Adriamycin effects on transplasma membrane redox functions in porcine neutrophils

Transplasma membrane electron transport, as assayed by external ferricyanide reduction, has been related to control of growth and hormone response of cells. Elicitor-stimulated transmembrane NADPH oxidase is important for bacteriocidal superoxide production by neutrophils. Since adriamycin is myelosuppressive and can stimulate superoxide production, its effects on the two redox systems of porcine neutrophil plasma membranes were compared. Adriamycin inhibits transplasma membrane ferricyanide and stimulates superoxide production activated by phorbol myristate acetate (PMA). Ferricyanide reduction in PMA-treated cells becomes resistant to inhibition by adriamycin. These results provide evidence for an independent effect of adriamycin on transmembrane ferricyanide reduction and on superoxide generation.     

Selenium-containing 15-mer peptides with high glutathione peroxidase-like activity

Glutathione peroxidase (GPX) is one of the most crucial antioxidant enzymes in a variety of organisms. Here we described a new strategy for generating a novel GPX mimic by combination of a phage-displayed random 15-mer peptide library followed by computer-aided rational design and chemical mutation. The novel GPX mimic is a homodimer consisting of a 15-mer selenopeptide with an appropriate catalytic center, a specific binding site for substrates, and high catalytic efficiency. Its steady state kinetics was also studied, and the values of k(cat)/K(m)(GSH) and k(cat)/ K(mH(2)O(2)) were found to be similar to that of native GPX and the highest among the existing GPX mimics. Moreover, the novel GPX mimic was confirmed to have a strong antioxidant ability to inhibit lipid peroxidation by measuring the content of malondialdehyde, cell viability, and lactate dehydrogenase activity. Importantly, the novel GPX mimic can penetrate into the cell membrane because of its small molecular size. These characteristics endue the novel mimic with potential perspective for pharmaceutical applications.     

Multispecies coexistence of trees in tropical forests: spatial signals of topographic niche differentiation increase with environmental heterogeneity

Neutral and niche theories give contrasting explanations for the maintenance of tropical tree species diversity. Both have some empirical support, but methods to disentangle their effects have not yet been developed. We applied a statistical measure of spatial structure to data from 14 large tropical forest plots to test a prediction of niche theory that is incompatible with neutral theory: that species in heterogeneous environments should separate out in space according to their niche preferences. We chose plots across a range of topographic heterogeneity, and tested whether pairwise spatial associations among species were more variable in more heterogeneous sites. We found strong support for this prediction, based on a strong positive relationship between variance in the spatial structure of species pairs and topographic heterogeneity across sites. We interpret this pattern as evidence of pervasive niche differentiation, which increases in importance with increasing environmental heterogeneity.     

An Effective Method to Identify Heritable Components from Multivariate Phenotypes

Multivariate phenotypes may be characterized collectively by a variety of low level traits, such as in the diagnosis of a disease that relies on multiple disease indicators. Such multivariate phenotypes are often used in genetic association studies. If highly heritable components of a multivariate phenotype can be identified, it can maximize the likelihood of finding genetic associations. Existing methods for phenotype refinement perform unsupervised cluster analysis on low-level traits and hence do not assess heritability. Existing heritable component analytics either cannot utilize general pedigrees or have to estimate the entire covariance matrix of low-level traits from limited samples, which leads to inaccurate estimates and is often computationally prohibitive. It is also difficult for these methods to exclude fixed effects from other covariates such as age, sex and race, in order to identify truly heritable components. We propose to search for a combination of low-level traits and directly maximize the heritability of this combined trait. A quadratic optimization problem is thus derived where the objective function is formulated by decomposing the traditional maximum likelihood method for estimating the heritability of a quantitative trait. The proposed approach can generate linearly-combined traits of high heritability that has been corrected for the fixed effects of covariates. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated in simulations and by a case study of cocaine dependence. Our approach was computationally efficient and derived traits of higher heritability than those by other methods. Additional association analysis with the derived cocaine-use trait identified genetic markers that were replicated in an independent sample, further confirming the utility and advantage of the proposed approach.     

Collagen-binding motif peptide, a cleavage product of osteopontin, stimulates human neutrophil chemotaxis via pertussis toxin-sensitive G protein-mediated signaling

The collagen-binding motif (CBM) peptide, a cleavage product of osteopontin (OPN), stimulated intracellular calcium increase in human neutrophils. CBM peptide-stimulated calcium was inhibited by pertussis toxin (PTX), suggesting the influence of PTX-sensitive G-proteins. In addition CBM peptide stimulated the chemotactic migration of human neutrophils and human monocytes. CBM peptide-induced neutrophil chemotaxis was completely inhibited by PTX, once again indicating the influence of Gi proteins. CBM peptide was also found to induce mitogen activated protein kinase activation. CBM peptide-induced neutrophil chemotaxis was mediated by p38 kinase as well as an extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase. Taken together, the results suggest that a cleavage product of OPN, CBM peptide, initiates immune responses by inducing neutrophil trafficking via certain PTX-sensitive cell surface receptors.     

带有REV-LTR片段的马立克氏病毒重组野毒株与超强毒株致病性和传播性比较

摘要：【目的】GX0101是一株插入了禽网状内皮组织增生症病毒(REV)-LTR片段的马立克氏病毒（MDV）重组野毒株,本文将其致病性、致肿瘤性和横向传播能力与超强毒参考株（vvMd5）进行比较。【方法】利用MDV特异性核酸探针对同罩饲养的对照鸡的羽毛囊DNA进行检测。【结果】在经抗MDV疫苗免疫的SPF鸡攻毒试验中表明,GX0101株的致死率28.6%和致肿瘤率7.1%均低于超强毒参考株Md5的致死率63.1%和致肿瘤率19.0%。但是,利用MDV特异性核酸探针对同罩饲养的对照鸡的羽毛囊DNA检测表明,     

Kinase-mediated trapping of bi-functional conjugates of paclitaxel or vinblastine with thymidine in cancer cells

In the present work, we explore the possibility of introducing selectivity to existing chemotherapeutics via the design of non-pro-drug, bi-functional molecules comprising a microtubule-binding agent and a substrate for a disease-associated kinase. The design, synthesis, and in vitro biological evaluation of paclitaxel-thymidine and vinblastine-thymidine bi-functional conjugates are reported here. This work provides the first account of 'kinase-mediated trapping' of cancer therapeutics.     

Chimeric contribution of human extended pluripotent stem cells to monkey embryos ex vivo

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Cyclin-dependent kinase 4 signaling acts as a molecular switch between syngenic differentiation and neural transdifferentiation in human mesenchymal stem cells

Multipotent mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) are capable of differentiating into a variety of cell types from different germ layers. However, the molecular and biochemical mechanisms underlying the transdifferentiation of MSCs into specific cell types still need to be elucidated. In this study, we unexpectedly found that treatment of human adipose- and bone marrow-derived MSCs with cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitor, in particular CDK4 inhibitor, selectively led to transdifferentiation into neural cells with a high frequency. Specifically, targeted inhibition of CDK4 expression using recombinant adenovial shRNA induced the neural transdifferentiation of human MSCs. However, the inhibition of CDK4 activity attenuated the syngenic differentiation of human adipose-derived MSCs. Importantly, the forced regulation of CDK4 activity showed reciprocal reversibility between neural differentiation and dedifferentiation of human MSCs. Together, these results provide novel molecular evidence underlying the neural transdifferentiation of human MSCs; in addition, CDK4 signaling appears to act as a molecular switch from syngenic differentiation to neural transdifferentiation of human MSCs.