scholarly journals alpha-Internexin, a 66-kD intermediate filament-binding protein from mammalian central nervous tissues.

1985 ◽  
Vol 101 (4) ◽  
pp. 1316-1322 ◽  
Author(s):  
J S Pachter ◽  
R K Liem

In this paper we describe a 66-kD protein that co-purifies with intermediate filaments from rat optic nerve and spinal cord but can be separated further by ion-exchange chromatography. This protein is distinct from the 68-kD neurofilament subunit protein as judged by isoelectric focusing, immunoblotting, peptide mapping, and tests of polymerization competence. This protein is avidly recognized by the monoclonal anti-intermediate filament antigen antibody, previously demonstrated to recognize a common antigenic determinant in all five known classes of intermediate filaments. Also, when isolated this protein binds to various intermediate filament subunit proteins, which suggests an in vivo interaction with the intermediate filament cytoskeleton, and it appears to be axonally transported in the rat optic nerve. Because of this ability to bind to intermediate filaments in situ and in vitro we have named this protein alpha-internexin. A possible functional role for the protein in organizing filament assembly and distribution is discussed.

1990 ◽  
Vol 111 (6) ◽  
pp. 3049-3064 ◽  
Author(s):  
P A Coulombe ◽  
Y M Chan ◽  
K Albers ◽  
E Fuchs

To investigate the sequences important for assembly of keratins into 10-nm filaments, we used a combined approach of (a) transfection of mutant keratin cDNAs into epithelial cells in vivo, and (b) in vitro assembly of mutant and wild-type keratins. Keratin K14 mutants missing the nonhelical carboxy- and amino-terminal domains not only integrated without perturbation into endogenous keratin filament networks in vivo, but they also formed 10-nm filaments with K5 in vitro. Surprisingly, keratin mutants missing the highly conserved L L E G E sequence, common to all intermediate filament proteins and found at the carboxy end of the alpha-helical rod domain, also assembled into filaments with only a somewhat reduced efficiency. Even a carboxy K14 mutant missing approximately 10% of the rod assembled into filaments, although in this case filaments aggregated significantly. Despite the ability of these mutants to form filaments in vitro, they often perturbed keratin filament organization in vivo. In contrast, small truncations in the amino-terminal end of the rod domain more severely disrupted the filament assembly process in vitro as well as in vivo, and in particular restricted elongation. For both carboxy and amino rod deletions, the more extensive the deletion, the more severe the phenotype. Surprisingly, while elongation could be almost quantitatively blocked with large mutations, tetramer formation and higher ordered lateral interactions still occurred. Collectively, our in vitro data (a) provide a molecular basis for the dominance of our mutants in vivo, (b) offer new insights as to why different mutants may generate different phenotypes in vivo, and (c) delineate the limit sequences necessary for K14 to both incorporate properly into a preexisting keratin filament network in vivo and assemble efficiently into 10-nm keratin filaments in vitro.


1993 ◽  
Vol 122 (6) ◽  
pp. 1337-1350 ◽  
Author(s):  
MK Lee ◽  
Z Xu ◽  
PC Wong ◽  
DW Cleveland

Neurofilaments (NFs), composed of three distinct subunits NF-L, NF-M, and NF-H, are neuron-specific intermediate filaments present in most mature neurons. Using DNA transfection and mice expressing NF transgenes, we find that despite the ability of NF-L alone to assemble into short filaments in vitro NF-L cannot form filament arrays in vivo after expression either in cultured cells or in transgenic oligodendrocytes that otherwise do not contain a cytoplasmic intermediate filament (IF) array. Instead, NF-L aggregates into punctate or sheet like structures. Similar nonfilamentous structures are also formed when NF-M or NF-H is expressed alone. The competence of NF-L to assemble into filaments is fully restored by coexpression of NF-M or NF-H to a level approximately 10% of that of NF-L. Deletion of the head or tail domain of NF-M or substitution of the NF-H tail onto an NF-L subunit reveals that restoration of in vivo NF-L assembly competence requires an interaction provided by the NF-M or NF-H head domains. We conclude that, contrary to the expectation drawn from earlier in vitro assembly studies, NF-L is not sufficient to assemble an extended filament network in an in vivo context and that neurofilaments are obligate heteropolymers requiring NF-L and NF-M or NF-H.


