检测低拷贝数HBVDNA含量的临床研究

目的:了解不同试剂在应用实时荧光定量聚合酶链反应(FQ-PCR)以及巢式PCR方法在检测低拷贝数的HBV DNA量的差异与灵敏度.方法:用上海复星医学科技发展有限公司(A方法)检测出了68例HBV DNA结果为5.1× 101-1.0× 103拷贝数/毫升的低拷贝数标本.然后,三家不同公司的试剂(方法B、方法C、方法D)对这些样本进行复核.另外,巢式聚合酶链反应PCR法检测此68例标本.随访巢式PCR结果为阳性的10例低拷贝数HBV DNA的病人.结果:用四种方法(A、B、C、D)检测的68个样本的HBV DNA拷贝数结果如下:无拷贝(0,9,12,4);101-102 (21,17,18,22);102-103(47,36,28,35),大于103(0,6,10,7).同时,用巢式聚合酶链反应检测此68例标本,有55例检测为阳性,有13为阴性结果.巢式PCR结果为阳性的10例低拷贝数HBV DNA含量的病人,随访发现此10病人有8例均在1～3月后出现HBV DNA的反跳,并伴肝功能的不正常,其HBV DNA的含量均在104拷贝数/毫升以上.结论:目前所用的实时荧光定量聚合酶链反应(FQ-PCR)的方法和试剂对低拷贝数HBV DNA存在不稳定性和不确定性.巢式PCR法对低拷贝数HBV DNA的检测灵敏度要远高于实时荧光定量PCR法.该研究提示测对抗病毒治疗过程中患者进行低拷贝数HBV DNA的检将提供有效的药物评价和预后信息.     

硼、镉元素及其交互作用与油菜产量和品质

硼和镉两种元素是影响油菜产量和品质的两个重要因素.硼是植物生长所必需的微量元素,施硼是油菜种植的必需环节;镉是植物生长的非必要元素,易在油菜体内富集,可能通过食物链危害人体健康.本文主要从镉含量与油菜食品安全品质角度考虑,阐述了油菜对镉的积累和耐受机制;同时,概括了前人总结的硼对油菜的产量和品质的影响.最后,结合本人研究区广西地区土壤有效硼含量低,全镉含量高的现状,提出运用硼镉交互作用机理,通过施加适量硼肥,提高油菜的产量和品质,消除土壤镉的潜在危害,从本质上改善该地区土壤存在的低硼高镉现状.     

Recent advances in synthesis and surface modification of lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles for biomedical applications

Lanthanide (Ln)-doped upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) with appropriate surface modification can be used for a wide range of biomedical applications such as bio-detection, cancer therapy, bio-labeling, fluorescence imaging, magnetic resonance imaging and drug delivery. The upconversion phenomenon exhibited by Ln-doped UCNPs renders them tremendous advantages in biological applications over other types of fluorescent materials (e.g., organic dyes, fluorescent proteins, gold nanoparticles, quantum dots, and luminescent transition metal complexes) for: (i) enhanced tissue penetration depths achieved by near-infrared (NIR) excitation; (ii) improved stability against photobleaching, photoblinking and photochemical degradation; (iii) non-photodamaging to DNA/RNA due to lower excitation light energy; (iv) lower cytotoxicity; and (v) higher detection sensitivity. Ln-doped UCNPs are therefore attracting increasing attentions in recent years. In this review, we present recent advances in the synthesis of Ln-doped UCNPs and their surface modification, as well as their emerging applications in biomedicine. The future prospects of Ln-doped UCNPs for biomedical applications are also discussed.     

miRNA-20a促进卵巢癌细胞OVCAR3的转移

目的检测miRNA．20a对卵巢癌细胞系OVCAR3转移能力的影响。方法通过实时定量RT-PCR验证反义寡核苷酸与小干扰RNA封闭与过表达的效果,然后利用MTF、软琼脂集落形成和transwell侵袭实验检测封闭和过表达miRNA．20a对OVCAR3细胞增殖及转移能力的影响。结果封闭内源性miRNA-20a后,细胞活性基本不受影响,但集落形成能力和细胞的转移能力明显降低。过表达miRNA-20a后,细胞活性基本不受影响,但集落形成能力和细胞的转移能力明显升高。结论miRNA-20a可能参与了卵巢癌细胞OVCAR3的转移。     

Neighborhood Regularized Logistic Matrix Factorization for Drug-Target Interaction Prediction

