Adipocyte lipid synthesis coupled to neuronal control of thermogenic programming

BACKGROUND: The de novo biosynthesis of fatty acids (DNL) through fatty acid synthase (FASN) in adipocytes is exquisitely regulated by nutrients, hormones, fasting, and obesity in mice and humans. However, the functions of DNL in adipocyte biology and in the regulation of systemic glucose homeostasis are not fully understood. METHODS and RESULTS: Here we show adipocyte DNL controls crosstalk to localized sympathetic neurons that mediate expansion of beige/brite adipocytes within inguinal white adipose tissue (iWAT). Induced deletion of FASN in white and brown adipocytes of mature mice (iAdFASNKO mice) enhanced glucose tolerance, UCP1 expression, and cAMP signaling in iWAT. Consistent with induction of adipose sympathetic nerve activity, iAdFASNKO mice displayed markedly increased neuronal tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and neuropeptide Y (NPY) content in iWAT. In contrast, brown adipose tissue (BAT) of iAdFASNKO mice showed no increase in TH or NPY, nor did FASN deletion selectively in brown adipocytes (UCP1-FASNKO mice) cause these effects in iWAT. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that downregulation of fatty acid synthesis via FASN depletion in white adipocytes of mature mice can stimulate neuronal signaling to control thermogenic programming in iWAT

CRISPR-delivery particles targeting nuclear receptor-interacting protein 1 (Nrip1) in adipose cells to enhance energy expenditure

RNA-guided, engineered nucleases derived from the prokaryotic adaptive immune system CRISPR-Cas represent a powerful platform for gene deletion and editing. When used as a therapeutic approach, direct delivery of Cas9 protein and single-guide RNA (sgRNA) could circumvent the safety issues associated with plasmid delivery and therefore represents an attractive tool for precision genome engineering. Gene deletion or editing in adipose tissue to enhance its energy expenditure, fatty acid oxidation, and secretion of bioactive factors through a browning process presents a potential therapeutic strategy to alleviate metabolic disease. Here, we developed CRISPR-delivery particles, denoted CriPs, composed of nano-size complexes of Cas9 protein and sgRNA that are coated with an amphipathic peptide called Endo-Porter that mediates entry into cells. Efficient CRISPR-Cas9-mediated gene deletion of ectopically expressed GFP by CriPs was achieved in multiple cell types, including a macrophage cell line, primary macrophages, and primary pre-adipocytes. Significant GFP loss was also observed in peritoneal exudate cells with minimum systemic toxicity in GFP-expressing mice following intraperitoneal injection of CriPs containing Gfp-targeting sgRNA. Furthermore, disruption of a nuclear co-repressor of catabolism, the Nrip1 gene, in white adipocytes by CriPs enhanced adipocyte browning with a marked increase of uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) expression. Of note, the CriP-mediated Nrip1 deletion did not produce detectable off-target effects. We conclude that CriPs offer an effective Cas9 and sgRNA delivery system for ablating targeted gene products in cultured cells and in vivo, providing a potential therapeutic strategy for metabolic disease

Decreased soluble Nogo-B in serum as a promising biomarker for Parkinson's disease

BackgroundRecently, the neurite outgrowth inhibitor-B (Nogo-B) receptor has been reported as a novel candidate gene for Parkinson's disease (PD). Nogo-B receptors need to combine with soluble Nogo-B to exert their physiological function. However, little is known about the relationship between serum soluble Nogo-B and PD.MethodsSerum levels of sNogo-B and α-Synuclein (α-Syn) were measured in a cohort of 53 patients with PD and 49 healthy controls with the ELISA kit method.ResultsSerum sNogo-B level is significantly lower in the PD group than that in healthy controls and is negatively correlated with UPDRS-III score (p = 0.049), H&Y stage (p = 0.0108) as well as serum α-Syn level (p = 0.0001). The area under the curve (AUC) of serum sNogo-B in differentiating patients with PD from controls was 0.801 while the AUC of serum α-Syn was 0.93. Combining serum sNogo-B and α-Syn in differentiating patients with PD from HC presented higher discriminatory potential (AUC = 0.9534).ConclusionDecreased serum sNogo-B may be a potential biomarker for PD. Lower Nogo-B level reflects worse motor function and disease progression of PD. Serum sNogo-B is of added value to serum α-Syn panel in distinguishing PD from controls. Future studies are needed to confirm in larger samples and different populations

CRISPR-enhanced human adipocyte \u27browning\u27 as cell therapy for metabolic disease [preprint]

Obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D) are associated with poor tissue responses to insulin [1,2], disturbances in glucose and lipid fluxes [3-5] and comorbidities including steatohepatitis [6] and cardiovascular disease [7,8]. Despite extensive efforts at prevention and treatment [9,10], diabetes afflicts over 400 million people worldwide [11]. Whole body metabolism is regulated by adipose tissue depots [12-14], which include both lipid-storing white adipocytes and less abundant \u27brown\u27 and \u27brite/beige\u27 adipocytes that express thermogenic uncoupling protein UCP1 and secrete factors favorable to metabolic health [15-18]. Application of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) gene editing [19,20] to enhance \u27browning\u27 of white adipose tissue is an attractive therapeutic approach to T2D. However, the problems of cell-selective delivery, immunogenicity of CRISPR reagents and long term stability of the modified adipocytes are formidable. To overcome these issues, we developed methods that deliver complexes of SpyCas9 protein and sgRNA ex vivo to disrupt the thermogenesis suppressor gene NRIP1 [21,22] with near 100% efficiency in human or mouse adipocytes. NRIP1 gene disruption at discrete loci strongly ablated NRIP1 protein and upregulated expression of UCP1 and beneficial secreted factors, while residual Cas9 protein and sgRNA were rapidly degraded. Implantation of the CRISPR-enhanced human or mouse brown-like adipocytes into high fat diet fed mice decreased adiposity and liver triglycerides while enhancing glucose tolerance compared to mice implanted with unmodified adipocytes. These findings advance a therapeutic strategy to improve metabolic homeostasis through CRISPR-based genetic modification of human adipocytes without exposure of the recipient to immunogenic Cas9 or delivery vectors

ACT001 improved cardiovascular function in septic mice by inhibiting the production of proinflammatory cytokines and the expression of JAK-STAT signaling pathway

Sepsis is a life-threatening multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) caused by a microbial infection that leads to high morbidity and mortality worldwide. Sepsis-induced cardiomyopathy (SIC) and coagulopathy promote the progression of adverse outcomes in sepsis. Here, we reported that ACT001, a modified compound of parthenolide, improved the survival of sepsis mice. In this work, we used cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) model to induce SIC. Transthoracic echocardiography and HE staining assays were adopted to evaluate the influence of ACT001 on sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction. Our results showed that ACT001 significantly improved heart function and reduced SIC. Coagulation accelerates organ damage in sepsis. We found that ACT001 decreased blood clotting in the FeCl3-induced carotid artery thrombosis experiment. ACT001 also reduced the production of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). RNA-sequencing of heart tissues revealed that ACT001 significantly downregulated the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and the JAK-STAT signaling pathway. These results were confirmed with real-time PCR and ELISA. In summary, we found ACT001 rescued mice from septic shock by protecting the cardiovascular system. This was partially mediated by inhibiting pro-inflammatory cytokine production and down-regulating the JAK-STAT signaling

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Development of Antisense Therapeutic and Imaging Agents to Detect and Suppress Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase (iNOS) Expression in Acute Lung Injury (ALI)

