Retrovirális proteinázok vizsgálata a rezisztencia kialakulásának megértéséhez, és felhasználásuk biológiai folyamatok szabályozására = Study of retroviral proteinases to understand development of resistance and their use in regulation of biological processes

Számos, gyógyszerrezisztenciában megjelenő mutációt tartalmazó HIV-1 proteináz specificitását, gátolhatósági profilját és dimerstabilitását jellemeztük. A gátolhatósági profilok elkészítéséhez nagykapacitású floreszcens mérési módszert dolgoztunk ki. Eredményeink arra utaltak, hogy a mutánsok gátolhatóságát jelentősen befolyásolta a ligandok konformációs flexibilitása, továbbá az enzim egyik régiója képes volt mutációktól függetlenül a ligandhoz illeszkedni. Cefalosporin származékokat tartalmazó vegyületkönyvtár szűrésével különleges, unkompetitív mechanizmusú HIV-1 proteináz inhibitorokat azonosítottunk. A HIV-1 fertőzés korai szakaszában szubsztrátként valószínűsített nukleokapszid fehérje hasításával kapcsolatban szubsztrát-mutagenezis és kinetikai vizsgálatokat végeztünk és a mutációkat a HIV vírusba bejuttatva korrelációt tapasztaltunk a fertőzőképesség és a nukleokapszid fehérje proteolitikus érzékenysége között. Különböző retrovírusok természetes hasítási helyeit reprezentáló oligopeptidekkel összehasonlítottuk retrovirális proteinázok specificitását, mely alapján a HTLV-1 proteáz szubsztrátspecificitása meglehetősen szűknek bizonyult. Egy HIV-1 természetes hasítási helyet reprezentáló oligopeptid sorozattal végzett korábbi szubsztrátspecificitási vizsgálatainkat részben kiegészítettük úgy, hogy az adatsor már 11 retrovirális proteáz adatait tartalmazza. Egy alhely feltérképezésével kapott eredményeink jól korreláltak a retrovírusok filogenetikai analízisével. | Specificity, dimer stability and inhibition profile was determined for several HIV-1 protease mutants harboring mutations occurring in drug resistance. To perform the inhibition profiling, a new, high-throughput fluorescent assay was developed. Our results suggested that the inhibition of the mutants was stronlgy dependent on the conformational flexibility of the inhibitors, furthermore, a critical region of the enzyme was able to fit flexibly to the ligands, independently from its mutations. Screening a library of cephalosporin derivatives, inhibitors uniqally acting in an uncompetitive manner were identified. Mutational and kinetic studies were performed on the nucleocapsid protein, which is suspected to be a substrate of the viral protease in the early phase of infection, and mutations were introduced into an infectious HIV-1 clone. There was a correlation between the protease sensitivity of mutant nucleocapsid proteins and the infectivity of the clones. The specificity of various retroviral proteinases was compared using a large set of oligopeptide substrates representing naturally occurring cleavage sites of various retroviruses: the specificity of HTLV-1 protease appeared to be fairly narrow. We have complemented our previous specificity studies performed with a substrate set representing an HIV-1 cleavage site to probe a substrate binding subsite of 11 retroviral proteases. The results obtained correlated well with the philogenetic analysis of retroviruses

A retrovirális proteázok szerepének vizsgálata a retrovírusok életciklusának korai fázisában = Studies on the retroviral protease in the early phase of life-cycle

A kapsztid (CA) és nukleokapszid (NC) hasítási vizsgálatok elősegítésére számos retrovirális proteázt (PR) jellemeztük, többek között a human T-sejtes leukémia valamint a xenotróp egér leukemia vírus-rokon vírusét is. Igazoltuk a korábban azonosított HIV-1 CA hasítási helyeket, valamint egy új helyet is azonosítottunk. Számos egyszeres és többszörös mutációt hoztunk létre rekombináns, hexahisztidin farokkal expresszált CA fehérjében. A mutánsok proteolitikus érzékenysége jó egyezést mutatott a várt hatásokkal. Ugyanakkor még nyolc mutációval sem sikerült teljesen HIV-1 PR-rezisztenssé tenni a fehérjét. A vizsgált mutációkat bevittük egy harmadik generációs öninaktiválódó lentivírus rendszerbe is. Mind a proteáz érzékeny illetve hasítást gátló CA mutációkat tartalmazó vírusok fertőzőképessége csökkent. Meghatározott vagy jósolt NC fehérje hasítási helyeket tartalmazó oligopeptideket valamint rekombináns NC fehérjéket vizsgáltunk mint PR szubsztrátok. Eredményeink alapján nem csak lentivírus NC fehérjék lehetnek PR szubsztrátok. A virológiai vizsgálatok elősegítésére vizsgáltuk a HIV-1 PR specificitását NC alapú szubsztrátokkal, valamint számos „revertáns” szubsztrátok terveztünk, melyekben a cink-újj motívum belső része nem változott, a hasíthatóságot külső oldalláncok változtatása biztosította. Vizsgáltuk a celluláris protóm változását HIV-1 fertőzés során, és indukálódó fehérjéket azonosítottunk. | To facilitate the comparative capsid (CA) and nucleocapsid (NC) cleavage specificity studies, various retroviral proteases (PRs) were characterized including those of human T-cell lymthotropic and xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related viruses. We verified the previously found cleavage sites in CA of HIV-1 and identified a new one. Single and multiple cleavage site mutations were introduced into a recombinant his-tagged CA. The proteolytic susceptibility of the mutants was in good agreement with the expected changes. However, even eight mutations were not sufficient to make CA resistant towards HIV-1 PR. The studied mutations were introduced into a third generation self-inactivating HIV-1-based lentiviral system. Infectivity assays suggested, that both enhancing and proteolysis inhibitory mutations caused decrease in infectivity. We have studied oligopeptide substrates representing determined or predicted cleavage sites of retroviral nucleocapsid proteins, as well as recombinant NC forms. Cleavage data implied that cleavability of NC sequences might not be restricted to lentiviruses. To facilitate virological studies, we studied the HIV-1 PR specificity with NC-based substrates and designed “revertant” mutants in which cleavability was regained by introducing mutations into close vicinity of the zinc finger motifs. We have also studied the changes in the cellular proteome during the course of HIV-1 infection, and identified proteins with elevated expression

