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C-reactive protein (CRP) is a highly conserved pentraxin with pattern recognition receptor–like activities. However, despite being used widely as a clinical marker of inflammation, the in vivo functions of CRP and its roles in health and disease remain largely unestablished. This is, to certain extent, due to the drastically different expression patterns of CRP in mice and rats, raising concerns about whether the functions of CRP are essential and conserved across species and how these model animals should be manipulated to examine the in vivo actions of human CRP. In this review, we discuss recent advances highlighting the essential and conserved functions of CRP across species, and propose that appropriately designed animal models can be used to understand the origin-, conformation-, and localization-dependent actions of human CRP in vivo. The improved model design will contribute to establishing the pathophysiological roles of CRP and facilitate the development of novel CRP-targeting strategies.

Human, rat, and mouse C-reactive protein (CRP) possess distinct expression patterns, but have similar conformations and conserved in vivo functions. We have previously demonstrated that this level-function mismatch is delicately tuned by the hidden activities of unfolded CRP. The cholesterol-binding sequence (CBS; a.a. 35-47) is a major functional motif exposed on monomeric CRP, which is the unfolded and activated conformation of CRP. We replaced the CBS of rat CRP with that of either mouse or human CRP, yielding two grafting mutants with unaffected pentameric assembly. However, these mutants exhibited altered cellular foldability and conformational activation efficiency that matched those of the CRP that provided the grafted CBS. These results indicate that CBS is a critical regulatory motif, whose variation maintains the pentameric assembly of CRP but derives distinct cellular foldabilities and conformational activation efficiencies, therefore helping to ensure that CRPs with various expression patterns exhibit overall conserved functions.

Background and aims C-reactive protein (CRP) is a hepatocyte-produced marker of inflammation yet with undefined function in liver injury. We aimed to examine the role of CRP in acetaminophen-induced liver injury (AILI). Methods The effects of CRP in AILI were investigated using CRP knockout mice and rats combined with human CRP rescue. The mechanisms of CRP action were investigated in vitro and in mice with Fcγ receptor 2B knockout, C3 knockout, or hepatic expression of CRP mutants defective in complement interaction. The therapeutic potential of CRP was investigated by intraperitoneal administration at 2 or 6 hours post–AILI induction in wild-type mice. Results CRP knockout exacerbated AILI in mice and rats, which could be rescued by genetic knock-in, adeno-associated virus–mediated hepatic expression or direct administration of human CRP. Mechanistically, CRP does not act via its cellular receptor Fcγ receptor 2B to inhibit the early phase injury to hepatocytes induced by acetaminophen; instead, CRP acts via factor H to inhibit complement overactivation on already injured hepatocytes, thereby suppressing the late phase amplification of inflammation likely mediated by C3a-dependent actions of neutrophils. Importantly, CRP treatment effectively alleviated AILI with a significantly extended therapeutic time window than that of N-acetyl cysteine. Conclusion Our results thus identify CRP as a crucial checkpoint that limits destructive activation of complement in acute liver injury, and we argue that long-term suppression of CRP expression or function might increase the susceptibility to AILI.

Biophysical models suggest a dominant role of structural over functional constraints in shaping protein evolution. Selection on structural constraints is linked closely to expression levels of proteins, which together with structure-associated activities determine in vivo functions of proteins. Here we show that despite the up to two orders of magnitude differences in levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) in distinct species, the in vivo functions of CRP are paradoxically conserved. Such a pronounced level-function mismatch cannot be explained by activities associated with the conserved native structure, but is coupled to hidden activities associated with the unfolded, activated conformation. This is not the result of selection on structural constraints like foldability and stability, but is achieved by folding determinants-mediated functional selection that keeps a confined carrier structure to pass the stringent eukaryotic quality control on secretion. Further analysis suggests a folding threshold model which may partly explain the mismatch between the vast sequence space and the limited structure space of proteins.

