温度与pH值对长江水系产超广谱β-内酰胺酶大肠埃希菌耐药基因转移影响分析

研究温度和pH值对长江水系中产超广谱β-内酰胺酶(Extended-Spectrum β-Lactamases,ESBL)大肠埃希菌(Escherichia coli)耐药基因转移影响规律,为今后介水疾病的预防与控制提供理论依据。采用滤膜法分离、梅里埃微生物分析系统鉴定菌株;将由长江水系分离出的产ESBL大肠埃希菌与大肠埃希菌NK5449进行接合,观察不同温度和pH值条件下接合频率变化情况;用纸片扩散法测定耐药谱;用PCR方法分析产ESBL供体菌与转移接合子β-内酰胺酶编码基因(bla),并对供、受体菌及转移接合子进行随机扩增多态性分析,判别转移接合子与供、受体菌的同源性。温度和pH值对产ESBL大肠埃希菌耐药基因水平转移影响明显,发生接合最适宜的pH值为7.1。温度对接合频率的影响具有双重性,相同条件下,某些大肠埃希菌接合频率随环境温度的降低率急剧下降,但某些大肠埃希菌的接合频率随环境温度下降有所上升。温度和pH值对产ESBL大肠埃希菌接合频率有重要影响。     

Hemolysis of human erythrocytes induced by melamine-cyanurate complex

Melamine is a widely-used chemical in industries. In recent years, melamine has been found to be involved in outbreaks of renal injury in infants and animals. Pathological studies indicated that the melamine-induced acute renal failure was related to the concurrence of melamine and other triazine analogs such as cyanuric acid. In the present study, human erythrocytes were used as an in vitro model to explore the cytotoxicity of melamine and its complex with cyanuric acid. The results demonstrated that mixing melamine and cyanuric acid resulted in the formation of insoluble particles and that the insoluble melamine-cyanurate complex induced membrane damages of human erythrocytes. The membrane damages included hemolysis, K⁺ leakage, alterations in cell shape and membrane fragility, and inhibition of enzymatic activity. By contrast, either melamine or cyanuric acid alone had no effect on erythrocyte membranes. The results of this study may provide a fresh insight into the melamine toxicology.     

鲍曼不动杆菌菌毛在细菌生物膜形成中的作用

目的通过观察鲍曼不动杆菌菌毛,了解菌毛结构在生物被膜形成过程中的作用。方法以ICU的医院感染患者的腹腔手术后引流液、痰及呼吸机导管内壁附着物等为材料分离鉴定细菌,制备细菌的电镜标本,通过超微结构观察鲍曼不动杆菌菌体表面的菌毛与生物被膜形成的相关性。结果新分离的鲍曼不动杆菌菌体表面存在菌毛,菌毛与生物膜形成过程中的粘附有关。结论菌毛粘附是生物被膜形成的原因之一。     

一种新型的琼脂糖疏水层析介质开发及其在重组乙肝表面抗原(CHO-HBsAg)分离纯化中的应用

以粒径均一的国产高交联度快速流琼脂糖为基质,采用活化、交联等步骤合成了针对分离纯化CHO-HBsAg的3C间臂的丁基琼脂糖疏水介质,通过控制丁基配基密度提高分离HBsAg的纯化倍数和回收率,获得了纯化倍数约20、HBsAg回收率约80%的介质。评估了合成介质的理化性质,流速为500cm/h时柱压力小于0.06MPa,表明介质具有较高的机械强度和良好的流动性能,介质经过酸、碱、变性剂等处理后化学性质稳定。将介质合成工艺进一步放大到2L介质/批,应用到HBsAg分离纯化的三步层析整和工艺中,结果表明,批量合成的疏水介质,HBsAg回收率与进口介质相当,HBsAg终产品纯度在95%以上,符合国家药典要求。最后考察了介质合成批次间的配基密度的可控性和单批次合成介质的重复使用性,结果表明,合成工艺和介质的重复性能满足产业化要求,这种成本低的介质有望替代目前工业生产广泛使用的进口疏水介质。     

Palmitic acid suppresses apolipoprotein M gene expression via the pathway of PPARβ/δ in HepG2 cells

It has been demonstrated that apolipoprotein M (APOM) is a vasculoprotective constituent of high density lipoprotein (HDL), which could be related to the anti-atherosclerotic property of HDL. Investigation of regulation of APOM expression is of important for further exploring its pathophysiological function in vivo. Our previous studies indicated that expression of APOM could be regulated by platelet activating factor (PAF), transforming growth factors (TGF), insulin-like growth factor (IGF), leptin, hyperglycemia and etc., in vivo and/or in vitro. In the present study, we demonstrated that palmitic acid could significantly inhibit APOM gene expression in HepG2 cells. Further study indicated neither PI-3 kinase (PI3K) inhibitor LY294002 nor protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor GFX could abolish palmitic acid induced down-regulation of APOM expression. In contrast, the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor beta/delta (PPAR_β/δ) antagonist GSK3787 could totally reverse the palmitic acid-induced down-regulation of APOM expression, which clearly demonstrates that down-regulation of APOM expression induced by palmitic acid is mediated via the PPAR_β/δ pathway.     

