Clinical characterization and prognostic implications of metabolic syndrome in patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis at a Chinese center

Objective

Metabolic syndrome (MS) is a common clinical condition associated with cardiovascular disease in patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis (PD); however, its prognostic implication among patients receiving PD remains controversial.

Methods

In a prospective study from January 2013 and June 2016, we enrolled 190 patients undergoing PD and followed them for 46.4 ± 30.7 months. We assessed the associations of clinical characteristics and measurements with diabetes mellitus (DM) status, MS, and prognostic outcomes among the included patients.

Results

We found that DM was associated with shortened duration of dialysis and poor survival. The prevalence of MS was 58.9% among all patients. We found significant differences in age, body weight, body mass index, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, fasting plasma glucose, leukocytes, platelets, neutrophil percentage, and pre-albumin between patients with and without MS. We found a negative correlation trend between serum intact parathyroid hormone and MS among our patients. The arteriosclerosis index was significantly elevated in the MS group compared with the non-MS group. Serum calcium concentration and frequency of hospital admissions were significantly associated with mortality and technique failure.

Conclusions

MS was positively associated with cardiovascular disease. DM, and hypocalcemia. Frequent hospital admissions can predict poor prognosis in patients undergoing PD.

[Immunological damage effects of cytomegalovirus infection on bone marrow hematopoietic cells]

Objective: Toobserve the damage effects of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection on hematopoietic cells and to investigate the clinical significance. Methods: (1) ELISA assay wasused to detect IL-17 and IFN-γ levels in the peripheral blood serum of 36 patients on pretherapy and posttherapy. (2) Changes of peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets were detected by FACS. (3) Cytological observation of cervical lymph nodes was executed by needle aspiration cytology. (4) Cellular immunochemistry and immunofluorescence staining were performed to observe the POX release, HLA-DR expression, IL-17A and IFN-γ secretion-like expression status of activated immune cells in the bone marrow hematopoietic microenvironment. Serum samples from healthy individuals were used as controls. Bone marrow smears from patients without iron deficiency anemia were compared as bone marrow immunostaining. Results: (1) Serum levels of IL-17 and IFN-γ were significantly increased in CMV-infected patients [IL-17 (48.23±3.86) ng/L vs (20.16±1.05) ng/L,respectively; IFN-γ (40.16±3.11) vs (8.17±1.92) ng/L,P<0.01]. (2) The proportion of CD16+/CD56+NK cells was significantly increased in patients [(43.54±6.01)% vs (14.01±3.25)%, P<0.01]. The proportion of CD3+CD4+T and CD3+CD8+T cells decreased,(20.91±53.15)% vs (35.10±4.88)%, and (15.41±5.13)% vs (25.11±3.92)%,respectively,P<0.05. (3) Large numbers of abnormal lymphocytes and macrophages (MΦ) that engulf large quantities of CMV inclusion bodies were observed in bone marrow and lymph nodes. CMV infected and destroied the hematopoietic cells of various lines in the bone marrow. The activated MΦ phagocytizedthe CMV inclusion bodies and also phagocytosed CMV-infected blood cells. (4) Activated MΦ in bone marrow hematopoietic microenvironment released POX strongly positive, highly expressed class Ⅱ HLA-DR, and highly expressed inflammatory factors IL-17A and IFN-γ. (5) Twenty-twopatients with elevated WBC were treated with ganciclovir combined with antibiotics for 2 weeks after the disappearance of the foci, WBC counts and CMV-IgM levels of 16 cases were reduced to normal.Six patients with CMV who were not turned negative were tprolonged,and the granulocyte and/or platelet counts fell below normal range. Fourteenpatients withreduced granulocyte or platelet count, CMV-IgM levels were slow descend,and the ganciclovir treated more than 4 weeks. Conclusions: CMV can infect hematopoietic bone marrow nucleated blood cells and destroy hematopoiesis. NK and MΦ cells are important effector cells against CMV infection. Activated macrophages are dual in nature, they can engulf CMV virus and virus-infected blood cells,and also aggravate bone marrow immune damage by releasing inflammatory factors such as POX and IL-17A and IFN-γ.

