Identification and analysis of dominant negative mutants of RAIDD and PIDD

Caspases are cysteine proteases that are essential during the initiation and execution of apoptosis and inflammation. The formation of large oligomeric protein complexes is critical to the activation of caspases in apoptotic and inflammatory signaling pathways. These oligomeric protein complexes function as a platform to recruit caspases, which leads to caspase activation via a proximity-induced mechanism. One well-known oligomeric caspase-activating complex is the PIDDosome for caspase-2 activation, which is composed of 3 protein components, PIDD, RAIDD and Caspase-2. Despite the significant role that caspase-2 activated by PIDDosome plays during genotoxic stress-induced apoptosis, the oligomerization mechanism and the method by which the caspase-activating process is mediated by the formation of PIDDosome is currently not well understood. Here, we show that the assembly mechanism of the core of PIDDosome is time-dependent and salt concentration-dependent. In addition, we demonstrate that point mutations on RAIDD (R147E) and on PIDD (Y814A) exert a dominant negative effect on the formation of the PIDDosome, and that this effect cannot be applied after the PIDDosome has been formed.     

Statin induces inhibition of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells via PI3K pathway

Primary TNBCs are treated as if they were a single disease entity, yet it is clear they do not behave as a single entity in response to current therapies. Recently, we reported that statins might have a potential benefit for TNBCs associated with ets-1 overexpression. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of PTEN loss in the effects of statin on TNBC cells. In addition, we analyze the relationship between AKT downstream pathways and the effects of statin on TNBC cells. We investigated the effect of a statin on TNBC cells and analyzed the association of PI3K pathways using various TNBC cells in terms of PTEN loss and AKT pathways. Simvastatin treatments resulted in decreased cell viabilities in various TNBC cell lines. Compared with PTEN wild-type TNBC cells, PTEN mutant-type TNBC cells showed a decreased response to simvastatin. Expressions of phosphorylated Akt and total Akt showed an inverse relationship with PTEN expression. The TNBC cell lines, which showed increased expression of p-Akt, appeared to attenuate the expression of p-Akt by PTEN loss in simvastatin-treated TNBC cells. The Akt inhibitor, LY294002, augmented the effect of simvastatin on PTEN wild-type TNBC cells. Simvastatin induces inhibition of TNBC cells via PI3K pathway activation.     

Direct modifications of the cyclic peptide Polymyxin B leading to analogues with enhanced in vitro antibacterial activity

Synthetic modifications have been made directly to the cyclic peptide core of polymyxin B, enabling the further understanding of structure activity relationships of this antimicrobial peptide. Such modified polymyxins are also substrates for enzymic hydrolysis, enabling the synthesis of a variety of semi-synthetic analogues, resulting in compounds with increased in vitro antibacterial activity.     

Copper tolerance in bacteria requires the activation of multiple accessory pathways

Copper is a required micronutrient for bacteria and an essential cofactor for redox-active cuproenzymes. Yet, excess copper is extremely toxic, and is exploited as a bacteriocide in medical and biotechnological applications and also by the mammalian immune system. To evade copper toxicity, bacteria not only control intracellular copper homeostasis, but they must also repair the damage caused by excess copper. In this review, we summarize the bacterial cell-wide response to copper toxicity in Enterobacteria. Tapping into the abundant research data on two key organisms, Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica, we show that copper resistance requires both the direct copper homeostatic response and also the indirect accessory pathways that deal with copper-induced damage. Since patterns of copper response are conserved through the Proteobacteria, we propose a cell-wide view of copper detoxification and copper tolerance that can be used to identify novel targets for copper-based antibacterial therapeutics.     

Arsenate as a potential negative selection agent for deficiency variants in cultured plant cells

Sodium arsenate is toxic to cultured soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] cells, killing virtually 100% of the cells during a 24-h exposure at a 1–2 mM concentration. However, when growth is previously halted by nitrogen deprivation 50–100% of the cells survive arsenate treatment. Because of this growthdependent toxicity, arsenate has promise as a negative selection agent for cultured plant cells. Using arsenate (2 mM) I was able to select from among 2×10⁷ cells a cell line with a growth requirement for an amino acid mixture. This trait was maintained through 9 months of passage but then was lost.     

