Significant alterations of the novel 15 gene signature identified from macrophage-tumor interactions in breast cancer

Background

Tumor microenvironment is composed of a largely altered extracellular matrix with different cell types. The complex interplay between macrophages and tumor cells through several soluble factors and signaling is an important factor in breast cancer progression.

Theoretical studies on the interaction between the nitrile-based inhibitors and the catalytic triad of Cathepsin K

Computational studies on the interaction of novel inhibitor compounds with the Cathepsin K protease have been performed to study the inhibition properties of the inhibitor compounds. The quantum chemical calculations have been performed to analyze the molecular geometries, structural stability, reactivity, nature of interaction, and the charge transfer properties using B3LYP level of theory by implementing 6-311g(d,p) basis set. The calculated C–S and N–H…N bond lengths of the inhibitor-triad complexes are found to agree well with the previous literature results. The chemical reactivity of the inhibitors and catalytic triad are analyzed through frontier molecular orbital analysis and found that the inhibitors are subjected to nucleophilic attack by the catalytic triad. The nature of inhibition of the inhibitor compounds is examined using the quantum theory of Atoms in Molecules analysis and found to be partially covalent. The NBO stabilization energy for the Cys – inhibitor are found to be most stable than the other interactions. The molecular dynamic simulations were performed to study the influence of dynamic of the active site on the QM results. The many body decomposition interaction energy calculated for the final results of MD simulation reveals that the dynamic of the active site induces significant changes in the interaction energy and occupancy of H-bonds plays a major role in the stabilizing the active site inhibitor interactions. The present study reveals that the inhibitor compounds can inhibit the proteolytic activity of the proteases on binding with the catalytic active site.     

Melatonin Modulates Thyroid Hormones and Splenocytes Proliferation Through Mediation of Its MT1 and MT2 Receptors in Hyperthyroid Mice

Hyperthyroidism is characterized by an increased metabolic rate with the alteration of immune activity. The pineal hormone melatonin regulates various physiological activities through sensitization of MT1 and MT2 membrane receptors in mammals. In the present study we have evaluated the involvement of MT1 and MT2 receptors in melatonin mediated modulation of thyroid hormones and splenocyte proliferation in experimentally induced hyperthyroidic mice. The l-thyroxine treatment induced the hyperthyroidism in mice evidenced with hypersecretion of T3 and T4 hormones from thyroid gland. Hyperthyroidic state increased the TSH hormone level which might be inducing hyper activity in thyroid gland. Exogenous melatonin suppressed the thyroid hormones level as well as TSH level in circulation. The l-thyroxine treatment increased the splenocyte proliferation and showed synergic effects along with melatonin. l-thyroxine treated mice alone or along with melatonin treatment showed differential expression pattern of MT1 and MT2 receptors protein in thyroid and spleen tissues. It seems that melatonin regulates thyroid hormones and splenocyte proliferation through activation of MT1 and MT2 receptors.     

Cellular Senescence Is Induced by the Environmental Neurotoxin Paraquat and Contributes to Neuropathology Linked to Parkinson’s Disease

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Regulation of nucleoside diphosphate kinase and secretable virulence factors in Pseudomonas aeruginosa: roles of algR2 and algH.

Alginate is an important virulence factor for Pseudomonas aeruginosa during infection of the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients. The genes encoding enzymes for alginate production by P. aeruginosa are normally silent. They are activated in response to several environmental conditions, including high osmolarity, exposure to ethanol, or long-term growth under conditions of nutrient deprivation. Several genes which participate in the activation of alginate gene promoters have been identified; among these is the algR2 (algQ) gene. AlgR2 is an 18-kDa protein which has been shown to regulate the critical algD gene encoding GDP-mannose dehydrogenase as well as to regulate the levels of a tricarboxylic acid cycle enzyme, i.e., succinyl coenzyme A synthetase, and nucleoside diphosphate kinase (Ndk), an enzyme involved in nucleoside triphosphate synthesis. Succinyl coenzyme A synthetase and Ndk form a complex in P. aeruginosa. While algR2 is required for alginate synthesis at 37 degrees C, an algR2 insertion mutant was still able to make alginate slowly at 37 or at 30 degrees C. We used this observation to identify and clone a gene, termed algH. A strain with mutations in both algR2 and algH is unable to produce alginate at either 37 or 30 degrees C, and it is fully defective in Ndk production.     