Global analysis of population stratification using a smart panel of 27 continental ancestry-informative SNPs

Over the last decade, several panels of ancestry-informative markers have been proposed for the analysis of population genetic structure. The differentiation efficiency depends on the discriminatory ability of the included markers and the reference population coverage. We previously developed a small set of 27 autosomal single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for analyzing African, European, and East Asian ancestries. In the current study, we gathered a high-coverage reference database of 110 populations (10,350 individuals) from across the globe. The discrimination power of the panel was re-evaluated using four continental ancestry groups (as well as Indigenous Americans). We observed that all the 27 SNPs demonstrated stratified population specificity leading to a striking ancestral discrimination. Five markers (rs728404, rs7170869, rs2470102, rs1448485, and rs4789193) showed differences (δ > 0.3) in the frequency profiles between East Asian and Indigenous American populations. Ancestry components of all involved populations were accurately accessed compared with those from previous genome-wide analyses, thereafter achieved broadly population separation. Thus, our ancestral inference panel of a small number of highly informative SNPs in combination with a large-scale reference database provides a high-resolution in estimating ancestry compositions and distinguishing individual origins. We propose extensive usage in biomedical studies and forensics.

Marek's disease virus type 1 encoded analog of miR-155 promotes proliferation of chicken embryo fibroblast and DF-1 cells by targeting hnRNPAB

Marek's disease virus type 1 (MDV-1) is a representative oncogenic Alpha herpesvirus that causes an immunosuppressive and neoplastic lymphoproliferative avian disease, namely Marek's disease (MD). The rapid-onset T-cell lymphoma in chickens induced by MDV-1 has been historically regarded as an ideal natural model for herpesvirus-related cancer research. As a viral analog of cellular miR-155, the MDV-1-encoded miR-M4-5p has been shown to be crucial for the virally-induced MD tumorigenesis. Our previous studies demonstrated that miR-M4-5p induces an over-expression of oncogene c-Myc by targeting LTBP1 and suppressing the TGF-β signaling pathway during MDV-1 infection. We have now further identified the chicken heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein AB (hnRNPAB) as a new cellular biological target for miR-M4-5p. Suppression of hnRNPAB expression mediated by miR-M4-5p promotes the proliferation, but not the apoptosis, of both primary chicken embryo fibroblasts (CEFs) and transformed chicken fibroblast DF-1 cell line. HnRNPAB is a member of the hnRNP family of proteins that play important roles in normal biological processes as well as cancer development. Our data suggests that the recognition and down-regulation of hnRNPAB by miR-M4-5p may be one of the important strategies for MDV-1 to trigger the development of MD lymphomas.

Esophageal cancer exhibits resistance to a novel IGF-1R inhibitor NVP-AEW541 with maintained RAS-MAPK activity

AIM

To assess the effects of a novel type 1 insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF-1R) inhibitor, NVP-AEW541, on cell proliferation and signal transduction of esophageal cancer.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Cell proliferation assay and western blot were conducted to assess the antitumor effects of NVP-AEW541. Genetic modification of RAS by expression vector was applied for overexpression of mutant RAS.

RESULTS

More than 2 μmol/l of NVP-AEW541 was required to effectively inhibit the proliferation of esophageal cancer. NVP-AEW541 potently blocked the activation of IGF-1R and protein kinase B (PKB, also known as AKT), but not of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK) and extracellular-signal-regulated kinases (ERK). Active RAS was not reduced by NVP-AEW541 in esophageal cancer cells TE-1, suggesting that insensitivity of esophageal cancer to NVP-AEW541 is due to the maintained RAS-MAPK activity, which did not arise from RAS mutation. Moreover, the transduction of mutant RAS reduced the sensitivity of TE-1 cells to NVP-AEW541.

CONCLUSION

Stimulation of RAS-MAPK pathway is associated with resistance to NVP-AEW541 in esophageal cancer. Combining NVP-AEW541 with inhibitors/antibodies against RAS-MAPK signaling molecules might be more effective for use against esophageal cancer.

Molecular characterization and functional analysis of Cashmere goat mammalian target of rapamycin

The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is an evolutionarily conserved protein kinase that belongs to the phosphatidylinositol kinase-related kinase family. We describe our molecular characterization of mTOR and its function (GenBank accession HM114224) in Cashmere goat (Capra hircus). The goat mTOR complementary DNA is 8617 bp, comprising an open reading frame of 7650 bp--corresponding to a polypeptide of 2549 amino acids--and a 909 bp 3' untranslated region with a polyA tract and a polyadenylation signal at nucleotides 8575-8580. In a bioinformatics analysis, goat mTOR has typical sites of activity and domains. mTOR mRNA was measured in brain, heart, testis, liver, spleen, kidney, and lung by real-time polymerase chain reaction, and the expression of mTOR in fetal fibroblasts was detected by western blot. The viability of fetal fibroblasts was inhibited on treatment with CCI-779, a specific inhibitor of mTOR. Our data supplied evidence that the transcription of mTOR was detected in the seven tissues in Cashmere goat, and mTOR protein was translated in fetal fibroblasts. The proliferation of fetal fibroblasts decreases on inhibition of mTOR.