Mechanisms of thrombin-stimulated cell division

Addition of highly purified thrombin t o cultures of several kinds of nondividing fibroblasts brings about cell division. This stimulation occurs in serum-free medium, permitting studies on its mechanism under chemically defined conditions. Previous studies have shown that action of thrombin a t the cell surface is sufficient to cause cell division and that the proteolytic activity of thrombin is required for its mitogenic effect. These results prompted experiments which showed that there is a cell surface receptor for thrombin and that thrombin must hind to its receptor and cleave it to stimulate cell division. Some of the thrombin that hinds to its receptors becomes attached to them by a linkage that appears to be covalent. However, it is presently unknown whether this direct thrombin receptor complex plays a role in the stimulation. These results raise a number of question that should be explored in future studies. They also provide a foundation on which to build hypotheses about tentative molecular mechanisms that might be involved in the stimulation. Knowledge that thrombin must cleave its receptor to bring about cell division suggests two alternative mechanisms for stimulation by proteolysis. In one the receptor is a negative effector which prevents cell division when it is intact, but not after it has been cleaved. Alternatively, a fragment of the receptor could be a positive effector. In this mechanism, proteolysis by thrombin would produce a specific receptor fragment which brings about cell proliferation. If every protease which cleaves the receptor also stimulates cell division, the receptor is probably a negative effector. In contrast, if certain proteases cleave the receptor but do not stimulate the cells, a fragment of the receptor is likely a positive effector. With negative regulation by the receptor, the controlling events would occur before proteolysis of it, and it might be possible to find putative regulatory molecules by identification of nearest neighbors of the receptor. This should be possible by using bifunctional crosslinking reagents. If a fragment of the thrombin receptor turns out to be a positive effector, it should be possible to identify and study fragments by analyzing the metabolic fate of the receptor. Techniques are now available for this kind of analysis and it should also be possible to determine whether receptor fragments remain in the membrane or whether they are translocated to specific sites within the cell. A critical question to be asked is which of these events and interactions involving the thrombin receptor are necessary for stimulation of cell division. It now appears that the best way to answer this question is to examine these events in a large number of cloned cell populations that are responsive or unresponsive to the mitogenic action of thrombin. If a thrombin-mediated event occurs in all responsive clones but is altered or absent in sonie unresponsive clones, it is probably necessary for stimulation of cell division.     

Isolation and identification of valerenane sesquiterpenoids from Valeriana officinalis

Seven new valerenane sesquiterpenoids were isolated from a dichloromethane extract of Valeriana officinalis. The NMR, IR and mass spectral data of the isolated compounds, including the valerenic acids, are given in this paper.     

Differential activation of cAMP- and cGMP-dependent protein kinases by cyclic purine and pyrimidine nucleotides

The cyclic purine nucleotides cAMP and cGMP are well-characterized second messengers and activators of PKA and PKG, respectively. In contrast, the functions of the cyclic pyrimidine nucleotides cCMP and cUMP are poorly understood. cCMP induces relaxation of smooth muscle via PKGI, and phosphodiesterases differentially hydrolyze cNMPs. Here, we report that cNMPs differentially activate PKA isoforms and PKGIα. The combination of cCMP with cAMP reduced the EC₅₀ of cAMP for PKA. PKGIα exhibited higher specificity for the cognate cNMP than PKA. Our data support a role of cCMP and cUMP as second messengers.     

Dispersion,contagion, and population stability of red scale,Aonidiella aurantii,in citrus orchards with low or zero insecticide use

Red scale, Aonidiella aurantii Maskell (Hemiptera: Diaspididae), has a contagious distribution among fruit and among trees largely due to the fact that most young settle on the same fruit as their mothers. The pattern of distribution and degree of dispersion of red scale within various sets of contiguous citrus trees in several orchards were recorded each autumn for 4 years. Changes in density and site occupancy within trees and within contiguous groups of trees were made to assess the strength of any link between populations and their dynamics on different trees. Aonidiella aurantii was found to have a very clumped distribution whereby trees with a level of scale infestation well above average for their block could be adjacent to trees with few or no detectable scale. However, patches of high density on a given tree usually did not recur for more than 2 years but were replaced with above average infestations on other trees. The stability of the red scale populations varied from block to block. Some blocks had few or no infested trees over the study period whereas others had widely fluctuating levels of infestation. Dispersion coefficients at ‘within tree’ and ‘within block’ levels were similar. Theoretical and statistical models of the relation of average scale levels to the percentage of fruit or trees infested were less precise than they are for other pests because of high variation of clumping intensity of scale within any block.     

CIN85 regulates ubiquitination and degradative endosomal sorting of the EGF receptor

CIN85 has been demonstrated to interact with a number of proteins involved in endocytosis and intracellular sorting. However, the exact functional role of CIN85 in endocytosis remains unclear. We have investigated whether CIN85 plays a role in EGF-induced EGF receptor (EGFR) internalization, as previously suggested, or whether CIN85 is rather involved in endosomal sorting of the EGFR. When over-expressing a dominant negative interfering CIN85 mutant consisting of three SH3 domains only, we found that internalization of EGF was inhibited. However, when knocking down CIN85 by RNAi, the EGF–EGFR uptake appeared similar to in control cells. Furthermore, in CIN85 depleted cells, EGF-induced ubiquitination of the EGFR was decreased, and degradation of EGF–EGFR complexes was delayed. Our data further demonstrated that depletion of CIN85 increased the recycling of EGF, suggesting that CIN85 plays a role in endosomal sorting of the ubiquitinated EGFR. Our data also demonstrated that CIN85 was constitutively associated with Hrs, and this strengthens the hypothesis of a functional role of CIN85 in endosomal EGFR sorting.