The soluble components of chromaffin granules a carbon-13 NMR survey

Carbon-13 NMR spectra of the reconcentrated chromaffin granule lysate have been obtained at 50 MHz and 62.9 MHz. The spectrum contains a number of assignable resonances in addition to those of the main soluble components (catecholamines, adenine nucleotides and chromogranin). Guanine and uridine nucleotides are present at levels of 0.13 and 0.08 mol/mol adenine nucleotides, respectively. Concentrations of cytidine nucleotides and NAD⁺ are below the detection limit (0.02 mol/mol adenine nucleotides). An unidentified low molecular weight species, thought to be an adenine-containing oligonucleotide, is also present. Ascorbic acid was observed at a concentration of 0.14 mol/mol adenine nucleotides, but both dopamine and dehydroascorbic acid were below the detection limit. Protein resonances agree well with the reported amino acid composition of chromogranin A, with the exception of tryptophan and glutamine which have not previously been measured. The concentrations of these residues are estimated to be 12 ± 3 and 39 ± 5 residues per 77 000 dalton unit of chromogranin A. Substantial intensity due to unsaturated fatty acid side-chains in solubilized lipid is seen in the olefinic carbon region and in the methylene region, suggesting the presence of lipoprotein. Unassigned carbohydrate resonances are also present, but are largely obscured by sucrose in the isolation medium.     

Acarbose improved survival for Apc+/Min mice

Acarbose blocks the digestion of complex carbohydrates, and the NIA Intervention Testing Program (ITP) found that it improved survival when fed to mice. Yet, we do not know if lifespan extension was caused by its effect on metabolism with regard to the soma or cancer suppression. Cancer caused death for ~80% of ITP mice. The ITP found rapamycin, an inhibitor to the pro‐growth mTORC1 (mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1) pathway, improved survival and it suppressed tumors in Apc^+/Min mice providing a plausible rationale to ask if acarbose had a similar effect. Apc^+/Min is a mouse model prone to intestinal polyposis and a mimic of familial adenomatous polyposis in people. Polyp‐associated anemia contributed to their death. To address this knowledge gap, we fed two doses of acarbose to Apc^+/Min mice. Acarbose improved median survival at both doses. A cross‐sectional analysis was performed next. At both doses, ACA fed mice exhibited reduced intestinal crypt depth, weight loss despite increased food consumption and reduced postprandial blood glucose and plasma insulin, indicative of improved insulin sensitivity. Dose‐independent and dose‐dependent compensatory liver responses were observed for AMPK and mTORC1 activities, respectively. Only mice fed the high dose diet exhibited reductions in tumor number with higher hematocrits. Because low‐dose acarbose improved lifespan but failed to reduced tumors, its effects seem to be independent of cancer. These data implicate the importance of improved carbohydrate metabolism on survival.     

Split-wrmScarlet and split-sfGFP: tools for faster,easier fluorescent labeling of endogenous proteins in Caenorhabditis elegans

We create and share a new red fluorophore, along with a set of strains, reagents and protocols, to make it faster and easier to label endogenous Caenorhabditis elegans proteins with fluorescent tags. CRISPR-mediated fluorescent labeling of C. elegans proteins is an invaluable tool, but it is much more difficult to insert fluorophore-size DNA segments than it is to make small gene edits. In principle, high-affinity asymmetrically split fluorescent proteins solve this problem in C. elegans: the small fragment can quickly and easily be fused to almost any protein of interest, and can be detected wherever the large fragment is expressed and complemented. However, there is currently only one available strain stably expressing the large fragment of a split fluorescent protein, restricting this solution to a single tissue (the germline) in the highly autofluorescent green channel. No available C. elegans lines express unbound large fragments of split red fluorescent proteins, and even state-of-the-art split red fluorescent proteins are dim compared to the canonical split-sfGFP protein. In this study, we engineer a bright, high-affinity new split red fluorophore, split-wrmScarlet. We generate transgenic C. elegans lines to allow easy single-color labeling in muscle or germline cells and dual-color labeling in somatic cells. We also describe a novel expression strategy for the germline, where traditional expression strategies struggle. We validate these strains by targeting split-wrmScarlet to several genes whose products label distinct organelles, and we provide a protocol for easy, cloning-free CRISPR/Cas9 editing. As the collection of split-FP strains for labeling in different tissues or organelles expands, we will post updates at doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3993663     

Purification of Monoclonal Antibodies Using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)

Recent increases in the ability to detect low levels of immunofluorescence have shown the need for highly purified primary immunoreagents. There are now reports of purification of monoclonal antibodies using HPLC with reverse phase columns. In this study we have utilized standard size exclusion HPLC to purify both biotinylated and non-biotinylated monoclonal antibodies from hybridoma culture supernatants. Results indicated that both biotinylated and non-biotinylated monoclonal antibodies retained their antigen binding capacity after purification, and were not different in this capacity from commercially available, affinity purified reagents. These findings indicate that size exclusion HPLC may be used in the purification of biologically active monoclonal antibodies, and suggest that this technique may be used in the large scale production of antibodies and their fragments, in antibody purification from ascites fluid, and in antisera quality control.     

A Computational Model of Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Nuclear Factor Kappa B Activation: A Key Signalling Pathway in Infection-Induced Preterm Labour

Preterm birth is the single biggest cause of significant neonatal morbidity and mortality, and the incidence is rising. Development of new therapies to treat and prevent preterm labour is seriously hampered by incomplete understanding of the molecular mechanisms that initiate labour at term and preterm. Computational modelling provides a new opportunity to improve this understanding. It is a useful tool in (i) identifying gaps in knowledge and informing future research, and (ii) providing the basis for an in silico model of parturition in which novel drugs to prevent or treat preterm labour can be “tested”. Despite their merits, computational models are rarely used to study the molecular events initiating labour. Here, we present the first attempt to generate a dynamic kinetic model that has relevance to the molecular mechanisms of preterm labour. Using published data, we model an important candidate signalling pathway in infection-induced preterm labour: that of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) -induced activation of Nuclear Factor kappa B. This is the first model of this pathway to explicitly include molecular interactions upstream of Nuclear Factor kappa B activation. We produced a formalised graphical depiction of the pathway and built a kinetic model based on ordinary differential equations. The kinetic model accurately reproduced published in vitro time course plots of Lipopolysaccharide-induced Nuclear Factor kappa B activation in mouse embryo fibroblasts. In this preliminary work we have provided proof of concept that it is possible to build computational models of signalling pathways that are relevant to the regulation of labour, and suggest that models that are validated with wet-lab experiments have the potential to greatly benefit the field.