Synthetic and immunological studies on the OCT4 immunodominant motif antigen-based anti-cancer vaccine.

Objective: Cancer stem cell is one of the important causes of tumorigenesis as well as a drug target in the treatment of malignant tumor. However, at present, there is no immune vaccine targeting these cells. Octamer-binding transcription factor 4 (OCT4), a marker of embryonic stem cells and germ cells, often highly expresses in the early stages of tumorigenesis and is therefore a good candidate for cancer vaccine development. Methods: To identify the optimal carrier and adjuvant combination, we chemically synthesized and linked three different OCT4 epitope antigens to a carrier protein, keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH), combined with Toll-like receptor 9 agonist (TLR9). Results: Immunization with OCT4-3 + TLR9 produced the strongest immune response in mice. In prevention assays, significant tumor growth inhibition was achieved in BABL/c mice treated with OCT4-3 + TLR9 (P < 0.01). Importantly, the results showed that cytotoxic T lymphocyte activity and the inhibition of tumor growth were enhanced in mice immunized with OCT4-3 combined with TLR9. Meanwhile, multiple cytokines [such as interferon (IFN)-γ (P < 0.05), interleukin (IL)-12 (P < 0.05), IL-2 (P < 0.01), and IL-6 (P < 0.05)] promoting cellular immune responses were shown to be greatly enhanced in mice immunized with OCT4-3 + TLR9. Moreover, we considered safety considerations in terms of the composition of the vaccines to help facilitate the development of effective next-generation vaccines. Conclusions: Collectively, these experiments demonstrated that combination therapy with TLR9 agonist induced a tumor-specific adaptive immune response, leading to the suppression of primary tumor growth in testis embryonic carcinoma.

Naoxintong/PPARγ Signaling Inhibits Cardiac Hypertrophy via Activation of Autophagy.

As a traditional Chinese medicine, Naoxintong capsule (NXT) has been approved by China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA), which is used for cardiocerebrovascular disease treatment. Here we found that NXT extract significantly promoted H9c2 cardiomyocyte cell autophagy involved in increased autophagy-associated gene expression leading to inhibition of mTOR signaling. Moreover, NXT extract increased PPARγ protein expression and transcription activity of H9c2 cell. Consistent with this, in PPARγ gene silenced H9c2 cells, NXT had no effect on autophagy and mTOR signaling. Furthermore, NXT/PPARγ-mediated H9c2 autophagy led to inhibition of cardiomyocyte cell hypertrophy. These findings suggest that the extract of NXT inhibited H9c2 cardiomyocyte cell hypertrophy via PPARγ-mediated cell autophagy.

Inhibitor of growth-4 is a potential target for cancer therapy.

The inhibitor of growth-4 (ING-4) belongs to the inhibitor of growth (ING) family that is a type II tumor suppressor gene including five members (ING1-5). As a tumor suppressor, ING4 inhibits tumor growth, invasion, and metastasis by multiple signaling pathways. In addition to that, ING4 can facilitate cancer cell sensitivity to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Although ING4 loss is observed for many types of cancers, increasing evidences show that ING4 can be used for gene therapy. In this review, the recent progress of ING4 regulating tumorigenesis is discussed.

PPARα regulates tumor progression, foe or friend?

PPARα belongs to the peroxisome-proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) family that consists of PPARα, PPARδ, and PAPRγ. Activation of PPARα by ligands including fatty acids and their derivatives as well as some synthetic compounds regulates tumor progression in various tissues. Activated PPARα inhibits or promotes tumorigenesis depending on the specific tissues, but the molecular mechanism is still unclear. In this review, the recent progress of PPARα regulating tumorigenesis is discussed.

PPARδ signaling regulates colorectal cancer.

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptorδ (PPARδ) belongs to the PPARs receptor family including PPARα, PPARδ, and PPARγ. PPARδ is a ligand-activated transcription factor that plays a critical role in regulating cancer progression. PPARδ-linked tumorigenesis was first identified in colorectal cancer, which is demonstrated by the following evidences, so PPARε is a potential drug target for colorectal cancer. In contrast, some observations show that PPARδ negatively regulates colorectal cancer event. In the present review, the recent progress of PPARδ signaling-mediated colorectal cancer is covered.

Removal of nitric oxide by the highly reactive anatase TiO2 (001) surface: a density functional theory study.

