Affinity and Epitope Profiling of Mouse Anti-CD40 Monoclonal Antibodies

The CD40-CD40L interaction plays a critical role in both humoral and cellular immune responses and interfering antibodies have been suggested as an effective approach for the treatment of lymphomas and autoimmune diseases. In this study we have profiled a panel of mouse antihuman CD40 monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs), regarding their CD40 binding affinity and epitope-specificity relative to the CD40L binding in relation to their cellular activating potential. Despite a rather similar domain-recognition profile, the MoAbs blocked the CD40L binding to a varying degree, with MoAb 5C3 being the poorest inhibitor. There was no correlation between affinity and cellular activation potential. In contrast, a correlation between the ability to block CD40L-binding and activation potential could be seen. We believe that this analysis of several mouse anti-CD40 antibodies can be used to develop strategies for producing new human anti-CD40 antibodies that can more effectively induce or block B-cell proliferation

Определение сроков годности экстракционных лекарственных средств корневищ с корнями синюхи голубой

РАСТЕНИЙ ЭКСТРАКТЫСИНЮХА ГОЛУБА

Interleukin-1 regulates multiple atherogenic mechanisms in response to fat feeding

Background: Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory process that develops in individuals with known risk factors that include hypertension and hyperlipidaemia, influenced by diet. However, the interplay between diet, inflammatory mechanisms and vascular risk factors requires further research. We hypothesised that interleukin-1 (IL-1) signaling in the vessel wall would raise arterial blood pressure and promote atheroma. Methodology/Principal Findings: Apoe(-/-) and Apoe(-/-)/IL-1R1(-/-) mice were fed high fat diets for 8 weeks, and their blood pressure and atherosclerosis development measured. Apoe(-/-)/IL-R1(-/-) mice had a reduced blood pressure and significantly less atheroma than Apoe(-/-) mice. Selective loss of IL-1 signaling in the vessel wall by bone marrow transplantation also reduced plaque burden (p<0.05). This was associated with an IL-1 mediated loss of endothelium-dependent relaxation and an increase in vessel wall Nox 4. Inhibition of IL-1 restored endothelium-dependent vasodilatation and reduced levels of arterial oxidative stress. Conclusions/Significance: The IL-1 cytokine system links atherogenic environmental stimuli with arterial inflammation, oxidative stress, increased blood pressure and atherosclerosis. This is the first demonstration that inhibition of a single cytokine can block the rise in blood pressure in response to an environmental stimulus. IL-1 inhibition may have profound beneficial effects on atherogenesis in man

Assessment and optimisation of normalisation methods for dual-colour antibody microarrays

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Recent advances in antibody microarray technology have made it possible to measure the expression of hundreds of proteins simultaneously in a competitive dual-colour approach similar to dual-colour gene expression microarrays. Thus, the established normalisation methods for gene expression microarrays, e.g. loess regression, can in principle be applied to protein microarrays. However, the typical assumptions of such normalisation methods might be violated due to a bias in the selection of the proteins to be measured. Due to high costs and limited availability of high quality antibodies, the current arrays usually focus on a high proportion of regulated targets. Housekeeping features could be used to circumvent this problem, but they are typically underrepresented on protein arrays. Therefore, it might be beneficial to select invariant features among the features already represented on available arrays for normalisation by a dedicated selection algorithm.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We compare the performance of several normalisation methods that have been established for dual-colour gene expression microarrays. The focus is on an invariant selection algorithm, for which effective improvements are proposed. In a simulation study the performances of the different normalisation methods are compared with respect to their impact on the ability to correctly detect differentially expressed features. Furthermore, we apply the different normalisation methods to a pancreatic cancer data set to assess the impact on the classification power.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The simulation study and the data application demonstrate the superior performance of the improved invariant selection algorithms in comparison to other normalisation methods, especially in situations where the assumptions of the usual global loess normalisation are violated.</p