A harmadik szinapszis. Molekuláris kölcsönhatások az elhaló sejtek és az azokat eltávolító makrofágok, dendritikus sejtek között. = The third synapsis. Molecular interactions between dying cells and macrophages or dendritic cells.

A tudományos iskola keretében új interdiszciplináris kutatási terület megteremtésére került sor az apoptótikus sejtek és az azokat eltávolító sejtek közötti harmadi szinapszis tanulmányozására. Megállapítottuk, hogy a transzglutamináz 2 (TG2) enzim szerepet játszik az apoptotikus sejtek eltávolításában, az enzim hiányában autoimmun kórkép alakúl ki. A TG2 bejuthat a sejmagba, sejtbiokémiai hatása összefügg génkifejeződés befolyásolásával. Alzheimer kórban a TG2 résztvesz kovalensen összekötött fehérje aggregátumok létrehozásában. A TG2 védőhatást fejt ki a sejtelhalással szemben májsejtekben és szívizomsejtekben G fehérje, ill. protein diszulfid izomeráz aktivitásával. A PPAR? szerepet játszik az apoptótikus sejteket eltávolító fagocitáló képesség kialakításában fokozva fagocitózis gének kifejeződését. A PPAR?, a retinoid receptor és az LXR receptor szignál utak összekapcsolódnak a makrofágok koleszterol szintjének szabályozásában. A PPAR? aktiváció hatására a dendritikus sejekből fokozott fagocitózisra, hatékony lipid prezentációra és iNKT aktivitásra képes alpopuláció alakul. Apopto-fagocita Taqman Low Density Array-t fejleszttünkl 94 gén mennyiségi kifejeződése vizsgálatára. Az autofágiával elhaló sejtek eltávolítása szintén fagocitózissal történik, specifikus gének indukálódnak. A dendritikus sejtek kölcsönhatása apoptótikus vagy nekrotikus sejtekkel alkalmas az immunválasz finom szabályozására. | In the supported Research School a new interdisciplinary research area has been developed to study the third synapse formed between apoptotic cells and those which engolfe them. It has been established that the transglutaminase 2 (TG2) enzyme plays an important role in the clearance of apoptotic cells, the lack of this enzyme leads to autoimmune disease. TG2 can enter the nucleus and its cell biochemical effects are related to modulation of gene expression and modification of the cytoskeleton. In Alzheimer's disease TG2 participates in the formation of covalently cross-linked protein aggregates. TG2 can protect hepatocytes and cardiomyocytes against apoptosis through its G protein and protein disulphide isomerase activities. PPARγ contributes to the development of phagocytic capacity of macrophages by inducing specific phagocytic genes. The PPARγ, rretinoid and LXR receptor signal pathways are interlinked in regulating cholesterol content of cells. Activation of PPARγ in dendritic cells leads to the development of a subpopulation with increased phagocytic capacity, effective lipid presentation and iNKT activity. An apopto-phagocytic Taqman Low Density array has been developed for quantitative measuring of 94 genes in parallel. Cells dying by autophagy are removed by the same mechanism as apoptotic cells while specific phagocytic genes are induced. Dendritic cells interacting with apoptotic cells can fine tune the immune system

Measurement of the top quark forward-backward production asymmetry and the anomalous chromoelectric and chromomagnetic moments in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV

Abstract The parton-level top quark (t) forward-backward asymmetry and the anomalous chromoelectric (d̂ t) and chromomagnetic (μ̂ t) moments have been measured using LHC pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected in the CMS detector in a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1. The linearized variable AFB(1) is used to approximate the asymmetry. Candidate t t ¯ events decaying to a muon or electron and jets in final states with low and high Lorentz boosts are selected and reconstructed using a fit of the kinematic distributions of the decay products to those expected for t t ¯ final states. The values found for the parameters are AFB(1)=0.048−0.087+0.095(stat)−0.029+0.020(syst),μ̂t=−0.024−0.009+0.013(stat)−0.011+0.016(syst), and a limit is placed on the magnitude of | d̂ t| < 0.03 at 95% confidence level. [Figure not available: see fulltext.

