ALBERT

Beschreibung: In law, inferences of causation are sometimes made through a structured process in which multiple participants play various roles, and make decisions concerning various logical components of the overall inference (such as legal rules, policy objectives, presumptions, evidence, burdens of proof and findings of fact). This article illustrates such a process using empirical research into compensation decisions in the USA for injuries allegedly caused by vaccinations. Empirical research into actual legal processes is essential, in order to discover how various players approach their sub-tasks of decision-making. It also provides insights for areas outside of law, such as non-monotonic logic, cognitive science, sociology and artificial intelligence.

Beschreibung: Here, we report a resistance mechanism that is induced through the modulation of 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) processing on the exposure of Escherichia coli cells to aminoglycoside antibiotics. We observed decreased expression levels of RNase G associated with increased RNase III activity on rng mRNA in a subgroup of E. coli isolates that transiently acquired resistance to low levels of kanamycin or streptomycin. Analyses of 16S rRNA from the aminoglycoside-resistant E. coli cells, in addition to mutagenesis studies, demonstrated that the accumulation of 16S rRNA precursors containing 3–8 extra nucleotides at the 5’ terminus, which results from incomplete processing by RNase G, is responsible for the observed aminoglycoside resistance. Chemical protection, mass spectrometry analysis and cell-free translation assays revealed that the ribosomes from rng -deleted E. coli have decreased binding capacity for, and diminished sensitivity to, streptomycin and neomycin, compared with wild-type cells. It was observed that the deletion of rng had similar effects in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium strain SL1344. Our findings suggest that modulation of the endoribonucleolytic activity of RNase III and RNase G constitutes a previously uncharacterized regulatory pathway for adaptive resistance in E. coli and related gram-negative bacteria to aminoglycoside antibiotics.

