Vertebrate development requires ARVCF and p120 catenins and their interplay with RhoA and Rac

Using an animal model system and depletion-rescue strategies, we have addressed the requirement and functions of armadillo repeat gene deleted in velo-cardio-facial syndrome (ARVCF) and p120 catenins in early vertebrate embryogenesis. We find that xARVCF and Xp120 are essential to development given that depletion of either results in disrupted gastrulation and axial elongation, which are specific phenotypes based on self-rescue analysis and further criteria. Exogenous xARVCF or Xp120 cross-rescued depletion of the other, and each depletion was additionally rescued with (carefully titrated) dominant-negative RhoA or dominant-active Rac. Although xARVCF or Xp120 depletion did not appear to reduce the adhesive function of C-cadherin in standard cell reaggregation and additional assays, C-cadherin levels were somewhat reduced after xARVCF or Xp120 depletion, and rescue analysis using partial or full-length C-cadherin constructs suggested contributory effects on altered adhesion and signaling functions. This work indicates the required functions of both p120 and ARVCF in vertebrate embryogenesis and their shared functional interplay with RhoA, Rac, and cadherin in a developmental context

Pharmacokinetic, neurochemical, stereological and neuropathological studies on the potential effects of paraquat in the substantia nigra pars compacta and striatum of male C57BL/6J mice

AbstractThe pharmacokinetics and neurotoxicity of paraquat dichloride (PQ) were assessed following once weekly administration to C57BL/6J male mice by intraperitoneal injection for 1, 2 or 3 weeks at doses of 10, 15 or 25mg/kg/week. Approximately 0.3% of the administered dose was taken up by the brain and was slowly eliminated, with a half-life of approximately 3 weeks. PQ did not alter the concentration of dopamine (DA), homovanillic acid (HVA) or 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC), or increase dopamine turnover in the striatum. There was inconsistent stereological evidence of a loss of DA neurons, as identified by chromogenic or fluorescent-tagged antibodies to tyrosine hydroxylase in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc). There was no evidence that PQ induced neuronal degeneration in the SNpc or degenerating neuronal processes in the striatum, as indicated by the absence of uptake of silver stain or reduced immunolabeling of tyrosine-hydroxylase-positive (TH+) neurons. There was no evidence of apoptotic cell death, which was evaluated using TUNEL or caspase 3 assays. Microglia (IBA-1 immunoreactivity) and astrocytes (GFAP immunoreactivity) were not activated in PQ-treated mice 4, 8, 16, 24, 48, 96 or 168h after 1, 2 or 3 doses of PQ.In contrast, mice dosed with the positive control substance, 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP; 10mg/kg/dose×4 doses, 2h apart), displayed significantly reduced DA and DOPAC concentrations and increased DA turnover in the striatum 7 days after dosing. The number of TH+ neurons in the SNpc was reduced, and there were increased numbers of degenerating neurons and neuronal processes in the SNpc and striatum. MPTP-mediated cell death was not attributed to apoptosis. MPTP activated microglia and astrocytes within 4h of the last dose, reaching a peak within 48h. The microglial response ended by 96h in the SNpc, but the astrocytic response continued through 168h in the striatum.These results bring into question previous published stereological studies that report loss of TH+ neurons in the SNpc of PQ-treated mice. This study also suggests that even if the reduction in TH+ neurons reported by others occurs in PQ-treated mice, this apparent phenotypic change is unaccompanied by neuronal cell death or by modification of dopamine levels in the striatum

The Conformal Anomaly of M5-Branes

We show that the conformal anomaly for N M5-branes grows like $N^3$. The method we employ relates Coulomb branch interactions in six dimensions to interactions in four dimensions using supersymmetry. This leads to a relation between the six-dimensional conformal anomaly and the conformal anomaly of N=4 Yang-Mills. Along the way, we determine the structure of the four derivative interactions for the toroidally compactified (2,0) theory, while encountering interesting novelties in the structure of the six derivative interactions.Comment: 38 pages, LaTeX; references adde

