Expression and functional analysis of fam76b in zebrafish.

FAM76B is nuclear speckle-localized protein with a molecular weight of 39 kDa. The amino sequence of FAM76B protein is highly conserved among species, suggesting that FAM76B has important biological functions. However, the biological function of FAM76B is currently still unclear. To explore the biological function of FAM76B, we firstly used zebrafish as the experimental model to study the distribution and expression level of Fam76b. The results indicated that fam76b is highly expressed in hematopoiesis and immune systems of zebrafish by real-time quantitative PCR, in situ hybridization and Tg(fam76b: eGFP) transgenic zebrafish. Then, the fam76b gene was knocked out by CRISPR/Cas9 in zebrafish and fam76b rescue in fam76b-/- zebrafish was performed using the TOL2 transposable system. fam76b gene knockout zebrafish exhibit reduced thymus, excessive inflammatory response, and increased mortality. FAM76B was further found to be involved in regulating the development of hematopoiesis and immune system, and participate in the process of inflammatory response. Our findings in the study lay the groundwork for elucidating the function of the new molecule Fam76b and provide new insights into the development of zebrafish hematopoietic and immune system.

CRISPR/Cas9-mediated grna gene knockout leads to neurodevelopmental defects and motor behavior changes in zebrafish.

Progranulin (PGRN) is a secreted glycoprotein with multiple biological functions in early embryogenesis, anti-inflammation, and neurodegeneration. A good model for the functional study of PGRN is the zebrafish with knockdown or knockout of grn, the gene encoding PGRN. Morpholino oligonucleotides (MOs) and zinc finger nucleases have been used to generate zebrafish grn models, yet they have shown inconsistent phenotypes due to either the neurotoxicity of the MOs or possible genetic compensation responses during gene editing. In this study, we generated stable grna (one of the major grn homologues of zebrafish) knockout zebrafish by using CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing. A grna sgRNA was designed to target the similar repeated sequence shared by exon 13, exon 15, and exon 19 in zebrafish. The F1 generation with the frameshift mutation of + 4 bp (the addition of 4 bp to exon15), which causes a premature termination, was obtained and subjected to morphological and behavioral evaluation. The grna knockout zebrafish showed neurodevelopmental defects, including spinal motor neurons with shorter axons, decreased sensory hair cells, thinning of the outer nuclear layer and thickening of the inner nuclear layer of the retina, decreased expression of rhodopsin in the cone cells, and motor behavior changes. Moreover, the phenotypes of grna knockout zebrafish could be rescued with the Tol2 system carrying the grna gene. The grna knockout zebrafish model generated in this study provides a useful tool to study PGRN function and has potential for high-throughput drug screening for disease therapy.

FAM76B regulates NF-κB-mediated inflammatory pathway by influencing the translocation of hnRNPA2B1.

FAM76B has been reported to be a nuclear speckle-localized protein with unknown function. In this study, FAM76B was first demonstrated to inhibit the NF-κB-mediated inflammatory pathway by affecting the translocation of hnRNPA2B1 in vitro. We further showed that FAM76B suppressed inflammation in vivo using a traumatic brain injury (TBI) mouse model. Lastly, FAM76B was shown to interact with hnRNPA2B1 in human tissues taken from patients with acute, organizing, and chronic TBI, and with different neurodegenerative diseases. The results suggested that FAM76B mediated neuroinflammation via influencing the translocation of hnRNPA2B1 in vivo during TBI repair and neurodegenerative diseases. In summary, we for the first time demonstrated the role of FAM76B in regulating inflammation and further showed that FAM76B could regulate the NF-κB-mediated inflammatory pathway by affecting hnRNPA2B1 translocation, which provides new information for studying the mechanism of inflammation regulation.

E3 ubiquitin ligase Trim33 ubiquitylates Annexin A2 to promote NF-κB induced skin inflammation in psoriasis.