C-reactive protein (CRP) can exist in both pentameric (pCRP) and monomeric conformation (mCRP). Though serum pCRP is an established marker of inflammation, the diagnostic significance of mCRP remains unknown largely due to the lack of a reliable assay. The power and specificity of antibody-based assays are limited by the antibody reagents used and by the degree of cross-reactivity that may exist in detecting each antigen, as mCRP is known to be formed from the pentameric and both conformations usually coexist in clinical samples. Here, we describe an assay that measures both CRP conformations in simple samples in a single assay. This assay depends on the rationale that the intra-molecular disulfide bonds in pCRP resist reduction, while those in mCRP can be readily reduced. The distinct sensitivity of pCRP and mCRP to reduction can be easily detected and separated by electrophoresis. This assay may provide a means to study clinical correlation between pCRP and mCRP in clinical samples in the future and to evaluate their respective significance as disease markers.

Amyloid‐β peptides (Aβs) are generated in a membrane‐embedded state by sequential processing of amyloid precursor protein (APP). Although shedding of membrane‐embedded Aβ is essential for its secretion and neurotoxicity, the mechanism behind shedding regulation is not fully elucidated. Thus, we devised a Langmuir film balance‐based assay to uncover this mechanism. We found that Aβ shedding was enhanced under acidic pH conditions and in lipid compositions resembling raft microdomains, which are directly related to the microenvironment of Aβ generation. Furthermore, Aβ shedding efficiency was determined by the length of the C‐terminal membrane‐spanning region, whereas pH responsiveness appears to depend on the N‐terminal ectodomain. These findings indicate that Aβ shedding may be directly coupled to its generation and represents an unrecognized control mechanism regulating the fate of membrane‐embedded products of APP processing.

C-reactive protein (CRP) is a circulating marker of inflammation yet with ill-defined biological functions. This is partly due to the uncharacterized activities of endogenous CRP in mice, the major animal model used to define protein function. The hurdles for purification and characterization of mouse CRP are its low circulating levels and the lack of specific antibodies. To clear these hurdles, here we developed an efficient expression system by constructing recombinant Pichia pastoris cells for secretion of native conformation mouse CRP. The recombinant expression of mouse CRP in Escherichia coli failed to yield sufficient amount of native protein, reflecting the importance of post-translational modification of glycosylation in aiding proper folding. By contrast, sufficient amount of native mouse CRP was successfully purified from P. pastoris. Preliminary purification was performed by Nickel Chelating Sepharose Fast-Flow affinity chromatography with 6 × His tags attached to the protein. Subsequently, p-Aminophenyl Phosphoryl Choline Agarose resin affinity chromatography was used for tandem purification. The purified mouse CRP showed native pentamer and capabilities of PC binding. Moreover, the 6 × His tag provides a convenient tool for detecting the interactions of mouse CRP with ligands.

This study investigated the effect of milk oligopeptides and (α)-tocopherol on inhibition of linoleic acid oxidation using Fe²⁺-vitamin C induced linoleic acid oxidation model through analysis of malondialdehyde, peroxide value, and conjugated diene and triene in the model. The alteration of milk oligopeptides maximal absorption wavelength, fluorescent feature, and secondary structure were further investigated to elucidate the interactions between milk oligopeptide and (α)-tocopherol that altered the inhibitory effect of linoleic acid oxidation. Results showed that Pro-Tyr-Tyr-Ala-Lys (PYYAK) and Ile-Pro-Ile-Gln-Tyr (IPIQY) with (α)-tocopherol significantly inhibited the oxidation of linoleic acid and reduced the formation of malondialdehyde by 38% and 41%, respectively. Additionally, Ile-Pro-Ile-Gln-Tyr-Val (IPIQYV) and (α)-tocopherol synergistically reduced the peroxide value in the model by 36.8%. Milk oligopeptides exhibited a blue shift on its maximal absorption wavelength, and their absorbance value decreased with the increase of the (α)-tocopherol concentration. The fluorescent intensity of milk oligopeptides was reduced with the addition of (α)-tocopherol and such fluorescent intensity reductions resulted from the static quenching process through the formation of milk oligopeptide-(α)-tocopherol complex. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis revealed that (α)-tocopherol significantly altered the secondary structure of milk oligopeptides and the percentage of β-turn obviously increased in milk oligopeptide-(α)-tocopherol complex. These indicated that the inhibition of linoleic acid oxidation might result from complex formed between milk oligopeptide and (α)-tocopherol through inter-molecular interactions.

