Victims and survivors: Stable isotopes used to identify migrants from the Great Irish Famine to 19th century London

Historical evidence documents mass migration from Ireland to London during the period of the Great Irish Famine of 1845–52. The rural Irish were reliant on a restricted diet based on potatoes but maize, a C₄ plant, was imported from the United States of America in 1846–47 to mitigate against Famine. In London, Irish migrants joined a population with a more varied diet. To investigate and characterize their diet, carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios were obtained from bone collagen of 119 and hair keratin of six individuals from Lukin Street cemetery, Tower Hamlets (1843–54), and bone collagen of 20 individuals from the cemetery at Kilkenny Union Workhouse in Ireland (1847–51). A comparison of the results with other contemporaneous English populations suggests that Londoners may have elevated δ¹⁵N compared with their contemporaries in other cities. In comparison, the Irish group have lower δ¹⁵N. Hair analysis combined with bone collagen allows the reconstruction of perimortem dietary changes. Three children aged 5–15 years from Kilkenny have bone collagen δ¹³C values that indicate consumption of maize (C₄). As maize was only imported into Ireland in quantity from late 1846 and 1847, these results demonstrate relatively rapid bone collagen turnover in children and highlight the importance of age‐related bone turnover rates, and the impact the age of the individual can have on studies of short‐term dietary change or recent migration. Stable light isotope data in this study are consistent with the epigraphic and documentary evidence for the presence of migrants within the London cemetery. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Two continuous coupled assays for ornithine-δ-aminotransferase

We have developed two new continuous coupled assays for ornithine-δ-aminotransferase (OAT) that are more sensitive than previous methods, measure activity in real time, and can be carried out in multiwell plates for convenience and high throughput. The first assay is based on the reduction of Δ¹-pyrroline-5-carboxylate (P5C), generated from ornithine by OAT, using human pyrroline 5-carboxylate reductase 1 (PYCR1), which results in the concomitant oxidation of NADH (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, reduced form) to NAD⁺ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, oxidized form). This procedure was found to be three times more sensitive than previous methods and is suitable for the study of small molecules as inhibitors or inactivators of OAT or as a method to determine OAT activity in unknown samples. The second method involves the detection of l-glutamate, produced during the regeneration of the cofactor pyridoxal 5’-phosphate (PLP) of OAT by an unamplified modification of the commercially available Amplex Red l-glutamate detection kit (Life Technologies). This assay is recommended for the determination of the substrate activity of small molecules against OAT; measuring the transformation of l-ornithine at high concentrations by this assay is complicated by the fact that it also acts as a substrate for the l-glutamate oxidase (GluOx) reporter enzyme.     

A colorimetric assay optimization for high-throughput screening of dihydroorotase by detecting ureido groups

Dihydroorotase (DHOase) is the third enzyme in the de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis pathway and is a potential new antibacterial drug target. No target-based high-throughput screening (HTS) assay for this enzyme has been reported to date. Here, we optimized two colorimetric-based enzymatic assays that detect the ureido moiety of the DHOase substrate, carbamyl-aspartate (Ca-asp). Each assay was developed in a 40-μl assay volume using 384-well plates with a different color mix, diacetylmonoxime (DAMO)–thiosemicarbazide (TSC) or DAMO–antipyrine. The sensitivity and color interference of both color mixes were compared in the presence of common HTS buffer additives, including dimethyl sulfoxide, reducing agents, detergents, and bovine serum albumin. DAMO–TSC (Z′-factors 0.7–0.8) was determined to be superior to DAMO–antipyrine (Z′-factors 0.5–0.6) with significantly less variability within replicates. An HTS pilot screening with 29,552 compounds from four structurally diverse libraries confirmed the quality of our newly optimized colorimetric assay with DAMO–TSC. This robust method has no heating requirement, which was the main obstacle to applying previous assays to HTS. More important, this well-optimized HTS assay for DHOase, the first of its kind, should make it possible to screen large-scale compound libraries to develop new inhibitors against any enzymes that produce ureido functional groups.     

