A High-Throughput Solid-Phase Microplate Protein-Binding Assay to Investigate Interactions between Myofilament Proteins

To understand the structure-function relationship of muscle-regulatory-protein isoforms, mutations, and posttranslational modifications, it is necessary to probe functional effects at the level of the protein-protein interaction. Traditional methodologies assessing such protein-protein interactions are laborious and require significant amounts of purified protein, while many current methodologies require costly and specialized equipment or modification of the proteins, which may affect their interaction. To address these issues, we developed a novel method of microplate-based solid-phase protein-binding assay over the recent years. This method assesses specific protein-protein interactions at physiological conditions, utilizes relatively small amounts of protein, is free of protein modification, and does not require specialized instrumentation. Here we present detailed methodology for the solid-phase protein-binding assay with examples that we have successfully applied to quantify interactions of myofilament-regulatory proteins. We further provide considerations for optimization of the assay conditions and its broader application in studies of other protein-protein interactions

Reuters Comes to Times Square

Times Square in New York City was chosen for the new Reuters Headquarters Building for its significance as the crossroads of the world. The headquarters consists of a 30-story office tower with a foundation footprint of 30,000 square feet including two subsurface levels nearly 40 feet deep for retail shops, parking and access to the Times Square subway station. This paper describes the geotechnical challenges that were faced to minimize the effects of both the construction excavation, mainly in mica schist rock, and a new permanent structure on two adjacent landmark theatres, the subway structures, and the streets and utilities of Times Square. Additionally, there could be no interruption of theatre performances or subway service. Engineering solutions included: 1. Supporting the subway structures during construction with a combination of a sand bag, wale and raker system. 2. Maximizing the underground tower space by creating a sidewalk vault. 3. Supporting and protecting two landmark theatres by sequencing the support with several tiers of rock anchors. 4. Supporting both theatre foundation walls and the “re-entry” corner of the New Victory Theatre by chipping the bedrock and carefully supporting what remained on the perimeter. Monitoring equipment was installed in the theatres for immediate notification of any movement and/or high vibrations

Heart Failure in Humans Reduces Contractile Force in Myocardium from Both Ventricles

This study measured how heart failure affects the contractile properties of the human myocardium from the left and right ventricles. The data showed that maximum force and maximum power were reduced by approximately 30% in multicellular preparations from both ventricles, possibly because of ventricular remodeling (e.g., cellular disarray and/or excess fibrosis). Heart failure increased the calcium (Ca2+) sensitivity of contraction in both ventricles, but the effect was bigger in right ventricular samples. The changes in Ca2+ sensitivity were associated with ventricle-specific changes in the phosphorylation of troponin I, which indicated that adrenergic stimulation might induce different effects in the left and right ventricles

Enhanced Reporting of Mars Exploration Rover Telemetry

Mars Exploration Rover Enhanced Telemetry Extraction and Reporting System (METERS) is software that generates a human-readable representation of the state of the mobility and arm-related systems of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) vehicles on each Martian solar day (sol). Data are received from the MER spacecraft in multiple streams having various formats including text messages, sparsely-sampled engineering quantities, images, and individual motor-command histories

Staurosporine Inhibits Frequency-Dependent Myofilament Desensitization in Intact Rabbit Cardiac Trabeculae

Myofilament calcium sensitivity decreases with frequency in intact healthy rabbit trabeculae and associates with Troponin I and Myosin light chain-2 phosphorylation. We here tested whether serine-threonine kinase activity is primarily responsible for this frequency-dependent modulations of myofilament calcium sensitivity. Right ventricular trabeculae were isolated from New Zealand White rabbit hearts and iontophoretically loaded with bis-fura-2. Twitch force-calcium relationships and steady state force-calcium relationships were measured at frequencies of 1 and 4 Hz at 37 °C. Staurosporine (100 nM), a nonspecific serine-threonine kinase inhibitor, or vehicle (DMSO) was included in the superfusion solution before and during the contractures. Staurosporine had no frequency-dependent effect on force development, kinetics, calcium transient amplitude, or rate of calcium transient decline. The shift in the pCa50 of the force-calcium relationship was significant from 6.05 ± 0.04 at 1 Hz versus 5.88 ± 0.06 at 4 Hz under control conditions (vehicle, P < 0.001) but not in presence of staurosporine (5.89 ± 0.08 at 1 Hz versus 5.94 ± 0.07 at 4 Hz, P = NS). Phosphoprotein analysis (Pro-Q Diamond stain) confirmed that staurosporine significantly blunted the frequency-dependent phosphorylation at Troponin I and Myosin light chain-2. We conclude that frequency-dependent modulation of calcium sensitivity is mediated through a kinase-specific effect involving phosphorylation of myofilament proteins

