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ABSTRACT: Complement C1q is a hexameric molecule assembled from 18 polypeptide chains of three different types encoded by three genes. This versatile recognition protein senses a wide variety of immune and nonimmune ligands, including pathogens and altered self components, and triggers the classical complement pathway through activation of its associated proteases C1r and C1s. We report a method for expression of recombinant full-length human C1q involving stable transfection of HEK 293-F mammalian cells and fusion of an affinity tag to the C-terminal end of the C chain. The resulting recombinant (r) C1q molecule is similar to serum C1q as judged from biochemical and structural analyses and exhibits the characteristic shape of a bunch of flowers. Analysis of its interaction properties by surface plasmon resonance shows that rC1q retains the ability of serum C1q to associate with the C1s-C1r-C1r-C1s tetramer, to recognize physiological C1q ligands such as IgG and pentraxin 3, and to trigger C1r and C1s activation. Functional analysis of rC1q variants carrying mutations of LysA59, LysB61, and/or LysC58, in the collagen-like stems, demonstrates that LysB61 and LysC58 each play a key role in the interaction with C1s-C1r-C1r-C1s, with LysA59 being involved to a lesser degree. We propose that LysB61 and LysC58 both form salt bridges with outer acidic Ca(2+) ligands of the C1r and C1s CUB (complement C1r/C1s, Uegf, bone morphogenetic protein) domains. The expression method reported here opens the way for deciphering the molecular basis of the unusual binding versatility of C1q by mapping the residues involved in the sensing of its targets and the binding of its receptors.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 05/2013; · 9.68 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: ϕRSL1 jumbo phage belongs to a new class of viruses within the Myoviridae family. Here, we report its three-dimensional structure determined by electron cryo microscopy. The icosahedral capsid, the tail helical portion, and the complete tail appendage were reconstructed separately to resolutions of 9 Å, 9 Å, and 28 Å, respectively. The head is rather complex and formed by at least five different proteins, whereas the major capsid proteins resemble those from HK97, despite low sequence conservation. The helical tail structure demonstrates its close relationship to T4 sheath proteins and provides evidence for an evolutionary link of the inner tail tube to the bacterial type VI secretion apparatus. Long fibers extend from the collar region, and their length is consistent with reaching the host cell surface upon tail contraction. Our structural analyses indicate that ϕRSL1 is an unusual member of the Myoviridae that employs conserved protein machines related to different phages and bacteria.
Structure 02/2013; 21(2):298-305. · 6.35 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: C1q, a key component of the classical complement pathway, is a major player in the response to microbial infection and has been shown to detect noxious altered-self substances like apoptotic cells. In this work, we identified, using complementary experimental approaches, the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) as a C1q partner when exposed at the surface of the human pathogenic bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae and human apoptotic cells. The membrane-associated GAPDH on HeLa cells binds the globular regions of C1q as demonstrated by pull-down and cell surface co-localization experiments. Pneumococcal strains deficient in surface-exposed GAPDH harbor a decreased level of C1q recognition when compared to the wild-type strains. Both recombinant human and pneumococcal GAPDHs interact avidly with C1q as measured by SPR experiments (KD = 0.34 to 2.17 nM). In addition, GAPDH-C1q complexes were observed by transmission electron microscopy after cross-linking. The purified pneumococcal GAPDH protein activates C1 in an in vitro assay unlike the human form. Deposition of C1q, C3b and C4b from human serum at the surface of pneumococcal cells is dependent on the presence of surface-exposed GAPDH. This ability of C1q to sense both human and bacterial GAPDHs sheds new insights on the role of this important defense collagen molecule in modulating the immune response.
Journal of Biological Chemistry 10/2012; · 4.77 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Ficolins and pentraxins are soluble oligomeric pattern-recognition molecules that sense danger signals from pathogens and altered self-cells and might act synergistically in innate immune defense and maintenance of immune tolerance. The interaction of M-ficolin with the long pentraxin pentraxin 3 (PTX3) has been characterized using surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy and electron microscopy. M-ficolin was shown to bind PTX3 with high affinity in the presence of calcium ions. The interaction was abolished in the presence of EDTA and inhibited by N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, indicating involvement of the fibrinogen-like domain of M-ficolin. Removal of sialic acid from the single N-linked carbohydrate of the C-terminal domain of PTX3 abolished the interaction. Likewise, an M-ficolin mutant with impaired sialic acid-binding ability did not interact with PTX3. Interaction was also impaired when using the isolated recognition domain of M-ficolin or the monomeric C-terminal domain of PTX3, indicating requirement for oligomerization of both proteins. Electron microscopy analysis of the M-ficolin-PTX3 complexes revealed that the M-ficolin tetramer bound up to four PTX3 molecules. From a functional point of view, immobilized PTX3 was able to trigger M-ficolin-dependent activation of the lectin complement pathway. These data indicate that interaction of M-ficolin with PTX3 arises from its ability to bind sialylated ligands and thus differs from the binding to the short pentraxin C-reactive protein and from the binding of L-ficolin to PTX3. The M-ficolin-PTX3 interaction described in this study represents a novel case of cross-talk between soluble pattern-recognition molecules, lending further credit to the integrated view of humoral innate immunity that emerged recently.
