Suchergebnisse

11 páginas, 12 figuras.-- Trabajo presentado en la conferencia "Bioengineered and Bioinspired Systems II"; Sevilla (España); 09-Mayo-2005; Editores: Ricardo A. Carmona, Gustavo Linan-Cembrano. ; This paper describes the fabrication, packaging and characterization of novel multilayer polymer microfluidic systems fabricated by a CMOS compatible process. These microfluidic devices were specially designed for BioMOEMS applications. Embedded multilayer rectangular smooth and uniform microchannels, 50 to 150 mm wide and 18mm deep were studied. Steady-state flow rates and pressure driven flow control were measured in the laminar flow regime. Flow rates ranging from 1 to 100 µl/min, at pressure drop ranging from 10 to 600 kPa, were obtained. These flow rates yield Reynolds numbers (Re) up to 20. Results indicate that the experimental Re and the flow friction coefficient (f) are in good agreement with the laminar flow theory. These experimental results facilitate the future designs of different microfluidic devices designed by using classical fluidic theory. We also present two different methods developed for macro/microfluidic packaging in order to connect these microfluidic devices to the macroscopic world. The microsystem packaging can withstand pressure drops up from 500 to 2000 kPa with any liquid leakage. ; This research is sponsored by the Basque and Spanish Governments, under the Torres Quevedo Spanish Fellowship for industrial research and the strategic research program on micro and nanotechnologies (MICROGUNE). ; Peer reviewed

6 pags, 5 figs ; Gadd45α is a nuclear protein encoded by a DNA damage-inducible gene. Through its interactions with other proteins,. Gadd45α participates in the regulation of DNA repair, cell cycle, cell proliferation, and apoptosis. The NMR structure of human Gadd45α has been determined and shows an α/β fold with two long disordered and flexible regions at the N terminus and one of the loops. Human Gadd45α is predominantly monomeric in solution but exists in equilibrium with dimers and other oligomers whose population increases with protein concentration. NMR analysis shows that Aurora A interacts through its N-terminal domain with a region of human Gadd45α encompassing the site of dimerization, suggesting that the oligomerization of Gadd45α could be a regulatory mechanism to modulate its interactions with Aurora A, and possibly with other proteins too. However, Gadd45α appears to interact only weakly with PCNA through its flexible loop, in contrast with previous and contradictory reports. © 2010 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc. ; This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación Grants CTQ2008-03115/BQU (to F. J. B.) and BFU2008-01344 and CSD2006-00023 (to G. M.), Consejería de Educación of the Basque Government Grant PI2009-4 (to F. J. B.), Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid Grant CAM-P2006/Gen-0166 (to G. M.), and ETORTEK-2008 Grant to the Structural Biology Unit of CIC bioGUNE.

12 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables. PMID:22347366[PubMed] PMCID:PMC3275592 ; Endoglin, a type I membrane glycoprotein expressed as a disulfide-linked homodimer on human vascular endothelial cells, is a component of the transforming growth factor (TGF)-β receptor complex and is implicated in a dominant vascular dysplasia known as hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia as well as in preeclampsia. It interacts with the type I TGF-β signaling receptor activin receptor-like kinase (ALK)1 and modulates cellular responses to Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP)-9 and BMP-10. Structurally, besides carrying a zona pellucida (ZP) domain, endoglin contains at its N-terminal extracellular region a domain of unknown function and without homology to any other known protein, therefore called the orphan domain (OD). In this study, we have determined the recognition and binding ability of full length ALK1, endoglin and constructs encompassing the OD to BMP-9 using combined methods, consisting of surface plasmon resonance and cellular assays. ALK1 and endoglin ectodomains bind, independently of their glycosylation state and without cooperativity, to different sites of BMP-9. The OD comprising residues 22 to 337 was identified among the present constructs as the minimal active endoglin domain needed for partner recognition. These studies also pinpointed to Cys350 as being responsible for the dimerization of endoglin. In contrast to the complete endoglin ectodomain, the OD is a monomer and its small angle X-ray scattering characterization revealed a compact conformation in solution into which a de novo model was fitted. ; This study was supported by grants from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación of Spain (grants BIO2009-10872 and BIO2010-15424 to AM, SAF2010-19222 to CB), Conselleria de Sanitat of Valencian Government (grant AP-072/11 to AM), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Raras (CIBERER) (intramural grant to AM, VR and CB), Prometeo (grant 2009/051 to VR), and Genoma España (MEICA). CIBERER is an initiative of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III of Spain. ; Peer reviewed

