NOX Enzymes and Pulmonary Disease

Abstract The primary function of the lung is to facilitate the transfer of molecular oxygen (O2; dioxygen) from the atmosphere to the systemic circulation. In addition to its essential role in aerobic metabolism, O2 serves as the physiologic terminal acceptor of electron transfer catalyzed by the NADPH oxidase (NOX) family of oxidoreductases. The evolution of the lungs and circulatory systems in vertebrates was accompanied by increasing diversification of NOX family enzymes, suggesting adaptive roles for NOX-derived reactive oxygen species in normal physiology. However, this adaptation may paradoxically carry detrimental consequences in the setting of overwhelming/persistent environmental stressors, both infectious and noninfectious, and during the process of aging. Here, we review current understanding of NOX enzymes in normal lung physiology and their pathophysiologic roles in a number of pulmonary diseases, including lung infections, acute lung injury, pulmonary arterial hypertension, obstructive lung disorders, fibrotic lung disease, and lung cancer. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 11, 2505-2516.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78108/1/ars.2009.2599.pd

Drug-Eluting Stent Thrombosis The Kounis Hypersensitivity-Associated Acute Coronary Syndrome Revisited

The advent of drug-eluting stents (DES) has revolutionized the field of interventional cardiology. Their dramatic and persistent restenotic and target lesion revascularization advantages are unquestioned. However, concerns over the rare but potentially catastrophic risk of stent thrombosis (ST) have tempered universal acceptance of these devices. Although the precise mechanism of DES ST is undoubtedly multifactorial and as yet not fully elucidated, delayed or incomplete endothelial healing clearly plays a pivotal role. Detailed histopathological data have implicated a contributory allergic or hypersensitivity component, as verified by the Food and Drug Administration's Manufacturer and User Device Experience Center and the Research on Adverse Drug/device events And Reports (RADAR) project. These findings thus suggest a potential connection with the Kounis syndrome, the concurrence of acute coronary events with allergic, hypersensitivity, anaphylactic, or anaphylactoid reactions. Potential culprits responsible for this phenomenon include: arachidonic acid metabolites such as leukotrienes and thromboxane, proteolytic enzymes such as chymase and tryptase, histamine, cytokines, and chemokines. Additionally, inflammatory cells such as macrophages, T-lymphocytes, and mast cells are probably also contributory. Autopsy-confirmed infiltrates of various inflammatory cells including lymphocytes, plasma cells, macrophages, and eosinophils have been reported in all 3 vascular wall layers and are reminiscent of those associated with the Kounis syndrome. Although the concurrence of acute coronary syndromes with hypersensitivity reactions has been long established, the specific association with DES ST remains unproven. Potential incorporation of hypersensitivity suppressive agents might represent a promising paradigm shift from efficacy to safety in future DES designs

DEVELOPING TRAINING PROGRAMS IN REMOTE SENSING AND GEOSPATIAL APPLICATIONS

Capacity building programmes of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are aimed at transfer of technology in the field of Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics for monitoring and sustainable development. ISRO Carries out its capacity building through IIRS, NRSC, SAC, IIST and CSSTEAP. As part of the ISROs’ programmes, NRSC is engaged in the capacity building by conducting Regular, Thematic and Customized training courses to enable the effective utilization of Remote Sensing, Geospatial Technologies and its Applications. The main focus of NRSC training programmes is to develop skill sets in usage of these technologies to the efficient and effective development of the country. The target participants for NRSC training programmes are decision makers, implementers and working professionals, who attend short duration courses of 1, 2 and 12 weeks. This paper provides information on the training courses conducted by NRSC in the field of Geospatial Applications and also, discuss on the methodology to upgrade these training courses using multi-level approach in meeting user needs/requirements more effectively. The flexibility offered by this method by utilizing the web based and other enabling technologies is discussed

Towards real-time topical detection and characterization of FDG dose infiltration prior to PET imaging

To dynamically detect and characterize 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) dose infiltrations and evaluate their effects on positron emission tomography (PET) standardized uptake values (SUV) at the injection site and in control tissue

Genetic diversity studies in kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum L.)

The present investigation was undertaken to assess genetic diversity in seventy genotypes of kodo millet. The analysis of variance revealed the presence of significant variation among the genotypes for all 13 characters. Higher genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV), phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV), heritability and genetic advance as per cent mean were recorded for thumb raceme length, number of productive tillers per plant, length of panicle, raceme length and grain yield per plant, indicating that simple selection could be practised for improving these traits. Seventy genotypes were grouped into seven different clusters on the basis of magnitude of D2 values by Mahalanobis D2 analysis. Cluster I had 51 genotypes followed by cluster II with 14 genotypes, while clusters III, IV, V, VI and VII were mono genotypic. The inter–cluster distance was high between clusters II and III and therefore it is suggested to use these genotypes as parents for hybridization to evolve potential segregants

Oxaliplatin induces drug resistance more rapidly than cisplatin in H69 small cell lung cancer cells