Gene Network Analysis of Bone Marrow Mononuclear Cells Reveals Activation of Multiple Kinase Pathways in Human Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Background: Gene profiling studies provide important information for key molecules relevant to a disease but are less informative of protein-protein interactions, post-translational modifications and regulation by targeted subcellular localization. Integration of genomic data and construction of functional gene networks may provide additional insights into complex diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Methodology/Principal Findings: We analyzed gene expression microarray data of bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMCs) from 20 SLE patients (11 with active disease) and 10 controls. Gene networks were constructed using the bioinformatic tool Ingenuity Gene Network Analysis. In SLE patients, comparative analysis of BMMCs genes revealed a network with 19 central nodes as major gene regulators including ERK, JNK, and p38 MAP kinases, insulin, Ca2+ and STAT3. Comparison between active versus inactive SLE identified 30 central nodes associated with immune response, protein synthesis, and post-transcriptional modification. A high degree of identity between networks in active SLE and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) patients was found, with overlapping central nodes including kinases (MAPK, ERK, JNK, PKC), transcription factors (NF-kappaB, STAT3), and insulin. In validation studies, western blot analysis in splenic B cells from 5-month-old NZB/NZW F1 lupus mice showed activation of STAT3, ITGB2, HSPB1, ERK, JNK, p38, and p32 kinases, and downregulation of FOXO3 and VDR compared to normal C57Bl/6 mice. Conclusions/Significance: Gene network analysis of lupus BMMCs identified central gene regulators implicated in disease pathogenesis which could represent targets of novel therapies in human SLE. The high similarity between active SLE and NHL networks provides a molecular basis for the reported association of the former with lymphoid malignancies

DNA damage induces reactive oxygen species generation through the H2AX-Nox1/Rac1 pathway

The DNA damage response (DDR) cascade and ROS (reactive oxygen species) signaling are both involved in the induction of cell death after DNA damage, but a mechanistic link between these two pathways has not been clearly elucidated. This study demonstrates that ROS induction after treatment of cells with neocarzinostatin (NCS), an ionizing radiation mimetic, is at least partly mediated by increasing histone H2AX. Increased levels of ROS and cell death induced by H2AX overexpression alone or DNA damage leading to H2AX accumulation are reduced by treating cells with the antioxidant N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine (NAC), the NADP(H) oxidase (Nox) inhibitor DPI, expression of Rac1N17, and knockdown of Nox1, but not Nox4, indicating that induction of ROS by H2AX is mediated through Nox1 and Rac1 GTPase. H2AX increases Nox1 activity partly by reducing the interaction between a Nox1 activator NOXA1 and its inhibitor 14-3-3zeta. These results point to a novel role of histone H2AX that regulates Nox1-mediated ROS generation after DNA damage

