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- Elsaid, K., et al.
(författare)
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Amplification of Inflammation by Lubricin Deficiency Implicated in Incident, Erosive Gout Independent of Hyperuricemia
- 2023
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Ingår i: Arthritis & Rheumatology. - : Wiley. - 2326-5191 .- 2326-5205. ; 75:5, s. 794-805
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective In gout, hyperuricemia promotes urate crystal deposition, which stimulates the NLRP3 inflammasome and interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta)-mediated arthritis. Incident gout without background hyperuricemia is rarely reported. To identify hyperuricemia-independent mechanisms driving gout incidence and progression, we characterized erosive urate crystalline inflammatory arthritis in a young female patient with normouricemia diagnosed as having sufficient and weighted classification criteria for gout according to the American College of Rheumatology (ACR)/EULAR gout classification criteria (the proband).Methods We conducted whole-genome sequencing, quantitative proteomics, whole-blood RNA-sequencing analysis using serum samples from the proband. We used a mouse model of IL-1 beta-induced knee synovitis to characterize proband candidate genes, biomarkers, and pathogenic mechanisms of gout.Results Lubricin level was attenuated in human proband serum and associated with elevated acute-phase reactants and inflammatory whole-blood transcripts and transcriptional pathways. The proband had predicted damaging gene variants of NLRP3 and of inter-alpha trypsin inhibitor heavy chain 3, an inhibitor of lubricin-degrading cathepsin G. Changes in the proband's serum protein interactome network supported enhanced lubricin degradation, with cathepsin G activity increased relative to its inhibitors, SERPINB6 and thrombospondin 1. Activation of Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR-2) suppressed levels of lubricin mRNA and lubricin release in cultured human synovial fibroblasts (P < 0.01). Lubricin blunted urate crystal precipitation and IL-1 beta induction of xanthine oxidase and urate in cultured macrophages (P < 0.001). In lubricin-deficient mice, injection of IL-1 beta in knees increased xanthine oxidase-positive synovial resident M1 macrophages (P < 0.05).Conclusion Our findings linked normouricemic erosive gout to attenuated lubricin, with impaired control of cathepsin G activity, compounded by deleterious NLRP3 variants. Lubricin suppressed monosodium urate crystallization and blunted IL-1 beta-induced increases in xanthine oxidase and urate in macrophages. The collective activities of articular lubricin that could limit incident and erosive gouty arthritis independently of hyperuricemia are subject to disruption by inflammation, activated cathepsin G, and synovial fibroblast TLR-2 signaling.
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| 2. |
- Blondelle, J., et al.
(författare)
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Murine obscurin and Obsl1 have functionally redundant roles in sarcolemmal integrity, sarcoplasmic reticulum organization, and muscle metabolism
- 2019
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Ingår i: Communications Biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2399-3642. ; 2:178
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Biological roles of obscurin and its close homolog Obsl1 (obscurin-like 1) have been enigmatic. While obscurin is highly expressed in striated muscles, Obsl1 is found ubiquitously. Accordingly, obscurin mutations have been linked to myopathies, whereas mutations in Obsl1 result in 3M-growth syndrome. To further study unique and redundant functions of these closely related proteins, we generated and characterized Obsl1 knockouts. Global Obsl1 knockouts are embryonically lethal. In contrast, skeletal muscle-specific Obsl1 knockouts show a benign phenotype similar to obscurin knockouts. Only deletion of both proteins and removal of their functional redundancy revealed their roles for sarcolemmal stability and sarcoplasmic reticulum organization. To gain unbiased insights into changes to the muscle proteome, we analyzed tibialis anterior and soleus muscles by mass spectrometry, uncovering additional changes to the muscle metabolism. Our analyses suggest that all obscurin protein family members play functions for muscle membrane systems.
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| 5. |
- Davids, Barbara J., et al.
(författare)
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Identification of Conserved Candidate Vaccine Antigens in the Surface Proteome of Giardia lamblia
- 2019
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Ingår i: Infection and Immunity. - : AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY. - 0019-9567 .- 1098-5522. ; 87:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Giardia lamblia, one of the most common protozoal infections of the human intestine, is an important worldwide cause of diarrheal disease, malabsorption, malnutrition, delayed cognitive development in children, and protracted postinfectious syndromes. Despite its medical importance, no human vaccine is available against giardiasis. A crude veterinary vaccine has been developed, and experimental vaccines based on expression of multiple variant-specific surface proteins have been reported, but poorly defined vaccine components and excessive antigen variability are problematic for pharmaceutical vaccine production. To expand the repertoire of antigen candidates for vaccines, we reasoned that surface proteins may provide an enriched source of such antigens since key host effectors, such as secretory IgA, can directly bind to such antigens in the intestinal lumen and interfere with epithelial attachment. Here, we have applied a proteomics approach to identify 23 novel surface antigens of G. lamblia that show >90% amino acid sequence identity between the two human-pathogenic genetic assemblages (A and B) of the parasite. Surface localization of a representative subset of these proteins was confirmed by immunostaining. Four selected proteins, uridine phosphorylase-like protein-1, protein 21.1 (GL50803_ 27925), alpha 1-giardin, and alpha 11-giardin, were subsequently produced in recombinant form and shown to be immunogenic in mice and G. lamblia-infected humans and confer protection against G. lamblia infection upon intranasal immunization in rodent models of giardiasis. These results demonstrate that identification of conserved surface antigens provides a powerful approach for overcoming a key rate-limiting step in the design and construction of an effective vaccine against giardiasis.
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| 6. |
- Lange, Stephan, et al.
