Identification of Small-Molecule Inhibitors against Meso-2, 6-Diaminopimelate Dehydrogenase from Porphyromonas gingivalis

Species-specific antimicrobial therapy has the potential to combat the increasing threat of antibiotic resistance and alteration of the human microbiome. We therefore set out to demonstrate the beginning of a pathogen-selective drug discovery method using the periodontal pathogen Porphyromonas gingivalis as a model. Through our knowledge of metabolic networks and essential genes we identified a “druggable” essential target, meso-diaminopimelate dehydrogenase, which is found in a limited number of species. We adopted a high-throughput virtual screen method on the ZINC chemical library to select a group of potential small-molecule inhibitors. Meso-diaminopimelate dehydrogenase from P. gingivaliswas first expressed and purified in Escherichia coli then characterized for enzymatic inhibitor screening studies. Several inhibitors with similar structural scaffolds containing a sulfonamide core and aromatic substituents showed dose-dependent inhibition. These compounds were further assayed showing reasonable whole-cell activity and the inhibition mechanism was determined. We conclude that the establishment of this target and screening strategy provides a model for the future development of new antimicrobials

Asteroseismology of the Hyades red giant and planet host epsilon Tauri

Asteroseismic analysis of solar-like stars allows us to determine physical parameters such as stellar mass, with a higher precision compared to most other methods. Even in a well-studied cluster such as the Hyades, the masses of the red giant stars are not well known, and previous mass estimates are based on model calculations (isochrones). The four known red giants in the Hyades are assumed to be clump (core-helium-burning) stars based on their positions in colour-magnitude diagrams, however asteroseismology offers an opportunity to test this assumption. Using asteroseismic techniques combined with other methods, we aim to derive physical parameters and the evolutionary stage for the planet hosting star epsilon Tau, which is one of the four red giants located in the Hyades. We analysed time-series data from both ground and space to perform the asteroseismic analysis. By combining high signal-to-noise (S/N) radial-velocity data from the ground-based SONG network with continuous space-based data from the revised Kepler mission K2, we derive and characterize 27 individual oscillation modes for epsilon Tau, along with global oscillation parameters such as the large frequency separation and the ratio between the amplitude of the oscillations measured in radial velocity and intensity as a function of frequency. The latter has been measured previously for only two stars, the Sun and Procyon. Combining the seismic analysis with interferometric and spectroscopic measurements, we derive physical parameters for epsilon Tau, and discuss its evolutionary status.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Everolimus exhibits anti-tumorigenic activity in obesity-induced ovarian cancer

Everolimus inhibits mTOR kinase activity and its downstream targets by acting on mTORC1 and has anti-tumorigenic activity in ovarian cancer. Clinical and epidemiologic data find that obesity is associated with worse outcomes in ovarian cancer. In addition, obesity leads to hyperactivation of the mTOR pathway in epithelial tissues, suggesting that mTOR inhibitors may be a logical choice for treatment in obesity-driven cancers. However, it remains unclear if obesity impacts the effect of everolimus on tumor growth in ovarian cancer. The present study was aimed at evaluating the effects of everolimus on cytotoxicity, cell metabolism, apoptosis, cell cycle, cell stress and invasion in human ovarian cancer cells. A genetically engineered mouse model of serous ovarian cancer fed a high fat diet or low fat diet allowed further investigation into the inter-relationship between everolimus and obesity in vivo. Everolimus significantly inhibited cellular proliferation, induced cell cycle G1 arrest and apoptosis, reduced invasion and caused cellular stress via inhibition of mTOR pathways in vitro. Hypoglycemic conditions enhanced the sensitivity of cells to everolimus through the disruption of glycolysis. Moreover, everolimus was found to inhibit ovarian tumor growth in both obese and lean mice. This reduction coincided with a decrease in expression of Ki-67 and phosphorylated-S6, as well as an increase in cleaved caspase 3 and phosphorylated-AKT. Metabolite profiling revealed that everolimus was able to alter tumor metabolism through different metabolic pathways in the obese and lean mice. Our findings support that everolimus may be a promising therapeutic agent for obesity-driven ovarian cancers

