Is telomere length in peripheral blood lymphocytes correlated with cancer susceptibility or radiosensitivity?

Mean terminal restriction fragment (TRF) lengths in white blood cells (WBCs) have been previously found to be associated with breast cancer. To assess whether this marker could be used as a test for breast cancer susceptibility in women, TRF length was measured in 72 treated female breast cancer patients and 1696 unaffected female controls between the ages of 45 and 77 from the Twin Research Unit at St Thomas' Hospital, as well as 140 newly diagnosed breast cancer cases and 108 mammographically screened unaffected controls from Guy's Hospital. Mean TRF was also tested for correlation with chromosome radiosensitivity and apoptotic response in the Guy's Hospital patients. After adjusting for age, smoking and body mass index, there was no significant difference in TRF lengths between the treated breast cancer patients and unaffected controls (P=0.71). A positive correlation between age-adjusted apoptotic response and mean TRF in newly diagnosed untreated breast cancer patients (P=0.008) was identified but no significant difference in TRF lengths between breast cancer patients and unaffected controls was detected (P=0.53). This suggests that TRF lengths in WBC, is not a marker of breast cancer susceptibility and does not vary significantly between affected women before and after treatment

Neuropeptide Y1 receptor in immune cells regulates inflammation and insulin resistance associated with diet-induced obesity

Recruitment of activated immune cells into white adipose tissue (WAT) is linked to the development of insulin resistance and obesity, but the mechanism behind this is unclear. Here, we demonstrate that Y1 receptor signaling in immune cells controls inflammation and insulin resistance in obesity. Selective deletion of Y1 receptors in the hematopoietic compartment of mice leads to insulin resistance and inflammation in WAT under high fat-fed conditions. This is accompanied by decreased mRNA expression of the anti-inflammatory marker adiponectin in WAT and an increase of the proinflammatory monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1). In vitro, activated Y1-deficient intraperitoneal macrophages display an increased inflammatory response, with exacerbated secretion of MCP-1 and tumor necrosis factor, whereas addition of neuropeptide Y to wild-type macrophages attenuates the release of these cytokines, this effect being blocked by Y1 but not Y2 receptor antagonism. Importantly, treatment of adipocytes with the supernatant of activated Y1-deficient macrophages causes insulin resistance, as demonstrated by decreased insulin-induced phosphorylation of the insulin receptor and Akt as well as decreased expression of insulin receptor substrate 1. Thus, Y1 signaling in hematopoietic-derived cells such as macrophages is critical for the control of inflammation and insulin resistance in obesity.Laurence Macia, Ernie Yulyaningsih, Laurent Pangon, Amy D. Nguyen, Shu Lin, Yan C. Shi, Lei Zhang, Martijn Bijker, Shane Grey, Fabienne Mackay, Herbert Herzog, and Amanda Sainsbur

Approaches in biotechnological applications of natural polymers

Natural polymers, such as gums and mucilage, are biocompatible, cheap, easily available and non-toxic materials of native origin. These polymers are increasingly preferred over synthetic materials for industrial applications due to their intrinsic properties, as well as they are considered alternative sources of raw materials since they present characteristics of sustainability, biodegradability and biosafety. As definition, gums and mucilages are polysaccharides or complex carbohydrates consisting of one or more monosaccharides or their derivatives linked in bewildering variety of linkages and structures. Natural gums are considered polysaccharides naturally occurring in varieties of plant seeds and exudates, tree or shrub exudates, seaweed extracts, fungi, bacteria, and animal sources. Water-soluble gums, also known as hydrocolloids, are considered exudates and are pathological products; therefore, they do not form a part of cell wall. On the other hand, mucilages are part of cell and physiological products. It is important to highlight that gums represent the largest amounts of polymer materials derived from plants. Gums have enormously large and broad applications in both food and non-food industries, being commonly used as thickening, binding, emulsifying, suspending, stabilizing agents and matrices for drug release in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. In the food industry, their gelling properties and the ability to mold edible films and coatings are extensively studied. The use of gums depends on the intrinsic properties that they provide, often at costs below those of synthetic polymers. For upgrading the value of gums, they are being processed into various forms, including the most recent nanomaterials, for various biotechnological applications. Thus, the main natural polymers including galactomannans, cellulose, chitin, agar, carrageenan, alginate, cashew gum, pectin and starch, in addition to the current researches about them are reviewed in this article.. }To the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientfíico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for fellowships (LCBBC and MGCC) and the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nvíel Superior (CAPES) (PBSA). This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit, the Project RECI/BBB-EBI/0179/2012 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027462) and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684) (JAT)

Genetic analysis of BRCA1 ubiquitin ligase activity and its relationship to breast cancer susceptibility

The N-terminus of the Breast Cancer-1 predisposition protein (BRCA1) associates with the BRCA1-associated RING domain-1 protein (BARD1) to form a heterodimer, which exhibits ubiquitin ligase activity that is abrogated by known cancer-associated BRCA1 missense mutations. The majority of missense substitutions identified in patients with a personal or a family history of disease have not been followed in pedigrees, nor there is a functional understanding of their impact. We have examined, by extensive missense substitution, the interaction of BRCA1 with components that contribute to its ubiquitin ligase activity, BARD1 and the E2 ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme, UbcH5a. Selection from a randomly generated library of BRCA1 missense mutations for variants that inhibit the interaction with these components identified substitutions in residues found altered in patient DNA, indicating a correlation between loss of component-binding and propensity to disease development. We further show that the BRCA1:E2 interaction is sensitive to substitutions in all structural elements of the BRCA1 N-terminus, whereas the BARD1 interaction is sensitive to a subset of BRCA1 substitutions, which also inhibit E2-binding. Patient variants that inhibit the BRCA1:E2 interaction show loss of ubiquitin ligase activity and correlate with disease susceptibility and theoretical predictions of pathogenicity. These data link the loss of ubiquitin ligase activity, through loss of E2-binding, to the majority of non-polymorphic patient variants described within the N-terminus of BRCA1 and illustrate the likely significant role of BRCA1 ubiquitin ligase activity in tumour suppression