Proteomic-based stratification of intermediate-risk prostate cancer patients

Gleason grading is an important prognostic indicator for prostate adenocarcinoma and is crucial for patient treatment decisions. However, intermediate-risk patients diagnosed in the Gleason grade group (GG) 2 and GG3 can harbour either aggressive or non-aggressive disease, resulting in under- or overtreatment of a significant number of patients. Here, we performed proteomic, differential expression, machine learning, and survival analyses for 1,348 matched tumour and benign sample runs from 278 patients. Three proteins (F5, TMEM126B, and EARS2) were identified as candidate biomarkers in patients with biochemical recurrence. Multivariate Cox regression yielded 18 proteins, from which a risk score was constructed to dichotomize prostate cancer patients into low- and high-risk groups. This 18-protein signature is prognostic for the risk of biochemical recurrence and completely independent of the intermediate GG. Our results suggest that markers generated by computational proteomic profiling have the potential for clinical applications including integration into prostate cancer management

The consequences of interface mixing on organic photovoltaic device characteristics

Organic bulk-heterojunction solar cells are being developed as a low-cost alternative to inorganic photovoltaics. A key step to producing high-efficiency bulk-heterojunction devices is film curing using either heat or a solvent atmosphere. All of the literature examining the curing process have assumed that improvement of the bulk-heterojunction morphology is the reason for the increased filling factor, short-circuit current density, and efficiency following heat or solvent treatment. We show in this article that heat treatment causes the donor polymer (P3HT) and polymer electrode (PEDOT:PSS) to mix physically to form an interface layer. This interface layer is composed of a mixture of P3HT and PSS in which the P3HT is oxidized to P3HT + . This mixed layer affects the open-circuit voltage and compensation voltage by limiting the dark current. This result implies that a simplistic description of the P3HT/PEDOT:PSS contact as a sharp interface between bulk P3HT and bulk PEDOT:PSS cannot adequately capture its electrical characteristics. © 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.David M. Huang, Scott A. Mauger, Stephan Friedrich, Simon J. George, Daniela Dumitriu-LaGrange, Sook Yoon, and Adam J. Moul

Age-Dependent Deamidation of Lifelong Proteins in the Human Lens

This article describes, for the first time, the sites and levels of deamidation of all major proteins within a tissue, in this case the human lens

Military map no. 54, prepared as basis for additional surveys

Scale 1:380,160.LC Civil War Maps (2nd ed.), 102.8General map of southern Alabama and West Florida showing roads, railroads, towns, drainage, and a few names of residents along the Tensaw River.Description derived from published bibliography.Map is incomplete; the bottom border is missing. DL

The Impact of Commonly Used Alkylating Agents on Artifactual Peptide Modification

Iodoacetamide is by far the most commonly used agent for alkylation of cysteine during sample preparation for proteomics. An alternative, 2-chloroacetamide, has recently been suggested to reduce the alkylation of residues other than cysteine, such as the N-terminus, Asp, Glu, Lys, Ser, Thr, and Tyr. Here we show that although 2-chloroacetamide reduces the level of off-target alkylation, it exhibits a range of adverse effects. The most significant of these is methionine oxidation, which increases to a maximum of 40% of all Met-containing peptides, compared with 2–5% with iodoacetamide. Increases were also observed for mono- and dioxidized tryptophan. No additional differences between the alkylating reagents were observed for a range of other post-translational modifications and digestion parameters. The deleterious effects were observed for 2-chloroacetamide from three separate suppliers. The adverse impact of 2-chloroacetamide on methionine oxidation suggests that it is not the ideal alkylating reagent for proteomics