Jian-Min Lv,1–3,* Lu Chen,1,* Yi Gao,1,* Hai Huang,1–3,* Xiu-Wu Pan,2,3,* Xi Liu,1 Ming Chen,2 Fa-Jun Qu,3 Lin Li,3 Jun-Kai Wang,2 Xin-Gang Cui,3,4,* Dan-Feng Xu1,* 1Department of Urinary Surgery, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, China; 2Department of Urinary Surgery, Changzheng Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200003, China; 3Department of Urinary Surgery, Third Affiliated Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 201805, China; 4Department of Urinary Surgery, Gongli Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200135, China *These authors contributed equally to this work Background: Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common malignancies and a major leading cause of cancer-related deaths in males. And it is necessary to explore new molecular targets to enhance diagnosis and treatment level of the PCa. Serine/threonine protein phosphatase 5 (PPP5C) is a vital molecule that Involve in complex cell physiological activity. Purpose: The objective of this study was to detecte the expression level of PPP5C in the tissue of prostate cancer patients and further discussed the PPP5C biological function and mechanisms on the PCa. Methods: The expression level of PPP5C was analyzed by immunohistochemistry and ONCOMINE datasets. Lentivirus-mediated short hairpin RNA (shRNA) was constructed to silence the expression of PPP5C in prostate cancer cell. Cell viability and proliferation were measured using MTT and colony formation, and the cell cycle and apoptosis was analyszed by flow cytometry. The changes of downstream protein level and protein phosphorylation level were detected by western blot. Results: PPP5C was highly expressed in PCa tissue as analyzed by immunohistochemistry and ONCOMINE datasets. PPP5C Knockdown inhibited cell proliferation and colony formation in PCa cells. Flow cytometry analysis showed that DU145, PC3 and 22RV1 PCa cells deprived of PPP5C were arrested in G0/G1 phase and became apoptotic. Western blot analysis indicated that PPP5C knockdown could promote JNK and ERK phosphorylation. Conclusion: Our study indicated that the PPP5C may become a new potential diagnostic biomarker and therapeutic target for the PCa. Keywords: PPP5C, prostate cancer, tumorigenesis, JNK, ERK

The pH, thermal, urea, and trifluoroethanol treatments were used to denature yogurt antioxidant peptides, and their antioxidant capacities and secondary structures were analysed. Results showed that yogurt peptides treated at pH 6.0 or above 50°C exhibited higher antioxidant activity than the control, whereas trifluoroethanol treatment resulted in a reduction and urea treatment held invariability. Peptide secondary configuration analyses revealed that these treated peptides significantly decreased their α-helical conformation but enhanced the β-sheet presence as well as an obvious alteration on β-turn and random coil structures. These peptide conformation alterations contributed to their antioxidant property increase.

Microbial transglutaminase increases antioxidant capacity of yogurt by altering peptides pattern and increasing release of free amino acids.

