scholarly journals Patterned cortical tension mediated by N-cadherin controls cell geometric order in the Drosophila eye

eLife ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eunice HoYee Chan ◽  
Pruthvi Chavadimane Shivakumar ◽  
Raphaël Clément ◽  
Edith Laugier ◽  
Pierre-François Lenne
Keyword(s):  
Adhesion Molecules ◽  
Myosin Ii ◽  
Control Cell ◽  
Cortical Tension ◽  
Indirect Control ◽  
Drosophila Eye ◽  
Cell Patterns ◽  
Cell Shapes ◽  
Contractile Forces

Adhesion molecules hold cells together but also couple cell membranes to a contractile actomyosin network, which limits the expansion of cell contacts. Despite their fundamental role in tissue morphogenesis and tissue homeostasis, how adhesion molecules control cell shapes and cell patterns in tissues remains unclear. Here we address this question in vivo using the Drosophila eye. We show that cone cell shapes depend little on adhesion bonds and mostly on contractile forces. However, N-cadherin has an indirect control on cell shape. At homotypic contacts, junctional N-cadherin bonds downregulate Myosin-II contractility. At heterotypic contacts with E-cadherin, unbound N-cadherin induces an asymmetric accumulation of Myosin-II, which leads to a highly contractile cell interface. Such differential regulation of contractility is essential for morphogenesis as loss of N-cadherin disrupts cell rearrangements. Our results establish a quantitative link between adhesion and contractility and reveal an unprecedented role of N-cadherin on cell shapes and cell arrangements.

scholarly journals Myosin IIA interacts with the spectrin-actin membrane skeleton to control red blood cell membrane curvature and deformability

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (19) ◽  
pp. E4377-E4385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alyson S. Smith ◽  
Roberta B. Nowak ◽  
Sitong Zhou ◽  
Michael Giannetto ◽  
David S. Gokhin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Motor Activity ◽  
Control Cell ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Membrane Skeleton ◽  
Membrane Curvature ◽  
General Function ◽  
Actin Networks ◽  
Cell Shapes

The biconcave disk shape and deformability of mammalian RBCs rely on the membrane skeleton, a viscoelastic network of short, membrane-associated actin filaments (F-actin) cross-linked by long, flexible spectrin tetramers. Nonmuscle myosin II (NMII) motors exert force on diverse F-actin networks to control cell shapes, but a function for NMII contractility in the 2D spectrin–F-actin network of RBCs has not been tested. Here, we show that RBCs contain membrane skeleton-associated NMIIA puncta, identified as bipolar filaments by superresolution fluorescence microscopy. MgATP disrupts NMIIA association with the membrane skeleton, consistent with NMIIA motor domains binding to membrane skeleton F-actin and contributing to membrane mechanical properties. In addition, the phosphorylation of the RBC NMIIA heavy and light chains in vivo indicates active regulation of NMIIA motor activity and filament assembly, while reduced heavy chain phosphorylation of membrane skeleton-associated NMIIA indicates assembly of stable filaments at the membrane. Treatment of RBCs with blebbistatin, an inhibitor of NMII motor activity, decreases the number of NMIIA filaments associated with the membrane and enhances local, nanoscale membrane oscillations, suggesting decreased membrane tension. Blebbistatin-treated RBCs also exhibit elongated shapes, loss of membrane curvature, and enhanced deformability, indicating a role for NMIIA contractility in promoting membrane stiffness and maintaining RBC biconcave disk cell shape. As structures similar to the RBC membrane skeleton exist in many metazoan cell types, these data demonstrate a general function for NMII in controlling specialized membrane morphology and mechanical properties through contractile interactions with short F-actin in spectrin–F-actin networks.

scholarly journals Myosin IIA interacts with the spectrin-actin membrane skeleton to control red blood cell membrane curvature and deformability

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alyson S. Smith ◽  
Roberta B. Nowak ◽  
Sitong Zhou ◽  
Michael Giannetto ◽  
David S. Gokhin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Motor Activity ◽  
Myosin Ii ◽  
Control Cell ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Membrane Skeleton ◽  
Membrane Curvature ◽  
General Function ◽  
Actin Network ◽  
Actin Networks ◽  
Cell Shapes

