Subunits of human condensins are potential therapeutic targets for cancers.

The main role of condensins is to regulate chromosome condensation and segregation during cell cycles. Recently, it has been suggested in the literatures that subunits of condensin I and condensin II are involved in some human cancers. This paper will first briefly discuss discoveries of human condensins, their components and structures, and their multiple cellular functions. This will be followed by reviews of most recent studies on subunits of human condensins and their dysregulations or mutations in human cancers. It can be concluded that many of these subunits have potentials to be novel targets for cancer therapies. However, hCAP-D2, a subunit of human condensin I, has not been directly documented to be associated with any human cancers to date. This review hypothesizes that hCAP-D2 can also be a potential therapeutic target for human cancers, and therefore that all subunits of human condensins are potential therapeutic targets for human cancers.

LncRNA UCA1 promotes renal cell carcinoma proliferation through epigenetically repressing p21 expression and negatively regulating miR-495.

Long non-coding RNAs have recently emerged as important regulators in the pathogenesis and progression of cancers. The long non-coding RNA urothelial carcinoma-associated 1 is reportedly upregulated and functions as an oncogene in some tumors. However, the role of urothelial carcinoma-associated 1 in renal cell carcinoma is not well elucidated so far. In this study, we found that urothelial carcinoma-associated 1 was overexpressed in renal cell carcinoma tissues compared with the adjacent normal tissues, and higher urothelial carcinoma-associated 1 expression levels were positively associated with advanced tumor stage and poor survival time in renal cell carcinoma patients. Further studies showed that knockdown of urothelial carcinoma-associated 1 suppressed renal cell carcinoma cell proliferation and S-phase cell number in vitro. Moreover, urothelial carcinoma-associated 1 was found to be associated with enhancer of zeste homolog 2, which suppressed p21 expression through histone methylation (H3K27me3) on p21 promoter. We also showed that knockdown of urothelial carcinoma-associated 1 increased the p21 protein expression through regulating enhancer of zeste homolog 2. In addition, bioinformatics analysis and dual-luciferase reporter assays confirmed that miR-495 was a target of urothelial carcinoma-associated 1 in renal cell carcinoma, and urothelial carcinoma-associated 1 promoted cell proliferation by negatively regulating miR-495. These findings illuminated that urothelial carcinoma-associated 1 promoted renal cell carcinoma progression through enhancer of zeste homolog 2 and interacted with miR-495. Overall, overexpression of urothelial carcinoma-associated 1 functions as an oncogene in renal cell carcinoma that may offer a novel therapeutic target for renal cell carcinoma patients.

[Effects of langchuangping granule on the expression of B lymphocyte activating factor in the peripheral blood B cells of BXSB lupus nephritis mice].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the expressions of B lymphocyte activating factor (BAFF) in the serum and peripheral blood B cells (PBBCs) of BXSB lupus nephritis mice, and to investigate the efficacy of Langchuangping Granule (LG). METHODS: Eighteen 11-week-old male BXSB lupus mice were randomly divided into three groups, i.e., the lupus control group, the hormone treatment group, and the LG treatment group, 6 in each group. Besides, another 6 C57BL/6 male mice were recruited as the normal control group. The mice were given with normal sodium (10 mL/d), methylprednisolone (at the daily dose of 5 mg/kg), LG (at the daily dose of 4 g/kg), and the normal saline (10 mL/d) respectively by gastrogavage for 4 weeks. The urine protein, ds-DNA, and body weight were determined. The serum soluble BAFF (sBAFF), the expressions and changes of BAFF-mRNA in the PBBCs were detected using ELISA and RT-PCR respectively. The activity index (AI) and 24 h urine albumin excretion quantitation of renal pathological activities were observed. The correlation between ds-DNA and sBAFF were analyzed. RESULTS: The level of sBAFF in serum, the BAFF mRNA level in PBBCs, 24 h urinary albumin excretion, and serum ds-DNA content increased more obviously in lupus mice than in the normal mice. After being treated by methylprednisolone or LG, the sBAFF and BAFF mRNA expressions decreased more obviously than before treatment, showing statistical difference (P<0.05). But there was no statistical difference in the sBAFF level or the BAFF mRNA expression (P>0.05). There was positive correlation between sBAFF and AI (r=0.8098, P<0.01), 24 h urinary albumin excretion (r=0.8220, P<0.01), and ds-DNA (r=0.8535, P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: BAFF plays an important role in the occurrence and development of lupus nephritis. It can be used in monitoring the disease progress and predicting its recurrence. It is one of ideal targets for treating lupus nephritis. LG could attenuate the renal injury via suppressing BAFF level. It is worth further clinical application.