Beschreibung: The efficacy and safety of biological molecules in cancer therapy, such as peptides and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), could be markedly increased if high concentrations could be achieved and amplified selectively in tumour tissues versus normal tissues after intravenous administration. This has not been achievable so far in humans. We hypothesized that a poxvirus, which evolved for blood-borne systemic spread in mammals, could be engineered for cancer-selective replication and used as a vehicle for the intravenous delivery and expression of transgenes in tumours. JX-594 is an oncolytic poxvirus engineered for replication, transgene expression and amplification in cancer cells harbouring activation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)/Ras pathway, followed by cell lysis and anticancer immunity. Here we show in a clinical trial that JX-594 selectively infects, replicates and expresses transgene products in cancer tissue after intravenous infusion, in a dose-related fashion. Normal tissues were not affected clinically. This platform technology opens up the possibility of multifunctional products that selectively express high concentrations of several complementary therapeutic and imaging molecules in metastatic solid tumours in humans.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Breitbach, Caroline J -- Burke, James -- Jonker, Derek -- Stephenson, Joe -- Haas, Andrew R -- Chow, Laura Q M -- Nieva, Jorge -- Hwang, Tae-Ho -- Moon, Anne -- Patt, Richard -- Pelusio, Adina -- Le Boeuf, Fabrice -- Burns, Joe -- Evgin, Laura -- De Silva, Naomi -- Cvancic, Sara -- Robertson, Terri -- Je, Ji-Eun -- Lee, Yeon-Sook -- Parato, Kelley -- Diallo, Jean-Simon -- Fenster, Aaron -- Daneshmand, Manijeh -- Bell, John C -- Kirn, David H -- Canadian Institutes of Health Research/Canada -- England -- Nature. 2011 Aug 31;477(7362):99-102. doi: 10.1038/nature10358.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Jennerex Inc., 450 Sansome Street, 16th floor, San Francisco, California 94111, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21886163" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Beschreibung: Metabolism and ageing are intimately linked. Compared with ad libitum feeding, dietary restriction consistently extends lifespan and delays age-related diseases in evolutionarily diverse organisms. Similar conditions of nutrient limitation and genetic or pharmacological perturbations of nutrient or energy metabolism also have longevity benefits. Recently, several metabolites have been identified that modulate ageing; however, the molecular mechanisms underlying this are largely undefined. Here we show that alpha-ketoglutarate (alpha-KG), a tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediate, extends the lifespan of adult Caenorhabditis elegans. ATP synthase subunit beta is identified as a novel binding protein of alpha-KG using a small-molecule target identification strategy termed drug affinity responsive target stability (DARTS). The ATP synthase, also known as complex V of the mitochondrial electron transport chain, is the main cellular energy-generating machinery and is highly conserved throughout evolution. Although complete loss of mitochondrial function is detrimental, partial suppression of the electron transport chain has been shown to extend C. elegans lifespan. We show that alpha-KG inhibits ATP synthase and, similar to ATP synthase knockdown, inhibition by alpha-KG leads to reduced ATP content, decreased oxygen consumption, and increased autophagy in both C. elegans and mammalian cells. We provide evidence that the lifespan increase by alpha-KG requires ATP synthase subunit beta and is dependent on target of rapamycin (TOR) downstream. Endogenous alpha-KG levels are increased on starvation and alpha-KG does not extend the lifespan of dietary-restricted animals, indicating that alpha-KG is a key metabolite that mediates longevity by dietary restriction. Our analyses uncover new molecular links between a common metabolite, a universal cellular energy generator and dietary restriction in the regulation of organismal lifespan, thus suggesting new strategies for the prevention and treatment of ageing and age-related diseases.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4263271/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4263271/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Chin, Randall M -- Fu, Xudong -- Pai, Melody Y -- Vergnes, Laurent -- Hwang, Heejun -- Deng, Gang -- Diep, Simon -- Lomenick, Brett -- Meli, Vijaykumar S -- Monsalve, Gabriela C -- Hu, Eileen -- Whelan, Stephen A -- Wang, Jennifer X -- Jung, Gwanghyun -- Solis, Gregory M -- Fazlollahi, Farbod -- Kaweeteerawat, Chitrada -- Quach, Austin -- Nili, Mahta -- Krall, Abby S -- Godwin, Hilary A -- Chang, Helena R -- Faull, Kym F -- Guo, Feng -- Jiang, Meisheng -- Trauger, Sunia A -- Saghatelian, Alan -- Braas, Daniel -- Christofk, Heather R -- Clarke, Catherine F -- Teitell, Michael A -- Petrascheck, Michael -- Reue, Karen -- Jung, Michael E -- Frand, Alison R -- Huang, Jing -- DP2 OD008398/OD/NIH HHS/ -- P01 HL028481/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- P40 OD010440/OD/NIH HHS/ -- T32 CA009120/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- T32 GM007104/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- T32 GM007185/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- T32 GM008496/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2014 Jun 19;510(7505):397-401. doi: 10.1038/nature13264. Epub 2014 May 14.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Molecular Biology Institute, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA. ; Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA. ; 1] Molecular Biology Institute, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA [2]. ; 1] Department of Human Genetics, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA [2]. ; 1] Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA [2]. ; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA. ; Department of Biological Chemistry, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA. ; Department of Surgery, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA. ; Small Molecule Mass Spectrometry Facility, FAS Division of Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. ; Department of Chemical Physiology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037, USA. ; Pasarow Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA. ; Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA. ; Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA. ; Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. ; 1] Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA [2] UCLA Metabolomics Center, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA. ; 1] Molecular Biology Institute, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA [2] Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA. ; 1] Molecular Biology Institute, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA [2] Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA. ; 1] Molecular Biology Institute, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA [2] Department of Human Genetics, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA. ; 1] Molecular Biology Institute, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA [2] Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24828042" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Beschreibung: Saccharomyces cerevisiae , i.e. baker’s yeast, is a widely studied model organism in eukaryote genetics because of its simple protocols for genetic manipulation and phenotype profiling. The high abundance of publicly available data that has been generated through diverse ‘omics’ approaches has led to the use of yeast for many systems biology studies, including large-scale gene network modeling to better understand the molecular basis of the cellular phenotype. We have previously developed a genome-scale gene network for yeast, YeastNet v2, which has been used for various genetics and systems biology studies. Here, we present an updated version, YeastNet v3 (available at http://www.inetbio.org/yeastnet/ ), that significantly improves the prediction of gene–phenotype associations. The extended genome in YeastNet v3 covers up to 5818 genes (~99% of the coding genome) wired by 362 512 functional links. YeastNet v3 provides a new web interface to run the tools for network-guided hypothesis generations. YeastNet v3 also provides edge information for all data-specific networks (~2 million functional links) as well as the integrated networks. Therefore, users can construct alternative versions of the integrated network by applying their own data integration algorithm to the same data-specific links.

Beschreibung: Protein sequences evolve under selection pressures imposed by functional and biophysical requirements, resulting in site-dependent rates of amino acid substitution. Relative solvent accessibility (RSA) and local packing density (LPD) have emerged as the best candidates to quantify structural constraint. Recent research assumes that RSA is the main determinant of sequence divergence. However, it is not yet clear which is the best predictor of substitution rates. To address this issue, we compared RSA and LPD with site-specific rates of evolution for a diverse data set of enzymes. In contrast with recent studies, we found that LPD measures correlate better than RSA with evolutionary rate. Moreover, the independent contribution of RSA is minor. Taking into account that LPD is related to backbone flexibility, we put forward the possibility that the rate of evolution of a site is determined by the ease with which the backbone deforms to accommodate mutations.

