Dendritic cell derived IL-2 inhibits survival of terminally mature cells via an autocrine signaling pathway.

DCs are crucial for sensing pathogens and triggering immune response. Upon activation by pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP) ligands, GM-CSF myeloid DCs (GM-DCs) secrete several cytokines, including IL-2. DC IL-2 has been shown to be important for innate and adaptive immune responses; however, IL-2 importance in DC physiology has never been demonstrated. Here, we show that autocrine IL-2 signaling is functional in murine GM-DCs in an early time window after PAMPs stimulation. IL-2 signaling selectively activates the JAK/STAT5 pathway by assembling holo-receptor complexes at the cell surface. Using the sensitivity of targeted mass spectrometry, we show conclusively that GM-DCs express CD122, the IL-2 receptor ß-chain, at steady state. In myeloid DCs, this cytokine pathway inhibits survival of PAMP-matured GM-DCs which is crucial for maintaining immune tolerance and preventing autoimmunity. Our findings suggest that immune regulation by this novel autocrine signaling pathway can potentially be used in DC immunotherapy.

Calcium and calcineurin-NFAT signaling regulate granulocyte-monocyte progenitor cell cycle via Flt3-L.

Maintenance of myeloid progenitor cells is controlled by complex regulatory mechanisms and is orchestrated by multiple different transcription factors. Here, we report that the activation of the transcription factor nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) by calcium-sensing protein calcineurin inhibits the proliferation of myeloid granulocyte-monocyte progenitors (GMPs). Myeloid progenitor subtypes exhibit variable sensitivity to induced Ca(2+) entry and consequently display differential engagement of the calcineurin-NFAT pathway. This study shows that inhibition of the calcineurin-NFAT pathway enhances the proliferation of GMPs both in vitro and in vivo and demonstrates that calcineurin-NFAT signaling in GMPs is initiated by Flt3-L. Inhibition of the calcineurin-NFAT pathway modified expression of the cell cycle regulation genes Cdk4, Cdk6, and Cdkn1a (p21), thus enabling rapid cell cycle progression specifically in GMPs. NFAT inhibitor drugs are extensively used in the clinic to restrict the pathological activation of lymphoid cells, and our data reveal for the first time that these therapies also exert potent effects on maintenance of the myeloid cell compartment through specific regulation of GMP proliferation.

Enhanced neutralizing antibody titers and Th1 polarization from a novel Escherichia coli derived pandemic influenza vaccine.

Influenza pandemics can spread quickly and cost millions of lives; the 2009 H1N1 pandemic highlighted the shortfall in the current vaccine strategy and the need for an improved global response in terms of shortening the time required to manufacture the vaccine and increasing production capacity. Here we describe the pre-clinical assessment of a novel 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza vaccine based on the E. coli-produced HA globular head domain covalently linked to virus-like particles derived from the bacteriophage Qß. When formulated with alum adjuvant and used to immunize mice, dose finding studies found that a 10 µg dose of this vaccine (3.7 µg globular HA content) induced antibody titers comparable to a 1.5 µg dose (0.7 µg globular HA content) of the licensed 2009 H1N1 pandemic vaccine Panvax, and significantly reduced viral titers in the lung following challenge with 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza A/California/07/2009 virus. While Panvax failed to induce marked T cell responses, the novel vaccine stimulated substantial antigen-specific interferon-γ production in splenocytes from immunized mice, alongside enhanced IgG2a antibody production. In ferrets the vaccine elicited neutralizing antibodies, and following challenge with influenza A/California/07/2009 virus reduced morbidity and lowered viral titers in nasal lavages.

Optimal cellular preservation for high dimensional flow cytometric analysis of multicentre trials.

High dimensional flow cytometry is best served by centralized facilities. However, the difficulties around sample processing, storage and shipment make large scale international studies impractical. We therefore sought to identify optimized fixation procedures which fully leverage the analytical capability of high dimensional flow cytometry without the need for complex cell processing or a sustained cold chain. Whole blood staining procedure was employed to investigate the applicability of fixatives including Cyto-Chex® Blood Collection tube (Streck), Transfix® (Cytomark), 1% and 4% paraformaldehyde to centralized analysis of field trial samples. Samples were subjected to environmental conditions which mimic field studies, without refrigerated shipment and analyzed across 10 days, based on cell count and marker expression. This study showed that Cyto-Chex® demonstrated the least variability in absolute cell count relative to samples analyzed directly from donors in the absence of fixation. Transfix® was better at preserving the marker expression among all fixatives. However, Transfix® caused marked increased cell membrane permeabilization and was detrimental to intracellular marker identification. Paraformaldehyde fixation, at either 1% or 4% concentrations, was unfavorable for cell preservation under the conditions tested and thus not recommended. Using these data, we have created an online interactive tool which enables researchers to evaluate the impact of different fixatives on their panel of interest. In this study, we have identified Cyto-Chex® as the optimal cellular preservative for high dimensional flow cytometry in large scale studies for shipped whole blood samples, even in the absence of a sustained cold chain.

