scholarly journals Profiling Ribonucleotide and Deoxyribonucleotide Pools Perturbed by Remdesivir in Human Bronchial Epithelial Cells

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Li ◽  
Hui-Xia Zhang ◽  
Wen-Di Luo ◽  
Christopher Wai Kei Lam ◽  
Cai-Yun Wang ◽  
...  

Remdesivir (RDV) has generated much anticipation for its moderate effect in treating severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. However, the unsatisfactory survival rates of hospitalized patients limit its application to the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Therefore, improvement of antiviral efficacy of RDV is urgently needed. As a typical nucleotide analog, the activation of RDV to bioactive triphosphate will affect the biosynthesis of endogenous ribonucleotides (RNs) and deoxyribonucleotides (dRNs), which are essential to RNA and DNA replication in host cells. The imbalance of RN pools will inhibit virus replication as well. In order to investigate the effects of RDV on cellular nucleotide pools and on RNA transcription and DNA replication, cellular RNs and dRNs concentrations were measured by the liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry method, and the synthesis of RNA and DNA was monitored using click chemistry. The results showed that the IC50 values for BEAS-2B cells at exposure durations of 48 and 72 h were 25.3 ± 2.6 and 9.6 ± 0.7 μM, respectively. Ten (10) μM RDV caused BEAS-2B arrest at S-phase and significant suppression of RNA and DNA synthesis after treatment for 24 h. In addition, a general increase in the abundance of nucleotides and an increase of specific nucleotides more than 2 folds were observed. However, the variation of pyrimidine ribonucleotides was relatively slight or even absent, resulting in an obvious imbalance between purine and pyrimidine ribonucleotides. Interestingly, the very marked disequilibrium between cytidine triphosphate (CTP) and cytidine monophosphate might result from the inhibition of CTP synthase. Due to nucleotides which are also precursors for the synthesis of viral nucleic acids, the perturbation of nucleotide pools would block viral RNA replication. Considering the metabolic vulnerability of endogenous nucleotides, exacerbating the imbalance of nucleotide pools imparts great promise to enhance the efficacy of RDV, which possibly has special implications for treatment of COVID-19.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreia I. Pimenta ◽  
Nuno Bernardes ◽  
Marta M. Alves ◽  
Dalila Mil-Homens ◽  
Arsenio M. Fialho

AbstractBurkholderia cenocepacia is known for its capacity of adherence and interaction with the host, causing severe opportunistic lung infections in cystic fibrosis patients. In this work we produced Giant Plasma Membrane Vesicles (GPMVs) from a bronchial epithelial cell line and validated their use as a cell-like alternative to investigate the steps involved in the adhesion process of B. cenocepacia. RNA-sequencing was performed and the analysis of the B. cenocepacia K56-2 transcriptome after the first contacts with the surface of host cells allowed the recognition of genes implicated in bacterial adaptation and virulence-associated functions. The sensing of host membranes led to a transcriptional shift that caused a cascade of metabolic and physiological adaptations to the host specific environment. Many of the differentially expressed genes encode proteins related with central metabolic pathways, transport systems, cellular processes, and virulence traits. The understanding of the changes in gene expression that occur in the early steps of infection can uncover new proteins implicated in B. cenocepacia-host cell adhesion, against which new blocking agents could be designed to control the progression of the infectious process.


2013 ◽  
Vol 94 (7) ◽  
pp. 1658-1668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junsub Lee ◽  
Kyungmi Koh ◽  
Young-Eui Kim ◽  
Jin-Hyun Ahn ◽  
Sunyoung Kim

NF-E2 related factor 2 (Nrf2) is a transcription factor that plays a key role(s) in cellular defence against oxidative stress. In this study, we showed that the expression of Nrf2 was upregulated in primary human foreskin fibroblasts (HFFs), following human cytomegalovirus (HCMV/HHV-5) infection. The expression of haem oxygenase-1, a downstream target of Nrf2, was also increased by HCMV infection, and this induction was suppressed in HFFs expressing a small hairpin RNA (shRNA) against Nrf2. The HCMV-mediated increase in Nrf2 expression was abolished when UV-irradiated virus was used or when the activity of casein kinase 2 was inhibited. Host cells infected by HCMV had higher survival rates following oxidative stress induced by buthionine sulfoximine compared with uninfected control cells, but this cell-protective effect was abolished by the use of Nrf2 shRNA. Our results suggest that HCMV-mediated activation of Nrf2 might be beneficial to the virus by increasing the host cell’s ability to cope with oxidative stress resulting from viral infection and/or inflammation.


1972 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-152
Author(s):  
H. OTSUKA

BHK21 cells do not form colonies in soft agar suspension culture in the presence of calf serum; but if swine serum is used instead they do so. In methylcellulose suspension culture supplemented with calf serum the cells synthesize very little RNA or DNA, but if swine serum is used there is a marked increase of syntheses. Calf serum was found to contain an inhibitor which prevents the induction, but not the continuation, of RNA and DNA synthesis in BHK21 cells. In contrast the growth of polyoma-virus-transformed cells is not affected by this serum inhibitor which has been partially purified from calf serum by ammonium sulphate precipitation followed by Sephadex G-200 column chromatography.


Genes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 760 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radhakrishnan Vishnubalaji ◽  
Hibah Shaath ◽  
Nehad M. Alajez

The global spread of COVID-19, caused by pathogenic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) underscores the need for an imminent response from medical research communities to better understand this rapidly spreading infection. Employing multiple bioinformatics and computational pipelines on transcriptome data from primary normal human bronchial epithelial cells (NHBE) during SARS-CoV-2 infection revealed activation of several mechanistic networks, including those involved in immunoglobulin G (IgG) and interferon lambda (IFNL) in host cells. Induction of acute inflammatory response and activation of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) was prominent in SARS-CoV-2 infected NHBE cells. Additionally, disease and functional analysis employing ingenuity pathway analysis (IPA) revealed activation of functional categories related to cell death, while those associated with viral infection and replication were suppressed. Several interferon (IFN) responsive gene targets (IRF9, IFIT1, IFIT2, IFIT3, IFITM1, MX1, OAS2, OAS3, IFI44 and IFI44L) were highly upregulated in SARS-CoV-2 infected NBHE cell, implying activation of antiviral IFN innate response. Gene ontology and functional annotation of differently expressed genes in patient lung tissues with COVID-19 revealed activation of antiviral response as the hallmark. Mechanistic network analysis in IPA identified 14 common activated, and 9 common suppressed networks in patient tissue, as well as in the NHBE cell model, suggesting a plausible role for these upstream regulator networks in the pathogenesis of COVID-19. Our data revealed expression of several viral proteins in vitro and in patient-derived tissue, while several host-derived long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) were identified. Our data highlights activation of IFN response as the main hallmark associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro and in human, and identified several differentially expressed lncRNAs during the course of infection, which could serve as disease biomarkers, while their precise role in the host response to SARS-CoV-2 remains to be investigated.


1994 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 125 ◽  
Author(s):  
AM Chaudhury ◽  
ES Dennis ◽  
RIS Brettell

A transient assay for gene-expression was used to study the early events of T-DNA transfer. Particularly, it was asked if gene expression following T-DNA transfer required DNA replication in the host cell. A β-glucuronidase gene, linked to a CaMV 35S promoter (35S-GUS, engineered so that it was inactive in Agrobacterium tumefaciens) was introduced into Nicotiana plumbaginifolia protoplasts via a disarmed supervirulent strain of Agrobacterium tumefaciens. High β-glucuronidase activity appeared after 3 days of co-cultivation. The activity required the presence of the vir functions of agrobacteria. The activity was drastically reduced if the plant cells were treated with aphidicolin, an inhibitor of DNA replication in eukaryotic cells. While double-stranded (ds) 35S-GUS DNA, introduced by electroporation, showed undiminished expression in the presence of aphidicolin, gene expression from single-stranded (ss) 35S-GUS DNA was inhibited by aphidicolin. These results suggest that DNA replication in host cells is not required for gene expression if ds-DNA is introduced by electroporation, but is required if ss-DNA is introduced by electroporation, or if DNA is transferred via A. tumefaciens. The findings are consistent with a model of T-DNA transfer in which ss-DNA molecules, once introduced into plant cells, must pass through an aphidicolin sensitive step before they can be transcribed. The simplest interpretation is that the ss-DNA is replicated by the host cell's aphidicolin-sensitive DNA polymerase before being integrated into the host genome.


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