Methylobacillus rhizosphaerae sp. nov., a novel plant-associated methylotrophic bacterium isolated from rhizosphere of red pepper

A novel plant-associated obligate methylotrophic bacterium, designated strain Ca-68^T, was isolated from the rhizosphere soil of field-grown red pepper from India. The isolates are strictly aerobic, Gram negative, motile rods multiplying by binary fission and formaldehyde is assimilated via the ribulose monophosphate pathway. A comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence-based phylogenetic analysis placed the strain in a clade with the species Methylobacillus flagellatus, Methylobacillus glycogens and Methylobacillus pratensis, with which it showed pairwise similarity of 97.8, 97.4 and 96.2 %, respectively. The major fatty acids are C_16:0, C_10:0 3OH and C_16:1 ω7c. The G+C content of the genomic DNA is 59.7 mol%. The major ubiquinone is Q-8. Dominant phospholipids are phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and diphosphatidylglycerol. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis and DNA–DNA relatedness (14–19 %) with type strains of the genus Methylobacillus, the novel isolate was classified as a new species of this genus and named Methylobacillus rhizosphaerae Ca-68^T (=KCTC 22383^T = NCIMB 14472^T).     

Oxysterols induce transition of monocytic cells to phenotypically mature dendritic cell-like cells

Dendritic cells (DCs) activate adaptive immune responses in atherosclerotic plaques; however, the origin of DCs is in question. We attempted to determine whether cholesterol or its oxide forms, which are detected in abundance in atheromatous lesions, could induce differentiation or transition of monocytic cells to DCs. Treatment of THP-1 cells with 27-hydroxycholesterol (27OH-Chol) and 7α-hydroxycholesterol (7αOH-Chol) resulted in an increase in the numbers of adherent cells, and, in contrast to PMA, decreased uptake of FITC-conjugated dextran. In addition, treatment with 27OH-Chol and 7αOH-Chol induced expression of mDC-specific molecules, including CD40, CD80, CD83, and CD88. Of the two oxysterols, 27OH-Chol enhanced expression of MHC class I and II molecules as well as CCR7. However, treatment with an identical concentration of cholesterol and 7-ketocholesterol did not influence adherence, uptake of FITC-conjugated dextran, and expression of the aforementioned molecules. This is the first study to report on change of monocytic cells by oxysterols to phenotypically atypical cells with some characteristics of mDCs detected in atherosclerotic lesions. We propose that a certain type of oxysterol would contribute to immune responses in atherosclerotic lesions by enhancing expression of multiple CD molecules as well as MHC molecules by monocytic cells.     

Apoptosis signal-regulating kinase-1 aggravates ROS-mediated striatal degeneration in 3-nitropropionic acid-infused mice

Apoptosis signal-regulating kinase-1 (ASK1), an early signaling element in the cell death pathway, has been suggested to participate in the pathology of neurodegenerative diseases, which may be associated with environmental factors that impact the diseases. Although it is not entirely elucidated, 3-nitropropionic acid (3-NP) provokes mitochondrial dysfunction and selectively forms striatal lesions similar to those found in Huntington’s disease. The current study investigated whether ASK1 is involved in striatal pathology following chronic systemic infusion of 3-NP. The results show that ASK1 acts as a primary mediator of there active oxygen species (ROS) cell death signal cascade in the 3-NP-damaged striatal region by disrupting the positive feedback cycle. In 3-NP-infused striatal lesions, ROS increased ASK1. Superoxide dismutase transgenic (SOD-tg) mice reduced ASK1by scavenging ROS, and reduction of ASK1leads to a reduction in cell death. However, ASK1 down-regulation in 3-NP infusion mice also decreased striatal cell death without scavenging ROS. In contrast decreasing cell death by si-ASK1 treatment along with 3-NP in both SOD tg and wild-type mice (wt), cell death rebounded when ASK1 peptide was added to SOD tg mice. The present study suggests that ROS-inducing ASK1 may be an important step in the pathogenesis of 3-NP infused striatal lesions in murine brains.     

