High glucose concentration induces endothelial cell proliferation by regulating cyclin‐D2‐related miR‐98

Cyclin D2 is involved in the pathology of vascular complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This study investigated the role of cyclin‐D2‐regulated miRNAs in endothelial cell proliferation of T2DM. Results showed that higher glucose concentration (4.5 g/l) significantly promoted the proliferation of rat aortic endothelial cells (RAOECs), and significantly increased the expression of cyclin D2 and phosphorylation of retinoblastoma 1 (p‐RB1) in RAOECs compared with those under low glucose concentration. The cyclin D2‐3′ untranslated region is targeted by miR‐98, as demonstrated by miRNA analysis software. Western blot also confirmed that cyclin D2 and p‐RB1 expression was regulated by miR‐98. The results indicated that miR‐98 treatment can induce RAOEC apoptosis. The suppression of RAOEC growth by miR‐98 might be related to regulation of Bcl‐2, Bax and Caspase 9 expression. Furthermore, the expression levels of miR‐98 decreased in 4.5 g/l glucose‐treated cells compared with those treated by low glucose concentration. Similarly, the expression of miR‐98 significantly decreased in aortas of established streptozotocin (STZ)‐induced diabetic rat model compared with that in control rats; but cyclin D2 and p‐RB1 levels remarkably increased in aortas of STZ‐induced diabetic rats compared with those in healthy control rats. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that high glucose concentration induces cyclin D2 up‐regulation and miR‐98 down‐regulation in the RAOECs. By regulating cyclin D2, miR‐98 can inhibit human endothelial cell growth, thereby providing novel therapeutic targets for vascular complication of T2DM.     

Human CD8+ T cells transduced with an additional receptor bispecific for both Mycobacterium tuberculosis and HIV‐1 recognize both epitopes

Tuberculosis (TB) and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV‐1) infection are closely intertwined, with one‐quarter of TB/HIV coinfected deaths among people died of TB. Effector CD8⁺ T cells play a crucial role in the control of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) and HIV‐1 infection in coinfected patients. Adoptive transfer of a multitude of effector CD8⁺ T cells is an appealing strategy to impose improved anti‐MTB/HIV‐1 activity onto coinfected individuals. Due to extensive existence of heterologous immunity, that is, T cells cross‐reactive with peptides encoded by related or even very dissimilar pathogens, it is reasonable to find a single T cell receptor (TCR) recognizing both MTB and HIV‐1 antigenic peptides. In this study, a single TCR specific for both MTB Ag85B_199‐207 peptide and HIV‐1 Env_120‐128 peptide was screened out from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of a HLA‐A*0201⁺ healthy individual using complementarity determining region 3 spectratype analysis and transferred to primary CD8⁺ T cells using a recombinant retroviral vector. The bispecificity of the TCR gene‐modified CD8⁺ T cells was demonstrated by elevated secretion of interferon‐γ, tumour necrosis factor‐α, granzyme B and specific cytolytic activity after antigen presentation of either Ag85B_199‐207 or Env_120‐128 by autologous dendritic cells. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first report proposing to produce responses against two dissimilar antigenic peptides of MTB and HIV‐1 simultaneously by transfecting CD8⁺ T cells with a single TCR. Taken together, T cells transduced with the additional bispecific TCR might be a useful strategy in immunotherapy for MTB/HIV‐1 coinfected individuals.     

MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF AUTOPHAGY‐RELATED GENE 5 FROM Spodoptera exigua AND EXPRESSION ANALYSIS UNDER VARIOUS STRESS CONDITIONS

