TY - JOUR A1 - Tsoneva, Desislava A1 - Stritzker, Jochen A1 - Bedenk, Kristina A1 - Zhang, Qian A1 - Cappello, Joseph A1 - Fischer, Utz A1 - Szalay, Aladar A. T1 - Drug-encoded Biomarkers for Monitoring Biological Therapies JF - PLoS One N2 - Blood tests are necessary, easy-to-perform and low-cost alternatives for monitoring of oncolytic virotherapy and other biological therapies in translational research. Here we assessed three candidate proteins with the potential to be used as biomarkers in biological fluids: two glucuronidases from E. coli (GusA) and Staphylococcus sp. RLH1 (GusPlus), and the luciferase from Gaussia princeps (GLuc). The three genes encoding these proteins were inserted individually into vaccinia virus GLV-1h68 genome under the control of an identical promoter. The three resulting recombinant viruses were used to infect tumor cells in cultures and human tumor xenografts in nude mice. In contrast to the actively secreted GLuc, the cytoplasmic glucuronidases GusA and GusPlus were released into the supernatants only as a result of virus-mediated oncolysis. GusPlus resulted in the most sensitive detection of enzyme activity under controlled assay conditions in samples containing as little as 1 pg/ml of GusPlus, followed by GusA (25 pg/ml) and GLuc (≥375 pg/ml). Unexpectedly, even though GusA had a lower specific activity compared to GusPlus, the substrate conversion in the serum of tumor-bearing mice injected with the GusA-encoding virus strains was substantially higher than that of GusPlus. This was attributed to a 3.2 fold and 16.2 fold longer half-life of GusA in the blood stream compared to GusPlus and GLuc respectively, thus a more sensitive monitor of virus replication than the other two enzymes. Due to the good correlation between enzymatic activity of expressed marker gene and virus titer, we conclude that the amount of the biomarker protein in the body fluid semiquantitatively represents the amount of virus in the infected tumors which was confirmed by low light imaging. We found GusA to be the most reliable biomarker for monitoring oncolytic virotherapy among the three tested markers. KW - mouse models KW - vaccinia virus KW - luciferase KW - biomarkers KW - cytolysis KW - viral replication KW - cell cultures KW - blood Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-125265 VL - 10 IS - 9 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zhang, Yi A1 - Lee, Chil-Woo A1 - Wehner, Nora A1 - Imdahl, Fabian A1 - Svetlana, Veselova A1 - Weiste, Christoph A1 - Dröge-Laser, Wolfgang A1 - Deeken, Rosalia T1 - Regulation of Oncogene Expression in T-DNA-Transformed Host Plant Cells JF - PLoS Pathogens N2 - Virulent Agrobacterium tumefaciens strains integrate their T-DNA into the plant genome where the encoded agrobacterial oncogenes are expressed and cause crown gall disease. Essential for crown gall development are IaaH (indole-3-acetamide hydrolase), IaaM (tryptophan monooxygenase) and Ipt (isopentenyl transferase), which encode enzymes for the biosynthesis of auxin (IaaH, IaaM) and cytokinin (Ipt). Although these oncogenes are well studied as the tumor-inducing principle, nothing is known about the regulation of oncogene expression in plant cells. Our studies show that the intergenic regions (IGRs) between the coding sequences (CDS) of the three oncogenes function as promoters in plant cells. These promoters possess a eukaryotic sequence organization and cis-regulatory elements for the binding of plant transcription factors. WRKY18, WRKY40, WRKY60 and ARF5 were identified as activators of the Ipt promoter whereas IaaH and IaaM is constitutively expressed and no transcription factor further activates their promoters. Consistent with these results, the wrky triple mutant plants in particular, develops smaller crown galls than wild-type and exhibits a reduced Ipt transcription, despite the presence of an intact ARF5 gene. WRKY40 and WRKY60 gene expression is induced by A. tumefaciens within a few hours whereas the ARF5 gene is transcribed later during crown gall development. The WRKY proteins interact with ARF5 in the plant nucleus, but only WRKY40 together with ARF5 synergistically boosts the activation of the Ipt promoter in an auxin-dependent manner. From our data, we propose that A. tumefaciens initially induces WRKY40 gene expression as a pathogen defense response of the host cell. The WRKY protein is recruited to induce Ipt expression, which initiates cytokinin-dependent host cell division. With increasing auxin levels triggered by ubiquitous expression of IaaH and IaaM, ARF5 is activated and interacts with WRKY40 to potentiate Ipt expression and balance cytokinin and auxin levels for further cell proliferation. KW - luminescence KW - oncogenes KW - agrobacterium tumefaciens KW - transcription factors KW - auxins KW - gene expression KW - cytokinins KW - plant cells Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-125256 VL - 11 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Üçeyler, Nurcan A1 - Kewenig, Susanne A1 - Kittel-Schneider, Sarah A1 - Fallgatter, Andreas J. A1 - Sommer, Claudia T1 - Increased