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DNA methylation and silencing of gene expression role in pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus

Sun, 01 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Title: DNA methylation and silencing of gene expression role in pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus Authors: Shenoy, Anukul; Pradhan, Vandana; Umare, Vinod; Ghosh, Kanjaksha Abstract: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a prototypical autoimmune disease characterized by production of autoantibodies against a wide array of host nuclear antigens. Though the causes and etiology of the disease is not clearly understood, some genetic, epigenetic and environmental issues have been found responsible as risk factors. The impact of environment, which is majorly reflected by the epigenetic mechanisms, especially DNA methylation and epigenetic regulation of gene expressions are generally considered as key players in the due course of SLE pathogenesis. The repertoire of the evidences has indicated that DNA hypomethylation in T cells is an important characteristic of SLE. DNA hypomethylation mechanisms in the genes like CD11a (ITGL), perforin (PRF1), CD70 (TNFSF7), CD40LG (CD40), IFN-Ɣ, IL-4, have been designated them as classic methylation-sensitive autoimmunity related genes. In addition to these, the genome wide analyses have reported the hypomethylation in IL10 and IL-1R2 genes in SLE. On the other hand, certain drugs such as procainamide, hydralazine, 5-azacytidine (5-azaC) which are competitive DNA methyltransferases inhibitors, have been proposed as potential agents causing DNA hypomethylation in lupus. In this review, we summerise the current understanding of aberrant DNA methylation in T cells and consequently altered gene expression in SLE. Based on DBA 2 and AKR mice models, we have summarized the alterations in ERK (Ras-MAPK) signaling pathway and overexpression of LFA-1 caused by certain drugs contributing to the development of manifestations of the disease. Page(s): 521-528

Association of common genetic polymorphisms with plasma lipid and coronary artery disease in West Bengal population

Sun, 01 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Title: Association of common genetic polymorphisms with plasma lipid and coronary artery disease in West Bengal population Authors: Bhattacharya, Saurav; Chowdhury, Swagata Roy; Ghoshal, Pradip; Ganguly, Kajal; Bhattacharya, Nirmalendu; Jana, Nandan Kumar Abstract: Both apolipoprotein B (APOB) and low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDL-R) play crucial role in LDL uptake by cells. The association of apob MspI polymorphism and ldl-r AvaII polymorphism with coronary artery disease (CAD) has already been reported in other populations. Genetic variations in these two gene locus is associated with CAD in West Bengal population was investigated here. Blood samples were collected from angiographically proven 254 CAD patients and age matched 246 healthy people (controls) from different districts of West Bengal, India. Serum lipids including total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), high density lipid-cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipid-cholesterol (LDL-C) and very low density lipid-cholesterol (VLDL-C) were evaluated in all the subjects. Genotyping was performed by PCR-RFLP combined with gel electrophoresis. The lipid-profile analysis revealed that TC, TG, LDL-C and VLDL-C were significantly high (p < 0.001) in patients than controls. Genotyping study showed that homozygous A⁺A⁺ genotype was significantly more prevalent (22% vs 10%, p = 0.0011) among patient group in this population than control. This genotype was also associated with higher LDL-C and TC levels. But there was no significant association of genotypes with serum lipid concentration was evident in APOB gene. The A⁺A⁺ genotype could be a genetic marker for CAD. Page(s): 529-535

Platinum nanoparticles: biosynthesis and activity on SiHa cervical cancer cell line

Sun, 01 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Title: Platinum nanoparticles: biosynthesis and activity on SiHa cervical cancer cell line Authors: Jha, Anal K; Prasad, Kamal Abstract: Single step highly reproducible procedure for synthesizing platinum nanoparticles (Pt-NPs) is reported using a very common weed having widely reported medicinal properties, Oxalis sp. The X-ray diffraction analysis indicated the formation of face-centered cubic platinum and transmission as well as scanning electron micrographs showed individual spherical shaped nanoparticles having the particle sizes ranging between 7-13 nm with a very few agglomerations. Pt-NPs sol when applied to the SiHa cancer cell line was found to inhibit the growth by 80-90%. Page(s): 536-541

Phylogeny and domain examination of two-component regulatory systems across staphylococcal species

Sun, 01 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Title: Phylogeny and domain examination of two-component regulatory systems across staphylococcal species Authors: Subramanian, Devika; Natarajan, Jeyakumar Abstract: Staphylococcus is a Gram-positive bacterial genus of immense importance in clinical and agricultural fields. It contains over 60 species/sub species including a few infectious agents of humans as well as non-human animals. Many genes including virulence factors and regulators are conserved in the staphylococci genus. There are many two-component systems that are known to control the expression of various virulence factors in the genome. In the present study, we try to gain an insight into the phylogenic relatedness and domain architectures of two-component signal transduction systems among selected Staphylococcus aureus species and coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS). Bootstrap-neighbor joining method was used to model phylogenetic trees based on the global alignment of 16S rRNA, housekeeping genes namely, aroE, glpF, pta and tpi, and genes of the two-component systems namely, agr, srr, arl and lyt genes. The resultant phylogeny of the genes was then used to determine the two-component system which might have evolved differentially. The topologies of the trees were compared; clusters were picked from them and examined. Further, the protein domain architectures of the two-component systems were also analysed across the species. From the topological and clustering analysis of the phylogenetic trees, the differential evolution of agr became evident. The loss of GAF domain in the lytS kinase of S. epidermidis and S. lugdunensis was also revealed from this study. Page(s): 542-550