Identification of a Blood-Based Protein Biomarker Panel for Lung Cancer Detection

Lung cancer is the deadliest cancer worldwide, mainly due to its advanced stage at the time of diagnosis. A non-invasive method for its early detection remains mandatory to improve patients’ survival. Plasma levels of 351 proteins were quantified by Liquid Chromatography-Parallel Reaction Monitoring (LC-PRM)-based mass spectrometry in 128 lung cancer patients and 93 healthy donors. Bootstrap sampling and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) penalization were used to find the best protein combination for outcome prediction. The PanelomiX platform was used to select the optimal biomarker thresholds. The panel was validated in 48 patients and 49 healthy volunteers. A 6-protein panel clearly distinguished lung cancer from healthy individuals. The panel displayed excellent performance: area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) = 0.999, positive predictive value (PPV) = 0.992, negative predictive value (NPV) = 0.989, specificity = 0.989 and sensitivity = 0.992. The panel detected lung cancer independently of the disease stage. The 6-protein panel and other sub-combinations displayed excellent results in the validation dataset. In conclusion, we identified a blood-based 6-protein panel as a diagnostic tool in lung cancer. Used as a routine test for high- and average-risk individuals, it may complement currently adopted techniques in lung cancer screening.publishedVersio

Total harmonic distortion based method for linearity assessment in electrochemical systems in the context of EIS

Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) is a widely used electrochemical measurement technique that has been used in a great spectrum of fields since it allows deconvolving the individual physic- chemical processes that take place in a given system. Ohm s generalized law, and thus the impedance concept, are only valid if 4 conditions are fulfilled: causality, finiteness, stationarity and linearity. In the case that any of these conditions is not achieved, the obtained impedance spectra will present distortions that may lead to biased or even erroneous results and conclusions. For this reason it is crucial to verify if the 4 conditions are fulfilled, before accepting the results extracted from impedance spectra. In this work, a linearity assessment quantitative method based in the total harmonic distortion (THD) parameter is presented and verified experimentally. The experimental validation of the implemented method showed that the implemented method is able to assess quantitatively the linearity of the system. In addition, it is also able to determine the threshold frequency above which the system will not present significant nonlinear effects even for large perturbation amplitudes. It was observed that the THD method is more sensitive to nonlinear effects than the spectra themselves.The authors are very grateful to the Generalitat Valenciana for its economic support in form of Vali+d grant (Ref: ACIF-2013-268).Giner Sanz, JJ.; Ortega Navarro, EM.; Pérez-Herranz, V. (2015). Total harmonic distortion based method for linearity assessment in electrochemical systems in the context of EIS. Electrochimica Acta. 186:598-612. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2015.10.152S59861218

<html>Increased efficacy of metformin corresponds to differential metabolic effects in the ovarian tumors from obese <i>versus</i> lean mice</html>

Obesity is a significant risk factor for ovarian cancer (OC) and associated with worse outcomes for this disease. We assessed the anti-tumorigenic effects of metformin in human OC cell lines and a genetically engineered mouse model of high grade serous OC under obese and lean conditions. Metformin potently inhibited growth in a dose-dependent manner in all four human OC cell lines through AMPK/mTOR pathways. Treatment with metformin resulted in G1 arrest, induction of apoptosis, reduction of invasion and decreased hTERT expression. In the K18-gT121+/-; p53fl/fl; Brca1fl/fl (KpB) mouse model, metformin inhibited tumor growth in both lean and obese mice. However, in the obese mice, metformin decreased tumor growth by 60%, whereas tumor growth was only decreased by 32% in the lean mice (p=0.003) compared to vehicle-treated mice. The ovarian tumors from obese mice had evidence of impaired mitochondrial complex 2 function and energy supplied by omega fatty acid oxidation rather than glycolysis as compared to lean mice, as assessed by metabolomic profiling. The improved efficacy of metformin in obesity corresponded with inhibition of mitochondrial complex 1 and fatty acid oxidation, and stimulation of glycolysis in only the OCs of obese versus lean mice. In conclusion, metformin had anti-tumorigenic effects in OC cell lines and the KpB OC pre-clinical mouse model, with increased efficacy in obese versus lean mice. Detected metabolic changes may underlie why ovarian tumors in obese mice have heightened susceptibility to metformin

