3-Anhydro-6-hydroxy-ophiobolin A, a new sesterterpene inhibiting the growth of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and inducing the cell death by apoptosis on K562, from the phytopathogenic fungus Bipolaris oryzae.

A new ophiobolin derivative, 3-anhydro-6-hydroxy-ophiobolin A (1), as well as two known ophiobolin derivatives 3-anhydro-ophiobolin A (2) and 3-anhydro-6-epi-ophiobolin A (3) were isolated from the PDB culture of a phytopathogenic fungus Bipolaris oryzae. The structure of 1 was elucidated through 2D NMR and other spectroscopic techniques. Compound 1 exhibited strong antimicrobial activity against Bacille Calmette-Guerin, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus with MIC value of 12.5 µg/mL, and potent antiproliferative activity against cell lines HepG2 and K562 with IC50 of 6.49 µM and 4.06 µM, respectively. Further studies on the cytotoxicity of compound 1 against K562 cells demonstrated that it induced apoptosis, observed by flow cytometric method. Preliminary structure-activity relationships of these ophiobolins and the mechanism of apoptosis induced by 1 were analyzed.

Requirement of regulated endocrine-specific protein-18 for development and expression of regulated endocrine-specific protein-18 isoform c in mice.

Regulated endocrine-specific protein-18 (RESP18) is distributed mainly in the peripheral endocrine and neuroendocrine tissues. The expression of RESP18 protein is regulated by physiological factors, such as blood glucose or dopaminergic drugs, but its functions remain unclear. In this study, to explore the biological functions of RESP18 in vivo, we generated RESP18 heterozygous deficient mice, and further found RESP18 was essential for embryonic development. In addition, we cloned a new isoform of mouse RESP18 by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and denominated it as RESP18-c. Mouse RESP18-c, by skipping exon4 (43 bp in length), encodes a shorter protein of 120 amino acid residues. The distribution of RESP18-c mRNA is similar with that of RESP18 mRNA in the peripheral tissues and brains of mice.

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of novel HSP70 inhibitors: N, N'-disubstituted thiourea derivatives.

As novel heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) inhibitors, N, N'-disubstituted thiourea derivatives were designed and synthesized based on the X-ray structure of the ATPase domain (nucleotide binding domain, NBD). An ATPase activity inhibition assay revealed that these compounds effectively inhibited HSP70 ATPase activity. The results revealed that the compounds 370/371/374/379/380//392/394/397/404/405 and 407 can inhibit the HSP70 ATPase turnover with high percentages of inhibition: 50.42, 38.46, 50.45, 44.12, 47.13, 50.50, 40.95, 65.36, 46.23, 35.78, and 58.37 in 200 µM, respectively. Significant synergies with lapatinib were observed for compound 379 and compound 405 in the BT474 breast cancer cell line. A structure-function analysis revealed that most of the thiourea derivatives exhibited cooperative action with lapatinib in the BT474 cancer cell line and the BT/Lap(R)1.0 lapatinib-resistant cell line. HSP70 inhibitors may be developed as synergetic drugs in drug-resistant cancer therapy.

[New option for gene-targeting vector construction Red/ET recombination].

The study of human new gene's function has become an increasingly active academic field basically relying on the gene knockout (KO) mouse. The construction of targeting vector economically and efficiently has turned into the key step to acquire a KO mouse because of the low efficiency of recombination with traditional constructed targeting vector. For study of the function of new gene-Resp18, we brought in a new DNA engineering platform-Red/ET recombination to construct Resp18 targeting vector. Red/ET recombineering differs from the conventional ways of vector construction (e.g., PCR, restriction enzyme digestion and ligation) and achieves genetic modification by acquisition, insertion, fusion or replacement of the target gene through small fragments mediated homologous recombination. Now Resp18 targeting vectors of three strategies were yielded successfully through two homologous recombination processes of retrieve and neo-targeting. Red/ET recombination has the advantage of getting longer homology regions without mutation, which makes it a new and reliable alternative to the construction of a targeting vector today.