[Loss of the balance between Th17 and Th1 populations in HIV/AIDS patients].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the Th17/Th1 response in HIV infected patients and the mutual relationship between the response of Th17 and Th1. METHODS: 38 chronic HIV infected patients as well as 24 healthy volunteers were performed in this study. The patients were divided into two groups, one group before treatment, the other after therapy. The whole blood intracellular cytokine staining was used, samples detected by BD FACSCanto, after that, the expression of CD4+ IL-17+ T cell and CD4 IFN-gamma+ T cell were analyzed by FACSDiva software and lastly compared the differences among different groups. RESULTS: The expression of CD4+ IL-17+ T cell in naive-therapy patients were significantly lower than that of the healthy controls (1.14 +/- 0.7)9% vs (3.98 +/- 1.14)%, P = 0.000, but increased remarkably after HARRT(highly antiretroviral treatment) (2.22 +/- 1.00)%, P = 0.001; however there were no significant differences in the expression of CD4+ IFN-gamma+ T cell before and after therapy (34.35 +/- 24.38)% vs (42.10 +/- 15.57%), also with the healthy control (P = 0.383). The frequency of CD4 IL-17+ T cell was positively correlated with CD4+ T counts (R = 0.345, P = 0.034), but no significant correlations was observed between the expression of CD4+ IFN-gamma T cell and CD4+ T counts (R = -0.247, P = 0.136). CONCLUSION: The infection of HIV virus down-regulated Th17 immune response and disturbed the balances between Th17 and Th1 evidently in human. Th17 response may play an important role in the pathogenesis of HIV infection.

Reconstitution of glyphosate resistance from a split 5-enolpyruvyl shikimate-3-phosphate synthase gene in Escherichia coli and transgenic tobacco.

A highly N-phosphonomethylglycine (glyphosate)-resistant Pseudomonas fluorescens G2 5-enolpyruvyl shikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) was mapped to identify potential split sites using a transposon-based linker-scanning procedure. Intein-mediated protein complementation was used to reconstitute glyphosate resistance from the genetically divided G2 EPSPS gene in Escherichia coli strain ER2799 and transgenic tobacco.

[A cyclin A-like protein is localized in the cells of Physarum polycephalum and functions in the cell cycle].

The subcellular distribution of a Cyclin A-like protein in the cells of Physarum polycephalum and the function of the protein in the cell cycle were studied by immunoelectron microscope and anti-Cyclin A antibody blocking. After labeled with an anti-Cyclin A monoclonal antibody, the density of gold particles in the labeled specimens was much higher than that in the control, indicating that a Cyclin A-like protein existed in Physarum polycephalum. In the labeled specimen, the gold particles density of the nucleus was higher than that of cytoplasm, which was similar to that of the control, demonstrating that the Cyclin A-like protein was a nuclear protein. The gold particles density of the nuclei varied during the cell cycle. The highest appeared in S phase and the lowest came in metaphase and ana-telophase, which was close to that in the control. From S phase to metaphase, the gold particle densities dropped down gradually. The changes in the gold particle density showed the changes in the content of the Cyclin A-like protein. After treated with the anti-Cyclin A antibody in S phase and G2 phase respectively, the nuclei of Physarum polycephalum were arrested in the phases and the morphology of these nuclei became irregular. When treated with the anti-Cyclin A antibody in prophase, the nuclei appeared abnormal. These results suggested that the Cyclin A-like protein is important in cell cycle regulation of Physarum polycephalum, essentially in S/G2 and G2/M changes.