技术资料

A number of human malignancies exhibit sustained stimulation,mutation,or gene amplification of the receptor tyrosine kinase human mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor (c-Met). ARQ 197 is a clinically advanced,selective,orally bioavailable,and well tolerated c-Met inhibitor,currently in Phase 3 clinical testing in non-small cell lung cancer patients. Herein,we describe the molecular and structural basis by which ARQ 197 selectively targets c-Met. Through our analysis we reveal a previously undisclosed,novel inhibitory mechanism that utilizes distinct regulatory elements of the c-Met kinase. The structure of ARQ 197 in complex with the c-Met kinase domain shows that the inhibitor binds a conformation that is distinct from published kinase structures. ARQ 197 inhibits c-Met autophosphorylation and is highly selective for the inactive or unphosphorylated form of c-Met. Through our analysis of the interplay between the regulatory and catalytic residues of c-Met,and by comparison between the autoinhibited canonical conformation of c-Met bound by ARQ 197 to previously described kinase domains of type III receptor tyrosine kinases,we believe this to be the basis of a powerful new in silico approach for the design of similar inhibitors for other protein kinases of therapeutic interest. View Publication

The demonstration of the brain's ability to initiate repair in response to disease or injury has sparked considerable interest in therapeutic strategies to stimulate adult neurogenesis. In this study we examined the effect of a progressive neurodegenerative condition on neural precursor activity in the subventricular zone (SVZ) and hippocampus of the R6/1 transgenic mouse model of Huntington's disease (HD). Our results revealed an age-related decline in SVZ precursor numbers in both wild-type (WT) and HD mice. Interestingly,hippocampal precursor numbers declined with age in WT mice,although we observed maintenance in hippocampal precursor number in the HD animals in response to advancement of the disease. This maintenance was consistent with activation of a recently identified latent hippocampal precursor population. We found that the small latent stem cell population was also maintained in the HD hippocampus at 33 weeks,whereas it was not present in the WT. Our findings demonstrate that,despite a loss of neurogenesis in the HD hippocampus in vivo,there is a unique maintenance of the precursor and stem cells,which may potentially be activated to ameliorate disease symptoms. View Publication

Hematopoiesis occurs in close association with a complex network of cells loosely termed the hematopoietic microenvironment. Analysis of the mechanisms of microenvironmental regulation of hematopoiesis has been hindered by the complexity of the microenvironment as well as the heterogeneity of hematopoietic stem cells and early progenitor cells. We have established immortalized primate bone marrow-derived stromal cell lines to facilitate analysis of the interactions of hematopoietic cells with the microenvironment in a large animal species. One such line,PU-34,was found to produce a variety of growth factors,including an activity that stimulates the proliferation of an interleukin 6-dependent murine plasmacytoma cell line. A cDNA encoding the plasmacytoma stimulatory activity was isolated through functional expression cloning in mammalian cells. The nucleotide sequence contained a single long reading frame of 597 nucleotides encoding a predicted 199-amino acid polypeptide. The amino acid sequence of this cytokine,designated interleukin 11 (IL-11),did not display significant similarity with any other sequence in the GenBank data base. Preliminary biological characterization indicates that in addition to stimulating plasmacytoma proliferation,IL-11 stimulates the T-cell-dependent development of immunoglobulin-producing B cells and synergizes with IL-3 in supporting murine megakaryocyte colony formation. These properties implicate IL-11 as an additional multifunctional regulator in the hematopoietic microenvironment. View Publication