Hsp90 inhibitor 17-AAG sensitizes Bcl-2 inhibitor (-)-gossypol by suppressing ERK-mediated protective autophagy and Mcl-1 accumulation in hepatocellular carcinoma cells

Natural BH3-memitic (-)-gossypol shows promising antitumor efficacy in several kinds of cancer. However, our previous studies have demonstrated that protective autophagy decreases the drug sensitivities of Bcl-2 inhibitors in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells. In the present study, we are the first to report that Hsp90 inhibitor 17-AAG enhanced (-)-gossypol-induced apoptosis via suppressing (-)-gossypol-triggered protective autophagy and Mcl-1 accumulation. The suppression effect of 17-AAG on autophagy was mediated by inhibiting ERK-mediated Bcl-2 phosphorylation while was not related to Beclin1 or LC3 protein instability. Meanwhile, 17-AAG downregulated (-)-gossypol-triggered Mcl-1 accumulation by suppressing Mcl-1^Thr163 phosphorylation and promoting protein degradation. Collectively, our study indicates that Hsp90 plays an important role in tumor maintenance and inhibition of Hsp90 may become a new strategy for sensitizing Bcl-2-targeted chemotherapies in HCC cells.     

High-throughput immunoglobulin G N-glycan characterization using rapid resolution reverse-phase chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

We present an optimized high-throughput method for the characterization of 2-aminobenzamide (2-AB)-labeled N-glycans from recombinant immunoglobulin G (rIgG). This method includes an optimized sample preparation protocol involving microwave-assisted deglycosylation in conjunction with an automated sample cleanup strategy and a rapid resolution reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RRRP-HPLC) separation of labeled N-glycans. The RRRP-HPLC method permits generation of a comprehensive glycan profile using fluorescence detection in 45 min. In addition, the profiling method is directly compatible with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), allowing immediate and sensitive characterization of the glycan moiety by intact MS and tandem MS (MS/MS) fragmentation. We conservatively estimate an efficiency gain of fourfold with respect to the throughput capabilities of this optimized method as compared with traditional protocols (overnight deglycosylation, sample cleanup by graphitized carbon or cellulose cartridge, high-pH anion exchange chromatography, fraction collection, and processing for matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight [MALDI-TOF] MS analysis) for a single sample. Even greater gains are achieved when processing of multiple samples is considered.     

The iron regulatory hormone hepcidin reduces ferroportin 1 content and iron release in H9C2 cardiomyocytes

Iron plays a key pathophysiological role in a number of cardiac diseases. Studies on the mechanisms of heart iron homeostasis are therefore crucial for understanding the causes of excessive heart iron. In addition to iron uptake, cellular iron balance in the heart also depends on iron export. We provided evidence for the existence of iron exporter ferroportin 1 (Fpn1) in the heart in a recent study. The presence of hepcidin, a recently discovered iron regulatory hormone, was also confirmed in the heart recently. Based on these findings and the inhibiting role of hepcidin on Fpn1 in other tissues, we speculated that hepcidin might be able to bind with, internalize and degrade Fpn1 and then decrease iron export in heart cells, leading to an abnormal increase in heart iron and iron mediated cell injury. We therefore investigated the effects of hepcidin on the contents of Fpn1 and iron release in H9C2 cardiomyocyte cell line. We demonstrated that hepcidin has the ability to reduce Fpn1 content as well as iron release in this cell. The similar regulation patterns of hepcidin on the Fpn1 and iron release suggested that the decreased iron release resulted from the decreased content of Fpn1 induced by hepcidin. We also found that hepcidin has no significant effects on ceruloplasmin (CP) and hephaestin (Heph) — two proteins required for iron release from mammalian cells. The data imply that Fpn1, rather than Heph and CP, is the limited factor in the regulation of iron release from heart cells under physiological conditions.     

Characterization of HSCD5, a novel human stearoyl-CoA desaturase unique to primates

Stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD) is an integral membrane protein of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) that catalyzes the formation of monounsaturated fatty acids from saturated fatty acids. Recent studies suggest that SCD is a key regulator of energy metabolism and has implications in dislipidemia and obesity. Four SCD isoforms (SCD1-4) have been identified in mouse. In human, only one SCD isoform has been characterized so far. Here we report that the previously reported human ACOD4 gene encodes a distinct stearoyl-CoA desaturase, hSCD5. GenBank database mining revealed orthologues of hSCD5 in the primates, but not in the rodents. In transiently transfected 293 cells, hSCD5 co-localized with calnexin on ER membrane. Microsome fractions prepared from hSCD1 and hSCD5 transfected cells displayed similar delta 9 desaturase activity. Quantitative real-time RT-PCR analysis suggested that hSCD5 was abundantly expressed in adult brain and pancreas. These data suggested that hSCD5 plays a role distinct from that of hSCD1 during development and in normal physiological conditions.