BACKGROUND: Tripartite motif-containing protein 33, a member of the TRIM E3 ligase family, is shown to be involved in tumorigenesis, cell proliferation and inflammation. Alteration of several TRIM family proteins in psoriatic epidermis has been shown to participate in psoriasis pathogenesis. However, little is known about Trim33 expression and its role in psoriasis. OBJECTIVES: To examine the expression and biological roles of Trim33 in psoriatic process, with a focus on identifying its novel substrates in psoriatic keratinocytes. METHODS: Gene expression of Trim33 in biopsies from psoriasis patients compared with healthy volunteers was analysed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and immunofluorescence (IF). Identification of Trim33 substrates were performed using immunoprecipitation combined with mass spectrometry. Protein expression and localization were assessed by immunoblotting and immunofluorescence. Expression of cytokines was analysed with qPCR. RESULTS: qPCR and IF analysis revealed increased expression of Trim33 in psoriatic epidermis. Overexpression of Trim33 promoted the expression of psoriasis-related proinflammatory cytokines IL-6, IL-1ß and NLRP3 inflammasome. Intriguingly, Trim33 induced lysine 63 (K63)-linked ubiquitination of Annexin A2 (Anxa2), which promoted its interaction with p50/p65 subunits of NF-κB, favoured the retention of p50/p65 in the nucleus and promoted the expression of inflammation-related NF-κB downstream genes. CONCLUSIONS: Our study highlights the upregulation of Trim33 in psoriatic epidermis and its pivotal role in promoting the inflammation of keratinocytes by Anxa2/NF-κB pathway. Our findings imply that Trim33 might be further explored as potential target for psoriasis treatment.

Suppression of Progranulin Expression Leads to Formation of Intranuclear TDP-43 Inclusions In Vitro: A Cell Model of Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration.

Mutations in the GRN gene coding for progranulin (PGRN) are responsible for many cases of familial frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) with TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43)-positive inclusions (FTLD-TDP). GRN mutations create null alleles resulting in decreased progranulin protein or haploinsufficiency. FTLD-TDP with GRN mutations is characterized by lentiform neuronal intranuclear inclusions that are positive for TDP-43 in affected brain regions. In this study, by stably expressed short hairpin RNA, we established a neuroblastoma cell line with decreased PGRN level. This cell line reveals TDP-43-positive intranuclear inclusions. In addition, replacement with purified PGRN protein restores normal TDP-43 nuclear distribution. This cell model can be valuable for the study of the role of PGRN in the pathogenesis in FTLD-TDP.

Enrichment of novel quinazoline derivatives with high antitumor activity in mitochondria tracked by its self-fluorescence.

In novel synthetic 28 4-arylamino-6-fluoro quinazoline derivatives, compound 3a displayed the most remarkable inhibitory activities against tumor cells (IC50 values ranging between 0.71 and 2.30 µM) in vitro. Importantly, 3a obviously inhibited the proliferation and metastasis of A549 cells in a zebrafish xenograft model, while also mediated cell apoptosis and G0/G1-phase cell cycle arrest in A549 cells. Interestingly, 3a had excellent fluorescence at 439 nm (λex = 375 nm) in DMSO and at 428 nm (λex = 372 nm) in 0.5% DMSO-phosphate buffer, and the self-fluorescent characteristic revealed 3a itself accumulates in the mitochondria of A549 cells, which suggested the antitumor process of 3a may involve the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. The hypothesis was verified by the increase of the intracellular reactive oxygen species, the decrease of mitochondrial membrane potential, the release of cytochrome C from the mitochondria into the cytoplasm, and the cascade activation of caspase-9 and caspase-3 when A549 cells were treated with 3a. This work has great implications for further development of anticancer agents that can be enriched in mitochondria and can be tracked in real-time in biological systems due to the ideal fluorescence.

A Highly Sensitive Sandwich ELISA to Detect CSF Progranulin: A Potential Biomarker for CNS Disorders.

