Herpesvirus latency confers symbiotic protection from bacterial infection

All humans become infected with multiple herpesviruses during childhood. After clearance of acute infection, herpesviruses enter a dormant state known as latency. Latency persists for the life of the host and is presumed to be parasitic, as it leaves the individual at risk for subsequent viral reactivation and disease. Here we show that herpesvirus latency also confers a surprising benefit to the host. Mice latently infected with either murine gammaherpesvirus 68 or murine cytomegalovirus, which are genetically highly similar to the human pathogens Epstein-Barr virus and human cytomegalovirus, respectively, are resistant to infection with the bacterial pathogens Listeria monocytogenes and Yersinia pestis. Latency-induced protection is not antigen specific but involves prolonged production of the antiviral cytokine interferon-gamma and systemic activation of macrophages. Latency thereby upregulates the basal activation state of innate immunity against subsequent infections. We speculate that herpesvirus latency may also sculpt the immune response to self and environmental antigens through establishment of a polarized cytokine environment. Thus, whereas the immune evasion capabilities and lifelong persistence of herpesviruses are commonly viewed as solely pathogenic, our data suggest that latency is a symbiotic relationship with immune benefits for the host.     

两栖动物皮肤抗菌肽的研究进展

两栖动物的皮肤抗菌肽是抵御外界微生物侵袭的有效屏障之一.此文综述了两栖动物皮肤抗菌肽的最新研究进展,重点介绍了天然抗菌肽的分离、纯化、基因克隆与表达的过程,并展望了其在农业和临床上的应用前景.     

An siRNA-based microbicide protects mice from lethal herpes simplex virus 2 infection

Herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) infection causes significant morbidity and is an important cofactor for the transmission of HIV infection. A microbicide to prevent sexual transmission of HSV-2 would contribute substantially to controlling the spread of HIV and other infections. Because RNA interference (RNAi) provides effective antiviral defence in plants and other organisms, several studies have focused on harnessing RNAi to inhibit viral infection. Here we show that vaginal instillation of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) targeting HSV-2 protects mice from lethal infection. siRNAs mixed with lipid are efficiently taken up by epithelial and lamina propria cells and silence gene expression in the mouse vagina and ectocervix for at least nine days. Intravaginal application of siRNAs targeting the HSV-2 UL27 and UL29 genes (which encode an envelope glycoprotein and a DNA binding protein, respectively) was well tolerated, did not induce interferon-responsive genes or cause inflammation, and protected mice when administered before and/or after lethal HSV-2 challenge. These results suggest that siRNAs are attractive candidates for the active component of a microbicide designed to prevent viral infection or transmission.     

黑尾胡蜂毒液抗菌肽的分离纯化及功能研究

由于病原微生物对众多传统抗生素药物的耐药性问题日益突显,因此寻找新型的抗菌药物显得尤为紧迫,多肽类制剂因其具有广谱的抗菌活性,已成为克服病原微生物耐药性的潜在候选药物.从黑尾胡蜂毒液中分离并鉴定了一种具有抗菌活性的多肽,命名为VT-1.VT-1对临床致病菌均表现出广谱的抗菌活性.此外,VT-1对人红细胞显示出微弱的溶血活性.     

沼水蛙皮肤中抗菌肽的分离纯化与活性测定

使用C18反相柱,采用线性梯度洗脱从沼水蛙皮肤分泌物中分离纯化出抗菌肽,应用纸片法测定抗菌活性,并测定抗菌肽氨基酸组成.然后进行序列比对和空间结构预测,从抗菌肽的氨基酸序列和空间结构推测抗菌肽的抗菌机制,并展望了抗菌肽的应用前景.     

Quenching quorum-sensing-dependent bacterial infection by an N-acyl homoserine lactonase.

Bacterial cells sense their population density through a sophisticated cell-cell communication system and trigger expression of particular genes when the density reaches a threshold. This type of gene regulation, which controls diverse biological functions including virulence, is known as quorum sensing. Quorum-sensing signals, such as acyl-homoserine lactones (AHLs), are the essential components of the communication system. AHLs regulate virulence gene expression in a range of plant and animal (including human) bacterial pathogens. AHL-producing tobacco restored the pathogenicity of an AHL-negative mutant of Erwinia carotovora. Different bacterial species may produce different AHLs, which vary in the length and substitution of the acyl chain but contain the same homoserine lactone moiety. Here we show that the acyl-homoserine lactonase (AHL-lactonase), a new enzyme from Bacillus sp., inactivates AHL activity by hydrolysing the lactone bond of AHLs. Plants expressing AHL-lactonase quenched pathogen quorum-sensing signalling and showed significantly enhanced resistance to E. carotovora infection. Our results highlight a promising potential to use quorum-sensing signals as molecular targets for disease control, thereby broadening current approaches for prevention of bacterial infections.     