AbstractThe biconcave disc shape and deformability of mammalian red blood cells (RBCs) relies upon the membrane skeleton, a viscoelastic network of short, membrane-associated actin filaments (F-actin) cross-linked by long, flexible spectrin tetramers. Nonmuscle myosin II (NMII) motors exert force on diverse F-actin networks to control cell shapes, but a function for NMII contractility in the 2D spectrin-F-actin network in RBCs has not been tested. Here, we show that RBCs contain membrane skeleton-associated NMIIA puncta, identified as bipolar filaments by super-resolution fluorescence microscopy. NMIIA association with the membrane skeleton is ATP-dependent, consistent with NMIIA motor domains binding to membrane skeleton F-actin and contributing to membrane mechanical stability. In addition, the NMIIA heavy and light chains are phosphorylatedin vivoin RBCs, indicating active regulation of NMIIA motor activity and filament assembly, while reduced heavy chain phosphorylation of membrane skeleton-associated NMIIA indicates assembly of stable filaments at the membrane. Treatment of RBCs with blebbistatin, an inhibitor of NMII motor activity, decreases the number of NMIIA filaments associated with the membrane and enhances local, nanoscale membrane oscillations, suggesting decreased membrane tension. Blebbistatin-treated RBCs also exhibit elongated shapes, loss of membrane curvature, and enhanced deformability, indicating a role for NMIIA contractility in promoting membrane stiffness and maintaining RBC biconcave disc cell shape. As structures similar to the RBC membrane skeleton are conserved in many metazoan cell types, these data demonstrate a general function for NMII in controlling specialized membrane morphology and mechanical properties through contractile interactions with short F-actin in spectrin-F-actin networks.Significance statementThe biconcave disc shape and deformability of the mammalian RBC is vital to its circulatory function, relying upon a 2D viscoelastic spectrin-F-actin network attached to the membrane. A role for myosin II (NMII) contractility in generating tension in this network and controlling RBC shape has never been tested. We show that NMIIA forms phosphorylated bipolar filaments in RBCs, which associate with F-actin at the membrane. NMIIA motor activity is required for interactions with the spectrin-F-actin network, and regulates RBC biconcave shape and deformability. These results provide a novel mechanism for actomyosin force generation at the plasma membrane, and may be applicable to other cell types such as neurons and polarized epithelial cells with a spectrin-F-actin-based membrane skeleton.

Magnesium Chloride is an Effective Therapeutic Agent for Prostate Cancer

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julianna Maria Santos ◽  
Fazle Hussain
Keyword(s):  
Prostate Cancer ◽  
Magnesium Chloride ◽  
Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition ◽  
Chromatin Condensation ◽  
Myosin Ii ◽  
In Vivo Studies ◽  
Migration Speed ◽  
Mesenchymal Transition

Background: Reduced levels of magnesium can cause several diseases and increase cancer risk. Motivated by magnesium chloride’s (MgCl2) non-toxicity, physiological importance, and beneficial clinical applications, we studied its action mechanism and possible mechanical, molecular, and physiological effects in prostate cancer with different metastatic potentials.Methods: We examined the effects of MgCl2, after 24 and 48 hours, on apoptosis, cell migration, expression of epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers, and V-H+-ATPase, myosin II (NMII) and the transcription factor NF Kappa B (NFkB) expressions.Results: MgCl2 induces apoptosis, and significantly decreases migration speed in cancer cells with different metastatic potentials.  MgCl2 reduces the expression of V-H+-ATPase and myosin II that facilitates invasion and metastasis, suppresses the expression of vimentin and increases expression of E-cadherin, suggesting a role of MgCl2 in reversing the EMT. MgCl2 also significantly increases the chromatin condensation and decreases NFkB expression.Conclusions: These results suggest a promising preventive and therapeutic role of MgCl2 for prostate cancer. Further studies should explore extending MgCl2 therapy to in vivo studies and other cancer types.Keywords: Magnesium chloride, prostate cancer, migration speed, V-H+-ATPase, and EMT.

iTSP-PseAAC: Identify Tumor Suppressor Proteins by Using Fully Connected Neural Network and PseAAC

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Awais ◽  
Waqar Hussain ◽  
Nouman Rasool ◽  
Yaser Daanial Khan
Keyword(s):  
Tumor Suppressor ◽  
Cross Validation ◽  
Control Cell ◽  
Normal Function ◽  
In Vivo Studies ◽  
Tumor Suppressor Proteins ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
Self Consistency

Background: The uncontrolled growth due to accumulation of genetic and epigenetic changes as a result of loss or reduction in the normal function of Tumor Suppressor Genes (TSGs) and Pro-oncogenes is known as cancer. TSGs control cell division and growth by repairing of DNA mistakes during replication and restrict the unwanted proliferation of a cell or activities, those are the part of tumor production. Objectives: This study aims to propose a novel, accurate, user-friendly model to predict tumor suppressor proteins, which would be freely available to experimental molecular biologists to assist them using in vitro and in vivo studies. Methods: The predictor model has used the input feature vector (IFV) calculated from the physicochemical properties of proteins based on FCNN to compute the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and MCC. The proposed model was validated against different exhaustive validation techniques i.e. self-consistency and cross-validation. Results: Using self-consistency, the accuracy is 99%, for cross-validation and independent testing has 99.80% and 100% accuracy respectively. The overall accuracy of the proposed model is 99%, sensitivity value 98% and specificity 99% and F1-score was 0.99. Conclusion: It concludes, the proposed model for prediction of the tumor suppressor proteins can predict the tumor suppressor proteins efficiently, but it still has space for improvements in computational ways as the protein sequences may rapidly increase, day by day.