The CD40 Receptor - Target,Tool and Technology

CD40 is a cell surface receptor of pivotal importance that is expressed on several of the cells in the immune system. It is critical for many important events, such as T cell dependent B cell activation, isotype switching, somatic mutation and generation of B cell memory. The central role of CD40 in the immune system makes it an ideal target for antibody based immunotherapy. This led us to characterise a panel of monoclonal anti-CD40 antibodies. In PAPER I, we investigated their cellular activation potential and analysed to what extent this correlates with their affinity, epitope specificity and domain recognition profile. The antibody profiles we obtained in this first study may be valuable for understanding of the mechanisms that influence the therapeutic capacity of these antibodies. In fact, one of the antibodies that we investigated is currently in phase I/II trials. However, all of the antibodies that we characterised in PAPER I are of mouse origin, which probably limits their clinical efficiency, due to the human anti-mouse response that most patients develop against such antibodies. Therefore we selected a set of human anti-CD40 antibodies, which are described in PAPER II, from a recombinant antibody gene library. These antibodies display a wide variety of distinct properties, which may make them a valuable source when evaluating therapeutic candidates for in vivo trials. In PAPER III, we have used some of the anti-CD40 antibodies described in PAPER II to create an antibody library that was utilised to investigate antibody evolution in vitro. The results from this study showed that events, which resembles receptor revision, i.e. secondary rearrangements of antibody genes in the periphery, may provide an evolving antibody with competitive advantages during a selection process that is similar to the affinity maturation process in vivo. Our data reinforce the suggestion that receptor revision is an important complement to point mutations and insertions and deletions in the somatic hypermutation process that occur in germinal centres. It has been suggested that members of the TNFR family pre-associate in the membrane via one of the extracellular domains, the pre-ligand assembly domain (PLAD). Therefore, in PAPER IV, we investigated the functional role of the different domains of CD40, in a B cell model system. The results from this study showed that neither of the extracellular domains is essential for signal transduction and, furthermore, implies that conformational changes play no critical role for the CD40 signalling pathway. Based on the findings that all of the extracellular part of CD40 can be replaced with retained signalling capacity, we developed a novel selection method, named Selection of Protein Interactions by Receptor Engagement (SPIRE). In PAPER V, we demonstrated that this selection system can be used for clonal enrichment of cells that display a mock-CD40 receptor, used as prey, on the surface by interaction with a certain bait protein. Thus, SPIRE allows for clonal selection of interacting protein pairs in a mammalian environment. SPIRE may have several different applications such as identification of tumour antigens or for molecular evolution of complex proteins

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I Sveriges storstadsregioner råder idag en brist på bostäder. Vill man hyra en lägenhet ska man helst ha ställt sig i kö många år i förväg. Har man inte kötid, kontakter eller lust att betala ockerhyra för att bo i andra hand bör man ha en årsinkomst eller två i kontanter bara för att få låna ihop till en bostadsrätt. Till följd av detta byggs det nu mer än på länge, men det som byggs är oftast inte riktat till de som har svårt att ta sig in på bostadsmarknaden. Privata fastighetsutvecklare och hyresvärdar tar ut så mycket vinst de bara kan och inte heller de allmännyttiga bostadsbolagen bygger bostäder som de som är mest beroende av allmännyttan har råd med. Med avstamp i denna situation har jag velat undersöka olika strategier för hur bostäder ska kunna formges för att fylla behoven för de som har det svårt att ta sig in på dagens bostadsmarknad. Bostäder vars mål inte är att ha ett högt kvadratmeterpris, utan snarare bostäder som ska gå snabbt att uppföra, vara fria från spekulation, vara billiga i drift och ändå hålla hög kvalitet. Utifrån dessa mål har jag designat två olika, men nära besläktade, bostadshus för två olika tomter i relativt centrala lägen i Malmö, kvarteret Hugo och kvarteret Odin. Genom ett effektivt sätt att använda mark, befintliga byggnaders infrastruktur och genom att dela på yta och funktioner försöker jag experimentera mig fram till ett effektivare, billigare och bättre sätt att bo.In Sweden, there’s currently a shortage of housing. If you want to rent an apartment, you will have to have been queuing for years. If you don’t have the queue time to compete, the necessary contacts or you just don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for a sub-let you might need to have a year’s salary in cash just to be able to get the loan you need for a condominium. In reaction to this we are seeing a boom in the construction of housing, but the housing being built is in few cases meant for those who the housing shortage affects the most. Private real estate developers and landlords maximize their profits by marketing their products to the upper middle class and not even the public housing companies are building housing that low-income households can afford. As a reaction to this situation I have had the ambition to investigate different strategies for designing housing that fill the requirements of those who have a hard time in today’s housing market. Housing that is not designed to maximize profit but is designed to have a quick and cheap construction process, be free from speculation and be cheap to maintain while still maintaining high architectural quality. With these objectives in mind, I have designed two different, but related, apartment buildings for two plots in relatively attractive locations in Malmö. Through an efficient use of land, using the infrastructure of the existing neighboring buildings and by sharing space and functions between neighbors I try to experiment my way to a better, more efficient and cheaper way of living