APOL-1

Hypertension prevalence rates in most urbanized areas of Africa range from 20-30%, with a recent systematic review reporting 16.2% for sub-Saharan Africa. These rates are lower than those in the West but the age standardized rates are higher than in other regions of the world. The attendant morbidity and mortality are disproportionately high. For example, failure of nocturnal dipping and microalbuminuria, predictive of vascular disease, occur relatively early in the course of hypertension and predispose to early vascular disease...

BACKGROUND: The burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in Nigeria is quite alarming. The prevalence of CKD ranges from 11 - 23.5%. Hypertension and chronic glomerulonephritis (CGN) remain the two leading causes of CKD in Nigeria. The etiology of CKD in many of these patients remains unknown, as few biopsies are done. In order to demystify the various glomerular diseases that culminate in CGN, performing a kidney biopsy offers a ray of hope. Few studies on renal biopsies have emanated from Nigeria; this study, however, is unique as the histopathological analysis involves light, immunofluorescence, and electron microscopies...

Sixty-four pieces of shark fin dried products (including real, fake and artificial shark fin products) and real products coated with gelatin were rapidly and nondestructively analyzed by attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). The characteristic of IR spectrograms among the above four kinds of samples were systematically studied and comparied, the results showed that the spectrograms of the same kind of samples were repeatable, and different kinds of shark fin products presented significant differences in the spectrograms, which mainly manifested as the specific absorption peaks of amido bonds in protein (1650, 1544 cm(-1)) and skeletal vibration in polysaccharide (1050 cm(-1))...

Human-infectious trypanosomes such as Trypanosoma cruzi, T. brucei rhodesiense, and T. b. gambiense can be discriminated from those only infecting animals by their resistance to normal human serum (NHS). These parasites are naturally resistant to trypanolysis induced by the human-specific pore-forming serum protein apolipoprotein L1 (ApoL-1). T. lewisi, a worldwide distributed parasite, has been considered as rat-specific and non-pathogenic to the natural hosts. Here we provide evidence that 19 tested T. lewisi isolates from Thailand and China share resistance to NHS...

During infection significant alterations in lipid metabolism and lipoprotein composition occur. Triglyceride and VLDL cholesterol levels increase, while reduced HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) and LDL cholesterol (LDL-C) levels are observed. More importantly, endotoxemia modulates HDL composition and size: phospholipids are reduced as well as apolipoprotein (apo) A-I, while serum amyloid A (SAA) and secretory phospholipase A2 (sPLA2) dramatically increase, and, although the total HDL particle number does not change, a significant decrease in the number of small- and medium-size particles is observed...

BACKGROUND: In vitro and retrospective clinical studies suggest an association between anaesthetic technique during primary breast cancer surgery and cancer outcome. Apoptosis is an important step in the mechanism of breast cancer metastasis, but whether it is influenced by anaesthetic technique is unknown. Using serum from breast cancer surgery patients randomized to receive distinct anaesthetic techniques, we investigated its effect on apoptosis in oestrogen receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer cells in vitro...

During infections or acute conditions high-density lipoproteins cholesterol (HDL-C) levels decrease very rapidly and HDL particles undergo profound changes in their composition and function. These changes are associated with poor prognosis following endotoxemia or sepsis and data from genetically modified animal models support a protective role for HDL. The same is true for some parasitic infections, where the key player appears to be a specific and minor component of HDL, namely apoL-1. The ability of HDL to influence cholesterol availability in lipid rafts in immune cells results in the modulation of toll-like receptors, MHC-II complex, as well as B- and T-cell receptors, while specific molecules shuttled by HDL such as sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) contribute to immune cells trafficking...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Decreased size and increased density of LDL have been associated with increased coronary heart disease (CHD) risk. Elevated plasma concentrations of small dense LDL (sdLDL) correlate with high plasma triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol levels. This review highlights recent findings about the metabolism and composition of LDL subfractions. RECENT FINDINGS: The development of an automated assay has recently made possible the assessment of the CHD risk associated with sdLDL in large clinical trials and has demonstrated convincingly that sdLDL cholesterol levels are a more significant independent determinant of CHD risk than total LDL cholesterol...

MYH9 polymorphisms have been described to be associated with the risk of CKD in non-diabetic nephropathy, HIV nephropathy and FSGS. Predominating in black descendants, MHY9 genetic variants could partially explain the excess risk of CKD associated with African ancestry. However, recent data suggests that APOL1 gene co-segregate with MYH9, and could be the gene truly associated with CKD risk. In this study, we evaluated the role of MYH9 and APOL1 gene polymorphisms in the risk of CKD in Brazilian patients with lupus nephritis (LN)...

Amphipols are short amphipathic polymers that can substitute for detergents at the hydrophobic surface of membrane proteins (MPs), keeping them soluble in the absence of detergents while stabilizing them. The most widely used amphipol, known as A8-35, is comprised of a polyacrylic acid (PAA) main chain grafted with octylamine and isopropylamine. Among its many applications, A8-35 has proven particularly useful for solution-state NMR studies of MPs, for which it can be desirable to eliminate signals originating from the protons of the surfactant...

In plants, some enzymes of the cytochrome P450 (CYP) superfamily are thought to organize into transient dynamic metabolons to optimize the biosynthesis of bioactive natural products. Metabolon formation may facilitate efficient turnover of labile and toxic intermediates and prevent undesired metabolic cross talk. Two CYPs, CYP79A1 and CYP71E1 involved in the synthesis of dhurrin, were used to assess the possibility to use amphipols (APols) to trap these membrane-bound enzymes in a soluble form in a detergent-free environment...