cortical activation upon painful stimulation in fibromyalgia syndrome JF - BMC Neurology N2 - Background Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a chronic condition characterized by widespread pain and associated symptoms. We investigated cerebral activation in FMS patients by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Methods Two stimulation paradigms were applied: a) painful pressure stimulation at the dorsal forearm; b) verbal fluency test (VFT). We prospectively recruited 25 FMS patients, ten patients with unipolar major depression (MD) without pain, and 35 healthy controls. All patients underwent neurological examination and all subjects were investigated with questionnaires (pain, depression, FMS, empathy). Results FMS patients had lower pressure pain thresholds than patients with MD and controls (p < 0.001) and reported higher pain intensity (p < 0.001). Upon unilateral pressure pain stimulation fNIRS recordings revealed increased bilateral cortical activation in FMS patients compared to controls (p < 0.05). FMS patients also displayed a stronger contralateral activity over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in direct comparison to patients with MD (p < 0.05). While all three groups performed equally well in the VFT, a frontal deficit in cortical activation was only found in patients with depression (p < 0.05). Performance and cortical activation correlated negatively in FMS patients (p < 0.05) and positively in patients with MD (p < 0.05). Conclusion Our data give further evidence for altered central nervous processing in patients with FMS and the distinction between FMS and MD. KW - fibromyalgia syndrome KW - depression KW - cortical activation KW - pain KW - near-infrared spectroscopy Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-125230 VL - 15 IS - 210 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Oezkur, Mehmet A1 - Wagner, Martin A1 - Weismann, Dirk A1 - Krannich, Jens Holger A1 - Schimmer, Christoph A1 - Riegler, Christoph A1 - Rücker, Victoria A1 - Leyh, Rainer A1 - Heuschmann, Peter U. T1 - Chronic hyperglycemia is associated with acute kidney injury in patients undergoing CABG surgery – a cohort study JF - BMC Cardiovascular Disorders N2 - Background Chronic hyperglycemia (CHG) with HbA1c as an indicator affects postoperative mortality and morbidity after coronary artery bypass grafting surgery (CABG). Acute kidney injury (AKI) is one of the frequent postoperative complications after CABG impacting short-and long-term outcomes. We investigated the association between CHG and postoperative incidence of AKI in CABG patients with and without history of diabetes mellitus (DM). Methods This cohort study consecutively enrolled patients undergoing CABG in 2009 at the department for cardiovascular surgery. CHG was defined as HbA1c ≥ 6.0 %. Patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) were excluded. The incidence of postoperative AKI and its association with CHG was analyzed by univariate and multivariate logistic regression modeling. Results Three-hundred-seven patients were analyzed. The incidence of AKI was 48.2 %. Patients with CHG (n = 165) were more likely to be female and had greater waist circumference as well as other comorbid conditions, such as smoking, history of DM, CKD, hypertension, pulmonary hypertension, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (all p ≤ 0.05). Preoperative eGFR, atrial fibrillation (AF), history of DM and CHG were associated with an increased risk of postoperative AKI in univariate analyses. In multivariate modelling, history of DM as well as preoperative eGFR and AF lost significance, while age, CHG and prolonged OP duration (p < 0.05) were independently associated with postoperative AKI. Conclusions Our results suggest that CHG defined on a single measurement of HbA1c ≥ 6.0 % was associated with the incidence of AKI after CABG. This finding might implicate that treatment decisions, including the selection of operative strategies, could be based on HbA1c measurement rather than on a recorded history of diabetes. Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-125224 VL - 15 IS - 41 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pasch, Elisabeth A1 - Link, Jana A1 - Beck, Carolin A1 - Scheuerle, Stefanie A1 - Alsheimer, Manfred T1 - The LINC complex component Sun4 plays a crucial role in sperm head formation and fertility JF - Biology Open N2 - LINC complexes are evolutionarily conserved nuclear envelope bridges, physically connecting the nucleus to the peripheral cytoskeleton. They are pivotal for dynamic cellular and developmental processes, like nuclear migration, anchoring and positioning, meiotic chromosome movements and maintenance of cell polarity and nuclear shape. Active nuclear reshaping is a hallmark of mammalian sperm development and, by transducing cytoskeletal forces to the nuclear envelope, LINC complexes could be vital for sperm head formation as well. We here analyzed in detail the behavior and function of Sun4, a bona fide testis-specific LINC component. We demonstrate that Sun4 is solely expressed in