胃肠道微生物及其分子生态学技术研究进展

由于与人类健康和疾病密切相关,胃肠道微生物研究已成为当今的热点研究领域。目前研究的分子手段已经从单纯的分析微生物群落结构组成,发展到通过宏转录组学、宏蛋白组学和代谢组学等"组学"技术揭示胃肠道微生物群落的相应功能。本文结合我们的研究工作,综述了国内外胃肠道微生物及其分子生态学技术的研究进展。     

Tissue-specific Short Chain Fatty Acid Metabolism and Slow Metabolic Recovery after Ischemia from Hyperpolarized NMR in Vivo

Mechanistic details of mammalian metabolism in vivo and dynamic metabolic changes in intact organisms are difficult to monitor because of the lack of spatial, chemical, or temporal resolution when applying traditional analytical tools. These limitations can be addressed by sensitivity enhancement technology for fast in vivo NMR assays of enzymatic fluxes in tissues of interest. We apply this methodology to characterize organ-specific short chain fatty acid metabolism and the changes of carnitine and coenzyme A pools in ischemia reperfusion. This is achieved by assaying acetyl-CoA synthetase and acetyl-carnitine transferase catalyzed transformations in vivo. The fast and predominant flux of acetate and propionate signal into acyl-carnitine pools shows the efficient buffering of free CoA levels. Sizeable acetyl-carnitine formation from exogenous acetate is even found in liver, where acetyl-CoA synthetase and acetyl-carnitine transferase activities have been assumed sequestered in different compartments. In vivo assays of altered acetate metabolism were applied to characterize pathological changes of acetate metabolism upon ischemia. Coenzyme pools in ischemic skeletal muscle are reduced in vivo even 1 h after disturbing muscle perfusion. Impaired mitochondrial metabolism and slow restoration of free CoA are corroborated by assays employing fumarate to show persistently reduced tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle activity upon ischemia. In the same animal model, anaerobic metabolism of pyruvate and tissue perfusion normalize faster than mitochondrial bioenergetics.     

脂肽的分离纯化与结构研究

采用酸沉淀分离、有机溶剂提取、分级沉淀、脱色吸附及制备薄板的方法,从枯草芽孢杆菌HSO121的培养液中分离得到一种脂肽类化合物。茚三酮试验、红外光谱分析表明该脂肽具有环状结构,电喷雾离子化质谱结果显示,该脂肽是分子量为1,022D和1,036D的两个同系物,氨基酸分析及串联质谱分析表明,脂肽的肽链结构为Leu-Leu-Asp-Val-Leu-Leu-Glu,说明它是Surfactin的结构类似物。     

铜绿假单胞菌对长链烷烃的摄取模式

研究了一株铜绿假单胞菌(CGMCC 1.1785)摄取长链烷烃的模式。铜绿假单胞菌1．1785能够以固态的长链烷烃为唯一碳源生长,在培养过程中产生表面活性代谢物。烃与水相的界面面积是细菌生长重要的影响因素,说明传质限制的存在。由于该菌不能够利用鼠李糖脂增溶的烃作为碳源,因此添加鼠李糖脂能够强化烃摄取的主要原因是烃界面的扩大。细胞表面疏水性从开始的急剧升高到后来的不断下降,说明在不同生长阶段细胞对烃的摄取模式是不同的。由此认为,铜绿假单胞菌1.1785既没有通过表面活性剂介导模式获取烃,也并非完全通过直接接触模式获取烃。据此提出该菌采用了一种运动接触的烃摄取模式,其趋化运动能力在这种摄取过程中起到重要作用。     

双酶水解紫贻贝制备酵母调味料研究

利用复合蛋白酶、复合风味蛋白酶、中性蛋白酶对紫贻贝进行双酶水解,水解效果比较后选择使用复合蛋白酶和复合风味蛋白酶作为复合水解酶,同时采用产酯酵母发酵技术制备调味料,通过电位滴定法测定单菌株和多菌株发酵对双酶水解贻贝肉产总酯的影响。结果表明：产酯酵母1274在双酶水解后,接种量为5％,发酵温度28℃,发酵时间72h时总酯含量为0．65％,相同条件下,产酯酵母1274和1202多菌株发酵时总酯含量为0．78％,经产酯酵母发酵后的调味料,酯香味浓郁,给予产品以发酵特有的风味。     

