<em>Enterococcus faecalis</em> Infection Causes Inflammation, Intracellular Oxphos-Independent ROS Production, and DNA Damage in Human Gastric Cancer Cells

Background: Achlorhydria caused by e.g. atrophic gastritis allows for bacterial overgrowth, which induces chronic inflammation and damage to the mucosal cells of infected individuals driving gastric malignancies and cancer. Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis) can colonize achlohydric stomachs and we therefore wanted to study the impact of E. faecalis infection on inflammatory response, reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation, mitochondrial respiration, and mitochondrial genetic stability in gastric mucosal cells. Methods: To separate the changes induced by bacteria from those of the inflammatory cells we established an in vitro E. faecalis infection model system using the gastric carcinoma cell line MKN74. Total ROS and superoxide was measured by fluorescence microscopy. Cellular oxygen consumption was characterized non-invasively using XF24 microplate based respirometry. Gene expression was examined by microarray, and response pathways were identified by Gene Set Analysis (GSA). Selected gene transcripts were verified by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Mitochondrial mutations were determined by sequencing. Results: Infection of MKN74 cells with E. faecalis induced intracellular ROS production through a pathway independent of oxidative phosphorylation (oxphos). Furthermore, E. faecalis infection induced mitochondrial DNA instability. Following infection, genes coding for inflammatory response proteins were transcriptionally up-regulated while DNA damage repair and cell cycle control genes were down-regulated. Cell growth slowed down when infected with viable E. faecalis and responded in a dose dependent manner to E. faecalis lysate. Conclusions: Infection by E. faecalis induced an oxphos-independent intracellular ROS response and damaged the mitochondrial genome in gastric cell culture. Finally the bacteria induced an NF-kappa B inflammatory response as well as impaired DNA damage response and cell cycle control gene expression

Feeding mice with diets containing mercury-contaminated fish flesh from French Guiana: a model for the mercurial intoxication of the Wayana Amerindians

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Bioenergetics of lung tumors: Alteration of mitochondrial biogenesis and respiratory capacity

International audienceLittle is known on the metabolic profile of lung tumors and the reminiscence of embryonic features. Herein, we determined the bioenergetic profiles of human fibroblasts taken from lung epidermoid carcinoma (HLF-a) and fetal lung (MRC5). We also analysed human lung tumors and their surrounding healthy tissue from four patients with adenocarcinoma. On these different models, we measured functional parameters (cell growth rates in oxidative and glycolytic media, respiration, ATP synthesis and PDH activity) as well as compositional features (expression level of various energy proteins and upstream transcription factors). The results demonstrate that both the lung fetal and cancer cell lines produced their ATP predominantly by glycolysis, while oxidative phosphorylation was only capable of poor ATP delivery. This was explained by a decreased mitochondrial biogenesis caused by a lowered expression of PGC1␣ (as shown by RT-PCR and Western blot) and mtTFA. Consequently, the relative expression of glycolytic versus OXPHOS markers was high in these cells. Moreover, the re-activation of mitochondrial biogenesis with resveratrol induced cell death specifically in cancer cells. A consistent reduction of mitochondrial biogenesis and the subsequent alteration of respiratory capacity was also observed in lung tumors, associated with a lower expression level of bcl2. Our data give a better characterization of lung cancer cells' metabolic alterations which are essential for growth and survival. They designate mitochondrial biogenesis as a possible target for anti-cancer therapy

Physiological diversity of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation

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CONGENITAL MYOPATHIES (CNM)

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Identification of novel pathogenic copy number variations in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease

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New myotubular myopathy classification

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Longitudinal data of patients with myotubular myopathy enrolled in a European prospective and longitudinal natural history study

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XPC silencing in normal human keratinocytes triggers metabolic alterations that drive the formation of squamous cell carcinomas

DNA damage is a well-known initiator of tumorigenesis. Studies have shown that most cancer cells rely on aerobic glycolysis for their bioenergetics. We sought to identify a molecular link between genomic mutations and metabolic alterations in neoplastic transformation. We took advantage of the intrinsic genomic instability arising in xeroderma pigmentosum C (XPC). The XPC protein plays a key role in recognizing DNA damage in nucleotide excision repair, and patients with XPC deficiency have increased incidence of skin cancer and other malignancies. In cultured human keratinocytes, we showed that lentivirus-mediated knockdown of XPC reduced mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation and increased glycolysis, recapitulating cancer cell metabolism. Accumulation of unrepaired DNA following XPC silencing increased DNA-dependent protein kinase activity, which subsequently activated AKT1 and NADPH oxidase-1 (NOX1), resulting in ROS production and accumulation of specific deletions in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) over time. Subcutaneous injection of XPC-deficient keratinocytes into immunodeficient mice led to squamous cell carcinoma formation, demonstrating the tumorigenic potential of transduced cells. Conversely, simultaneous knockdown of either NOX1 or AKT1 blocked the neoplastic transformation induced by XPC silencing. Our results demonstrate that genomic instability resulting from XPC silencing results in activation of AKT1 and subsequently NOX1 to induce ROS generation, mtDNA deletions, and neoplastic transformation in human keratinocytes