The Journal of Immunology 05/2011; 186(10):5815-22. · 5.79 Impact Factor
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Vincent Moulès,
Olivier Terrier,
Matthieu Yver,
Beatrice Riteau, Christine Moriscot,
Olivier Ferraris,
Thomas Julien,
Emmanuel Giudice,
Jean-Paul Rolland,
Alexandra Erny,
Maude Bouscambert-Duchamp,
Emilie Frobert,
Manuel Rosa-Calatrava,
Yi Pu Lin,
Alan Hay,
Daniel Thomas,
Guy Schoehn,
Bruno Lina
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ABSTRACT: Despite progress in our knowledge of the internal organisation of influenza virus particles, little is known about the determinants of their morphology and, more particularly, of the actual abundance of structural proteins at the virion level. To address these issues, we used cryo-EM to focus on viral (and host) factors that might account for observed differences in virion morphology and characteristics such as size, shape and glycoprotein (GP) spike density. Twelve recombinant viruses were characterised in terms of their morphology, neuraminidase activity and virus growth. The genomic composition was shown to be important in determining the GP spike density. In particular, polymerase gene segments and especially PB1/PB2 were shown to have a prominent influence in addition to that for HA in determining GP spike density, a feature consistent with a functional link between these virus components important for virus fitness.
Virology 04/2011; 414(1):51-62. · 3.35 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The phylum Crenarchaeota lacks the FtsZ cell division hallmark of bacteria and employs instead Cdv proteins. While CdvB and CdvC are homologues of the eukaryotic ESCRT-III and Vps4 proteins, implicated in membrane fission processes during multivesicular body biogenesis, cytokinesis and budding of some enveloped viruses, little is known about the structure and function of CdvA. Here, we report the biochemical and biophysical characterization of the three Cdv proteins from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Metallospherae sedula.
Using sucrose density gradient ultracentrifugation and negative staining electron microscopy, we evidenced for the first time that CdvA forms polymers in association with DNA, similar to known bacterial DNA partitioning proteins. We also observed that, in contrast to full-lengh CdvB that was purified as a monodisperse protein, the C-terminally deleted CdvB construct forms filamentous polymers, a phenomenon previously observed with eukaryotic ESCRT-III proteins. Based on size exclusion chromatography data combined with detection by multi-angle laser light scattering analysis, we demonstrated that CdvC assembles, in a nucleotide-independent way, as homopolymers resembling dodecamers and endowed with ATPase activity in vitro. The interactions between these putative cell division partners were further explored. Thus, besides confirming the previous observations that CdvB interacts with both CdvA and CdvC, our data demonstrate that CdvA/CdvB and CdvC/CdvB interactions are not mutually exclusive.
Our data reinforce the concept that Cdv proteins are closely related to the eukaryotic ESCRT-III counterparts and suggest that the organization of the ESCRT-III machinery at the Crenarchaeal cell division septum is organized by CdvA an ancient cytoskeleton protein that might help to coordinate genome segregation.