scholarly journals Poldip2 controls leukocyte infiltration into the ischemic brain by regulating focal adhesion kinase-mediated VCAM-1 induction

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lori N. Eidson ◽  
Qingzeng Gao ◽  
Hongyan Qu ◽  
Daniel S. Kikuchi ◽  
Ana Carolina P. Campos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Endothelial Cells ◽  
Cerebral Ischemia ◽  
Focal Adhesion Kinase ◽  
Adhesion Molecules ◽  
Focal Adhesion ◽  
Vascular Inflammation ◽  
Leukocyte Recruitment ◽  
Ischemic Brain ◽  
Inflammatory Monocytes

AbstractStroke is a multiphasic process involving a direct ischemic brain injury which is then exacerbated by the influx of immune cells into the brain tissue. Activation of brain endothelial cells leads to the expression of adhesion molecules such vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM-1) on endothelial cells, further increasing leukocyte recruitment. Polymerase δ-interacting protein 2 (Poldip2) promotes brain vascular inflammation and leukocyte recruitment via unknown mechanisms. This study aimed to define the role of Poldip2 in mediating vascular inflammation and leukocyte recruitment following cerebral ischemia. Cerebral ischemia was induced in Poldip2+/+ and Poldip2+/− mice and brains were isolated and processed for flow cytometry or RT-PCR. Cultured rat brain microvascular endothelial cells were used to investigate the effect of Poldip2 depletion on focal adhesion kinase (FAK)-mediated VCAM-1 induction. Poldip2 depletion in vivo attenuated the infiltration of myeloid cells, inflammatory monocytes/macrophages and decreased the induction of adhesion molecules. Focusing on VCAM-1, we demonstrated mechanistically that FAK activation was a critical intermediary in Poldip2-mediated VCAM-1 induction. In conclusion, Poldip2 is an important mediator of endothelial dysfunction and leukocyte recruitment. Thus, Poldip2 could be a therapeutic target to improve morbidity following ischemic stroke.

scholarly journals RAE-1 ligands for the NKG2D receptor are regulated by E2F transcription factors, which control cell cycle entry

2012 ◽  
Vol 209 (13) ◽  
pp. 2409-2422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heiyoun Jung ◽  
Benjamin Hsiung ◽  
Kathleen Pestal ◽  
Emily Procyk ◽  
David H. Raulet
Keyword(s):  
Cell Cycle ◽  
Transcription Factors ◽  
Stress Responses ◽  
Transcriptional Activation ◽  
Posttranscriptional Regulation ◽  
Cellular Proliferation ◽  
Control Cell ◽  
T Cell Subsets ◽  
Cell Cycle Entry

The NKG2D stimulatory receptor expressed by natural killer cells and T cell subsets recognizes cell surface ligands that are induced on transformed and infected cells and facilitate immune rejection of tumor cells. We demonstrate that expression of retinoic acid early inducible gene 1 (RAE-1) family NKG2D ligands in cancer cell lines and proliferating normal cells is coupled directly to cell cycle regulation. Raet1 genes are directly transcriptionally activated by E2F family transcription factors, which play a central role in regulating cell cycle entry. Induction of RAE-1 occurred in primary cell cultures, embryonic brain cells in vivo, and cells in healing skin wounds and, accordingly, wound healing was delayed in mice lacking NKG2D. Transcriptional activation by E2Fs is likely coordinated with posttranscriptional regulation by other stress responses. These findings suggest that cellular proliferation, as occurs in cancer cells but also other pathological conditions, is a key signal tied to immune reactions mediated by NKG2D-bearing lymphocytes.

scholarly journals DNAM-1 promotes activation of cytotoxic lymphocytes by nonprofessional antigen-presenting cells and tumors

2008 ◽  
Vol 205 (13) ◽  
pp. 2965-2973 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Gilfillan ◽  
Christopher J. Chan ◽  
Marina Cella ◽  
Nicole M. Haynes ◽  
Aaron S. Rapaport ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Nk Cells ◽  
Adhesion Molecules ◽  
Cd8 T Cells ◽  
Nk Cell ◽  
Cd8 T Cell ◽  
Antigen Presenting

