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Research on inflammasomes opens therapeutic ways for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis

Reporter: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

 

One of the processes accounted for by inflammasomes is the production of interleukin-1, a protein with an important role in inflammatory reactions. Stopping the effects of interleukin-1 resulted in a cure for the mice. In this manner, Vande Walle and Lamkanfi demonstrated that the mouse model is perfectly suitable for studying the correlation between inflammasomes and RA.

RA is a syndrome rather than a single disease
Previous research has already demonstrated that other proteins in our immune system – such as TNF and IL-17 – could possibly play a role in RA
We could evolve towards a more personalized approach for RA

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Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Curator

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/7/7/2014/Bzzz! Are fruitflies like us?

We are following closely the developments in genomics that have had a progression since the Double-Helix dogma served the Nobel Prize to Watson and Crick, and that achievement led to the completion of a provisional Human Genome at the birth of the 21st century.  Since then there has been exploration of cellular regulation, signaling pathways, and protein-protein as well as protein membrane interactions in eukaryotes.  But we can go further back prior to the double-helix and remind ourselves of the huge contributions that led up to the double helix.  This was a time of great research that set the tone for what is now called molecular biology.  We associate the work with the genetic studies of Thomas Hunt Morgan on the fruit fly.  There may yet be a new chapter that is stradling the gap between DNA, RNA and transcription turning toward a deeper understanding of gene expression and organ specificities.  Is it a new beginning?  There is certainly going to be a deeper understanding of the several roles of RNA as well as proteins.

 

The Gateway Opens

THOMAS HUNT MORGAN AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
Genes, Chromosomes, and the Origins of Modern Biology
Eric R. Kandel, MD
2000 recipent of Nobel Prize in Medicine

University Professor & Kavli Professor of Brain Science,
Co-director, Mind Brain Behavior Initiative
Director, The Kavli Institute for Brain Science
Senior Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Columnia University

When future historians turn to examine the major intellectual accomplishments of the twentieth century, they will undoubtedly give a special place to the extraordinary achievements in biology, achievements that have revolutionized our understanding of life’s processes and of disease. Important intimations of what was to happen in biology were already apparent in the second half of the nineteenth century. Darwin had delineated the evolution of animal species, Mendel had discovered some basic rules about inheritance, and Weissman, Roux, Driesch, de Vries, and other embryologists were beginning to decipher how an organism develops from a single cell. What was lacking at the end of the nineteenth century, however, was an overarching sense of how these bold advances were related to one another.

The insight that unified these three fields- heredity, evolution, and development- and set biology on the course toward its current success came only at the beginning of the twentieth century. It derived from the discovery that the gene, localized to specific positions on the chromosome, was at once the unit of Mendelian heredity, the driving force for Darwinian evolution, and the control switch for development. This remarkable discovery can be traced directly to one person and to one institution: Thomas Hunt Morgan and Columbia University. Much as Darwin’s insights into the evolution of animal species first gave coherence to nineteenth-century biology as a descriptive science, Morgan’s findings about genes and their location on chromosomes helped transform biology into an experimental science.

“ aware that abstract thinking, remote from, and even antagonistic to the study of nature, leads easily into dogma, taboos and fettering of free thinking because it does not carry its own corrective, the recourse to factual evidence. The scientist, therefore, with all respect for the many facets of the human mind, is more impressed by the revolutions in thinking brought about by great factual discoveries, which by their very nature lead to generalizations which change at once the outlook of many, if not all, lines of thought.”

. . . . the rise and development of genetics to mature age is another instance of an all-comprising and all-affecting generalization based upon an overwhelming body of integrated facts, . . . [and] will rank in the history of science with such other great events ..”

–Richard B. Goldschmidt, The Impact of Genetics Upon Science (1950)

Even more important, Morgan’s discoveries made it possible to address a series of questions regarding the function and structure of genes. What is their chemical nature? How do genes duplicate themselves? What goes wrong when genes mutate? How do genes provide the basis for understanding genetic disease? How do genes determine the properties of cells, the development of organisms, and the course of evolution?

Thomas Hunt Morgan

Thomas Hunt Morgan

 

Morgan

Morgan

 

Eric Kandel

Eric Kandel

 

New Study of Fruit Fly Genome Reveals Complexity of RNA and Provides a Model for Studying Mechanisms for Hereditary Diseases in Humans

July 7, 2014

This investigation of the fruit fly’s transcriptome—the complete collection of the genome’s RNA—unearthed thousands of new genes, transcripts, and proteins

Scientists have teased another level of information out of the genome. This time, the new insights were developed from studies of the fruit fly’s transcriptome. This knowledge will give pathologists another channel of information that may be useful in developing assays to support more precise diagnosis and therapeutic decisions.

The findings were published in a recent issue of Nature. The study focused on the transcriptome—a complete collection of the genome’s RNA—of the common fruit fly−Drosophila melangogaster.

Why Studies of the Fruit Fly Are Useful

The fruit fly has been used as a genetics model to study human genetics for more than a 100 years. Not only are they easy to care for and work with, but they share 75% of the same genes as humans. Today, the fruit fly genome has emerged as a critical tool tor understanding human biology and disease, by providing an understanding of genes and life processes that are conserved over extensive evolutionary changes.

The research consortium included 41 researchers from 11 universities and institutes that are members of the National Human Genome Research Institute’s Model Organism Encyclopedia of DNA Elements, called modENCODE for short. This project used state-of-the-art gene sequencing to study all of the expressed RNAs produced by a genome in greater detail than ever before accomplished.

RNA Sequenced in Diverse Tissues at Different Stages of Development

RNA was sequenced at different stages of development, in diverse tissues, in cells growing in culture, and in flies stressed by environmental contaminants, stated a IU press release issued by Indiana University Bloomington (IUB).

The modENCODE study revealed that the fruit fly genome is far more complex than previously suspected. These new findings suggest that this also may be true for the genomes of higher animals. Specifically, the researchers found that:

  • a small set of genes in the nervous system is responsible for much of the complexity;
  • long regulatory and antisense RNA (asRNA), a single-stranded RNA complementary to a messenger RNA transcribed within a cell, are prominent during gonadal development;
  • splicing factors, proteins involved in controlling maturation of RNAs, are themselves spliced in complex ways; and,
  • the fruit fly transcriptome undergoes major changes in response toenvironmental stressors.

How Study of Fruit Fly RNA Benefits Human Genome Research

“The modENCODE work is intended to provide a new baseline for research using Drosophila,” declared Peter Cherbas, Ph.D., an IUB Professor Emeritus of Biology and one of 10 IUB researchers who served as co-authors of the study. “The goal is to provide researchers working on particular processes with much of the detailed background information they would otherwise need to collect for themselves.

Click here for photo
Peter Cherbas, Ph.D. (pictured), Professor Emeritus of Biology at Indiana University Bloomington, says that the modENCORE study of the fruit fly’s complete RNA answered a lot of questions about the genome of organisms, but raised even more questions that science will want to answer. (Photo copyright Indiana University Bloomington.)

“As usual in science, we’ve answered a number of questions and raised even more,” observed Cherbas. “For example, we identified 1,468 new genes, of which 536 were found to reside in previously uncharacterized gene-free zones.”

“We think these results could influence gene regulation research in all animals,” added Thom Kaufman, Ph.D., IUB Distinguished Professor of Biology who also co-authored the study. “This exhaustive study also identified a number of phenomena previously reported only in mammals, and that alone is really telling about the versatility of Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism. The new work provides a number of new potential uses for this powerful model system,” he stressed.

