Midkine drives cardiac inflammation by promoting neutrophil trafficking and NETosis in myocarditis

Heart failure due to dilated cardiomyopathy is frequently caused by myocarditis. However, the pathogenesis of myocarditis remains incompletely understood. Here, we report the presence of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) in cardiac tissue of patients and mice with myocarditis. Inhibition of NET formation in experimental autoimmune myocarditis (EAM) of mice substantially reduces inflammation in the acute phase of the disease. Targeting the cytokine midkine (MK), which mediates NET formation in vitro, not only attenuates NET formation in vivo and the infiltration of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) but also reduces fibrosis and preserves systolic function during EAM. Low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 (LRP1) acts as the functionally relevant receptor for MK-induced PMN recruitment as well as NET formation. In summary, NETosis substantially contributes to the pathogenesis of myocarditis and drives cardiac inflammation, probably via MK, which promotes PMN trafficking and NETosis. Thus, MK as well as NETs may represent novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of cardiac inflammation

The machinery underlying malaria parasite virulence is conserved between rodent and human malaria parasites

Sequestration of red blood cells infected with the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum in organs such as the brain is considered important for pathogenicity. A similar phenomenon has been observed in mouse models of malaria, using the rodent parasite Plasmodium berghei, but it is unclear whether the P. falciparum proteins known to be involved in this process are conserved in the rodent parasite. Here we identify the P. berghei orthologues of two such key factors of P. falciparum, SBP1 and MAHRP1. Red blood cells infected with P. berghei parasites lacking SBP1 or MAHRP1a fail to bind the endothelial receptor CD36 and show reduced sequestration and virulence in mice. Complementation of the mutant P. berghei parasites with the respective P. falciparum SBP1 and MAHRP1 orthologues restores sequestration and virulence. These findings reveal evolutionary conservation of the machinery underlying sequestration of divergent malaria parasites and support the notion that the P. berghei rodent model is an adequate tool for research on malaria virulence

Research and Design of a Routing Protocol in Large-Scale Wireless Sensor Networks

无线传感器网络，作为全球未来十大技术之一，集成了传感器技术、嵌入式计算技术、分布式信息处理和自组织网技术，可实时感知、采集、处理、传输网络分布区域内的各种信息数据，在军事国防、生物医疗、环境监测、抢险救灾、防恐反恐、危险区域远程控制等领域具有十分广阔的应用前景。 本文研究分析了无线传感器网络的已有路由协议，并针对大规模的无线传感器网络设计了一种树状路由协议，它根据节点地址信息来形成路由，从而简化了复杂繁冗的路由表查找和维护，节省了不必要的开销，提高了路由效率，实现了快速有效的数据传输。 为支持此路由协议本文提出了一种自适应动态地址分配算——ADAR（AdaptiveDynamicAddre...As one of the ten high technologies in the future, wireless sensor network, which is the integration of micro-sensors, embedded computing, modern network and Ad Hoc technologies, can apperceive, collect, process and transmit various information data within the region. It can be used in military defense, biomedical, environmental monitoring, disaster relief, counter-terrorism, remote control of haz...学位：工学硕士院系专业：信息科学与技术学院通信工程系_通信与信息系统学号：2332007115216

Thermostabilization of the uronate dehydrogenase from Agrobacterium tumefaciens by semi-rational design

Abstract Aldaric acids represent biobased ‘top value-added chemicals’ that have the potential to substitute petroleum-derived chemicals. Until today they are mostly produced from corresponding aldoses using strong chemical oxidizing agents. An environmentally friendly and more selective process could be achieved by using natural resources such as seaweed or pectin as raw material. These contain large amounts of uronic acids as major constituents such as glucuronic acid and galacturonic acid which can be converted into the corresponding aldaric acids via an enzyme-based oxidation using uronate dehydrogenase (Udh). The Udh from Agrobacterium tumefaciens (UdhAt) features the highest catalytic efficiency of all characterized Udhs using glucuronic acid as substrate (829 s−1 mM−1). Unfortunately, it suffers from poor thermostability. To overcome this limitation, we created more thermostable variants using semi-rational design. The amino acids for substitution were chosen according to the B factor in combination with four additional knowledge-based criteria. The triple variant A41P/H101Y/H236K showed higher kinetic and thermodynamic stability with a T 50 15 value of 62.2 °C (3.2 °C improvement) and a ∆∆GU of 2.3 kJ/mol compared to wild type. Interestingly, it was only obtained when including a neutral mutation in the combination

Novel CAD-like enzymes from Escherichia coli K-12 as additional tools in chemical production

In analyzing the reductive power of Escherichia coli K-12 for metabolic engineering approaches, we identified YahK and YjgB, two medium-chain dehydrogenases/reductases subgrouped to the cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase family, as being important. Identification was achieved using a stepwise purification protocol starting with crude extract. For exact characterization, the genes were cloned into pET28a vector and expressed with N-terminal His tag. Substrate specificity studies revealed that a large variety of aldehydes but no ketones are converted by both enzymes. YahK and and YjgB strongly preferred NADPH as cofactor. The structure of YjgB was modeled using YahK as template for a comparison of the active center giving a first insight to the different substrate preferences. The enzyme activity for YahK, YjgB, and YqhD was determined on the basis of the temperature. YahK showed a constant increase in activity until 60 °C, whereas YjgB was most active between 37 and 50 °C. YqhD achieved the highest activity at 50 °C. Comparing YjgB and Yahk referring to the catalytic efficiency, YjgB achieved for almost all substrates higher rates (butyraldehyde 221 s(−1) mM(−1), benzaldehyde 1,305 s(−1) mM(−1)). Exceptions are the two substrates glyceraldehydes (no activity for YjgB) and isobutyraldehyde (YjgB 0.26 s(−1) mM(−1)) which are more efficiently converted by YahK (glyceraldehyde 2.8 s(−1) mM(−1), isobutyraldehyde 14.6 s(−1) mM(−1)). YahK and even more so YjgB are good candidates for the reduction of aldehydes in metabolic engineering approaches and could replace the currently used YqhD