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) contribute significantly to the tolerogenic nature of the liver. The mechanisms,however,underlying liver-associated Treg induction are still elusive. We recently identified the vitamin A metabolite,retinoic acid (RA),as a key controller that promotes TGF-β-dependent Foxp3(+) Treg induction but inhibits TGF-β-driven Th17 differentiation. To investigate whether the RA producing hepatic stellate cells (HSC) are part of the liver tolerance mechanism,we investigated the ability of HSC to function as regulatory APC. Different from previous reports,we found that highly purified HSC did not express costimulatory molecules and only upregulated MHC class II after in vitro culture in the presence of exogenous IFN-γ. Consistent with an insufficient APC function,HSC failed to stimulate naive OT-II TCR transgenic CD4(+) T cells and only moderately stimulated α-galactosylceramide-primed invariant NKT cells. In contrast,HSC functioned as regulatory bystanders and promoted enhanced Foxp3 induction by OT-II TCR transgenic T cells primed by spleen dendritic cells,whereas they greatly inhibited the Th17 differentiation. Furthermore,the regulatory bystander capacity of the HSC was completely dependent on their ability to produce RA. Our data thus suggest that HSC can function as regulatory bystanders,and therefore,by promoting Tregs and suppressing Th17 differentiation,they might represent key players in the mechanism that drives liver-induced tolerance. View Publication

Overexpression of high mobility group AT-hook 2 (HMGA2) is found in a number of benign and malignant tumors,including the clonal PIGA(-) cells in 2 cases of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) and some myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs),and recently in hematopoietic cell clones resulting from gene therapy procedures. In nearly all these cases overexpression is because of deletions or translocations that remove the 3' untranslated region (UTR) which contains binding sites for the regulatory micro RNA let-7. We were therefore interested in the effect of HMGA2 overexpression in hematopoietic tissues in transgenic mice (ΔHmga2 mice) carrying a 3'UTR-truncated Hmga2 cDNA. ΔHmga2 mice expressed increased levels of HMGA2 protein in various tissues including hematopoietic cells and showed proliferative hematopoiesis with increased numbers in all lineages of peripheral blood cells,hypercellular bone marrow (BM),splenomegaly with extramedullary erythropoiesis and erythropoietin-independent erythroid colony formation. ΔHmga2-derived BM cells had a growth advantage over wild-type cells in competitive repopulation and serial transplantation experiments. Thus overexpression of HMGA2 leads to proliferative hematopoiesis with clonal expansion at the stem cell and progenitor levels and may account for the clonal expansion in PNH and MPNs and in gene therapy patients after vector insertion disrupts the HMGA2 locus. View Publication

α-Lipoic acid (LA) is a thiol with antioxidant properties that protects against oxidative stress-induced apoptosis. LA is absorbed from the diet,taken up by cells and tissues,and subsequently reduced to dihydrolipoic acid (DHLA). Recently,DHLA has been used as the hydrophilic nanomaterial preparations,and therefore,determination of its bio-safety profile is essential. In this article,we show that DHLA (50-100 μM) induces apoptotic processes in mouse embryonic stem cells (ESC-B5),but exerts no injury effects at treatment dosages below 50 μM. Higher concentrations of DHLA (50-100 μM) directly increased the reactive oxygen species (ROS) content in ESC-B5 cells,along with a significant increase in cytoplasmic free calcium and nitric oxide (NO) levels,loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP),activation of caspases-9 and -3,and cell death. Pretreatment with NO scavengers suppressed the apoptotic biochemical changes induced by 100 μM DHLA and promoted the gene expression levels of p53 and p21 involved in apoptotic signaling. Our results collectively indicate that DHLA at concentrations of 50-100 μM triggers apoptosis of ESC-B5 cells,which involves both ROS and NO. Importantly,at doses of less than 50 μM (0-25 μM),DHLA does not exert hazardous effects on ESC-B5 cell properties,including viability,development and differentiation. These results provide important information in terms of dosage safety and biocompatibility of DHLA to facilitate its further use as a precursor for biomaterial preparation. View Publication

The phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-triphosphate (PIP3) binding function of pleckstrin homology (PH) domain is essential for the activation of oncogenic Akt/PKB kinase. Following the PIP3-mediated activation at the membrane,the activated Akt is subjected to other regulatory events,including ubiquitination-mediated deactivation. Here,by identifying and characterizing an allosteric inhibitor,SC66,we show that the facilitated ubiquitination effectively terminates Akt signaling. Mechanistically,SC66 manifests a dual inhibitory activity that directly interferes with the PH domain binding to PIP3 and facilitates Akt ubiquitination. A known PH domain-dependent allosteric inhibitor,which stabilizes Akt,prevents the SC66-induced Akt ubiquitination. A cancer-relevant Akt1 (e17k) mutant is unstable,making it intrinsically sensitive to functional inhibition by SC66 in cellular contexts in which the PI3K inhibition has little inhibitory effect. As a result of its dual inhibitory activity,SC66 manifests a more effective growth suppression of transformed cells that contain a high level of Akt signaling,compared with other inhibitors of PIP3/Akt pathway. Finally,we show the anticancer activity of SC66 by using a soft agar assay as well as a mouse xenograft tumor model. In conclusion,in this study,we not only identify a dual-function Akt inhibitor,but also demonstrate that Akt ubiquitination could be chemically exploited to effectively facilitate its deactivation,thus identifying an avenue for pharmacological intervention in Akt signaling. View Publication

O(6)-Alkylguanine-DNA alkyltransferase (AGT) is a widely distributed,unique DNA repair protein that acts as a single agent to directly remove alkyl groups located on the O(6)-position of guanine from DNA restoring the DNA in one step. The protein acts only once,and its alkylated form is degraded rapidly. It is a major factor in counteracting the mutagenic,carcinogenic,and cytotoxic effects of agents that form such adducts including N-nitroso-compounds and a number of cancer chemotherapeutics. This review describes the structure,function,and mechanism of action of AGTs and of a family of related alkyltransferase-like proteins,which do not act alone to repair O(6)-alkylguanines in DNA but link repair to other pathways. The paradoxical ability of AGTs to stimulate the DNA-damaging ability of dihaloalkanes and other bis-electrophiles via the formation of AGT-DNA cross-links is also described. Other important properties of AGTs include the ability to provide resistance to cancer therapeutic alkylating agents,and the availability of AGT inhibitors such as O(6)-benzylguanine that might overcome this resistance is discussed. Finally,the properties of fusion proteins in which AGT sequences are linked to other proteins are outlined. Such proteins occur naturally,and synthetic variants engineered to react specifically with derivatives of O(6)-benzylguanine are the basis of a valuable research technique for tagging proteins with specific reagents. View Publication

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) represent a promising source of tissues of different cell lineages because of their high degree of self-renewal and their unique ability to give rise to most somatic cell lineages. In this article,we report on a new approach to differentiate hESCs into neural stem cells that can be differentiated further into neuronal restricted cells. We have rapidly and efficiently differentiated hESCs into neural stem cells by presenting the cell adhesion molecule,E-cadherin,to undifferentiated hESCs via E-cadherin transfected fibroblast monolayers. The neural restricted progenitor cells rapidly express nestin and beta-III-tubulin,but not glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) during the 1-week E-cadherin induction phase,suggesting that E-cadherin promotes rapid neuronal differentiation. Further,these cells are able to achieve enhanced neuronal differentiation with the addition of exogenous growth factors. Cadherin-induced hESCs show a loss in Oct4 and nestin expression associated with positive staining for vimentin,neurofilament,and neural cell adhesion molecule. Moreover,blocking by functional E-cadherin antibody and failure of paracrine stimulation suggested that direct E-cadherin engagement is necessary to induce neural restriction. By providing hESCs with molecular cues to promote differentiation,we are able to utilize a specific cell-cell adhesion molecule,E-cadherin,to influence the nature and degree of neural specialization. View Publication