Beschreibung: We investigate the star formation rate and its location in the major merger cluster Abell 2465 at z  = 0.245. Optical properties of the cluster are described in Paper I . Measurements of the Hα and infrared dust emission of galaxies in the cluster were made with an interference filter centred on the redshifted line at a wavelength of 817 nm and utilized data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer satellite 12 μm band. Imaging in the Johnson U and B bands was obtained, and along with Sloan Digital Sky Survey u and r was used to study the blue fraction, which appears enhanced, as a further signature of star formation in the cluster. Star formation rates were calculated using standard calibrations. The total star formation rate normalized by the cluster mass, SFR/ M cl compared to compilations for other clusters indicate that the components of Abell 2465 lie above the mean z and M cl relations, suggestive that interacting galaxy clusters have enhanced star formation. The projected radial distribution of the star-forming galaxies does not follow an NFW profile and is relatively flat indicating that fewer star-forming galaxies are in the cluster centre. The morphologies of the Hα sources within R 200 for the cluster as a whole indicate that many are disturbed or merging, suggesting that a combination of merging or harassment is working.

Beschreibung: We use velocity dispersion measurements of 21 individual cluster members in the core of Abell 383, obtained with Multiple Mirror Telescope Hectospec, to separate the galaxy and the smooth dark halo (DH) lensing contributions. While lensing usually constrains the overall, projected mass density, the innovative use of velocity dispersion measurements as a proxy for masses of individual cluster members breaks inherent degeneracies and allows us to (a) refine the constraints on single galaxy masses and on the galaxy mass-to-light scaling relation and, as a result, (b) refine the constraints on the DM-only map, a high-end goal of lens modelling. The knowledge of cluster member velocity dispersions improves the fit by 17 per cent in terms of the image reproduction 2 , or 20 per cent in terms of the rms. The constraints on the mass parameters improve by ~10 per cent for the DH, while for the galaxy component, they are refined correspondingly by ~50 per cent, including the galaxy halo truncation radius. For an L * galaxy with $M^{*}_{B}=-20.96$ , for example, we obtain best-fitting truncation radius $r_{\rm tr}^{*}=20.5^{+9.6}_{-6.7}$  kpc and velocity dispersion *  = 324 ± 17 km s –1 . Moreover, by performing the surface brightness reconstruction of the southern giant arc, we improve the constraints on r tr of two nearby cluster members, which have measured velocity dispersions, by more than ~30 per cent. We estimate the stripped mass for these two galaxies, getting results that are consistent with numerical simulations. In the future, we plan to apply this analysis to other galaxy clusters for which velocity dispersions of member galaxies are available.

Beschreibung: Double-stranded ribonucleic acid-activated protein kinase (PKR) downregulates translation as a defense mechanism against viral infection. In fish species, PKZ, a PKR-like protein kinase containing left-handed deoxyribonucleic acid (Z-DNA) binding domains, performs a similar role in the antiviral response. To understand the role of PKZ in Z-DNA recognition and innate immune response, we performed structural and functional studies of the Z-DNA binding domain (Zα) of PKZ from Carassius auratus (caZα PKZ ). The 1.7-Å resolution crystal structure of caZα PKZ :Z-DNA revealed that caZα PKZ shares the overall fold with other Zα, but has discrete structural features that differentiate its DNA binding mode from others. Functional analyses of caZα PKZ and its mutants revealed that caZα PKZ mediates the fastest B-to-Z transition of DNA among Zα, and the minimal interaction for Z-DNA recognition is mediated by three backbone phosphates and six residues of caZα PKZ . Structure-based mutagenesis and B-to-Z transition assays confirmed that Lys56 located in the β-wing contributes to its fast B-to-Z transition kinetics. Investigation of the DNA binding kinetics of caZα PKZ further revealed that the B-to-Z transition rate is positively correlated with the association rate constant. Taking these results together, we conclude that the positive charge in the β-wing largely affects fast B-to-Z transition activity by enhancing the DNA binding rate.

Beschreibung: We compared the performance of template-free (docking) and template-based methods for the prediction of protein–protein complex structures. We found similar performance for a template-based method based on threading (COTH) and another template-based method based on structural alignment (PRISM). The template-based methods showed similar performance to a docking method (ZDOCK) when the latter was allowed one prediction for each complex, but when the same number of predictions was allowed for each method, the docking approach outperformed template-based approaches. We identified strengths and weaknesses in each method. Template-based approaches were better able to handle complexes that involved conformational changes upon binding. Furthermore, the threading-based and docking methods were better than the structural-alignment-based method for enzyme–inhibitor complex prediction. Finally, we show that the near-native (correct) predictions were generally not shared by the various approaches, suggesting that integrating their results could be the superior strategy.