scholarly journals Feline thymidine kinase 1: molecular characterization and evaluation of its serum form as a diagnostic biomarker

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Liya Wang ◽  
Hanan Sharif ◽  
Sara Saellström ◽  
Henrik Rönnberg ◽  
Staffan Eriksson

Abstract Background Thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) catalyzes the initial phosphorylation of thymidine in the salvage pathway synthesis of dTTP, an essential building block of DNA. TK1 is a cytosolic enzyme with its highest level during the S-phase of the cell cycle. In cancer cells TK1 is upregulated and excess TK1 is leaked into the blood. Therefore, serum TK1 has been used as biomarker for cancer diagnosis and prognosis in human medicine. Feline TK1 shows high sequence similarity to TK1 from other species. The aim of this study was to characterize feline TK1 and evaluate if serum TK1 can be used as a diagnostic biomarker. Results Feline TK1 was cloned, expressed and affinity purified. The purified feline TK1 phosphorylated not only pyrimidine deoxyribonucleosides but also pyrimidine ribonucleosides and to some extent purine deoxynucleosides. A number of anticancer and antiviral nucleoside analogs also served as substrates with fairly high efficiency. ATP and dATP were the preferred phosphate donor. Serum TK1 activity in felines with malignant diseases was significantly higher than that in healthy individuals. ROC analysis revealed an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.98 with a sensitivity of 0.83 and a specificity of 0.95 for felines with lymphoma. Serum TK1 activity in felines with IBD or inflammatory disease was within the same range as healthy ones. Furthermore, in felines with lymphoma serum TK1 activity returned to normal levels in response to treatment. Conclusion Feline TK1 has high specific activity and a broader substrate specificity in comparison with TK1 from other species. Serum TK1 activity in felines with malignant diseases is significantly higher than that in normal felines and in felines with inflammatory diseases. These results suggest that serum TK1 may be a promising biomarker for the diagnosis and monitoring of malignant diseases and for the differential diagnosis of certain inflammatory disease.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moataz Dowaidar

Gastric cancer is the world's second-largest death cause. Developing suitable medical therapies can help individuals live longer. So far, GC treatment has depended on several pharmaceutical techniques. Chemotherapy and surgery are GC patients' most frequent treatment choices. The most major hurdles to effective GC therapy are chemotherapeutic resistance and non-selective targeting. Recent GC-targeted therapeutic research has focused on building more selective and effective anti-GC pharmacological approaches. Because molecular focused therapy can greatly exacerbate the current inefficacy of normal GC therapy procedures, peptide base synthesis can be used as a carrier to deliver radiation or other fatal chemicals to tumor locations with precise protein overexpression. Different types of peptides with special binding affinity to GC overexpressed receptors have been identified for targeted therapy and imaging. Although some of these peptides have excellent GC targeting ability, they also need great GC penetration capacity and no systemic in vivo toxicity before they can be employed in clinical studies. One of these peptides' most notable limitations is their short plasma half-life, limiting their efficient delivery to tumor locations. Sluggish binding pharmacokinetics, along with in vivo instability, can produce targeted treatment failure. Using an appropriate modification strategy to boost blood circulation time may be advantageous.The key to producing successful, innovative anti-cancer targeting drugs with specific targeting capabilities is to mark the peptide with distinct diagnostic and therapeutic radioisotopes. Although a peptide's radiolabeling or enzymatic degradation may not affect its targeting capabilities, the radiation dose delivery impact on it is obvious. Selecting an appropriate type of radionuclide to achieve high-specific activity, using a simple and high-efficiency radiolabeling process, and selecting an adequate spacer and chelator to manage peptide biodistribution are all important considerations when designing a peptide-based radiopharmaceutical. High internalization and significant systemic circulation washout are other essential tumor targeting needs. Many of the peptides described in this work lack these critical features. The radiolabeled peptide should also remain intact and have a short blood washout period, allowing targeted imaging and therapy. SPECT and PET are the most extensively used technologies in nuclear medicine. Although PET has a greater resolution, SPECT technology gives a comparable sensitivity at a lesser cost. Combining fast binding pharmacokinetics with suitable stability in vivo can result in efficient tumor contrast. Non-target liver and kidney accumulation is required when employing radiolabeled peptides to target GC. When a radiolabeled peptide accumulates more in the liver and intestine than in the GC tumor, the image quality degrades. However, using the proper chelator and spacer can assist decrease non-target accumulation in the kidneys. Finally, considering all these conditions and being positive, it is conceivable to produce a unique peptide with avid binding to GC cells.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michiel Van de Voorde ◽  
Charlotte Duchemin ◽  
Reinhard Heinke ◽  
Laura Lambert ◽  
Eric Chevallay ◽  
...  