In pharmaceutical sciences, a crucial step of the drug discovery process is the identification of drug-target interactions. However, only a small portion of the drug-target interactions have been experimentally validated, as the experimental validation is laborious and costly. To improve the drug discovery efficiency, there is a great need for the development of accurate computational approaches that can predict potential drug-target interactions to direct the experimental verification. In this paper, we propose a novel drug-target interaction prediction algorithm, namely neighborhood regularized logistic matrix factorization (NRLMF). Specifically, the proposed NRLMF method focuses on modeling the probability that a drug would interact with a target by logistic matrix factorization, where the properties of drugs and targets are represented by drug-specific and target-specific latent vectors, respectively. Moreover, NRLMF assigns higher importance levels to positive observations (i.e., the observed interacting drug-target pairs) than negative observations (i.e., the unknown pairs). Because the positive observations are already experimentally verified, they are usually more trustworthy. Furthermore, the local structure of the drug-target interaction data has also been exploited via neighborhood regularization to achieve better prediction accuracy. We conducted extensive experiments over four benchmark datasets, and NRLMF demonstrated its effectiveness compared with five state-of-the-art approaches.     

Mitochondrial membrane potential regulates PINK1 import and proteolytic destabilization by PARL

PINK1 is a mitochondrial kinase mutated in some familial cases of Parkinson's disease. It has been found to work in the same pathway as the E3 ligase Parkin in the maintenance of flight muscles and dopaminergic neurons in Drosophila melanogaster and to recruit cytosolic Parkin to mitochondria to mediate mitophagy in mammalian cells. Although PINK1 has a predicted mitochondrial import sequence, its cellular and submitochondrial localization remains unclear in part because it is rapidly degraded. In this study, we report that the mitochondrial inner membrane rhomboid protease presenilin-associated rhomboid-like protein (PARL) mediates cleavage of PINK1 dependent on mitochondrial membrane potential. In the absence of PARL, the constitutive degradation of PINK1 is inhibited, stabilizing a 60-kD form inside mitochondria. When mitochondrial membrane potential is dissipated, PINK1 accumulates as a 63-kD full-length form on the outer mitochondrial membrane, where it can recruit Parkin to impaired mitochondria. Thus, differential localization to the inner and outer mitochondrial membranes appears to regulate PINK1 stability and function.     

Modified heparin inhibits P-selectin-mediated cell adhesion of human colon carcinoma cells to immobilized platelets under dynamic flow conditions

Accumulating evidence indicates that the formation of tumor cell platelet emboli complexes in the blood stream is a very important step during metastases and that the anti-metastasis effects of heparin are partially due to a blockade of P-selectin on platelets. In this study, heparin and chemically modified heparins were tested as inhibitors of three human colon carcinoma cell lines (COLO320, LS174T, and CW-2) binding to P-selectin, adhering to CHO cells expressing a transfected human P-selectin cDNA, and adhering to surface-anchored platelets expressing P-selectin under static and flow conditions. The aim was to screen for heparin derivatives with high anti-adhesion activity but negligible anticoagulant activity. In this study, four modified heparins with high anti-adhesion activity were identified including RO-heparin, CR-heparin, 2/3ODS-heparin, and N/2/3DS-heparin. NMR analysis proved the reliability of structure of the four modified heparins. Our findings suggested that the 6-O-sulfate group of glucosamine units in heparin is critical for the inhibition of P-selectin-mediated tumor cell adhesion. Heparan sulfate-like proteoglycans on these tumor cell surfaces are implicated in adhesion of the tumor cells to P-selectin. Some chemically modified heparins with low anticoagulant activities, such as 2/3ODS-heparin, may have potential value as therapeutic agents that block P-selectin-mediated cell adhesion and prevent tumor metastasis.     

Fluorescent labeling for clonal selection of Marc 145 cells secreting high levels of recombinant protein PBD-1

Despite the powerful impact gene expression markers like the green fluorescent protein (GFP) or enhanced GFP (EGFP) exert on linking the expression of recombinant protein for selection of high producers in recent years, there is still a strong incentive to develop more economical and efficient methods for isolating mammalian cell clones secreting high levels of recombinant proteins. Here we present a new method based on the co-expression of EGFP that allows clonal selection in standard 96-well cell culture plates. The genes encoding the EGFP protein and the related protein are linked by an internal ribosome entry site and thus are transcribed into the same mRNA in an independent translation process. Since both proteins arise from a common mRNA, the EGFP expression level correlates with the expression level of the therapeutic protein in each clone. By expressing recombinant porcine β-defensin 1 in Marc 145 cells, we demonstrate the robustness and performance of this technique. The method can be served as an alternative to identify high-producer clones with various cell sorting methods.