Sem PDF. This research was supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) through its Centres of Excellence Program. D.B.J. thanks the ARC for provision of a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. We also acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitivad under Project No. FIS 2012-31230 and the European Union COST Actions (MP1002 and CM1301). P.L.V. acknowledges the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT-MEC) through research grants PTDC/FIS-ATO/1832/2012, UID/FIS/00068/2013, and SFRH/BSAB/105792/2014. P.L.V. also acknowledges his Visiting Professor position at Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia. ; Water is often used as the medium for characterizing the effects of radiation on living tissue. However, in this study, charged-particle track simulations are employed to quantify the induced physicochemical and potential biological implications when a primary ionising particle with energy 10 keV strikes a medium made up entirely of water or pyrimidine. Note that pyrimidine was chosen as the DNA/RNA bases cytosine, thymine, and uracil can be considered pyrimidine derivatives. This study aims to assess the influence of the choice of medium on the charged-particle transport, and identify how appropriate it is to use water as the default medium to describe the effects of ionising radiation on living tissue. Based on the respective electron interaction cross sections, we provide a model, which allows the study of radiation effects not only in terms of energy deposition (absorbed dose and stopping power) but also in terms of the number of induced molecular processes. Results of these parameters for water and pyrimidine are presented and compared. ; publishersversion ; published

Endoglin is a TGF-β co-receptor expressed in endothelial cells, where it plays a crucial role in angiogenesis, cardiovascular development and vascular remodeling. In humans, mutations in the endoglin gene give rise to Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia type 1 (HHT1), an autosomal dominant disorder associated with vascular lesions in skin, mucosa and internal organs. So far, endoglin cDNA has been sequenced in several species from mammals, amphibians and birds. While in mammals the characterization of endoglin protein expression and function is well documented, little is known about the protein homologue in birds. In silico analysis by multiple sequences alignment showed a low homology score of 30-33 between the full length chicken endoglin protein and several mammalian homologues. However, a high homology score (80-85) was observed with the cytoplasmic and transmembrane regions and the overall structure of the zona pellucida (ZP) and orphan domains of the extracellular region appear to be conserved. Transient expression of chicken endoglin allowed the identification of a 180-kDa disulfide linked homodimer similar to the mammalian homologues. To further characterize its tissue expression, the novel specific monoclonal antibody (mAb) 7H5A8 was generated against chicken endoglin transfectant cells. The mAb 7H5A8 specifically recognized chicken endoglin by western blot, immunoprecipitation, immunofluorescence flow cytometry as well as immunofluorescence microscopy assays and displayed a positive staining of the endothelium in veins and arteries from frozen tissue sections of lung and bursa of Fabricius. These results may help to further understand the endoglin expression in vertebrates. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. ; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación of Spain (SAF2010-19222 to CB and BFU2010-19144 to CC); Genoma España (MEICA); Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Raras; Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias; European Union (PI081813) ; Peer Reviewed

© 2019 The Authors. ; Failure of therapeutic approaches for the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA) based on the inhibition of metalloproteinases, might be because of their constitutive expression in homeostasis, together with their network complexity. The knowledge of this network would contribute to selective target pathological conditions. In this sense, blockade of mediators produced by neighbouring joint cells, such as synovial fibroblasts (SF), would prevent cartilage damage. Thus, we studied the contribution of ADAMTS-7 and -12 from SF to cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) degradation, and the signalling pathways involved in their expression. We report for the first time in SF, the involvement of ERK-Runx2 axis and Wnt/β-catenin signalling in ADAMTS-12 and ADAMTS-7 expressions, respectively, with the subsequent consequences in COMP degradation from cartilage extracellular matrix. After stimulation with IL-1β or fibronectin fragments, we showed that ERK inhibition decreased Runx2 activation and ADAMTS-12 expression in OA-SF, also reducing Fn-fs-induced COMP degradation. Blockage of Wnt signalling by DKK1 reduced ADAMTS-7 and COMP degradation in OA-SF as well. In addition, Wnt7B expression was induced by IL-1β and by itself, also increasing ADAMTS-7. Our results could contribute to the development of disease-modifying OA drugs targeting ADAMTS-7 and -12 for the prevention of extracellular matrix components degradation like COMP. ; This work has been supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain, cofinanced by FEDER, European Union: RETICS program, Red de Investigación en Inflamación y Enfermedades Reumáticas (RD16/0012/0002 RD16/0012/0006 and RD16/0012/0008), the project SAF 2017‐82940‐R, and the projects PI17/00027 and PI16/2124 integrated in the National Plan for Scientific Program, Development and Technological Innovation and Funded by ISCIII‐General Subdirection of Assessment and Promotion of Research‐European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) "A way of making Europe". MFM was supported by CIBER (CB06/01/0040).

