Essential Role of the \u3ci\u3eCrk\u3c/i\u3e Family-Dosage in DiGeorge-Like Anomaly and Metabolic Homeostasis

CRK and CRKL (CRK-like) encode adapter proteins with similar biochemical properties. Here, we show that a 50% reduction of the family-combined dosage generates developmental defects, including aspects of DiGeorge/del22q11 syndrome in mice. Like the mouse homologs of two 22q11.21 genes CRKL and TBX1, Crk and Tbx1 also genetically interact, thus suggesting that pathways shared by the three genes participate in organogenesis affected in the syndrome. We also show that Crk and Crkl are required during mesoderm development, and Crk/Crkl deficiency results in small cell size and abnormal mesenchyme behavior in primary embryonic fibroblasts. Our systems-wide analyses reveal impaired glycolysis, associated with low Hif1a protein levels as well as reduced histone H3K27 acetylation in several key glycolysis genes. Furthermore, Crk/Crkl deficiency sensitizes MEFs to 2deoxy-D-glucose, a competitive inhibitor of glycolysis, to induce cell blebbing. Activated Rapgef1, a Crk/Crkl-downstream effector, rescues several aspects of the cell phenotype, including proliferation, cell size, focal adhesions, and phosphorylation of p70 S6k1 and ribosomal protein S6. Our investigations demonstrate that Crk/Crkl-shared pathways orchestrate metabolic homeostasis and cell behavior through widespread epigenetic controls

Treatment of high-risk neuroblastoma

Although high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation (HDCT/autoSCT) have improved the prognosis for patients with high-risk neuroblastoma (NB), event-free survival rates remain in the range of 30 to 40%, which is unsatisfactory. To further improve outcomes, several clinical trials, including tandem HDCT/autoSCT, high-dose 131I-metaiodobenzylguanidine treatment, and immunotherapy with NB specific antibody, have been undertaken and pilot studies have reported encouraging results. Nonetheless, about half of high-risk NB patients still experience treatment failure and have no realistic chance for cure with conventional treatment options alone after relapse. Therefore, a new modality of treatment is warranted for these patients. In recent years, several groups of investigators have examined the feasibility and effectiveness of reduced-intensity allogeneic stem cell transplantation (RI alloSCT) for the treatment of relapsed/progressed NB. Although a graft-versus-tumor effect has not yet been convincingly demonstrated in the setting of relapsed NB, the strategy of employing RI alloSCT has provided hope that treatment-related mortality will be reduced and a therapeutic benefit will emerge. However, alloSCT for NB is still investigational and there remain many issues to be elucidated in many areas. At present, alloSCT is reserved for specific clinical trials testing the immunomodulatory effect against NB

Unification of SUSY breaking and GUT breaking

We build explicit supersymmetric unification models where grand unified gauge symmetry breaking and supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking are caused by the same sector. Besides, the SM-charged particles are also predicted by the symmetry breaking sector, and they give the soft SUSY breaking terms through the so-called gauge mediation. We investigate the mass spectrums in an explicit model with SU(5) and additional gauge groups, and discuss its phenomenological aspects. Especially, nonzero A-term and B-term are generated at one-loop level according to the mediation via the vector superfields, so that the electro-weak symmetry breaking and 125 GeV Higgs mass may be achieved by the large B-term and A-term even if the stop mass is around 1 TeV.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures, revised some figures, added references and discussions, accepted for publication in JHE

Antiinflammatory Therapy with Canakinumab for Atherosclerotic Disease

Background: Experimental and clinical data suggest that reducing inflammation without affecting lipid levels may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Yet, the inflammatory hypothesis of atherothrombosis has remained unproved. Methods: We conducted a randomized, double-blind trial of canakinumab, a therapeutic monoclonal antibody targeting interleukin-1β, involving 10,061 patients with previous myocardial infarction and a high-sensitivity C-reactive protein level of 2 mg or more per liter. The trial compared three doses of canakinumab (50 mg, 150 mg, and 300 mg, administered subcutaneously every 3 months) with placebo. The primary efficacy end point was nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or cardiovascular death. RESULTS: At 48 months, the median reduction from baseline in the high-sensitivity C-reactive protein level was 26 percentage points greater in the group that received the 50-mg dose of canakinumab, 37 percentage points greater in the 150-mg group, and 41 percentage points greater in the 300-mg group than in the placebo group. Canakinumab did not reduce lipid levels from baseline. At a median follow-up of 3.7 years, the incidence rate for the primary end point was 4.50 events per 100 person-years in the placebo group, 4.11 events per 100 person-years in the 50-mg group, 3.86 events per 100 person-years in the 150-mg group, and 3.90 events per 100 person-years in the 300-mg group. The hazard ratios as compared with placebo were as follows: in the 50-mg group, 0.93 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.80 to 1.07; P = 0.30); in the 150-mg group, 0.85 (95% CI, 0.74 to 0.98; P = 0.021); and in the 300-mg group, 0.86 (95% CI, 0.75 to 0.99; P = 0.031). The 150-mg dose, but not the other doses, met the prespecified multiplicity-adjusted threshold for statistical significance for the primary end point and the secondary end point that additionally included hospitalization for unstable angina that led to urgent revascularization (hazard ratio vs. placebo, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.73 to 0.95; P = 0.005). Canakinumab was associated with a higher incidence of fatal infection than was placebo. There was no significant difference in all-cause mortality (hazard ratio for all canakinumab doses vs. placebo, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.83 to 1.06; P = 0.31). Conclusions: Antiinflammatory therapy targeting the interleukin-1β innate immunity pathway with canakinumab at a dose of 150 mg every 3 months led to a significantly lower rate of recurrent cardiovascular events than placebo, independent of lipid-level lowering. (Funded by Novartis; CANTOS ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01327846.

Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases

The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs) can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e. iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference

Highly effective photocatalytic system comprising semiconductor photocatalyst and supported bimetallic non-photocatalyst for selective reduction of nitrate to nitrogen in water

Photocatalytic reduction of NO3- under UV irradiation in the presence of ethanol was carried out in the presence of semiconductor photocatalyst Pt/TiO2 and supported bimetallic non-photocatalyst Sn-Pd/Al2O3, which were dispersed in water. This system effectively and selectively promoted the photocatalytic reduction of NO3- to N2, whereas Pt/TiO2 or Sn-Pd/Al2O3 alone showed no or little activity under the reaction conditions. The decomposition rate of NO3- and selectivity to gaseous nitrogen compounds (mainly N2) for the present photocatalytic system were higher than those for TiO2 photocatalyst directly-modified with Sn-Pd particles