Intradermal Anti-Prostaglandin Agents and Sunburn

Inhibitors of prostaglandin (PG) biosynthesis, indomethacin and aspirin, decrease and delay ultraviolet light-induced erythema when injected intradermally in humans and guinea pigs. Increasing amounts of inhibitor cause a more intense blanch with a longer duration demonstrating a dose response. Indomethacin was approximately 45 times more effective than aspirin. Indomethacin can cause blanching of UV redness if injected at any time from the period of irradiation to 18 hr after UV exposure. Triamcinolone acetonide was effective in preventing erythema in humans, but not in guinea pigs. The ability of anti-PG agents to decrease and delay UV-induced redness lends further support to a role for PG in the mediation of sunburn

Oocyte adenylyl cyclase contains Ni, yet the guanine nucleotide-dependent inhibition by progesterone is not sensitive to pertussis toxin

AbstractMembranes were obtained from Xenopus laevis oocytes after removal of follicular cells by collagenase treatment. [32P]ADP-ribosylation with pertussis toxin showed them to contain a single Mr = 40 000 substrate for this toxin that co-migrates on sodium dodecylsufate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with pure human erythrocyte Ni, the inhibitory regulatory component of adenylyl cyclase. [32P]ADP-ribosylation of oocyte membranes with cholera toxin also showed presence of a single substrate but of Mr = 42 000. These results indicate, that the adenylyl cyclase system of oocytes, like that of somatic cells and unlike that of spermatozoids, contains the catalytic unit C and both of the known regulatory N components.The possible susceptibility to pertussis toxin of the guanine nucleotide-dependent inhibition of oocyte adenylyl cyclase by progesterone was investigated. This action of progesterone is mediated by a membrane bound receptor as opposed to a receptor of cytosolic or nuclear localization. However, the inhibitory effect of progesterone was unaffected by pertussis toxin, even though the oocyte membrane Ni was fully ADP-ribosylated with pertussis toxin, as revealed by lack of further [32P]ADP-ribosylation on subsequent re-incubation with pertussis toxin. These results indicate that the action of progesterone, in spite of being nucleotide-dependent, is either not mediated by Ni, suggesting the existence of an additional nucleotide regulatory component, or if mediated by Ni, involves a mode of regulation of this coupling protein that is different from that by which all other inhibitory hormones act on adenylyl cyclase

Thermodynamics of polymolecular duplexes between phosphate-methylated DNA and natural DNA

Phosphate-methylated (P.M.) DNA possesses a very high affinity for complementary natural DNA, as a result of the absence of interstrand electrostatic repulsions. In this study, a model system phosphate-methylated d[Cn] with natural d(Gk) (n <k)is chosen for an investigation of the thermodynamic properties that determine duplex stability. The enthalpy change of a melting transition is shown to be considerably larger than is observed for corresponding natural DNA duplexes. It is found that H of GG/CC nearest neighbor pairwise interaction equals -15.6 kcal/mol, compared to -11.0 kcal/mol for the natural analog. The entropy change is strongly dependent on the length of the natural DNA strand and the number of phosphate-methylated DNA oligomers hybridized. The results are explained by means of a model in which a cooperative effect for subsequent hybridizations of phosphate-methylated DNA oligomers is assumed, thus giving additional stability

Gi/o Protein-Dependent and -Independent Actions of Pertussis Toxin (PTX)

Pertussis toxin (PTX) is a typical A-B toxin. The A-protomer (S1 subunit) exhibits ADP-ribosyltransferase activity. The B-oligomer consists of four subunits (S2 to S5) and binds extracellular molecules that allow the toxin to enter the cells. The A-protomer ADP-ribosylates the α subunits of heterotrimeric Gi/o proteins, resulting in the receptors being uncoupled from the Gi/o proteins. The B-oligomer binds proteins expressed on the cell surface, such as Toll-like receptor 4, and activates an intracellular signal transduction cascade. Thus, PTX modifies cellular responses by at least two different signaling pathways; ADP-ribosylation of the Gαi/o proteins by the A-protomer (Gi/o protein-dependent action) and the interaction of the B-oligomer with cell surface proteins (Gi/o protein-independent action)

Targeted delivery of antisense oligonucleotides by molecular conjugates

Antisense oligonucleotides efficiently inhibit gene expression in vitro; however, the successful therapeutic application of this technology in vivo will require the development of improved delivery systems. In this report we describe a technique that efficiently delivers antisense oligonucleotides into cells using molecular conjugates. This technique, which was initially developed for the delivery of eukaryotic genes, is based on the construction of DNA-protein complexes that are recognized by the liver-specific asialoglycoprotein receptor. Binding of poly( l -lysine)-asialoorosomucoid (AsOR) protein conjugates with phosphorothioate antisense oligonucleotides to chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) led to the formation of 50- to 150-nm toroids. Exposure of the antisense molecular complexes (3 µM oligonucleotide) to NIH 3T3 cells genetically modified to express both the AsOR receptor and CAT, inhibited CAT expression by 54%, which was completely blocked by excess AsOR. Equivalent inhibition of CAT activity with purified oligonucleotide alone was observed at a 30 µM concentration. Furthermore, examination of the cells using indirect immunofluorescence for the presence of CAT protein showed 28% of cells exposed to the molecular conjugates lacked any detectable CAT enzyme. Cells exposed to oligonucleotide alone showed a highly variable staining pattern, and only a few of the cells were completely void of CAT protein. Together these data demonstrate that molecular conjugates provide a highly specific and efficient system for the delivery of antisense oligonucleotides.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45543/1/11188_2005_Article_BF01232652.pd