| 1. |
- Andersson, David A., et al.
(författare)
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TRPA1 mediates spinal antinociception induced by acetaminophen and the cannabinoid Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabiorcol
- 2011
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- TRPA1 is a unique sensor of noxious stimuli and, hence, a potential drug target for analgesics. Here we show that the antinociceptive effects of spinal and systemic administration of acetaminophen (paracetamol) are lost in Trpa1(-/-) mice. The electrophilic metabolites N-acetyl-p-benzoquinoneimine and p-benzoquinone, but not acetaminophen itself, activate mouse and human TRPA1. These metabolites also activate native TRPA1 and, as a consequence, reduce voltage-gated calcium and sodium currents in primary sensory neurons. The N-acetyl-p-benzoquinoneimine metabolite l-cysteinyl-S-acetaminophen was detected in the mouse spinal cord after systemic acetaminophen administration. In the hot-plate test, intrathecal administration of N-acetyl-p-benzoquinoneimine, p-benzoquinone and the electrophilic TRPA1 activator cinnamaldehyde produced antinociception that was lost in Trpa1(-/-) mice. Intrathecal injection of a non-electrophilic cannabinoid, Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabiorcol, also produced TRPA1-dependent antinociception in this test. Our study provides a molecular mechanism for the antinociceptive effect of acetaminophen and discloses spinal TRPA1 activation as a potential pharmacological strategy to alleviate pain.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Laettig-Tuennemann, Gisela, et al.
(författare)
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Backbone rigidity and static presentation of guanidinium groups increases cellular uptake of arginine-rich cell-penetrating peptides
- 2011
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 2, s. 453-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In addition to endocytosis-mediated cellular uptake, hydrophilic cell-penetrating peptides are able to traverse biological membranes in a non-endocytic mode termed transduction, resulting in immediate bioavailability. Here we analysed structural requirements for the non-endocytic uptake mode of arginine-rich cell-penetrating peptides, by a combination of live-cell microscopy, molecular dynamics simulations and analytical ultracentrifugation. We demonstrate that the transduction efficiency of arginine-rich peptides increases with higher peptide structural rigidity. Consequently, cyclic arginine-rich cell-penetrating peptides showed enhanced cellular uptake kinetics relative to their linear and more flexible counterpart. We propose that guanidinium groups are forced into maximally distant positions by cyclization. This orientation increases membrane contacts leading to enhanced cell penetration.
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| 5. |
- Lippold, Sebastian, et al.
(författare)
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Discovery of lost diversity of paternal horse lineages using ancient DNA
- 2011
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 2, s. 450-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Modern domestic horses display abundant genetic diversity within female-inherited mitochondrial DNA, but practically no sequence diversity on the male-inherited Y chromosome. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain this discrepancy, but can only be tested through knowledge of the diversity in both the ancestral (pre-domestication) maternal and paternal lineages. As wild horses are practically extinct, ancient DNA studies offer the only means to assess this ancestral diversity. Here we show considerable ancestral diversity in ancient male horses by sequencing 4 kb of Y chromosomal DNA from eight ancient wild horses and one 2,800-year-old domesticated horse. Both ancient and modern domestic horses form a separate branch from the ancient wild horses, with the Przewalski horse at its base. Our methodology establishes the feasibility of re-sequencing long ancient nuclear DNA fragments and demonstrates the power of ancient Y chromosome DNA sequence data to provide insights into the evolutionary history of populations.
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| 6. |
- Malnoë, Alizée, et al.
