CpG ODN对初生仔猪外周血CD4+和CD8+T淋巴细胞的影响

以猪伪狂犬病毒为模式病毒,研究了CpG ODN对仔猪外周血中CD4^＋,CD8^＋T淋巴细胞的影响．实验结果表明：疫苗组初生仔猪血液中CD4^＋／CD8^＋T淋巴细胞比例随年龄的增加逐渐降低,而CpG ODN能有效抑制其降低（P〈0．05）;CpG ODN的使用也可以阻止伪狂犬病毒导致的血液中CD4^＋T淋巴细胞比例的降低;联合免疫CpG ODN和猪伪狂犬病毒活疫苗,可以诱导初生仔猪血清中猪伪狂犬病毒特异性抗体迅速产生并达到较高的水平（P〈0．05）;这表明CpG ODN能显著增强动物的免疫应答能力．     

子宫颈癌抑癌基因P16第一外显子CpG岛异常甲基化

利用限制性核酸内切酶-PCR方法分析33例肿瘤组织和15例正常组织抑癌基因p16第一外显子SacⅡ和SmaⅠ酶切位点甲基化,应用SPSS软件进行统计分析。结果显示,18例子宫颈癌在抑癌基因p16第一外显子SacⅡ位点甲基化,8例子宫颈癌在SmaⅠ位点甲基化。正常组织仅有两例在抑癌基因p16第一外显子SacⅡ位点甲基化,正常组织在SmaⅠ位点没有甲基化。另外,抑癌基因p16第一外显子SacⅡ和SmaⅠ酶切位点甲基化易发生在肿瘤的早期。抑癌基因p16第一外显子SacⅡ和SmaⅠ酶切位点甲基化与子宫颈癌相关。     

Captopril and its dimer captopril disulfide: comparative structural and conformational studies

The crystal structures of captopril {systematic name: (2S)‐1‐[(2S)‐2‐methyl‐3‐sulfanylpropanoyl]pyrrolidine‐2‐carboxylic acid}, C₉H₁₅NO₃S, (1), and its dimer disulfide metabolite, 1,1′‐{disulfanediylbis[(2S)‐2‐methyl‐1‐oxopropane‐3,1‐diyl]}bis‐L‐proline, C₁₈H₂₈N₂O₆S₂, (2), were determined by single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction analysis. Compound (1) crystallizes in the orthorhombic space group P2₁2₁2₁, while compound (2) crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P2₁, both with one molecule per asymmetric unit. The molecular geometries of (1) and (2) are quite similar, but certain differences appear in the conformations of the five‐membered proline rings and the side chains containing the sulfhydryl group. The proline ring adopts an envelope conformation in (1), while in (2) it exists in envelope and slightly deformed half‐chair conformations. The conformation adopted by the side chain is extended in (1) and folded in (2). A minimum‐energy conformational search using Monte Carlo methods in the aqueous phase reveals that the optimized conformations of the title compounds differ from those determined crystallographically, which depend on their immediate environment. Intermolecular O—H...O and relatively weak C—H...O interactions seem to be effective in both structures and, together with S—H...O and C—H...S contacts, they create three‐dimensional networks.     

Assessing Heterologous Expression of Hyoscyamine 6β-Hydroxylase – A Feasibility Study

The protein sequence of the hyoscyamine 6β-hydroxylase gene from Hyoscyamusniger was analysed in silico for its potential of heterologous expression. Therefore different parameters determining the proteins properties and structure in prokaryotic or eukaryotic protein expression systems were taken into account. In silico prediction of co- and post-translational modifications revealed 25 putative glycosylation sites, one of which reported to be a co-factor stabilizing residue in 2-oxoglutarate dependent dioxygenases. Potential protein solubility and degradation (PEST) motifs were also evaluated. Together with the calculated physico-chemical properties the results indicated reasonable solubility but potential instability of the protein in Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Further a synthetic h6h-gene was introduced into the prokaryotic or eukaryotic hostsEscherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae to determine protein expression. The protein could be expressed in both organisms, though stability was confirmed to be an issue.     

Intramolecular cyclization to fused pyranoisoxazoles and molecular packing motifs identification through X-ray structural studies

The present work describes intramolecular cyclization of 4-(hydroxyamino)-2-oxo-6-aryl-N-(substituted)-2H-pyran-3-carboxamides (1a-e) under the basic condition to yield fused pyranoisoxazoles (2a-e). The X-ray structural studies delineate a network of non-covalent forces that provided a molecular packing motif to generate a reproducible stacking pattern towards column scaffold formation in the pyranoisoxazole crystal system.     