Adrenal adenomatoid tumor in a patient with human immunodeficiency virus

We present the clinical course of a patient with human immunodeficiency virus and an adrenal adenomatoid tumor (AAT). We describe the clinical course and laboratory, radiographic, and microscopic findings of a patient with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and an adenomatoid tumor of the right adrenal gland. A review of the literature was also done via electronic searches through PubMed for articles from 1965 to 2008 that contained the following search terms, adenomatoid tumor limited to the English language only. A 22 year-old African-American male with HIV was incidentally found to have a hypermetabolic right adrenal mass. The patient underwent laparoscopic adrenalectomy and the mass had morphological and immunohistochemical features that were consistent with an AAT. A review of the medical literature reveals that almost all cases of AAT were in male patients (96%) with a mean age of 41±11 years (range=22–64) with no significant difference in laterality (right side=46%, left side=50%, unknown=4%). AAT have an average size of 4.2±3.5 cm (range=0.5–14.3 cm). Pre-operative imaging studies do not appear to be able to reliably distinguish AAT from other types of adrenocortical tumors. For reasons that require further research, AAT typically occur in male patients and may be associated with immunosuppression. AAT can be safely removed laparoscopically with no evidence of long-term recurrence even with tumor extension beyond the adrenal capsule

Differential requirements for Tousled-like kinases 1 and 2 in mammalian development

The regulation of chromatin structure is critical for a wide range of essential cellular processes. The Tousled-like kinases, TLK1 and TLK2, regulate ASF1, a histone H3/H4 chaperone, and likely other substrates, and their activity has been implicated in transcription, DNA replication, DNA repair, RNA interference, cell cycle progression, viral latency, chromosome segregation and mitosis. However, little is known about the functions of TLK activity in vivo or the relative functions of the highly similar TLK1 and TLK2 in any cell type. To begin to address this, we have generated Tlk1- and Tlk2-deficient mice. We found that while TLK1 was dispensable for murine viability, TLK2 loss led to late embryonic lethality because of placental failure. TLK2 was required for normal trophoblast differentiation and the phosphorylation of ASF1 was reduced in placentas lacking TLK2. Conditional bypass of the placental phenotype allowed the generation of apparently healthy Tlk2-deficient mice, while only the depletion of both TLK1 and TLK2 led to extensive genomic instability, indicating that both activities contribute to genome maintenance. Our data identifies a specific role for TLK2 in placental function during mammalian development and suggests that TLK1 and TLK2 have largely redundant roles in genome maintenance

Migration and Health: A Framework for 21st Century Policy-Making

In the introductory article to a six-part PLoS Medicine series on Migration & Health, series guest editors Cathy Zimmerman, Mazeda Hossain, and Ligia Kiss outline a migratory process framework that involves five phases: pre-departure, travel, destination, interception, and return

