Porphyrin-related photosensitizers for cancer imaging and therapeutic applications

A photosensitizer is defined as a chemical entity, which upon absorption of light induces a chemical or physical alteration of another chemical entity. Some photosensitizers are utilized therapeutically such as in photodynamic therapy (PDT) and for diagnosis of cancer (fluorescence diagnosis, FD). PDT is approved for several cancer indications and FD has recently been approved for diagnosis of bladder cancer. The photosensitizers used are in most cases based on the porphyrin structure. These photosensitizers generally accumulate in cancer tissues to a higher extent than in the surrounding tissues and their fluorescing properties may be utilized for cancer detection. The photosensitizers may be chemically synthesized or induced endogenously by an intermediate in heme synthesis, 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) or 5-ALA esters. The therapeutic effect is based on the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) upon activation of the photosensitizer by light. Singlet oxygen is assumed to be the most important ROS for the therapeutic outcome. The fluorescing properties of the photosensitizers can be used to evaluate their intracellular localization and treatment effects. Some photosensitizers localize intracellularly in endocytic vesicles and upon light exposure induce a release of the contents of these vesicles, including externally added macromolecules, into the cytosol. This is the basis for a novel method for macromolecule activation, named photochemical internalization (PCI). PCI has been shown to potentiate the biological activity of a large variety of macromolecules and other molecules that do not readily penetrate the plasma membrane, including type I ribosome-inactivating proteins, immunotoxins, gene-encoding plasmids, adenovirus, peptide-nucleic acids and the chemotherapeutic drug bleomycin. The background and present status of PDT, FD and PCI are reviewed.

Global analysis of transcription kinetics during competence development in Streptococcus pneumoniae using high density DNA arrays

The kinetics of global changes in transcription patterns during competence development in Streptococcus pneumoniae was analysed with high-density arrays. Four thousand three hundred and one clones of a S. pneumoniae library, covering almost the entire genome, were amplified by PCR and gridded at high density onto nylon membranes. Competence was induced by the addition of CSP (competence stimulating peptide) to S. pneumoniae cultures grown to the early exponential phase. RNA was extracted from samples at 5 min intervals (for a period of 30 min) after the addition of CSP. Radiolabelled cDNA was generated from isolated total RNA by random priming and the probes were hybridized to identical high density arrays. Genes whose transcription was induced or repressed during competence were identified. Most of the genes previously known to be competence induced were detected together with several novel genes that all displayed the characteristic transient kinetics of competence-induced genes. Among the newly identified genes many have suggested functions compatible with roles in genetic transformation. Some of them may represent new members of the early or late competence regulons showing competence specific consensus sequences in their promoter regions. Northern experiments and mutational analysis were used to confirm some of the results.

Transient gene asymmetry during sporulation and establishment of cell specificity in Bacillus subtilis

Sporulation in Bacillus subtilis is initiated by an asymmetric division generating two cells of different size and fate. During a short interval, the smaller forespore harbors only 30% of the chromosome until the remaining part is translocated across the septum. We demonstrate that moving the gene for sigmaF, the forespore-specific transcription factor, in the trapped region of the chromosome is sufficient to produce spores in the absence of the essential activators SpoIIAA and SpoIIE. We propose that transient genetic asymmetry is the device that releases SpoIIE phosphatase activity in the forespore and establishes cell specificity.

Plasmids for ectopic integration in Bacillus subtilis

Plasmids have been constructed that allow integration by a double recombination event at the thrC locus of the Bacillus subtilis (Bs) chromosome. These plasmids can be used either for construction of merodiploid strains and complementation analysis, or for construction of transcriptional fusions to the Escherichia coli lacZ gene. The plasmids contain an antibiotic (An) marker selectable in Bs, as well as an additional An marker outside of the region that can recombine into the chromosome. When used in conjunction with recipient strains containing a third An marker at their thrC locus, these plasmids allow easy identification of transformants issued from a marker exchange event without additional Campbell-type integration. The existing plasmids used for ectopic integration at the amyE locus have been modified similarly.

Antibiotic-resistance cassettes for Bacillus subtilis

The genes encoding resistance to four different antibiotics (erythromycin, kanamycin, tetracycline and spectinomycin) were cloned in the polylinker of various Escherichia coli plasmid vectors. These cassettes can be inserted into cloned Bacillus subtilis (Bs) genes and used to create tagged chromosomal disruptions after recombination into Bs and selection in the presence of the appropriate antibiotic.

