A human TRPV1 genetic variant within the channel gating domain regulates pain sensitivity in rodents.

Pain signals are relayed to the brain via a nociceptive system, and in rare cases, this nociceptive system contains genetic variants that can limit the pain response. Here, we questioned whether a human transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) missense variant causes a resistance to noxious stimuli and, further, whether we could target this region with a cell-permeable peptide as a pain therapeutic. Initially using a computational approach, we identified a human K710N TRPV1 missense variant in an otherwise highly conserved region of mammalian TRPV1. After generating a TRPV1K710N-knockin mouse using CRISPR/Cas9, we discovered that the K710N variant reduced capsaicin-induced calcium influx in dorsal root ganglion neurons. The TRPV1K710N rodents also had less acute behavioral responses to noxious chemical stimuli and less hypersensitivity to nerve injury, while their response to noxious heat remained intact. Furthermore, blocking this K710 region in WT rodents using a cell-penetrating peptide limited acute behavioral responses to noxious stimuli and returned pain hypersensitivity induced by nerve injury to baseline levels. These findings identify K710 TRPV1 as a discrete site that is crucial for the control of nociception and provide insights into how to leverage rare genetic variants in humans to uncover fresh strategies for developing pain therapeutics.

Plasma exosomes generated by ischaemic preconditioning are cardioprotective in a rat heart failure model.

BACKGROUND: Exosomes released into the plasma after brief cardiac ischaemia mediate subsequent cardioprotection. Whether donor exosomes can provide cardioprotection to recipients with chronic heart failure, which confers the highest perioperative risk, is unknown. We examined whether ischaemic preconditioning (IPC)-induced plasma exosomes exerted cardioprotection after their transfer from normal donors to post-infarcted failing hearts. METHODS: Plasma exosomes were obtained from adult rats after IPC or sham. An exosome inhibitor GW4869 was administrated before IPC in an in vivo model of ischaemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in normal rats. The IPC exosomes or control exosomes from normal donor rats were perfused to the normal or post-infarcted failing rat hearts before ischaemia in Langendorff perfusion experiments. Infarct size, cardiac enzymes, cardiac function, and pro-survival kinases were quantified. RESULTS: The IPC stimulus increased the release of exosomes, whereas GW4869 inhibited the rise of plasma exosomes. Pre-treatment with GW4869 reversed IPC-mediated cardioprotection against in vivo I/R injury. In the Langendorff perfusion experiments, IPC exosomes from normal donor rats reduced mean infarct size from 41.05 (1.87)% to 31.43 (1.81)% and decreased lactate dehydrogenase activity in the post-infarcted failing rat hearts. IPC exosomes but not control exosomes activated pro-survival kinases in the heart tissues. CONCLUSIONS: Ischaemic preconditioning-induced exosomes from normal rats can restore cardioprotection in heart failure after myocardial infarction, which is associated with activation of pro-survival protein kinases. These results suggest a potential perioperative therapeutic role for ischaemic preconditioning-induced exosomes.

Spinal cord astrocytes regulate myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury.

Astrocytes play a key role in the response to injury and noxious stimuli, but its role in myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury remains largely unknown. Here we determined whether manipulation of spinal astrocyte activity affected myocardial I/R injury and the underlying mechanisms. By ligating the left coronary artery to establish an in vivo I/R rat model, we observed a 1.7-fold rise in glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) protein level in spinal cord following myocardial I/R injury. Inhibition of spinal astrocytes by intrathecal injection of fluoro-citrate, an astrocyte inhibitor, decreased GFAP immunostaining and reduced infarct size by 29% relative to the I/R group. Using a Designer Receptor Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADD) chemogenetic approach, we bi-directionally manipulated astrocyte activity employing GFAP promoter-driven Gq- or Gi-coupled signaling. The Gq-DREADD-mediated activation of spinal astrocytes caused transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) activation and neuropeptide release leading to a 1.3-fold increase in infarct size, 1.2-fold rise in serum norepinephrine level and higher arrhythmia score relative to I/R group. In contrast, Gi-DREADD-mediated inhibition of spinal astrocytes suppressed TRPV1-mediated nociceptive signaling, resulting in 35% reduction of infarct size and 51% reduction of arrhythmia score from I/R group, as well as lowering serum norepinephrine level from 3158 ± 108 to 2047 ± 95 pg/mL. Further, intrathecal administration of TRPV1 or neuropeptide antagonists reduced infarct size and serum norepinephrine level. These findings demonstrate a functional role of spinal astrocytes in myocardial I/R injury and provide a novel potential therapeutic approach targeting spinal cord astrocytes for the prevention of cardiac injury.