Mammary cancer stem cells (MaCSCs) have been identified as a rare population of cells capable of self-renewal to drive mammary tumorigenesis and metastasis. Nevertheless,relatively little is known about the intracellular signaling pathways regulating self-renewal and metastatic activities of MaCSCs in vivo. Using a recently developed breast cancer mouse model with focal adhesion kinase (FAK) deletion in mammary tumor cells (MFCKO-MT mice),here we present evidence suggesting a compensatory function of Pyk2,a FAK-related kinase,in the regulation of MaCSCs and metastasis in these mice. Increased expression of Pyk2 was found selectively in pulmonary metastatic nodules of MFCKO-MT mice,and its inhibition significantly reduced mammary tumor development and metastasis in these mice. Consistent with the idea of metastasis driven by MaCSCs,we detected selective up-regulation of Pyk2 in MaCSCs,but not bulk mammary tumor cells,of primary tumors developed in MFCKO-MT mice. We further showed that inhibition of Pyk2 in FAK-null MaCSCs significantly decreased their tumorsphere formation and migration in vitro as well as self-renewal,tumorigenicity,and metastatic activity in vivo. Last,we identified PI3K/Akt signaling as a major mediator of FAK regulation of MaCSCs as well as a target for the compensatory function of Pyk2 in FAK-null MaCSCs. Together,these results further advance our understanding of FAK and its related tyrosine kinase Pyk2 in regulation of MaCSCs in breast cancer and suggest that pharmaceutically targeting these kinases may hold promise as a novel treatment for the disease by targeting and eradicating MaCSCs. View Publication

Trypanosoma congolense is an African trypanosome that causes serious disease in cattle in Sub-Saharan Africa. The four major life cycle stages of T. congolense can be grown in vitro,which has led to the identification of several cell-surface molecules expressed on the parasite during its transit through the tsetse vector. One of these,glutamic acid/alanine-rich protein (GARP),is the first expressed on procyclic forms in the tsetse midgut and is of particular interest because it replaces the major surface coat molecule of bloodstream forms,the variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) that protects the parasite membrane,and is involved in antigenic variation. Unlike VSG,however,the function of GARP is not known,which necessarily limits our understanding of parasite survival in the tsetse. Toward establishing the function of GARP,we report its three-dimensional structure solved by iodide phasing to a resolution of 1.65 Å. An extended helical bundle structure displays an unexpected and significant degree of homology to the core structure of VSG,the only other major surface molecule of trypanosomes to be structurally characterized. Immunofluorescence microscopy and immunoaffinity-tandem mass spectrometry were used in conjunction with monoclonal antibodies to map both non-surface-disposed and surface epitopes. Collectively,these studies enabled us to derive a model describing the orientation and assembly of GARP on the surface of trypanosomes. The data presented here suggest the possible structure-function relationships involved in replacement of the bloodstream form VSG by GARP as trypanosomes differentiate in the tsetse vector after a blood meal. View Publication

We recently demonstrated that lack of type I IFN signaling (IFNAR knockout) in lymphocyte-deficient mice (IFrag(-/-)) results in bone marrow (BM) failure after Pneumocystis lung infection,whereas lymphocyte-deficient mice with intact IFNAR (RAG(-/-)) had normal hematopoiesis. In the current work,we performed studies to define further the mechanisms involved in the induction of BM failure in this system. BM chimera experiments revealed that IFNAR expression was required on BM-derived but not stroma-derived cells to prevent BM failure. Signals elicited after day 7 postinfection appeared critical in determining BM cell fate. We observed caspase-8- and caspase-9-mediated apoptotic cell death,beginning with neutrophils. Death of myeloid precursors was associated with secondary oxidative stress,and decreasing colony-forming activity in BM cell cultures. Treatment with N-acetylcysteine could slow the progression of,but not prevent,BM failure. Type I IFN signaling has previously been shown to expand the neutrophil life span and regulate the expression of some antiapoptotic factors. Quantitative RT-PCR demonstrated reduced mRNA abundance for the antiapoptotic factors BCL-2,IAP2,MCL-1,and others in BM cells from IFrag(-/-) compared with that in BM cells from RAG(-/-) mice at day 7. mRNA and protein for the proapoptotic cytokine TNF-α was increased,whereas mRNA for the growth factors G-CSF and GM-CSF was reduced. In vivo anti-TNF-α treatment improved precursor cell survival and activity in culture. Thus,we propose that lack of type I IFN signaling results in decreased resistance to inflammation-induced proapoptotic stressors and impaired replenishment by precursors after systemic responses to Pneumocystis lung infection. Our finding may have implications in understanding mechanisms underlying regenerative BM depression/failure during complex immune deficiencies such as AIDS. View Publication