PLoS ONE 01/2011; 6(7):e21921. · 4.09 Impact Factor
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Andreas Müller-Schiffmann,
Julia März-Berberich,
Aksana Andreyeva,
Raik Rönicke,
Dirk Bartnik,
Oleksandr Brener,
Janine Kutzsche,
Anselm H C Horn,
Marco Hellmert,
Jolanta Polkowska,
Kurt Gottmann,
Klaus G Reymann,
S Aileen Funke,
Luitgart Nagel-Steger, Christine Moriscot,
Guy Schoehn,
Heinrich Sticht,
Dieter Willbold,
Thomas Schrader,
Carsten Korth
Angewandte Chemie International Edition 10/2010; 49(46):8743-6. · 13.45 Impact Factor
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Susanne Aileen Funke,
Thomas van Groen,
Inga Kadish,
Dirk Bartnik,
Luitgard Nagel-Steger,
Oleksandr Brener,
Torsten Sehl,
Renu Batra-Safferling, Christine Moriscot,
Guy Schoehn,
Anselm H C Horn,
Andreas Müller-Schiffmann,
Carsten Korth,
Heinrich Sticht,
Dieter Willbold
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ABSTRACT: Several lines of evidence suggest that the amyloid-β-peptide (Aβ) plays a central role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Not only Aβ fibrils but also small soluble Aβ oligomers in particular are suspected to be the major toxic species responsible for disease development and progression. The present study reports on in vitro and in vivo properties of the Aβ targeting d-enantiomeric amino acid peptide D3. We show that next to plaque load and inflammation reduction, oral application of the peptide improved the cognitive performance of AD transgenic mice. In addition, we provide in vitro data elucidating the potential mechanism underlying the observed in vivo activity of D3. These data suggest that D3 precipitates toxic Aβ species and converts them into nonamyloidogenic, nonfibrillar, and nontoxic aggregates without increasing the concentration of monomeric Aβ. Thus, D3 exerts an interesting and novel mechanism of action that abolishes toxic Aβ oligomers and thereby supports their decisive role in AD development and progression.
ACS Chemical Neuroscience 09/2010; 1(9):639-48. · 3.68 Impact Factor
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Ricardo Pires,
Bettina Hartlieb,
Luca Signor,
Guy Schoehn,
Suman Lata,
Manfred Roessle, Christine Moriscot,
Sergei Popov,
Andreas Hinz,
Marc Jamin,
Veronique Boyer,
Remy Sadoul,
Eric Forest,
Dmitri I Svergun,
Heinrich G Göttlinger,
Winfried Weissenhorn
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ABSTRACT: ALIX recruits ESCRT-III CHMP4 and is involved in membrane remodeling during endosomal receptor sorting, budding of some enveloped viruses, and cytokinesis. We show that ALIX dimerizes via the middle domain (ALIX(-V)) in solution. Structural modeling based on small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) data reveals an elongated crescent-shaped conformation for dimeric ALIX lacking the proline-rich domain (ALIX(BRO1-V)). Mutations at the dimerization interface prevent dimerization and induce an open elongated monomeric conformation of ALIX(-V) as determined by SAXS modeling. ALIX dimerizes in vivo and dimeric ALIX colocalizes with CHMP4B upon coexpression. We show further that ALIX dimerization affects HIV-1 budding. C-terminally truncated activated CHMP4B retaining the ALIX binding site forms linear, circular, and helical filaments in vitro, which can be bridged by ALIX. Our data suggest that dimeric ALIX represents the active form that interacts with ESCRT-III CHMP4 polymers and functions as a scaffolding protein during membrane remodeling processes.
Structure 07/2009; 17(6):843-56. · 6.35 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Adenovirus serotype 5 protein IX (pIX) has two domains connected by a flexible linker. Three N-terminal domains form triskelions on the capsid facets that cement hexons together, and the C-terminal domains of four monomers form complexes toward the facet periphery. Here we present a cryoelectron microscopy structure of recombinant adenovirus with a peptide tag added to the C terminus of pIX. The structure, made up by several C termini of pIX, is longer at both ends than the wild-type protein, and Fabs directed against the tag bind to both ends of the oligomer, demonstrating that the pIX C termini associate in an antiparallel manner.
Journal of Virology 12/2008; 83(2):1135-9. · 5.40 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Multipotential stem cells can be selected from the bone marrow by plastic adhesion, expanded, and cultured. They are able to differentiate not only into multiple cell types, including cartilage, bone, adipose and fibrous tissues, and myelosupportive stroma, but also into mesodermal (endothelium), neuroectodermal, or endodermal (hepatocytes) lineages. Our goal was to characterize the multipotential capacities of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) and to evaluate their ability to differentiate into insulin-secreting cells in vitro. hMSCs were obtained from healthy donors, selected by plastic adhesion, and phenotyped by fluorescence-activated cell sorter and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis before and after infection with adenoviruses coding for mouse IPF1, HLXB9, and FOXA2 transcription factors involved early in the endocrine developmental pathway. We found that native hMSCs have a pluripotent phenotype (OCT4 expression and high telomere length) and constitutively express NKX6-1 at a low level but lack all other transcription factors implicated in beta-cell differentiation. In all hMSCs, we detected mRNA of cytokeratin 18 and 19, epithelial markers present in pancreatic ductal cells, whereas proconvertase 1/3 mRNA expression was detected only in some hMSCs. Ectopic expression of IPF1, HLXB9, and FOXA2 with or without islet coculture or islet-conditioned medium results in insulin gene expression. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that in vitro human bone marrow stem cells are able to differentiate into insulin-expressing cells by a mechanism involving several transcription factors of the beta-cell developmental pathway when cultured in an appropriate microenvironment.
