Interleukin-6 counteracts therapy-induced cellular oxidative stress in multiple myeloma by up-regulating manganese superoxide dismutase

IL (interleukin)-6, an established growth factor for multiple myeloma cells, induces myeloma therapy resistance, but the resistance mechanisms remain unclear. The present study determines the role of IL-6 in re-establishing intracellular redox homoeostasis in the context of myeloma therapy. IL-6 treatment increased myeloma cell resistance to agents that induce oxidative stress, including IR (ionizing radiation) and Dex (dexamethasone). Relative to IR alone, myeloma cells treated with IL-6 plus IR demonstrated reduced annexin/propidium iodide staining, caspase 3 activation, PARP [poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase] cleavage and mitochondrial membrane depolarization with increased clonogenic survival. IL-6 combined with IR or Dex increased early intracellular pro-oxidant levels that were causally related to activation of NF-κB (nuclear factor κB) as determined by the ability of N-acetylcysteine to suppress both pro-oxidant levels and NF-κB activation. In myeloma cells, upon combination with hydrogen peroxide treatment, relative to TNF (tumour necrosis factor)-α, IL-6 induced an early perturbation in reduced glutathione level and increased NF-κB-dependent MnSOD (manganese superoxide dismutase) expression. Furthermore, knockdown of MnSOD suppressed the IL-6-induced myeloma cell resistance to radiation. MitoSOX Red staining showed that IL-6 treatment attenuated late mitochondrial oxidant production in irradiated myeloma cells. The present study provides evidence that increases in MnSOD expression mediate IL-6-induced resistance to Dex and radiation in myeloma cells. The results of the present study indicate that inhibition of antioxidant pathways could enhance myeloma cell responses to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy.     

Molecular characterization of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Echinococcus granulosus</Emphasis> of Indian animal isolates on the basis of nuclear and mitochondrial genotype

Sixty-six isolates of larval stage of Echinococcus granulosus, a known pathogenic parasite of man and animals were collected from cattle, buffalo, sheep, and goats. Single-stranded conformation polymorphism (SSCP) for analysis of variation after denaturation of amplicon of intron of actin II (ACTII) revealed six SSCP phenotypes. Intron portion was analyzed considering introns-early and introns-late theories. Isolates belonging to different conformers were further screened for mitochondrial ATPase subunit 6 (ATP6) and NADH dehydrogenase subunit II (nadII) genotypes. Assignment of each isolate to its specific strain was achieved after comparing with standard genotypes of E. granulosus. Variants deduced by nuclear targets did not match with mitochondrial haplotypes. A possible explanation for this observation can be attributed toward interspecific hybridization since cross-fertilization occurs less frequently in hermaphrodite organisms. A phylogenetic tree drawn on the basis of predicted aminoacid sequence of ATP6 and nadII revealed two distinct clusters i.e. E. granulosus sensu stricto and E. ortleppi/cattle strain (EG5). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of genetic characterization of two distinct ATP6 and nadII genotypes of zoonotic importance living in sympatry.     

The Time Scale of Evolutionary Innovation

A fundamental question in biology is the following: what is the time scale that is needed for evolutionary innovations? There are many results that characterize single steps in terms of the fixation time of new mutants arising in populations of certain size and structure. But here we ask a different question, which is concerned with the much longer time scale of evolutionary trajectories: how long does it take for a population exploring a fitness landscape to find target sequences that encode new biological functions? Our key variable is the length, of the genetic sequence that undergoes adaptation. In computer science there is a crucial distinction between problems that require algorithms which take polynomial or exponential time. The latter are considered to be intractable. Here we develop a theoretical approach that allows us to estimate the time of evolution as function of We show that adaptation on many fitness landscapes takes time that is exponential in even if there are broad selection gradients and many targets uniformly distributed in sequence space. These negative results lead us to search for specific mechanisms that allow evolution to work on polynomial time scales. We study a regeneration process and show that it enables evolution to work in polynomial time.     

Synthesis, spectroscopy and thermal behavior of new lead(II) complexes derived from S-methyl/benzyldithiocarbazates (SMDTC/SBDTC): X-ray crystal structure of [Pb(SMDTC)(NO3)2]

Lead(II) complexes of S-methyldithiocarbazate (SMDTC), [Pb(SMDTC)(NO₃)₂] (1) and S-benzyldithiocarbazate (SBDTC), [Pb(SBDTC)(NO₃)₂] (2) have been synthesized for the first time and characterized by elemental analysis, IR and TGA techniques. The complexes were obtained by addition of the appropriate ligand to an aqueous ethanolic solution of lead(II) nitrate in 1:1 molar ratio. The X-ray crystal structure of complex 1 has been determined by single crystal X-ray diffractometry. In complex 1, lead(II) is in a nine coordinated sphere with seven oxygen atoms of the nitrate groups and thione sulfur, β-nitrogen of neutral bidentate NS chelating ligand. Three nitrate groups act as bidentate chelating whereas the fourth nitrate group is coordinating to the central lead(II) and at the same time it bridges with neighboring lead(II) atom. Coordination geometry of the central lead(II) atom has a tricapped trigonal prismatic arrangement with streochemically inactive lone pair. The lead atoms are linked into polymeric chains and these chains form twin polymeric ribbons linked through bridging oxygen atoms. The N-H?O hydrogen bond network between N_SMDTC and O_nitrate atom leads to self-assembled molecular conformation and stabilizes the crystal structure. The complex 2 with similar spectral and thermal behavior is expected to have a tricapped trigonal prismatic structure. The thermal behavior studies shows that the complexes start to decompose at relatively low temperature (ca. 110 °C) to give PbS residue.     

In vitro assessment of praziquantel and a novel nanomaterial against protoscoleces of Echinococcus granulosus

The present study describes the activity of a nanomaterial on protoscoleces of Echinococcus granulosus, which exhibited morphological changes and apoptosis. Apoptotic changes were deduced on the basis of effector caspase activation and nucleosomal laddering. Invaginated protoscoleces maintained in vitro became evaginated and had hooks, presumptive suckers and stalks. Degenerative changes of protoscoleces were evidenced after treatment with praziquantel and nano-combination. Protoscoleces treated with praziquantel had distinct attestation of necrosis and nano-combination-treated protoscoleces had signatures of apoptosis.     

Application of robotics to steady state enzyme kinetics: analysis of tight-binding inhibitors of dipeptidyl peptidase IV

Using available commercial robotics and instrumentation, we developed a fully automated and rigorous steady state enzyme kinetic assay for dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP IV; E.C. 3.4.14.5). The automated assay was validated with isoleucyl thiazolidide, a potent inhibitor of DPP IV with K(is)=110nM. Signal window analysis indicated that the assay had a 98% probability of detecting an inhibitor yielding 15% inhibition, with a predicted false positive rate of 0.13%. A mechanistic inhibition version of the automated assay was validated with isoleucyl 4-cyanothiazolidide, a very potent inhibitor of DPP IV. Isoleucyl 4-cyanothiazolidide was a competitive inhibitor of purified porcine DPP IV with K(is)=1 nM. Similar K(is) values were obtained for purified rat DPP IV and for DPP IV activity in human plasma from normal and diabetic donors. The pH dependence of K(is) for isoleucyl 4-cyanothiazolidide yielded a bell-shaped profile, with pK(a)=5.0 and pK(b)=7.6. To date, over 100,000 data points have been generated in profiling targeted compound libraries and in the analysis of tight-binding inhibitors of DPP IV. The data also show that robotic analysis is capable of producing full mechanistic inhibition analysis in a timely fashion to support drug discovery.