In this paper, density functional theory (DFT) calculation was employed to study the adsorption of nitric oxide (NO) on the highly reactive anatase TiO2 (001) surface. For comparison, the adsorption of NO on the (101) surface was also considered. Different from the physical adsorption on the (101) surface, NO molecules are found to chemisorb on the TiO2 (001) surface. The twofold coordinate oxygen atoms (O2c) on the anatase (001) surface are the active sites. Where NO is oxidized into a nitrite species (NO2(-)) trapping efficiently on the surface, with one of the surface Ti5c-O2c bonds adjacent to the adsorption site broken. Our results, therefore, supply a theoretical guidance to remove NO pollutants using highly reactive anatase TiO2 (001) facets.

Density functional study of organocatalytic cross-aldol reactions between two aliphatic aldehydes: insight into their functional differentiation and origins of chemo- and stereoselectivities.

The chemo-, diastereo-, and enantioselectivities in proline and axially chiral amino sulfonamide-catalyzed direct aldol reactions between two enolizable aldehydes with different electronic nature have been studied with the aid of density functional theory (DFT) method. The potential energy profiles for the enamine formation between each aliphatic aldehyde and the catalyst confirm that two subject catalysts can successfully differentiate between 3-methylbutanal as an enamine component and α-chloroaldehydes as a carbonyl component. Transition states associated with the stereochemistry-determining C-C bond-forming step with the enamine intermediate addition to the aldehyde acceptor for proline and chiral amino sulfonamide-promoted aldol reactions are reported. DFT calculations not only provide a good explanation for the formation of the sole cross-aldol product between two aliphatic aldehydes both bearing α-methylene protons but also well reproduce the opposite syn vs anti diastereoselectivities in the chiral amino sulfonamide and proline-catalyzed aldol reactions.

Location of Si vacancies and [Ti(OSi)4] and [Ti(OSi)3OH] sites in the MFI framework: a large cluster and full ab initio study.

Titanium silicalite-1 (TS-1) is an important catalyst for selective oxidation reactions. However, the nature and structure of the active sites and the mechanistic details of the catalytic reactions over TS-1 have not been well-understood, leaving a continuous debate on the genesis of active sites on the TS-1 surface in the literature. In this work, the location of Si vacancies and [Ti(OSi)(4)] and [Ti(OSi)(3)OH] sites in the MFI (Framework Type Code of ZSM-5 (Zeolite Socony Mobile-Five)) framework has been studied using a full ab initio method with 40T clusters with a Si:Ti molar ratio of 39:1. It was shown that the former four energetically favorable sites for Si vacancies are T6, T12, T4, and T8 and for Ti centers of [Ti(OSi)(4)] are T10, T4, T8 and T11, being partially the same sites. Whether by replacing Si vacancies or substituting the fully coordinated Si sites, the most preferential site for Ti is T10, which indicates that the insertion mechanism does not affect the favorable sites of Ti in the MFI lattice. For the defective [Ti(OSi)(3)OH] sites, it was found that the Si vacancy at T6 with a Ti at its neighboring T9 site (T6-def-T9-Ti pair) is the most energetically favorable one, followed by a T6-def-T5-Ti pair with a small energy gap. These findings are significant to elucidate the nature of the active sites and the mechanism of reactions catalyzed by TS-1 and to design the TS-1 catalyst.

On the origin of the visible-light activity of titanium dioxide doped with carbonate species.

Plane-wave-based pseudopotential density functional theory (DFT) calculations are used to elucidate the origin of the high photocatalytic efficiency of carbonate-doped TiO(2). Two geometrically possible doping positions are considered, including interstitial and substitutional carbon atoms on Ti sites. From the optical absorption properties calculations, we believe that the formation of carbonates after doping with interstitial carbon atoms is crucial, whereas the contribution from the cationic doping on Ti sites is negligible. The carbonate species doped TiO(2) exhibits excellent absorption in the visible-light region of 400-800 nm, in good agreement with experimental observations. Electronic structure analysis shows that the carbonate species introduce an impurity state from Ti 3d below the conduction band. Excitations from the impurity state to the conduction band may be responsible for the high visible-light activity of the carbon doped TiO(2) materials.

Predicting the activity of drugs for a group of imidazopyridine anticoccidial compounds.

Gene expression programming (GEP) is a novel machine learning technique. The GEP is used to build nonlinear quantitative structure-activity relationship model for the prediction of the IC(50) for the imidazopyridine anticoccidial compounds. This model is based on descriptors which are calculated from the molecular structure. Four descriptors are selected from the descriptors' pool by heuristic method (HM) to build multivariable linear model. The GEP method produced a nonlinear quantitative model with a correlation coefficient and a mean error of 0.96 and 0.24 for the training set, 0.91 and 0.52 for the test set, respectively. It is shown that the GEP predicted results are in good agreement with experimental ones.

