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- Collins, Catherine M., et al.
(författare)
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Molecular cloning and expression analysis of two distinct beta-glucosidase genes, bg1 and aven1, with very different biological roles from the thermophilic, saprophytic fungus Talaromyces emersonii
- 2007
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Ingår i: Mycological Research. - : Elsevier BV. - 0953-7562 .- 1469-8102. ; 111, s. 840-849
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recent sequencing of a number of fungal genomes has revealed the presence of multiple putative beta-glucosidases. Here, we report the cloning of two beta-glucosidase genes (bg1 and aven1), which have very different biological functions and represent two of a number of beta-glucosidases from Talaromyces emersonii. The bg1 gene, encoding a putative intracellular beta-glucosidase, shows significant similarity to other fungal glucosidases from glycosyl hydrolase family 1, known to be involved in cellulose degradation. Solka floc, methyl-xylose, gentiobiose, beech wood xylan, and lactose induced expression of bg1, whereas glucose repressed expression. A second beta-glucosidase gene isolated from T. emersonii, aueni, encodes a putative avenacinase, an enzyme that deglucosylates the anti-fungal saponin, avenacin, rendering it less toxic to the fungus. This gene displays high homology with other fungal saponin-hydrolysing enzymes and beta-glucosidases within GH3. A putative secretory signal peptide of 21 amino acids was identified at the N-terminus of the predicted aven1 protein sequence suggesting that this enzyme is extracellular. Furthermore, T. emersonii cultivated on oat plant biomass was shown to deglucosylate avenacin. The presence of the avenacinase transcript was confirmed by RT-PCR on RNA extracted from mycelia grown in the presence of avenacin. The expression pattern of aven1 on various carbon sources was distinctly different from that of bg1. Only methyl-xylose and gentiobiose induced transcription of aven1. Gentiobiose induces synthesis of a number of cellulase genes by T. emersonii and it may be a possible candidate for the natural cellulase inducer observed in Penicillium purpurogenum. This work represents the first report of an avenacinase gene from a thermophilic, saprophytic fungal source, and suggests that this gene is not exclusive to plant pathogens.
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| 2. |
- Collins, Lucy M., et al.
(författare)
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Dermal fibroblasts from patients with Parkinson's disease have normal GCase activity and autophagy compared to patients with PD and GBA mutations
- 2018
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Ingår i: F1000Research. - : F1000 Research Ltd. - 2046-1402. ; 6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Recently, the development of Parkinson's disease (PD) has been linked to a number of genetic risk factors, of which the most common is glucocerebrosidase (GBA) mutations. Methods: We investigated PD and Gaucher Disease (GD) patient derived skin fibroblasts using biochemistry assays. Results: PD patient derived skin fibroblasts have normal glucocerebrosidase (GCase) activity, whilst patients with PD and GBA mutations have a selective deficit in GCase enzyme activity and impaired autophagic flux. Conclusions: This data suggests that only PD patients with a GBA mutation have altered GCase activity and autophagy, which may explain their more rapid clinical progression.
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| 3. |
- Drouin-Ouellet, Janelle, et al.
(författare)
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REST suppression mediates neural conversion of adult human fibroblasts via microRNA-dependent and -independent pathways
- 2017
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Ingår i: EMBO Molecular Medicine. - : EMBO. - 1757-4684 .- 1757-4676. ; 9:8, s. 1117-1131
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Direct conversion of human fibroblasts into mature and functional neurons, termed induced neurons (iNs), was achieved for the first time 6 years ago. This technology offers a promising shortcut for obtaining patient- and disease-specific neurons for disease modeling, drug screening, and other biomedical applications. However, fibroblasts from adult donors do not reprogram as easily as fetal donors, and no current reprogramming approach is sufficiently efficient to allow the use of this technology using patient-derived material for large-scale applications. Here, we investigate the difference in reprogramming requirements between fetal and adult human fibroblasts and identify REST as a major reprogramming barrier in adult fibroblasts. Via functional experiments where we overexpress and knockdown the REST-controlled neuron-specific microRNAs miR-9 and miR-124, we show that the effect of REST inhibition is only partially mediated via microRNA up-regulation. Transcriptional analysis confirmed that REST knockdown activates an overlapping subset of neuronal genes as microRNA overexpression and also a distinct set of neuronal genes that are not activated via microRNA overexpression. Based on this, we developed an optimized one-step method to efficiently reprogram dermal fibroblasts from elderly individuals using a single-vector system and demonstrate that it is possible to obtain iNs of high yield and purity from aged individuals with a range of familial and sporadic neurodegenerative disorders including Parkinson's, Huntington's, as well as Alzheimer's disease.
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| 4. |
- Heyland, Daren K., et al.
(författare)
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A Randomized Trial of Enteral Glutamine for Treatment of Burn Injuries
- 2022
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Ingår i: New England Journal of Medicine. - : Massachusetts Medical Society. - 0028-4793 .- 1533-4406. ; 387:11, s. 1001-1010
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUNDGlutamine is thought to have beneficial effects on the metabolic and stress response to severe injury. Clinical trials involving patients with burns and other critically ill patients have shown conflicting results regarding the benefits and risks of glutamine supplementation.METHODSIn a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, we assigned patients with deep second-or third-degree burns (affecting >= 10% to >= 20% of total body-surface area, depending on age) within 72 hours after hospital admission to receive 0.5 g per kilogram of body weight per day of enterally delivered glutamine or placebo. Trial agents were given every 4 hours through a feeding tube or three or four times a day by mouth until 7 days after the last skin grafting procedure, discharge from the acute care unit, or 3 months after admission, whichever came first. The primary outcome was the time to discharge alive from the hospital, with data censored at 90 days. We calculated subdistribution hazard ratios for discharge alive, which took into account death as a competing risk.RESULTS A total of 1209 patients with severe burns (mean burn size, 33% of total body-surface area) underwent randomization, and 1200 were included in the analysis (596 patients in the glutamine group and 604 in the placebo group). The median time to discharge alive from the hospital was 40 days (interquartile range, 24 to 87) in the glutamine group and 38 days (interquartile range, 22 to 75) in the placebo group (subdistribution hazard ratio for discharge alive, 0.91; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.80 to 1.04; P = 0.17). Mortality at 6 months was 17.2% in the glutamine group and 16.2% in the placebo group (hazard ratio for death, 1.06; 95% CI, 0.80 to 1.41). No substantial between-group differences in serious adverse events were observed.CONCLUSIONSIn patients with severe burns, supplemental glutamine did not reduce the time to discharge alive from the hospital.
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