Natural killer (NK) cells and CD8 T cells require adhesion molecules for migration, activation, expansion, differentiation, and effector functions. DNAX accessory molecule 1 (DNAM-1), an adhesion molecule belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily, promotes many of these functions in vitro. However, because NK cells and CD8 T cells express multiple adhesion molecules, it is unclear whether DNAM-1 has a unique function or is effectively redundant in vivo. To address this question, we generated mice lacking DNAM-1 and evaluated DNAM-1–deficient CD8 T cell and NK cell function in vitro and in vivo. Our results demonstrate that CD8 T cells require DNAM-1 for co-stimulation when recognizing antigen presented by nonprofessional antigen-presenting cells; in contrast, DNAM-1 is dispensable when dendritic cells present the antigen. Similarly, NK cells require DNAM-1 for the elimination of tumor cells that are comparatively resistant to NK cell–mediated cytotoxicity caused by the paucity of other NK cell–activating ligands. We conclude that DNAM-1 serves to extend the range of target cells that can activate CD8 T cell and NK cells and, hence, may be essential for immunosurveillance against tumors and/or viruses that evade recognition by other activating or accessory molecules.

scholarly journals Pharmacological activation of myosin II paralogs to correct cell mechanics defects

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (5) ◽  
pp. 1428-1433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Surcel ◽  
Win Pin Ng ◽  
Hoku West-Foyle ◽  
Qingfeng Zhu ◽  
Yixin Ren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Cells ◽  
Cell Mechanics ◽  
Myosin Ii ◽  
Target Space ◽  
Power Stroke ◽  
Invasion And Migration ◽  
Cortical Tension ◽  
Pancreatic Cancer Cells ◽  
Tumor Cell Behavior ◽  
And Migration

Current approaches to cancer treatment focus on targeting signal transduction pathways. Here, we develop an alternative system for targeting cell mechanics for the discovery of novel therapeutics. We designed a live-cell, high-throughput chemical screen to identify mechanical modulators. We characterized 4-hydroxyacetophenone (4-HAP), which enhances the cortical localization of the mechanoenzyme myosin II, independent of myosin heavy-chain phosphorylation, thus increasing cellular cortical tension. To shift cell mechanics, 4-HAP requires myosin II, including its full power stroke, specifically activating human myosin IIB (MYH10) and human myosin IIC (MYH14), but not human myosin IIA (MYH9). We further demonstrated that invasive pancreatic cancer cells are more deformable than normal pancreatic ductal epithelial cells, a mechanical profile that was partially corrected with 4-HAP, which also decreased the invasion and migration of these cancer cells. Overall, 4-HAP modifies nonmuscle myosin II-based cell mechanics across phylogeny and disease states and provides proof of concept that cell mechanics offer a rich drug target space, allowing for possible corrective modulation of tumor cell behavior.

scholarly journals Dominant-Negative FADD Rescues the In Vivo Fitness of a Cytomegalovirus Lacking an Antiapoptotic Viral Gene

2007 ◽  
Vol 82 (5) ◽  
pp. 2056-2064 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luka Čičin-Šain ◽  
Zsolt Ruzsics ◽  
Juergen Podlech ◽  
Ivan Bubić ◽  
Carine Menard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virus Replication ◽  
Control Cell ◽  
Death Receptor ◽  
Formal Proof ◽  
Dominant Negative ◽  
Viral Fitness ◽  
Viral Gene ◽  
Apoptosis Inhibition

ABSTRACT Genes that inhibit apoptosis have been described for many DNA viruses. Herpesviruses often contain even more than one gene to control cell death. Apoptosis inhibition by viral genes is postulated to contribute to viral fitness, although a formal proof is pending. To address this question, we studied the mouse cytomegalovirus (MCMV) protein M36, which binds to caspase-8 and blocks death receptor-induced apoptosis. The growth of MCMV recombinants lacking M36 (ΔM36) was attenuated in vitro and in vivo. In vitro, caspase inhibition by zVAD-fmk blocked apoptosis in ΔM36-infected macrophages and rescued the growth of the mutant. In vivo, ΔM36 infection foci in liver tissue contained significantly more apoptotic hepatocytes and Kupffer cells than did revertant virus foci, and apoptosis occurred during the early phase of virus replication prior to virion assembly. To further delineate the mode of M36 function, we replaced the M36 gene with a dominant-negative FADD (FADDDN) in an MCMV recombinant. FADDDN was expressed in cells infected with the recombinant and blocked the death-receptor pathway, replacing the antiapoptotic function of M36. Most importantly, FADDDN rescued ΔM36 virus replication, both in vitro and in vivo. These findings have identified the biological role of M36 and define apoptosis inhibition as a key determinant of viral fitness.

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