Background: Plant homeodomain (PHD) fingers are central "readers" of histone post-translational modifications (PTMs) with > 100 PHD finger-containing proteins encoded by the human genome. Many of the PHDs studied to date bind to unmodified or methylated states of histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4). Additionally, many of these domains, and the proteins they are contained in, have crucial roles in the regulation of gene expression and cancer development. Despite this, the majority of PHD fingers have gone uncharacterized; thus, our understanding of how these domains contribute to chromatin biology remains incomplete. Results: We expressed and screened 123 of the annotated human PHD fingers for their histone binding preferences using reader domain microarrays. A subset (31) of these domains showed strong preference for the H3 N-terminal tail either unmodified or methylated at H3K4. These H3 readers were further characterized by histone peptide microarrays and/or AlphaScreen to comprehensively define their H3 preferences and PTM cross-talk. Conclusions: The high-throughput approaches utilized in this study establish a compendium of binding information for the PHD reader family with regard to how they engage histone PTMs and uncover several novel reader domainhistone PTM interactions (i.e., PHRF1 and TRIM66). This study highlights the usefulness of high-throughput analyses of histone reader proteins as a means of understanding how chromatin engagement occurs biochemically.

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Background: Damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) stimulate endothelial syndecan-1 shedding and neutrophil extracellular traps (NET) formation. The role of NETs in trauma and trauma-induced hypercoagulability is unknown. We hypothesized that trauma patients with accelerated thrombin generation would have increased NETosis and syndecan-1 levels. Methods: In this pilot study, we analyzed 50 citrated plasma samples from 30 trauma patients at 0 h (n ¼ 22) and 6 h (n ¼ 28) from time of injury (TOI) and 21 samples from healthy volunteers, for a total of 71 samples included in analysis. Thrombin generation was quantified using calibrated automated thrombogram (CAT) and reported as lag time (LT), peak height (PH), and time to peak (ttPeak). Nucleosome calibrated (H3NUC) and free histone standardized (H3Free) ELISAs were used to quantify NETs. Syndecan-1 levels were quantified by ELISA. Results are presented as median [interquartile range] and Spearman rank correlations. Results: Plasma levels of H3NUC were increased in trauma patients as compared with healthy volunteers both at 0 h (89.8 ng/mL [35.4, 180.3]; 18.1 ng/mL [7.8, 37.4], P ¼ 0.002) and at 6 h (86.5 ng/mL [19.2, 612.6]; 18.1 ng/mL [7.8, 37.4], P ¼ 0.003) from TOI. H3Free levels were increased in trauma patients at 0 h (5.74 ng/mL [3.19, 8.76]; 1.61 ng/mL [0.66, 3.50], P ¼ 0.002) and 6 h (5.52 ng/mL [1.46, 11.37]; 1.61 ng/mL [0.66, 3.50], P ¼ 0.006). Syndecan-1 levels were greater in trauma patients (4.53 ng/mL [3.28, 6.28]; 2.40 ng/mL [1.66, 3.20], P < 0.001) only at 6 h from TOI. H3Free and syndecan-1 levels positively correlated both at 0 h (0.376, P ¼ 0.013) and 6 h (0.583, P < 0.001) from TOI. H3NUC levels and syndecan-1 levels were positively correlated at 6 h from TOI (0.293, P ¼ 0.041). TtPeak correlated inversely to H3 NUC (À0.358, P ¼ 0.012) and syndecan-1 levels (À0.298, P ¼ 0.038) at 6 h from TOI. Conclusions: Our pilot study demonstrates that trauma patients have increased NETosis, measured by H3NUC and H3Free levels, increased syndecan-1 shedding, and accelerated thrombin generation kinetics early after injury.

A series of cationic gold(I) complexes containing 1-[2-(acridin-9-ylamino)ethyl]-1,3-dimethylthiourea (1), [AuL(1)]n+ (where L is Cl−, Br-, SCN−, PEt3, PPh3, or 1), derived from a class of analogous platinum(II) antitumor agents, has been synthesized. Unlike platinum, gold does not form permanent adducts with DNA, and its complexes are two orders of magnitude less cytotoxic in non-small-cell lung cancer cells than the most active platinum-based agent. Instead, several gold analogues show submicromolar and selective antimicrobial activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

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