Click here for photo
Thom Kaufman, Ph.D. (pictured), Indiana University Bloomington Distinguished Professor of Biology, says that the modENCORE study provides a powerful model for studying gene regulation in all organisms. (Photo copyright Indiana University Bloomington.)

Impact of Environmental Stressors on Gene Expression

Both Kaufman and Cherbas cited perturbation experiments that identified genes and transcripts. The new genes were identified after subjecting adult fruit flies to heat and cold shock, then exposing them to heavy metals, caffeine and the herbicide paraquat. Fruit fly larvae were treated with heavy metals, caffeine, ethanol, or the insecticide rotenone.

These environmental stressors generated small changes in the expression level of thousands of genes. One treatment experiment resulted in four newly modeled genes being expressed altogether differently, noted the researchers. Perturbation experiments, in fact, revealed a total of 5,249 transcript models for 811 genes.

In fact, the findings from these perturbation experiments mirror similar findings made following the 2010 British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Researchers studying the impact on marsh fishes found that, similar to the fruit flies, these fish responded to chronic hydrocarbon exposure with a number of expressions beyond the heat shock pathway. These expressions included the down regulation of genes encoding eggshell and yolk proteins.

The response overlap between species indicates that the modENCODE consortium may have identified a conserved metazoan [animal] stress response that enhances metabolism and suppresses genes involved in reproduction.

What This Means for Pathologists and Laboratory Professionals

This study is significant for pathologists and medical laboratory professionals because it peels away another layer of information encoded in DNA and RNA. The findings of this study also show how genomic knowledge is moving to the next level in the quest to understand the origins of disease.
—by Patricia Kirk

 

Study of complete RNA collection of fruit fly uncovers unprecedented complexity

IU plays key role in consortium; 1,468 new genes discovered March 17, 2014  

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Scientists from Indiana University are part of a consortium that has described the transcriptome of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster in unprecedented detail, identifying thousands of new genes, transcripts and proteins.

In the new work, published Sunday in the journal Nature, scientists studied the transcriptome — the complete collection of RNAs produced by a genome — at different stages of development, in diverse tissues, in cells growing in culture, and in flies stressed by environmental contaminants. To do so, they used contemporary sequencing technology to sequence all of the expressed RNAs in greater detail than ever before possible.

The paper shows that the Drosophila genome is far more complex than previously suspected and suggests that the same will be true of the genomes of other higher organisms. The paper also reports a number of novel, particular results: that a small set of genes used in the nervous system are responsible for a disproportionate level of complexity; that long regulatory and so-called “antisense” RNAs are especially prominent during gonadal development; that “splicing factors” (proteins that control the maturation of RNAs by splicing) are themselves spliced in complex ways; and that the Drosophila transcriptome undergoes large and interesting changes in response to environmental stresses.

The importance of Drosophila melanogaster as a model system cannot be overstated. Using it, the mechanisms of heredity were worked out about 100 years ago. Today, as biologists have developed increasing appreciation of how well genes and critical life processes are conserved over long evolutionary distances, flies have emerged as critical tools for understanding human biology and disease. Drosophila research is an area that has long had associations with IU, beginning with Nobel Laureate Herman J. Muller.

IU has 10 co-authors on the paper from the IU Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Biology and the university’s Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics. They are included among the 41 co-authors from 11 universities and institutes that are members of the National Human Genome Research Institute’s Model Organism Encyclopedia of DNA Elements project, or modENCODE. Among the IU co-authors are Professor Emeritus of Biology Peter Cherbas, who helped manage the expansive project, and Distinguished Professor of Biology Thom Kaufman, who helped oversee design of the project and the production of biological samples.

“The modENCODE work is intended to provide a new baseline for research using Drosophila,” Cherbas said. “The goal is to provide researchers working on particular processes with much of the detailed background information they would otherwise need to collect for themselves.

“As usual in science, we’ve answered a number of questions and raised even more. For example, we identified 1,468 new genes, of which 536 were found to reside in previously uncharacterized gene-free zones.”

“We think these results could influence gene regulation research in all animals,” Kaufman said. “This exhaustive study also identified a number of phenomena previously reported only in mammals, and that alone is really telling about the versatility of Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism. The new work provides a number of new potential uses for this powerful model system.”

An example they pointed to was the perturbation experiments that identified new genes and transcripts. New genes were identified in experiments where adults were challenged with heat shock, cold shock, exposure to heavy metals, the drug caffeine and the herbicide paraquat, while larvae were treated with heavy metals, caffeine, ethanol or the insecticide rotenone.

Those environmental stresses resulted in small changes in expression level at thousands of genes; and in one treatment, four newly modeled genes were expressed altogether differently. In total, 5,249 transcript models for 811 genes were revealed only under perturbed conditions.

As did the flies in this new research, scientists who studied the Deepwater Horizon incident in the Gulf of Mexico found that marsh fishes responding to chronic hydrocarbon exposure had a number of expressional responses beyond the heat shock pathway, including the down regulation of genes encoding eggshell and yolk proteins as did the flies. To see this response overlap across phyla means the consortium may have identified a conserved metazoan stress response involving enhanced metabolism and the suppression of genes involved in reproduction.

Indiana University co-authors with Cherbas and Kaufman were co-first author Robert Eisman, Justen Andrews, Lucy Cherbas, Brian D. Eads, David Miller, Keithanne Mockaitis, Johnny Roberts and Dayu Zhang. All were associated with the Department of Biology and/or the Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics.

“Diversity and dynamics of the Drosophila transcriptome,” published March 16 in the journal Nature, also included 31 other co-authors whose affiliations were with the University of California, Berkeley; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; University of Connecticut Health Center; Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; Sloan-Kettering Institute; National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; RIKEN Yokohama Institute (Japan); Harvard Medical School; and Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Antisense RNA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Antisense RNA (asRNA) is a single-stranded RNA that is complementary to a messenger RNA (mRNA) strand transcribed within a cell. Some authors have used the term micRNA (mRNA-interfering complementary RNA) to refer to these RNAs but it is not widely used.[1]

Antisense RNA may be introduced into a cell to inhibit translation of a complementary mRNA by base pairing to it and physically obstructing the translation machinery.[2] [3] This effect is therefore stoichiometric. An example of naturally occurring mRNA antisense mechanism is the hok/sok system of the E. coli R1 plasmid. Antisense RNA has long been thought of as a promising technique for disease therapy; the only such case to have reached the market is the drug fomivirsen. One commentator has characterized antisense RNA as one of “dozens of technologies that are gorgeous in concept, but exasperating in [commercialization]”.[4] Generally, antisense RNA still lack effective design, biological activity, and efficient route of administration.[5]

Historically, the effects of antisense RNA have often been confused with the effects of RNA interference (RNAi), a related process in which double-stranded RNA fragments called small interfering RNAs trigger catalytically mediated gene silencing, most typically by targeting the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) to bind to and degrade the mRNA. Attempts to genetically engineer transgenic plants to express antisense RNA instead activate the RNAi pathway, although the processes result in differing magnitudes of the same downstream effect; gene silencing. Well-known examples include the Flavr Savr tomato and two cultivars of ringspot-resistant papaya.[6][7]

Transcription of longer cis-antisense transcripts is a common phenomenon in the mammalian transcriptome.[8] Although the function of some cases have been described, such as the Zeb2/Sip1 antisense RNA, no general function has been elucidated. In the case of Zeb2/Sip1,[9] the antisense noncoding RNA is opposite the 5′ splice site of an intron in the 5’UTR of the Zeb2 mRNA. Expression of the antisense ncRNA prevents splicing of an intron that contains a ribosome entry site necessary for efficient expression of the Zeb2 protein. Transcription of long antisense ncRNAs is often concordant with the associated protein-coding gene,[10] but more detailed studies have revealed that the relative expression patterns of the mRNA and antisense ncRNA are complex.[11][12]

 

 

Histidine kinase-, DNA gyrase B-, and HSP90-like ATPase

Histidine kinase-, DNA gyrase B-, and HSP90-like ATPase

 

Structure of the N-terminal domain of the yeast Hsp90 chaperone

Structure of the N-terminal domain of the yeast Hsp90 chaperone

 

 

Pincer movement of Hsp90 coupled to the ATPase cycle. NTD = N-terminal domain, MD = middle domain, CTD = C-terminal domain.

