MLPA is a powerful tool for detecting lymphoblastic transformation in chronic myeloid leukemia and revealing the clonal origin of relapse in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Microscopic imaging and technolog

Islet amyloid polypeptide inserts into phospholipid monolayers as monomer

Amyloid deposits in the pancreatic islets of Langerhans are thought to be a main factor responsible for death of the insulin-producing islet β-cells in type 2 diabetes. It is hypothesized that β-cell death is related to interaction of the 37 amino acid residue human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP), the major constituent of islet amyloid, with cellular membranes. However, the mechanism of hIAPP–membrane interactions is largely unknown. Here, we study the nature and the molecular details of the initial step of hIAPP–membrane interactions by using the monolayer technique. It is shown that both freshly dissolved hIAPP and the non-amyloidogenic mouse IAPP (mIAPP) have a pronounced ability to insert into phospholipid monolayers, even at lipid packing conditions that exceed the conditions that occur in biological membranes. In contrast, the fibrillar form of hIAPP has lost the ability to insert. These results, combined with the observations that both the insertion kinetics and the dependence of insertion on the initial surface pressure are similar for freshly dissolved hIAPP and mIAPP, indicate that hIAPP inserts into phospholipid monolayers most likely as a monomer. In addition, our results suggest that the N-terminal part of hIAPP, which is nearly identical with that of mIAPP, is largely responsible for insertion. This is supported by experiments with hIAPP fragments, which show that a peptide consisting of the 19 N-terminal residues of hIAPP efficiently inserts into phospholipid monolayers, whereas an amyloidogenic decapeptide, consisting of residues 20–29 of hIAPP, inserts much less efficiently. The results obtained here suggest that hIAPP monomers might insert with high efficiency in biological membranes in vivo. This process could play an important role as a first step in hIAPP-induced membrane damage in type 2 diabetes

Assessment of p53 and ATM functionality in chronic lymphocytic leukemia by multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification

The ATM-p53 DNA-damage response (DDR) pathway has a crucial role in chemoresistance in CLL, as indicated by the adverse prognostic impact of genetic aberrations of TP53 and ATM. Identifying and distinguishing TP53 and ATM functional defects has become relevant as epigenetic and posttranscriptional dysregulation of the ATM/p53 axis is increasingly being recognized as the underlying cause of chemoresistance. Also, specific treatments sensitizing TP53- or ATM-deficient CLL cells are emerging. We therefore developed a new ATM-p53 functional assay with the aim to (i) identify and (ii) distinguish abnormalities of TP53 versus ATM and (iii) enable the identification of additional defects in the ATM-p53 pathway. Reversed transcriptase multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (RT-MLPA) was used to measure ATM and/or p53-dependent genes at the RNA level following DNA damage using irradiation. Here, we showed that this assay is able to identify and distinguish three subgroups of CLL tumors (i.e., TP53-defective, ATM-defective and WT) and is also able to detect additional samples with a defective DDR, without molecular aberrations in TP53 and/or ATM. These findings make the ATM-p53 RT-MLPA functional assay a promising prognostic tool for predicting treatment responses in CLL