Anopheline Anti-Platelet Protein from Mosquito Saliva Regulates Blood Feeding Behavior

13301甲第4988号博士（学術）金沢大学博士論文要旨Abstract 以下に掲載：Scientific Reports 9(1) pp.3129 2019. Nature. 共著者：Ashekul Islam, Talha Bin Emran, Daisuke S. Yamamoto, Mitsuhiro Iyori, Fitri Amelia, Yenni Yusuf, Ririka Yamaguchi, Md. Shah Alam, Henrique Silveira, Shigeto Yoshid

Anopheline Anti-Platelet Protein from Mosquito Saliva Regulates Blood Feeding Behavior

13301甲第4988号博士（学術）金沢大学博士論文本文Full 以下に掲載：Scientific Reports 9(1) pp.3129 2019. Nature. 共著者：Ashekul Islam, Talha Bin Emran, Daisuke S. Yamamoto, Mitsuhiro Iyori, Fitri Amelia, Yenni Yusuf, Ririka Yamaguchi, Md. Shah Alam, Henrique Silveira, Shigeto Yoshid

Assessing the Potentiality of Aerobic Rolling Composter to Hasten Vegetable and Fruit Waste

Organic waste is mainly categorized in recent days as household waste and city garbage. To meet eco-friendly waste management, incorrect composter or conventional composting methods do not fulfilling the demands even though sometimes the composting procedure is so lengthy. To speed up the composting process, our research team has developed an aerobic composter using microorganisms, e.g., Trichoderma, Effective Microorganism 4 (EM4), and a combination of Trichoderma. Three different aerobic rolling composters (ARC) were designed to speed up the composting process during the testing stage by employing EM4. It showed a greater reduction in waste height utilizing EM4 on the 15th day (3.8%-17.9%) than the conventional one (2%). In addition, inoculation of EM4 and Trichoderma in combination with EM4 caused a 45% reduction in weight. Thus, the composter (type 3) efficiently decomposes the waste with a shorter composting period. 

Adeno-Associated Virus as an Effective Malaria Booster Vaccine Following Adenovirus Priming

An ideal malaria vaccine platform should potently induce protective immune responses and block parasite transmission from mosquito to human, and it should maintain these effects for an extended period. Here, we have focused on vaccine development based on adeno-associated virus serotype 1 (AAV1), a viral vector widely studied in the field of clinical gene therapy that is able to induce long-term transgene expression without causing toxicity in vivo. Our results show the potential utility of AAV1 vectors as an extremely potent booster vaccine to induce durable immunity when combined with an adenovirus-priming vaccine in a rodent malaria model. We generated a series of recombinant AAV1s and human adenovirus type 5 (AdHu5) expressing either Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein (PfCSP) or P25 (Pfs25) protein. Heterologous two-dose immunization with an AdHu5-prime and AAV1-boost (AdHu5-AAV1) elicited robust and durable PfCSP- or Pfs25-specific functional antibodies over 280 days. Regarding protective efficacy, AdHu5-AAV1 PfCSP achieved high sterile protection (up to 80% protection rate) against challenge with transgenic Plasmodium berghei sporozoites expressing PfCSP. When examining transmission-blocking (TB) efficacy, we found that immunization with AdHu5-AAV1 Pfs25 maintained TB activity in vivo against transgenic P. berghei expressing Pfs25 for 287 days (99% reduction in oocyst intensity, 85% reduction in oocyst prevalence). Our data indicate that AAV1-based malaria vaccines can confer potent and durable protection as well as TB efficacy when administered following an AdHu5 priming vaccine, supporting the further evaluation of this regimen in clinical trials as a next-generation malaria vaccine platform

Anopheline antiplatelet protein from mosquito saliva regulates blood feeding behavior

Abstract The saliva of hematophagous arthropods is enriched with a complex mixture of antihemostatic molecules, the biological functions of which are largely unknown. Anopheline antiplatelet protein (AAPP) from malaria vector mosquito exhibits strong antiplatelet activity when bound directly to host collagen by its C-terminus and through its N-terminus with Ca2+-binding activity. To investigate the biological functions of AAPP in blood feeding behavior and malaria transmission, we generated transgenic Anopheles stephensi mosquito lines expressing anti-AAPP antibody single-chain fragment (scFv) in their salivary glands. The AAPP-specific collagen-binding activity was completely abolished by AAPP-scFv complex formation in the saliva. Probing and prediuresis time, feeding success, blood meal size, and fecundity, which are all fitness characteristics, were significantly reduced in the transgenic mosquitoes. However, oocysts number in these mosquitoes were not significantly reduced following blood meal intake from Plasmodium berghei-infected mice. These results show that although AAPP plays an important role in mosquito blood feeding, its neutralizing activity did not affect sporogonic development in our laboratory model, but its high fitness cost would pose a survival risk for parasite-infected mosquitoes in nature

Hypothesis Molecular docking analysis of known flavonoids as duel COX-2 inhibitors in the context of cancer

Abstract: Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) catalyzed synthesis of prostaglandin E2 and it associates with tumor growth, infiltration, and metastasis in preclinical experiments. Known inhibitors against COX-2 exhibit toxicity. Therefore, it is of interest to screen natural compounds like flavanoids against COX-2. Molecular docking using 12 known flavanoids against COX-2 by FlexX and of ArgusLab were performed. All compounds showed a favourable binding energy of >-10 KJ/mol in FlexX and > -8 kcal/mol in ArgusLab. However, this data requires in vitro and in vivo verification for further consideration