Human Semaphorin 3 Variants Link Melanocortin Circuit Development and Energy Balance

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Redox modulation of the inotropic response to dobutamine is impaired in patients with heart failure

It has been suggested that oxidative stress contributes to impaired left ventricular (LV) contractility in the setting of heart failure (HF). To test this hypothesis, we studied the effect of an antioxidant on contractility at rest and in response to dobutamine in 10 HF patients. We hypothesized that vitamin C would augment contractility in HF and that this effect would be of a greater magnitude in HF patients compared with patients with normal LV (NLV) function. Data from 10 patients with NLV function who participated in this study are included in this report and have been published elsewhere. A micromanometer-tipped catheter was introduced into the LV. In the experimental protocol, an infusion catheter was positioned in the left main coronary artery. The peak positive rate of change of LV pressure (LV +dP/dt) was measured in response to the intravenous infusion of dobutamine before and during the intracoronary infusion of vitamin C (96 mg/min). Vitamin C had no effect on basal LV +dP/dt in either HF or NLV groups. The infusion of vitamin C augmented the LV +dP/dt response to dobutamine by 22 +/- 4% in the NLV function group. In contrast, vitamin C had no effect on the inotropic response to dobutamine in the HF group. In the control protocol, without vitamin C, no differences were observed between responses to two sequential dobutamine infusions in either group (HF, n = 11; NLV, n = 9). Therefore, a positive effect of vitamin C on contractility was limited to patients with NLV function. The absence of this effect in HF patients may suggest that normal redox responsiveness is lost in this disease state.     

Evolution and biogeography of Centaurea section Acrocentron inferred from nuclear and plastid DNA sequence analyses

Background and Aims

Section Acrocentron of the genus Centaurea is one of the largest sections of Centaurea with approx. 100 species. The geographic distribution, centred in the Mediterranean, makes it an excellent example for studies of the biogeographic history of this biodiversity-rich region.

Methods

Plastid (trnH-psbA) and nuclear (ITS and ETS) DNA sequence analysis was used for phylogenetic reconstruction. Ancestral biogeographic patterns were inferred by dispersal-vicariance analysis (DIVA).

Key Results

The resulting phylogeny has implications for the sectional classification of Acrocentron and confirms merging sect. Chamaecyanus into Acrocentron as a subsection. Previous suggestions of an eastern Mediterranean origin of the group are confirmed. The main centres of diversification established in previous studies are now strongly supported. Expansion of the group in two different radiations that followed patently diverse paths is inferred.

Conclusions

Radiation followed two waves, widely separated in time scale. The oldest one, from Turkey to Greece and the northern Balkans and then to North Africa and Iberia, should be dated at the end of the Miocene in the Messinian period. It reached the Iberian Peninsula from the south, following a route that is landmarked by several relictic taxa in Sicily and North Africa. A later radiation during the Holocene interglacial periods followed, involving species from the north of the Balkan Peninsula, along a Eurasian pathway running from Central Iberia to the steppes of Kazakhstan. A generalized pattern of reticulation is also evident from the results, indicating past contacts between presently separated species. Molecular data also confirmed the extent of hybridization within Acrocentron and were successful in reconstructing the paleogeography of the section.Key words: Centaurea sect. Acrocentron, Cardueae, dispersal-vicariance, ETS, ITS, Mediterranean, phylogeny, psbA-trnH, radiation, reticulation     

Fluorescent dye ProteoStat to detect and discriminate intracellular amyloid‐like aggregates in Escherichia coli

The formation of amyloid aggregates is linked to the onset of an increasing number of human disorders. Thus, there is an increasing need for methodologies able to provide insights into protein deposition and its modulation. Many approaches exist to study amyloids in vitro, but the techniques available for the study of amyloid aggregation in cells are still limited and non‐specific. In this study we developed a methodology for the detection of amyloid‐like aggregates inside cells that discriminates these ordered assemblies from other intracellular aggregates. We chose bacteria as model system, since the inclusion bodies formed by amyloid proteins in the cytosol of bacteria resemble toxic amyloids both structurally and functionally. Using confocal microscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, and flow cytometry, we show that the recently developed red fluorescent dye ProteoStat can detect the presence of intracellular amyloid‐like deposits in living bacterial cells with high specificity, even when the target proteins are expressed at low levels. This methodology allows quantitation of the intracellular amyloid content, shows the potential to replace in vitro screenings in the search for therapeutic anti‐amyloidogenic compounds, and might be useful for identifying conditions that prevent the aggregation of therapeutic recombinant proteins.     