This dissertation focuses on the development and investigation of antisense imaging and therapeutic agents, combined with nanotechnology, to detect and suppress inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression for the diagnosis and treatment of acute lung injury (ALI). To achieve this goal, several efforts were made. The first effort was the identification and characterization of high binding affinity antisense peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) and shell-crosslinked knedel-like nanoparticle (SCK)-PNA conjugates to the iNOS mRNA. Antisense binding sites on the iNOS mRNA were first mapped by a procedure for rapidly generating a library of antisense accessible sites on native mRNAs (MASL) which involves reverse transcription of whole cell mRNA extracts with a random oligodeoxynucleotide primer followed by mRNA-specific PCR. Antisense PNAs against the antisense accessible sites were accordingly synthesized and characterized. The dissociation constants of oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) to iNOS mRNA were quantitatively measured by a Dynabead-based assay, and the binding affinities of PNAs were determined by a competition assay. All the sites identified by the MASL assay showed high binding affinities with pM dissociation constants. Finally, hierarchically-assembled, multi-functional SCKs were developed and conjugated with PNAs to promote delivery and recognition. The PNA-SCK conjugates also showed sequence-specific binding to iNOS mRNA by comparing the binding affinity of matched and mismatched PNA-SCK conjugates. The second effort was the investigation of cationic shell crosslinked knedel-like nanoparticle (cSCK)-mediated siRNA delivery to suppress iNOS expression for the treatment of ALI. siRNA with its unique gene-specific properties could serve as a promising therapeutic agent, however success in this area has been challenged by a lack of efficient biocompatible transfection agents. cSCK with its nanometer size and positive charge previously showed efficient cellular delivery of phosphorothioate ODNs (oligodeoxynucleotides), plasmid DNA and PNA. Herein, cSCK showed good siRNA binding and facilitated efficient siRNA transfection in HeLa, a mouse macrophage cell line and other human cell lines. cSCK led to greater silencing efficiency than Lipofectamine 2000 in HeLa cells as determined by the viability following transfection with cytotoxic and non-cytotoxic siRNAs, as well in 293T and HEK cells, and was comparable in BEAS-2B and MCF10a cells. cSCK also led to greater silencing of iNOS expression than Lipofectamine 2000 in a mouse macrophage cell line, and provided greater protection from serum degradation, demonstrating its potential usefulness as an siRNA transfection agent. The siRNA silencing of iNOS at lower concentrations of siRNA could be enhanced by complexation with the fusogenic GALA peptide, which was shown to enhance endosomal escape following uptake. The third effort was the preparation of an iNOS imaging probe through electrostatic complexation between a radiolabeled antisense PNA-YR9*oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) hybrid and a cationic shell-crosslinked knedel-like nanoparticle (cSCK) to specifically target and image iNOS mRNA toward the diagnosis of ALI. The Y (tyrosine) residue was used for 123I radiolabeling while the R9 (arginine9) peptide was used to facilitate endosomal, lysosomal, and cellular escape of untargeted PNA probe. Complete binding of the antisense PNA-YR9*ODN hybrid to the cSCK was achieved at an 8:1 cSCK amine to ODN phosphate (N/P) ratio. The antisense PNA-YR9*ODN*cSCK nanocomplexes efficiently entered RAW 264.7 cells, while the PNA-YR9*ODN alone was not taken up. Low concentrations of 123I-labeled antisense PNA-YR9*ODN complexed with cSCK, showed significantly higher retention of radioactivity in iNOS-induced RAW 264.7 cells when compared to a mismatched PNA. Moreover, statistically greater retention of radioactivity from the antisense complex was also observed in vivo in an iNOS-induced mouse lung after intratracheal administration of the nanocomplexes. This work demonstrates the specificity and sensitivity by which the radiolabeled nanocomplexes can detect iNOS mRNA in vitro and in vivo and their potential for early diagnosis of acute lung injury. The fourth effort was the study of a degradable polyphosphoester-based cationic nanoparticle (dg-cSCK), which itself demonstrated efficient iNOS inhibition without further loading of any other therapeutic drugs. It appeared that spontaneous hydrolytic degradation and/or assisted by enzymes caused the particle to quickly release degraded small fragments. One of the expected degradation products showed dose-dependent iNOS inhibition, and might serve as a novel inhibitor that could explain the behavior of dg-cSCK. Dg-cSCK showed much more efficient iNOS inhibition than the degradation product, probably due to higher cellular uptake on the nanoparticle precursor than the degradation product. Dg-cSCK also led to the decrease of iNOS mRNA level, suggesting that the inhibition might be taking place upstream of iNOS. This degradable PPE-based cationic nanoparticle might have potential as a promising anti-iNOS and/or anti-inflammatory agent for the treatment of acute lung injury. Future work will focus on identifying upstream members of the iNOS pathway that may be inhibited by dg-cSCK, and the application of this nanoparticle to ALI animal models

Native mRNA antisense-accessible sites library for the selection of antisense oligonucleotides, PNAs, and siRNAs

A procedure for rapidly generating a library of antisense-accessible sites on native mRNAs (mRNA antisense-accessible sites library [MASL]) is described that involves reverse transcription of whole cell mRNA extracts with a random oligodeoxynucleotide primer followed by mRNA-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Antisense phosphorothioate oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs), peptide nucleic acids (PNAs), and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) can then be identified by screening against the antisense-accessible sites. The utility of this methodology is demonstrated for the identification of more effective inhibitors of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) induction than have previously been reported. This method may also be useful for constraining folding calculations of native mRNAs and for designing mRNA imaging probes

A Dual-Permanent-Magnet Machine with Asymmetric Stator Teeth-Tips

Dual-permanent-magnet machines (DPMMs) have attracted increasing attentions due to their merit of high torque density. Nevertheless, DPMMs suffer from low PM utilization ratio owing to large PM consumption. To improve the situation, this paper presents a DPMM with asymmetric stator teeth-tips, termed as AST-DPMM. The key of the proposed design is to arrange wide and narrow stator teeth-tips alternatively. By building an analytical model of the AST-DPMM, the impact of asymmetric stator teeth-tips is investigated. It is found the asymmetric stator teeth-tips can enhance the working harmonics by generating new magnetomotive force harmonics and permeance harmonics. Hence, it can achieve high torque density and improve PM utilization ratio simultaneously. The performance comparisons together with other machines are conducted to evaluate the investigated AST-DPMM. Finally, a prototype of the AST-DPMM is fabricated, and the experimental testing is conducted to verify the proposed ideas