The Ca2+-dependent Binding of Calmodulin to an N-terminal Motif of the Heterotrimeric G Protein beta Subunit

Ca2+ ion concentration changes are critical events in signal transduction. The Ca2+-dependent interactions of calmodulin (CaM) with its target proteins play an essential role in a variety of cellular functions. In this study, we investigated the interactions of G protein beta gamma subunits with CaM. We found that CaM binds to known beta gamma subunits and these interactions are Ca2+-dependent. The CaM-binding domain in Gbeta gamma subunits is identified as Gbeta residues 40-63. Peptides derived from the Gbeta protein not only produce a Ca2+-dependent gel mobility shifting of CaM but also inhibit the CaM-mediated activation of CaM kinase II. Specific amino acid residues critical for the binding of Gbeta gamma to CaM were also identified. We then investigated the potential function of these interactions and showed that binding of CaM to Gbeta gamma inhibits the pertussis toxin-catalyzed ADP-ribosylation of Galpha o subunits, presumably by inhibiting heterotrimer formation. Furthermore, we demonstrated that interaction with CaM has little effect on the activation of phospholipase C-beta 2 by Gbeta gamma subunits, supporting the notion that different domains of Gbeta gamma are responsible for the interactions of different effectors. These findings shed light on the molecular basis for the interactions of Gbeta gamma with Ca2+-CaM and point to the potential physiological significance of these interactions in cellular functions

Roles of XB130, a novel adaptor protein, in cancer

Adaptor proteins, with multi-modular structures, can participate in the regulation of various cellular functions. During molecular cloning process of actin filament associated protein, we have discovered a novel adaptor protein, referred to as XB130. The human xb130 gene is localized on chromosome 10q25.3, and encodes an 818 amino acid protein. The N-terminal region of XB130 includes several tyrosine phosphorylation sites and a proline-rich sequence that might interact with Src homology 2 and 3 domain-containing proteins, respectively. Our studies have indeed implicated XB130 as a likely substrate and regulator of tyrosine kinase-mediated signaling. Down-regulation of endogenous XB130 with small interfering RNA reduced c-Src activity, IL-8 production and phosphorylation of Akt in human lung epithelial cells. Further, XB130 binds the p85α subunit of phosphatidyl-inositol-3-kinase and subsequently mediates signaling through RET/PTC in thyroid cancer cells. Knockdown of XB130 using small interfering RNA inhibited G1-S phase progression, induced spontaneous apoptosis and enhanced intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic stimulus-induced cell death in human lung and thyroid cancer cells. Growth of tumors in nude mice formed from XB130 short hairpin RNA stably transfected human thyroid cancer cells were significantly reduced, with decreased cell proliferation and increased apoptosis. Further, XB130 has a high affinity to lamellipodial F-actin meshwork and is involved in the motility and invasiveness of cancer cells. Gene expression profiling identified 246 genes significantly changed in XB130 short hairpin RNA transfected thyroid cancer cells. Among them, 57 genes are related to cell proliferation or survival, including many transcription regulators. Pathway analysis showed that the top ranked disease related to XB130 is Cancer, and the top molecular and cellular functions are Cellular Growth and Proliferation, and Cell Cycle. These observations suggest that the expression of XB130 may affect cell proliferation, survival, motility and invasion in various cancer cells. A deeper understanding of these mechanisms may lead to the discovery of XB130 as an important mediator in tumor development and as a novel therapeutic target for cancer

A reinforced learning approach to optimal design under model uncertainty

Optimal designs are usually model-dependent and likely to be sub-optimal if the postulated model is not correctly specified. In practice, it is common that a researcher has a list of candidate models at hand and a design has to be found that is efficient for selecting the true model among the competing candidates and is also efficient (optimal, if possible) for estimating the parameters of the true model. In this article, we use a reinforced learning approach to address this problem. We develop a sequential algorithm, which generates a sequence of designs which have asymptotically, as the number of stages increases, the same efficiency for estimating the parameters in the true model as an optimal design if the true model would have correctly been specified in advance. A lower bound is established to quantify the relative efficiency between such a design and an optimal design for the true model in finite stages. Moreover, the resulting designs are also efficient for discriminating between the true model and other rival models from the candidate list. Some connections with other state-of-the-art algorithms for model discrimination and parameter estimation are discussed and the methodology is illustrated by a small simulation study

Evaluation of the inhibition potential of plumbagin against cytochrome P450 using LC-MS/MS and cocktail approach