Stem Cells 05/2005; 23(4):594-603. · 7.78 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Multipotential stem cells can be selected from the bone marrow by plastic adhesion, expanded, and cultured. They are able to differentiate not only into multiple cell types, including cartilage, bone, adipose and fibrous tissues, and myelosupportive stroma, but also into mesodermal (endothelium), neuroectodermal, or endodermal (hepatocytes) lineages. Our goal was to characterize the multipotential capacities of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) and to evaluate their ability to differentiate into insulin-secreting cells in vitro. hMSCs were obtained from healthy donors, selected by plastic adhesion, and phenotyped by fluorescence-activated cell sorter and reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction analysis before and after infection with adenoviruses coding for mouse IPF1, HLXB9, and FOXA2 transcription factors involved early in the endocrine developmental pathway. We found that native hMSCs have a pluripotent phenotype (OCT4 expression and high telomere length) and constitutively express NKX6-1 at a low level but lack all other transcription factors implicated in beta-cell differentiation. In all hMSCs, we detected mRNA of cytokeratin 18 and 19, epithelial markers present in pancreatic ductal cells, whereas proconvertase 1/3 mRNA expression was detected only in some hMSCs. Ectopic expression of IPF1, HLXB9, and FOXA2 with or without islet coculture or islet-conditioned medium results in insulin gene expression. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that in vitro human bone marrow stem cells are able to differentiate into insulin-expressing cells by a mechanism involving several transcription factors of the beta-cell developmental pathway when cultured in an appropriate microenvironment.
Stem Cells 03/2005; 23(4):594 - 603. · 7.78 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: After transplantation, islet damage occurs through oxidative stress and host immune rejection mediated in part by macrophage activation. We investigated the influence of the overexpression of catalase (CAT) and Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (Cu/Zn SOD) by rat insulinoma INS-1 beta cells exposed to oxidative stress on their viability and murine macrophage activation.
INS-1 cells were infected with adenoviral vectors containing CAT (AdCAT) or Cu/Zn SOD (AdSOD) genes. After 72 hours, noninfected and infected INS-1 cells were exposed to oxidative stress and their viability was assessed using a colorimetric assay. Murine peritoneal exudate macrophages (mPEM) incubated with the supernatant of infected and stressed INS-1 cells were tested for chemotaxis and cytokine release (TNF-alpha, IL-alpha and IFN-gamma).
After infection, AdCAT and AdSOD gene transfer protected INS-1 cells from the toxicity of different oxidative reagents. The exposure of non-infected INS-1 cells to oxidative stress stimulated mPEM chemotaxis. INS-1 cells infection with AdCAT or AdSOD reduced significantly mPEM chemotaxis from 2.41 +/- 0.31 to 1.61 +/- 0.17 and from 2.53 +/- 0.24 to 1.27 +/- 0.14 respectively (n = 5; p < 0.05). Cytokine release by mPEM was stimulated after exposure to stressed noninfected INS-1 cell supernatant. CAT and Cu/Zn SOD overexpression by infected INS-1 cells decreased significantly the release of TNF-alpha from 268.18 +/- 30.18 to 81.40 +/- 23.58 pg/ml and from 446.96 +/- 75.47 to 20.37 +/- 2.38 pg/ml respectively (n = 6; p < 0.001). The overexpression of these enzymes also reduced significantly the release of IL-1beta and IFN-gamma.
CAT or Cu/Zn SOD gene transfer to INS-1 cells preserved them from oxidative damage and reduced the macrophage activation induced by these pancreatic cells. Therefore, protection of pancreatic beta cells against oxidative injury by antioxidant enzymes gene transfer is an effective approach to overcome the deleterious actions of macrophages in pancreatic islet transplantation.
Immunobiology 07/2002; 205(3):193-203. · 3.20 Impact Factor