(författare)
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miR-486 is modulated by stretch and increases ventricular growth
- 2019
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Ingår i: Jci Insight. - : American Society for Clinical Investigation. - 2379-3708. ; 4:19
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Perturbations in biomechanical stimuli during cardiac development contribute to congenital cardiac defects such as hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). This study sought to identify stretch-responsive pathways involved in cardiac development. miRNA-Seq identified miR-486 as being increased in cardiomyocytes exposed to cyclic stretch in vitro. The right ventricles (RVs) of patients with HLHS experienced increased stretch and had a trend toward higher miR-486 levels. Sheep RVs dilated from excessive pulmonary blood flow had 60% more miR-486 compared with control RVs. The left ventricles of newborn mice treated with miR-486 mimic were 16.9%-24.6% larger and displayed a 2.48-fold increase in cardiomyocyte proliferation. miR-486 treatment decreased Fox01 and Smad signaling while increasing the protein levels of Stat1. Stat1 associated with Gata-4 and serum response factor (Srf), 2 key cardiac transcription factors with protein levels that increase in response to miR-486. This is the first report to our knowledge of a stretch-responsive miRNA that increases the growth of the ventricle in vivo.
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| 7. |
- Shirali, M, et al.
(författare)
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Design and Evaluation of a Solo-Resident Smart Home Testbed for Mobility Pattern Monitoring and Behavioural Assessment
- 2020
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Ingår i: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland). - : MDPI AG. - 1424-8220. ; 20:24
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aging population increase demands for solutions to help the solo-resident elderly live independently. Unobtrusive data collection in a smart home environment can monitor and assess elderly residents’ health state based on changes in their mobility patterns. In this paper, a smart home system testbed setup for a solo-resident house is discussed and evaluated. We use paired Passive infra-red (PIR) sensors at each entry of a house and capture the resident’s activities to model mobility patterns. We present the required testbed implementation phases, i.e., deployment, post-deployment analysis, re-deployment, and conduct behavioural data analysis to highlight the usability of collected data from a smart home. The main contribution of this work is to apply intelligence from a post-deployment process mining technique (namely, the parallel activity log inference algorithm (PALIA)) to find the best configuration for data collection in order to minimise the errors. Based on the post-deployment analysis, a re-deployment phase is performed, and results show the improvement of collected data accuracy in re-deployment phase from 81.57% to 95.53%. To complete our analysis, we apply the well-known CASAS project dataset as a reference to conduct a comparison with our collected results which shows a similar pattern. The collected data further is processed to use the level of activity of the solo-resident for a behaviour assessment.
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| 8. |
- Zhou, T. K., et al.
(författare)
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Molecular Characterisation of Titin N2A and Its Binding of CARP Reveals a Titin/Actin Cross-linking Mechanism
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-2836. ; 433:9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Striated muscle responds to mechanical overload by rapidly up-regulating the expression of the cardiac ankyrin repeat protein, CARP, which then targets the sarcomere by binding to titin N2A in the I-band region. To date, the role of this interaction in the stress response of muscle remains poorly understood. Here, we characterise the molecular structure of the CARP-receptor site in titin (UN2A) and its binding of CARP. We find that titin UN2A contains a central three-helix bundle fold (ca 45 residues in length) that is joined to N- and C-terminal flanking immunoglobulin domains by long, flexible linkers with partial helical content. CARP binds titin by engaging an a-hairpin in the three-helix fold of UN2A, the C-terminal linker sequence, and the BC loop in Ig81, which jointly form a broad binding interface. Mutagenesis showed that the CARP/N2A association withstands sequence variations in titin N2A and we use this information to evaluate 85 human single nucleotide variants. In addition, actin co-sedimentation, co-transfection in C2C12 cells, proteomics on heart lysates, and the mechanical response of CARP-soaked myofibrils imply that CARP induces the cross-linking of titin and actin myofilaments, thereby increasing myofibril stiffness. We conclude that CARP acts as a regulator of force output in the sarcomere that preserves muscle mechanical performance upon overload stress. Crown Copyright (C) 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 9. |
- Blondelle, Jordan, et al.
(författare)
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Cullin-3-dependent deregulation of ACTN1 represents a pathogenic mechanism in nemaline myopathy
- 2019
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Ingår i: JCI Insight. - : American Society for Clinical Investigation. - 2379-3708. ; 4:10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Nemaline myopathy is a congenital neuromuscular disorder characterized by muscle weakness, fiber atrophy, and presence of nemaline bodies within myofibers. However, understanding of the underlying pathomechanisms is lacking. Recently, mutations in KBTBD13, KLHL40, and KLHL41, three substrate adaptors for the E3 ubiquitin ligase Cullin-3, have been associated with early-onset nemaline myopathies. We hypothesized that deregulation of Cullin-3 and its muscle protein substrates may be responsible for disease development. Using Cullin-3-knockout mice, we identified accumulation of non-muscle α-actinins (ACTN1 and ACTN4) in muscles of these mice, which we also observed in patients with mutations in KBTBD13. Our data reveal that proper regulation of Cullin-3 activity and ACTN1 levels is essential for normal muscle and neuromuscular junction development. While ACTN1 is naturally downregulated during myogenesis, its overexpression in C2C12 myoblasts triggered defects in fusion, myogenesis, and acetylcholine receptor clustering - features that we characterized in Cullin-3-deficient mice. Taken together, our data highlight the importance of Cullin-3-mediated degradation of ACTN1 for muscle development, and indicate what is to our knowledge new pathomechanism for the etiology of myopathies seen in Cullin-3-knockout mice and patients with nemaline myopathy.
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