Pincer movement of Hsp90 coupled to the ATPase cycle. NTD = N-terminal domain, MD = middle domain, CTD = C-terminal domain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Curator

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/6/7/2014/Immune activation, immunity, antibacterial activity

This segment is an update on activation of innate immunity, which has had a great amount of basic science resurgence in the last several decades.  It also addresses the issue of antibiotic resistance, which shall be covered more fully in later segments. Antimicrobial resistance is a growing threat, and a challenge to the pharmaceutical industry.  Moreover, worldwide travel increases the possibility of transfer of strains of virus and microbiota to distant communities.

 

8-OH-dG: A novel immune activator.

Innate immunity against viral or pathogenic infection involves sensing of non-self-molecules, otherwise known at pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs).  This same sensing mechanism can be applied to damaged self-molecules, which are called damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs).  One type of molecular pattern, for both groups, is cytosolic or extracellular DNA.  However, there is not an extensive amount of research showing specifically what type of DAMP DNA molecule is best at activating this immune sensing response.  A recent study investigated the mechanism behind how oxidized DNA from UV damage activates an immune sensing response.

A group of researchers found that, compared to a variety of types of cellular damage, damage from UV irradiation created a strong immune response (type I IFN response), seen across different types of immune regulatory cells.  This was compared with freeze/thaw, physical damage and nutritional deprivation, each of which did not produce a noticeable immune response. Additionally, this immune response was seen when DNA was exposed to UV-A and UV-B (the type of radiation produced by our sun) and UV-C radiation.

DNA can be damaged by UV light directly, or through reactive oxygen species (ROS) caused by UV light.  A well-known mark of DNA damaged by ROS is the oxidation of guanine to create 8-hydroxyguanine (8-OH-dG).  These researchers saw an increase in 8-OH-dG dependant on the level of UV dose, and this also correlated with an increase in immune response; showing that DNA damage created by UV light in the form of 8-OH-dG is sufficient to activate an immune response. This study shows that 8-OH-dG can be classified at a DAMP.

Next, this group wanted to place a mechanism to these observations. They found that the ability of oxidation-damaged DNA to activate an immune response was dependant on cGAS and STING.  Free DNA in the cytosol binds cGAS, a cGAMP synthase.  This action produces a messenger molecule which proceeds to bind to and activate STING, an endoplasmic reticulum protein.  STING activation will ultimately stimulate a type I IFN response.

When a cell’s own DNA is damaged, the cell’s machinery does all it can to repair it.  This sometimes involves erasing, or degrading, the DNA that has been damaged.  The enzyme, TREX1 exonuclease, has this job in a cell.  However, this group found that when DNA was modified with an 8-OH-dG, it was resistant to this degradation by TREX1.  This implies that the observed increase in immune response due to the presence of 8-OH-dG occurred because of an accumulation of damaged DNA, because it was not being degraded by TREX1 and could therefore sufficiently activate cGAS and STING.

This type of study has important implications for autoimmune diseases like lupus erythematosus (LE), which is characterized by its abnormally high number of autoantibodies against DNA.  It is possible that this uncontrollable immune response is activated by oxidation-damaged DNA.  Studies in this area, therefore, hold great importance.

– See more at: http://www.stressmarq.com/Blog/November-2013/8-OH-dG-A-novel-immune-activator.aspx#sthash.CvSdK0H1.dpuf

 

Oxidative Damage of DNA Confers Resistance to Cytosolic Nuclease TREX1 Degradation and Potentiates STING-Dependent Immune Sensing

Nadine Gehrke, Christina Mertens, Thomas Zillinger, Jörg Wenzel,…,Winfried Barchet

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2013.08.004

Highlights

  • •UV or ROS damage potentiates immunorecognition of DNA via cGAS and STING
  • •The oxidation product 8-OHG in DNA is sufficient for enhanced immunorecognition
  • •Oxidized self-DNA acts as a DAMP and induces skin lesions in lupus-prone mice
  • •Oxidized DNA is resistant to cytosolic nuclease TREX1-mediated degradation

Summary

Immune sensing of DNA is critical for antiviral immunity but can also trigger autoimmune diseases such as lupus erythematosus (LE). Here we have provided evidence for the involvement of a damage-associated DNA modification in the detection of cytosolic DNA. The oxidized base 8-hydroxyguanosine (8-OHG), a marker of oxidative damage in DNA, potentiated cytosolic immune recognition by decreasing its susceptibility to 3′ repair exonuclease 1 (TREX1)-mediated degradation. Oxidizative modifications arose physiologically in pathogen DNA during lysosomal reactive oxygen species (ROS) exposure, as well as in neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) DNA during the oxidative burst. 8-OHG was also abundant in UV-exposed skin lesions of LE patients and colocalized with type I interferon (IFN). Injection of oxidized DNA in the skin of lupus-prone mice induced lesions that closely matched respective lesions in patients. Thus, oxidized DNA represents a prototypic damage-associated molecular pattern (DAMP) with important implications for infection, sterile inflammation, and autoimmunity.

ribonuclease TREX1 and immunity

ribonuclease TREX1 and immunity

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Immunity 19 Sep 2013;39(3), p482–495,

New Weapon in Fight Against ‘Superbugs’

Some harmful bacteria are increasingly resistant to treatment with antibiotics. A discovery might be able to help the antibiotics treat the disease.

By  ANN LUKITS  June 30, 2014 8:47 p.m. ET

 

Some harmful bacteria are increasingly resistant to treatment with antibiotics. This common fungus found in soil might be able to help the antibiotics combat diseases. Corbis

A soil sample from a national park in eastern Canada has produced a compound that appears to reverse antibiotic resistance in dangerous bacteria.

fungus with antimicrobial activity

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scientists at McMaster University in Ontario discovered that the compound almost instantly turned off a gene in several harmful bacteria that makes them highly resistant to treatment with a class of antibiotics used to fight so-called superbug infections. The compound, called aspergillomarasmine A, or AMA, was extracted from a common fungus found in soil and mold.

Antibiotic resistance is a growing public-health threat. Common germs such asEscherichia coli, or E. coli, are becoming harder to treat because they increasingly don’t respond to antibiotics. Some two million people in the U.S. are infected each year by antibiotic-resistant bacteria and 23,000 die as a result, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The World Health Organization has called antibiotic resistance a threat to global public health.

The Canadian team was able to disarm a gene—New Delhi Metallo-beta-Lactamase-1, or NDM-1—that has become “public enemy No. 1” since its discovery in 2009, says Gerard Wright, director of McMaster’s Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research and lead researcher on the study. The report appears on the cover of this week’s issue of the journal Nature.

“Discovery of a fungus capable of rendering these multidrug-resistant organisms incapable of further infection is huge,” says Irena Kenneley, a microbiologist and infectious disease specialist at Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University. “The availability of more treatment options will ultimately save many more lives,” says Dr. Kenneley, who wasn’t involved in the McMaster research.