(författare)
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Photosynthetic growth despite a broken Q-cycle
- 2011
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Macmillan Publishers Ltd.. - 2041-1723. ; 2:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Central in respiration or photosynthesis, the cytochrome bc(1) and b(6)f complexes are regarded as functionally similar quinol oxidoreductases. They both catalyse a redox loop, the Q-cycle, which couples electron and proton transfer. This loop involves a bifurcated electron transfer step considered as being mechanistically mandatory, making the Q-cycle indispensable for growth. Attempts to falsify this paradigm in the case of cytochrome bc(1) have failed. The rapid proteolytic degradation of b(6)f complexes bearing mutations aimed at hindering the Q-cycle has precluded so far the experimental assessment of this model in the photosynthetic chain. Here we combine mutations in Chlamydomonas that inactivate the redox loop but preserve high accumulation levels of b(6)f complexes. The oxidoreductase activity of these crippled complexes is sufficient to sustain photosynthetic growth, which demonstrates that the Q-cycle is dispensable for oxygenic photosynthesis.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Mu, Yabing, et al.
(författare)
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TRAF6 ubiquitinates TGFβ type I receptor to promote its cleavage and nuclear translocation in cancer
- 2011
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - London : Macmillan Publishers Limited. - 2041-1723. ; 2:330
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) is a pluripotent cytokine promoting epithelial cell plasticity during morphogenesis and tumour progression. TGFβ binding to type II and type I serine/threonine kinase receptors (TβRII and TβRI) causes activation of different intracellular signaling pathways. TβRI is associated with the ubiquitin ligase tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNFR)-associated factor 6 (TRAF6). Here we show that TGFβ, via TRAF6, causes Lys63-linked polyubiquitination of TβRI, promoting cleavage of TβRI by TNF-alpha converting enzyme (TACE), in a PKCζ-dependent manner. The liberated intracellular domain (ICD) of TβRI associates with the transcriptional regulator p300 to activate genes involved in tumour cell invasiveness, such as Snail and MMP2. Moreover, TGFβ-induced invasion of cancer cells is TACE- and PKCζ- dependent and the TβRI ICD is localized in the nuclei of different kinds of tumour cells in tissue sections. Thus, our data reveal a specific role for TβRI in TGFβ mediated tumour invasion.
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| 9. |
- Niesmann, Katharina, et al.
(författare)
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Dendritic spine formation and synaptic function require neurobeachin
- 2011
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 2, s. 557-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A challenge in neuroscience is to understand the mechanisms underlying synapse formation. Most excitatory synapses in the brain are built on spines, which are actin-rich protrusions from dendrites. Spines are a major substrate of brain plasticity, and spine pathologies are observed in various mental illnesses. Here we investigate the role of neurobeachin (Nbea), a multidomain protein previously linked to cases of autism, in synaptogenesis. We show that deletion of Nbea leads to reduced numbers of spinous synapses in cultured neurons from complete knockouts and in cortical tissue from heterozygous mice, accompanied by altered miniature postsynaptic currents. In addition, excitatory synapses terminate mostly at dendritic shafts instead of spine heads in Nbea mutants, and actin becomes less enriched synaptically. As actin and synaptopodin, a spine-associated protein with actin-bundling activity, accumulate ectopically near the Golgi apparatus of mutant neurons, a role emerges for Nbea in trafficking important cargo to pre- and postsynaptic compartments.
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| 10. |
- Norberg, Peter, 1974, et al.
(författare)
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The IncP-1 plasmid backbone adapts to different host bacterial species and evolves through homologous recombination.
- 2011
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Ingår i: Nature communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Plasmids are important members of the bacterial mobile gene pool, and are among the most important contributors to horizontal gene transfer between bacteria. They typically harbour a wide spectrum of host beneficial traits, such as antibiotic resistance, inserted into their backbones. Although these inserted elements have drawn considerable interest, evolutionary information about the plasmid backbones, which encode plasmid related traits, is sparse. Here we analyse 25 complete backbone genomes from the broad-host-range IncP-1 plasmid family. Phylogenetic analysis reveals seven clades, in which two plasmids that we isolated from a marine biofilm represent a novel clade. We also found that homologous recombination is a prominent feature of the plasmid backbone evolution. Analysis of genomic signatures indicates that the plasmids have adapted to different host bacterial species. Globally circulating IncP-1 plasmids hence contain mosaic structures of segments derived from several parental plasmids that have evolved in, and adapted to, different, phylogenetically very distant host bacterial species.
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