Saturation-mutagenesis in two positions distant from active site of a Klebsiella pneumoniae glycerol dehydratase identifies some highly active mutants.

Synthesis of 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PD) from glycerol through the biotransformation process requires two steps, catalyzed by glycerol dehydratase (GDHt) and 1,3-PD oxidoreductase. GDHt is the rate-limiting enzyme in this process. All recombinant microorganisms for production of 1,3-PD so far utilized the natural genes that may not have been optimized. Two positions, which are 19.3A and 29.6A away from the active site in GDHt from Klebsiella pneumoniae, were subjected to saturation-mutagenesis and 38 mutants were characterized. The catalytic activity of a mutant in beta-subunit (beta-Q42F, 29.6A from the active site) was 8.3-fold higher than the wild type, and the enzyme efficiency of other two mutants beta-Q42L and beta-Q42S for substrate glycerol was 336-fold and 80-fold higher than that for 1,2-propanediol. This investigation supplied further evidence that distant mutations could be a good source of diversity and therefore, made a contribution to the toolbox of industrial enzyme improvement.

[Co-expression of gpd1 and hor2 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae in Escherichia coli].

Based on the principle of the pathway engineering, a novel pathway of producing glycerol was built in E. coli. The gpd1 gene encoding glycerol 3-phosphate dehydrogenase and the hor2 gene encoding glycerol 3-phosphatase were cloned from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, respectively. The two genes were inserted into expression vector pSE380 together. A recombinant plasmid pSE-gpd1-hor2 containing polycistron was constructed under the control of the strong trc promoter. Then it was transformed into E. coli BL21. The result showed the recombinant microorganism GxB-gh could convert glucose to glycerol directly. And the recombinant microorganism GxB-gh was incubated to produce glycerol from D-glucose in the fermentor. The maximal concentration of glycerol was 46.67g/L at 26h. Conversion rate of glucose was 42.87%. The study is about "green" producing glycerol by recombinant microorganism and is also useful for further working in recombining microorganism of producing 1,3-propanediol.

Cloning, expression and identification of a new trehalose synthase gene from Thermobifida fusca genome.

A new open reading frame in Thermobifida fusca sequenced genome was identified to encode a new trehalose synthase, annotated as "glycosidase" in the GenBank database, by bioinformatics searching and experimental validation. The gene had a length of 1830 bp with about 65% GC content and encoded for a new trehalose synthase with 610 amino acids and deduced molecular weight of 66 kD. The high GC content seemed not to affect its good expression in E. coli BL21 in which the target protein could account for as high as 15% of the total cell proteins. The recombinant enzyme showed its optimal activities at 25 degrees and pH 6.5 when it converted substrate maltose into trehalose. However it would divert a high proportion of its substrate into glucose when the temperature was increased to 37 degrees, or when the enzyme concentration was high Its activity was not inhibited by 5 mM heavy metals such as Cu2+, Mn2+, and Zn2+ but affected by high concentration of glucose. Blasting against the database indicated that amino acid sequence of this protein had maximal 69% homology with the known trehalose synthases, and two highly conserved segments of the protein sequence were identified and their possible linkage with functions was discussed.