用β-羟高铁血红素形成抑制实验对这些样品进行抗疟活性筛选。结果表明:在供试的30种植物中,玉叶金花、回心草以及云南甘草等19种植物粗提物具有不同程度的β-羟高铁血红素形成抑制活性,具有抗疟活性的植物种类涉及17个科、19个属。其中,虾子花、东方紫金牛、姜花水提物以及反瓣老鹳草地下部分醇提物的活性较好,其IC50值分别为796.0、951.0、1033.0、1388.9μg·mL^-1,值得进一步深入研究。虾子花、东方紫金牛的HPLC分析结果显示,其活性成分应为酚性成分。     

An immunoassay for dibutyl phthalate based on direct hapten linkage to the polystyrene surface of microtiter plates

Background

Dibutyl phthalate (DBP) is predominantly used as a plasticizer inplastics to make them flexible. Extensive use of phthalates in both industrial processes and other consumer products has resulted in the ubiquitous presence of phthalates in the environment. In order to better determine the level of pollution in the environment and evaluate the potential adverse effects of exposure to DBP, immunoassay for DBP was developed.

Methodology/Principal Findings

A monoclonal antibody specific to DBP was produced from a stable hybridoma cell line generated by lymphocyte hybridoma technique. An indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (icELISA) employing direct coating of hapten on polystyrene microtiter plates was established for the detection of DBP. Polystyrene surface was first oxidized by permanganate in dilute sulfuric acid to generate carboxyl groups. Then dibutyl 4-aminophthalate, which is an analogue of DBP, was covalently linked to the carboxyl groups of polystyrene surface with 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC). Compared with conjugate coated format (IC₅₀ = 106 ng/mL), the direct hapten coated format (IC₅₀ = 14.6 ng/mL) improved assay sensitivity after careful optimization of assay conditions. The average recovery of DBP from spiked water sample was 104.4% and the average coefficient of variation was 9.95%. Good agreement of the results obtained by the hapten coated icELISA and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry further confirmed the reliability and accuracy of the icELISA for the detection of DBP in certain plastic and cosmetic samples.

Conclusions/Significance

The stable and efficient hybridoma cell line obtained is an unlimited source of sensitive and specific antibody to DBP. The hapten coated format is proposed as generally applicable because the carboxyl groups on modified microtiter plate surface enables stable immobilization of aminated or hydroxylated hapten with EDC. The developed hapten coated icELISA can be used as a convenient quantitative tool for the sensitive and accurate monitoring DBP in water, plastic and cosmetic samples.     

In vitro expression and analysis of the 826 human G protein-coupled receptors

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are involved in all humanphysiological systems where they are responsible for transducing extracellular signals into cells. GPCRs signal in response to a diverse array of stimuli including light, hormones, and lipids, where these signals affect downstream cascades to impact both health and disease states. Yet, despite their importance as therapeutic targets, detailed molecular structures of only 30 GPCRs have been determined to date. A key challenge to their structure determination is adequate protein expression. Here we report the quantification of protein expression in an insect cell expression system for all 826humanGPCRs using two different fusion constructs. Expression characteristics are analyzed in aggregate and among each of the five distinct subfamilies. These data can be used to identify trends related to GPCR expression between different fusion constructs and between different GPCR families, and to prioritize lead candidates for future structure determination feasibility.     

老龙皮总氨基酸的提取工艺研究

通过单因素选择和正交设计法,以老龙皮总氨基酸含量为指标,分别对乙醇浓度、料液比、提取温度、提取时间等因素进行考查,优选老龙皮总氨基酸的最佳提取条件。结果显示料液比对总氨基酸提取率影响最大,最佳提取条件为60%乙醇作提取液,料液比(W/V)为1∶20,在70℃提取3 h。     

中心体复制及调控机制研究进展

中心体是动物细胞内最主要的微管组织中心。此外,它还参与纺锤体组装、纤毛发生和细胞迁移等一系列生物过程。中心体异常不仅与肿瘤的发生密切相关,并且还会导致一些发育方面的疾病。该文总结了中心体的结构、复制过程及其调控机制等方面的研究进展,并讨论了中心体异常与肿瘤发生及发育相关疾病的关系,为更深入了解产生中心体异常的原因及一些相关疾病的诊断和治疗提供参考。     

The SNAG domain of Snail1 functions as a molecular hook for recruiting lysine‐specific demethylase 1

Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a transdifferentiation programme. The mechanism underlying the epigenetic regulation of EMT remains unclear. In this study, we identified that Snail1 interacted with histone lysine‐specific demethylase 1 (LSD1). We demonstrated that the SNAG domain of Snail1 and the amine oxidase domain of LSD1 were required for their mutual interaction. Interestingly, the sequence of the SNAG domain is similar to that of the histone H3 tail, and the interaction of Snail1 with LSD1 can be blocked by LSD1 enzymatic inhibitors and a histone H3 peptide. We found that the formation of a Snail1–LSD1–CoREST ternary complex was critical for the stability and function of these proteins. The co‐expression of these molecules was found in cancer cell lines and breast tumour specimens. Furthermore, we showed that the SNAG domain of Snail1 was critical for recruiting LSD1 to its target gene promoters and resulted in suppression of cell migration and invasion. Our study suggests that the SNAG domain of Snail1 resembles a histone H3‐like structure and functions as a molecular hook for recruiting LSD1 to repress gene expression in metastasis.     

Computational drug repositioning using similarity constrained weight regularization matrix factorization: A case of COVID‐19

Amid the COVID‐19 crisis, we put sizeable efforts to collect a high number of experimentally validated drug–virus association entries from literature by text mining and built a human drug–virus association database. To the best of our knowledge, it is the largest publicly available drug–virus database so far. Next, we develop a novel weight regularization matrix factorization approach, termed WRMF, for in silico drug repurposing by integrating three networks: the known drug–virus association network, the drug–drug chemical structure similarity network, and the virus–virus genomic sequencing similarity network. Specifically, WRMF adds a weight to each training sample for reducing the influence of negative samples (i.e. the drug–virus association is unassociated). A comparison on the curated drug–virus database shows that WRMF performs better than a few state‐of‐the‐art methods. In addition, we selected the other two different public datasets (i.e. Cdataset and HMDD V2.0) to assess WRMF''s performance. The case study also demonstrated the accuracy and reliability of WRMF to infer potential drugs for the novel virus. In summary, we offer a useful tool including a novel drug–virus association database and a powerful method WRMF to repurpose potential drugs for new viruses.     

Genetic Polymorphism of <Emphasis Type="Italic">GABRR2</Emphasis> Modulates Individuals’ General Cognitive Ability in Healthy Chinese Han People

Previous studies have indicated that the cognitive impairment or deficit is associated with GABAergic signaling in central nervous system. Inspired by the finding that receptor GABRR2 modulates concentration of GABA and phasic inhibitory GABAergic transmission in brain. This study investigated to what extent a genetic variant (c.1423C>T, rs282129) of GABRR2 gene modulates individuals’ general cognitive ability in 987 Chinese Han people. Results showed a significant influence of GABRR2 gene polymorphism on individuals’ Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM) performance (F = 3.58, P = .028 by ANOVA and χ ² = 9.35, P = .009 by K–W test, respectively), even if non-genetic factors were partialed out (gender, major, types of birthplace, and socioeconomic index) (B = ?.67, SE = .26, t = 2.63, P = .009). The finding provided a strong evidence, to our knowledge, for the view that genetic variant of GABRR2 gene may contribute to the difference of individuals’ general cognitive ability, independently.     

Direct repression of splicing by transformer-2

The Drosophila melanogaster sex determination factor Tra2 positively regulates the splicing of both doublesex (dsx) and fruitless (fru) pre-mRNAs but negatively affects the splicing of the M1 intron in tra2 pre-mRNA. Retention of the M1 intron is known to be part of a negative-feedback mechanism wherein the Tra2 protein limits its own synthesis, but the mechanism responsible for accumulation of M1-containing RNA is unknown. Here we show that the recombinant Tra2 protein specifically represses M1 splicing in Drosophila nuclear extracts. We find that the Tra2 protein binds directly to several sites in and near the M1 intron and that, when Tra2 binding is competed with other RNAs, the splicing of M1 is restored. Mapping the RNA sequences functionally required for M1 repression identified both a 34-nucleotide (nt) A/C-rich sequence immediately upstream of the M1 5' splice site and a region within the intron itself. The AC-rich sequence is largely composed of a repeated 4-nt sequence that also forms a subrepeat within the repeated 13-nt splicing enhancer elements of fru and dsx RNAs. Although required for repression, the element also enhances M1 splicing in the absence of Tra2. We propose that Tra2 represses M1 splicing by interacting with multiple sequences in the pre-mRNA and interfering with enhancer function.