Project description:Female mice aged 6-7 weeks old were infected with the T. cruzi H1 strain. Mice were randomly divided into groups with 15 animals in each, with age matched naïve mice included as controls. Approximately 75 days post infection, mice were randomly divided into groups and treated with different treatment combinations: BNZ + Tc24 therapeutic vaccine + the STAT-3 inhibitor TTI-101, BNZ + Tc24 vaccine, and BNZ or TTI alone. Mice were humanely euthanized at 50, 75, 120 or 142 days post infection (DPI), and hearts samples were collected, divided into left atrium (LA), right atrium (RA), left ventricle top (LVT), left ventricle bottom (LVB), right ventricle top (RVT), right ventricle bottom (RVB). Heart tissue samples were extracted by 1:1 (v/v) methanol to water for aqueous phase and 3:1 (v/v) dichloromethane to methanol for organic phase. LC-MS/MS data acquisition was performed on a Q Exactive Plus Hybrid Quadrupole-Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer coupled to a Thermo Scientific Vanquish UHPLC with 1.7 um 100 Å Kinetex C8 column at 40°C. Mobile phase A was water with 0.1% (v/v) formic acid and mobile phase B was acetonitrile with 0.1% (v/v) formic acid.
Project description:Female mice aged 6-7 weeks old were infected with the T. cruzi H1 strain. Mice were randomly divided into groups with 15 animals in each, with age matched naïve mice included as controls. Approximately 75 days post infection, mice were randomly divided into groups and treated with different treatment combinations: BNZ + Tc24 therapeutic vaccine + the STAT-3 inhibitor TTI-101, BNZ + Tc24 vaccine, and BNZ or TTI alone. Mice were humanely euthanized at 50, 75, 120 or 142 days post infection (DPI), and hearts samples were collected, divided into left atrium (LA), right atrium (RA), left ventricle top (LVT), left ventricle bottom (LVB), right ventricle top (RVT), right ventricle bottom (RVB). Heart tissue samples were extracted by 1:1 (v/v) methanol to water for aqueous phase and 3:1 (v/v) dichloromethane to methanol for organic phase. LC-MS/MS data acquisition was performed on a Q Exactive Plus Hybrid Quadrupole-Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer coupled to a Thermo Scientific Vanquish UHPLC with 1.7 um 100 Å Kinetex C8 column at 40°C. Mobile phase A was water with 0.1% (v/v) formic acid and mobile phase B was acetonitrile with 0.1% (v/v) formic acid.
Project description:We performed a RNA immunoprecipitations experiments using gfp-specific antibodies to precipitate gfp-tagged La proteins from from gfp-La wild type and sumoylation deficient La mutant (K41/200R) cells and found that specific mRNAs are preferentially enriched gfp-La wild type RIPs when compared to sumoylation deficient La mutant (K41/200R) RIPs.
Project description:We recently identified lysine L-lactylation (KL-la) on histones that can be labelled by L-lactate, the end-product of glycolysis. KL-la has two structural isomers, namely N--(carboxyethyl) lysine (Kce) and lysine D-lactylation (KD-la), which can also be caused by metabolites associated with glycolysis. It is unknown if perturbations of glycolysis can lead to dysregulation of KD-la and Kce, in addition to KL-la. Further, current methods have a difficulty to distinguish among these isomers in cellular contexts. To investigate these questions, we first generated specific antibodies against each one of these three modifications. These reagents enable us to distinguish these three isomers. We demonstrated that KL-la, but not KD-la and Kce, is dynamically regulated by glycolysis. KD-la and Kce occur mainly when the major glycolytic pathway is blocked downstream or when the glyoxalase system is incomplete. This result was also independently confirmed by orthogonal HPLC-mass spectrometry, showing that KL-la is the predominant isomer of lactylation on cellular histones. Finally, we demonstrated that lactyl-CoA, an intermediate between L-lactate and lactylation, is dynamically regulated by glycolysis and is positively correlated with KL-la. Thus, our study clearly shows that KL-la, but not KD-la and Kce, is the major glycolytic- and the Warburg-effect associated responsive modification in cells.
Project description:Vaccine development involves time-consuming and expensive evaluation of candidate vaccines in animal models. As mediators of both innate and adaptive immune responses dendritic cells (DCs) are considered to be highly important for vaccine performance. Here we evaluated in how far the response of DCs to a vaccine in vitro is in line with the immune response the vaccine evokes in vivo. To this end, we investigated the response of murine bone marrow-derived DCs to whole inactivated virus (WIV) and subunit (SU) influenza vaccine preparations. These vaccine preparations were chosen because they differ in the immune response they evoke in mice with WIV being superior to SU vaccine through induction of higher virus-neutralizing antibody titers and a more favorable Th1-skewed response phenotype. To evaluate if in vivo immunogenicity is reflected by DC reactions in vitro we studied the gene expression signature of murine bone-marrow-derived conventional DCs (cDCs) upon stimulation with WIV or SU influenza vaccine or, for reasons of comparison, with live influenza virus. Dendritic cells stimulated with PBS served as a control. Gene expression analysis was performed on samples 4, 12 and 24 hours after the start of stimulation.
Project description:In this study we investigated the steady-state growth of Methylotuvimicrobium alcaliphilum 20ZR in media containing calcium (Ca) or lanthanum (La, a REE element). RNA-seq profiling of Methylomicrobium alcaliphilum strain 20ZR in bioreactor on methane. Sample cultures, La-optimum, La-CH4 limited, Ca-optimum and Ca-CH4 limited, were collected and immediately transferred into tubes containing 5 ml of the stop solution (5% water-equilibrated phenol in ethanol). It was found, that cells supplemented with La show a higher growth rate compared to Ca-cultures; however, the efficiency of carbon conversion, estimated as biomass yield, is higher in cells grown with Ca. The study was financially supported by DOE under FOA DE-FOA-0001085 and by NSF-CBET award 1605031
Project description:The Lupus autoantigen (La) is a single-stranded RNA-binding protein that stabilizes RNA polymerase III (pol III) transcripts and supports RNA folding. In addition, La has been implicated in different steps of the mammalian small RNA pathway. Here, we have analyzed effects of La depletion on the Argonaute (Ago)-bound small RNAs in human cells. We find that in the absence of La, distinct tRNA fragments are loaded into Ago protein complexes and our data suggests that La prevents the production and loading of such tRNA fragments. However, one specific isoleucine tRNA escapes this regulation and produces both a functional tRNA as well as a microRNA (miRNA). We demonstrate that fully complementary 5' leader and 3' trailer of the pre-tRNA-Ile form a double-stranded RNA molecule that has low affinity to La. Instead, Exportin 5 (Xpo5) recognizes it as miRNA precursor and transports it into the cytoplasm for Dicer processing and Ago loading. Thus, La functions as gatekeeper to ensure correct tRNA generation and to protect the miRNA pathway from potentially functional tRNA fragments.