p15PAF is an oncogenic intrinsically disordered protein that regulates DNA replication and lesion bypass by interacting with the human sliding clamp PCNA. In the absence of DNA, p15PAF traverses the PCNA ring via an extended PIP-box that contacts the sliding surface. Here, we probed the atomic-scale structure of p15PAF-PCNA-DNA ternary complexes. Crystallography and MD simulations show that, when p15PAF occupies two subunits of the PCNA homotrimer, DNA within the ring channel binds the unoccupied subunit. The structure of PCNA-bound p15PAF in the absence and presence of DNA is invariant, and solution NMR confirms that DNA does not displace p15PAF from the ring wall. Thus, p15PAF reduces the available sliding surfaces of PCNA, and may function as a belt that fastens the DNA to the clamp during synthesis by the replicative polymerase (pol δ). This constraint, however, may need to be released for efficient DNA lesion bypass by the translesion synthesis polymerase (pol η). Accordingly, our biochemical data show that p15PAF impairs primer synthesis by pol η-PCNA holoenzyme against both damaged and normal DNA templates. In light of our findings, we discuss the possible mechanistic roles of p15PAF in DNA replication and suppression of DNA lesion bypass. ; Italian Association for Cancer Research [iCARE fellowship from AIRC and the European Commission to A.D.B. and AIRC Grant IG14718 to S.O., IG20762 to G.M and MFAG18811 to E.C.]; Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [CTQ2017-83810-R grant to F.J.B.]; CIC bioGUNE acknowledges MINECO for the Severo Ochoa Excellence Accreditation [SEV-2016-0644]; S.B-V. and A.G.-M. acknowledge fellowships from MINECO [BES-2013-063991 and BES-2015-075847]; M.R.-M. is supported by a pre-doctoral fellowship from the Basque Government [PRE_2016_2_0249]. Funding for open access charge: University of Leicester. ; Peer reviewed

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a pathology characterized by the loss of articular cartilage. In this study, we performed a peptidomic strategy to identify endogenous peptides (neopeptides) that are released from human osteoarthritic tissue, which may serve as disease markers. With this aim, secretomes of osteoarthritic and healthy articular cartilages obtained from knee and hip were analyzed by shotgun peptidomics. This discovery step led to the identification of 1175 different peptides, corresponding to 101 proteins, as products of the physiological or pathological turnover of cartilage extracellular matrix. Then, a targeted multiple reaction monitoring-mass spectrometry method was developed to quantify the panel of best marker candidates on a larger set of samples (n = 62). Statistical analyses were performed to evaluate the significance of the observed differences and the ability of the neopeptides to classify the tissue. Eight of them were differentially abundant in the media from wounded zones of OA cartilage compared with the healthy tissue (p < 0.05). Three neopeptides belonging to Clusterin and one from Cartilage Oligomeric Matrix Protein showed a disease-dependent decrease specifically in hip OA, whereas two from Prolargin (PRELP) and one from Cartilage Intermediate Layer Protein 1 were significantly increased in samples from knee OA. The release of one peptide from PRELP showed the best metrics for tissue classification (AUC = 0.834). The present study reveals specific neopeptides that are differentially released from knee or hip human osteoarthritic cartilage compared with healthy tissue. This evidences the intervention of characteristic pathogenic pathways in OA and provides a novel panel of peptidic candidates for biomarker development. ; Ministerio of Educación (Spain). M.C.-E. is supported by the Xunta de Galicia and the European Union (European Social Fund - ESF) through a predoctoral fellowship (IN606A-2016/012). C.R.-R. has been supported by the Miguel Servet II program from Fondo Investigacón ...

