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Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), especially T-acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL), is a common childhood malignant neoplastic disorder. Chemotherapy agents, particularly those that can induce apoptosis, are the major intervening strategy in the treatment of ALL. In this study, we investigated in T-ALL cell line, CCRF-CEM, the in vitro cytotoxic effect and the mechanism of action of baicalin, a compound extracted from Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi and S. rivularis Benth (Labiateae). Results demonstrated that baicalin displayed a remarkable cytotoxic effect in CCRF-CEM, with an IC₅₀ value of 10.6 μg/ml. It triggered apoptotic effect by fragmentizing cellular DNA and arrested the cell cycle at G₀/G₁ phase. Baicalin (37.5 μg/ml)had not effected the expression of p53 and Fas protein. It was shown to decline the expression of Bcl-2 (22.0 pg/ml), which consequently caused the loss (52.7%)of transmembrane potential (ΔΨm) in the mitochondria after 72 hours of treatment. Baicalin (37.5 μg/ml) also elevated the amount of cytosolic cytochrome c (19.2 μg/ml), which finally triggered the activation of caspase-3 (50.1 pmol/min). In conclusion, baicalin was found to induce apoptosis in T-ALL cell lines through multiple pathways. This finding encourages further investigation of baicalin in its role as a potential candidate for chemotherapeutic agents in T-ALL.

Matrine, a low toxic alkaloid purified from the Chinese herb Kushen, has been reported to induce apoptosis in leukemia K562 cells. In this study, the mechanism underling this apoptotic event was investigated. Treatment of K562 cells with matrine resulted in inhibition of cell survival more significantly than treatment of non-cancer fibroblast NIH3T3 cells. When K562 cells were incubated with matrine in higher than 0.2 mg/ml doses for 48 hours, the apoptotic cells were increased and both poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) and caspase-3 were cleaved in a dose dependent manner. General caspase inhibitor (z-VAD-fmk) or caspase-3 inhibitor (z-DEVD-fmk) almost completely suppressed matrine-induced apoptosis. In addition, matrine increased proapoptotic protein bax and caused the release of cytochrome C. Taken together, the results suggest that matrine induces a cytochrome C-mediated, caspase-dependent apoptosis.

Uveal melanoma, the most common primary intraocular malignancy in adults, is highly resistant to most chemotherapeutic drugs. Arsenic trioxide (ATO) is known to inhibit ocular melanoma cell growth. However, the effects of ATO on human uveal melanoma cells are poorly understood. Therefore, this study evaluated the mechanisms of ATO and its inhibiting effects on a human uveal melanoma cell line (SP6.5). An MTT assay indicated that, compared to human fibroblasts, ATO had a stronger inhibiting effect on SP6.5 cell proliferation in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The apoptosis ratio in SP6.5 cells, which was indicated by cell DNA fragmentation, was 4.1- to 7.7-fold higher after ATO-treatment. The ATO treatment substantially increased the activities of caspase-3 and caspase-9, but not of caspase-8. These findings were consistent with the protein expression observed by Western blots. ATO also significantly enhanced expression of Bax and cytochrome c proteins but suppressed those of Bcl-2. Therefore, ATO-induced apoptosis in uveal melanoma cells occurs mainly through the mitochondrial pathway rather than through the death receptor pathway. This report is the first to evaluate the complete mitochondria-dependent apoptotic pathway of ATO in uveal melanoma cells. These results can be used to improve the clinical effectiveness of ATO treatment for uveal melanoma.

To illustrate the power of the biophysical approach in solving important problems in life science, I present here one of our current research projects as example. We have developed special biophotonic techniques to study the dynamic properties of signaling proteins in a single living cell. This study allowed us to gain new insight into the signaling mechanism regulating programmed cell death.

The photopatterning process of self-assembled monolayer has been used as template for fabricating biomolecular microstructures. Alkanethiolates formed by the adsorption of 1-octanethiol molecules on a gold substrate were oxidized by the irradiation of deep UV light and then developed with deionized water. The resulting positive patterned substrate was immersed into a dilute ethanolic solution of 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid (11-MUDA). Cytochrome c monolayers were immobilized onto the patterned gold substrate by self-assembly technique and their electrochemical properties were investigated through the measurements of cyclic voltammetry. Also, I–V characteristics of biomolecular multilayers consisting of cytochrome c and green fluorescent protein (GFP) were studied with a scanning tunneling microscope (STM).