Progranulin (PGRN) plays critical roles in inflammation, tumorigenesis, and neurodegeneration. PGRN levels in blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are being increasingly investigated as potential biomarkers for these disorders. However, the value of CSF PGRN as a biomarker has been limited because currently available commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits have suboptimal sensitivity for detecting CSF PGRN. In this study, pairs of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) were first screened from eleven monoclonal antiPGRN antibodies using indirect ELISA, then a sandwich ELISA was established using the 2 optimized MAbs. This system displayed high sensitivity, with a lower limit of detection of 60.0 pg/mL and a lower limit of quantification of 150 pg/mL. By using this ELISA system, we showed varied CSF PGRN levels in different brain disorders. For example, as compared with the normal controls, patients with Alzheimer disease or multiple sclerosis showed mildly increased CSF PGRN; those with aseptic encephalitis or neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus showed moderately increased CSF PGRN; those with bacterial leptomeningitis showed severely increased CSF PGRN. Additionally, determining CSF PGRN levels could monitor CNS metastasis and CSF seeding of carcinomas. These results indicate that this system can be valuable in studying the diagnostic and prognostic value of CSF PGRN in brain disorders.

[Construction and application of PGRN and Rev-erbß double genes knockout HEK293 cell lines].

In order to study the molecular mechanism and physiological significance of the interaction between PGRN and Rev-erbß, the PGRN gene in HEK293 (Rev-erbß-/-) marked as C3-6 cell lines was knocked out by CRISPR/Cas9 system to generate the Rev-erbß and PGRN double genes knockout HEK293 cell lines. First, four sgRNAs were designed for PGRN gene, and PGRN sgRNA2 and sgRNA3 with the higher activity were used to construct the Lentiviral vector, pLenti/CMV-Loxp-Cas9-sgRNA2-U6-sgRNA3-U6-Loxp-EF1α-Puro. Then, the lentivirus vector carrying Cas9 and double PGRN sgRNA were used to infect HEK293 C3-6 cells. Through drug screening, cloning and sequencing, we obtained the monoclonal HEK293 (Rev-erbß-/-; PGRN-/-) marked as C3-6/23 cell lines. Using qRT-PCR and Western blotting, we detected PGRN mRNA and protein expression in C3-6/23 cell lines. Finally, genetic complementation was used to study the effect of PGRN-mediated Rev-erbß on the regulation of the target gene promoter transcriptional activity in the C3-6/23 cell lines. In HEK293 C3-6/23 cell lines, the two DNA chains of PGRN gene were both deletion mutagenesis, and the expression mRNA and protein of PGRN did not reach the detection level. At the same time, the interaction between PGRN and Rev-erbß enhanced the regulation of Rev-erbß on the transcription of target gene promoter in the cell lines. Using CRISPR/Cas9 system, we successfully constructed the double knockout HEK293 (Rev-erbß-/-; PGRN-/-) monoclonal cell lines. The study found that PGRN could affect Rev-erbß on the regulation of target gene promoter transcription in the C3-6/23 cell lines; however, the mechanism of PGRN involvement in mediating Rev-erbß in transcriptional regulation remains to be further studied.

Establishing a dual knock-out cell line by lentivirus based combined CRISPR/Cas9 and Loxp/Cre system.

The clustered regulatory interspersed short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein (Cas) system has been widely used for gene knock-out. Lentiviral vectors have been commonly used as a delivery method for this system, however, prolonged Cas9/sgRNA expression due to lentiviral integration can lead to accumulating off-target mutations. To solve this issue in engineering a gene knock-out cell line, this study established a novel system, which was composed of two lentiviral vectors. One lentiviral vector carried simultaneously sgRNAs and CRISPR/Cas9 expression cassettes targeting single or multiple gene(s); the other lentiviral vector carried Cre that could remove excess sgRNAs and Cas9 expression cassettes in the genome after gene targeting was achieved. To prove the principle, two candidate genes, extracellular matrix protein 1 (ECM1) and progranulin (PGRN), both highly expressed in MDA-MB-231 cells, were selected for testing the novel system. A dual knock-out of ECM1 and PGRN was successfully achieved in MDA-MB-231 cell line, with the sgRNAs and Cas9 expression cassettes being removed by Cre. This system should have great potential in applications for multiple genes knock-out in vitro.