Serotypes and Clonal Diversity of Streptococcus pneumoniae Causing Invasive Disease in the Era of PCV13 in Catalonia,Spain

The aim of this study was to study the serotypes and clonal diversity of pneumococci causing invasive pneumococcal disease in Catalonia, Spain, in the era of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13). In our region, this vaccine is only available in the private market and it is estimated a PCV13 vaccine coverage around 55% in children. A total of 1551 pneumococcal invasive isolates received between 2010 and 2013 in the Molecular Microbiology Department at Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, were included. Fifty-two serotypes and 249 clonal types—defined by MLST—were identified. The most common serotypes were serotype 1 (n = 182; 11.7%), 3 (n = 145; 9.3%), 19A (n = 137; 8.8%) and 7F (n = 122; 7.9%). Serotype 14 was the third most frequent serotype in children < 2 years (15 of 159 isolates). PCV7 serotypes maintained their proportion along the period of study, 16.6% in 2010 to 13.4% in 2013, whereas there was a significant proportional decrease in PCV13 serotypes, 65.3% in 2010 to 48.9% in 2013 (p<0.01). This decrease was mainly attributable to serotypes 19A and 7F. Serotype 12F achieved the third position in 2013 (n = 22, 6.4%). The most frequent clonal types found were ST306 (n = 154, 9.9%), ST191 (n = 111, 7.2%), ST989 (n = 85, 5.5%) and ST180 (n = 80, 5.2%). Despite their decrease, PCV13 serotypes continue to be a major cause of disease in Spain. These results emphasize the need for complete PCV13 vaccination.     

The Vinculin-ΔIn20/21 Mouse: Characteristics of a Constitutive,Actin-Binding Deficient Splice Variant of Vinculin

Background

The cytoskeletal adaptor protein vinculin plays a fundamental role in cell contact regulation and affects central aspects of cell motility, which are essential to both embryonal development and tissue homeostasis. Functional regulation of this evolutionarily conserved and ubiquitously expressed protein is dominated by a high-affinity, autoinhibitory head-to-tail interaction that spatially restricts ligand interactions to cell adhesion sites and, furthermore, limits the residency time of vinculin at these sites. To date, no mutants of the vinculin protein have been characterized in animal models.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Here, we investigate vinculin-ΔEx20, a splice variant of the protein lacking the 68 amino acids encoded by exon 20 of the vinculin gene VCL. Vinculin-ΔEx20 was found to be expressed alongside with wild type protein in a knock-in mouse model with a deletion of introns 20 and 21 (VCL-ΔIn20/21 allele) and shows defective head-to-tail interaction. Homozygous VCL-ΔIn20/21 embryos die around embryonal day E12.5 showing cranial neural tube defects and exencephaly. In mouse embryonic fibroblasts and upon ectopic expression, vinculin-ΔEx20 reveals characteristics of constitutive head binding activity. Interestingly, the impact of vinculin-ΔEx20 on cell contact induction and stabilization, a hallmark of the vinculin head domain, is only moderate, thus allowing invasion and motility of cells in three-dimensional collagen matrices. Lacking both F-actin interaction sites of the tail, the vinculin-ΔEx20 variant unveils vinculin''s dynamic binding to cell adhesions independent of a cytoskeletal association, and thus differs from head-to-tail binding deficient mutants such as vinculin-T12, in which activated F-actin binding locks the protein variant to cell contact sites.

Conclusions/Significance

Vinculin-ΔEx20 is an active variant supporting adhesion site stabilization without an enhanced mechanical coupling. Its presence in a transgenic animal reveals the potential of splice variants in the vinculin gene to alter vinculin function in vivo. Correct control of vinculin is necessary for embryonic development.     

Probing Neuroserpin Polymerization and Interaction with Amyloid-β Peptides Using Single Molecule Fluorescence

Neuroserpin is a member of the serine proteinase inhibitor superfamily. It can undergo a conformational transition to form polymers that are associated with the dementia familial encephalopathy with neuroserpin inclusion bodies and the wild-type protein can inhibit the toxicity of amyloid-β peptides in Alzheimer's disease. We have used a single molecule fluorescence method, two color coincidence detection, to determine the rate-limiting steps of the early stages of the polymerization of fluorophore-labeled neuroserpin and have assessed how this process is altered in the presence of Aβ_1-40. Our data show that neuroserpin polymerization proceeds first by the unimolecular formation of an active monomer, followed by competing processes of both polymerization and formation of a latent monomer from the activated species. These data are not in keeping with the recently proposed domain swap model of polymer formation in which the latent species and activated monomer are likely to be formed by competing pathways directly from the unactivated monomeric serpin. Moreover, the Aβ_1-40 peptide forms a weak complex with neuroserpin (dissociation constant of 10 ± 5 nM) that increases the amount of active monomer thereby increasing the rate of polymerization. The Aβ_1-40 is displaced from the complex so that it acts as a catalyst and is not incorporated into neuroserpin polymers.