A comparative study on efficiency of adult fibroblasts and amniotic fluid-derived stem cells as donor cells for production of hand-made cloned buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) embryos

The efficiency of two cell types, namely adult fibroblasts, and amniotic fluid stem (AFS) cells as nuclear donor cells for somatic cell nuclear transfer by hand-made cloning in buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) was compared. The in vitro expanded buffalo adult fibroblast cells showed a typical “S” shape growth curve with a doubling time of 40.8 h and stained positive for vimentin. The in vitro cultured undifferentiated AFS cells showed a doubling time of 33.2 h and stained positive for alkaline phosphatase, these cells were also found positive for undifferentiated embryonic stem cell markers like OCT-4, NANOG and SOX-2, which accentuate their pluripotent property. Further, when AFS cells were exposed to corresponding induction conditions, these cells differentiated into osteogenic, adipogenic and chondrogenic lineages which was confirmed through alizaran, oil red O and alcian blue staining, respectively. Cultured adult fibroblasts and AFS cells of passages 10–15 and 8–12, respectively, were used as nuclear donors. A total of 94 embryos were reconstructed using adult fibroblast as donor cells with cleavage and blastocyst production rate of 62.8 ± 1.8 and 19.1 ± 1.5, respectively. An overall cleavage and blastocyst formation rate of 71.1 ± 1.2 and 29.9 ± 2.2 was obtained when 97 embryos were reconstructed using AFS cells as donor cells. There were no significant differences (P > 0.05) in reconstructed efficiency between the cloned embryos derived from two donor cells, whereas the results showed that there were significant differences (P < 0.05) in cleavage and blastocyst rates between the cloned embryos derived from two donor cell groups. Average total cell numbers for blastocyst generated using AFS cells (172.4 ± 5.8) was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than from adult fibroblasts (148.2 ± 6.1). This study suggests that the in vitro developmental potential of the cloned embryos derived from AFS cells were higher than that of the cloned embryos derived from adult fibroblasts in buffalo hand-made cloning.     

Identifying wrong assemblies in <Emphasis Type="Italic">de novo</Emphasis> short read primary sequence assembly contigs

With the advent of short-reads-based genome sequencing approaches, large number of organisms are being sequenced all over the world. Most of these assemblies are done using some de novo short read assemblers and other related approaches. However, the contigs produced this way are prone to wrong assembly. So far, there is a conspicuous dearth of reliable tools to identify mis-assembled contigs. Mis-assemblies could result from incorrectly deleted or wrongly arranged genomic sequences. In the present work various factors related to sequence, sequencing and assembling have been assessed for their role in causing mis-assembly by using different genome sequencing data. Finally, some mis-assembly detecting tools have been evaluated for their ability to detect the wrongly assembled primary contigs, suggesting a lot of scope for improvement in this area. The present work also proposes a simple unsupervised learning-based novel approach to identify mis-assemblies in the contigs which was found performing reasonably well when compared to the already existing tools to report mis-assembled contigs. It was observed that the proposed methodology may work as a complementary system to the existing tools to enhance their accuracy.     

A histological and immunohistochemical study of the effects of N-acetyl cysteine on retinopathy of prematurity by modifying insulin-like growth factor-1

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a vasoproliferative disorder that occurs in premature infants and may lead to permanent visual impairment. We investigated both the possible protective role of N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) for preventing ROP and the role of IGF-1 in the disorder. Forty-five newborn rats were divided into three groups. Group 1 was raised in room air as controls. Group 2 was exposed to 60% oxygen for 14 days after birth, then transferred to room air. Group 3 was exposed to the same conditions as group 2, but received intraperitoneal injections of NAC on postnatal days 7–17. After 35 days, both eyes of all rats were processed for histology. Some sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin to assess structural changes and other sections were immunostained to determine the location of IGF-1. Frozen sections also were prepared and stained for adenosine triphosphatase to detect retinal blood vessels. Compared to the controls, more blood vessels, many of which were abnormal, and increased IGF-1 expression were observed in group 2. In group 3, abnormal blood vessels and IGF-1 expression were less evident. NAC appeared to be an effective vascular-protective agent for ROP by decreasing IGF-1 expression.