Quantitative Model Analysis and Simulation of Pharmacokinetics and Metastasis-Associated Lung Adenocarcinoma 1 RNA Knockdown Effect After Systemic Administration of Cholesterol-Conjugated DNA/RNA Heteroduplex Oligonucleotide Crossing Blood-Brain Barrier of Mice.

The cholesterol-conjugated heteroduplex oligonucleotide (Chol-HDO) is a double-stranded complex; it comprises an antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) and its complementary strand with a cholesterol ligand. Chol-HDO is a powerful tool for achieving target RNA knockdown in the brains of mice after systemic injection. Here, a quantitative model analysis was conducted to characterize the relationship between the pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD), non-coding RNA metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma 1 (Malat1) RNA, of Chol-HDO, in a time-dependent manner. The established PK model could describe regional differences in the observed brain concentration-time profiles. Incorporating the PD model enabled the unique knockdown profiles in the brain to be explained in terms of the time delay after single dosing and enhancement following repeated dosing. Moreover, sensitivity analysis of PK exposure/persistency, target RNA turnover, and knockdown potency identified key factors for the efficient and sustained target RNA knockdown in the brain. The simulation of an adequate dosing regimen quantitatively supported the benefit of Chol-HDO in terms of achieving a suitable dosing interval. This was achieved via sufficient and sustained brain exposure and subsequent strong and sustained target RNA knockdown in the brain, even after systemic injection. The present study provides new insights into drug discoveries and development strategies for HDO in patients with neurogenic disorders. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: The quantitative model analysis presented here characterized the PK/PD relationship of Chol-HDO, enabled its simulation under various conditions or assumptions, and identified key factors for efficient and sustained RNA knockdown, such as PK exposure and persistency. Chol-HDO appears to be an efficient drug delivery system for the systemic administration of desired drugs to brain targets.

Enrichment of sugar content in melon fruits by hydrogen peroxide treatment.

Since sweetness is one of the most important qualities of many fruits, and since sugars are translocated from leaves to fruits, the present study investigates photosynthetic activity, activity of sugar metabolizing enzymes, sugar content in leaves and fruits and endogenous levels of hydrogen peroxide in leaves of melon plants treated with various dilutions of hydrogen peroxide, a nonspecific signaling molecule in abiotic stress. For this purpose, 4-month-old melon plants were treated with various concentrations (<50mM) of hydrogen peroxide by applying 300 mL per day to the soil of potted plants. The treatments resulted in increased fructose, glucose, sucrose and starch in the leaves and fruits. The most effective concentration of hydrogen peroxide was 20mM. During the day, soluble sugars in leaves were highest at 12:00 h and starch at 15:00 h. Furthermore, the peroxide treatment increased the photosynthetic activity and the activities of chloroplastic and cytosolic fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase, sucrose phosphate synthase and invertases. Thus, our data show that exogenous hydrogen peroxide, applied to the soil, can increase the soluble sugar content of melon fruits.

The carboxy-terminal domain of the XPC protein plays a crucial role in nucleotide excision repair through interactions with transcription factor IIH.

The xeroderma pigmentosum group C (XPC) protein specifically involved in genome-wide damage recognition for nucleotide excision repair (NER) was purified as a tight complex with HR23B, one of the two mammalian homologs of RAD23 in budding yeast. This XPC-HR23B complex exhibits strong binding affinity for single-stranded DNA, as well as preferential binding to various types of damaged DNA. To examine the structure-function relationship of XPC, a series of truncated mutant proteins were generated and assayed for various binding activities. The two domains participating in binding to HR23B and damaged DNA, respectively, were mapped within the carboxy-terminal half of XPC, which also contains an evolutionary conserved amino acid sequence homologous to the yeast RAD4 protein. We established that the carboxy-terminal 125 amino acids are dispensable for both HR23B and damaged DNA binding, while interactions with transcription factor IIH (TFIIH) are significantly impaired by truncation of this domain. Furthermore, deletion of the extreme carboxy-terminal domain totally abolished XPC activity in the cell-free NER reaction. These results suggest that following initial damage recognition, the carboxy terminus of XPC may be essential for the recruitment of TFIIH, and that most truncation mutations identified in XP-C patients result in non-functional proteins.