Role of neuromedin B and its receptor in the innate immune responses against influenza A virus infection in vitro and in vivo

International audienceAbstractThe peptide neuromedin B (NMB) and its receptor (NMBR) represent a system (NMB/NMBR) of neuromodulation. Here, it was demonstrated that the expression of NMBR in cells or murine lung tissues was clearly upregulated in response to H1N1/PR8 influenza A virus infection. Furthermore, the in vitro and in vivo activities of NMB/NMBR during PR8 infection were investigated. It was observed that A549 cells lacking endogenous NMBR were more susceptible to virus infection than control cells, as evidenced by the increased virus production in the cells. Interestingly, a significant decrease in IFN-α and increased IL-6 expression were observed in these cells. The role of this system in innate immunity against PR8 infection was probed by treating mice with NMB. The NMB-treated mice were less susceptible to virus challenge, as evidenced by increased survival, increased body weight, and decreased viral NP expression compared with the control animals. Additionally, the results showed that exogenous NMB not only enhanced IFN-α expression but also appeared to inhibit the expression of NP and IL-6 in PR8-infected cells and animals. As expected, opposing effects were observed in the NMBR antagonist-treated cells and mice, which further confirmed the effects of NMB. Together, these data suggest that NMB/NMBR may be an important component of the host defence against influenza A virus infection. Thus, these proteins may serve as promising candidates for the development of novel antiviral drugs

Tumor-suppressor activity of RRIG1 in breast cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Retinoid receptor-induced gene-1 (RRIG1) is a novel gene that has been lost in several types of human cancers. The aim of this study was to determine whether RRIG1 plays a role in breast cancer, such as in the suppression of breast cancer cell growth and invasion.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Immunohistochemistry was used to detect RRIG1 expression in breast tissue specimens. Gene transfection was used to restore or knock down RRIG1 expression in breast cancer cell lines for analysis of cell viability, colony formation, and migration/invasion potential. Reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction and western blot assays were used to detect the changes in gene expression. The RhoA activation assay was used to assess RRIG1-induced inhibition of RhoA activity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The immunohistochemical data showed that <it>RRIG1 </it>expression was reduced in breast cancer tissues compared with normal and atypical hyperplastic breast tissues. <it>RRIG1 </it>expression was inversely correlated with lymph node metastasis of breast cancer but was not associated with the status of hormone receptors, such as estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, or HER2. Furthermore, restoration of <it>RRIG1 </it>expression inhibited proliferation, colony formation, migration, and invasion of breast cancer cells. Expression of RRIG1 also reduced phosphorylated Erk1/2 and Akt levels; c-Jun, MMP9, and Akt expressions; and RhoA activity. In contrast, knockdown of RRIG1 expression promoted breast cancer cell proliferation, colony formation, migration, and invasion potential.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The data from the current study indicated that <it>RRIG1 </it>expression was reduced or lost in breast cancer and that restoration of RRIG1 expression suppressed breast cancer cell growth and invasion capacity. Future studies will determine the underlying molecular mechanisms and define RRIG1 as a tumor-suppressor gene in breast cancer.</p

The LSD1-Interacting Protein GILP Is a LITAF Domain Protein That Negatively Regulates Hypersensitive Cell Death in Arabidopsis

Hypersensitive cell death, a form of avirulent pathogen-induced programmed cell death (PCD), is one of the most efficient plant innate immunity. However, its regulatory mechanism is poorly understood. AtLSD1 is an important negative regulator of PCD and only two proteins, AtbZIP10 and AtMC1, have been reported to interact with AtLSD1.To identify a novel regulator of hypersensitive cell death, we investigate the possible role of plant LITAF domain protein GILP in hypersensitive cell death. Subcellular localization analysis showed that AtGILP is localized in the plasma membrane and its plasma membrane localization is dependent on its LITAF domain. Yeast two-hybrid and pull-down assays demonstrated that AtGILP interacts with AtLSD1. Pull-down assays showed that both the N-terminal and the C-terminal domains of AtGILP are sufficient for interactions with AtLSD1 and that the N-terminal domain of AtLSD1 is involved in the interaction with AtGILP. Real-time PCR analysis showed that AtGILP expression is up-regulated by the avirulent pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 avrRpt2 (Pst avrRpt2) and fumonisin B1 (FB1) that trigger PCD. Compared with wild-type plants, transgenic plants overexpressing AtGILP exhibited significantly less cell death when inoculated with Pst avrRpt2, indicating that AtGILP negatively regulates hypersensitive cell death.These results suggest that the LITAF domain protein AtGILP localizes in the plasma membrane, interacts with AtLSD1, and is involved in negatively regulating PCD. We propose that AtGILP functions as a membrane anchor, bringing other regulators of PCD, such as AtLSD1, to the plasma membrane. Human LITAF domain protein may be involved in the regulation of PCD, suggesting the evolutionarily conserved function of LITAF domain proteins in the regulation of PCD