// Xi Liu 1, 3, * , Lu Chen 1, * , Hai Huang 1, 3, * , Jian-Min Lv 1, * , Ming Chen 3 , Fa-Jun Qu 2 , Xiu-Wu Pan 2 , Lin Li 2 , Lei Yin 3 , Xin-Gang Cui 2 , Yi Gao 1 and Dan-Feng Xu 1 1 Department of Urinary Surgery, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, China 2 Department of Urinary Surgery, Third Affiliated Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 201805, China 3 Department of Urinary Surgery, Changzheng Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200003, China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Xin-Gang Cui, email: xingangcui@126.com Yi Gao, email: gaoyismmu@163.com Dan-Feng Xu, email: danfengxu_urology@163.com Keywords: PDLIM5; epithelial-mesenchymal transition; prostate cancer; migration; AMPK Received: July 13, 2017 Accepted: August 27, 2017 Published: September 18, 2017 ABSTRACT PDZ and LIM domain 5 (PDLIM5) is a cytoskeleton-associated protein and has been shown to bind to a variety of proteins through its specific domain, thereby acting to regulate cell migration and tumor progression. Here, we found that PDLIM5 was abnormally upregulated in prostate cancer (PCa) tissues as compared with that in normal prostate tissue. ONCOMINE microarray data mining showed that PDLIM5 was closely correlated with the prognosis of PCa in terms of Gleason score, tumor metastasis and biochemical recurrence. Lentivirus-mediated short hairpin RNA (shRNA) knockdown of PDLIM5 inhibited cell proliferation and colony formation, arrested hormone independent PCa cells DU145 and PC-3 in G2/M phase, and induced apoptosis. Meanwhile, silencing PDLIM5 inhibited migration and invasion of tumor cells by reversing the mesenchymal phenotype and a similar result was confirmed in a xenograft nude mouse model. Finally, we found PDLIM5 plays a crucial role in regulating malignant tumor cell proliferation, invasion and migration by binding to AMPK and affecting its activation and degradation, and may therefore prove to be a potential oncogenic gene in the development and progression of PCa.

Prostate cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death for male. In the present study, we applied an integrated bioinformatics approach to provide a novel perspective and identified some hub genes of prostate cancer. Microarray data of fifty-nine prostate cancer were downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus. Gene Ontology and pathway analysis were applied for differentially expressed genes between high and low grade prostate cancer. Weighted gene coexpression network analysis was applied to construct gene network and classify genes into different modules. The most related module to high grade prostate cancer was identified and hub genes in the module were revealed. Ingenuity pathway analysis was applied to check the chosen module’s relationship to high grade prostate cancer. Hub gene’s expression profile was verified with clinical samples and a dataset from The Cancer Genome Atlas project. 3193 differentially expressed genes were filtered and gene ontology and pathway analysis revealed some cancer- and sex hormone-related results. Weighted gene coexpression network was constructed and genes were classified into six modules. The red module was selected and ingenuity pathway analysis confirmed its relationship with high grade prostate cancer. Hub genes were identified and their expression profile was also confirmed. The present study applied integrate bioinformatics approaches to generate a holistic view of high grade prostate cancer and identified hub genes could serve as prognosis markers and potential treatment targets.

Recent studies have reported the association between endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) gene G894T polymorphism and pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH). However, the results have been inconsistent. We conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis to explore this association. A total of 36 case-control studies involving 4028 PIH cases and 7672 controls were ultimately included. In the overall analysis, no association was identified between eNOS gene G894T polymorphism and PIH risk in any of the genetic models. In the subgroup analysis, the results showed that T-allele carriers had a higher risk of PIH than those with the G allele in Asians (G vs. T: odds ratio (OR)=0.76, 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.63-0.91, P=0.002; GT+TT vs. GG: OR=1.32, 95% CI=1.09-1.59, P=0.004; TT vs. GT+GG: OR=1.96, 95% CI=1.26-3.06, P=0.003; TT vs. GG: OR=1.99, 95% CI=1.27-3.11, P=0.003; GT vs. GG: OR=1.23, 95% CI=1.05-1.43, P=0.009). For Latin American and African populations, the association between G894T polymorphism and susceptibility to PIH was only observed in the dominant model. However, no association was observed in Europeans and Americans. Therefore, eNOS gene G894T polymorphism was related to PIH risk, especially for Asians.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most commonly diagnosed urological malignancies. However, there are limited therapies for PCa patients who develop biochemical recurrence after androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). In the present study, we investigated the therapeutic efficacy and mechanism of α-Viniferin (KCV), an oligostilbene of trimeric resveratrol, against human PCa cells and found that it markedly inhibited the proliferation of LNCaP, DU145, and PC-3 cancer cells in a time- and dose-dependent manner, and had a strong cytotoxicity in non-androgen-dependent PCa cells. In addition, KCV inhibited AR downstream expression in LNCaP cells, and inhibited activation of GR signaling pathway in DU145 and PC-3. Further investigation indicated that KCV could induce cancer cell apoptosis through AMPK-mediated activation of autophagy, and inhibited GR expression in castration-resistant prostate cancer(CRPC). These findings suggest that KCV may prove to be a novel and effective therapeutic agent for the treatment of CRPC.

