Phosphodiesterase Inhibition Increases CREB Phosphorylation and Restores Orientation Selectivity in a Model of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

Background: Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) are the leading cause of mental retardation in the western world and children with FASD present altered somatosensory, auditory and visual processing. There is growing evidence that some of these sensory processing problems may be related to altered cortical maps caused by impaired developmental neuronal plasticity. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here we show that the primary visual cortex of ferrets exposed to alcohol during the third trimester equivalent of human gestation have decreased CREB phosphorylation and poor orientation selectivity revealed by western blotting, optical imaging of intrinsic signals and single-unit extracellular recording techniques. Treating animals several days after the period of alcohol exposure with a phosphodiesterase type 1 inhibitor (Vinpocetine) increased CREB phosphorylation and restored orientation selectivity columns and neuronal orientation tuning. Conclusions/Significance: These findings suggest that CREB function is important for the maturation of orientation selectivity and that plasticity enhancement by vinpocetine may play a role in the treatment of sensory problems in FASD

Exact and approximate interior corner problem in neutron diffusion by integral transform methods

The mathematical solution of the neutron diffusion equation exhibits singularities in its derivatives at material corners. A mathematical treatment of the nature of these singularities and its impact on coarse network approximation methods in computational work is presented. The mathematical behavior is deduced from Green's functions, based on a generalized theory for two space dimensions, and the resulting systems of integral equations, as well as from the Kontorovich--Lebedev Transform. The effect on numerical calculations is demonstrated for finite difference and finite element methods for a two-region corner problem

Biochemical, Stabilization and Crystallization Studies on a Molecular Chaperone (PaoD) Involved in the Maturation of Molybdoenzymes

Molybdenum and tungsten enzymes require specific chaperones for folding and cofactor insertion. PaoD is the chaperone of the periplasmic aldehyde oxidoreductase PaoABC. It is the last gene in the paoABCD operon in Escherichia coli and its presence is crucial for obtaining mature enzyme. PaoD is an unstable, 35 kDa, protein. Our biochemical studies showed that it is a dimer in solution with a tendency to form large aggregates, especially after freezing/thawing cycles. In order to improve stability, PaoD was thawed in the presence of two ionic liquids [C(4)mim]Cl and [C(2)OHmim]PF(6) and no protein precipitation was observed. This allowed protein concentration and crystallization using polyethylene glycol or ammonium sulfate as precipitating agents. Saturation transfer difference – nuclear magnetic resonance (STD-NMR) experiments have also been performed in order to investigate the effect of the ionic liquids in the stabilization process, showing a clear interaction between the acidic ring protons of the cation and, most likely, negatively charged residues at the protein surface. DLS assays also show a reduction of the overall size of the protein aggregates in presence of ionic liquids. Furthermore, cofactor binding studies on PaoD showed that the protein is able to discriminate between molybdenum and tungsten bound to the molybdenum cofactor, since only a Mo-MPT form of the cofactor remained bound to PaoD

Identification of a haloalkaliphilic and thermostable cellulase with improved ionic liquid tolerance

Some ionic liquids (ILs) have been shown to be very effective solvents for biomass pretreatment. It is known that some ILs can have a strong inhibitory effect on fungal cellulases, making the digestion of cellulose inefficient in the presence of ILs. The identification of IL-tolerant enzymes that could be produced as a cellulase cocktail would reduce the costs and water use requirements of the IL pretreatment process. Due to their adaptation to high salinity environments, halophilic enzymes are hypothesized to be good candidates for screening and identifying IL-resistant cellulases. Using a genome-based approach, we have identified and characterized a halophilic cellulase (Hu-CBH1) from the halophilic archaeon, Halorhabdus utahensis. Hu-CBH1 is present in a gene cluster containing multiple putative cellulolytic enzymes. Sequence and theoretical structure analysis indicate that Hu-CBH1 is highly enriched with negatively charged acidic amino acids on the surface, which may form a solvation shell that may stabilize the enzyme, through interaction with salt ions and/or water molecules. Hu-CBH1 is a heat tolerant haloalkaliphilic cellulase and is active in salt concentrations up to 5 M NaCl. In high salt buffer, Hu-CBH1 can tolerate alkali (pH 11.5) conditions and, more importantly, is tolerant to high levels (20% w/w) of ILs, including 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([Amim]Cl). Interestingly, the tolerances to heat, alkali and ILs are found to be salt-dependent, suggesting that the enzyme is stabilized by the presence of salt. Our results indicate that halophilic enzymes are good candidates for the screening of IL-tolerant cellulolytic enzymes