Real-time Monitoring for the Next Core-Collapse Supernova in JUNO

Core-collapse supernova (CCSN) is one of the most energetic astrophysical events in the Universe. The early and prompt detection of neutrinos before (pre-SN) and during the SN burst is a unique opportunity to realize the multi-messenger observation of the CCSN events. In this work, we describe the monitoring concept and present the sensitivity of the system to the pre-SN and SN neutrinos at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), which is a 20 kton liquid scintillator detector under construction in South China. The real-time monitoring system is designed with both the prompt monitors on the electronic board and online monitors at the data acquisition stage, in order to ensure both the alert speed and alert coverage of progenitor stars. By assuming a false alert rate of 1 per year, this monitoring system can be sensitive to the pre-SN neutrinos up to the distance of about 1.6 (0.9) kpc and SN neutrinos up to about 370 (360) kpc for a progenitor mass of 30$M_{\odot}$ for the case of normal (inverted) mass ordering. The pointing ability of the CCSN is evaluated by using the accumulated event anisotropy of the inverse beta decay interactions from pre-SN or SN neutrinos, which, along with the early alert, can play important roles for the followup multi-messenger observations of the next Galactic or nearby extragalactic CCSN.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

Detection of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background with JUNO

As an underground multi-purpose neutrino detector with 20 kton liquid scintillator, Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is competitive with and complementary to the water-Cherenkov detectors on the search for the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB). Typical supernova models predict 2-4 events per year within the optimal observation window in the JUNO detector. The dominant background is from the neutral-current (NC) interaction of atmospheric neutrinos with 12C nuclei, which surpasses the DSNB by more than one order of magnitude. We evaluated the systematic uncertainty of NC background from the spread of a variety of data-driven models and further developed a method to determine NC background within 15\% with {\it{in}} {\it{situ}} measurements after ten years of running. Besides, the NC-like backgrounds can be effectively suppressed by the intrinsic pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) capabilities of liquid scintillators. In this talk, I will present in detail the improvements on NC background uncertainty evaluation, PSD discriminator development, and finally, the potential of DSNB sensitivity in JUNO

Potential of Core-Collapse Supernova Neutrino Detection at JUNO

JUNO is an underground neutrino observatory under construction in Jiangmen, China. It uses 20kton liquid scintillator as target, which enables it to detect supernova burst neutrinos of a large statistics for the next galactic core-collapse supernova (CCSN) and also pre-supernova neutrinos from the nearby CCSN progenitors. All flavors of supernova burst neutrinos can be detected by JUNO via several interaction channels, including inverse beta decay, elastic scattering on electron and proton, interactions on C12 nuclei, etc. This retains the possibility for JUNO to reconstruct the energy spectra of supernova burst neutrinos of all flavors. The real time monitoring systems based on FPGA and DAQ are under development in JUNO, which allow prompt alert and trigger-less data acquisition of CCSN events. The alert performances of both monitoring systems have been thoroughly studied using simulations. Moreover, once a CCSN is tagged, the system can give fast characterizations, such as directionality and light curve

