Bcl-xL mediates a survival mechanism independent of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase/Akt pathway in prostate cancer cells

Among various molecular strategies by which prostate cancer cells evade apoptosis, phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling represents a dominant survival pathway. However, different prostate cancer cell lines such as LNCaP and PC-3 display differential sensitivity to the apoptotic effect of PI3K inhibition in serum-free media, reflecting the heterogeneous nature of prostate cancer in apoptosis regulation. Whereas both cell lines are equally susceptible to LY294002-mediated Akt dephosphorylation, only LNCaP cells default to apoptosis, as evidenced by DNA fragmentation and cytochrome c release. In PC-3 cells, Akt deactivation does not lead to cytochrome c release, suggesting that the intermediary signaling pathway is short-circuited by an antiapoptotic factor. This study presents evidence that Bcl-xL overexpression provides a distinct survival mechanism that protects PC-3 cells from apoptotic signals emanating from PI3K inhibition. First, the Bcl-xL/BAD ratio in PC-3 cells is at least an order of magnitude greater than that of LNCaP cells. Second, ectopic expression of Bcl-xL protects LNCaP cells against LY294002-induced apoptosis. Third, antisense down-regulation of Bcl-xL sensitizes PC-3 cells to the apoptotic effect of LY294002. The physiological relevance of this Bcl-xL-mediated survival mechanism is further underscored by the protective effect of serum on LY294002-induced cell death in LNCaP cells, which is correlated with a multifold increase in Bcl-xL expression. In contrast to Bcl-xL, Bcl-2 expression levels are similar in both cells lines, and do not respond to serum stimulation, suggesting that Bcl-2 may not play a physiological role in antagonizing apoptosis signals pertinent to BAD activation in prostate cancer cells.     

Enhanced purification of plasmid DNA using Q-Sepharose by modulation of alcohol concentrations

Ion-exchange chromatography is one of the most commonly used methods for plasmid preparation. In this study a modified method was used to purify plasmid from bacterial lysate using Q-Sepharose. Incorporation of alcohols into the washing buffers enhanced the separation of plasmid from RNA and proteins. The use of isopropanol and ethanol achieved a high yield and purity whereas the use of methanol failed to improve the plasmid purification using Q-Sepharose by batch adsorption-desorption. Stepwise elution containing various concentrations of isopropanol and NaCl was used in preparative chromatography to enhance the plasmid purification. The same stepwise elution was applied to the chromatography columns packed with 0.5, 20, and 200 ml of Q-Sepharose for plasmid purification from 7.5, 300, and 3000 ml bacterial broth, respectively. Complete separation of DNA from RNA and proteins was achieved under gravity flow by modulation of the alcohol concentrations in the stepwise elution. These three scales of chromatography maintained an approximate plasmid yield and the purified plasmid contained undetectable levels of RNA and protein.     

Dominant negative mutants of the yeast splicing factor Prp2 map to a putative cleft region in the helicase domain of DExD/H-box proteins

The Prp2 protein of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an RNA-dependent ATPase required before the first transesterification reaction in pre-mRNA splicing. Prp2 binds to the spliceosome in the absence of ATP and is released following ATP hydrolysis. We determined what regions in Prp2 are essential for release from the spliceosome by analyzing dominant negative mutants in vivo and in vitro. We made mutations in conserved motif II (DExH) and motif VI (QRxGR) of the helicase (H) domain. Mutations that inactivated PRP2 had a dominant negative phenotype when overexpressed in vivo. To test whether mutations outside of the H domain could confer a dominant negative phenotype, we mutagenized a GAL1-PRP2 construct and screened for mutants unable to grow on galactose-containing media. Five dominant negative mutants were characterized; three mapped within the H domain and two mapped downstream of motif VI, indicating that an extended helicase domain is required for release of Prp2 from the spliceosome. Most mutants stalled in the spliceosome in vitro. However, not all mutants that were dominant negative in vivo were dominant negative in vitro, indicating that multiple mechanisms may cause a dominant negative phenotype. Structural modeling of the H domain of Prp2 suggests that mutants map to a cleft region found in helicases of known structure.     

