Intra-arterial administration of cell-based biological agents for ischemic stroke therapy

Introduction: Ischemic stroke is becoming a primary cause of disability and death worldwide. To date, therapeutic options remain limited focusing on mechanical thrombolysis or administration of thrombolytic agents. However, these therapies do not promote neuroprotection and neuro-restoration of the ischemic area of the brain.

Areas covered: This review highlights the option of minimal invasive, intra-arterial, administration of biological agents for stroke therapy. The authors provide an update of all available studies, discuss issues that influence outcomes and describe future perspectives which aim to improve clinical outcomes. New therapeutic options based on cellular and molecular interactions following an ischemic brain event, will be highlighted.

Expert opinion: Intra-arterial administration of biological agents during trans-catheter thrombolysis or thrombectomy could limit neuronal cell death and facilitate regeneration or neurogenesis following ischemic brain injury. Despite the initial progress, further meticulous studies are needed in order to establish the clinical use of stem cell-induced neuroprotection and neuroregeneration.     

HIV Protease: Historical Perspective and Current Research

The retroviral protease of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is an excellent target for antiviral inhibitors for treating HIV/AIDS. Despite the efficacy of therapy, current efforts to control the disease are undermined by the growing threat posed by drug resistance. This review covers the historical background of studies on the structure and function of HIV protease, the subsequent development of antiviral inhibitors, and recent studies on drug-resistant protease variants. We highlight the important contributions of Dr. Stephen Oroszlan to fundamental knowledge about the function of the HIV protease and other retroviral proteases. These studies, along with those of his colleagues, laid the foundations for the design of clinical inhibitors of HIV protease. The drug-resistant protease variants also provide an excellent model for investigating the molecular mechanisms and evolution of resistance.     

Tumor induction by ras and myc oncogenes in fetal and neonatal brain: modulating effects of developmental stage and retroviral dose

Introduction into fetal rat brain cells of a replication-defective retroviral vector harboring v-Ha-ras and v-gag-myc rapidly causes the induction of highly malignant undifferentiated neuroectodermal tumors following transplantation into the brains of syngeneic hosts [Wiestler, et al. (1992) Cancer Res. 52: 3760–3767]. In the present study, we have investigated the modulating effect of the developmental stage of neural target cells and of the dose of the retroviral vector used in the grafting experiments. Exposure of fetal cells from embryonic day (E)12 or E14 produced a 100% incidence of malignant neuroectodermal tumors which led to the death of recipient animals after a median latency period of 32 days. A 100-fold reduction of the virus dose from 2.062×10⁶ to 2.062×10⁴ focus-forming units/ml resulted in a lower tumor incidence of 25%. Of six neural grafts exposed to v-Ha-ras and v-myc at E16, only one showed evidence of tumorigenesis (low-grade astrocytoma and hemangioma). All other transplants were morphologically normal for observation periods of 26 weeks, indicating a marked loss of transforming activity of ras and myc in more advanced stages of brain development. In retrovirus-exposed donor cells which caused the development of neural tumors in recipient rats, malignant transformation was also evident during culture in vitro, usually after 9–12 days. Oncogene complementation was also studied in the newborn rat brain. After microinjection of the retroviral vector into the brain at postnatal day (P)0, P1 and P3, 5 out of 20 animals (25%) developed a total of seven brain tumors. Histopathologically, three of these neoplasms were malignant neuroectodermal tumors which, in contrast to those induced in fetal brain transplants showed evidence of focal glial and/or neuronal differentiation. In addition, we observed one oligodendroglioma, two hemangiomas and a malignant hemangioendothelioma. These data indicate that neural precursor cells and endothelia of the rat brain represent the major target cells for the complementary action of ras and myc and that the use of target cells from later developmental stages (E16 and postnatal) leads to the induction of both primitive and more differentiated neoplasms.These studies were supported by the Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung in Österreich (Erwin Schrödinger fellowship, JO501-MED), by the Swiss National Science Foundation and by the Cancer League of the Kanton of Zürich     

Multiple spike-train analysis using mutual interval matrix

The principal-component approach is applied to the analysis of sequences of neuronal action potentials (spike trains). Multiple spike trains are represented as a sequence of vectors of mutual interspike intervals and are considered to be part of the trajectory of a dynamic system. The trajectory matrix is decomposed into a number of ‘basic spike patterns’ and their relative magnitudes by singular-value decomposition. The representation provides a convenient framework for analysis of dynamic relations and cooperation between neurons in an observed network. Examples of applications to simulated and cerebellar data are presented.     

Lines of Murine Oligodendroglial Precursor Cells Immortalized by an Activated neu Tyrosine Kinase Show Distinct Degrees of Interaction with Axons In Vitro and In Vivo

Replication-defective retroviruses expressing the t- neu oncogene, or a hybrid protein with the neu tyrosine kinase linked to the external region of the human epidermal growth factor receptor ( egfr-neu ), were used to establish lines of murine oligodendroglial precursor cells. Differentiation of the t- neu lines into myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG)-positive oligodendrocytes was induced by dibutyryl cAMP, and the egfr-neu line showed limited differentiation in vitro upon withdrawal of epidermal growth factor. Cerebellar granule cell neurons expressed mitogens for the cell lines. Upon transplantation into demyelinated lesions, t- neu line cells engaged with the demyelinated axons whereas the egfr-neu line cells differentiated further and ensheathed the axons. These cell lines thus interact with neurons in vitro and in vivo and can be used as tools to define the molecules involved in different stages of neuron-glia interaction.     