The conformational conversion of pentameric C-reactive protein (pCRP) to monomeric CRP (mCRP) has been shown to play important roles in the action of CRP in inflammation regulation. In vivo studies revealed the origin of mCRP and provided insights into how pCRP dissociation affected its functions. However, the interplay and exact bioactivities of CRP isoforms still remain uncertain due to the rapid conformational conversion and complex milieu in vivo. Herein, we have used surface-immobilization of pCRP to generate a preservable intermediate with dual antigenicity expression of both pCRP and mCRP. The intermediate has been further shown to exhibit modified bioactivities, such as a high affinity with solution-phase pCRP and an enhanced capacity of complement interaction. These results thus not only provide the conformational conversion details of CRP, but also propose a simple way in vitro to study how the functions of CRP are tuned by distinct isoforms.

Phorbol esters are the main toxins in Jatropha curcas seed and oil. The aim of this study was to assess the acute toxicity of phorbol esters given by intragastric administration and to determine the LD50 for Swiss Hauschka mice. The LD50 and 95% confidence limits for male mice were 27.34 mg/kg body mass and 24.90–29.89 mg/kg body mass; and the LD5 and LD95 were 18.87 and 39.62 mg/kg body mass, respectively. The regression equations between the probits of mortalities (Y) and the log of doses (D) was Y = −9.67 + 10.21 log (D). Histopathological studies on the organs from the dead mice showed: (1) no significant abnormal changes in the organs at the lowest dose (21.26 mg/kg body mass) studied, (2) prominent lesions mainly found in lung and kidney, with diffused haemorrhages in lung, and glomerular sclerosis and atrophy in kidney at doses ⩾32.40 mg/kg body mass, and (3) multiple abruption of cardiac muscle fibres and anachromasis of cortical neurons at the highest dose of 36.00 mg/kg body mass. The results obtained would aid in developing safety measures for the Jatropha based biofuel industry and in exploiting the pharmaceutical and agricultural applications of phorbol esters.

A new strain of laboratory rabbit, produced from Japanese White rabbit but characterized by its black eye and higher antibody titer, was used in a series of nitrogen (N) balance trials to investigate the requirement of crude protein (CP) for maintenance. The N balance was determined for growing (6–12 weeks) and finishing period (13–17 weeks). Thirty rabbits were used in each period. The rabbits in both periods were divided into five equal groups and fed the diets with equal digestible energy but different contents of CP (120, 140, 160, 180 and 200 g/kg DM). The N requirements for maintenance were estimated from the relationship between the N retention and N intake. Following the above series of N balance tests, 20 rabbits of 16 of age weeks were used with a N-free diet. The rabbits were divided into five groups and offered the N-free diet at levels of 55, 45, 35, 25 and 0 g/day, respectively. Net protein utilization ranged from 0.45 to 0.50 and increased with the advancing age of rabbits, but no significant difference was found between different contents of dietary CP. The estimated N requirement for maintenance was, on average, 485 mg/kg BW0.75 per day, equivalent to 3.03 g CP/kg BW0.75. The result from the trial with the N-free diet showed that N requirement for maintenance was 486 mg/kgBW0.75 per day, confirming the results obtained in the series of N balance tests. The lower intake of the N-free diet resulted in more N excretion suggesting that protein catabolism may occur in the body of rabbit to meet maintenance requirements for N when the dietary N intake was very low.