Plumbagin (5-hydroxy-2-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone), a natural naphthoquinone compound isolated from roots of Plumbago zeylanica L., has drawn a lot of attention for its plenty of pharmacological properties including antidiabetes and anti-cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of plumbagin on CYP1A2, CYP2B1/6, CYP2C9/11, CYP2D1/6, CYP2E1 and CYP3A2/4 activities in human and rat liver and evaluate the potential herb-drug interactions using the cocktail approach. All CYP substrates and their metabolites were analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Plumbagin presented non-time-dependent inhibition of CYP activities in both human and rat liver. In humans, plumbagin was not only a mixed inhibitor of CYP2B6, CYP2C9, CYP2D6, CYP2E1 and CYP3A4, but also a non-competitive inhibitor of CYP1A2, with K(i) values no more than 2.16 μM. In rats, the mixed inhibition of CYP1A2 and CYP2D1, and competitive inhibition for CYP2B1, CYP2C11 and CYP2E1 with K(i) values less than 9.93 μM were observed. In general, the relatively low K(i) values of plumbagin in humans would have a high potential to cause the toxicity and drug interactions involving CYP enzymes

Bench-to-bedside review: Biotrauma and modulation of the innate immune response

The innate immune network is responsible for coordinating the initial defense against potentially noxious stimuli. This complex system includes anatomical, physical and chemical barriers, effector cells and circulating molecules that direct component and system interactions. Besides the direct effects of breaching pulmonary protective barriers, cyclic stretch generated during mechanical ventilation (MV) has been implicated in the modulation of the innate immunity. Evidence from recent human trials suggests that controlling MV-forces may significantly impact outcome in acute respiratory distress syndrome. In this paper, we explore the pertinent evidence implicating biotrauma caused by cyclic MV and its effect on innate immune responses

Lgr4 in Ocular Development and Glaucoma

The leucine-rich repeat-containing G protein-coupled receptor 4 (LGR4, also called GPR48) plays a key role in multiple developmental processes, and mice lacking Lgr4 display anterior segment dysgenesis leading to early-onset glaucomatous retinal ganglion cell loss as well as defective eyelid formation. This paper will review Lgr4 signaling and its regulation of the Axenfeld-Rieger syndrome gene Pitx2, a crucial developmental transcription factor. In addition, Wnt signaling plays an important role in eye development, with Norrin functioning to activate the Wnt receptor Frizzled 4 required for proper retinal vascularization. Recent discoveries identifying Lgr4 as a receptor for Norrin highlight the potential for Lgr4 function in retinal vascularization. Finally, several unanswered questions impeding a full understanding of Lgr4 in glaucoma are considered as avenues for further research

Review Article Lgr4 in Ocular Development and Glaucoma

The leucine-rich repeat-containing G protein-coupled receptor 4 (LGR4, also called GPR48) plays a key role in multiple developmental processes, and mice lacking Lgr4 display anterior segment dysgenesis leading to early-onset glaucomatous retinal ganglion cell loss as well as defective eyelid formation. This paper will review Lgr4 signaling and its regulation of the AxenfeldRieger syndrome gene Pitx2, a crucial developmental transcription factor. In addition, Wnt signaling plays an important role in eye development, with Norrin functioning to activate the Wnt receptor Frizzled 4 required for proper retinal vascularization. Recent discoveries identifying Lgr4 as a receptor for Norrin highlight the potential for Lgr4 function in retinal vascularization. Finally, several unanswered questions impeding a full understanding of Lgr4 in glaucoma are considered as avenues for further research

MaCH-Admix: Genotype Imputation for Admixed Populations: MaCH-Admix: Imputation for Admixed Populations

Imputation in admixed populations is an important problem but challenging due to the complex linkage disequilibrium (LD) pattern. The emergence of large reference panels such as that from the 1,000 Genomes Project enables more accurate imputation in general, and in particular for admixed populations and for uncommon variants. To efficiently benefit from these large reference panels, one key issue to consider in modern genotype imputation framework is the selection of effective reference panels. In this work, we consider a number of methods for effective reference panel construction inside a hidden Markov model and specific to each target individual. These methods fall into two categories: identity-by-state (IBS) based and ancestry-weighted approach. We evaluated the performance on individuals from recently admixed populations. Our target samples include 8,421 African Americans and 3,587 Hispanic Americans from the Women’s Health Initiative, which allow assessment of imputation quality for uncommon variants. Our experiments include both large and small reference panels; large, medium, and small target samples; and in genome regions of varying levels of LD. We also include BEAGLE and IMPUTE2 for comparison. Experiment results with large reference panel suggest that our novel piecewise IBS method yields consistently higher imputation quality than other methods/software. The advantage is particularly noteworthy among uncommon variants where we observe up to 5.1% information gain with the difference being highly significant (Wilcoxon signed rank test P-value < 0.0001). Our work is the first that considers various sensible approaches for imputation in admixed populations and presents a comprehensive comparison