Microrheology and ROCK signaling of human endothelial cells embedded in a 3D matrix

Cell function is profoundly affected by the geometry of the extracellular environment confining the cell. Whether and how cells plated on a two-dimensional matrix or embedded in a three-dimensional (3D) matrix mechanically sense the dimensionality of their environment is mostly unknown, partly because individual cells in an extended matrix are inaccessible to conventional cell-mechanics probes. Here we develop a functional assay based on multiple particle tracking microrheology coupled with ballistic injection of nanoparticles to measure the local intracellular micromechanical properties of individual cells embedded inside a matrix. With our novel assay, we probe the mechanical properties of the cytoplasm of individual human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) embedded in a 3D peptide hydrogel in the presence or absence of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). We found that VEGF treatment, which enhances endothelial migration, increases the compliance and reduces the elasticity of the cytoplasm of HUVECs in a matrix. This VEGF-induced softening response of the cytoplasm is abrogated by specific Rho-kinase (ROCK) inhibition. These results establish combined particle-tracking microrheology and ballistic injection as the first method able to probe the micromechanical properties and mechanical response to agonists and/or drug treatments of individual cells inside a matrix. These results suggest that ROCK plays an essential role in the regulation of the intracellular mechanical response to VEGF of endothelial cells in a 3D matrix.     

外胚层细胞诱导后的间隙连接

用电镜观察了经受诱导作用之后胚胎细胞的冷冻蚀刻复型膜。和未经诱导作用的对照组比较,早期和中期神经胚的神经上皮细胞以及经过豚鼠骨髓粗提液(BME)——一种有效的异源中胚层诱导物——处理过的早期原肠胚外胚层,它们的间隙连接都处于活跃的动态状态。用图像分析仪测得的间隙连接连接子的排列密度,指出经受过诱导作用的三组分别和未经受诱导作用的对照组比较,计算求出P值,神经上皮两组和对照组的差别为非常显著,BME处理过的细胞和对照组的差别为显著。结合对照组与诱导后胚胎细胞间隙连接连接子的变化讨论了它们在信息传递上可能起的作用。     

N‐cadherin/catenin–based costameres in cultured chicken cardiomyocytes

N‐cadherin is a member of the Ca²⁺‐dependent cell adhesion molecules and plays an important role in the assembly of the adherens junction in chicken cardiomyocytes. In addition to being present at the cell‐cell junction, N‐cadherin is associated with costameres in extrajunctional regions. The significance of the N‐cadherin‐associated costameres and whether catenins are components of costameres in chicken cardiomyocytes are not known. In this study, double‐labeling immunofluorescence microscopy was used to determine the extrajunctional distribution of both N‐cadherin and its cytoplasmic associated proteins, α‐ and β‐catenins, and their relationship to myofibrillar Z‐disc α‐actinin. N‐cadherin, α‐, and β‐catenins were all found to be present at the extrajunctional region and, in some cases, were codistributed with myofibrillar α‐actinin exhibiting a periodic staining pattern. Confocal microscopy confirmed that both N‐cadherin and β‐catenin colocalized with peripheral myofibrillar α‐actinin on the dorsal surface of cardiomyocytes as components of the costameres. Intracellular application of antibodies specific for the cytoplasmic portions of N‐cadherin, α‐, and β‐catenin, either by electroporation or microinjection, resulted in myofibril disorganization and disassembly. These results suggest the existence of N‐cadherin/catenin‐based costameres in the dorsal surface of cultured chicken cardiomyocytes in addition to the integrin/vinculin‐based costameres found in the ventral surface and indicate that the former set of costameres is essential for cardiac myofibrillogenesis. J. Cell. Biochem. 75:93–104, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Single molecule characterization of P-selectin/ligand binding

P-selectin expressed on activated platelets and vascular endothelium mediates adhesive interactions to polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) and colon carcinomas critical to the processes of inflammation and blood-borne metastasis, respectively. How the overall adhesiveness (i.e. the avidity) of receptor/ligand interactions is controlled by the affinity of the individual receptors to single ligands is not well understood. Using single molecule force spectroscopy, we probed in situ both the tensile strength and off-rate of single P-selectin molecules binding to single ligands on intact human PMNs and metastatic colon carcinomas and compared them to the overall avidity of these cells for P-selectin substrates. The use of intact cells rather than purified proteins ensures the proper orientation and preserves post-translational modifications of the P-selectin ligands. The P-selectin/PSGL-1 interaction on PMNs was able to withstand forces up to 175 pN and had an unstressed off-rate of 0.20 s(-1). The tensile strength of P-selectin binding to a novel O-linked, sialylated protease-sensitive ligand on LS174T colon carcinomas approached 125 pN, whereas the unstressed off-rate was 2.78 s(-1). Monte Carlo simulations of receptor/ligand bond rupture under constant loading rate for both P-selectin/PSGL-1 and P-selectin/LS174T ligand binding give distributions and mean rupture forces that are in accord with experimental data. The pronounced differences in the affinity for P-selectin/ligand binding provide a mechanistic basis for the differential abilities of PMNs and carcinomas to roll on P-selectin substrates under blood flow conditions and underline the requirement for single molecule affinity measurements.     