The McMaster team plans further experiments to determine the safety and effective dosage of AMA. It could take as long as a decade to complete clinical trials on people with superbug infections, Dr. Wright says.

The researchers found that AMA, extracted from a strain of Aspergillus versicolor and combined with a carbapenem antibiotic, inactivated the NDM-1 gene in three drug-resistant superbugs—Enterobacteriaceae, a group of bacteria that includes E. coli;Acenitobacter, which can cause pneumonia and blood infections; and Pseudomonas, which often infect patients in hospitals and nursing homes. The NDM-1 gene encodes an enzyme that helps bacteria become resistant to antibiotics and that requires zinc to survive. AMA works by removing zinc from the enzyme, freeing the antibiotic to do its job, Dr. Wright says. Although AMA was only tested on carbapenem-resistant bacteria, he expects the compound would have a similar effect when combined with other antibiotics.

AMA was first identified in the 1960s in connection with leaf wilt in plants and later investigated as a potential drug for treating high blood pressure. The compound turned up in Dr. Wright’s lab a few years ago during a random screening of organisms derived from 10,000 soil samples stored at McMaster. The sample that produced AMA was collected by one of Dr. Wright’s graduate students during a visit to a Nova Scotia park. It was the only sample of 500 tested that inhibited NDM-1 in cell cultures.

“It was a lucky hit,” says Dr. Wright. “It tells us that going back to those environmental organisms, where we got antibiotics in the first place, is a really good idea.”

The McMaster team developed a purified form of AMA for experiments on mice injected with a lethal form of drug-resistant pneumonia. Treatment with either AMA or a carbapenem antibiotic alone proved ineffective. But combining the substances resulted in more than 95% of the mice still being alive after five days. The combination was also tested on 229 cell cultures from human patients infected with resistant superbugs. The treatment resensitized 88% of the samples to carbapenem.

Still, bacteria could someday find a way to outwit AMA. “I can’t imagine anything we could make where resistance would never be an issue,” he says. “At the end of the day, this is evolution and you can’t fight evolution.”

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Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Curator

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/6/7/2014/Health benefit of anthocyanins from apples and berries noted for men

After significant studies have been completed, particularly on a relationship between anthocyanins consumption and decreasd risk of Parkinson’s Disease in men, it is unclear why a comparable effect is not seen in women.  This would lead one to ask questions about predominant time course of development in relationship to androgen activity.  Pre- and postmenopausal status would seem to make no difference. It is reported that the anthocyanins cross the blood brain barrier.  There are other questions that need to be raised.  There is a decline in the production of transthyretin by the choroid plexus in the elderly – not sex related – with an elevation of homocysteine that is reciprocal to decline in transthyretin-RBP complex, that is related to AD.  This is mediated by cystathionine-beta synthase, and involves matrix metalloproteinases.  A mechanism for Parkinson’s Disease has been postulated to be related to Parkin gene expression, but how does this work, and why do we see the sex assymetry?

Eating flavonoids protects men against Parkinson’s disease

General Diet, Missed – Medical Breakthroughs • Tags: Anthocyanin, Flavonoid, Harvard University,Health, Neurology, Parkinson, Parkinson Disease, University of East Anglia

http://healthresearchreport.me/       07 Apr 2012

Men who eat flavonoid-rich foods such as berries, tea, apples and red wine significantly reduce their risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, according to new research by Harvard University and the University of East Anglia (UEA).

Published today in the journal Neurology ®, the findings add to the growing body of evidence that regular consumption of some flavonoids can have a marked effect on human health. Recent studies have shown that these compounds can offer protection against a wide range of diseases including heart disease, hypertension, some cancers and dementia.

This latest study is the first study in humans to show that flavonoids can protect neurons against diseases of the brain such as Parkinson’s.

Around 130,000 men and women took part in the research. More than 800 had developed Parkinson’s disease within 20 years of follow-up. After a detailed analysis of their diets and adjusting for age and lifestyle, male participants who ate the most flavonoids were shown to be 40 per cent less likely to develop the disease than those who ate the least. No similar link was found for total flavonoid intake in women.

The research was led by Dr Xiang Gao of Harvard School of Public Health in collaboration with Prof Aedin Cassidy of the Department of Nutrition, Norwich Medical School at UEA.

“These exciting findings provide further confirmation that regular consumption of flavonoids can have potential health benefits,” said Prof Cassidy.

“This is the first study in humans to look at the associations between the range of flavonoids in the diet and the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease and our findings suggest that a sub-class of flavonoids called anthocyanins may have neuroprotective effects.”

Prof Gao said: “Interestingly, anthocyanins and berry fruits, which are rich in anthocyanins, seem to be associated with a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease in pooled analyses. Participants who consumed one or more portions of berry fruits each week were around 25 per cent less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease, relative to those who did not eat berry fruits. Given the other potential health effects of berry fruits, such as lowering risk of hypertension as reported in our previous studies, it is good to regularly add these fruits to your diet.”

Flavonoids are a group of naturally occurring, bioactive compunds found in many plant-based foods and drinks. In this study the main protective effect was from higher intake of anthocyanins, which are present in berries and other fruits and vegetables including aubergines, blackcurrants and blackberries. Those who consumed the most anthocyanins had a 24 per cent reduction in risk of developing Parkinson’s disease and strawberries and blueberries were the top two sources in the US diet.

The findings must now be confirmed by other large epidemiological studies and clinical trials.

Parkinson’s disease is a progresssive neurological condition affecting one in 500 people, which equates to 127,000 people in the UK. There are few effective drug therapies available.  Dr Kieran Breen, director of research at Parkinson’s UK said: “This study raises lots of interesting questions about how diet may influence our risk of Parkinson’s…   there are still a lot of questions to answer and much more research to do before we really know how important diet might be for people with Parkinson’s.”

 

Eating berries may lower risk of Parkinson’s

Missed – Medical Breakthroughs • Tags: Berry, Doctor of Philosophy, Flavonoid, Parkinson,Parkinson Disease, Xiang Gao

http://healthresearchreport.me/    Public release date: 13-Feb-2011

ST. PAUL, Minn. –New research shows men and women who regularly eat berries may have a lower risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, while men may also further lower their risk by regularly eating apples, oranges and other sources rich in dietary components called flavonoids. The study was released today and will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 63rd Annual Meeting in Honolulu April 9 to April 16, 2011.

Flavonoids are found in plants and fruits and are also known collectively as vitamin P and citrin. They can also be found in berry fruits, chocolate, and citrus fruits such as grapefruit.

The study involved 49,281 men and 80,336 women. Researchers gave participants questionnaires and used a database to calculate intake amount of flavonoids. They then analyzed the association between flavonoid intakes and risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. They also analyzed consumption of five major sources of foods rich in flavonoids: tea, berries, apples, red wine and oranges or orange juice. The participants were followed for 20 to 22 years.

During that time, 805 people developed Parkinson’s disease. In men, the top 20 percent who consumed the most flavonoids were about 40 percent less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease than the bottom 20 percent of male participants who consumed the least amount of flavonoids. In women, there was no relationship between overall flavonoid consumption and developing Parkinson’s disease. However, when sub-classes of flavonoids were examined, regular consumption of anthocyanins, which are mainly obtained from berries, were found to be associated with a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease in both men and women.