The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in operation since July 2014. This paper describes the second data release from this phase, and the fourteenth from SDSS overall (making this, Data Release Fourteen or DR14). This release makes public data taken by SDSS-IV in its first two years of operation (July 2014-2016). Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14 is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14 is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS); the first data from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2), including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data driven machine learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of the publicly available data from SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS website (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release, and provides links to data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be followed by SDSS-V.Comment: SDSS-IV collaboration alphabetical author data release paper. DR14 happened on 31st July 2017. 19 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by ApJS on 28th Nov 2017 (this is the "post-print" and "post-proofs" version; minor corrections only from v1, and most of errors found in proofs corrected

Supramolecular binding and separation of hydrocarbons within a functionalised porous metal-organic framework

Supramolecular interactions are fundamental to host-guest binding in chemical and biological processes. Direct visualisation of such supramolecular interactions within host-guest systems is extremely challenging but crucial for the understanding of their function. We report a comprehensive study combining neutron scattering with synchrotron X-ray and neutron diffraction, coupled with computational modelling, to define the detailed binding at a molecular level of acetylene, ethylene and ethane within the porous host NOTT-300. This study reveals the simultaneous and cooperative hydrogen-bonding, π···π stacking interactions and inter-molecular dipole interactions in the binding of acetylene and ethylene to give up to twelve individual weak supramolecular interactions aligned within the host to form an optimal geometry for intelligent, selective binding of hydrocarbons. We also report, for the first time, the cooperative binding of a mixture of acetylene and ethylene within the porous host together with the corresponding breakthrough experiment and analysis of mixed gas adsorption isotherms

Has land use pushed terrestrial biodiversity beyond the planetary boundary? A global assessment

Land use and related pressures have reduced local terrestrial biodiversity, but it is unclear how the magnitude of change relates to the recently proposed planetary boundary (“safe limit”). We estimate that land use and related pressures have already reduced local biodiversity intactness—the average proportion of natural biodiversity remaining in local ecosystems—beyond its recently proposed planetary boundary across 58.1% of the world’s land surface, where 71.4% of the human population live. Biodiversity intactness within most biomes (especially grassland biomes), most biodiversity hotspots, and even some wilderness areas is inferred to be beyond the boundary. Such widespread transgression of safe limits suggests that biodiversity loss, if unchecked, will undermine efforts toward long-term sustainable development

The HDAC Inhibitor FK228 Enhances Adenoviral Transgene Expression by a Transduction-Independent Mechanism but Does Not Increase Adenovirus Replication

The histone deacetylase inhibitor FK228 has previously been shown to enhance adenoviral transgene expression when cells are pre-incubated with the drug. Upregulation of the coxsackie adenovirus receptor (CAR), leading to increased viral transduction, has been proposed as the main mechanism. In the present study, we found that the highest increase in transgene expression was achieved when non-toxic concentrations of FK228 were added immediately after transduction, demonstrating that the main effect by which FK228 enhances transgene expression is transduction-independent. FK228 had positive effects both on Ad5 and Ad5/f35 vectors with a variety of transgenes and promoters, indicating that FK228 works mainly by increasing transgene expression at the transcriptional level. In some cases, the effects were dramatic, as demonstrated by an increase in CD40L expression by FK228 from 0.3% to 62% when the murine prostate cancer cell line TRAMP-C2 was transduced with Ad[CD40L]. One unexpected finding was that FK228 decreased the transgene expression of an adenoviral vector with the prostate cell-specific PPT promoter in the human prostate adenocarcinoma cell lines LNCaP and PC-346C. This is probably a consequence of alteration of the adenocarcinoma cell lines towards a neuroendocrine differentiation after FK228 treatment. The observations in this study indicate that FK228 enhances adenoviral therapy by a transduction-independent mechanism. Furthermore, since histone deacetylase inhibitors may affect the differentiation of cells, it is important to keep in mind that the activity and specificity of tissue- and tumor-specific promoters may also be affected