Cisplatin produces good responses in solid tumours including small cell lung cancer (SCLC) but this is limited by the development of resistance. Oxaliplatin is reported to show activity against some cisplatin-resistant cancers but there is little known about oxaliplatin in SCLC and there are no reports of oxaliplatin resistant SCLC cell lines. Studies of drug resistance mainly focus on the cellular resistance mechanisms rather than how the cells develop resistance. This study examines the development of cisplatin and oxaliplatin resistance in H69 human SCLC cells in response to repeated treatment with clinically relevant doses of cisplatin or oxaliplatin for either 4 days or 2h. Treatments with 200ng/ml cisplatin or 400ng/ml oxaliplatin for 4 days produced sublines (H69CIS200 and H69OX400 respectively) that showed low level (approximately 2-fold) resistance after 8 treatments. Treatments with 1000ng/ml cisplatin or 2000ng/ml oxaliplatin for 2h also produced sublines, however these were not stably resistant suggesting shorter treatment pulses of drug may be more effective. Cells survived the first five treatments without any increase in resistance, by arresting their growth for a period and then regrowing. The period of growth arrest was reduced after the sixth treatment and the H69CIS200 and H69OX400 sublines showed a reduced growth arrest in response to cisplatin and oxaliplatin treatment suggesting that "regrowth resistance" initially protected against drug treatment and this was further upregulated and became part of the resistance phenotype of these sublines. Oxaliplatin dose escalation produced more surviving sublines than cisplatin dose escalation but neither set of sublines were associated with increased resistance as determined by 5-day cytotoxicity assays, also suggesting the involvement of regrowth resistance. The resistant sublines showed no change in platinum accumulation or glutathione levels even though the H69OX400 subline was more sensitive to buthionine sulfoximine treatment. The H69CIS200 cells were cross-resistant to oxaliplatin demonstrating that oxaliplatin does not have activity against low level cisplatin resistance. Relative to the H69 cells, the H69CIS200 and H69OX400 sublines were more sensitive to paclitaxel and taxotere suggests the taxanes may be useful in the treatment of platinum resistant SCLC. These novel cellular models of cisplatin and oxaliplatin resistant SCLC will be useful in developing strategies to treat platinum-resistant SCLC

Characterizing genomic alterations in cancer by complementary functional associations.

Systematic efforts to sequence the cancer genome have identified large numbers of mutations and copy number alterations in human cancers. However, elucidating the functional consequences of these variants, and their interactions to drive or maintain oncogenic states, remains a challenge in cancer research. We developed REVEALER, a computational method that identifies combinations of mutually exclusive genomic alterations correlated with functional phenotypes, such as the activation or gene dependency of oncogenic pathways or sensitivity to a drug treatment. We used REVEALER to uncover complementary genomic alterations associated with the transcriptional activation of β-catenin and NRF2, MEK-inhibitor sensitivity, and KRAS dependency. REVEALER successfully identified both known and new associations, demonstrating the power of combining functional profiles with extensive characterization of genomic alterations in cancer genomes

N-Acetylcysteine inhibits platelet-monocyte conjugation in patients with type 2 diabetes with depleted intraplatelet glutathione: a randomised controlled trial

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: The aim of this study was to determine whether oral dosing with N-acetylcysteine (NAC) increases intraplatelet levels of the antioxidant, glutathione (GSH), and reduces platelet–monocyte conjugation in blood from patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: In this placebo-controlled randomised crossover study, the effect of oral NAC dosing on platelet–monocyte conjugation and intraplatelet GSH was investigated in patients with type 2 diabetes (eligibility criteria: men or post-menopausal women with well-controlled diabetes (HbA(1c) < 10%), not on aspirin or statins). Patients (n = 14; age range 43–79 years, HbA(1c) = 6.9 ± 0.9% [52.3 ± 10.3 mmol/mol]) visited the Highland Clinical Research Facility, Inverness, UK on day 0 and day 7 for each arm of the study. Blood was sampled before and 2 h after oral administration of placebo or NAC (1,200 mg) on day 0 and day 7. Patients received placebo or NAC capsules for once-daily dosing on the intervening days. The order of administration of NAC and placebo was allocated by a central office and all patients and research staff involved in the study were blinded to the allocation until after the study was complete and the data fully analysed. The primary outcome for the study was platelet–monocyte conjugation. RESULTS: Oral NAC reduced platelet–monocyte conjugation (from 53.1 ± 4.5% to 42.5 ± 3.9%) at 2 h after administration and the effect was maintained after 7 days of dosing. Intraplatelet GSH was raised in individuals with depleted GSH and there was a negative correlation between baseline intraplatelet GSH and platelet–monocyte conjugation. There were no adverse events. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: The NAC-induced normalisation of intraplatelet GSH, coupled with a reduction in platelet–monocyte conjugation, suggests that NAC might help to reduce atherothrombotic risk in type 2 diabetes. FUNDING: Chief Scientist Office (CZB/4/622), Scottish Funding Council, Highlands & Islands Enterprise and European Regional Development Fund. TRIAL REGISTRATION: isrctn.org ISRCTN89304265 ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00125-012-2685-z) contains peer-reviewed but unedited supplementary material, which is available to authorised users

Coronin 1B Regulates S1P-Induced Human Lung Endothelial Cell Chemotaxis: Role of PLD2, Protein Kinase C and Rac1 Signal Transduction

Coronins are a highly conserved family of actin binding proteins that regulate actin-dependent processes such as cell motility and endocytosis. We found that treatment of human pulmonary artery endothelial cells (HPAECs) with the bioactive lipid, sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) rapidly stimulates coronin 1B translocation to lamellipodia at the cell leading edge, which is required for S1P-induced chemotaxis. Further, S1P-induced chemotaxis of HPAECs was attenuated by pretreatment with small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting coronin 1B (∼36%), PLD2 (∼45%) or Rac1 (∼50%) compared to scrambled siRNA controls. Down regulation PLD2 expression by siRNA also attenuated S1P-induced coronin 1B translocation to the leading edge of the cell periphery while PLD1 silencing had no effect. Also, S1P-induced coronin 1B redistribution to cell periphery and chemotaxis was attenuated by inhibition of Rac1 and over-expression of dominant negative PKC δ, ε and ζ isoforms in HPAECs. These results demonstrate that S1P activation of PLD2, PKC and Rac1 is part of the signaling cascade that regulates coronin 1B translocation to the cell periphery and the ensuing cell chemotaxis