Advanced glycation end product cross-link breaker attenuates diabetes-induced cardiac dysfunction by improving sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium handling

Diabetic heart disease is a distinct clinical entity that can progress to heart failure and sudden death. However, the mechanisms responsible for the alterations in excitation-contraction coupling leading to cardiac dysfunction during diabetes are not well known. Hyperglycemia, the landmark of diabetes, leads to the formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) on long-lived proteins, including sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ regulatory proteins. However, their pathogenic role on SR Ca2+ handling in cardiac myocytes is unknown. Therefore, we investigated whether an AGE cross-link breaker could prevent the alterations in SR Ca2+ cycling that lead to in vivo cardiac dysfunction during diabetes. Streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats were treated with alagebrium chloride (ALT-711) for 8 weeks and compared to age-matched placebo-treated diabetic rats and healthy rats. Cardiac function was assessed by echocardiographic examination. Ventricular myocytes were isolated to assess SR Ca2+ cycling by confocal imaging and quantitative Western blots. Diabetes resulted in in vivo cardiac dysfunction and ALT-711 therapy partially alleviated diastolic dysfunction by decreasing isovolumetric relaxation time and myocardial performance index (MPI) (by 27 and 41% vs. untreated diabetic rats, respectively, P < 0.05). In cardiac myocytes, diabetes-induced prolongation of cytosolic Ca2+ transient clearance by 43% and decreased SR Ca2+ load by 25% (P < 0.05); these parameters were partially improved after ALT-711 therapy. SERCA2a and RyR2 protein expression was significantly decreased in the myocardium of untreated diabetic rats (by 64 and 36% vs. controls, respectively, P < 0.05), but preserved in the treated diabetic group compared to controls. Collectively, our results suggest that, in a model of type 1 diabetes, AGE accumulation primarily impairs SR Ca2+ reuptake in cardiac myocytes and that long-term treatment with an AGE cross-link breaker partially normalized SR Ca2+ handling and improved diabetic cardiomyopathy.Peer reviewedPhysiological Science

Myofilament Calcium Sensitivity: Consequences of the Effective Concentration of Troponin I

Control of calcium binding to and dissociation from cardiac troponin C (TnC) is essential to healthy cardiac muscle contraction/relaxation. There are numerous aberrant post-translational modifications and mutations within a plethora of contractile, and even non-contractile, proteins that appear to imbalance this delicate relationship. The direction and extent of the resulting change in calcium sensitivity is thought to drive the heart toward one type of disease or another. There are a number of molecular mechanisms that may be responsible for the altered calcium binding properties of TnC, potentially the most significant being the ability of the regulatory domain of TnC to bind the switch peptide region of TnI. Considering TnI is essentially tethered to TnC and cannot diffuse away in the absence of calcium, we suggest that the apparent calcium binding properties of TnC are highly dependent upon an “effective concentration” of TnI available to bind TnC. Based on our previous work, TnI peptide binding studies and the calcium binding properties of chimeric TnC-TnI fusion constructs, and building upon the concept of effective concentration, we have developed a mathematical model that can simulate the steady-state and kinetic calcium binding properties of a wide assortment of disease-related and post-translational protein modifications in the isolated troponin complex and reconstituted thin filament. We predict that several TnI and TnT modifications do not alter any of the intrinsic calcium or TnI binding constants of TnC, but rather alter the ability of TnC to “find” TnI in the presence of calcium. These studies demonstrate the apparent consequences of the effective TnI concentration in modulating the calcium binding properties of TnC

Accurate multiple time step in biased molecular simulations

Many recently introduced enhanced sampling techniques are based on biasing coarse descriptors (collective variables) of a molecular system on the fly. Sometimes the calculation of such collective variables is expensive and becomes a bottleneck in molecular dynamics simulations. An algorithm to treat smooth biasing forces within a multiple time step framework is here discussed. The implementation is simple and allows a speed up when expensive collective variables are employed. The gain can be substantial when using massively parallel or GPU-based molecular dynamics software. Moreover, a theoretical framework to assess the sampling accuracy is introduced, which can be used to assess the choice of the integration time step in both single and multiple time step biased simulations