DNA Methylation Changes in Atypical Adenomatous Hyperplasia, Adenocarcinoma In Situ, and Lung Adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND:Aberrant DNA methylation is common in lung adenocarcinoma, but its timing in the phases of tumor development is largely unknown. Delineating when abnormal DNA methylation arises may provide insight into the natural history of lung adenocarcinoma and the role that DNA methylation alterations play in tumor formation. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:We used MethyLight, a sensitive real-time PCR-based quantitative method, to analyze DNA methylation levels at 15 CpG islands that are frequently methylated in lung adenocarcinoma and that we had flagged as potential markers for non-invasive detection. We also used two repeat probes as indicators of global DNA hypomethylation. We examined DNA methylation in 249 tissue samples from 93 subjects, spanning the putative spectrum of peripheral lung adenocarcinoma development: histologically normal adjacent non-tumor lung, atypical adenomatous hyperplasia (AAH), adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS, formerly known as bronchioloalveolar carcinoma), and invasive lung adenocarcinoma. Comparison of DNA methylation levels between the lesion types suggests that DNA hypermethylation of distinct loci occurs at different time points during the development of lung adenocarcinoma. DNA methylation at CDKN2A ex2 and PTPRN2 is already significantly elevated in AAH, while CpG islands at 2C35, EYA4, HOXA1, HOXA11, NEUROD1, NEUROD2 and TMEFF2 are significantly hypermethylated in AIS. In contrast, hypermethylation at CDH13, CDX2, OPCML, RASSF1, SFRP1 and TWIST1 and global DNA hypomethylation appear to be present predominantly in invasive cancer. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:The gradual increase in DNA methylation seen for numerous loci in progressively more transformed lesions supports the model in which AAH and AIS are sequential stages in the development of lung adenocarcinoma. The demarcation of DNA methylation changes characteristic for AAH, AIS and adenocarcinoma begins to lay out a possible roadmap for aberrant DNA methylation events in tumor development. In addition, it identifies which DNA methylation changes might be used as molecular markers for the detection of preinvasive lesions

Cathelicidin-like Helminth Defence Molecules (HDMs) Absence of Cytotoxic, Anti-microbial and Anti-protozoan Activities Imply a Specific Adaptation to Immune Modulation

Host defence peptides (HDPs) are expressed throughout the animal and plant kingdoms. They have multifunctional roles in the defence against infectious agents of mammals, possessing both bactericidal and immune-modulatory activities. We have identified a novel family of molecules secreted by helminth parasites (helminth defence molecules; HDMs) that exhibit similar structural and biochemical characteristics to the HDPs. Here, we have analyzed the functional activities of four HDMs derived from Schistosoma mansoni and Fasciola hepatica and compared them to human, mouse, bovine and sheep HDPs. Unlike the mammalian HDPs the helminth-derived HDMs show no antimicrobial activity and are non-cytotoxic to mammalian cells (macrophages and red blood cells). However, both the mammalian- and helminth-derived peptides suppress the activation of macrophages by microbial stimuli and alter the response of B cells to cytokine stimulation. Therefore, we hypothesise that HDMs represent a novel family of HDPs that evolved to regulate the immune responses of their mammalian hosts by retaining potent immune modulatory properties without causing deleterious cytotoxic effects. © 2013 Thivierge et al

Association between the 2008–09 Seasonal Influenza Vaccine and Pandemic H1N1 Illness during Spring–Summer 2009: Four Observational Studies from Canada

In three case-control studies and a household transmission cohort, Danuta Skowronski and colleagues find an association between prior seasonal flu vaccination and increased risk of 2009 pandemic H1N1 flu

Identification of Novel Susceptibility Loci and Genes for Prostate Cancer Risk: A Transcriptome-Wide Association Study in over 140,000 European Descendants

Genome-wide association study–identified prostate cancer risk variants explain only a relatively small fraction of its familial relative risk, and the genes responsible for many of these identified associations remain unknown. To discover novel prostate cancer genetic loci and possible causal genes at previously identified risk loci, we performed a transcriptome-wide association study in 79,194 cases and 61,112 controls of European ancestry. Using data from the Genotype-Tissue Expression Project, we established genetic models to predict gene expression across the transcriptome for both prostate models and cross-tissue models and evaluated model performance using two independent datasets. We identified significant associations for 137 genes at P < 2.61 × 10−6, a Bonferroni-corrected threshold, including nine genes that remained significant at P < 2.61 × 10−6 after adjusting for all known prostate cancer risk variants in nearby regions. Of the 128 remaining associated genes, 94 have not yet been reported as potential target genes at known loci. We silenced 14 genes and many showed a consistent effect on viability and colony-forming efficiency in three cell lines. Our study provides substantial new information to advance our understanding of prostate cancer genetics and biology. SIGNIFICANCE: This study identifies novel prostate cancer genetic loci and possible causal genes, advancing our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that drive prostate cancer