A mutation in the conserved helix termination peptide of keratin 5 in hereditary skin blistering.

In the hereditary blistering condition epidermolysis bullosa simplex, the skin blisters on trauma following rupture of epidermal basal cells. Clinical variations range from severely incapacitating, especially in early childhood, to mild forms that may not even present clinically. Dowling-Meara epidermolysis bullosa simplex is characterized by clusters of epidermal blisters and keratin clumping in the cytoplasm; recent reports describe potentially causal mutations in keratin 14 (refs 2, 3). Here we describe a 'complementary' mutation at the other end of the other keratin expressed by these cells (K5, coexpressed with K14), a change from a Glu to a Gly in the helix termination peptide, detected by altered antibody binding and confirmed by sequencing using the polymerase chain reaction. The two conserved helix boundary peptides are predicted to be essential for filament assembly, and the requirement for two complementary (type I and type II) keratins is absolute. Epidermolysis bullosa simplex diseases demonstrate the function of the keratin cytoskeleton in resisting compaction stresses which otherwise lead to cell lysis.     

福建大头蛙抗癌多肽FJ-2945抗肿瘤活性研究

探索本课题组自主发现的天然抗肿瘤多肽FJ-2945对肝癌细胞Hep3b增殖、迁移的影响并初步明确其作用机制.通过CCK8与RTCA实验检测FJ-2945对细胞增殖能力的影响;采用Transwell与划痕实验分析FJ-2945对于Hep3b迁移能力的影响;利用流式细胞分析法检测FJ-2945对Hep3b细胞周期的影响;最后通过qRT-PCR与免疫印迹实验检测FJ-2945对Hep3b细胞增殖、迁移相关因子在转录水平与蛋白水平的影响.与对照组相比,FJ-2945显著抑制Hep3b细胞的增殖与迁移能力,并促进Hep3b细胞凋亡.实验组中的Skp2蛋白含量显著降低,最终抑制Hep3b细胞增殖与迁移能力.由此说明多肽FJ-2945可以作为潜在的药物,通过靶向Skp2抑制肝癌细胞Hep3b增殖、迁移等过程,发挥抗肿瘤作用.     

真菌Penicillium sp.MO3产生的抗菌肽AF2的分离纯化和性质的研究

从真菌Penicillium sp.M03发酵液中提取到一种具有抗菌活性的肽类物质AF2,并对其性质进行初步研究.真菌发酵液经纱布过滤,离心后经10000 D超滤膜超滤,冻干,以纯水溶解经Sephadex LH-20,DEAE Sepharose及Sephadex G-15进行分离纯化得到纯净物质,并对其基本性质进行研究.结果证明：AF2具有典型的肽类物质特征反应,分子量约为1155,含有12种常见氨基酸,对酸碱,胰蛋白酶,β-内酰胺酶稳定,对热有较好的耐受性.     

真菌Penicillium sp. MO3 产生的抗菌肽AF2的分离纯化和性质的研究

从真菌Penicillium sp. M03发酵液中提取到一种具有抗菌活性的肽类物质AF2,并对其性质进行初步研究. 真菌发酵液经纱布过滤,离心后经10000D超滤膜超滤,冻干,以纯水溶解经Sephadex LH-20,DEAE Sepharose及Sephadex G-15进行分离纯化得到纯净物质,并对其基本性质进行研究. 结果证明：AF2具有典型的肽类物质特征反应,分子量约为1155,含有12种常见氨基酸,对酸碱,胰蛋白酶,β-内酰胺酶稳定,对热有较好的耐受性.     

New signals from the invasive front

Approximately 90% of all cancer deaths arise from the metastatic spread of primary tumours. Of all the processes involved in carcinogenesis, local invasion and the formation of metastases are clinically the most relevant, but they are the least well understood at the molecular level. Revealing their mechanisms is one of the main challenges for exploratory and applied cancer research. Recent experimental progress has identified a number of molecular pathways and cellular mechanisms that underlie the multistage process of metastasis formation: these include tumour invasion, tumour-cell dissemination through the bloodstream or the lymphatic system, colonization of distant organs and, finally, fatal outgrowth of metastases.     

Caenorhabditis elegans gene ced-9 protects cells from programmed cell death.