“This is the first study in humans to examine the association between flavonoids and risk of developing Parkinson’s disease,” said study author Xiang Gao, MD, PhD, with the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. “Our findings suggest that flavonoids, specifically a group called anthocyanins, may have neuroprotective effects. If confirmed, flavonoids may be a natural and healthy way to reduce your risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.”
May 10, 2013

Could eating peppers prevent Parkinson’s?

Missed – Medical Breakthroughs • Tags: American Neurological Association, Annals of Neurology,Group Health Cooperative, Nicotine, Parkinson, Parkinson’s disease, Solanaceae, University of Washington

Contact: Dawn Peters sciencenewsroom@wiley.com 781-388-8408 Wiley

Dietary nicotine may hold protective key

New research reveals that Solanaceae—a flowering plant family with some species producing foods that are edible sources of nicotine—may provide a protective effect against Parkinson’s disease. The study appearing today inAnnals of Neurology, a journal of the American Neurological Association and Child Neurology Society, suggests that eating foods that contain even a small amount of nicotine, such as peppers and tomatoes, may reduce risk of developing Parkinson’s.

Parkinson’s disease is a movement disorder caused by a loss of brain cells that produce dopamine. Symptoms include facial, hand, arm, and leg tremors, stiffness in the limbs, loss of balance, and slower overall movement. Nearly one million Americans have Parkinson’s, with 60,000 new cases diagnosed in the U.S. each year, and up to ten million individuals worldwide live with this disease according to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation. Currently, there is no cure for Parkinson’s, but symptoms are treated with medications and procedures such as deep brain stimulation.

Previous studies have found that cigarette smoking and other forms of tobacco, also a Solanaceae plant, reduced relative risk of Parkinson’s disease. However, experts have not confirmed if nicotine or other components in tobacco provide a protective effect, or if people who develop Parkinson’s disease are simply less apt to use tobacco because of differences in the brain that occur early in the disease process, long before diagnosis.

For the present population-based study Dr. Susan Searles Nielsen and colleagues from the University of Washington in Seattle recruited 490 patients newly diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at the university’s Neurology Clinic or a regional health maintenance organization, Group Health Cooperative. Another 644 unrelated individuals without neurological conditions were used as controls. Questionnaires were used to assess participants’ lifetime diets and tobacco use, which researchers defined as ever smoking more than 100 cigarettes or regularly using cigars, pipes or smokeless tobacco.

Vegetable consumption in general did not affect Parkinson’s disease risk, but as consumption of edible Solanaceae increased, Parkinson’s disease risk decreased, with peppers displaying the strongest association. Researchers noted that the apparent protection from Parkinson’s occurred mainly in men and women with little or no prior use of tobacco, which contains much more nicotine than the foods studied.

“Our study is the first to investigate dietary nicotine and risk of developing Parkinson’s disease,” said Dr. Searles Nielsen. “Similar to the many studies that indicate tobacco use might reduce risk of Parkinson’s, our findings also suggest a protective effect from nicotine, or perhaps a similar but less toxic chemical in peppers and tobacco.” The authors recommend further studies to confirm and extend their findings, which could lead to possible interventions that prevent Parkinson’s disease.

###

This study is published in Annals of Neurology. Media wishing to receive a PDF of this article may contact sciencenewsroom@wiley.com.

Full citation: “Nicotine from Edible Solanaceae and Risk of Parkinson Disease.” Susan Searles Nielsen, Gary M. Franklin, W.T. Longstreth Jr, Phillip D. Swanson and Harvey Checkoway. Annals of Neurology; Published May 9, 2013 (DOI:10.1002/ana.23884).

URL Upon Publication: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/ana.23884

Author Contact: To arrange an interview with Dr. Susan Searles Nielsen, please contact Leila Gray with the University of Washington Health Sciences News Office at +1 206-685-0381 or at leilag@uw.edu.

About the Journal

Annals of Neurology, the official journal of the American Neurological Association and the Child Neurology Society, publishes articles of broad interest with potential for high impact in understanding the mechanisms and treatment of diseases of the human nervous system. All areas of clinical and basic neuroscience, including new technologies, cellular and molecular neurobiology, population sciences, and studies of behavior, addiction, and psychiatric diseases are of interest to the journal. The journal is published by Wiley on behalf of the
American Neurological Association and Child Neurology Society. For more information, please visit http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/ana.

Flavonoids from berries shown to protect men against Parkinson’s disease

December 19, 2013 · by MrT

by: John Phillip, John is a Certified Nutritional Consultant and Health Researcher

(NaturalNews) Past research bodies have confirmed the health-protective effect of a natural diet rich in flavonoids to protect against a wide range of diseases including heart disease, hypertension, some cancers, and dementia. Researchers from Harvard University and the University of East Anglia have published the result of a study in the journalNeurology that demonstrates how these plant-based phytonutrients can significantly lower the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, especially in men.

Flavonoids from healthy foods such as berries, tea, apples, and red wine cross the delicate blood-brain barrier to protect neurons against neurologic diseases such as Parkinson’s. This large scale study included more than 130,000 men and women participants that were followed for a period of twenty years. During this time, more than 800 individuals developed Parkinson’s disease.

A diet high in flavonoids from berries lowers Parkinson’s disease risk by forty percent

After a detailed analysis of their diets and adjusting for age and lifestyle, male participants who ate the most flavonoids were shown to be forty percent  less likely to develop the disease than those who ate the least. No similar link was found for total flavonoid intake in women.

”This was the first study to examine the connection between flavonoid consumption and the development of Parkinson’s disease. The findings suggest that a sub-class of flavonoids called anthocyanins may exhibit neuroprotective effects. Participants consuming one or more portions of berry fruits each week were around twenty-five percent less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease, relative to those who did not eat berry fruits.

Flavonoids are the bioactive, naturally occurring chemical compounds found in many plant-based foods and drinks.

This study demonstrated the main protective effect was from the consumption of anthocyanins, which are present in berries and other fruits and vegetables including aubergines, blackcurrants, and blackberries. Strawberries and blueberries are the two most common sources of flavonoids in the US diet, contributing to a twenty-four percent lowered risk in this research.

Parkinson’s disease is among a group of chronic diseases presently affecting one in 500 people, with new cases on the rise. Drug therapies are ineffective and bear significant side effects.

Nutrition experts recommend adding a minimum of three to five servings of flavonoids to your diet each week. Include all varieties of berries, apples, and green tea to guard against Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative illnesses.

 

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Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Reporter

Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) lightens up the dark secrets

CASE WESTERN RESERVE INVESTIGATORS DISCOVER NOVEL CELLULAR GENES BY UNCOVERING UNCHARACTERIZED RNAS THAT ENCODE PROTEINS

News Release: June 23, 2014

Jeannette Spalding
216-368-3004
jeannette.spalding@case.edu 

Case Western Reserve School of Medicine scientists have made an extraordinary double discovery. First, they have identified thousands of novel long non-coding ribonucleic acid (lncRNA) transcripts. Second, they have learned that some of them defy conventional wisdom regarding lncRNA transcripts, because they actually do direct the synthesis of proteins in cells.

Both of the breakthroughs are detailed in the June 12 issue of Cell Reports.

Kristian E. Baker, PhD, assistant professor in the Center for RNA Molecular Biology, led the team that applied high throughput gene expression analysis to yield these impressive findings, which ultimately could lead to treatments for cancer and some genetic disorders.

“Our work establishes that lncRNAs in yeast can encode proteins, and we provide evidence that this is probably true also in mammals, including humans,” Baker said. “Our investigation has expanded our knowledge of the genetic coding potential of already well-characterized genomes.”

