Evaluation of soluble junctional adhesion molecule-A as a biomarker of human brain endothelial barrier breakdown

Background: An inducible release of soluble junctional adhesion molecule-A (sJAM-A) under pro-inflammatory conditions was described in cultured non-CNS endothelial cells (EC) and increased sJAM-A serum levels were found to indicate inflammation in non-CNS vascular beds. Here we studied the regulation of JAM-A expression in cultured brain EC and evaluated sJAM-A as a serum biomarker of blood-brain barrier (BBB) function. Methodology/Principal Findings: As previously reported in non-CNS EC types, pro-inflammatory stimulation of primary or immortalized (hCMEC/D3) human brain microvascular EC (HBMEC) induced a redistribution of cell-bound JAM-A on the cell surface away from tight junctions, along with a dissociation from the cytoskeleton. This was paralleled by reduced immunocytochemical staining of occludin and zonula occludens-1 as well as by increased paracellular permeability for dextran 3000. Both a self-developed ELISA test and Western blot analysis detected a constitutive sJAM-A release by HBMEC into culture supernatants, which importantly was unaffected by pro-inflammatory or hypoxia/reoxygenation challenge. Accordingly, serum levels of sJAM-A were unaltered in 14 patients with clinically active multiple sclerosis compared to 45 stable patients and remained unchanged in 13 patients with acute ischemic non-small vessel stroke over time. Conclusion: Soluble JAM-A was not suited as a biomarker of BBB breakdown in our hands. The unexpected non-inducibility of sJAM-A release at the human BBB might contribute to a particular resistance of brain EC to inflammatory stimuli, protecting the CNS compartment

Sorting live stem cells based on Sox2 mRNA expression.

PMCID: PMC3507951This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.While cell sorting usually relies on cell-surface protein markers, molecular beacons (MBs) offer the potential to sort cells based on the presence of any expressed mRNA and in principle could be extremely useful to sort rare cell populations from primary isolates. We show here how stem cells can be purified from mixed cell populations by sorting based on MBs. Specifically, we designed molecular beacons targeting Sox2, a well-known stem cell marker for murine embryonic (mES) and neural stem cells (NSC). One of our designed molecular beacons displayed an increase in fluorescence compared to a nonspecific molecular beacon both in vitro and in vivo when tested in mES and NSCs. We sorted Sox2-MB(+)SSEA1(+) cells from a mixed population of 4-day retinoic acid-treated mES cells and effectively isolated live undifferentiated stem cells. Additionally, Sox2-MB(+) cells isolated from primary mouse brains were sorted and generated neurospheres with higher efficiency than Sox2-MB(-) cells. These results demonstrate the utility of MBs for stem cell sorting in an mRNA-specific manner

Učinak kvalitete usluga u jedinicama privatnog smještaja na vjernost turista : SPECIJALISTIČKI RAD

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Učinak kvalitete usluga u jedinicama privatnog smještaja na vjernost turista : SPECIJALISTIČKI RAD

Rad ne sadrži sažetak

Elimination of Metastatic Melanoma Using Gold Nanoshell-Enabled Photothermal Therapy and Adoptive T Cell Transfer

Ablative treatments such as photothermal therapy (PTT) are attractive anticancer strategies because they debulk accessible tumor sites while simultaneously priming antitumor immune responses. However, the immune response following thermal ablation is often insufficient to treat metastatic disease. Here we demonstrate that PTT induces the expression of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines and promotes the maturation of dendritic cells within tumor-draining lymph nodes, thereby priming antitumor T cell responses. Unexpectedly, however, these immunomodulatory effects were not beneficial to overall antitumor immunity. We found that PTT promoted the infiltration of secondary tumor sites by CD11b+Ly-6G/C+ myeloid-derived suppressor cells, consequently failing to slow the growth of poorly immunogenic B16-F10 tumors and enhancing the growth of distant lung metastases. To exploit the beneficial effects of PTT activity against local tumors and on antitumor immunity whilst avoiding the adverse consequences, we adoptively transferred gp100-specific pmel T cells following PTT. The combination of local control by PTT and systemic antitumor immune reactivity provided by adoptively transferred T cells prevented primary tumor recurrence post-ablation, inhibited tumor growth at distant sites, and abrogated the outgrowth of lung metastases. Hence, the combination of PTT and systemic immunotherapy prevented the adverse effects of PTT on metastatic tumor growth and optimized overall tumor control

The Expression Level of CB1 and CB2 Receptors Determines Their Efficacy at Inducing Apoptosis in Astrocytomas

