Use of skin advanced glycation end product levels measured using a simple noninvasive method as a biological marker for the diagnosis of neuropsychiatric diseases.

OBJECTIVES: The accumulation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) may be involved in the pathophysiology of several neuropsychiatric diseases. In this study, the skin AGEs level of several neuropsychiatric diseases was assessed with a simple noninvasive method. Moreover, whether skin AGE level can be used as a biomarker for the diagnosis of these diseases was evaluated. METHODS: A total of 27 patients with schizophrenia, 26 with major depressive disorder, and 10 with major neurocognitive disorders (MNDs), such as Alzheimer's disease or dementia with Lewy body, as well as 26 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. The skin AGE levels of the patients were assessed with an AGE scanner, a fluorometric method used to assay skin AGE levels. RESULTS: One-way analysis of covariance was performed after adjusting for significant covariates, including age. Although the group with MNDs had higher skin AGE levels than the other groups, the main effect of diagnosis did not significantly affect the skin AGE levels of the groups. CONCLUSIONS: Skin AGE levels in neuropsychiatric diseases with mild symptoms did not significantly differ. Further large-scale studies using a simple noninvasive method for the early detection and treatment of MNDs must be conducted.

Protective effects of acetaminophen on ibuprofen-induced gastric mucosal damage in rats with associated suppression of matrix metalloproteinase.

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are known to cause gastric mucosal damage as a side effect. Acetaminophen, widely used as an analgesic and antipyretic drug, has gastroprotective effects against gastric lesions induced by absolute ethanol and certain NSAIDs. However, the mechanisms that underlie the gastroprotective effects of acetaminophen have not yet been clarified. In the present study, we examined the role and protective mechanism of acetaminophen on ibuprofen-induced gastric damage in rats. Ibuprofen and acetaminophen were administered orally, and the gastric mucosa was macroscopically examined 4 hours later. Acetaminophen decreased ibuprofen-induced gastric damage in a dose-dependent manner. To investigate the mechanisms involved, transcriptome analyses of the ibuprofen-damaged gastric mucosa were performed in the presence and absence of acetaminophen. Ingenuity pathway analysis (IPA) software revealed that acetaminophen suppressed the pathways related to cellular assembly and inflammation, whereas they were highly activated by ibuprofen. On the basis of gene classifications from the IPA Knowledge Base, we identified the following five genes that were related to gastric damage and showed significant changes in gene expression: interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß), chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2 (CCL2), matrix metalloproteinase-10 (MMP-10), MMP-13, and FBJ osteosarcoma oncogene (FOS). Expression of these salient genes was confirmed using real-time polymerase chain reaction. The expression of MMP-13 was the most reactive to the treatments, showing strong induction by ibuprofen and suppression by acetaminophen. Moreover, MMP-13 inhibitors decreased ibuprofen-induced gastric damage. In conclusion, these results suggest that acetaminophen decreases ibuprofen-induced gastric mucosal damage and that the suppression of MMP-13 may play an important role in the gastroprotective effects of acetaminophen.

Partial filling affinity capillary electrophoresis using large-volume sample stacking with an electroosmotic flow pump for sensitive profiling of glycoprotein-derived oligosaccharides.

An online preconcentration technique, large-volume sample stacking with an electroosmotic flow pump (LVSEP) was combined with partial filling affinity capillary electrophoresis (PFACE) to realize highly sensitive analysis of the interaction of glycoprotein-derived oligosaccharides with some plant lectins. Oligosaccharides derivatized with 8-aminopyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonic acid (APTS) were delivered to an entire neutrally-coated capillary and then lectin solution was hydrodynamically introduced from the outlet of the capillary as a short plug. A negative voltage was then applied after immersion of both ends of the capillary in 100 mM Tris-acetate buffer, pH 7.0 containing 0.5% hydroxypropylcellulose as electrophoresis buffers. A low concentration of electrolytes in the sample solution causes a significant flow by electroendosmosis from anode to cathode and the APTS-labeled oligosaccharides move quickly towards the anode and concentrate in the lectin phase. Finally, electroosmotic flow becomes negligible when the capillary is filled with the background electrolyte delivered from the anodic reservoir and APTS-labeled saccharides pass through the lectin plug and are detected at the anodic end. If the APTS-labeled oligosaccharides are recognized by the lectin, the migration profiles should be altered. The sensitivity was enhanced by a factor of ca. 900 compared to typical hydrodynamic injection (3.45 kPa, 10s). By this method, increased residence time of APTS-saccharides in the lectin plug indicates highly efficient interaction with lectins, which differs completely from the results obtained by ordinary lectin PFACE. The run-to-run repeatability (n=18) of the migration time and peak area was high, with relative standard deviations of less than 0.7% and 6.1%, respectively.

