Antimicrobial peptides are an important component of the innate response in many species. Here we describe the isolation of the gene Dermcidin, which encodes an antimicrobial peptide that has a broad spectrum of activity and no homology to other known antimicrobial peptides. This protein was specifically and constitutively expressed in the sweat glands, secreted into the sweat and transported to the epidermal surface. In sweat, a proteolytically processed 47-amino acid peptide was generated that showed antimicrobial activity in response to a variety of pathogenic microorganisms. The activity of the peptide was maintained over a broad pH range and in high salt concentrations that resembled the conditions in human sweat. This indicated that sweat plays a role in the regulation of human skin flora through the presence of an antimicrobial peptide. This peptide may help limit infection by potential pathogens in the first few hours following bacterial colonization.

In previous studies we identified the transcription/translation factor Y-box-binding protein (YB-1) as a gene that is upregulated in primary melanoma and melanoma metastases when compared to benign melanocytic nevi. To analyze whether YB-1 expression correlates with melanoma progression in vitro and in vivo, we performed expression analysis on melanoma cell lines representing different stages of melanoma progression and on tissues of melanocytic nevi, primary melanoma and melanoma metastases. Our data indicate that compared to benign melanocytes YB-1 expression is increased in melanoma cells in vitro and in vivo and that YB-1 is translocated into the nucleus in invasive and metastatic melanoma cells. To reveal the functional role of YB-1 in melanoma progression we achieved a stable downregulation of YB-1 using shRNA in metastatic melanoma cells. Interestingly, YB-1 downregulation resulted in a pronounced reduced rate of proliferation and an increased rate of apoptotic cell death. In addition, migration and invasion of melanoma cells in monolayer and in a three-dimensional skin reconstruct in vitro was significantly reduced. These effects were accompanied by downregulation of genes involved in proliferation, survival and migration/invasion of melanoma cells such as MMP-2, bcl-2, Cyclin D1, p53 and p16INK4A. Furthermore, melanoma cells with a reduced YB-1 expression showed a decreased resistance to the chemotherapeutic agents cisplatin and etoposide. These data suggest that YB-1 is involved in malignant transformation of melanocytes and contributes to the stimulation of proliferation, tumor invasion, survival and chemoresistance. Thus, YB-1 may be a promising molecular target in melanoma therapy. ' 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Beta-catenin plays an important role in embryogenesis and carcinogenesis by controlling either cadherin-mediated cell adhesion or transcriptional activation of target gene expression. In many types of cancers nuclear translocation of beta-catenin has been observed. Our data indicate that during melanoma progression an increased dependency on the transcriptional function of beta-catenin takes place. Blockade of beta-catenin in metastatic melanoma cell lines efficiently induces apoptosis, inhibits proliferation, migration and invasion in monolayer and 3-dimensional skin reconstructs and decreases chemoresistance. In addition, subcutaneous melanoma growth in SCID mice was almost completely inhibited by an inducible beta-catenin knockdown. In contrast, the survival of benign melanocytes and primary melanoma cell lines was less affected by beta-catenin depletion. However, enhanced expression of beta-catenin in primary melanoma cell lines increased invasive capacity in vitro and tumor growth in the SCID mouse model. These data suggest that beta-catenin is an essential survival factor for metastatic melanoma cells, whereas it is dispensable for the survival of benign melanocytes and primary, non-invasive melanoma cells. Furthermore, beta-catenin increases tumorigenicity of primary melanoma cell lines. The differential requirements for beta-catenin signaling in aggressive melanoma versus benign melanocytic cells make beta-catenin a possible new target in melanoma therapy.

These results indicate that, unlike human cathelicidins and beta-defensins which are inducible peptides that primarily function in response to injury and inflammation, DCD is exclusively part of the constitutive innate defence of human skin. By modulating surface colonization, DCD may help to prevent local and systemic invasion of pathogens.