Samarium-153 (153Sm) is a highly interesting radionuclide within the field of targeted radionuclide therapy because of its favorable decay characteristics. 153Sm has a half-life of 1.93 d and decays into a stable daughter nuclide (153Eu) whereupon β− particles [E = 705 keV (30%), 635 keV (50%)] are emitted which are suitable for therapy. 153Sm also emits γ photons [103 keV (28%)] allowing for SPECT imaging, which is of value in theranostics. However, the full potential of 153Sm in nuclear medicine is currently not being exploited because of the radionuclide's limited specific activity due to its carrier added production route. In this work a new production method was developed to produce 153Sm with higher specific activity, allowing for its potential use in targeted radionuclide therapy. 153Sm was efficiently produced via neutron irradiation of a highly enriched 152Sm target (98.7% enriched, σth = 206 b) in the BR2 reactor at SCK CEN. Irradiated target materials were shipped to CERN-MEDICIS, where 153Sm was isolated from the 152Sm target via mass separation (MS) in combination with laser resonance enhanced ionization to drastically increase the specific activity. The specific activity obtained was 1.87 TBq/mg (≈ 265 times higher after the end of irradiation in BR2 + cooling). An overall mass separation efficiency of 4.5% was reached on average for all mass separations. Further radiochemical purification steps were developed at SCK CEN to recover the 153Sm from the MS target to yield a solution ready for radiolabeling. Each step of the radiochemical process was fully analyzed and characterized for further optimization resulting in a high efficiency (overall recovery: 84%). The obtained high specific activity (HSA) 153Sm was then used in radiolabeling experiments with different concentrations of 4-isothiocyanatobenzyl-1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane tetraacetic acid (p-SCN-Bn-DOTA). Even at low concentrations of p-SCN-Bn-DOTA, radiolabeling of 0.5 MBq of HSA 153Sm was found to be efficient. In this proof-of-concept study, we demonstrated the potential to combine neutron irradiation with mass separation to supply high specific activity 153Sm. Using this process, 153SmCl3 suitable for radiolabeling, was produced with a very high specific activity allowing application of 153Sm in targeted radionuclide therapy. Further studies to incorporate 153Sm in radiopharmaceuticals for targeted radionuclide therapy are ongoing.


Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (14) ◽  
pp. 4152
Author(s):  
Luigi Tavernini ◽  
Oscar Romero ◽  
Carla Aburto ◽  
Fernando López-Gallego ◽  
Andrés Illanes ◽  
...  