The gene ced-9 of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans acts to protect cells from programmed cell death. A mutation that abnormally activates ced-9 prevents the cell deaths that occur during normal C. elegans development. Conversely, mutations that inactivate ced-9 cause cells that normally live to undergo programmed cell death; these mutations result in embryonic lethality, indicating that ced-9 function is essential for development. The ced-9 gene functions by negatively regulating the activities of other genes that are required for the process of programmed cell death.     

The lyase activity of the DNA repair protein beta-polymerase protects from DNA-damage-induced cytotoxicity

Small DNA lesions such as oxidized or alkylated bases are repaired by the base excision repair (BER) pathway. BER includes removal of the damaged base by a lesion-specific DNA glycosylase, strand scission by apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease, DNA resynthesis and ligation. BER may be further subdivided into DNA beta-polymerase (beta-pol)-dependent single-nucleotide repair and beta-pol-dependent or -independent long patch repair subpathways. Two important enzymatic steps in mammalian single-nucleotide BER are contributed by beta-pol: DNA resynthesis of the repair patch and lyase removal of 5'-deoxyribose phosphate (dRP). Fibroblasts from beta-pol null mice are hypersensitive to mono-functional DNA-methylating agents, resulting in increases in chromosomal damage, apoptosis and necrotic cell death. Here we show that only the dRP lyase activity of beta-pol is required to reverse methylating agent hypersensitivity in beta-pol null cells. These results indicate that removal of the dRP group is a pivotal step in BER in vivo. Persistence of the dRP moiety in DNA results in the hypersensitivity phenotype of beta-pol null cells and may signal downstream events such as apoptosis and necrotic cell death.     

Estimating the human health risk from possible BSE infection of the British sheep flock.

Following the controversial failure of a recent study and the small numbers of animals yet screened for infection, it remains uncertain whether bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was transmitted to sheep in the past via feed supplements and whether it is still present. Well grounded mathematical and statistical models are therefore essential to integrate the limited and disparate data, to explore uncertainty, and to define data-collection priorities. We analysed the implications of different scenarios of BSE spread in sheep for relative human exposure levels and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) incidence. Here we show that, if BSE entered the sheep population and a degree of transmission occurred, then ongoing public health risks from ovine BSE are likely to be greater than those from cattle, but that any such risk could be reduced by up to 90% through additional restrictions on sheep products entering the food supply. Extending the analysis to consider absolute risk, we estimate the 95% confidence interval for future vCJD mortality to be 50 to 50,000 human deaths considering exposure to bovine BSE alone, with the upper bound increasing to 150,000 once we include exposure from the worst-case ovine BSE scenario examined.     

牛膝菊对黄山乡土植物柔毛水杨梅的化感作用

以外来入侵杂草牛膝菊(Galinsoga parviflora)根、茎、叶水浸提液处理黄山乡土植物柔毛水杨梅(Geum japonicum var.chinense)种子,并对其萌发效果进行研究。结果表明:不同器官浸提液对柔毛水杨梅种子的萌发率以及萌发速度均表现出很强的抑制作用,且随各浸提液质量浓度的增加抑制作用相应增强,但各浸提液的影响存在一定差异性。当茎、叶浸提液质量浓度均为0.1 g/mL、根浸提液质量浓度为0.08 g/mL时,对种子萌发的抑制作用达到最强;同一器官浸提液在0～0.1 g/mL质量浓度范围内,对种子萌发的抑制作用随浓度的增加而加强,当质量浓度为0.1 g/mL时,延迟作用最为显著,但茎、叶浸提液质量浓度为0.02 g/mL时,对萌发速率没有延迟却有加速作用。分析认为,抑制作用可能是多种化感物质共同作用的结果,且它们的性质、活性各不相同。     

紫苏甲醇提取物的体外抗氧化及抑菌活性研究

研究了紫苏不同部位(苏叶、苏梗、苏子)中的多酚、黄酮含量,并考察了紫苏甲醇提取物的抗氧化及抑菌活性。结果表明,苏叶中的多酚、黄酮含量均为最高,分别为1.34、0.72mg/g,其次为苏子、苏梗;苏叶甲醇提取物清除DPPH能力及铁还原能力最强;苏梗甲醇提取物对ABTS自由基具有较好的清除效果。抑菌试验结果表明,苏叶提取物的抑菌效果最好,对敏感菌株大肠杆菌的MIC、MBC值分别为40、80μg/mL。紫苏叶是一种较好的天然抗氧化剂和防腐剂资源。