Casein kinase 1 α (CK1α) is a multifunctional Ser/Thr kinase that phosphorylates several substrates. Among those is β-catenin, an important player in cell adhesion and Wnt signaling. Phosphorylation of β-catenin by CK1α at Ser45 is the priming reaction for the proteasomal degradation of β-catenin. Interestingly, aside from this role in β-catenin degradation, very little is known about the expression and functional role of CK1α in tumor cells. Here, we show that CK1α expression in different tumor types is either strongly suppressed or completely lost during tumor progression and that CK1α is a key factor determining β-catenin stability and transcriptional activity in tumor cells. CK1α reexpression in metastatic melanoma cells reduces growth in vitro and metastasis formation in vivo, and induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, whereas suppression of CK1α in primary melanoma cells induces invasive tumor growth. Inactivation of CK1α promotes tumor progression by regulating a switch in β-catenin-mediated signaling. These results show that melanoma cells developed an efficient new mechanism to activate the β-catenin signaling pathway and define CK1α as a novel tumor suppressor. Cancer Res; 70(17); 6999-7009. ©2010 AACR.

Recently our groups discovered lugdunin, a new cyclic peptide antibiotic that inhibits S taphylococcus aureus epithelial colonization in humans and rodents. In this work, we analyzed its immuno-modulatory and antimicrobial potential as a single agent or in combination with other microbiota- or host-derived factors. We show that pretreatment of primary human keratinocytes or mouse skin with lugdunin in combination with microbiota-derived factors results in a significant reduction of S. aureus colonization. Moreover, lugdunin increases expression and release of LL-37 and CXCL8/MIP-2 in human keratinocytes and mouse skin, and results in the recruitment of monocytes and neutrophils in vivo, both by a TLR/MyD88-dependent mechanism. Interestingly, S. aureus elimination by lugdunin is additionally achieved by synergistic antimicrobial activity with LL-37 and dermcidin-derived peptides. In summary, our results indicate that lugdunin provides multi-level protection against S. aureus and may thus become a promising treatment option for S. aureus skin infections in the future.

This article explores the activation regime in three European countries-Austria, Germany, and Switzerland-and the related transformation of state bureaucracies into customer-oriented service providers. In the case of employment services affective labour tends to characterise the work process, in which public employees seek to guide, motivate, and control jobseekers. Our study focuses on organisational mechanisms, which govern the affect management of employment agents; we ask, how these actors are affectively subjectivated at the workplace and how they develop affective self-technologies to effectively govern jobseekers in counselling sessions. We conclude that state power and social policies increasingly revolve around subtle, affective means of governance, and we regard 'affective entrepreneurialism' as the dominant mode to govern public employees as well as citizens. The findings of the study are based on ethnographic fieldwork in three cities, where we conducted

Y-box binding protein 1 (YB-1) is an oncogenic transcription and translation factor and is overexpressed in several types of cancer. Our previous data showed that YB-1 is upregulated and translocated to the nucleus during melanoma progression and that YB-1 is an important transcription factor regulating proliferation, survival, migration, invasion and chemosensitivity of melanoma cells. It has been suggested that YB-1 is activated and translocated to the nucleus after S102-phosphorylation in the DNA binding domain. In this study, we show that activation of YB-1 by S102-phosphorylation and nuclear translocation is increased during melanoma progression using a human tissue microarray with 100 melanocytic lesions. Furthermore, we analysed the mechanisms governing the expression and activity of YB-1 in melanoma cells. We show that the PI3K/AKT and p53 signalling, growth factors and chemotherapeutic agents increase YB-1 promoter activity. This, however, resulted in no or only modest increase in YB-1 protein expression. We show that the MAPK and PI3K/AKT signalling pathways, both activated in melanoma cells, as well as p53 overexpression increase YB-1 S102-phosphorylation, whereas NFκB signalling inhibits phosphorylation. Overexpression of YB-1 in melanoma cells inhibits translation efficiency and by this proliferation and survival of melanoma cells indicating that there is an autoregulatory loop restricting YB-1 protein expression. These data suggest that there is a tightly regulated feedback mechanism regulating YB-1 expression and activation, necessary for proper cell cycle progression of melanoma cells.