1992 ◽  
Vol 103 (3) ◽  
pp. 689-698 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.R. Coleman ◽  
E. Lazarides

We have investigated the dynamics of intermediate filament assembly in vivo by following the fate of heterologous chicken vimentin subunits expressed under the control of an inducible promoter in transfected mouse fibroblasts. Using RNase protection, metabolic protein pulse-chase and immunofluorescence microscopy, we have examined the fate of newly assembled subunits under physiological conditions in situ. Following induction and subsequent removal of inducer, chicken vimentin mRNA had a half-life of approximately 6 h while both chicken and mouse vimentin protein polymer had long half-lives--roughly equivalent to the cell generation time. Moreover, following deinduction, chicken vimentin immunolocalization progressed from a continuous (8-10 h chase) to a discontinuous (> or = 20 h chase) pattern. The continuous chicken vimentin staining reflects the uniform incorporation of chicken vimentin throughout the endogenous mouse vimentin network while the discontinuous or punctate chicken vimentin staining represents short interspersed segments of assembled chicken vimentin superimposed on the endogenous polymer. This punctate staining pattern of chicken vimentin was present throughout the entire array of intermediate filaments, with no bias toward the perinuclear region. These results are consistent with a continuous growth model of intermediate filament assembly, wherein subunit addition occurs at discrete sites located throughout the cytoskeleton.


Author(s):  
D. Reis ◽  
B. Vian ◽  
J. C. Roland

Wall morphogenesis in higher plants is a problem still open to controversy. Until now the possibility of a transmembrane control and the involvement of microtubules were mostly envisaged. Self-assembly processes have been observed in the case of walls of Chlamydomonas and bacteria. Spontaneous gelling interactions between xanthan and galactomannan from Ceratonia have been analyzed very recently. The present work provides indications that some processes of spontaneous aggregation could occur in higher plants during the formation and expansion of cell wall.Observations were performed on hypocotyl of mung bean (Phaseolus aureus) for which growth characteristics and wall composition have been previously defined.In situ, the walls of actively growing cells (primary walls) show an ordered three-dimensional organization (fig. 1). The wall is typically polylamellate with multifibrillar layers alternately transverse and longitudinal. Between these layers intermediate strata exist in which the orientation of microfibrils progressively rotates. Thus a progressive change in the morphogenetic activity occurs.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenhao Zhou ◽  
Teng Zhang ◽  
Jianglong Yan ◽  
QiYao Li ◽  
Panpan Xiong ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 494-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sameer Suresh Bhagyawant ◽  
Dakshita Tanaji Narvekar ◽  
Neha Gupta ◽  
Amita Bhadkaria ◽  
Ajay Kumar Gautam ◽  
...  

Background: Diabetes and hypertension are the major health concern and alleged to be of epidemic proportions. This has made it a numero uno subject at various levels of investigation. Glucosidase inhibitor provides the reasonable option in treatment of Diabetes Mellitus (DM) as it specifically targets post prandial hyperglycemia. The Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE) plays an important role in hypertension. Therefore, inhibition of ACE in treatment of elevated blood pressure attracts special interest of the scientific community. Chickpea is a food legume and seeds contain carbohydrate binding protein- a lectin. Some of the biological properties of this lectin hitherto been elucidated. Methods: Purified by ion exchange chromatography, chickpea lectin was tested for its in vitro antioxidant, ACE-I inhibitory and anti-diabetic characteristic. Results: Lectin shows a characteristic improvement over the synthetic drugs like acarbose (oral anti-diabetic drug) and captopril (standard antihypertensive drug) when, their IC50 values are compared. Lectin significantly inhibited α-glucosidase and α-amylase in a concentration dependent manner with IC50 values of 85.41 ± 1.21 ҝg/ml and 65.05 ± 1.2 µg/ml compared to acarbose having IC50 70.20 ± 0.47 value of µg/ml and 50.52 ± 1.01 µg/ml respectively. β-Carotene bleaching assay showed antioxidant activity of lectin (72.3%) to be as active as Butylated Hydroxylanisole (BHA). In addition, lectin demonstrated inhibition against ACE-I with IC50 value of 57.43 ± 1.20 µg/ml compared to captopril. Conclusion: Lectin demonstrated its antioxidant character, ACE-I inhibition and significantly inhibitory for α-glucosidase and α-amylase seems to qualify as an anti-hyperglycemic therapeutic molecule. The biological effects of chickpea lectin display potential for reducing the parameters of medically debilitating conditions. These characteristics however needs to be established under in vivo systems too viz. animals through to humans.