Forced interaction of cell surface proteins with Derlin-1 in the endoplasmic reticulum is sufficient to induce their dislocation into the cytosol for degradation

Aberrantly folded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) are rapidly removed into the cytosol for degradation by the proteasome via an evolutionarily conserved process termed ER-associated protein degradation (ERAD). ERAD of a subset of proteins requires Derlin-1 for dislocation into the cytosol; however, the molecular function of Derlin-1 remains unclear. Human cytomegalovirus US11 exploits Derlin-1-dependent ERAD to degrade major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I) molecules for immune evasion. Because US11 binds to both MHC-I molecules and Derlin-1 via its luminal and transmembrane domains (TMDs), respectively, the major role of US11 has been proposed to simply be delivery of MHC-I molecules to Derlin-1. Here, we directly tested this proposal by generating a hybrid MHC-I molecule, which contains the US11 TMD, and thus can associate with Derlin-1 in the absence of US11. Intriguingly, this MHC-I hybrid was rapidly degraded in a Derlin-1- and proteasome-dependent manner. Similarly, the vesicular stomatitis virus G protein, otherwise expressed at the cell surface, was degraded via Derlin-1-dependent ERAD when its TMD was replaced with that of US11. Thus, forced interaction of cell surface proteins with Derlin-1 is sufficient to induce their degradation via ERAD. Taken together, these results suggest that the main role of US11 is to recruit MHC-I molecules to Derlin-1, which then mediates the dislocation of MHC-I molecules into the cytosol for degradation.     

Pipernonaline from Piper longum Linn. induces ROS-mediated apoptosis in human prostate cancer PC-3 cells

The antiproliferation effects of pipernonaline, a piperine derivative, were investigated on human prostate cancer PC-3 cells. It inhibited growth of androgen independent PC-3 and androgen dependent LNCaP prostate cells in a dose-dependent (30–90 μM) and time-dependent (24–48 h) manner. The growth inhibition of PC-3 cells was associated with sub-G₁ and G₀/G₁ accumulation, confirmed by the down-regulation of CDK2, CDK4, cyclin D1 and cyclin E, which are correlated with G₁ phase of cell cycle. Pipernonaline up-regulated cleavage of procaspase-3/PARP, but did not change expression of proapoptotic bax and antiapoptotic bcl-2 proteins. Its caspase-3 activation was confirmed by the caspase-3 assay kit. In addition, pipernonaline caused the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), increase of intracellular Ca²⁺, and mitochondrial membrane depolarization, which these phenomena were reversed by N-acetylcysteine, a ROS scavenger. The results suggest that pipernonaline exhibits apoptotic properties through ROS production, which causes disruption of mitochondrial function and Ca²⁺ homeostasis and leads to its downstream events including activation of caspase-3 and cleavage of PARP in PC-3 cells. This is the first report of pipernonaline toward the anticancer activity of prostate cancer cells, which provides a role for candidate agent as well as the molecular basis for human prostate cancer.     

Structure of native oligomeric Sprouty2 by electron microscopy and its property of electroconductivity

Receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) regulate many cellular processes, and Sprouty2 (Spry2) is known as an important regulator of RTK signaling pathways. Therefore, it is worth investigating the properties of Spry2 in more detail. In this study, we found that Spry2 is able to self-assemble into oligomers with a high-affinity KD value of approximately 16 nM, as determined through BIAcore surface plasmon resonance analysis. The three-dimensional (3D) structure of Spry2 was resolved using an electron microscopy (EM) single-particle reconstruction approach, which revealed that Spry2 is donut-shaped with two lip-cover domains. Furthermore, the method of energy dispersive spectrum obtained through EM was analyzed to determine the elements carried by Spry2, and the results demonstrated that Spry2 is a silicon- and iron-containing protein. The silicon may contribute to the electroconductivity of Spry2, and this property exhibits a concentration-dependent feature. This study provides the first report of a silicon- and iron-containing protein, and its 3D structure may allow us (1) to study the potential mechanism through the signal transduction is controlled by switching the electronic transfer on or off and (2) to develop a new type of conductor or even semiconductor using biological or half-biological hybrid materials in the future.