Photoinduced Catalytic Organic-Hydride Transfer to CO₂ Mediated with Ruthenium Complexes as NAD⁺/NADH Redox Couple Models

ルテニウム錯体を触媒とする有機ヒドリドを介した二酸化炭素光還元 --新たな人工光合成系の創製に向けて--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2023-02-07.The catalytic organic-hydride transfer to CO2 was first achieved through the photoinduced two-electron reduction of the [Ru(bpy)2(pbn)]²⁺/[Ru(bpy)2(pbnHH)]²⁺ (bpy=2, 2'-bipyridine, pbn=2-(pyridin-2-yl)benzo[b]-1, 5-naphthyridine, and pbnHH=2-(pyridin-2-yl)-5, 10-dihydrobenzo[b]-1, 5-naphthyridine) redox couple in the presence of 1, 3-dimethyl-2-phenyl-2, 3-dihydro-1H-benzo[d]imidazole (BIH). The active species for the catalytic hydride transfer to carbon dioxide giving formate is [Ru(bpy)(bpy⋅−)(pbnHH)]+ formed by one-electron reduction of [Ru(bpy)2(pbnHH)]²⁺ with BI⋅

Heme Orientation of Cavity Mutant Hemoglobins (His F8 → Gly) in Either α or β Subunits: Circular Dichroism, 1H NMR, and Resonance Raman Studies

Native human adult hemoglobin (Hb A) has mostly normal orientation of heme, whereas recombinant Hb A (rHb A) expressed in E. coli contains both normal and reversed orientations of heme. Hb A with the normal heme exhibits positive circular dichroism (CD) bands at both the Soret and 260-nm regions, while rHb A with the reversed heme shows a negative Soret and decreased 260-nm CD bands. In order to examine involvement of the proximal histidine (His F8) of either α or β subunits in determining the heme orientation, we prepared two cavity mutant Hbs, rHb(αH87G) and rHb(βH92G), with substitution of glycine for His F8 in the presence of imidazole. CD spectra of both cavity mutant Hbs did not show a negative Soret band, but instead exhibited positive bands with strong intensity at the both Soret and 260-nm regions, suggesting that the reversed heme scarcely exists in the cavity mutant Hbs. We confirmed by 1H NMR and resonance Raman (RR) spectroscopies that the cavity mutant Hbs have mainly the normal heme orientation in both the mutated and native subunits. These results indicate that the heme Fe-His F8 linkage in both α and β subunits influences the heme orientation, and that the heme orientation of one type of subunit is related to the heme orientation of the complementary subunits to be the same. The present study showed that CD and RR spectroscopies also provided powerful tools for the examination of the heme rotational disorder of Hb A, in addition to the usual 1H NMR technique. Chirality 28:585–592, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Embargo Period 24 month

The whole blood transcriptional regulation landscape in 465 COVID-19 infected samples from Japan COVID-19 Task Force

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19患者由来の血液細胞における遺伝子発現の網羅的解析 --重症度に応じた遺伝子発現の変化には、ヒトゲノム配列の個人差が影響する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-23.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently-emerged infectious disease that has caused millions of deaths, where comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms is still unestablished. In particular, studies of gene expression dynamics and regulation landscape in COVID-19 infected individuals are limited. Here, we report on a thorough analysis of whole blood RNA-seq data from 465 genotyped samples from the Japan COVID-19 Task Force, including 359 severe and 106 non-severe COVID-19 cases. We discover 1169 putative causal expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) including 34 possible colocalizations with biobank fine-mapping results of hematopoietic traits in a Japanese population, 1549 putative causal splice QTLs (sQTLs; e.g. two independent sQTLs at TOR1AIP1), as well as biologically interpretable trans-eQTL examples (e.g., REST and STING1), all fine-mapped at single variant resolution. We perform differential gene expression analysis to elucidate 198 genes with increased expression in severe COVID-19 cases and enriched for innate immune-related functions. Finally, we evaluate the limited but non-zero effect of COVID-19 phenotype on eQTL discovery, and highlight the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs (ieQTLs; e.g., CLEC4C and MYBL2). Our study provides a comprehensive catalog of whole blood regulatory variants in Japanese, as well as a reference for transcriptional landscapes in response to COVID-19 infection

DOCK2 is involved in the host genetics and biology of severe COVID-19

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19疾患感受性遺伝子DOCK2の重症化機序を解明 --アジア最大のバイオレポジトリーでCOVID-19の治療標的を発見--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-10.Identifying the host genetic factors underlying severe COVID-19 is an emerging challenge. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 2, 393 cases of COVID-19 in a cohort of Japanese individuals collected during the initial waves of the pandemic, with 3, 289 unaffected controls. We identified a variant on chromosome 5 at 5q35 (rs60200309-A), close to the dedicator of cytokinesis 2 gene (DOCK2), which was associated with severe COVID-19 in patients less than 65 years of age. This risk allele was prevalent in East Asian individuals but rare in Europeans, highlighting the value of genome-wide association studies in non-European populations. RNA-sequencing analysis of 473 bulk peripheral blood samples identified decreased expression of DOCK2 associated with the risk allele in these younger patients. DOCK2 expression was suppressed in patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis (n = 61 individuals) identified cell-type-specific downregulation of DOCK2 and a COVID-19-specific decreasing effect of the risk allele on DOCK2 expression in non-classical monocytes. Immunohistochemistry of lung specimens from patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia showed suppressed DOCK2 expression. Moreover, inhibition of DOCK2 function with CPYPP increased the severity of pneumonia in a Syrian hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterized by weight loss, lung oedema, enhanced viral loads, impaired macrophage recruitment and dysregulated type I interferon responses. We conclude that DOCK2 has an important role in the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the development of severe COVID-19, and could be further explored as a potential biomarker and/or therapeutic target

Potential therapeutic targets in ARID1A -mutated cancers

© 2015 © 2015 Taylor & Francis. ARID1A is a subunit of the Switch/Sucrose Non-Fermentable (SWI/SNF) chromatin-remodeling complex that regulates gene expression by controlling gene accessibility. ARID1A shows one of the highest mutation rates across different human cancer types. For example, ARID1A is mutated in ∼ 50% of ovarian clear cell carcinoma (OCCC). There is considerable interest in developing cancer therapeutics that correlate with ARID1A mutational status. A recent study demonstrated a synthetic lethality by targeting EZH2 histone methyltransferase activity in ARID1A-mutated OCCC using a clinically applicable small-molecule inhibitor. The observed synthetic lethality correlated with inhibition of PI3K/AKT signaling. In addition, there is evidence indicating that ARID1A-mutated cancer may also be subjected to therapeutic intervention by targeting residual SWI/SNF activity, the PI3K/AKT pathway, the DNA damage response, the tumor immunological microenvironment and stabilizing wild-type p53. In summary, we propose EZH2 inhibitor-based combinatorial strategies for targeting ARID1A-mutated cancers