Our data indicate that the S230R substitution is comparable to the previously reported R263K substitution in some respects. Virologic failure during DTG monotherapy can occur through the development of the S230R or R263K mutation, without the need for high-level DTG resistance.

Pulmonary fibrosis is a progressive and irreversible disorder with no appropriate cure. A practical and effective experimental model that recapitulates the disease will greatly benefit the research community and, ultimately, patients. In this study, we tested the lung slice culture (LSC) system for its potential use in drug screening and disease biomarker identification. Fibrosis was induced by treating rat lung slices with 1ng/ml TGF-ß1 and 2.5μM CdCl2, quantified by measuring the content of hydroxyproline, and confirmed by detecting the expression of collagen type III alpha 1 (Col3α1) and connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) genes. The anti-fibrotic effects of pirfenidone, spironolactone and eplerenone were assessed by their capability to reduce hydroxyproline content. A subtractive hybridisation technique was used to create two cDNA libraries (subtracted and unsubtracted) from lung slices. The housekeeping gene glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) was employed to assess the subtraction efficiency of the subtracted cDNA library. Clones from the two libraries were sequenced and the genes were identified by performing a BLAST search on the NCBI GenBank database. Furthermore, the relevance of the genes to fibrosis formation was verified. The results presented here show that fibrosis was effectively induced in cultured lung slices, which exhibited significantly elevated levels of hydroxyproline and Col3α1/CTGF gene expression. Several inhibitors have demonstrated their anti-fibrotic effects by significantly reducing hydroxyproline content. The subtracted cDNA library, which was enriched for differentially expressed genes, was used to successfully identify genes associated with fibrosis. Collectively, the results indicate that our LSC system is an effective model for the screening of drug candidates and for disease biomarker identification.

High levels of D-2-hydroxyglutarate (D2HG) are found in several types of cancers, most notably low grade gliomas (LGGs). The accumulation of D-2HG contributes to tumorigenesis through a variety of mechanisms including decreased utilization of oxidative phosphorylation and histone hypermethylation. The use of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model system to study cancer allows for faster, more efficient elucidation of various molecular mechanisms, including functional genomics via genomic array screening. S. cerevisiae encodes two homologs of the human D-2HG dehydrogenase: the mitochondrial Dld2 and cytosolic Dld3. We detected an increase in the production of D-2HG in the dld3∆ knockout strain by LC-MS. In addition, the dld3∆ knockout strain shows decreased survival and a growth impairment in glucose-containing liquid media. However, this strain did not show a significant growth impairment on glucose or glycerol-containing solid media. Using publicly available Synthetic Genomic Array (SGA) analysis data from TheCellMap.org, we investigated the top negative gene interactions for our dld3 knockout strain. GO analysis of these negative gene interactions showed enrichment of targets locating to the mitochondria, suggesting that the increase of 2-HG leads to mitochondrial impairment, consistent with previous observations in other models of LGGs. The top two targets of the SGA screen were mdm35, a mitochondrial interspace membrane protein involved in assembly of the mitochondrial respiratory chain complex and cdc8, a component of the de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis pathway. Taken together, these results suggest that the dld3∆ knockout strain is an appropriate model in which to study the D-2HG-driven changes that occur during tumorigenesis.