Origins of opposite syn-anti diastereoselectivities in primary and secondary amino acid-catalyzed intermolecular aldol reactions involving unmodified alpha-hydroxyketones.

The effects of different amino acid catalysts on the stereoselectivity of the direct intermolecular aldol reactions between alpha-hydroxyketones and isobutyraldehyde or 4-nitrobenzaldehyde have been studied with the aid of density functional theory methods. The transition states of the crucial C-C bond-forming step with the enamine intermediate addition to the aldehyde for the proline and threonine-catalyzed asymmetric aldol reactions are reported. B3LYP/6-31+G** calculations provide a good explanation for the opposite syn vs anti diastereoselectivity of these two kinds of amino acid catalysts (anti-selectivity for the secondary cyclic amino acids proline, syn-selectivity for the acyclic primary amino acids like threonine). Calculated and observed diastereomeric ratio and enantiomeric excess values are in good agreement.

Quantitative structure activity relationship model for predicting the depletion percentage of skin allergic chemical substances of glutathione.

A quantitative model was developed to predict the depletion percentage of glutathione (DPG) compounds by gene expression programming (GEP). Each kind of compound was represented by several calculated structural descriptors involving constitutional, topological, geometrical, electrostatic and quantum-chemical features of compounds. The GEP method produced a nonlinear and five-descriptor quantitative model with a mean error and a correlation coefficient of 10.52 and 0.94 for the training set, 22.80 and 0.85 for the test set, respectively. It is shown that the GEP predicted results are in good agreement with experimental ones, better than those of the heuristic method.

A comparative investigation of Co2+ and Mn2+ incorporation into aluminophosphates by in situ XAS and DFT computation.

The incorporation processes of Mn2+ and Co2+ into the framework of aluminophosphate molecular sieve AlPO4-5, at the onset of crystallization, were investigated by in situ synchrotron X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and density functional theory (DFT) computation. The results indicated that the syntheses of MnAPO-5 and CoAPO-5 were different in the incorporation mechanism of metal ions. For the synthesis of CoAPO-5, Co2+ transferred from an octahedral into tetrahedral structure with crystal formation, while, for MnAPO-5, the Mn2+ transition to the tetrahedral structure was much more difficult and it occurred after the appearance of long-range ordered microporous structure. The DFT computations of model intermediates involved in the synthesis process suggested that much higher transformation energy of [Mn(OP(OH)3)4]2+ than that of [Co(OP(OH)3)4]2+ was responsible for the diversity of the incorporation behaviors.

Theoretical ONIOM2 study on pyridine adsorption in the channels and intersection of ZSM-5.

The structures of the acid sites in the channels and intersections of H-, Li-, and Na-ZSM-5 (ZSM = zeolite socony mobil) and their interactions with pyridine molecule have been computed by using three corresponding models containing 22 tetrahedral sites. The calculated adsorption energies of pyridine in the intersection regions of H-, Li-, and Na-ZSM-5 are 197.0, 172.5, and 122.3 kJ/mol, respectively, in good agreement with the respective experimental values of 200 +/- 5, 155-195, and 120 kJ/mol, while those in the straight and sinusoidal channels are much smaller (157.9 and 127.6, 152.2 and 149.4, and 150.4 and 109.9 kJ/mol, respectively). These indicate that the most probable adsorption site for pyridine in ZSM-5 is the acidic site located in the intersection region. The structural parameters of the adsorption complexes show that the acidic proton in the three models of H-ZSM-5 has been transferred to the nitrogen of pyridine, while in alkali cation-exchanged ZSM-5, the coordination of the alkali cation to the nitrogen atom of pyridine dominates the overall interaction. In addition, the adsorption complexes were further stabilized by the long-range electrostatic interaction between the positively charged pyridine hydrogen atoms and the negatively charged lattice oxygen atoms of the zeolite framework. In the intersection regions of H-, Li-, and Na-ZSM-5, the coordination energy of the charge-compensating cation to the pyridine nitrogen amounts to 58, 60, and 68% of the total adsorption energy, respectively, while another 42, 40, and 32%, respectively, is due to long-range electrostatic interactions. This indicates that the zeolite lattice framework surrounding the adsorption site has important contributions to the adsorption energy of the pyridine molecule.