spermatids and there localizes to the posterior nuclear envelope, likely interacting with Sun3/Nesprin1 LINC components. Our study revealed that Sun4 deficiency severely impacts the nucleocytoplasmic junction, leads to mislocalization of other LINC components and interferes with the formation of the microtubule manchette, which finally culminates in a globozoospermia-like phenotype. Together, our study provides direct evidence for a critical role of LINC complexes in mammalian sperm head formation and male fertility. KW - SUN domain proteins KW - sperm head formation KW - nuclear envelope KW - LINC complex KW - spermiogenesis Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-125212 VL - 4 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wieser, Matthias J. A1 - Moscovitch, David A. T1 - The effect of affective context on visuocortical processing of neutral faces in social anxiety - An ERP study JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - It has been demonstrated that verbal context information alters the neural processing of ambiguous faces such as faces with no apparent facial expression. In social anxiety, neutral faces may be implicitly threatening for socially anxious individuals due to their ambiguous nature, but even more so if these neutral faces are put in self-referential negative contexts. Therefore, we measured event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in response to neutral faces which were preceded by affective verbal information (negative, neutral, positive). Participants with low social anxiety (LSA; n = 23) and high social anxiety (HSA; n = 21) were asked to watch and rate valence and arousal of the respective faces while continuous EEG was recorded. ERP analysis revealed that HSA showed elevated P100 amplitudes in response to faces, but reduced structural encoding of faces as indexed by reduced N170 amplitudes. In general, affective context led to an enhanced early posterior negativity (EPN) for negative compared to neutral facial expressions. Moreover, HSA compared to LSA showed enhanced late positive potentials (LPP) to negatively contextualized faces, whereas in LSA this effect was found for faces in positive contexts. Also, HSA rated faces in negative contexts as more negative compared to LSA. These results point at enhanced vigilance for neutral faces regardless of context in HSA, while structural encoding seems to be diminished (avoidance). Interestingly, later components of sustained processing (LPP) indicate that LSA show enhanced visuocortical processing for faces in positive contexts (happy bias), whereas this seems to be the case for negatively contextualized faces in HSA (threat bias). Finally, our results add further new evidence that top-down information in interaction with individual anxiety levels can influence early-stage aspects of visual perception. KW - context effects KW - face processing KW - social anxiety KW - ERPs (Event-Related Potentials) KW - EEG/ERP Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-125148 VL - 6 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cheng, Cheng A1 - MacIntyre, Lynsey A1 - Ramadan Abdelmohsen, Usama A1 - Horn, Hannes A1 - Polymenakou, Paraskevi N. A1 - Edrada-Ebel, RuAngelie A1 - Hentschel, Ute T1 - Biodiversity, Anti-Trypanosomal Activity Screening, and Metabolomic Profiling of Actinomycetes Isolated from Mediterranean Sponges JF - PLoS One N2 - Marine sponge–associated actinomycetes are considered as promising sources for the discovery of novel biologically active compounds. In the present study, a total of 64 actinomycetes were isolated from 12 different marine sponge species that had been collected offshore the islands of Milos and Crete, Greece, eastern Mediterranean. The isolates were affiliated to 23 genera representing 8 different suborders based on nearly full length 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Four putatively novel species belonging to genera Geodermatophilus, Microlunatus, Rhodococcus and Actinomycetospora were identified based on a 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of < 98.5% to currently described strains. Eight actinomycete isolates showed bioactivities against Trypanosma brucei brucei TC221 with half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values <20 μg/mL. Thirty four isolates from the Milos collection and 12 isolates from the Crete collection were subjected to metabolomic analysis using high resolution LC-MS and NMR for dereplication purposes. Two isolates belonging to the genera Streptomyces (SBT348) and Micromonospora (SBT687) were prioritized based on their distinct chemistry profiles as well as their anti-trypanosomal activities. These findings demonstrated the feasibility and efficacy of utilizing metabolomics tools to prioritize chemically unique strains from microorganism collections and further highlight sponges as rich source for novel and bioactive actinomycetes. KW - streptomyces KW - drug metabolism KW - metabolites KW - ribosomal RNA KW - metabolomics KW - actinobacteria KW - sponges KW - secondary metabolites Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-125138 