Project description:Quantifying impact of lead on cytokine production and gene expression in PBMCs Cells were treated with 10mkM lead acetate for one day, washed and grown in RPMI for the second day. Lead acetate was not added to matching control cells.
Project description:75 Diosophilia Roo lines, recominant inbred lines, were raised to adulthood either on conventional diet or diet supplemented with lead acetate. Whole flies were used for RNA extraction. RNA was run on Dros Genome 2 arrays. Each line also genotyped for 88 markers; Control food consisted of standard cornmeal, agar, sugar, yeast, and 250 microM NaAc (Ashburner 1989). Lead-contaminated food consisted of standard food plus 250 microM PbAc (lead exposure at this concentration has been shown to affect locomotion in adults (Hirsch et al. 2003)). Experiment Overall Design: 75 RI lines each line treated and untreated with lead acetate
Project description:Lead is a ubiquitous environmental and industrial pollutant. Its nonbiodegradable toxicity induces a plethora of human diseases. The current study was undertaken to purify a novel 252-kDa bioactive glycoprotein containing 1.15% carbohydrate from the edible fungus Auricularia polytricha with the ability of adsorbing lead and producing detoxification. The A. polytricha detoxifying glycoprotein (APL), which displayed unique molecular properties, was purified by ion exchange chromatography and gel filtration chromatography. For investigating the protective effects of A. polytricha, Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were divided into six groups which received daily intraperitoneal injection of lead acetate for 30 days, followed by gavage with APL (40, 80, 160 mg/kg B body weight) and EDTA (300 mg/kg body weight) for 30 days after successful establishment of an animal model of lead detoxification. The serum concentrations of lead and the liver biomarkers AST and ALT were significantly (p<0.05) improved by APL treatments, as well as treatment with the positive control EDTA. Likewise, results on lead residue showed that the clearance ratios of liver and kidney were respectively 44.5% and 18.1% at the high APL dosage, which was even better than the corresponding data for EDTA. Proteomics disclosed that 351 proteins differentially expressed due to lead exposure and the expression levels of 41 proteins enriched in the pathways mainly involved in cell detoxification and immune regulation were normalized after treatment with APL-H. Our results signify that APL may ameliorate lead-induced hepatorenal injury by positive regulation of immune processing, and suggest that APL be applied as a therapeutic intervention of lead poisoning in clinic treatment. This report represents the first demonstration of the protective action of a novel mushroom protein on lead-elicited hepatorenal toxicity.
Project description:Despite major successes in reducing the risks of lead (Pb) exposure over the past few decades, two issues of considerable importance remain unresolved: (1) how differences in water chemistry influence acute and chronic Pb toxicity, and (2) the elucidation of specific toxic mechanisms and modes of action (MOA). To more clearly define the water chemistry parameters mediating Pb toxicity we evaluated the effects of hardness (as CaSO4) and DOC (as humic acid (HA)) during chronic (150d) exposures to the fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas). Traditional toxicological endpoints were examined alongside gene expression analyses to help clarify the underlying mechanisms and MOA of Pb toxicity and to identify robust molecular markers of exposure and effect. Keywords: time course, chronic lead (Pb) exposure To analyze the gene expression responses to low-level Pb exposures fish were exposed +/- Pb in low ionic strength base water and fish collected at 2d, 4d, 10d, and 30d for microarray analysis. Equal amounts of RNA from all no lead controls were pooled (18 fish total for 2d & 4d exposures; 12 fish total for 10d & 30d exposures) as reference samples for hybridization with each of 3 separate biological replicate pools (6 fish total for 2d & 4d exposures; 4 fish total for 10d & 30d exposures) of RNA from age-matched, lead-exposed fish. Each pair of hybridizations was repeated with dye-swaps. Additional repeats were performed for various arrays to ensure quality of data obtained from initial hybridization.
Project description:Despite major successes in reducing the risks of lead (Pb) exposure over the past few decades, two issues of considerable importance remain unresolved: (1) how differences in water chemistry influence acute and chronic Pb toxicity, and (2) the elucidation of specific toxic mechanisms and modes of action (MOA). To more clearly define the water chemistry parameters mediating Pb toxicity we evaluated the effects of hardness (as CaSO4) and DOC (as humic acid (HA)) during chronic (150d) exposures to the fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas). Traditional toxicological endpoints were examined alongside gene expression analyses to help clarify the underlying mechanisms and MOA of Pb toxicity and to identify robust molecular markers of exposure and effect. Keywords: time course, chronic lead (Pb) exposure
Project description:The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has reached 5.5 million deaths worldwide, causing a huge impact globally. This highly contagious viral infection produces a severe acute respiratory syndrome that includes cough, mucus, fever and pneumonia. Likewise, many hospitalized patients develop severe pneumonia associated with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), besides an exacerbated and uncontrolled systemic inflammation which in some cases induce lethal cytokine storm. Although vaccines have clearly had a beneficial effect on disease development, there is still a high percentage of patients who develop pathology related to ineffective immune system response. Therefore, a thorough understanding of the modulatory mechanisms that regulate the response to SARS-CoV-2 is crucial to find effective therapeutic alternatives. Previous studies describe the relevance of Neddylation in immune system activation further its implications in viral infection. In this context, the present study postulates Neddylation, a reversible ubiquitin-like post-translational modification of proteins and controls their stability, localization and activity, as a key regulator in the immune response against SARS-CoV-2. For the first time, we describe an increase of serum global neddylation levels of COVID-19 patients particularly associated in the early response of the infection. In addition, the results showed that overactivation of neddylation control activation, proliferation, and response of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) derived from COVID-19 patients. Inhibition of neddylation and subsequent avoidance of activation of PBMCs, which reduces cytokine production and proteome modulation, may therefore be a critical mechanism and an efficient therapeutic approach to immunomodulate COVID -19 patients and avoid the much-feared cytokine storm.
Project description:The purpose of this project is to gain a better understanding of the early cytokine-mediated mechanisms that lead to asthma. Experiment Overall Design: 15 samples, 4 time points, 2 conditions. http://pepr.cnmcresearch.org/browse.do?action=list_prj_exp&projectId=95
Project description:In this study we analyzed the effects of lead-exposure up hippocampal gene expression in males and females exposed to 0ppm, 250ppm and 750ppm lead during two different developmental periods, perinatal (in utero through to weaning at PND21) and postnatal (PND0-PND45). All tissue was taken at PND 55. We used affymetrix Rat Gene 1.0ST arrays to obtain global gene expression data from each animal, with a group size of 4 for all conditions (Total number of Arrays = 40) Gene expression was profiled in hippocampus at no lead exposure (0ppm), 250ppm and 750 ppm lead exposure level at peinatal and postnaltal developmental period.
Project description:IRF7 plays a critical role in the production and amplification of the antiviral type I and III interferon response. Autosomal recessive IRF7-deficiency resulted in life-threatening influenza disease in a 3-year-old child. We studied the impact of IRF7-deficiency in non-hematopoietic tissues (fibroblasts and lung epithelial cells) as well in hematopoietic cells (peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs)). Genome-wide gene expression analysis demonstrated a profound loss of type I and III IFNs in PBMCs infected with influenza virus.