Characterisation of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) MHC class I domain lineages

In order to characterise grass carp MHC class I (Ctid-MHC I) sequences, 26 Ctid-MHC I genes were cloned from 12 individuals and their alpha domain lineages were analysed. Simultaneously, a quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (Q-RT-PCR) assay was developed to detect Ctid-MHC I tissue-specific expression. The results suggested that Ctid-MHC I could be divided into eight lineages (Ctid-NA-Ctid-NH). Based on whether they contained the motif of eight key amino acids (YYRTKWYY), Ctid-MHC I lineages were divided into two groups [Ctid-MHC I (8(+)) and Ctid-MHC I (8(-))]. The expression analysis showed that the Ctid-MHC I locus/loci appeared in the kidney, gill, intestine, heart, spleen, liver, and brain. A GenBank homology BLAST was performed independently with each alpha domain, and Ctid-MHC I alpha1, alpha2, and alpha3 were categorised into two (V and IX), five (II, IV-VII), and four (IV-VII) domain lineages, respectively. Based on the alphabetic labelling system created in our earlier studies, one alpha1 (IX), four alpha2 (IV-VII), and unique alpha3 (V-VII) domain lineages were observed in grass carp and across the teleostean species.

Reconstruction of a swine SLA-I protein complex and determination of binding nonameric peptides derived from the foot-and-mouth disease virus

No experimental system to date is available to identify viral T-cell epitopes in swine. In order to reconstruct the system for identification of short antigenic peptides, the swine SLA-2 gene was linked to the beta(2)m gene via (G4S)3, a linker encoding a 15-amino acid glycine-rich sequence (G4S)3, using splicing overlap extension-PCR (SOE-PCR). The maltose binding protein (MBP)-SLA-2-(G4S)3-beta(2)m fusion protein was expressed and purified in a pMAL-p2X/Escherichia coli TB1 system. The purified MBP-SLA-2-(G4S)3-beta(2)m protein was cleaved by factor Xa protease, and further purified by DEAE-Sepharose chromatography. The conformation of the SLA-2-(G4S)3-beta(2)m protein was determined by circular dichroism (CD) spectrum. In addition, the refolded SLA-2-(G4S)3-beta(2)m protein was used to bind three nonameric peptides derived from the foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) O subtype VP1. The SLA-2-(G4S)3-beta(2)m-associated peptides were detected by mass spectrometry. The molecular weights and amino acid sequences of the peptides were confirmed by primary and secondary spectra, respectively. The results indicate that the SLA-2-(G4S)3-beta(2)m was 41.6kDa, and its alpha-helix, beta-sheet, turn, and random coil by CD estimation were 78 aa, 149 aa, 67 aa, and 93 aa, respectively. SLA-2-(G4S)3-beta(2)m protein was able to bind the nonameric peptides derived from the FMDV VP1 region: 26-34 (RRQHTDVSF) and 157-165 (RTLPTSFNY). The experimental system demonstrated that the reconstructed SLA-2-(G4S)3-beta(2)m protein complex can be used to identify nonameric peptides, including T-cell epitopes in swine.

[Studies on the chemical constituents of seed from Nigella glandulifera]

Seven compounds were isolated from the seed of Nigella glandulifera. Their structures were identified as kaempferol-3-O-beta-D-galactopyranosyl (1-->3)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl(1-->3)-beta-D-glucopyranoside (N-I), 2-O-[alpha-D-galactopyranosyl (1-->4)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl]-beta-D-fructofuranoside (N-II), N, N-dimethyl-1, 2-dimethoxy-10, 11-dihydric aporphine quaternary ammonium chloride (N-III), 3-O-[beta-D-xylo-pyranosyl (1-->3)-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl (1-->2)-alpha-L-arabinopyranosyl]- 28-O -[alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl (1-->4)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl (1-->6) beta-D-glucopyranosyl]-hederagenin (N-IV), sucrose(N-V), beta-sitosterol(N-VI) and cyclolandenol(N-VII). Compounds N-I and N-II are new compounds, named nigeglanoside and nigeglanose, respectively. Apart from ten fatty acids in its oil have also been analysed. It is the first time for the study on chemical constituents of the seed of Nigella glandulifera.