The costimulation of immune cells using first-generation anti-4-1BB monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) has demonstrated anti-tumor activity in human trials. Further clinical development, however, is restricted by significant off-tumor toxicities associated with FcγR interactions. Here, we have designed an Fc-free tumor-targeted 4-1BB-agonistic trimerbody, 1D8N/CEGa1, consisting of three anti-4-1BB single-chain variable fragments and three anti-EGFR single-domain antibodies positioned in an extended hexagonal conformation around the collagen XVIII homotrimerization domain. The1D8N/CEGa1 trimerbody demonstrated high-avidity binding to 4-1BB and EGFR and a potent in vitro costimulatory capacity in the presence of EGFR. The trimerbody rapidly accumulates in EGFR-positive tumors and exhibits anti-tumor activity similar to IgG-based 4-1BB-agonistic mAbs. Importantly, treatment with 1D8N/CEGa1 does not induce systemic inflammatory cytokine production or hepatotoxicity associated with IgG-based 4-1BB agonists. These results implicate FcγR interactions in the 4-1BB-agonist-associated immune abnormalities, and promote the use of the non-canonical antibody presented in this work for safe and effective costimulatory strategies in cancer immunotherapy. ; This study was supported by grants from the European Union [IACT Project (602262), iNEXT Project (1676) and a Marie Curie Career Integration Grant (PCIG13-GA-2013-618914)], the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (CTQ2017-83810-R, RTC-2016-5118-1, SAF2017-83267-C2-1-R, SAF2017-89437-P, and PTQ-16-08340), the Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria/Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI16/00357 and PI16/00895), the UK Research and Innovation (18130023), and the Danish Council for Independent Research (DFF-6110-0053). The CIC bioGUNE is a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence (Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad award SEV-2016-0644). This study was also funded by FEDER. ; Peer reviewed

Salp15, a salivary protein of Ixodes ticks, inhibits the activation of naïve CD4 T cells. Treatment with Salp15 results in the inhibition of early signaling events and the production of the autocrine growth factor, interleukin-2. The fate of the CD4 T cells activated in the presence of Salp15 or its long-term effects are, however, unknown. We now show that Salp15 binding to CD4 is persistent and induces a long-lasting immunomodulatory effect. The activity of Salp15 results in sustained diminished cross-antigenic antibody production even after interruption of the treatment with the protein. Transcriptionally, the salivary protein provokes an acute effect that includes known activation markers, such as Il2 or Cd44, and that fades over time. The long-term effects exerted by Salp15 do not involve the induction of either anergy traits nor increased populations of regulatory T cells. Similarly, the treatment with Salp15 does not result in B cell anergy or the generation of myeloid suppressor cells. However, Salp15 induces the increased expression of the ectoenzyme, CD73, in regulatory T cells and increased production of adenosine. Our study provides a profound characterization of the immunomodulatory activity of Salp15 and suggests that its long-term effects are due to the specific regulation of CD73. Introduction ; Supported by grants from the Department of Education of the Basque Government (PI2013-49 to JA and PI2012-42 to RB). JA is funded by the European Union (Grant Agreement number 602272). AMA and JLL's work was supported by the Basque Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade (Etortek and Elkartek Programs), the Innovation Technology Department of Bizkaia and the CIBERehd Network. The work of AC is supported by a Ramón y Cajal award, the Basque Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade (Etortek), ISCIII (PI13/00031), FERO VIII Fellowship, the BBVA foundation, MINECO (SAF2016-79381-R) and the European Research Council Starting Grant (336343). CIBERonc was co-funded with FEDER funds. AC-M was funded by a Juan de la Cierva program award and the European Union MSCA program (CIG 660191). RB was funded by MINECO grants BFU2011-25986 and BFU2014-52282-P and the Consolider Program (BFU2014-57703-REDC). FJB was funded by a MINECO grant (CTQ2014-56966-R). D.B. is funded by a MINECO FPI fellowship. We thank the MINECO for the Severo Ochoa Excellence accreditation (SEV-2016-0644). ; Peer reviewed

The costimulation of immune cells using first-generation anti-4-1BB monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) has demonstrated anti-tumor activity in human trials. Further clinical development, however, is restricted by significant off-tumor toxicities associated with FcγR interactions. Here, we have designed an Fc-free tumor-targeted 4-1BB-agonistic trimerbody, 1D8N/CEGa1, consisting of three anti-4-1BB single-chain variable fragments and three anti-EGFR single-domain antibodies positioned in an extended hexagonal conformation around the collagen XVIII homotrimerization domain. The1D8N/CEGa1 trimerbody demonstrated high-avidity binding to 4-1BB and EGFR and a potent in vitro costimulatory capacity in the presence of EGFR. The trimerbody rapidly accumulates in EGFR-positive tumors and exhibits anti-tumor activity similar to IgG-based 4-1BB-agonistic mAbs. Importantly, treatment with 1D8N/CEGa1 does not induce systemic inflammatory cytokine production or hepatotoxicity associated with IgG-based 4-1BB agonists. These results implicate FcγR interactions in the 4-1BB-agonist-associated immune abnormalities, and promote the use of the non-canonical antibody presented in this work for safe and effective costimulatory strategies in cancer immunotherapy. ; We thank M. Jure-Kunkel, M. Rescigno and A. Villalobo for reagents, M.G. Gonzalez Bueno and B. Acosta (IIBm) for technical support, and the staff of beamline B21at Diamond Light Source (Didcot, UK) for their excellent technical assistance. This study was supported by grants from the European Union [IACT Project (602262), iNEXT Project (1676) and a Marie Curie Career Integration Grant (PCIG13-GA-2013-618914)], the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (CTQ2017-83810-R, RTC-2016-5118-1, SAF2017-83267-C2-1-R, SAF2017-89437-P, and PTQ-16-08340), the Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria/Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI16/00357 and PI16/00895), the UK Research and Innovation (18130023), and the Danish Council for Independent Research (DFF-6110-0053). The CIC bioGUNE is a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence (Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad award SEV-2016-0644). This study was also funded by FEDER. ; Sí

