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Small peptide inhibitor of JNK3 protects dopaminergic neurons from MPTP induced injury via inhibiting the ASK1-JNK3 signaling pathway.

The ASK1-JNK3 signaling pathway plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease (PD). The specific binding of β-arrestin2 to JNK3 is essential for activation of the ASK1-JNK3 cascade, representing a potential therapeutic target for preventing dopaminergic neuronal death in PD. The aim of this study was to identify a novel strategy for the prevention of dopaminergic neuronal death in PD.
Based on the specific binding of β-arrestin2 to JNK3, a 21-amino-acid fusion peptide, termed JNK3-N-Tat, was synthesized. We evaluated the ability of this peptide to inhibit the binding of β-arrestin2 to its target domain in JNK3 in vitro and in vivo.
The JNK3-N-Tat peptide inhibited activation of the ASK1-JNK3 cascade by disrupting the interaction between β-arrestin2 and JNK3. JNK3-N-Tat exerted beneficial effects through pathways downstream of JNK3 and improved mitochondrial function, resulting in attenuated MPP+/MPTP-induced damage. JNK3-N-Tat protected mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons against MPTP-induced toxicity.
JNK3-N-Tat, a JNK3-inhibitory peptide, protects dopaminergic neurons against MPP+/MPTP-induced injury by inhibiting the ASK1-JNK3 signaling pathway.

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Evidence that histone H1 is dispensable for proper meiotic recombination in budding yeast.

Histone H1, referred to as the linker histone, associates with the nucleosome core particle. While there is indication that the budding yeast version of histone H1 (Hho1) contributes to regulation of chromatin structure and certain chromatin-related processes, such as DNA double-strand break repair, cells lacking Hho1 are healthy and display subtle phenotypes. A recent report has revealed that Hho1 is required for optimal sporulation. The studies described here were conducted to determine whether Hho1 influences meiotic recombination, an event that occurs during sporulation, involves generation and repair of DNA double-strand breaks, and is critical for spore viability.
Through tetrad analysis, cells with or without Hho1 were compared for meiotic reciprocal recombination events within several chromosome XV intervals. Parameters investigated included crossover frequency (genetic map distance) and crossover interference. No significant differences were detected between the two cell types. In agreement with earlier studies, spore viability was not affected by Hho1 absence.
These data suggest that complete absence of Hho1 from chromatin does not affect reciprocal recombination between homologous chromosomes during meiosis. Therefore, the basal level of Hho1 that remains after its reported depletion early in meiosis is unlikely to be important for regulating recombination. Furthermore, the subsequent accumulation of Hho1 as the haploid products mature does not appear to be crucial for spore viability.

Randomized, double-blind study comparing proposed biosimilar LA-EP2006 with reference pegfilgrastim in breast cancer.

This randomized, double-blind trial compared proposed biosimilar LA-EP2006 with reference pegfilgrastim in women receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer (PROTECT-1).
Women (≥18 years) were randomized to receive LA-EP2006 (n = 159) or reference (n = 157) pegfilgrastim (Neulasta(), Amgen) for ≤6 cycles of (neo)-adjuvant TAC chemotherapy. Primary end point was duration of severe neutropenia (DSN) during cycle 1 (number of consecutive days with absolute neutrophil count &lt;0.5 × 10(9)/l) with equivalence confirmed if 90% and 95% CIs were within a ±1 day margin.
For DSN, LA-EP2006 was equivalent to reference (difference: 0.07 days; 90% CI: -0.09-0.23; 95% CI: -0.12-0.26).
LA-EP2006 and reference pegfilgrastim showed no clinically meaningful differences regarding efficacy and safety in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.

DAPK3 suppresses acini morphogenesis and is required for mouse development.

Death-associated protein kinase (DAPK3) is a serine/threonine kinase involved in various signaling pathways important to tissue homeostasis and mammalian biology. Considered to be a putative tumor suppressor, the molecular mechanism by which DAPK3 exerts its suppressive function is not fully understood and the field lacks an appropriate mouse model. To address these gaps, an in vitro three-dimensional tumorigenesis model was used and a constitutive DAPK3-knockout mouse was generated. In the 3D morphogenesis model, loss of DAPK3 through lentiviral-mediated knockdown enlarged acinar size by accelerated acini proliferation and apoptosis while maintaining acini polarity. Depletion of DAPK3 enhanced growth factor-dependent mTOR activation and, furthermore, enlarged DAPK3 acini structures were uniquely sensitive to low doses of rapamycin. Simultaneous knockdown of RAPTOR, a key mTORC1 component, reversed the augmented acinar size in DAPK3-depleted structures indicating an epistatic interaction. Using a validated gene trap strategy to generate a constitutive DAPK3-knockout mouse, it was demonstrated that DAPK3 is vital for early mouse development. The Dapk3 promoter exhibits spatiotemporal activity in developing mice and is actively expressed in normal breast epithelia of adult mice. Importantly, reduction of DAPK3 expression correlates with the development of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and more aggressive breast cancer as observed in the Oncomine database of clinical breast cancer specimens.
Novel cellular and mouse modeling studies of DAPK3 shed light on its tumor-suppressive mechanisms and provide direct evidence that DAPK3 has relevance in early development.
©2014 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper).

CD27 agonism plus PD-1 blockade recapitulates CD4+ T cell help in therapeutic anti-cancer vaccination.

While showing promise, vaccination strategies to treat cancer require further optimization. Likely barriers to efficacy involve cancer-associated immunosuppression and peripheral tolerance, which limit the generation of effective vaccine-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). Since CD4+ T cells improve CTL responsiveness, next-generation vaccines include helper epitopes. Here we demonstrate in mice how CD4+ T cell help optimizes the CTL response to a clinically relevant DNA vaccine engineered to combat HPV-expressing tumors. Inclusion of tumor-unrelated helper epitopes greatly increased CTL priming, effector and memory T cell programming. CD4+ T cell help optimized the CTL response in all these aspects via CD27/CD70 co-stimulation. Notably, administration of an agonistic CD27 antibody could largely replace helper epitopes in promoting primary and memory CTL responses, acting directly on CD8+ T cells. CD27 agonism also improved efficacy of the vaccine without helper epitopes, more so than combined PD-1 and CTLA-4 blockade. Combining CD27 agonism with CTLA-4 blockade improved vaccine-induced CTL priming and tumor infiltration, but only combination with PD-1 blockade was effective at eradicating tumors, thereby fully recapitulating the effect of CD4+ T cell help on vaccine efficacy. PD-1 blockade alone did not affect CTL priming or tumor infiltration, so these results implied that it cooperated with CD4+ T cell help by alleviating immune suppression against CTL in the tumor. Helper epitope inclusion or CD27 agonism did not stimulate regulatory T cells and vaccine efficacy was also improved by CD27 agonism in presence of CD4+ T cell help. Our findings provide a preclinical rationale to apply CD27 agonist antibodies, either alone or combined with PD-1 blockade, to improve the therapeutic efficacy of cancer vaccines and immunotherapy generally.
Copyright ©2016, American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper).