α-Tocotrienol in rice bran enhances steroidogenesis in mouse Leydig cell via increased gene expression of steroidogenic acute regulatory protein and induction of its mitochondrial translocation.

Rice is a staple food in the Asian region and one of the world's major energy sources. Testosterone is a steroid hormone that maintains physical, sexual, and cognitive ability, and its decline causes health problems like late-onset hypogonadism. Evaluation of various grain extracts showed rice bran to stimulate testosterone secretion from Leydig model cells. α-Tocotrienol was found as a bioactive compound in rice bran, and mechanistic analysis showed the stimulation of steroid hormone synthesis through enhanced gene expression of steroidogenic acute regulatory protein as well as inducing mitochondrial localization of the protein. Preliminary study showed an increasing trend in serum testosterone levels in mice by oral intake of α-tocotrienol. These results suggest that α-tocotrienol intake may be effective in preventing symptoms caused by low testosterone levels.

Prefoldin protects neuronal cells from polyglutamine toxicity by preventing aggregation formation.

Huntington disease is caused by cell death after the expansion of polyglutamine (polyQ) tracts longer than ∼40 repeats encoded by exon 1 of the huntingtin (HTT) gene. Prefoldin is a molecular chaperone composed of six subunits, PFD1-6, and prevents misfolding of newly synthesized nascent polypeptides. In this study, we found that knockdown of PFD2 and PFD5 disrupted prefoldin formation in HTT-expressing cells, resulting in accumulation of aggregates of a pathogenic form of HTT and in induction of cell death. Dead cells, however, did not contain inclusions of HTT, and analysis by a fluorescence correlation spectroscopy indicated that knockdown of PFD2 and PFD5 also increased the size of soluble oligomers of pathogenic HTT in cells. In vitro single molecule observation demonstrated that prefoldin suppressed HTT aggregation at the small oligomer (dimer to tetramer) stage. These results indicate that prefoldin inhibits elongation of large oligomers of pathogenic Htt, thereby inhibiting subsequent inclusion formation, and suggest that soluble oligomers of polyQ-expanded HTT are more toxic than are inclusion to cells.

Hyperthermophilic archaeal prefoldin shows refolding activity at low temperature.

Prefoldin is a molecular chaperone that captures a protein-folding intermediate and transfers it to a group II chaperonin for correct folding. Previous studies of archaeal prefoldins have shown that prefoldin only possesses holdase activity and is unable to fold unfolded proteins by itself. In this study, we have demonstrated for the first time that a prefoldin from hyperthermophilic archaeon, Pyrococcus horikoshii OT3 (PhPFD), exhibits refolding activity for denatured lysozyme at temperatures relatively lower than physiologically active temperatures. The interaction between PhPFD and denatured lysozyme was investigated by use of a surface plasmon resonance sensor at various temperatures. Although PhPFD showed strong affinity for denatured lysozyme at high temperature, it exhibited relatively weak interactions at lower temperature. The protein-folding seems to occur through binding and release from PhPFD by virtue of the weak affinity. Our results also imply that prefoldin might be able to contribute to the folding of some cellular proteins whose affinity with prefoldin is weak.

Cyclic RGD peptide-labeled upconversion nanophosphors for tumor cell-targeted imaging.

One of the great challenges of oncology is to improve methods for early tumor detection. Thus tumor cell-targeted optical imaging has been intensively studied. Bioimaging with upconversion (UC) phosphors (UCPs) is of considerable interest due to a variety of possible applications taking advantage of infrared-to-visible luminescence. Here we report for the first time tumor cell-targeted UC imaging using UCPs modified with cyclic RGD peptide (RGD-Y2O3). Cyclic RGD peptide binds specifically to integrin alphavbeta3 which is highly expressed in a tumor cell surface of certain cancer types but not in normal tissues. Since UC emission from RGD-Y2O3 was observed for U87MG cancer cell (high integrin alphavbeta3 expression), but not for MCF-7 cancer cell (low integrin alphavbeta3 expression), this UC imaging is considered to be integrin alphavbeta3 specific. The non-invasive imaging of integrin alphavbeta3 expression using UCP-based probes will have great potential in cancer imaging in general in living subjects.