Hypertension is a more serious disease in blacks. The determinants of the blood pressure (BP) may be uniquely different from those in whites. The characteristic low-renin, salt-sensitive hypertension of blacks is consistent with the kidney reabsorbing additional sodium (Na), which leads to an expanded plasma volume that drives the BP. Mechanisms considered are genetically based. These include: (1) the intra-renal renin-angiotensin system (RAS), one based on molecular variations in angiotensinogen; (2) the Na, K, 2Cl cotransporter (NKCC2) and its regulators in the thick ascending limb, which are associated with a variety of phenotypes consistent with a more active cotransporter in blacks; and (3) the genes for MYH9 and APOL 1, which have been associated with kidney disease in blacks...

In human high-density lipoprotein (HDL) represents the major cholesterol carrying lipoprotein class in cord blood, while cholesterol is mainly carried by low-density lipoprotein in maternal serum. Additionally, to carrying cholesterol, HDL also associates with a range of proteins as cargo. We tested the hypothesis that fetal HDL carries proteins qualitatively and quantitatively different from maternal HDL. These differences then contribute to distinct HDL functionality in both circulations. Shotgun proteomics and biochemical analyses were used to assess composition/function of fetal and maternal HDL isolated from uncomplicated human pregnancies at term of gestation...

Amphipols (APols) are short amphiphilic polymers designed to handle membrane proteins (MPs) in aqueous solutions as an alternative to small surfactants (detergents). APols adsorb onto the transmembrane, hydrophobic surface of MPs, forming small, water-soluble complexes, in which the protein is biochemically stabilized. At variance with MP/detergent complexes, MP/APol ones remain stable even at extreme dilutions. Pure APol solutions self-associate into well-defined micelle-like globules comprising a few APol molecules, a rather unusual behavior for amphiphilic polymers, which typically form ill-defined assemblies...

Amphipols (APols) are amphipathic polymers with the ability to substitute detergents to keep membrane proteins (MPs) soluble and functional in aqueous solutions. APols also protect MPs against denaturation. Here, we have examined the ability of APol-trapped MPs to be analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS). For that purpose, we have used ionic and nonionic APols and as model proteins (i) the transmembrane domain of Escherichia coli outer membrane protein A, a β-barrel, eubacterial MP, (ii) Halobacterium salinarum bacteriorhodopsin, an α-helical archaebacterial MP with a single cofactor, and (iii, iv) two eukaryotic MP complexes comprising multiple subunits and many cofactors, cytochrome b(6)f from the chloroplast of the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and cytochrome bc(1) from beef heart mitochondria...

The objective of this study was to describe the lactation curve of dairy cattle in Kenya using a suitable lactation function in order to facilitate inclusion of partial lactations in national dairy cattle evaluation and to assess the effect of data characteristics on lactation curve parameters. Six functions were fitted to test day (TD) milk yield records from six parities of Ayrshire, Guernsey, Holstein Friesian, Jersey and Sahiwal cattle. Five datasets: DS-1 (12-TD dataset with randomly missing records), DS-2 (10-TD dataset without missing records), DS-3 (10-TD dataset with randomly missing records), DS-4 (7-TD dataset, with only TD 4 to 10 records) and DS-5 (7-TD dataset, with TD 1 to 4, 6, 8 and 10 records) depicting various recording circumstances were derived to assess the effects of data characteristics on lactation curves and to assess the feasibility of reducing the number of TD samples per lactation...

Amphipols (APols) are amphiphatic polymers that keep membrane proteins (MPs) water-soluble. The best characterized and most widely used APol to date, A8-35, comprises a polyacrylate backbone grafted with octyl- and isopropylamine side chains. The nature of its hydrophilic moieties prevents its use at the slightly acidic pH that is desirable to slow down the rate of amide proton exchange in solution NMR studies. We describe here the synthesis and properties of pH-insensitive APols obtained by replacing isopropyles with taurine...

Five bacterial species, capable of degrading the recalcitrant organic compounds (ROCs) diethyleneglycol monomethylether (DGMME), 1-amino-2-propanol (APOL), 1-methyl-2- pyrrolidinone (NMP), diethyleneglycol monoethylether (DGMEE), tetraethyleneglycol (TEG), and tetrahydrothiophene 1,1-dioxide (sulfolane), were isolated from an enrichment culture. Cupriavidus sp. catabolized 93.5+/-1.7 mg/l of TEG, 99.3+/-1.2 mg/l of DGMME, 96.1+/-1.6mg/l of APOL, and 99.5+/-0.5mg/l of NMP in 3 days. Acineobacter sp. catabolized 100 mg/l of DGMME, 99...

BACKGROUND: Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) is a natural metabolite of very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) in the circulation. Systematic investigation of total protein components and dynamics might provide insights into this normal metabolic process. METHODS: VLDL and LDL were purified from normolipidemia pooled plasma by gradient ultracentrifugation with either ionic or non-ionic media. The protein contents were compared by liquid chromatography tandem mass analyses based on isobaric tag for relative and absolute quantitation and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis...

Several species of African trypanosomes cause fatal disease in livestock, but most cannot infect humans due to innate trypanosome lytic factors (TLFs). Human TLFs are pore forming high-density lipoprotein (HDL) particles that contain apolipoprotein L-I (apoL-I) the trypanolytic component, and haptoglobin-related protein (Hpr), which binds free hemoglobin (Hb) in blood and facilitates the uptake of TLF via a trypanosome haptoglobin-hemoglobin receptor. The human-infective Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense escapes lysis by TLF by expression of serum resistance-associated (SRA) protein, which binds and neutralizes apoL-I...