VisG is essential for biosynthesis of virginiamycin S, a streptogramin type B antibiotic, as a provider of the nonproteinogenic amino acid phenylglycine.

A streptogramin type B antibiotic, virginiamycin S (VS), is produced by Streptomyces virginiae, together with a streptogramin type A antibiotic, virginiamycin M1 (VM), as its synergistic counterpart. VS is a cyclic hexadepsipeptide containing a nonproteinogenic amino acid, Lphenylglycine (L-pheGly), in its core structure. We have identified, in the left-hand extremity of the virginiamycin supercluster, two genes that direct VS biosynthesis with L-pheGly incorporation. Transcriptional analysis revealed that visF, encoding a nonribosomal peptide synthetase, and visG, encoding a protein with homology to a hydroxyphenylacetyl-CoA dioxygenase, are under the transcriptional regulation of virginiae butanolide (VB), a small diffusing signalling molecule that governs virginiamycin production. Gene deletion of visG resulted in complete loss of VS production without any changes in VM production, suggesting that visG is required for VS biosynthesis. The abolished VS production in the visG disruptant was fully recovered either by the external addition of pheGly or by gene complementation, which indicates that VisG is involved in VS biosynthesis as the provider of an L-pheGly molecule. A feeding experiment with L-pheGly analogues suggested that VisF, which is responsible for the last condensation step, has high substrate specificity toward L-pheGly.

Partial-filling affinity capillary electrophoresis of glycoprotein oligosaccharides derivatized with 8-aminopyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonic acid.

Partial-filling affinity capillary electrophoresis has been applied to the simultaneous analysis of interactions between glycoprotein oligosaccharides and certain plant lectins. A lectin solution and a mixture of glycoprotein-derived oligosaccharides labeled with 8-aminopyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonic acid were introduced to a neutrally coated capillary in this order, and separated by application of a negative voltage. Interaction of a lectin with each oligosaccharide in the mixture was observed as the specific retardation or dissipation of peaks, in addition to the size/charge separation of oligosaccharides by zone electrophoresis in the remainder (≈90%) of the capillary. The strength of the interaction with lectin was controlled by introducing an appropriate volume of lectin solution. Application of various specificities of lectins indicated characteristic migration profiles of the oligosaccharides. Moreover, sequential injection of four lectins (Maachia amurensis mitogen, Sambucus sieboldiana agglutinin, Erythrina cristagalli agglutinin, Aleuria aurantia lectin) induced complete dissipation of complex-type oligosaccharides and enabled specific determination of the presence of high-mannose oligosaccharides without the interference or alteration of the electropherogram in porcine thyroglobulin. This method was also applied to determine the binding constants of ovalbumin-derived oligosaccharides to wheat germ agglutinin.

Hierarchical control of virginiamycin production in Streptomyces virginiae by three pathway-specific regulators: VmsS, VmsT and VmsR.

Two regulatory genes encoding a Streptomyces antibiotic regulatory protein (vmsS) and a response regulator (vmsT) of a bacterial two-component signal transduction system are present in the left-hand region of the biosynthetic gene cluster of the antibiotic virginiamycin, which is composed of virginiamycin M (VM) and virginiamycin S (VS), in Streptomyces virginiae. Disruption of vmsS abolished both VM and VS biosynthesis, with drastic alteration of the transcriptional profile for virginiamycin biosynthetic genes, whereas disruption of vmsT resulted in only a loss of VM biosynthesis, suggesting that vmsS is a pathway-specific regulator for both VM and VS biosynthesis, and that vmsT is a pathway-specific regulator for VM biosynthesis alone. Gene expression profiles determined by semiquantitative RT-PCR on the virginiamycin biosynthetic gene cluster demonstrated that vmsS controls the biosynthetic genes for VM and VS, and vmsT controls unidentified gene(s) of VM biosynthesis located outside the biosynthetic gene cluster. In addition, transcriptional analysis of a deletion mutant of vmsR located in the clustered regulatory region in the virginiamycin cluster (and which also acts as a SARP-family activator for both VM and VS biosynthesis) indicated that the expression of vmsS and vmsT is under the control of vmsR, and vmsR also contributes to the expression of VM and VS biosynthetic genes, independent of vmsS and vmsT. Therefore, coordinated virginiamycin biosynthesis is controlled by three pathway-specific regulators which hierarchically control the expression of the biosynthetic gene cluster.