Candidate List of yoUr Biomarker (CLUB): A Web-based Platform to Aid Cancer Biomarker Research.

CLUB ("Candidate List of yoUr Biomarkers") is a freely available, web-based resource designed to support Cancer biomarker research. It is targeted to provide a comprehensive list of candidate biomarkers for various cancers that have been reported by the research community. CLUB provides tools for comparison of marker candidates from different experimental platforms, with the ability to filter, search, query and explore, molecular interaction networks associated with cancer biomarkers from the published literature and from data uploaded by the community. This complex and ambitious project is implemented in phases. As a first step, we have compiled from the literature an initial set of differentially expressed human candidate cancer biomarkers. Each candidate is annotated with information from publicly available databases such as Gene Ontology, Swiss-Prot database, National Center for Biotechnology Information's reference sequences, Biomolecular Interaction Network Database and IntAct interaction. The user has the option to maintain private lists of biomarker candidates or share and export these for use by the community. Furthermore, users may customize and combine commonly used sets of selection procedures and apply them as a stored workflow using selected candidate lists. To enable an assessment by the user before taking a candidate biomarker to the experimental validation stage, the platform contains the functionality to identify pathways associated with cancer risk, staging, prognosis, outcome in cancer and other clinically associated phenotypes. The system is available at http://club.bii.a-star.edu.sg.

The Human Intermediate Filament Database: comprehensive information on a gene family involved in many human diseases.

We describe a revised and expanded database on human intermediate filament proteins, a major component of the eukaryotic cytoskeleton. The family of 70 intermediate filament genes (including those encoding keratins, desmins, and lamins) is now known to be associated with a wide range of diverse diseases, at least 72 distinct human pathologies, including skin blistering, muscular dystrophy, cardiomyopathy, premature aging syndromes, neurodegenerative disorders, and cataract. To date, the database catalogs 1,274 manually-curated pathogenic sequence variants and 170 allelic variants in intermediate filament genes from over 459 peer-reviewed research articles. Unrelated cases were collected from all of the six sequence homology groups and the sequence variations were described at cDNA and protein levels with links to the related diseases and reference articles. The mutations and polymorphisms are presented in parallel with data on protein structure, gene, and chromosomal location and basic information on associated diseases. Detailed statistics relating to the variants records in the database are displayed by homology group, mutation type, affected domain, associated diseases, and nucleic and amino acid substitutions. Multiple sequence alignment algorithms can be run from queries to determine DNA or protein sequence conservation. Literature sources can be interrogated within the database and external links are provided to public databases. The database is freely and publicly accessible online at www.interfil.org (last accessed 13 September 2007). Users can query the database by various keywords and the search results can be downloaded. It is anticipated that the Human Intermediate Filament Database (HIFD) will provide a useful resource to study human genome variations for basic scientists, clinicians, and students alike.

Gastric Cancer (Biomarkers) Knowledgebase (GCBKB): A Curated and Fully Integrated Knowledgebase of Putative Biomarkers Related to Gastric Cancer.

The Gastric Cancer (Biomarkers) Knowledgebase (GCBKB) (http://biomarkers.bii.a-star.edu.sg/background/gastricCancerBiomarkersKb.php) is a curated and fully integrated knowledgebase that provides data relating to putative biomarkers that may be used in the diagnosis and prognosis of gastric cancer. It is freely available to all users. The data contained in the knowledgebase was derived from a large literature source and the putative biomarkers therein have been annotated with data from the public domain. The knowledgebase is maintained by a curation team who update the data from a defined source. As well as mining data from the literature, the knowledgebase will also be populated with unpublished experimental data from investigators working in the gastric cancer biomarker discovery field. Users can perform searches to identify potential markers defined by experiment type, tissue type and disease state. Search results may be saved, manipulated and retrieved at a later date. As far as the authors are aware this is the first open access database dedicated to the discovery and investigation of gastric cancer biomarkers.

ASGS: an alternative splicing graph web service.

Alternative transcript diversity manifests itself a prime cause of complexity in higher eukaryotes. The Alternative Splicing Graph Server (ASGS) is a web service facilitating the systematic study of alternatively spliced genes of higher eukaryotes by generating splicing graphs for the compact visual representation of transcript diversity from a single gene. Taking a set of transcripts in General Feature Format as input, ASGS identifies distinct reference and variable exons, generates a transcript splicing graph, an exon summary, splicing events classification and a single line graph to facilitate experimental analysis. This freely available web service can be accessed at http://asgs.biolinfo.org.

Genome-scale analysis of positional clustering of mouse testis-specific genes.