VL - 10 IS - 9 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Horn, Hannes A1 - Hentschel, Ute A1 - Ramadan Abdelmohsen, Usama T1 - Mining Genomes of Three Marine Sponge-Associated Actinobacterial Isolates for Secondary Metabolism JF - Genome Announcements N2 - Here, we report the draft genome sequences of three actinobacterial isolates, Micromonospora sp. RV43, Rubrobacter sp. RV113, and Nocardiopsis sp. RV163 that had previously been isolated from Mediterranean sponges. The draft genomes were analyzed for the presence of gene clusters indicative of secondary metabolism using antiSMASH 3.0 and NapDos pipelines. Our findings demonstrated the chemical richness of sponge-associated actinomycetes and the efficacy of genome mining in exploring the genomic potential of sponge-derived actinomycetes. Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-124887 VL - 3 IS - 5 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Paletta, Daniel A1 - Fichtner, Alina Suzann A1 - Starick, Lisa A1 - Porcelli, Steven A. A1 - Savage, Paul B. A1 - Herrmann, Thomas T1 - Species Specific Differences of CD1d Oligomer Loading In Vitro JF - PLoS One N2 - CD1d molecules are MHC class I-like molecules that present glycolipids to iNKT cells. The highly conserved interaction between CD1d:α-Galactosylceramide (αGC) complexes and the iNKT TCR not only defines this population of αβ T cells but can also be used for its direct identification. Therefore, CD1d oligomers are a widely used tool for iNKT cell related investigations. To this end, the lipid chains of the antigen have to be inserted into the hydrophobic pockets of the CD1d binding cleft, often with help of surfactants. In this study, we investigated the influence of different surfactants (Triton X-100, Tween 20, Tyloxapol) on in vitro loading of CD1d molecules derived from four different species (human, mouse, rat and cotton rat) with αGC and derivatives carrying modifications of the acyl-chain (DB01-1, PBS44) and a 6-acetamido-6-deoxy-addition at the galactosyl head group (PBS57). We also compared rat CD1d dimers with tetramers and staining of an iNKT TCR transductant was used as readout for loading efficacy. The results underlined the importance of CD1d loading efficacy for proper analysis of iNKT TCR binding and demonstrated the necessity to adjust loading conditions for each oligomer/glycolipid combination. The efficient usage of surfactants as a tool for CD1d loading was revealed to be species-specific and depending on the origin of the CD1d producing cells. Additional variation of surfactant-dependent loading efficacy between tested glycolipids was influenced by the acyl-chain length and the modification of the galactosyl head group with PBS57 showing the least dependence on surfactants and the lowest degree of species-dependent differences. KW - cell staining KW - major histocompatibility complex KW - binding analysis KW - oligomers KW - glycolipids KW - lipids KW - surfactants KW - T cells Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-124879 VL - 10 IS - 11 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hansen, Niels A1 - Kahn, Ann-Kathrin A1 - Zeller, Daniel A1 - Katsarava, Zaza A1 - Sommer, Claudia A1 - Üçeyler, Nurcan T1 - Amplitudes of pain-related evoked potentials are useful to detect small fiber involvement in painful mixed fiber neuropathies in addition to quantitative sensory testing – an electrophysiological study JF - Frontiers in Neurology N2 - To investigate the usefulness of pain-related evoked potentials (PREP) elicited by electrical stimulation for the identification of small fiber involvement in patients with mixed fiber neuropathy (MFN). Eleven MFN patients with clinical signs of large fiber impairment and neuropathic pain and ten healthy controls underwent clinical and electrophysiological evaluation. Small fiber function, electrical conductivity and morphology were examined by quantitative sensory testing (QST), PREP, and skin punch biopsy. MFN was diagnosed following clinical and electrophysiological examination (chronic inflammatory demyelinating neuropathy: n = 6; vasculitic neuropathy: n = 3; chronic axonal ­neuropathy: n = 2). The majority of patients with MFN characterized their pain by descriptors that mainly represent C-fiber-mediated pain. In QST, patients displayed elevated cold, warm, mechanical, and vibration detection thresholds and cold pain thresholds indicative of MFN. PREP amplitudes in patients correlated with cold (p < 0.05) and warm detection thresholds (p < 0.05). Burning pain and the presence of par-/dysesthesias correlated negatively with PREP amplitudes (p < 0.05). PREP amplitudes correlating with cold and warm detection thresholds, burning pain, and par-/dysesthesias support employing PREP amplitudes as an additional tool in conjunction with QST for detecting small fiber impairment in patients with MFN. KW - burning pain KW - quantitative sensory testing KW - mixed fiber neuropathy KW - pain-related evoked potentials KW - Aδ- and C-fibers KW - neuropathic pain Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-124824 VL - 6 ER -