Hybrid bioinorganic biocatalysts have received much attention due to their simple synthesis, high efficiency, and structural features that favor enzyme activity and stability. The present work introduces a biomineralization strategy for the formation of hybrid nanocrystals from β-galactosidase. The effects of the immobilization conditions were studied, identifying the important effect of metal ions and pH on the immobilization yield and the recovered activity. For a deeper understanding of the biomineralization process, an in silico study was carried out to identify the ion binding sites at the different conditions. The selected β-galactosidase nanocrystals showed high specific activity (35,000 IU/g biocatalyst) and remarkable thermal stability with a half-life 11 times higher than the soluble enzyme. The nanobiocatalyst was successfully tested for the synthesis of galacto-oligosaccharides, achieving an outstanding performance, showing no signs of diffusional limitations. Thus, a new, simple, biocompatible and inexpensive nanobiocatalyst was produced with high enzyme recovery (82%), exhibiting high specific activity and high stability, with promising industrial applications.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Liya Wang ◽  
Lucia Unger ◽  
Hanan Sharif ◽  
Staffan Eriksson ◽  
Vinzenz Gerber ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) plays a key role in the synthesis of deoxythymidine triphosphate (dTTP) and is thus important for DNA replication and cell proliferation. The expression of TK1 is highest during S-phase, and it is rapidly degraded after mitosis. In cancer cells, TK1 is upregulated, resulting in leakage of excess TK1 into the blood. Consequently, serum TK1 has been used as a diagnostic and prognostic cancer biomarker, mainly in human medicine. The aims of this work were to characterize equine TK1 and to evaluate its suitability as a serum biomarker for equine lymphoma. Results Equine TK1 was cloned, expressed in E. coli and affinity purified. The purified recombinant horse TK1 showed broad substrate specificity, phosphorylating pyrimidine deoxyribo- and ribonucleosides and, to some extent, purine deoxynucleosides, including anticancer and antiviral nucleoside analogues. ATP was the preferred phosphate donor. Serum TK1 activity was measured in samples collected from horses with confirmed or suspected lymphoma and control horses with and without concurrent diseases. Serum TK1 activity levels were significantly higher in horses with lymphoma (p <  0.0005) and suspected lymphoma (p <  0.02) and in tumour-free groups with diverse diseases (p <  0.03) than in controls without concurrent diseases. There was a significant difference between the lymphoma group and the tumour-free group with diverse diseases (p <  0.0006). Furthermore, receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed a sensitivity of 0.86, a specificity of 0.95 and an AUC (area under the curve) of 0.92 compared to the controls without concurrent diseases, with a sensitivity of 0.97, a specificity of 0.71 and an AUC of 0.88 when compared with the tumour-free group with diverse diseases. Conclusion Equine TK1 showed high specific activity and broader substrate specificity than human TK1. Anticancer and antiviral thymidine analogues were efficiently phosphorylated by horse TK1, suggesting that these analogues might be good candidates for chemotherapy in horses. Serum TK1 activity was significantly higher in horses with lymphoma than in controls. ROC analysis indicated that serum TK1 could serve as a promising cancer biomarker in horses.


2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 767-776
Author(s):  
Al-easawi & et al.

This study was aimed, extraction and purification of beta-Galactosidase from local almond(Amygdalus communis)  for lactose intolerance treatment. The best one among 10 methods method of the extraction was using sodium phosphate buffer at 0.2 molar. Which was  achieves the highest specific activity amounted to 3.66unit/mg protein. Then, partial purification of enzyme was done using five methods. The highest specific activity was obtained using the method of precipitation with ammonium sulphate at 30-70% since the specific activity was 15.85units/mg protein. Which represented the best way to precipitation the enzyme. Three iso enzymes were obtained. One of them was taken for its high specific activity(20.10units/mg protein) and ion exchange chromatography was used and followed by gel filtration technique using sephadex-100 column to increase purification. The specific activity was increased to 21.95units/mg protein. Lactose hydrolysis efficiency test was performed and the purified enzyme showed high efficiency in standard lactose hydrolysis test.          


1982 ◽  
Vol 47 (03) ◽  
pp. 244-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
D P Thomas ◽  
Rosemary E Merton ◽  
T W Barrowcliffe ◽  
L Thunberg ◽  
U Lindahl

SummaryThe in vitro and in vivo characteristics of two oligosaccharide heparin fragments have been compared to those of unfractionated mucosal heparin. A decasaccharide fragment had essentially no activity by APTT or calcium thrombin time assays in vitro, but possessed very high specific activity by anti-Factor Xa assays. When injected into rabbits at doses of up to 80 ¼g/kg, this fragment was relatively ineffective in impairing stasis thrombosis despite producing high blood levels by anti-Xa assays. A 16-18 monosaccharide fragment had even higher specific activity (almost 2000 iu/mg) by chromogenic substrate anti-Xa assay, with minimal activity by APTT. When injected in vivo, this fragment gave low blood levels by APTT, very high anti-Xa levels, and was more effective in preventing thrombosis than the decasaccharide fragment. However, in comparison with unfractionated heparin, the 16-18 monosaccharide fragment was only partially effective in preventing thrombosis, despite producing much higher blood levels by anti-Xa assays.It is concluded that the high-affinity binding of a heparin fragment to antithrombin III does not by itself impair venous thrombogenesis, and that the anti-Factor Xa activity of heparin is only a partial expression of its therapeutic potential.


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