Introduction: We have hypothesized that incompatibility between the G1m genotype of the patient and the G1m1 and G1m17 allotypes carried by infliximab (INX) and adalimumab (ADM) could decrease the efficacy of these anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) antibodies in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods: The G1m genotypes were analyzed in three collections of patients with RA totaling 1037 subjects. The first, used for discovery, comprised 215 Spanish patients. The second and third were successively used for replication. They included 429 British and Greek patients and 393 Spanish and British patients, respectively. Two outcomes were considered: change in the Disease Activity Score in 28 joint (ΔDAS28) and the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) response criteria. Results: An association between less response to INX and incompatibility of the G1m1,17 allotype was found in the discovery collection at 6 months of treatment (P = 0.03). This association was confirmed in the replications (P = 0.02 and 0.08, respectively) leading to a global association (P = 0.001) that involved a mean difference in ΔDAS28 of 0.4 units between compatible and incompatible patients (2.3 ± 1.5 in compatible patients vs. 1.9 ± 1.5 in incompatible patients) and an increase in responders and decrease in non-responders according to the EULAR criteria (P = 0.03). A similar association was suggested for patients treated with ADM in the discovery collection, but it was not supported by replication. Conclusions: Our results suggest that G1m1,17 allotypes are associated with response to INX and could aid improved therapeutic targeting in RA ; Funding was provided by grants PI11/01048, PI12/01909 and by RETICS Program, RD08/0075/0019 and RD12/0009/0008 (RIER) of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Spain) that are partially financed by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union.

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a common, highly heritable, inflammatory arthritis for which HLA-B*27 is the major genetic risk factor, although its role in the aetiology of AS remains elusive. To better understand the genetic basis of the MHC susceptibility loci, we genotyped 7,264 MHC SNPs in 22,647 AS cases and controls of European descent. We impute SNPs, classical HLA alleles and amino-acid residues within HLA proteins, and tested these for association to AS status. Here we show that in addition to effects due to HLA-B*27 alleles, several other HLA-B alleles also affect susceptibility. After controlling for the associated haplotypes in HLA-B, we observe independent associations with variants in the HLA-A, HLA-DPB1 and HLA-DRB1 loci. We also demonstrate that the ERAP1 SNP rs30187 association is not restricted only to carriers of HLA-B*27 but also found in HLA-B*40:01 carriers independently of HLA-B*27 genotype. ; We thank all participating subjects with AS and healthy individuals who provided the DNA and clinical information necessary for this study. This work was in part funded by grants from Arthritis Research UK (19536 and 18797), the NIHR Oxford comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre (immunity and inflammation theme A93081) and NIHR Thames Valley collaborative research network and National Ankylosing Spondylitis Society (UK). SPARCC was established through the support of the Arthritis Society of Canada. Support was received from National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases grant 1U01AI09090-01. This work was supported in part by grant PI12/02587 (Inst. Carlos III, Spain) and by European Union 'Fondos FEDER'. Support was received from Agence Nationale de la Recherche (grant ANR 2010 GEMISA and Investissements d'Avenir programme ANR-11-IDEX-0005-02), the Société Française de Rhumatologie (SFR) and the Arthritis Foundation. M.W. is funded by the Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, National Institutes of Health. M.A.B. is funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia) Senior Principal Research Fellowship. D.M.E. is funded by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT130101709). P.I.W.d.B. is funded in part by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (VIDI Vernieuwingsimpuls project 016.126.354) and by the National Institutes of Health (1R01AR062886-1). ; Peer reviewed