Cannabinoids represent unique compounds for treating tumors, including astrocytomas. Whether CB(1) and CB(2) receptors mediate this therapeutic effect is unclear.We generated astrocytoma subclones that express set levels of CB(1) and CB(2), and found that cannabinoids induce apoptosis only in cells expressing low levels of receptors that couple to ERK1/2. In contrast, cannabinoids do not induce apoptosis in cells expressing high levels of receptors because these now also couple to the prosurvival signal AKT. Remarkably, cannabinoids applied at high concentration induce apoptosis in all subclones independently of CB(1), CB(2) and AKT, but still through a mechanism involving ERK1/2.The high expression level of CB(1) and CB(2) receptors commonly found in malignant astrocytomas precludes the use of cannabinoids as therapeutics, unless AKT is concomitantly inhibited, or cannabinoids are applied at concentrations that bypass CB(1) and CB(2) receptors, yet still activate ERK1/2

Loss of Sphingosine Kinase 1/S1P Signaling Impairs Cell Growth and Survival of Neurons and Progenitor Cells in the Developing Sensory Ganglia

Background: Lysophospholipids such as lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) and sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) are important signaling molecules that can regulate a wide range of cellular responses. We discovered that Sphingosine kinase 1 (Sphk1), a key enzyme that converts sphingosine to S1P, is expressed in neurons and progenitor cells in nascent trigeminal and dorsal root ganglia during mouse embryogenesis. Methods and Findings: Sphk1 null mouse embryos do not display overt deficits owing to compensation by Sphk2. Thus, we analyzed embryos that are deficient in both Sphk1 and Sphk2 (which essentially eliminates S1P function) in order to investigate the role(s) of Sphk1 during sensory ganglia formation. While animals lacking 1–3 alleles of Sphk1 and Sphk2 had no obvious phenotype, embryos without both genes displayed clear developmental defects. The complete absence of Sphk1 and Sphk2 resulted in trigeminal and dorsal root ganglia with fewer neurons and progenitor cells. The profound loss in cell number could be attributed to a decrease in cell proliferation as well as an increase in apoptosis. Furthermore, Sphk1/ 2 double mutants displayed an overall reduction in other sphingolipids as well as an imbalance of S1P/sphingosine and S1P/ ceramide ratio, thereby favoring cell death and reducing cell growth. Conclusions: Together, these results provide strong in vivo evidence that sphingosine kinase/S1P signaling plays a

Atomic resolution dynamics of cohesive interactions in phase-separated Nup98 FG domains

Cohesive FG domains assemble into a condensed phase forming the selective permeability barrier of nuclear pore complexes. Nanoscopic insight into fundamental cohesive interactions has long been hampered by the sequence heterogeneity of native FG domains. We overcome this challenge by utilizing an engineered perfectly repetitive sequence and a combination of solution and magic angle spinning NMR spectroscopy. We map the dynamics of cohesive interactions in both phase-separated and soluble states at atomic resolution using TROSY for rotational correlation time (TRACT) measurements. We find that FG repeats exhibit nanosecond-range rotational correlation times and remain disordered in both states, although FRAP measurements show slow translation of phase-separated FG domains. NOESY measurements enable the direct detection of contacts involved in cohesive interactions. Finally, increasing salt concentration and temperature enhance phase separation and decrease local mobility of FG repeats. This lower critical solution temperature (LCST) behaviour indicates that cohesive interactions are driven by entropy

An Optimized Pentaplex PCR for Detecting DNA Mismatch Repair-Deficient Colorectal Cancers

Microsatellite instability (MSI) is used to screen colorectal cancers (CRC) for Lynch Syndrome, and to predict outcome and response to treatment. The current technique for measuring MSI requires DNA from normal and neoplastic tissues, and fails to identify tumors with specific DNA mismatch repair (MMR) defects. We tested a panel of five quasi-monomorphic mononucleotide repeat markers amplified in a single multiplex PCR reaction (pentaplex PCR) to detect MSI.We investigated a cohort of 213 CRC patients, comprised of 114 MMR-deficient and 99 MMR-proficient tumors. Immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis evaluated the expression of MLH1, MSH2, PMS2 and MSH6. MSI status was defined by differences in the quasi-monomorphic variation range (QMVR) from a pool of normal DNA samples, and measuring differences in allele lengths in tumor DNA.Amplification of 426 normal alleles allowed optimization of the QMVR at each marker, and eliminated the requirement for matched reference DNA to define MSI in each sample. Using ≥2/5 unstable markers as the criteria for MSI resulted in a sensitivity of 95.6% (95% CI = 90.1–98.1%) and a positive predictive value of 100% (95% CI = 96.6%–100%). Detection of MSH6-deficiency was limited using all techniques. Data analysis with a three-marker panel (BAT26, NR21 and NR27) was comparable in sensitivity (97.4%) and positive predictive value (96.5%) to the five marker panel. Both approaches were superior to the standard approach to measuring MSI.An optimized pentaplex (or triplex) PCR offers a facile, robust, very inexpensive, highly sensitive, and specific assay for the identification of MSI in CRC