Phosphorylation of elongation factor-2 kinase differentially regulates the enzyme's stability under stress conditions

Chronic infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) is associated with the majority of cases of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in China. Despite this, there is no effective method for the early detection of HBV-induced liver cancer. Aberrant fucosylation is known to occur during the development of HCC. We, therefore, developed a method of applying matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) to analyze the relationship between aberrant fucosylation, tumor genesis and progression of HBV-associated HCC, and to establish proteomic profiling of serum for early diagnosis of HCC. The MALDI-TOF MS was based on Lens culinaris agglutinin (LCA) lectin magnetic beads and their affinity for separation. The method was applied initially to a 'training' cohort of 111 serum samples obtained from subjects in China with no liver disease (n=26), chronic hepatitis B without cirrhosis (n=21), HBV-infected cirrhosis (n=32), or HBV-infected HCC (n=32). In contrast to previous findings, the results of our profiling analysis demonstrated defucosylation on some of the glycoproteins involved in HCC. HCC was then diagnostically classified in a 'blind test' cohort (n=96). In this group we demonstrated that, HCC could be distinguished from all serum samples, HBV-associated chronic liver disease, and HBV-associated cirrhosis with a sensitivity/specificity of 70%/70%, 78%/74%, and 81%/82%, respectively. When combined with serum alpha-fetoprotein detection (AFP>20 ng/mL), the sensitivity/specificity improved to 78%/88%, 85%/88%, and 89%/91%, respectively. In conclusion, serum glycoprotein fucosylation abnormalities have diverse forms in patients with HCC. MALDI-TOF MS profiling of aberrant serum fucosylated glycoproteins distinguished HCC from controls with high accuracy.     

异株百里香花蜜腺的发育解剖学研究

异株百里香（Thymus marschallianus Willd）花蜜腺分布于子房基部的花托上,结构蜜腺盘状,成熟时膨大,环绕在花托外。蜜腺组织由分泌表皮、产蜜组织和维管束三部分组成;组织化学染色显示淀粉粒的积累是在蜜腺细胞发育的最初和最后,因此将其归为非淀粉型蜜腺。在发育的过程中细胞液泡化动态明显,而淀粉粒和多糖均不具有明显的消长变化;蜜汁是由韧皮部运转到泌蜜组织中的,再由表皮细胞的角质层渗到细胞外。     

精恶唑禾草灵对不同品种柴胡茎秆力学特性的影响

为应用茎秆生物力学性质指标研究不同剂量除草剂对柴胡安全性的影响,以南柴胡和北柴胡茎秆为试验材料,精恶唑禾草灵为试验除草剂,分别在拔节期和开花期利用非金属材料万能试验机对茎秆基部第2节间的最大荷载、应力、应变、弹性模量、拉伸强度、剪切强度等力学指标进行测定和统计分析.结果表明:北柴胡的茎杆直径、最大荷载、抗拉强度等均高于南柴胡,最大荷载高了约13%,抗拉强度与茎杆直径呈线性相关关系(R=0.9194);南柴胡和北柴胡拔节期的茎杆拉伸强度和剪切强度均高于开花期;柴胡茎经中低剂量(0-1500ml/hm~2)的精恶唑禾草灵处理后,其抗拉强度和剪切强度无明显变化,但高剂量(3000ml/hm~2)的精恶唑禾草灵施用后显著降低了柴胡茎杆的抗拉强度和剪切强度,会直接导致柴胡抗倒伏能力降低,造成柴胡产量和品质下降.该结果可为柴胡田除草剂的安全施用及药材机械化收割技术的研发提供参考依据.     

Drug discovery prospect from untapped species: indications from approved natural product drugs

Due to extensive bioprospecting efforts of the past and technology factors, there have been questions about drug discovery prospect from untapped species. We analyzed recent trends of approved drugs derived from previously untapped species, which show no sign of untapped drug-productive species being near extinction and suggest high probability of deriving new drugs from new species in existing drug-productive species families and clusters. Case histories of recently approved drugs reveal useful strategies for deriving new drugs from the scaffolds and pharmacophores of the natural product leads of these untapped species. New technologies such as cryptic gene-cluster exploration may generate novel natural products with highly anticipated potential impact on drug discovery.     

Interaction of hydrogen sulfide and estrogen on the proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells

Hydrogen sulfide (H(2)S) can be endogenously generated from cystathionine gamma-lyase (CSE) in cardiovascular system, offering a cardiovascular protection. It is also known that the lower risk of cardiovascular diseases in female is partially attributed to the protective effect of estrogen. The current study explores the interaction of H(2)S and estrogen on smooth muscle cell (SMC) growth. In the present study, we found that the proliferation of cultured vascular SMCs isolated from wild-type mice (WT-SMCs) was inhibited, but that from CSE gene knockout mice (CSE-KO-SMCs) increased, by estrogen treatments. The expression of estrogen receptor α (ERα), but not ERβ, was significantly decreased in CSE-KO-SMCs compared with that in WT-SMCs. Exogenously applied H(2)S markedly increased ERα but not ERβ expression. In addition, the inhibition of ER activation and knockdown of ERα expression in WT-SMCs or the overexpression of ERα in CSE-KO-SMCs reversed the respective effects of estrogen on cell proliferation. The expression of cyclin D1 was reduced in WT-SMCs but increased in CSE-KO-SMCs after estrogen treatments, which was reversed by knockdown of ERα in WT-SMCs or overexpression of ERα in CSE-KO-SMCs, respectively. The overexpression of cyclin D1 in WT-SMCs or knockdown of cyclin D1 expression in CSE-KO-SMCs reversed the effects of estrogen on cell proliferation. These results suggest that H(2)S mediates estrogen-inhibited proliferation of SMCs via selective activation of ERα/cyclin D1 pathways.     

Dissection of human MiRNA regulatory influence to subpathway

The global insight into the relationships between miRNAs and their regulatory influences remains poorly understood. And most of complex diseases may be attributed to certain local areas of pathway (subpathway) instead of the entire pathway. Here, we reviewed the studies on miRNA regulations to pathways and constructed a bipartite miRNAs and subpathways network for systematic analyzing the miRNA regulatory influences to subpathways. We found that a small fraction of miRNAs were global regulators, environmental information processing pathways were preferentially regulated by miRNAs, and miRNAs had synergistic effect on regulating group of subpathways with similar function. Integrating the disease states of miRNAs, we also found that disease miRNAs regulated more subpathways than nondisease miRNAs, and for all miRNAs, the number of regulated subpathways was not in proportion to the number of the related diseases. Therefore, the study not only provided a global view on the relationships among disease, miRNA and subpathway, but also uncovered the function aspects of miRNA regulations and potential pathogenesis of complex diseases. A web server to query, visualize and download for all the data can be freely accessed at http://bioinfo.hrbmu.edu.cn/miR2Subpath.     

表面改性SBA-15材料固载猪胰脂肪酶

采用试剂y-氯丙基三乙氧基硅烷（cvrEs）对介孔硅材料SBA-15进行表面改性,并通过红外图谱（FT-IR）和N2吸附脱附等温图（BET）对其进行表征。结果表明：改性前原材料的比表面积为460．9m2／g,改性后材料比表面积提高到512．0m2／g。利用改性前和改性后的SBA-15对猪胰脂肪酶进行固载实验,并对实验结果进行比较,发现改性后的SBA-15在脂肪酶活性、pH环境适应性、热耐受性和可操作性都优于改性前的SBA-15,在最优条件下的酶活力提高超过60％。