PEG-BHD1028 Peptide Regulates Insulin Resistance and Fatty Acid ß-Oxidation, and Mitochondrial Biogenesis by Binding to Two Heterogeneous Binding Sites of Adiponectin Receptors, AdipoR1 and AdipoR2.

Adiponectin plays multiple critical roles in modulating various physiological processes by binding to its receptors. The functions of PEG-BHD1028, a potent novel peptide agonist to AdipoRs, was evaluated using in vitro and in vivo models based on the reported action spectrum of adiponectin. To confirm the design concept of PEG-BHD1028, the binding sites and their affinities were analyzed using the SPR (Surface Plasmon Resonance) assay. The results revealed that PEG-BHD1028 was bound to two heterogeneous binding sites of AdipoR1 and AdipoR2 with a relatively high affinity. In C2C12 cells, PEG-BHD1028 significantly activated AMPK and subsequent pathways and enhanced fatty acid ß-oxidation and mitochondrial biogenesis. Furthermore, it also facilitated glucose uptake by lowering insulin resistance in insulin-resistant C2C12 cells. PEG-BHD1028 significantly reduced the fasting plasma glucose level in db/db mice following a single s.c. injection of 50, 100, and 200 µg/Kg and glucose tolerance at a dose of 50 µg/Kg with significantly decreased insulin production. The animals received 5, 25, and 50 µg/Kg of PEG-BHD1028 for 21 days significantly lost their weight after 18 days in a range of 5-7%. These results imply the development of PEG-BHD1028 as a potential adiponectin replacement therapeutic agent.

Advances in dermatology using DNA aptamer "Aptamin C" innovation: Oxidative stress prevention and effect maximization of vitamin C through antioxidation.

BACKGROUND: Vitamin C (also known as L-ascorbic acid) plays a critical role in reactive oxygen species (ROS) reduction and cell regeneration by protecting cell from oxidative stress. Although vitamin C is widely used in cosmetic and therapeutic markets, there is considerable evidence that vitamin C easily undergoes oxidation by air, pH, temperature, and UV light upon storage. This deficiency of vitamin C decreases its potency as an antioxidant and reduces the shelf-life of products containing vitamin C as its ingredient. To overcome the deficiency of vitamin C, we have developed Aptamin C, an innovative DNA aptamer maximizing the antioxidant efficacy of vitamin C by binding to the reduced form of vitamin C and delaying its oxidation. METHODS: Binding of Aptamin C with vitamin C was determined using ITC analysis. ITC experiment was performed 0.2 mmol/L vitamin C that was injected 25 times in 2 µL aliquots into the 1.8 mL sample cell containing the Aptamin C at a concentration of 0.02 mmol/L. The data were fitted to a one-site binding isotherm using with origin program for ITC v.5.0. RESULTS: To investigate the effect of Aptamin C and vitamin C complex in human skins, both in vitro and clinical tests were performed. We observed that the complex of Aptamin C and vitamin C was significantly effective in wrinkle improvement, whitening effect, and hydration increase. In the clinical test, subjects treated with the complex showed dramatic improvement in skin irritation and itching. No adverse reaction was presented by Aptamin C complex in the test. CONCLUSION: Taken together, these results showed that Aptamin C, an innovative novel compound, should potentially be served as a key cosmeceutical ingredient for a range of skin conditions.

Impact of protein O-GlcNAcylation on neural tube malformation in diabetic embryopathy.

Diabetes mellitus in early pregnancy can cause neural tube defects (NTDs) in embryos by perturbing protein activity, causing cellular stress, and increasing programmed cell death (apoptosis) in the tissues required for neurulation. Hyperglycemia augments a branch pathway in glycolysis, the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway (HBP), to increase uridine diphosphate-N-acetylglucosamine (UDP-GlcNAc). GlcNAc can be added to proteins by O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) to regulate protein activity. In the embryos of diabetic mice, OGT is highly activated in association with increases in global protein O-GlcNAcylation. In neural stem cells in vitro, high glucose elevates O-GlcNAcylation and reactive oxygen species, but the elevations can be suppressed by an OGT inhibitor. Inhibition of OGT in diabetic pregnant mice in vivo decreases NTD rate in the embryos. This effect is associated with reduction in global O-GlcNAcylation, alleviation of intracellular stress, and decreases in apoptosis in the embryos. These suggest that OGT plays an important role in diabetic embryopathy via increasing protein O-GlcNAcylation, and that inhibiting OGT could be a candidate approach to prevent birth defects in diabetic pregnancies.

Transient Intermittent Hypoxia Exposure Disrupts Neonatal Bone Strength.