Pharmaceutics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 904
Author(s):  
Irin Tanaudommongkon ◽  
Asama Tanaudommongkon ◽  
Xiaowei Dong

Most antiretroviral medications for human immunodeficiency virus treatment and prevention require high levels of patient adherence, such that medications need to be administered daily without missing doses. Here, a long-acting subcutaneous injection of lopinavir (LPV) in combination with ritonavir (RTV) using in situ self-assembly nanoparticles (ISNPs) was developed to potentially overcome adherence barriers. The ISNP approach can improve the pharmacokinetic profiles of the drugs. The ISNPs were characterized in terms of particle size, drug entrapment efficiency, drug loading, in vitro release study, and in vivo pharmacokinetic study. LPV/RTV ISNPs were 167.8 nm in size, with a polydispersity index of less than 0.35. The entrapment efficiency was over 98% for both LPV and RTV, with drug loadings of 25% LPV and 6.3% RTV. A slow release rate of LPV was observed at about 20% on day 5, followed by a sustained release beyond 14 days. RTV released faster than LPV in the first 5 days and slower than LPV thereafter. LPV trough concentration remained above 160 ng/mL and RTV trough concentration was above 50 ng/mL after 6 days with one subcutaneous injection. Overall, the ISNP-based LPV/RTV injection showed sustained release profiles in both in vitro and in vivo studies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 102206
Author(s):  
Alexandra Haase ◽  
Tim Kohrn ◽  
Veronika Fricke ◽  
Maria Elena Ricci Signorini ◽  
Merlin Witte ◽  
...  

Pathogens ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 70
Author(s):  
Lourdes Mateos-Hernández ◽  
Natália Pipová ◽  
Eléonore Allain ◽  
Céline Henry ◽  
Clotilde Rouxel ◽  
...  

Neuropeptides are small signaling molecules expressed in the tick central nervous system, i.e., the synganglion. The neuronal-like Ixodes scapularis embryonic cell line, ISE6, is an effective tool frequently used for examining tick–pathogen interactions. We detected 37 neuropeptide transcripts in the I. scapularis ISE6 cell line using in silico methods, and six of these neuropeptide genes were used for experimental validation. Among these six neuropeptide genes, the tachykinin-related peptide (TRP) of ISE6 cells varied in transcript expression depending on the infection strain of the tick-borne pathogen, Anaplasma phagocytophilum. The immunocytochemistry of TRP revealed cytoplasmic expression in a prominent ISE6 cell subpopulation. The presence of TRP was also confirmed in A. phagocytophilum-infected ISE6 cells. The in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry of TRP of I. scapularis synganglion revealed expression in distinct neuronal cells. In addition, TRP immunoreaction was detected in axons exiting the synganglion via peripheral nerves as well as in hemal nerve-associated lateral segmental organs. The characterization of a complete Ixodes neuropeptidome in ISE6 cells may serve as an effective in vitro tool to study how tick-borne pathogens interact with synganglion components that are vital to tick physiology. Therefore, our current study is a potential stepping stone for in vivo experiments to further examine the neuronal basis of tick–pathogen interactions.


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