Autophagy is not only involved in development, but also has been proved to attend immune response against invading pathogens. Autophagy protein 5 (ATG5) is an important autophagic protein, which plays a crucial role in autophagosome elongation. Although ATG5 has been well studied in mammal, yeast, and Drosophila, little is known about ATG5 in lepidopteran insects. We cloned putative SeAtg5 gene from Spodoptera exigua larvae by the rapid amplification of cDNA ends method, and its characteristics and the influences of multiple exogenous factors on its expression levels were then investigated. The results showed that the putative S. exigua SeATG5 protein is highly homologous to other insect ATG5 proteins, which has a conserved Pfm domain and multiple phosphorylation sites. Next, fluorescence microscope observation showed that mCherry‐SeATG5 was distributed in both nucleus and cytoplasm of Spodoptera litura Sl‐HP cells and partially co‐localized with BmATG6‐GFP, but it almost has no significant co‐localization with GFP‐HaATG8. Then, the Western blot analysis demonstrated that GFP‐SeATG5 conjugated with ATG12. Moreover, real‐time PCR revealed that its expression levels significantly increased at the initiation of pupation and the stage of adult. In addition, the expression levels of SeAtg5 can be enhanced by the starvation, UV radiation, and infection of baculovirus and bacterium. However, the expression levels of SeAtg5 decreased at 24 h post treatments in all these treatments except in starvation. These results suggested that SeATG5 might be involved in response of S. exigua under various stress conditions.     

Re‐evaluating the distribution of cooperative breeding in birds: is it tightly linked with altriciality?

The evolution of cooperative breeding (CB) in birds has aroused intensive interest for decades, largely due to the paradox that some adults forgo independent breeding to help others. While much effort has been directed at understanding the adaptive significance of CB behavior, much less effort has been spent on understanding its origin. Ligon and Burt argued that the evolution of altriciality played a key role in the origin of CB since CB occurs more frequently in altricial lineages than expected if developmental mode and CB evolved independently and that both traits arose early in the avian tree of life. We mapped presence or absence of CB, and precocial or altricial development on a recent phylogeny of all birds to re‐evaluate their conclusions. Our results suggest altriciality may be more recently derived than previously thought, and that CB species clustered in a derived land bird clade (especially within Passeriformes) where we reconstructed many gains and losses. We did find a link between cooperative breeding and altriciality. However, since CB also occurs in precocial species, has not evolved in many altricial clades, and may have evolved prior to altriciality (based on some classifications of which species have CB), it is not clear whether altriciality is linked to other factors, such as benefits to group living, that are necessary for the acquisition of CB behavior, or whether altriciality may have been a driving force in the evolution of CB itself. The relative importance of these other factors versus altriciality for the origin of CB needs to be considered.     

人脐带间充质干细胞通过分泌IL-6介导冈田酸对SH-SY5Y细胞毒性的保护作用

阿尔茨海默病(Alzheimer’s disease,AD)是一种国际公认的难治性神经退行性疾病,是引起痴呆的最常见的病因.其主要的病理学变化是由Aβ过度沉积引起的老年斑(SP),以及Tau蛋白过度磷酸化引起的神经纤维缠结(NFTs).从人脐带华通胶中分离出的间充质干细胞(hUC-MSCs)由于其强大的旁分泌作用,已经被证实对神经系统疾病有治疗效果,其中包括AD,这种治疗机制尚不明确.本研究用冈田酸对SH-SY5Y细胞系进行损伤,建立AD体外模型,然后用种有hUC-MSCs的transwell小室或其条件培养基对模型进行治疗,并发现其分泌的IL-6可能是介导这种修复作用的关键因子.     

黄淮海地区玉蜀黍黑粉菌群体遗传结构分析

利用17个多态性ISSR引物对2017年在我国黄淮海地区采集的41株玉蜀黍黑粉菌Ustilago maydis样本进行了种群遗传结构分析。基于UPGMA法和贝叶斯模型对玉蜀黍黑粉菌群体遗传结构分析显示,采集的样本可以分为两大群,且种群的划分表现出了与来源地理纬度的一致性。因此按照各样本所属地理纬度将样本分为北纬33°-34°、北纬35°-36°、北纬37°-38° 3大种群。结果表明,分离自北纬33°-34°地区的玉蜀黍黑粉菌遗传多样性最丰富,Nei’s基因多样性（H）为0.2216,Shannon指数（I）为0.3300。分子方差分析（AMOVA）显示,变异中来自种群内部的变异为86%,种群间变异14%（φpt=0.141）。