A novel substrate for yeast alcohol dehydrogenase – p-nitroso-N,N-dimethylaniline

Yeast alcohol dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.1) catalyzes the novel reduction of p-nitro-so-N,N-dimethylaniline with NADH as a cofactor. Apparent kinetic constants for this enzymatic reaction are: V ₂=2.1 s^–1, K _Q=456 M, K _iQ=119 M, and K _P=1.47 mM, at pH 8.9, 25 °C. This reaction is especially useful for the quantitative determination of NAD⁺ and NADH by enzymatic cycling.     

Linkage of one gene for familial glucocorticoid deficiency type 2 (FGD2) to chromosome 8q and further evidence of heterogeneity

In several cases of familial glucocorticoid deficiency (FGD), referred to as FGD type 1, mutations have been described in the coding exon of the adrenocorticotropin receptor (melanonocortin receptor type 2, MC2R) gene. However, for the majority of cases (FGD type 2), no mutations were found in this gene. In the more informative families, the involvement of the MC2R locus could be excluded by linkage or sequencing analysis and, as there was no obvious candidate gene, a genome linkage scan was performed. Fourteen families were studied in this report. Evidence of linkage was found with markers on chromosome 8q in three out of the 14 families (maximum heterogeneity LOD score of 2.81 at D8S1763). These three families were consanguineous and the gene could be located by homozygosity mapping between markers D8S285 and D8S1718 in a 8.8-cM region. No potential candidate genes were apparent in the region. Linkage to this region could be excluded in some families from our sample giving highly negative LOD scores with the markers of the region. This result suggests that at least one other gene, located on a different region, must be responsible for FGD in these families and provides new evidence of genetic heterogeneity of this disorder.     

Screening of in Vitro Inhibition of Lactoperoxidase Enzyme by Methyl Benzoate Derivatives with Molecular Docking Studies

Lactoperoxidase enzyme (LPO) is secreted from salivary, mammary, and other mucosal glands including the bronchi, lungs, and nose, which had functions as a natural and the first line of defense towards viruses and bacteria. In this study, methyl benzoates were examined in LPO enzyme activity. Methyl benzoates are used as precursors in the synthesis of aminobenzohydrazides used as LPO inhibitors. For this purpose, LPO was purified in a single step using sepharose-4B-l-tyrosine-sulfanilamide affinity gel chromatography with a yield of 9.91 % from cow milk. Also, some inhibition parameters including the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) value and an inhibition constant (K_i) values of methyl benzoates were determined. These compounds inhibited LPO with K_i values ranging from 0.033±0.004 to 1540.011±460.020 μM. Compound 1 a (methyl 2-amino-3-bromobenzoate) showed the best inhibition (K_i=0.033±0.004 μM). The most potent inhibitor ( 1 a ) showed with a docking score of −3.36 kcal/mol and an MM-GBSA value of −25.05 kcal/mol, of these methyl benzoate derivatives ( 1 a – 16 a ) series are established H-bond within the binding cavity with residues Asp108 (distance of 1.79 Å), Ala114 (distance of 2.64 Å), and His351 (distance of 2.12 Å).     

Carbohydrate-based cancer vaccines: target cancer with sugar bullets

With the booming development of glycobiology and glycochemistry, more and more structures of tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens (TACAs) are identified. Their broad expression and high specificity in cancer make them important targets to develop cancer vaccines or immunotherapies. However, most of the TACAs are T cell-independent antigens, they cannot elicit a powerful enough immune response to prevent or treat cancer. Immunotolerance and immunosuppression are more easily induced due to their endogenous properties and the declining immunity of the patients. This review summarizes the recent efforts to overcome these obstacles: coupling the carbohydrate antigens to proper carriers such as proteins or some small molecule carriers, and chemically modifying the structures of the TACAs to enhance the immunogenicity of TACAs and break the immunotolerance.