东南亚及西太平洋区的丝虫病

淋巴丝虫病为东南亚、西太平洋及南太平洋的重要公共卫生问题。此为慢性病，丝虫之成虫寄生于淋巴管或淋巴结，长达10－18年之久，致淋巴循环受阻塞而形成象皮病。根据微丝蚴在人体末梢血液之出现时间，分为日间和夜间之周期型与亚周期型。媒介多达40余种。防治方法主要赖药物治疗，世界卫生组织预期以现有的药物可于2020年消灭全球之淋巴丝虫病。本将班氏丝虫、马未丝虫及旁汶丝虫发现之经过，微丝蚴定期性，病媒蚊种及防治原则，作了相当完整的综述。笔曾在中所提及的多数国家实地防治丝虫病。     

利用T7和PR双启动子的新型表达载体的构建及其应用

构建具有λＰＲ与Ｔ７双启动动子的新型原核表达载体ｐＤＯＧ，以便使用同一载体研究不同诱导条件下，重组蛋白在大肠杆菌中表达，降解以及折叠的情况，从而选择最佳的诱导条件。方法采用ｐＢＶ２２０与ＰＥＴ－３表达载体作为原始材料，将ＰＥＴ－３上包括Ｔ７启动子与Ｔ７ｇ－１０释译起始序列的一段序列克隆到     

巨噬细胞炎性蛋白4的突变和原核表达

目的 探索如何抑制嗜酸细胞的趋化作用，选择β-趋化因子巨噬细胞炎性蛋白4（MIP4）的突变性（Met-MIP4)作为趋化因子受体3的拮抗剂，将Met-MIP4基因在原核细胞中进行表达。方法 设计MIP4基因的PCR引物并进行氨基酸突变，将MIP4N末端的丙氨酸突变为蛋氨酸，以正常人肺酸突变，将MIP4N末端的丙氨酸突变为蛋氨酸。以正常人肺cDNA文库为模板，PCR方法获取Met-MIP4基因，克隆入载体pUC19，测序验证序列已得到突变，将正确的基因插入到GST融合表达载体pGEX-4T中，以IPTG诱导表达。结果 PCR产物为220bp左右的片段，连接入pUC19质粒后测序验证获得正确突变，构建的pGEX-4T融合表达载体在大肠杆菌中表达，经SDS-PAGE凝胶电泳显示有大小约34kU的新生融合蛋白表达。结论 成功突变并克隆了β-趋化因子MIP4基因，SDS-PAGE表明，与GST融合的Met-MIP4突变体已得到表达，为进一步研究其生物学活性奠定了基础。     

Gene therapy of malignant brain tumors: a rat glioma line bearing the herpes simplex virus type 1-thymidine kinase gene and wild type retrovirus kills other tumor cells.

Tumor cells infected with a retrovirus vector (VIK) containing the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSV-TK) gene can be selectively killed by treatment with nucleoside analogues, such as ganciclovir. To mediate delivery of the HSV-TK gene to "recipient" tumor cells, "donor" C6 rat glioma cells infected with the VIK vector (C6VIK) were superinfected with wild type Moloney murine leukemia virus (WT Mo-MLV). These modified donor cells (C6VIKWT) produced both wild type retrovirus and the VIK vector. In culture, C6VIKWT cells were 300-fold more sensitive to the toxicity of ganciclovir than were C6VIK cells, suggesting that the presence of wild type retrovirus contributed to the toxicity. Co-culture of C6VIKWT cells with the C6 subline, C6BAG, sensitized the latter to ganciclovir treatment. Nude mice inoculated subcutaneously with a mixture of C6VIKWT and C6BAG cells showed regression of subsequent tumors when treated with ganciclovir. The observations show that tumor cells modified in culture by infection with a retrovirus bearing the HSV-TK gene and wild type retrovirus are not only sensitive to ganciclovir, but can transfer this sensitivity to neighboring "naive" tumor cells in culture and in vivo.     

Sequence analysis of the gene coding for glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (gpd) of Podospora anserina: use of homologous regulatory sequences to improve transformation efficiency

Summary The glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (gpd) gene of Podospora anserina has been isolated from a genomic library by heterologous hybridization with the corresponding gene of Curvularia lunata. The coding region consists of 1014 nucleotides and is interrupted by a single intron. The amino-acid sequence encoded by the gpd gene shows a high degree of sequence identity with the corresponding gene products of various fungi. Multiple alignments of all fungal GPD sequences so far available resulted in the construction of a phylogenetic tree. The evolutionary relationships of the various fungi belonging to different taxa will be discussed on the basis of these data. Sequence analysis of 1.9 kbp of the 5 non-coding region revealed the presence of typical fungal promoter elements. Utilizing different parts of the 5 regulatory sequence of the Podospora gpd gene, expression vectors containing a dominant selectable marker gene (hygromycin B phosphotransferase) have been constructed for the transformation of P. anserina protoplasts. The use of these homologous gpd regulatory sequences resulted in a significant increase in transformation efficiencies compared to those obtained with vectors in which the selectable marker gene is under the control of the corresponding heterologous promoter of Aspergillus nidulans.