Collaborating with researchers including Case Western Reserve University graduate and undergraduate students, Baker analyzed yeast and mouse cells, which serve as model organisms because of their functional resemblance to human cells.

Previously, lncRNAs were thought to lack the information and capacity to encode for proteins, distinguishing them from the messenger RNAs that are expressed from known genes and act primarily as templates for the synthesis of proteins. Yet this team demonstrated that a subset of these lncRNAs is engaged by the translation machinery and can function to produce protein products.

In the future, Baker and fellow investigators will continue to look for novel RNA transcripts and also search for a function for these lncRNAs and their protein products in cells.

“Discovery of more transcripts equates to the discovery of new and novel genes,” Baker said. “The significance of this work is that we have discovered evidence for the expression of previously undiscovered genes. Knowing that genes are expressed is the very first step in figuring out what they do in normal cellular function or in dysfunction and disease.”

This investigation was funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences (GM080465 and GM095621) and the National Science Foundation (NSF1253788).

 

Reference:

Lecture Contents delivered at Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Summer Symposium 2014: RNA Biology, Cancer and Therapeutic Implications, June 13, 2014 @MIT

Curator of Lecture Contents: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=23174&action=edit
3:15 – 3:45, 6/13/2014, Laurie Boyer “Long non-coding RNAs: molecular regulators of cell fate”    

 http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/06/13/315-345-2014-laurie-boyer-long-non-coding-rnas-molecular-regulators-of-cell-fate/

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Larry Bernstein, MD, FCAP

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/6-19-3014/larryhbern/Activation of Efficient and Multiple Site-specific Nonstandard Amino Acid Incorporation

 

Cell-free Protein Synthesis from a Release Factor 1 Deficient Escherichia coli Activates Efficient and Multiple Site-specific Nonstandard Amino Acid Incorporation

Seok Hoon Hong †‡, Ioanna Ntai ‡§, Adrian D. Haimovich #, Neil L. Kelleher ‡§, Farren J. Isaacs #, and Michael C. Jewett *†‡

†Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering,‡Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, §Department of Chemistry, and Department of Molecular Biosciences,Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208,United States of America

Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, United States of America

# Systems Biology Institute, Yale University, West Haven, Connecticut 06516, United States of America

Member, Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois 60611, United States of America

Institute of Bionanotechnology in Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois 60611, United States of America

ACS Synth. Biol., 2014, 3 (6), pp 398–409

DOI: 10.1021/sb400140t

Publication Date (Web): December 13, 2013

Copyright © 2013 American Chemical Society

*Tel: +1 847 467 5007. Fax (+1) 847 491 3728. E-mail: m-jewett@northwestern.edu

Site-specific incorporation of nonstandard amino acids (NSAAs) into proteins

Site-specific incorporation of nonstandard amino acids (NSAAs) into proteins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Site-specific incorporation of nonstandard amino acids (NSAAs) into proteins enables the creation of biopolymers, proteins, and enzymes with new chemical properties, new structures, and new functions. To achieve this, amber (TAG codon) suppression has been widely applied. However, the suppression efficiency is limited due to the competition with translation termination by release factor 1 (RF1), which leads to truncated products. Recently, we constructed a genomically recoded Escherichia coli strain lacking RF1 where 13 occurrences of the amber stop codon have been reassigned to the synonymous TAA codon (rEc.E13.ΔprfA). Here, we assessed and characterized cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) in crude S30 cell lysates derived from this strain. We observed the synthesis of 190 ± 20 μg/mL of modified soluble superfolder green fluorescent protein (sfGFP) containing a single p-propargyloxy-l-phenylalanine (pPaF) or p-acetyl-l-phenylalanine. As compared to the parentrEc.E13 strain with RF1, this results in a modified sfGFP synthesis improvement of more than 250%. Beyond introducing a single NSAA, we further demonstrated benefits of CFPS from the RF1-deficient strains for incorporating pPaF at two- and five-sites per sfGFP protein. Finally, we compared our crude S30 extract system to the PURE translation system lacking RF1. We observed that our S30 extract based approach is more cost-effective and high yielding than the PURE translation system lacking RF1, 1000 times on a milligram protein produced/$ basis. Looking forward, using RF1-deficient strains for extract-based CFPS will aid in the synthesis of proteins and biopolymers with site-specifically incorporated NSAAs.

Keywords: 

cell-free protein synthesis; PURE translation; nonstandard amino acid;release factor 1; genomically recoded organisms

 

 

 

 

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Tang Prize for 2014: Immunity and Cancer

Curator: Larry Bernstein, MD, FCAP

 

 

2014 Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Sciences awards to James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo For the discoveries of CTLA-4 and PD-1 as immune inhibitory molecules that led to their applications in cancer immunotherapy 2014/06/19.

Founded by Dr. Samuel Yin in December 2012, the Tang Prize recognizes scholars conducting revolutionary research in the four major fields of Sustainable Development, Biopharmaceutical Science, Sinology, and the Rule of Law. The Prize is awarded with each category a cash reward of over US$1 million (NT$50 million). The Tang Prize Foundation hopes that recipients of the Prize will continue to innovate while cultivating and nurturing new talent in their respective fields.
Academia Sinica was commissioned by the Tang-Prize Foundation to administer the selection of Tang-Prize Laureates for the category of Biopharmaceutical Science, recognizing original biopharmaceutical or biomedical research that has led to significant advances towards preventing, diagnosing and/or treating major human diseases to improve human health.
James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo were chosen among nearly a hundred nominees for their discoveries of CTLA-4 and PD-1 as immune inhibitory molecules, revealing ways to harness our incredibly powerful immune system to fight cancer and marking the beginning of the immunotherapy revolution.
A critical process in the immune response involves presentation of antigens to T cells by antigen-presenting cells, two key cell types in our immune system. This process is highly regulated by molecules that stimulate the response to ensure our mounting a sufficient immune response, especially in the event of invasion by pathogens, but also by molecules that inhibit the process to ensure the response is not excessive. Indeed, there is now a family of proteins on T cells involved in this regulatory process, which is designated the “CD28 receptor family” co-receptors, as CD28 is the first protein identified to have such function. They are divided into co-receptors transmitting stimulatory signals and co-receptors transmitting inhibitory signals. Each of these has its counterpart (ligand) on antigen-presenting cells belonging to the “B7 family”. Two most prominent inhibitory receptors on T cells are called CTLA-4 (cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4, as it is first identified on cytotoxic T lymphocytes) and PD-1 (program death-1, as it is first identified to be associated with a type of cell death process called programmed cell death). Their ligands are designated as B7-1/B7-2 and PD-L1/PD-L2, respectively. These are also referred to as immune checkpoint receptors and ligands.
Our immune system is not perfect and at times, the regulatory mechanisms might be faulty, which in fact may be the basis of a variety of diseases. For example, autoimmune diseases may be related to the suppressive mechanism becoming weak and the individuals can mount excessive immune responses even to their own cells and tissues. Also, our immune system is capable of recognizing cancer cells and attacking them, in a process called immune surveillance. However, cancer cells are also equipped with machineries to evade the host anti-tumor activity, which is described as immune escape. For example, cancer cells can also express B7 family ligands on their surfaces and, by engaging the co-receptors transmitting inhibitory signals on T cells, they can inhibit the host anti-tumor T cell activity. By recognizing how cancer cells escape the immune surveillance, scientists have developed novel approaches to interfere with the ability of cancer cells to suppress the immune response, thus enhancing the ability of the host immune system to inhibit cancer cell growth.
Dr. James Allison, Chairman, Department of Immunology and Executive Director, Immunotherapy Platform at the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, is one of two scientist to identify CTLA-4 as an inhibitory receptor on T-cells in 1995 and was the first to recognize it as a potential target for cancer therapy.  His team then developed an antibody that blocks CTLA-4 activity and showed in 1996 that this antibody is able to help reject several different types of tumors in mouse models. This subsequently led to development of a monoclonal antibody drug, which has undergone clinical trials against stage 4 melanoma and been approved for treatment of melanoma by the U.S. FDA in 2011.
Dr. Tasuku Honjo, Professor, Department of Immunology and Genomic Medicine, Kyoto University, discovered PD-1 in 1992. His group subsequently established that PD-1 is an inhibitor regulator of the T cell response. Additional studies from his and other laboratories established that this protein plays a critical role in the regulation of tumor immunity and stimulated many groups to generate its blocker for the treatment of cancer. Antibodies against PD-1 have been approved by the U.S. FDA as an investigational new drug and developed for the treatment of cancer. One such antibody produced complete or partial responses in non-small-cell lung cancer, melanoma, and renal-cell cancer in clinical trials, and is predicted to be launched in 2015 for treatment of non-small cell lung cancer; this has been stated by some as having the potential to “change the landscape” of the treatment for lung cancer. Another antibody, shown to achieve a substantial response rate also in patients with non-small cell lung cancer, is currently in clinical trial for many types of cancers. In addition, combination therapy (anti-CTLA-4 plus anti-PD-1) has been shown to dramatically improve the long-term survival rates in cancer patients.
This is an exciting time in our fight against cancer. The discoveries by Dr. Allison and Dr. Honjo have spurred additional development of therapeutic approaches along the line of immunotherapy and brought new hope that many types of cancers can be cured.
In addition, dysregulation in immune checkpoint pathways may be intimately involved in other illnesses, such as allergy, infectious diseases, and autoimmune diseases. Thus, the approach of targeting immune stimulatory and inhibitory molecules also promises to lead to the development of new therapies for these diseases.
Dr. Allison’s and Dr. Honjo’s discoveries have opened a new therapeutic era in medicine.