Concomitant polymorphs of 1,3‐bis(3‐fluorophenyl)urea

Hydrogen bonding between urea functionalities is a common structural motif employed in crystal‐engineering studies. Crystallization of 1,3‐bis(3‐fluorophenyl)urea, C₁₃H₁₀F₂N₂O, from many solvents yielded concomitant mixtures of at least two polymorphs. In the monoclinic form, one‐dimensional chains of hydrogen‐bonded urea molecules align in an antiparallel orientation, as is typical of many diphenylureas. In the orthorhombic form, one‐dimensional chains of hydrogen‐bonded urea molecules have a parallel orientation rarely observed in symmetrically substituted diphenylureas.     

Constitutional Dynamics of Metal–Organic Motifs on a Au(111) Surface

Constitutional dynamic chemistry (CDC), including both dynamic covalent chemistry and dynamic noncovalent chemistry, relies on reversible formation and breakage of bonds to achieve continuous changes in constitution by reorganization of components. In this regard, CDC is considered to be an efficient and appealing strategy for selective fabrication of surface nanostructures by virtue of dynamic diversity. Although constitutional dynamics of monolayered structures has been recently demonstrated at liquid/solid interfaces, most of molecular reorganization/reaction processes were thought to be irreversible under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions where CDC is therefore a challenge to be achieved. Here, we have successfully constructed a system that presents constitutional dynamics on a solid surface based on dynamic coordination chemistry, in which selective formation of metal–organic motifs is achieved under UHV conditions. The key to making this reversible switching successful is the molecule–substrate interaction as revealed by DFT calculations.     

Identification of CpG methylation of the SNRPN gene by methylation‐specific multiplex PCR

In this article, we show that methylation‐specific multiplex PCR (MS‐multiplex PCR) is a sensitive and specific single assay for detecting CpG methylation status as well as copy number aberrations. We used MS‐multiplex PCR to simultaneously amplify three sequences: the 3′ ends of the SNRPN gene (for unmethylated sequences), the KRITI gene (as internal control), and the promoter of the SNRPN gene containing CpG islands (for methylated sequences) after digestion with a methylation‐sensitive restriction enzyme (HhaI). We established this duplex assay for the analysis of 38 individuals with Prader–Willi syndrome, 2 individuals with Angelman syndrome, and 28 unaffected individuals. By comparing the copy number of the three regions, the methylation status and the copy number changes can be easily distinguished by MS‐multiplex PCR without the need of bisulfite treatment of the DNA. The data showed that MS‐multiplex PCR allows for the estimation of the methylation level by comparing the copy number aberrations of unknown samples to the standards with a known methylated status. The in‐house‐designed MS‐multiplex PCR protocol is a relatively simple, cost‐effective, and highly reproducible approach as a significant strategy in clinical applications for epigenetics in a routine laboratory.     

Involvement of some large immunophilins and their ligands in the protection and regeneration of neurons: a hypothetical mode of action

The powerful immunosuppressive drugs such as FK506 and its derivatives induce some regeneration and protection of neurons from ischaemic brain injury and some other neurological disorders. The drugs form complexes with diverse FKBPs but apparently the FKBP52/FK506 complex was shown to be involved in the protection and regeneration of neurons. We used several different sequence attributes in searching diverse genomic databases for similar motifs as those present in the FKBPs. A Fortran library of algorithms (Par_Seq) has been designed and used in searching for the similarity of sequence motifs extracted from the multiple sequence alignments of diverse groups of proteins (query motifs) and the target motifs which are encoded in various genomes. The following sequence attributes were used in the establishment of the degree of convergence between: (A) amino acid (AA) sequence similarity (ID) of the query/target motifs and (B) their: (1) AA composition (AAC); (2) hydrophobicity (HI); (3) Jensen-Shannon entropy; and (4) AA propensity to form a particular secondary structure. The sequence hallmark of two different groups of peptidylprolyl cis/trans isomerases (PPIases), namely tetratricopetide repeat (TPR) motifs, which are present in the heat-shock cyclophilins and in the large FK506-binding proteins (FKBPs) were used to search various genomic databases. The Par_Seq algorithm has revealed that the TPR motifs have similar sequence attributes as a number of hydrophobic sequence segments of functionally unrelated membrane proteins, including some of the TMs from diverse G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). It is proposed that binding of the FKBP52/FK506 complex to the membranes via the TPR motifs and its interaction with some membrane proteins could be in part responsible for some neuro-regeneration and neuro-protection of the brain during some ischaemia-induced stresses.