Tension Force Detection of Short Suspender by Using Laser Doppler Vibrometer

In this study, the vibration frequency of steel rod-type short suspenders simulated by three types of prestressed steel rebars with aspect ratios of 14, 20.8, and 37.8 was detected accurately and remotely by using Laser Doppler Vibrometer (LDV); then the tension force state of short suspenders was evaluated through the quadratic regression relationships between vibration frequency and tension force. The results showed that the vibration frequency of steel rod-type short suspenders increases with the increase in tension force, and there is a good correlation between vibration frequency and prestress. Furthermore, when the prestress applied is the same, the vibration frequency of short suspenders decreases with the increase of their aspect ratios, indicating aspect ratio plays a decisive role on the change of vibration frequency. The errors between the tension force obtained by experiment and tension string theoretical calculation for short suspenders are large, due to the nonrigid boundary condition. The establishment of quadratic regression relationships between vibration frequency and tension force effectively avoids the influence of various factors on the existing calculation model such as mass, stiffness, and constraint type, and makes the detection accuracy of tension force achieve 98%

Properties of phagocyte NADPH oxidase p47-phox mutants with unmasked SH3 (Src homology 3) domains: full reconstitution of oxidase activity in a semi-recombinant cell-free system lacking arachidonic acid.

In an early step in the assembly of the phagocyte NADPH oxidase, p47-phox translocates from the cytosol to the membrane, mediated by engagement of the N-termini of two p47-phox Src homology 3 (SH3) domains with a proline-rich region (PRR) in the p22-phox subunit of cytochrome b (558). In response to phagocyte activation, several serine residues in a C-terminal arginine/lysine-rich domain of p47-phox are phosphorylated, leading to changes in the conformation of p47-phox and exposure of its N-terminal SH3 domain that is normally masked by internal association with the arginine/lysine-rich domain. We report that triple alanine substitutions at Asp-217, Glu-218 and Glu-223 in a short sequence that links the tandem p47-phox SH3 domains unmasked the N-terminal SH3 domain, similar to the effects of aspartic acid substitutions at Ser-310 and Ser-328 in the arginine/lysine-rich region. Recombinant p47-phox proteins with mutations in either the linker region or the arginine/lysine-rich domain were active in the absence of arachidonic acid stimulation in a cell-free NADPH oxidase system consisting of recombinant p67-phox, Rac1-guanosine 5'-[gamma-thio]triphosphate and neutrophil membranes. Supplementing neutrophil membranes with phosphoinositides or other negatively charged phospholipids markedly enhanced cell-free superoxide generation by these p47-phox mutants in the absence of arachidonic acid, to levels equivalent to those generated by wild-type p47-phox following arachidonic acid activation. This enhancement may be related to recruitment to the membrane of p47-phox mediated by a novel secondary phox homology (PX) domain binding site that broadly recognizes phospholipids. No specific enhancement by specific phosphorylated phosphatidylinositols was found to suggest a dominant role for the p47-phox primary PX domain binding site. Truncated p47-phox S310D S328D lacking the C-terminal PRR was inactive in the cell-free system without arachidonic acid, but was fully active with arachidonic acid. This suggests that activation of NADPH oxidase in an arachidonate-free cell-free system requires association of the p47-phox C-terminal PRR with the p67-phox C-terminal SH3 domain

A Critical Review on the Removal and Recovery of Hazardous Cd from Cd-Containing Secondary Resources in Cu-Pb-Zn Smelting Processes

Due to the advancement of industrialization and the development of the metal smelting industry, cadmium (Cd), as a highly toxic heavy metal element, is discharged into the natural environment in the form of dust, slag, and waste solutions during the Cu-Pb-Zn smelting process, causing great harm to the soil, water environment, and human health. Meanwhile, Cd is a key component of Ni-Cd batteries and CdTe semiconductor materials. The removal and recovery of Cd from the Cu-Pb-Zn smelting process faces a dual concern with respect to resource recycling and environmental protection. This paper briefly introduces the Cd-containing secondary resources produced in the Cu-Pb-Zn smelting process, systematically reviews the recovery methods of Cd from dust, slag and waste solutions, and compares the technical principles, process parameters, separation efficiency, advantages and disadvantages, and application requirements. In addition, a new route to treat Cd-containing solutions via the foam extraction method was proposed, which has the advantages of a short reaction time, large handling capacity, high removal efficiency, and simple operation equipment, showing superior application prospects, especially for industrial bulk waste solutions with ultralow concentrations