 

Supplementary figure:

unleashes immune system to attack cancer cells

unleashes immune system to attack cancer cells

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Samuel Yin, founder of the Tang Prize, is currently chairman of the Ruentex Group and chief development officer, chief technology officer, and chief engineer of Ruentex Construction & Development. He is also an adjunct professor in the department of civil engineering at National Taiwan University and a professor at Peking University, where he advises PhD students.

Dr. Yin read history at Chinese Culture University. He received a master’s degree in business administration at National Taiwan University and a doctorate in business administration at National Chengchi University.

In addition to his academic background in the humanities and business administration, Dr. Yin’s great interest in and devotion to interdisciplinary studies have made him an award-winning civil engineer and educator.

In 2004, Dr. Yin was named fellow of the Chinese Institute of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering. In 2008, he was invited to join Russia’s International Academy of Engineering and also awarded the Engineering Prowess Medal, the academy’s highest honour. In 2010, Dr. Yin received the Henry L. Michel Award for Industry Advancement of Research by the prestigious American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) for his contribution in the area of construction technology research. He was the first person without an academic background in engineering to receive the award.

Driven by a firm belief that he should give back to the society that has enabled him to achieve so much, Dr. Yin has been investing in philanthropy and education for a long time, in the hope of creating a positive force in society and making a better world.

Dr. Yin’s biggest dream was to set up an international award. He has long had great respect and admiration for the Nobel Prize, so he established an award modeled on the Nobel. The Tang Prize rewards excellent research in the areas of Sustainable Development, Biopharmaceutical Science, Sinology (excluding literary works), and Rule of Law. Dr. Yin hopes to encourage experts to dedicate themselves to innovative research in these fields and to spur human development with first-class research.

Dr. Yin’s relentless enthusiasm for philanthropy was instilled through his upbringing, particularly the example set by his late father Yin Shu-Tien. Dr. Yin established a foundation in memory of his grandfather, Yin Xun-Ruo, to provide scholarships to students of families originating in Shandong Province to study Chinese literature and history. When Yin senior passed away, Dr. Yin also set up the Kwang-Hua Education Foundation to help with China’s higher education programs.

In the past few years, Dr. Yin has set up a number of foundations to serve people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and to foster more talented people for the nation (the Yin Xun-Ruo Educational Foundation, the Yin Shu-Tien Medical Foundation, the Kwang-Hua Education Foundation, and the Guanghua School of Management of Peking University). In 2012, Dr. Yin set up a global award, the Tang Prize, to spread his philanthropy across the world.

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On Cancer, On Translational, Post-Translational, Regenerative Medicine and Cell Biological Processes: I told the World in three months while Recovering – Perspectives by LHB, MD, FCAP

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

On Cancer – Publications of Dr. Larry H Bernstein

Cancer Volume One – Summary [Placement in Cancer Volume One by Dr. Williams – PENDING]

A Synthesis of the Beauty and Complexity of How We View Cancer

Author: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/03/26/a-synthesis-of-the-beauty-and-complexity-of-how-we-view-cancer/

 

Epilogue: Envisioning New Insights [Placement in Cancer Volume One by Dr. Williams – PENDING]

Author & Curator: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/03/29/epilogue-envisioning-new-insights/

 

Introduction – The Evolution of Cancer Therapy and Cancer Research: How We Got Here? [Placement in Cancer Volume One by Dr. Williams – PENDING]

Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/04/introduction-the-evolution-of-cancer-therapy-and-cancer-research-how-we-got-here/

 

Epilogue: Envisioning New Insights in Cancer Translational Biology – SEE Epilogue: Envisioning New Insights 3/29/2014 – [Placement in Cancer Volume One by Dr. Williams – PENDING]

Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/04/epilogue-envisioning-new-insights-in-cancer-translational-biology/

Prologue to Cancer – e-book Volume One – Where are we in this journey? [Placement in Cancer Volume One by Dr. Williams – PENDING]

Author and Curator: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/13/prologue-to-cancer-ebook-4-where-are-we-in-this-journey/

 

 

On Translational, Post-Translational, Regenerative Medicine – Publications of Dr. Larry H Bernstein

 

Post Acute Care – Driver of Variation in Healthcare Costs [article ID assignment by Dr. Larry – PENDING]

Reporter and Curator: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/02/21/post-acute-care-driver-of-variation-in-healthcare-costs/

 

Post-Translational Modifications [article ID assignment by Dr. Larry – PENDING]

Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/21/posttranslational-modifications/

 

Post-Translational Modification of Proteins [article ID assignment by Dr. Larry – PENDING]

Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/21/posttranslational-modification-of-proteins/

 

Introduction to Translational Medicine (TM) – Part 1: Translational Medicine [Aviva will place as Intro to VOL 4 Part 1]

Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/25/introduction-to-translational-medicine-tm-part-1/

 

Introduction to e-Series A: Cardiovascular Diseases, Volume Four Part 2: Regenerative Medicine [Aviva will place as Intro to VOL 4 Part 2]

Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/27/larryhbernintroduction_to_cardiovascular_diseases-translational_medicine-part_2/

 

Summary of Translational Medicine – e-Series A: Cardiovascular Diseases, Volume Four – Part 1 [Aviva will place as Summary to VOL 4 Part 1]

Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/28/summary-of-translational-medicine-cardiovascular-diseases-part-1/

A Powerful Tool For Repairing Damaged Hearts [article ID assignment by Dr. Larry – PENDING]

Reporter: Larry H Bernstein, MD

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/30/a-powerful-tool-for-repairing-damaged-hearts/