Do innate killing mechanisms activated by inflammasomes have a role in treating melanoma?

Melanoma, as for many other cancers, undergoes a selection process during progression that limits many innate and adaptive tumor control mechanisms. Immunotherapy with immune checkpoint blockade overcomes one of the escape mechanisms but if the tumor is not eliminated other escape mechanisms evolve that require new approaches for tumor control. Some of the innate mechanisms that have evolved against infections with microorganisms and viruses are proving to be active against cancer cells but require better understanding of how they are activated and what inhibitory mechanisms may need to be targeted. This is particularly so for inflammasomes which have evolved against many different organisms and which recruit a number of cytotoxic mechanisms that remain poorly understood. Equally important is understanding of where these mechanisms will fit into existing treatment strategies and whether existing strategies already involve the innate killing mechanisms.     

Hyaluronic acid receptor CD44 deficiency is associated with decreased Cryptococcus neoformans brain infection

Cryptococcus neoformans is a pathogenic yeast that can invade the brain and cause meningoencephalitis. Our previous in vitro studies suggested that the interaction between C. neoformans hyaluronic acid and human brain endothelial CD44 could be the initial step of brain invasion. In this report, we used a CD44 knock-out (KO or CD44(-/-)) mouse model to explore the importance of CD44 in C. neoformans brain invasion. Our results showed that C. neoformans-infected CD44 KO mice survived longer than the infected wild-type mice. Consistent with our in vitro results, the brain and cerebrospinal fluid fungal burden was reduced in CD44-deficient mice. Histopathological studies showed smaller and fewer cystic lesions in the brains of CD44 KO mice. Interestingly, the cystic lesions contained C. neoformans cells embedded within their polysaccharide capsule and were surrounded by host glial cells. We also found that a secondary hyaluronic acid receptor, RHAMM (receptor of hyaluronan-mediated motility), was present in the CD44 KO mice. Importantly, our studies demonstrated an in vivo blocking effect of simvastatin. These results suggest that the CD44 and RHAMM receptors function on membrane lipid rafts during invasion and that simvastatin may have a potential therapeutic role in C. neoformans infections of the brain.     

Histamine-Induced increases in intracellular free Ca2+ levels in hepatoma cells

The effect of histamine on intracellular free Ca2+ levels ([Ca2+]i) in HA22/VGH human hepatoma cells were evaluated using fura-2 as a fluorescent Ca2+ dye. Histamine (0.2-5 microM) increased [Ca2+]i in a concentration-dependent manner with an EC50 value of about 1 microM. The [Ca2+]i response comprised an initial rise, a slow decay, and a sustained phase. Extracellular Ca2+ removal inhibited 50% of the [Ca2+]i signal. In Ca2+-free medium, after cells were treated with 1 microM thapsigargin (an endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ pump inhibitor), 5 microM histamine failed to increase [Ca2+]i. After pretreatment with 5 microM histamine in Ca2+-free medium for 4 min, addition of 3 mM Ca2+ induced a [Ca2+]i increase of a magnitude 7-fold greater than control. Histamine (5 microM)-induced intracellular Ca2+ release was abolished by inhibiting phospholipase C with 2 microM 1-(6-((17beta-3-methoxyestra-1,3,5(10)-trien-17-yl)amino)hexyl)-1H-pyrrole-2,5-dione (U73122), and by 5 microM pyrilamine but was not altered by 50 microM cimetidine. Together, this study shows that histamine induced [Ca2+]i increases in human hepatoma cells by stimulating H1, but not H2, histamine receptors. The [Ca2+]i signal was caused by Ca2+ release from thapsigargin-sensitive endoplasmic reticulum in an inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate-dependent manner, accompanied by Ca2+ entry.