Measurement of t(t)over-bar normalised multi-differential cross sections in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV, and simultaneous determination of the strong coupling strength, top quark pole mass, and parton distribution functions

Peer reviewe

An embedding technique to determine ττ backgrounds in proton-proton collision data

An embedding technique is presented to estimate standard model tau tau backgrounds from data with minimal simulation input. In the data, the muons are removed from reconstructed mu mu events and replaced with simulated tau leptons with the same kinematic properties. In this way, a set of hybrid events is obtained that does not rely on simulation except for the decay of the tau leptons. The challenges in describing the underlying event or the production of associated jets in the simulation are avoided. The technique described in this paper was developed for CMS. Its validation and the inherent uncertainties are also discussed. The demonstration of the performance of the technique is based on a sample of proton-proton collisions collected by CMS in 2017 at root s = 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 41.5 fb(-1).Peer reviewe

MUSiC : a model-unspecific search for new physics in proton-proton collisions at root s=13TeV

Results of the Model Unspecific Search in CMS (MUSiC), using proton-proton collision data recorded at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1), are presented. The MUSiC analysis searches for anomalies that could be signatures of physics beyond the standard model. The analysis is based on the comparison of observed data with the standard model prediction, as determined from simulation, in several hundred final states and multiple kinematic distributions. Events containing at least one electron or muon are classified based on their final state topology, and an automated search algorithm surveys the observed data for deviations from the prediction. The sensitivity of the search is validated using multiple methods. No significant deviations from the predictions have been observed. For a wide range of final state topologies, agreement is found between the data and the standard model simulation. This analysis complements dedicated search analyses by significantly expanding the range of final states covered using a model independent approach with the largest data set to date to probe phase space regions beyond the reach of previous general searches.Peer reviewe

Search for new particles in events with energetic jets and large missing transverse momentum in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A search is presented for new particles produced at the LHC in proton-proton collisions at root s = 13 TeV, using events with energetic jets and large missing transverse momentum. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 101 fb(-1), collected in 2017-2018 with the CMS detector. Machine learning techniques are used to define separate categories for events with narrow jets from initial-state radiation and events with large-radius jets consistent with a hadronic decay of a W or Z boson. A statistical combination is made with an earlier search based on a data sample of 36 fb(-1), collected in 2016. No significant excess of events is observed with respect to the standard model background expectation determined from control samples in data. The results are interpreted in terms of limits on the branching fraction of an invisible decay of the Higgs boson, as well as constraints on simplified models of dark matter, on first-generation scalar leptoquarks decaying to quarks and neutrinos, and on models with large extra dimensions. Several of the new limits, specifically for spin-1 dark matter mediators, pseudoscalar mediators, colored mediators, and leptoquarks, are the most restrictive to date.Peer reviewe

Measurement of prompt open-charm production cross sections in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

The production cross sections for prompt open-charm mesons in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13TeV are reported. The measurement is performed using a data sample collected by the CMS experiment corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 29 nb(-1). The differential production cross sections of the D*(+/-), D-+/-, and D-0 ((D) over bar (0)) mesons are presented in ranges of transverse momentum and pseudorapidity 4 < p(T) < 100 GeV and vertical bar eta vertical bar < 2.1, respectively. The results are compared to several theoretical calculations and to previous measurements.Peer reviewe

Combined searches for the production of supersymmetric top quark partners in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A combination of searches for top squark pair production using proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb(-1) collected by the CMS experiment, is presented. Signatures with at least 2 jets and large missing transverse momentum are categorized into events with 0, 1, or 2 leptons. New results for regions of parameter space where the kinematical properties of top squark pair production and top quark pair production are very similar are presented. Depending on themodel, the combined result excludes a top squarkmass up to 1325 GeV for amassless neutralino, and a neutralinomass up to 700 GeV for a top squarkmass of 1150 GeV. Top squarks with masses from 145 to 295 GeV, for neutralino masses from 0 to 100 GeV, with a mass difference between the top squark and the neutralino in a window of 30 GeV around the mass of the top quark, are excluded for the first time with CMS data. The results of theses searches are also interpreted in an alternative signal model of dark matter production via a spin-0 mediator in association with a top quark pair. Upper limits are set on the cross section for mediator particle masses of up to 420 GeV