Recent NMR structural and dynamical data on partially folded forms of mono-heme cytochrome c provide a unifying picture of the behavior of the protein far from the native conditions and suggest useful hints to explain the redox dependent stability of the protein. A fragile hinge in the structure of mitochondrial cytochrome c is identified, which may not have correspondents in smaller type-1 cytochromes. Former spectroscopic and kinetic data are here discussed in terms of this new view.

The modification of myoglobin is an attractive process not only for understanding its molecular mechanism but also for engineering the protein function. The strategy of myoglobin functionalization can be divided into at least two approaches: site-directed mutagenesis and reconstitution with a non-natural prosthetic group. The former method enables us to mainly modulate the physiological function, while the latter has the advantage of introducing a new function on the protein. Particularly, replacement of the native hemin with an artificially created hemin having hydrophobic moieties at the terminal of the heme-propionate side chains serves as an appropriate substrate-binding site near the heme pocket, and consequently enhances the peroxidase and peroxygenase activities for the reconstituted myoglobin. In addition, the incorporation of the synthetic hemin bearing modified heme-propionates into an appropriate apomyoglobin mutant drastically enhances the peroxidase activity. In contrast, to convert myoglobin into a cytochrome P450 enzyme, a flavin moiety as an electron transfer mediator was introduced at the terminal of the heme-propionate side chain. The flavomyoglobin catalyzes the deformylation of 2-phenylpropanal in the presence of NADH under aerobic conditions through the peroxoanion formation from the oxygenated species. In addition, modification of the heme-propionate side chains has an significant influence on regulating the reactivity of the horseradish peroxidase. Furthermore, the heme-propionate side chain can form a metal binding site with a carboxylate residue in the heme pocket. These studies indicate that modification of the heme-propionate side chains can be a new and effective way to engineer functions for the hemoproteins.

The use of protonless ¹³C′–¹³C′ EXSY (COCO-EXSY) is proposed here to measure electron self-exchange rates. The experiment is compared to the commonly employed ¹H and ¹⁵N EXSY experiments using as a reference system human cytochrome c. In COCO-EXSY, the exchange peaks are stronger than in the other experiments with respect to the self peaks and their intensity is less dependent on the choice of the EXSY mixing time. The use of ¹³C directed detection may be essential for all those cases where T₂ relaxation is detrimental, as in the case of proteins containing highly paramagnetic metal centers, or rotating slowly in solution, or where the amide signals are difficult to detect due to chemical or conformational exchange. The proposed experiment has a general applicability and can be used to monitor exchange phenomena different from electron self-exchange.

The tertiary 3D structures of proteins determine their unique functions. Perturbation of their native state including denaturation may cause loss of the protein functions. In this work, water-soluble tetraphenylethylene (TPE) fluorophore, sodium 1,2-bis[4-(3-sulfonatopropoxyl)phenyl]-1,2-diphenylethene (BSPOTPE), with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics is utilized as a fluorescent probe for protein detection and for differentiating their folding modes. Owing to hydrophobic interaction between the proteins and BSPOTPE, it provides a fast and simple method to differentiate the native and denatured states of the proteins through monitoring fluorescence change in solution and PAGE gels. Six proteins are chosen as model proteins in the study. Among them, cytochrome c shows distinctive behavior to other proteins due to the presence of heme group. A comprehensive study of cytochrome c and human serum albumin is carried out in this work.

The photopatterning process of self-assembled monolayer has been used as template for fabricating biomolecular microstructures. Alkanethiolates formed by the adsorption of 1-octanethiol molecules on a gold substrate were oxidized by the irradiation of deep UV light and then developed with deionized water. The resulting positive patterned substrate was immersed into a dilute ethanolic solution of 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid (11-MUDA). Cytochrome c monolayers were immobilized onto the patterned gold substrate by self-assembly technique and their electrochemical properties were investigated through the measurements of cyclic voltammetry. Also, I–V characteristics of biomolecular multilayers consisting of cytochrome c and green fluorescent protein (GFP) were studied with a scanning tunneling microscope (STM).