Inhibition of the Rho/ROCK pathway promotes the expression of developmental and migration-related genes in astrocytes exposed to alcohol

Astrocytes are an important regulator of alcohol dependence. Furthermore, the downregulation of Rho-associated coiled coil-containing protein kinase 2 (ROCK2) attenuates alcohol-induced inflammation and oxidative stress in astrocytes. On the basis of these findings, we examined the effects of alcohol and a Rho/RACK kinases inhibitor on astrocyte function and investigated their effects on mRNA expression to further explore the protective mechanisms of a Rho/RACK kinases inhibitor in astrocytes after alcohol exposure. CTX TNA2 astrocytes were cultured with alcohol and Rho/RACK kinases inhibitor intervention before undergoing transcriptome sequencing, quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), and wound healing assays. Alcohol exposure modulated cell morphology and inhibited astrocyte migration, whereas Fasudil improved cell morphology and promoted astrocyte migration after alcohol exposure. Transcriptome sequencing results indicated that alcohol exposure modulates the expression of genes involved in astrocyte development. Fasudil reversed the effects of alcohol exposure on the astrocyte developmental process. Four genes related to the developmental process and migration - Ccl2, Postn, Itga8, and Serpine1 - with the highest protein-protein interaction correlations (node degree >7) were selected for verification by qRT-PCR, and the results were consistent with those of the sequencing and wound healing assays. Our results suggest that the Rho/ROCK pathway is essential for alcohol to be able to interfere with astrocyte development and migration gene expression. The Rho/ROCK pathway inhibitor Fasudil reversed the adverse effects of alcohol exposure on astrocytes and may have clinical applications.

Generation of a human induced pluripotent stem cell line overexpressing CCL22 with islet cells differentiation potential

CCL22 is a macrophage-derived immunosuppressive chemokine that recruits regulatory T cells through the CCL22:CCR4 axis, playing an important role in homeostatic and inflammatory responses. A CCL22-overexpressing human induced pluripotent stem cell line (CNNDi001-A-2) was generated by lentiviral transduction to further study the function of CCL22. The cell line was confirmed to have normal proliferation and pluripotency and could be further differentiated into islet cells for cell replacement therapy in diabetes.

Effects of Notch-1 signalling pathway on differentiation of marrow mesenchymal stem cells into neurons in vitro

In this study, the putative involvement of the Notch-1 signaling pathway in the neuronal differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) was investigated through RNA interference (RNAi). We found that mNotch-1shRNA could efficiently block expression of Notch-1 in BMSCs. After induction, immunohistochemistry, reverse transcriptase-PCR and Western blot analyses, all indicated that the expression of neuron-specific markers such as neuron-specific enolase and neurofilament 200 was much higher in mNotch-1shRNA BMSCs than that in control groups, whereas the expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein was lower in mNotch-1shRNA BMSCs. The percentage of apoptotic cells in mNotch-1shRNA BMSCs, however, was significantly higher than that in control groups. These data indicate that Notch signaling plays a role in the differentiation of BMSCs into neurons in vitro. Pharmacological or genetic interference with Notch signaling may provide a novel method to obtain neurons for therapeutic use.

STEP--a trial-and-error procedure for crystal structure determination. II. The determination of two small protein structures

This paper describes the difficulties in the process of using the trial-and-error SYSTEM90 program to determine ab initio the structures of two small proteins App [Woolfson & Yao (1990). Acta Cryst. A46, 409-413] and rubredoxin [Sheldrick et al. (1993). Acta Cryst. D49, 18-23] with high-resolution data. Some strategies for overcoming the difficulties are discussed and the upgraded SYSTEM95 program was used successfully to determine the two structures. The most characteristic feature of this structure-determination process is that the two proteins are treated as unknown structures with only their chemical compositions and high-resolution data sets known. A new figure of merit R(sc), replacing the old figure of merit, XDFOM, is quite effective in picking out a good set of phases in the multi-solution stage when the phases are overconsistent. Controlling the Fourier recycling technique and the residuals can separate the mixture of structures and the enantiomorph and finally give one absolute structure. The results are compared with known structures to verify their reliability.

Separation of enantiomers of drugs by capillary electrophoresis. Part 4: hydroxypropyl-gamma-cyclodextrin as chiral solvating agent

In an extended chiral drug screening program, enantioseparation of 86 racemic drugs was tested with hydroxypropyl-gamma-cyclodextrin as chiral solvating agent (CSA). A total of 30 drugs out of 86 could be resolved in this straightforward approach. The number of experiments performed under identical conditions allows a statistical treatment of the data. The enantioseparation of the analytes is correlated with their interaction strength with the CSA. Hence, the concentration of the CSA is a crucial parameter for optimization of the enantioseparation, as shown by a subset of 23 examples.