No abstract

Background: The discovery and development of novel biomarkers that could facilitate early diagnosis and thus prevent the progression of atherosclerosis-related diabetes mellitus (DM), cerebral infarction (CI), and cardiovascular disease (CVD) has garnered much research interest. Notably, recent reports have described a number of highly sensitive antibody markers. In this study, we aimed to identify additional antibody markers that would facilitate screening. Methods:The amplified luminescent proximity homogeneous assay (AlphaLISA) method, which incorporates glutathione-or streptavidin-donor beads and anti-human-IgG-acceptor beads, was used to evaluate serum antibody levels in serum samples. The protein array method was used for the initial screening, and peptide arrays were used to identify epitope sites. Results:The protein array identified SH3 domain-binding protein 5 (SH3BP5) as a target antigen of serum IgG antibodies in the sera of patients with atherosclerosis. We prepared recombinant glutathione S-transferase (GST)-fused SH3BP5 protein. Peptide arrays revealed that the epitope site recognized by serum antibodies is located within amino acids 161-174 of SH3BP5. AlphaLISA revealed significantly higher serum antibody levels against both the SH3BP5 protein and peptide in patients with DM, acute-phase CI, transient ischemic attack, CVD or chronic kidney disease (CKD), than in healthy donors. Furthermore, areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves of these antibodies were higher in patients with CKD and DM than in other patients. Spearman correlation analysis revealed associations between the serum antibody levels against SH3BP5 peptide and artery stenosis, hypertension, and smoking. Conclusions:The serum anti-SH3BP5 antibody marker appears to be useful for estimating the progress of atherosclerosis and may discriminate atherosclerosis associated with hypertension and/or habitual smoking.

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using monoclonal antibodies to human lung surfactant protein A (SP-A) was applied to sera from patients with lung diseases. We examined whether SP-A appears in the sera of patients with diseases that are known to cause alterations in surfactant composition in bronchoalveolar lavage fluids, and we characterized the SP-A that was found. The level of SP-A in sera from 57 healthy volunteers was 45 +/- 3 ng/ml (mean +/- SEM). The levels in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) (205 +/- 23 ng/ml, n = 32) and pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) (285 +/- 23 ng/ml, n = 6) were significantly higher than those in healthy control subjects (p < 0.01), whereas those of sarcoidosis (n = 16), pneumonia (n = 14), and tuberculosis (n = 14) were 52 +/- 27 ng/ml, 65 +/- 11 ng/ml, and 49 +/- 23 ng/ml, respectively. Electrophoresis and immunoblotting analysis demonstrated that the fraction isolated from serum of a patient with PAP or IPF by anti-SP-A immunoaffinity column chromatography consisted chiefly of human IgG and IgM, and that it also contained SP-A. Furthermore, IgG was found in preparation of purified human SP-A. SP-A was demonstrated to bind to nonimmune IgG coated onto microtiter wells. Gel filtration analysis revealed that serum SP-A was eluted at fractions of larger molecular size than was the purified SP-A. These findings suggest that SP-A appears in the bloodstream as a complex with immunoglobulin in IPF and in PAP.

Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a halophilic gram-negative rod, causes seafood-borne gastroenteritis in humans. Infections caused by this organism have been associated with diverse serovars: 13 O serotypes and 75 K serotypes have been identified. Recent studies, however, have revealed the emergence and pandemic spread of a single serovar, O3:K6 (1-6). Strains belonging to the O3:K6 serovar abruptly appeared in India in 1996 and have since been isolated in Southeast Asian countries, from travelers at quarantine stations in Japan, and from foodborne outbreaks in the United States (1-5). This serovar accounts for more than half of the V. parahaemolyticus isolates from diarrheal patients in Japan (6). Such widespread occurrence of a single serovar of V. parahaemolyticus had not previously been reported. Since 1998, V. parahaemolyticus strains belonging to other two serovars, O4:K68 and O1:K untypeable (KUT), have also been isolated with increasing frequency from diarrheal patients (2,6,7). The genetic background of the O4:K68 and O1:KUT isolates is almost indistinguishable from that of the recent O3:K6 strains, suggesting a common origin (2,7).In a previous study, we reported on a filamentous phage that is specifically associated with the recent O3:K6 serovar strains of V. parahaemolyticus (8). This phage, f237, has several genes in common with and a similar genomic structure to another filamentous phage, CTX (9), which is known to carry the genes for cholera enterotoxin (ctxAB), the most important virulence factor of V. cholerae. Instead of ctxAB, f237 possesses a unique open reading frame, ORF8, which has no homology with other sequences in DNA databases (8). In this study, we examined the distribution of f237 in recent clinical isolates of V. parahaemolyticus.

Eusocial insects exhibit various morphological castes associated with the division of labor within a colony. Termite soldiers possess defensive traits including mandibles that are greatly exaggerated and enlarged, as compared to termite reproductives and workers. The enlarged mandibles of soldiers are known to result from dynamic morphogenesis during soldier differentiation that can be induced by juvenile hormone and its analogs. However, the detailed developmental mechanisms still remain unresolved. Because the insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling (IIS) pathway has been shown to regulate the relative sizes of organs (i.e., allometry) in other insects, we examined the expression profiles of major IIS factors in the damp-wood termite Hodotermopsis sjostedti, during soldier differentiation. The relative expression patterns of orthologs for termite InR (HsjInR), PKB/Akt (HsjPKB/Akt), and FOXO (HsjFOXO) suggest that HsjInR and HsjPKB/Akt were up-regulated in the period of elongation of mandibles during soldier development. In situ hybridization showed that HsjInR was strongly expressed in the mandibular epithelial tissues, and RNA interference (RNAi) for HsjInR disrupted soldier-specific morphogenesis including mandibular elongation. These results suggest that signaling through the IIS pathway is required for soldier-specific morphogenesis. In addition, up-regulation of the IIS pathway in other body tissues occurred at earlier stages of development, indicating that there is tissue-specific IIS regulation. Because the IIS pathway is generally thought to act upstream of JH in insects, our results suggest the damp-wood termite may have evolved a novel feedback loop between JH and IIS that enables social interactions, rather than nutrition, to regulate caste determination.