BACKGROUND: Genes are not randomly distributed on a chromosome as they were thought even after removal of tandem repeats. The positional clustering of co-expressed genes is known in prokaryotes and recently reported in several eukaryotic organisms such as Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, and Homo sapiens. In order to further investigate the mode of tissue-specific gene clustering in higher eukaryotes, we have performed a genome-scale analysis of positional clustering of the mouse testis-specific genes. RESULTS: Our computational analysis shows that a large proportion of testis-specific genes are clustered in groups of 2 to 5 genes in the mouse genome. The number of clusters is much higher than expected by chance even after removal of tandem repeats. CONCLUSION: Our result suggests that testis-specific genes tend to cluster on the mouse chromosomes. This provides another piece of evidence for the hypothesis that clusters of tissue-specific genes do exist.

DEDB: a database of Drosophila melanogaster exons in splicing graph form.

BACKGROUND: A wealth of quality genomic and mRNA/EST sequences in recent years has provided the data required for large-scale genome-wide analysis of alternative splicing. We have capitalized on this by constructing a database that contains alternative splicing information organized as splicing graphs, where all transcripts arising from a single gene are collected, organized and classified. The splicing graph then serves as the basis for the classification of the various types of alternative splicing events. DESCRIPTION: DEDB http://proline.bic.nus.edu.sg/dedb/index.html is a database of Drosophila melanogaster exons obtained from FlyBase arranged in a splicing graph form that permits the creation of simple rules allowing for the classification of alternative splicing events. Pfam domains were also mapped onto the protein sequences allowing users to access the impact of alternative splicing events on domain organization. CONCLUSIONS: DEDB's catalogue of splicing graphs facilitates genome-wide classification of alternative splicing events for genome analysis. The splicing graph viewer brings together genome, transcript, protein and domain information to facilitate biologists in understanding the implications of alternative splicing.

Xpro: database of eukaryotic protein-encoding genes.

Xpro is a relational database that contains all the eukaryotic protein-encoding DNA sequences contained in GenBank with associated data required for the analysis of eukaryotic gene architecture. In addition to the information found in the GenBank records, which includes properties such as sequence, position, length and description about introns, exons and protein-coding regions, Xpro provides annotations on the splice sites and intron phases. Furthermore, Xpro validates intron positions using alignment information between the record's sequence and EST sequences found in dbEST. In the process of validation, alternative splicing information is also obtained and can be found in the database. The intron-containing genes in the Xpro are also classified as experimental or predicted based on the intron position validation and specific keywords in the GenBank records that are present in predicted genes. An Entrez-like query system, which is familiar to most biologists, is provided for accessing the information present in the database system. A non-redundant set of Xpro database contents is also obtained by cross-referencing to the Swiss-Prot/TrEMBL and Pfam databases. The database currently contains information for 493,983 genes--351,918 intron- containing genes and 142,065 intron-less genes. Xpro is updated for each new GenBank release and is freely available via the internet at http://origin.bic. nus.edu.sg/xpro.

MGAlignIt: A web service for the alignment of mRNA/EST and genomic sequences.

Splicing is a biological phenomenon that removes the non-coding sequence from the transcripts to produce a mature transcript suitable for translation. To study this phenomenon, information on the intron-exon arrangement of a gene is essential, usually obtained by aligning mRNA/EST sequences to their cognate genomic sequences. MGAlign is a novel, rapid, memory efficient and practical method for aligning mRNA/EST and genome sequences. We present here a freely available web service, MGAlignIt (http://origin.bic.nus.edu.sg/mgalign/mgalignit), based on MGAlign. Besides the alignment itself, this web service allows users to effectively visualize the alignment in a graphical manner and to perform limited analysis on the alignment output. The server also permits the alignment to be saved in several forms, both graphical and text, suitable for further processing and analysis by other programs.

Covariation in the capsid protein of hibiscus chlorotic ringspot virus induced by serial passaging in a host that restricts movement leads to avirulence in its systemic host.

Hibiscus chlorotic ringspot virus (HCRSV) from naturally infected Hibiscus rosa-sinensis L. loses virulence in its experimental systemic host Hibiscus cannabinus L. (kenaf) after serial passages in a local lesion host Chenopodium quinoa. Here we report the genetic changes responsible for the loss of virulence at the molecular level. A remarkable covariation of eight site-specific amino acids was found in the HCRSV capsid protein (CP) after serial passages in C. quinoa: Val(49)-->Ile, Ile(95)-->Val, Lys(270)-->Arg, Gly(272)-->Asp, Tyr(274)-->His, Ala(311)-->Asp, Asp(334)-->Ala, and Ala(335)-->Thr. Covariation of at least three of the eight amino acids, Val(49), Ile(95), and Lys(270), caused the virus to become avirulent in kenaf. Interestingly, the nature of the covariation was consistent and reproducible at each serial passage. These data indicate that the nonsynonymous substitutions of amino acids in the HCRSV CP after serial passages in C. quinoa are not likely to be random events but may be due to host-associated positive selection or accelerated genetic drift. The observed interdependence among the three amino acids leading to avirulence in kenaf may have implications for structural or functional relationships in this virus-host interaction.