Methadone Inhibits Viral Restriction Factors and Facilitates HIV Infection in Macrophages.

Opioid abuse alters the functions of immune cells in both in vitro and in vivo systems, including macrophages. Here, we investigated the effects of methadone, a widely used opioid receptor agonist for treatment of opiate addiction, on the expression of intracellular viral restriction factors and HIV replication in primary human macrophages. We showed that methadone enhanced the HIV infectivity in primary human macrophages. Mechanistically, methadone treatment of macrophages reduced the expression of interferons (IFN-ß and IFN-λ2) and the IFN-stimulated anti-HIV genes (APOBEC3F/G and MxB). In addition, methadone-treated macrophages showed lower levels of several anti-HIV microRNAs (miRNA-28, miR-125b, miR-150, and miR-155) compared to untreated cells. Exogenous IFN-ß treatment restored the methadone-induced reduction in the expression of the above genes. These effects of methadone on HIV and the antiviral factors were antagonized by pretreatment of cells with naltrexone. These findings provide additional evidence to support further studies on the role of opiates, including methadone, in the immunopathogenesis of HIV disease.

MicroRNA-873 mediates multidrug resistance in ovarian cancer cells by targeting ABCB1.

Ovarian cancer is commonly treated with cisplatin and paclitaxel combination chemotherapy; however, ovarian cancer cells often develop resistance to these drugs. Increasingly, microRNAs (miRNAs) including miR-873 have been implicated in drug resistance in many cancers, but the role of miR-873 in ovarian cancer remains unknown. MTT cell viability assays revealed that the sensitivities of ovarian cancer lines to cisplatin and paclitaxel increased following transfection with miR-873 (P < 0.05). After predicting the miR-873 binding region in the 3'-untranslated region of ABCB1, dual-luciferase reporter assay confirmed this prediction. RT-PCR and Western blotting revealed that MDR1 expression was significantly downregulated after transfection with miR-873 and upregulated after transfection with anti-miR-873 at both mRNA and protein levels compared to negative controls (P < 0.05). Experiments in a mouse xenograft model confirmed that intratumoral administration of miR-873 could enhance the efficacy of cisplatin in inhibiting tumor growth in ovarian cancer in vivo (P < 0.05). ABCB1 overexpression reduced sensitivities of ovarian cancer lines OVCAR3 and A2780 to cisplatin and paclitaxel, which can be reversed by miR-873 mimic transfection (P < 0.05). In summary, we demonstrated that overexpression of miR-873 increased the sensitivity of ovarian cancer cells to cisplatin and paclitaxel by targeting MDR1 expression. Our findings suggest that combination therapies with chemotherapy agents and miR-873 may suppress drug resistance in ovarian cancer.

Protein kinase B/Akt may regulate G2/M transition in the fertilized mouse egg by changing the localization of p21(Cip1/WAF1).

Protein kinase B (PKB, also called Akt) is known as a serine/threonine protein kinase. Some studies indicate that the Akt signalling pathway strongly promotes G2/M transition in mammalian cell cycle progression, but the mechanism remains to be clarified, especially in the fertilized mouse egg. Here, we report that the expression of Akt at both the protein and mRNA level was highest in G2 phase, accompanied by a peak of Akt activity. In addition, the subcellular localization of p21(Cip1/WAF1) has been proposed to be critical in the cell cycle. Hence, we detected the expression and localization of p21(Cip1/WAF1) after injecting fertilized mouse eggs with Akt mRNA. In one-cell stage fertilized embryos microinjected with mRNA coding for a constitutively active myristoylated Akt (myr-Akt), p21(Cip1/WAF1) was retained in the cytoplasm. Microinjection of mRNA of kinase-deficient Akt(Akt-KD) resulted in nuclear localization of p21(Cip1/WAF1) . Meanwhile, microinjection of different types of Akt mRNA affected the phosphorylation status of p21(Cip1/WAF1) . However, there was no obvious difference in the protein expression of p21(Cip1/WAF1) . Therefore, Akt controls the cell cycle by changing the subcellular localization of p21(Cip1/WAF1) , most likely by affecting the phosphorylation status of p21(Cip1/WAF1) .

[Recombinant human testis sperm binding protein increases sperm motility parameters].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of recombinant human testis sperm binding protein (TSBP) on human sperm motility parameters in vitro. METHODS: Sperm specimens obtained from 22 healthy fertile men were prepared by the Percoll gradient-centrifugation technique. The sperm suspension was incubated with recombinant His6-TSBP at the concentration of 0.01 mg/ml or 0.1 mg/ml at 37 degrees C for 1 or 3 hours in vitro. The combination of the recombinant protein and sperm membrane was determined by Western blot, and the sperm motility parameters were analyzed by computer-aided sperm analysis (CASA). The same procedure was performed for 12 asthenospermia patients. RESULTS: In the 22 healthy volunteers, the percentage of forward motile sperm was increased after incubated with 0.1 mg/ml recombinant protein for 1 h (P < 0.05), both forward motile sperm percentage and motility were increased after incubated with recombinant protein at the same concentration for 3 h (P < 0.05), but no effect was observed after incubation with 0.01 mg/ml recombinant protein. In the 12 asthenospermia patients, the forward motile sperm percentage was increased after incubated with 0.1 mg/ml recombinant protein for 3 h (P < 0.05), but no statistically significant difference was observed in sperm motility. CONCLUSION: Recombinant His6-TSBP at the concentration of 0.1 mg/ml can increase sperm motility in healthy fertile men and the forward motile sperm percentage in both healthy fertile men and asthenospermia patients in vitro.

[The effect of protein kinase B on the expression and location of p21 in early development of mouse fertilized eggs].

To investigate the effect of Protein kinase B on the expression and location of p21 in mouse early development. Immunopreciptation technology was used to detect the localization of p21 and Western blotting was used to analyze the expression of p21 after microinjecting mRNA of WT-PKB, myt-PKB and PKB-KD to mouse eggs. There was no obvious difference between the three kinds of mRNA in the expression of p21. But the cell localization altered. The p21 retain in cytoplasm after microjecting myt-PKB. In mouse fertilized egg PKB/Akt controls the cell cycle by changing the cell localization of p21.

Effects of protein kinase C on M-phase promoting factor in early development of fertilized mouse eggs.

The mechanism of development of mouse fertilized eggs from the one-cell stage to the two-cell stage remains unclear to date. In the present study, we have evaluated protein kinase C (PKC) and M-phase promoting factor (MPF) kinase activity in fertilized mouse eggs treated with a PKC modulator. PKC and MPF activity have similar activity. The two subunits of MPF, p34(cdc2) and cyclin B, were shown to be included in the substrates phosphorylated by PKC in fertilized mouse eggs, while PKC modulator affected the electrophoretic mobility shift of cdc2 and cdc25C by dephosphorylation and phosphorylation. These results clearly indicate that PKC may affect the progression of the cell cycle through post-translational modification of MPF activity.