 

Summary – Volume 4, Part 2:  Translational Medicine in Cardiovascular Diseases [Aviva will place as Summary to VOL 4 Part 2]

Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/05/10/summary-part-2-volume-4-translational-medicine-in-cardiovascular-diseases/

 

Epilogue: Volume 4 – Translational, Post-Translational and Regenerative Medicine in Cardiology [Aviva will place as EPILOGUE to VOL 4]

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Author and Curator, Volume Four, Co-Editor

Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC, Content Consultant for Series A: Cardiovascular Diseases

Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN, Co-Editor of Volume Four and Editor-in-Chief, BioMed e-Series

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/05/12/epilogue-volume-4-post-translational-and-transformative-cardiology/

 

Modified RNA Induces Vascular Regeneration After a Heart Attack [article ID assignment by Dr. Larry – PENDING]

Reporter: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/05/18/modified-rna-induces-vascular-regeneration-after-a-heart-attack/

 

Cell Biological Processes – Publications of Dr. Larry H Bernstein

A Tribute to Johannes Everse [article ID assignment by Dr. Larry – PENDING]

Author: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/21/a-tribute-to-johannes-everse/

 

What comes after finishing the Euchromatic Sequence of the Human Genome? [article ID assignment by Dr. Larry – PENDING]

Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/21/what-comes-after-finishing-the-euchromatic-sequence-of-the-human-genome/

 

Transcriptional Silencing and Longevity Protein Sir2 [article ID assignment by Dr. Larry – PENDING]

Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/21/transcriptional-silencing-and-longevity-protein-sir2/

 

S-nitrosylation signaling [article ID assignment by Dr. Larry – PENDING]

Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/21/s-nitrosylation-signaling/

 

Analysis of S-nitrosylated Proteins [article ID assignment by Dr. Larry – PENDING]

Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/21/analysis-of-s-nitrosylated-proteins/

 

Acetylation and Deacetylation of non-Histone Proteins [article ID assignment by Dr. Larry – PENDING]

Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/22/acetylation-and-deacetylation-of-non-histone-proteins/

 

Analysis of S-nitrosylated Proteins: Detergent-free biotin switch combined with liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry [article ID assignment by Dr. Larry – PENDING]

Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FACP

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/22/detergent-free-biotin-switch-combined-with-liquid-chromatographytandem-mass-spectrometry/

 

 

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Pharmocogenomics is a Multidirectional Street

 

Author and Curator: Demet Sag, PhD

There was a big undertake between CTD-Pfizer collaboration for manual curation of scientific articles text mined for drug-disease has a great partnering between public and private entities.  This effort leads common needs of the environmental health science and pharmaceutical communities. This drug and phenotype interactions as a result of  a collection of 88,629 articles relating over 1,200 pharmaceutical drugs to their potential toxicities in cardiovascular, neurological, kidney and liver .

In one year, CTD biocurators curated 254,173 toxicogenomic interactions

152,173 chemical-disease,

58,572 chemical-gene,

5,345 gene-disease and

38,083 phenotype interactions

Furthermore, drugability and genomics depends on bioinformatics for finding drug targets. In this token the Drug-Gene Interaction database (DGIdb) can be reached at http://dgidb.org/.

This database has an advantage since helps to prioritize drug development based on mutation types and potential druggable genes from existing resources.

Another method is pathway screening to identify the druggable genes that leads to development of an organism or cell or divergence during evolution.

However,  this process is not a straight line there are other factors that needs to be applied for a proper target identification. There are warning signs and cautions needs to be taken.

Identification of these side effects in addition to toxicities is important for the proper development. This is like yin and yen since one side trying to make it correct and the other side is destroying yet the positive affects wins the case.

Anticoagulant therapy has many adverse effects yet the patients prescribed since there is a need to correct the case yet there are expected adverse reactions.

As a  result, predicting the side effects and benchmarking them to understand the real problems in vivo is necessary.

Yet, still there is one more step to combine off target and side effects before making a decision based on the original drug- gene targets.  The applications opens doors from cell modifications specially in stem cells, vaccines, sensors, bioinformatics and wireless technologies as examples of the few.

There are other applications of knowing the gene-drug relations such as development of biosensors, sensors, vaccines, immune responses and redesigning or remodulating  the cells. In 1995  the complete genome of a pathogenic bacterium published . Since then virologist immunologists, vaccineoloist are all lookin for epitope mapping tools to screen vaccine candidates.  This new wave is called  ‘genome to vaccine’.

The examples of bionformatics tools currently, in use are for example, include to search for unique or multi-HLA-restricted T cell epitopes (piMatrix),  to find epitopes that are conserved across variant strains of the same pathogen (Conservatrix), to identify similarity to ‘self’ (BlastiMer) or  to assemble putative epitopes into strings if they overlap (EpiAssembler).

As a result, several solutions are developed to identify novel targets by complementing or combining methods, or following up the clinical trials, subtractive genome analysis are the name of few. In addtion, the combinatorial algorithm for maximizing inclusion drugs but minimize off-targets is necessary.

 

REFERENCES

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Other articles on Pharmacogenomics published in this Open Access Online Scientific Journal include the following:

Pharmacogenomics for Cardiovascular Diseases

Blood Pressure Response to Antihypertensives: Hypertension Susceptibility Loci Study

Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/01/02/blood-pressure-response-to-antihypertensives-atenolol-and-hydrochlorothiazide-hypertension-susceptibility-loci-study/ 

Statin-Induced Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Reduction: Genetic Determinants in the Response to Rosuvastatin

Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/01/02/statin-induced-low-density-lipoprotein-cholesterol-reduction-genetic-determinants-in-the-response-to-rosuvastatin/

SNPs in apoE are found to influence statin response significantly. Less frequent variants in PCSK9 and smaller effect sizes in SNPs in HMGCR

Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/01/02/snps-in-apoe-are-found-to-influence-statin-response-significantly-less-frequent-variants-in-pcsk9-and-smaller-effect-sizes-in-snps-in-hmgcr/

Voltage-Gated Calcium Channel and Pharmacogenetic Association with Adverse Cardiovascular Outcomes: Hypertension Treatment with Verapamil SR (CCB) vs Atenolol (BB) or Trandolapril (ACE)

Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/01/02/voltage-gated-calcium-channel-and-pharmacogenetic-association-with-adverse-cardiovascular-outcomes-hypertension-treatment-with-verapamil-sr-ccb-vs-atenolol-bb-or-trandolapril-ace/

Response to Rosuvastatin in Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction: Hepatic Metabolism and Transporter Gene Variants Effect

Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/01/02/response-to-rosuvastatin-in-patients-with-acute-myocardial-infarction-hepatic-metabolism-and-transporter-gene-variants-effect/

Helping Physicians identify Gene-Drug Interactions for Treatment Decisions: New ‘CLIPMERGE’ program – Personalized Medicine @ The Mount Sinai Medical Center

Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/04/15/helping-physicians-identify-gene-drug-interactions-for-treatment-decisions-new-clipmerge-program-personalized-medicine-the-mount-sinai-medical-center/

Leveraging Mathematical Models to Understand Population Variability in Response to Cardiac Drugs: Eric Sobie, PhD

Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/04/22/leveraging-mathematical-mod

els-to-understand-population-variability-in-response-to-cardiac-drugs-eric-s

obie-phd/ 

Is Pharmacogenetic-based Dosing of Warfarin Superior for Anticoagulation Control?

Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/02/04/is-pharmacogenetic-based-dosing-of-warfarin-superior-for-anticoagulation-control/

 

 

 

 

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