Enhancement of cell growth by intracellularly expressed herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase

A recombinant cell line (NIH3T3:pLtkSN) was made by infecting parental cells (NIH3T3) with a recombinant retrovirus (pLtkSN) encoding herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSVtk) gene. The cells expressing HSVtk (NIH3T3:pLtkSN) grew 2.3 times more than the parental cells (NIH3T3) in Dulbecco's Modified Eagles Media containing 10% (v/v) horse serum. The NIH3T3:pLtkSN cells also showed a significant enhancement in the maximal cell concentration and the specific growth rate even at 2.5% serum concentration. The specific O2 uptake rate of NIH3T3 was 2.1 times greater than that of NIH3T3:pLtkSN. Under both O2-limited and O2-unlimited conditions, it appears that HSVtk plays an important role in enhancing the growth characteristics of animal cells.     

Anti-coccidial activity of 2-picoline, 6-amino-4-nitro-, 1-oxide

An investigational drug (2-picoline, 6-amino-4-nitro-, 1-oxide) was evaluated to characterize the anti-coccidial spectrum of the compound. Two concentrations of the drug (125 and 250 ppm) were evaluated for bioactivity; weight gain, survival, dropping, and lesion scores were the response variables utilized to ascertain activity. The activities of the picoline derivative were compared with monensin, maduramicin, and a narasin/nicarbazin (1:1) combination. The investigational drug had significant activity against Eimeria tenella and Eimeria necatrix, and the 250-ppm level was significantly more active than 125 ppm. At 250 ppm, the E. tenella activity of the picoline derivative was comparable to both monensin (120 ppm) and the 50-ppm narasin/nicarbazin combination, significantly less effective than maduramicin (6 ppm), and significantly more efficacious than 30 ppm narasin/nicarbazin. At the same level (250 ppm), the picoline derivative had significantly less E. necatrix activity than monensin (120 ppm), maduramicin (6 ppm), and narasin/nicarbazin (50 ppm), and significantly greater activity than 30 ppm narasin/nicarbazin. At best, only extremely weak Eimeria acervulina, Eimeria brunetti, and Eimeria maxima activities were noted with the investigational drug; higher concentrations of the picoline derivative may achieve greater anti-coccidial activity against these species. The efficacy of narasin/nicarbazin compared favorably with monensin and maduramicin; the 50-ppm level of the combination appeared significantly more efficacious than 30-ppm.     

Evolution of Sickness and Healing

Evolution of Sickness and Healing. Horacio Fábrega Jr. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997 (cloth), xv. 364pp.     

Thermodynamic linkages in rabbit muscle pyruvate kinase: kinetic, equilibrium, and structural studies

The mechanism of allosteric regulation of rabbit muscle pyruvate kinase (PK) was examined in the presence of the allosteric inhibitor phenylalanine (Phe). Steady-state kinetic, equilibrium binding, and structural studies were conducted to provide a broad data base to establish a reasonable model for the interactions. Phe was shown to induce apparent cooperativity in the steady-state kinetic measurements at pH 7.5 and 23 degrees C. The apparent Km for phosphoenolpyruvate was shown to increase with increasing Phe concentrations. These results imply that Phe reduces the affinity of PK for phosphoenolpyruvate. This conclusion was substantiated by equilibrium binding studies which yielded association constants of phosphoenolpyruvate as a function of Phe concentration. The binding constant of Phe was also determined at pH 7.0 and 23 degrees C. The effect of ligands on the hydrodynamic properties of PK was monitored by difference sedimentation velocity, sedimentation velocity, and equilibrium experiments. The results showed that PK remains tetrameric both in the presence and in the absence of Phe. However, Phe induces a small decrease in the sedimentation coefficient of the enzyme; hence, it suggests a loosening of the protein structure. The accessibility of the sulfhydryl residues of the enzyme also increases in the presence of Phe. Furthermore, the Phe-induced conformational change was approximately 90% complete when only 25% of the binding sites were saturated. This result suggested that the regulatory behavior of PK might satisfactorily be described by the two-state model of Monod-Wyman-Changeux [Monod, J., Wyman, J., & Changeux, J.-P. (1965) J. Mol. Biol. 12, 88-118].     

Reversible hyperphosphorylation and reorganization of vimentin intermediate filaments by okadaic acid in 9L rat brain tumor cells.

Okadaic acid (OA), a protein phosphatase inhibitor, was found to induce hyperphosphorylation and reorganization of vimentin intermediate filaments in 9L rat brain tumor cells. The process was dose dependent. Vimentin phosphorylation was initially enhanced by 400 nM OA in 30 min and reached maximal level (about 26-fold) when cells were treated with 400 nM OA for 90 min. Upon removal of OA, dephosphorylation of the hyperphosphorylated vimentin was observed and the levels of phosphorylation returned to that of the controls after the cells recovered under normal growing conditions for 11 h. The phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of vimentin induced by OA concomitantly resulted in reversible reorganization of vimentin filaments and alteration of cell morphology. Cells rounded up as they were entering mitosis in the presence of OA and returned to normal appearance after 11 h of recovery. Immuno-staining with anti-vimentin antibody revealed that vimentin filaments were disassembled and clustered around the nucleus when the cells were treated with OA but subsequently returned to the filamentous states when OA was removed. Two-dimensional electrophoresis analysis further revealed that hyperphosphorylation of vimentin generated at least seven isoforms having different isoelectric points. Furthermore, the enhanced vimentin phosphorylation was accompanied by changes in the detergent-solubility of the protein. In untreated cells, the detergent-soluble and -insoluble vimentins were of equal amounts but the solubility could be increased when vimentins were hyperphosphorylated in the presence of OA. Taken together, the results indicated that OA could be involved in reversible hyperphosphorylation and reorganization of vimentin intermediate filaments, which may play an important role in the structure-function regulation of cytoskeleton in the cell.     

MBAT: A scalable informatics system for unifying digital atlasing workflows

Background  

Digital atlases provide a common semantic and spatial coordinate system that can be leveraged to compare, contrast, and correlate data from disparate sources. As the quality and amount of biological data continues to advance and grow, searching, referencing, and comparing this data with a researcher's own data is essential. However, the integration process is cumbersome and time-consuming due to misaligned data, implicitly defined associations, and incompatible data sources. This work addressing these challenges by providing a unified and adaptable environment to accelerate the workflow to gather, align, and analyze the data.     

Murine Cytomegalovirus m02 Gene Family Protects against Natural Killer Cell-Mediated Immune Surveillance

The murine cytomegalovirus m02 gene family encodes putative type I membrane glycoproteins named m02 through m16. A subset of these genes were fused to an epitope tag and cloned into an expression vector. In transfected and murine cytomegalovirus-infected cells, m02, m04, m05, m06, m07, m09, m10, and m12 localized to cytoplasmic structures near the nucleus, whereas m08 and m13 localized to a filamentous structure surrounding the nucleus. Substitution mutants lacking the m02 gene (SMsubm02) or the entire m02 gene family (SMsubm02-16) grew like their wild-type parent in cultured cells. However, whereas SMsubm02 was as pathogenic as the wild-type virus, SMsubm02-16 was markedly less virulent. SMsubm02-16 produced less infectious virus in most organs compared to wild-type virus in BALB/c and C57BL/6J mice, but it replicated to wild-type levels in the organs of immunodeficient gamma(c)/Rag2 mice, lacking multiple cell types including natural killer cells, and in C57BL/6J mice depleted of natural killer cells. These results argue that one or more members of the m02 gene family antagonize natural killer cell-mediated immune surveillance.