Football- and bullet-shaped GroEL-GroES complexes coexist during the reaction cycle.

GroEL is an Escherichia coli chaperonin that is composed of two heptameric rings stacked back-to-back. GroEL assists protein folding with its cochaperonin GroES in an ATP-dependent manner in vitro and in vivo. However, it is still unclear whether GroES binds to both rings of GroEL simultaneously under physiological conditions. In this study, we monitored the GroEL-GroES interaction in the reaction cycle using fluorescence resonance energy transfer. We found that nearly equivalent amounts of symmetric GroEL-(GroES)(2) (football-shaped) complex and asymmetric GroEL-GroES (bullet-shaped) complex coexist during the functional reaction cycle. We also found that D398A, an ATP hydrolysis defective mutant of GroEL, forms a football-shaped complex with ATP bound to the two rings. Furthermore, we showed that ADP prevents the association of ATP to the trans-ring of GroEL, and as a consequence, the second GroES cannot bind to GroEL. Considering the concentrations of ADP and ATP in E. coli, ADP is expected to have a small effect on the inhibition of GroES binding to the trans-ring of GroEL in vivo. These results suggest that we should reconsider the chaperonin-mediated protein-folding mechanism that involves the football-shaped complex.

Improvement of dispersion stability and characterization of upconversion nanophosphors covalently modified with PEG as a fluorescence bioimaging probe.

Upconverting (UC) phosphors (UCPs) are ceramic materials doped with rare earth ions. These materials can absorb and upconvert infrared (IR) radiation to emit visible light by the stepwise excitation among discrete energy levels of the rare earth ions. UCPs are potentially useful reagents for use in bioimaging since the use of low energy photons avoids photo-toxicity. The use of UCP nanoparticles as bioimaging probes requires surface modifications in an effort to improve dispersion stability in aqueous milieu. In this study, we covalently attached poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) to the surface of Er-doped Y2O3 nanoparticles and firstly demonstrated that PEG covalently bound to the Y2O3 surface markedly improved dispersion stability in water. UC emission of PEG-modified Er-Y2O3 nanoparticles excited with IR light was successfully observed. We also showed that PEG-modified Er-Y2O3 nanoparticles exhibit no cell-toxicity. These observations lend strong support to the potential use of PEG-modified UCP nanoparticles as bioimaging tools.

Size distribution of linear and helical polymers in actin solution analyzed by photon counting histogram.

Actin is a ubiquitous protein that is a major component of the cytoskeleton, playing an important role in muscle contraction and cell motility. At steady state, actin monomers and filaments (F-actin) coexist, and actin subunits continuously attach and detach at the filament ends. However, the size distribution of actin oligomers in F-actin solution has never been clarified. In this study, we investigated the size distribution of actin oligomers using photon-counting histograms. For this purpose, actin was labeled with a fluorescent dye, and the emitted photons were detected by confocal optics (the detection volume was of femtoliter (fL) order). Photon-counting histograms were analyzed to obtain the number distribution of actin oligomers in the detection area from their brightness, assuming that the brightness of an oligomer was proportional to the number of protomers. We found that the major populations at physiological ionic strength were 1-5mers. For data analysis, we successfully applied the theory of linear and helical aggregations of macromolecules. The model postulates three states of actin, i.e., monomers, linear polymers, and helical polymers. Here we obtained three parameters: the equilibrium constants for polymerization of linear polymers, K(l)=(5.2 +/- 1.1) x 10(6) M(-1), and helical polymers, K(h)=(1.6 +/- 0.5) x 10(7) M(-1); and the ratio of helical to linear trimers, gamma = (3.6 +/- 2.3) x 10(-2). The excess free energy of transforming a linear trimer to a helical trimer, which is assumed to be a nucleus for helical polymers, was calculated to be 2.0 kcal/mol. These analyses demonstrate that the oligomeric phase at steady state is predominantly composed of linear 1-5mers, and the transition from linear to helical polymers occurs on the level of 5-7mers.