Cell-type specificity during development in Bacillus subtilis: the molecular and morphological requirements for sigma E activation

Development in Bacillus subtilis involves the formation of two cell types with activation of the transcription factors sigma F in the forespore and sigma E in the mother cell. Activation of sigma E is due to the processing of the inactive precursor pro-sigma E, which requires the putative protease SpoIIGA and the presence of active sigma F. We have introduced missense mutations altering the promoter recognition properties of sigma F. These mutations abolish pro-sigma E processing, suggesting that sigma F is involved through its transcriptional activity and that the processing machinery responds to a signal generated by the product(s) of some unidentified gene(s) transcribed in the forespore. The role of the septum in transducing this signal was investigated. Induction of sigma F during exponential growth in cells producing SpoIIGA and pro-sigma E led to a high level of processing and sigma E activity. Moreover, pro-sigma E was efficiently processed in a mutant strain blocked prior to septation and synthesizing sigma F in active form at the onset of sporulation. Therefore, the sporulation septum is not required for induction of pro-sigma E processing and pro-sigma E can be processed in the same cell in which sigma F is active. These results suggest that some unknown mechanism must exist to prevent sigma E from becoming active in the forespore.

Identification and characterization of the Bacillus subtilis spoIIP locus

We have identified an additional sporulation gene, named spoIIP, in the region of the Bacillus subtilis chromosome located immediately downstream of the gpr gene (227 degrees on the genetic map). A null mutation of spoIIP arrests sporulation at an early stage of engulfment (stage IIii), a phenotype similar to that already described for spoIID and spoIIM mutants. This gene encodes a 401-residue polypeptide, which is predicted to be anchored in the membrane, most of the protein being localized outside the cytoplasm. The spoIIP gene is transcribed from a promoter located in the interval between the gpr and the spoIIP reading frames. This promoter has the structural and genetic characteristics of a sigma E-dependent promoter. Transcription of spoIIP is abolished by a mutation in spoIIGB, the gene encoding sigma E, and can be induced during exponential growth in cells engineered to produce an active form of sigma E. Plasmid integration-excision experiments leading to the formation of genetic mosaics during sporulation indicate that as with SpoIID and SpoIIM, SpoIIP is required only in the mother cell. Disruption of spoIIP had little or no effect on the expression of sigma F- and sigma E-controlled regulons but inhibited transcription from sigma G-dependent promoters and abolished transcription from promoters under the control of sigma K. We propose that, together with SpoIID and SpoIIM, the SpoIIP protein is involved in the dissolution of the peptidoglycan located in the sporulation septum.

Excess histidine enzymes cause AICAR-independent filamentation in Escherichia coli

High-level expression of the hisHAFI genes in Escherichia coli, cloned under the control of an IPTG-inducible promoter, caused filamentation, as previously reported in Salmonella typhimurium. We speculated that this filamentation might be produced by an action of the HisH and HisF enzymes on their product AICAR (amino-imidazole carboxamide riboside 5'-phosphate), a histidine by-product and normal purine precursor, possibly by favouring the formation of ZTP, the triphosphate derivative of AICAR. However, filamentation occurred even in the absence of carbon flow through the histidine and purine pathways, as observed in a hisG purF strain lacking the first enzyme in each pathway. Filamentation thus does not require either the normal substrate or products of the overproduced histidine enzymes and must reflect another activity.

AICAR is not an endogenous mutagen in Escherichia coli

A number of observations in the Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium literature could be explained by the hypothesis that a particular purine ribonucleotide precursor can be converted to the corresponding deoxyribonucleotide triphosphate, thereby becoming a base-analogue mutagen. The metabolite in question, AICAR (5-amino-4-carboxamide imidazole riboside 5'-phosphate), is also a by-product of histidine biosynthesis, and its (ribo)triphosphate derivative, ZTP, has been detected in E. coli. We constructed E. coli tester strains that had either a normal AICAR pool (pur+ his+ strains cultivated without purines or histidine) or no AICAR pool (purF hisG mutant strains, lacking the first enzyme of each pathway and cultivated in the presence of adenine and histidine). Using a set of lacZ mutations, each of which can revert to Lac+ only by a specific substitution mutation, we found that no base substitution event occurs at a higher frequency in the presence of an AICAR pool. We conclude that the normal AICAR pool in E. coli is not a significant source of spontaneous base substitution mutagenesis.