A brief intermittent hypoxia (IH, ambient O2 levels alternating between room air and 12% O2) for 1 h immediately after birth resulted in pancreatic islet dysfunction associated with zinc deficiency as previously reported. We hypothesized that IH exposure modulates zinc homeostasis in bone as well, which leads to increased bone fragility. To test this hypothesis, we used neonatal rats and human osteoblasts (HObs). To examine IH influences on osteoblasts devoid of neural influences, we quantified amounts of alkaline phosphatase and mineralization in IH-treated HObs. Bones harvested from IH-treated animals showed significantly reduced hardness and elasticity. The IH group also showed discretely decreased levels of alkaline phosphatase and mineralization amounts. The IH group showed a decreased expression of ZIP8 or Zrt and Irt-like protein 8 (a zinc uptake transporter), Runx2 (or Runt-related transcription factor 2, a master protein in bone formation), Collagen-1 (a major protein comprising the extracellular matrix of the bone), osteocalcin, and zinc content. When zinc was eliminated from the media containing HObs using a zinc chelate and added later with zinc sulfate, Runx2, ZIP8, and osteocalcin expression decreased first, and recovered with zinc supplementation. Adenovirus-mediated ZIP8 over-expression in osteoblasts increased mineralization significantly as well. We conclude that IH impairs zinc homeostasis in bones and osteoblasts, and that such disturbances decrease bone strength, which can be recovered by zinc supplementation.

Downregulation of lamin A by tumor suppressor AIMP3/p18 leads to a progeroid phenotype in mice.

Although AIMP3/p18 is normally associated with the macromolecular tRNA synthetase complex, recent reports have revealed a new role of AIMP3 in tumor suppression. In this study, we generated a transgenic mouse that overexpresses AIMP3 and characterized the associated phenotype in vivo and in vitro. Surprisingly, the AIMP3 transgenic mouse exhibited a progeroid phenotype, and the cells that overexpressed AIMP3 showed accelerated senescence and defects in nuclear morphology. We found that overexpression of AIMP3 resulted in proteasome-dependent degradation of mature lamin A, but not of lamin C, prelamin A, or progerin. The resulting imbalance in the protein levels of lamin A isoforms, namely altered stoichiometry of prelamin A and progerin to lamin A, appeared to be responsible for a phenotype that resembled progeria. An increase in the level of endogenous AIMP3 has been observed in aged human tissues and cells. The findings in this report suggest that AIMP3 is a specific regulator of mature lamin A and imply that enhanced expression of AIMP3 might be a factor driving cellular and/or organismal aging.

Toll-like receptor 4-mediated c-Jun N-terminal kinase activation induces gp96 cell surface expression via AIMP1 phosphorylation.

The presentation of the endoplasmic reticulum resident chaperone protein, gp96 on the cell surface have been considered as a phenomenon of the immunogenic process activation. Previously, we showed aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase-interacting multifunctional protein 1 (AIMP1) can form a molecular complex with gp96, regulate the ER retention of gp96 through KDEL receptor, and suppress its cell surface expression. However, the physiological conditions that modulate AIMP1-gp96 interaction and cell surface expression of gp96 are not known. In this study, we investigated the process that which can modulate dissociation of AIMP1 and gp96 by using Toll-like receptor (TLR) activation. MyD88 pathway by LPS-mediated TLR4 activation induced the cell surface presentation of gp96 through c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK). AIMP1 was phosphorylated by JNK upon LPS stimulation and gp96 was dissociated from phosphorylated AIMP1. We further demonstrated that serine-140 residue of AIMP1 was phosphorylated by JNK and alanine mutation of serine-140 suppressed LPS-induced cell surface expression of gp96. Altogether, these results suggest that AIMP1 is phosphorylated by JNK through TLR-MyD88 pathway and lose the regulatory activity for ER retention of gp96, resulting in the increase of cell surface expression of gp96, and provide a new molecular mechanism underlying TLR-mediated gp96 regulation.

Monocyte cell adhesion induced by a human aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase-associated factor, p43: identification of the related adhesion molecules and signal pathways.

An aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase-associated factor, p43, was recently shown to be secreted to induce a proinflammatory response. Because a proinflammatory response involves the cell-cell adhesion between endothelial and immune cells, we first examined the mechanism of p43-induced cell-cell adhesion of myelomonocytic leukemia cells. Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) was up-regulated by p43 and mediated p43-induced cell-cell adhesion via the interaction with LFA-1 or Mac-1. We also investigated p43-stimulated signaling pathways involved in the homotypic THP-1 cell adhesion. Because the specific inhibitors for PI3-K (phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase), ERK (extracellular signal-regulating kinase), and p38 MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) blocked p43-stimulated ICAM-1 expression and homotypic THP-1 cell adhesion, these kinases were responsible for p43-induced cell-cell adhesion. p43-Dependent activation of ERK was inhibited by PI3-K inhibitors, and the activation of p38 MAPK was not. Thus, the results of this work suggest that p43 should induce cell-cell adhesion via the PI3-K/ERK- and p38 MAPK-dependent up-regulation of ICAM-1.