The development of a new class of surfactants for membrane protein manipulation, “GNG amphiphiles”, is reported. These amphiphiles display promising behavior for membrane proteins, as demonstrated recently by the high resolution structure of a sodium-pumping pyrophosphatase reported by Kellosalo et al.
Toll-like receptors (TLRs) recognise invading pathogens and initiate an innate immune response by recruiting intracellular adaptor proteins via heterotypic Toll/interleukin-1 receptor (TIR) domain interactions. Of the five TIR domain-containing adaptor proteins identified, Sterile α- and armadillo-motif-containing protein (SARM) is functionally unique; suppressing immune signalling instead of promoting it. Here we demonstrate that the recombinantly expressed and purified SARM TIR domain interacts with both the major human TLR adaptors, MyD88 and TRIF. A single glycine residue located in the BB-loop of the SARM TIR domain, G601, was identified as essential for interaction. A short peptide derived from this motif was also found to interact with MyD88 in vitro. SARM expression in HEK293 cells was found to significantly suppress lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-mediated upregulation of inflammatory cytokines, IL-8 and TNF-α, an effect lost in the G601A mutant. The same result was observed with cytokine activation initiated by MyD88 expression and stimulation of TLR2 with lipoteichoic acid (LTA), suggesting that SARM is capable of suppressing both TRIF- and MyD88- dependent TLR signalling. Our findings indicate that SARM acts on a broader set of target proteins than previously thought, and that the BB-loop motif is functionally important, giving further insight into the endogenous mechanisms used to suppress inflammation in immune cells.
Summary Background Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is a heterogeneous disease, the signs and symptoms of which can be summarised with use of composite disease activity measures, including the clinical Juvenile Arthritis Disease Activity Score (cJADAS). However, clusters of children and young people might experience different global patterns in their signs and symptoms of disease, which might run in parallel or diverge over time. We aimed to identify such clusters in the 3 years after a diagnosis of JIA. The identification of these clusters would allow for a greater understanding of disease progression in JIA, including how physician-reported and patient-reported outcomes relate to each other over the JIA disease course. Methods In this multicentre prospective longitudinal study, we included children and young people recruited before Jan 1, 2015, to the Childhood Arthritis Prospective Study (CAPS), a UK multicentre inception cohort. Participants without a cJADAS score were excluded. To assess groups of children and young people with similar disease patterns in active joint count, physician's global assessment, and patient or parental global evaluation, we used latent profile analysis at initial presentation to paediatric rheumatology and multivariate group-based trajectory models for the following 3 years. Optimal models were selected on the basis of a combination of model fit, clinical plausibility, and model parsimony. Finding Between Jan 1, 2001, and Dec 31, 2014, 1423 children and young people with JIA were recruited to CAPS, 239 of whom were excluded, resulting in a final study population of 1184 children and young people. We identified five clusters at baseline and six trajectory groups using longitudinal follow-up data. Disease course was not well predicted from clusters at baseline; however, in both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses, substantial proportions of children and young people had high patient or parent global scores despite low or improving joint counts and physician global scores. Participants in these groups were older, and a higher proportion of them had enthesitis-related JIA and lower socioeconomic status, compared with those in other groups. Interpretation Almost one in four children and young people with JIA in our study reported persistent, high patient or parent global scores despite having low or improving active joint counts and physician's global scores. Distinct patient subgroups defined by disease manifestation or trajectories of progression could help to better personalise health-care services and treatment plans for individuals with JIA. Funding Medical Research Council, Versus Arthritis, Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, Olivia's Vision, and National Institute for Health Research.
Objectives ∼30% of patients with SLE develop LN. Presence and/or severity of LN are currently assessed by renal biopsy, but biomarkers in serum or urine samples may provide an avenue for non-invasive routine testing. We aimed to validate a urinary protein panel for its ability to predict active renal involvement in SLE. Methods A total of 197 SLE patients and 48 healthy controls were recruited, and urine samples collected. Seventy-five of the SLE patients had active LN and 104 had no or inactive renal disease. Concentrations of lipocalin-like prostaglandin D synthase (LPGDS), transferrin, alpha-1-acid glycoprotein (AGP-1), ceruloplasmin, monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1) were quantified by MILLIPLEX® Assays using the MAGPIX Luminex platform. Binary logistic regression was conducted to examine whether proteins levels associate with active renal involvement and/or response to rituximab treatment. Results Urine levels of transferrin (P <0.005), AGP-1 (P <0.0001), MCP-1 (P <0.001) and sVCAM-1 (P <0.005) were significantly higher in SLE patients when compared with healthy controls. Furthermore, levels of transferrin, AGP-1, ceruloplasmin, MCP-1 and sVCAM-1 (all P <0.0001) were higher in SLE patients with active LN when compared with patients without active LN. A combination of five urine proteins, namely LPGDS, transferrin, ceruloplasmin, MCP-1 and sVCAM-1 was a good predictor of active LN (AUC 0.898). A combined model of LPGDS, transferrin, AGP-1, ceruloplasmin, MCP-1 and sVCAM-1 predicted response to rituximab treatment at 12 months (AUC 0.818). Conclusions Findings support the use of a urinary protein panel to identify active LN and potentially predict response to treatment with rituximab in adult SLE patients. Prospective studies are required to confirm findings.
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