Steven Ray Wilson

A Novel Tankyrase Inhibitor Decreases Canonical Wnt Signaling in Colon Carcinoma Cells and Reduces Tumor Growth in Conditional APC Mutant Mice

Increased nuclear accumulation of β-catenin, a mediator of canonical Wnt signaling, is found in numerous tumors and is frequently associated with tumor progression and metastasis. Inhibition of Wnt/β-catenin signaling therefore is an attractive strategy for anticancer drugs. In this study, we have identified a novel small molecule inhibitor of the β-catenin signaling pathway, JW55, that functions via inhibition of the PARP domain of tankyrase 1 and tankyrase 2 (TNKS1/2), regulators of the β-catenin destruction complex. Inhibition of TNKS1/2 poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation activity by JW55 led to stabilization of AXIN2, a member of the β-catenin destruction complex, followed by increased degradation of β-catenin. In a dose-dependent manner, JW55 inhibited canonical Wnt signaling in colon carcinoma cells that contained mutations in either the APC (adenomatous polyposis coli) locus or in an allele of β-catenin. In addition, JW55 reduced XWnt8-induced axis duplication in Xenopus embryos and tamoxifen-induced polyposis formation in conditional APC mutant mice. Together, our findings provide a novel chemotype for targeting canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling through inhibiting the PARP domain of TNKS1/2.

Novel Synthetic Antagonists of Canonical Wnt Signaling Inhibit Colorectal Cancer Cell Growth

Canonical Wnt signaling is deregulated in several types of human cancer where it plays a central role in tumor cell growth and progression. Here we report the identification of 2 new small molecules that specifically inhibit canonical Wnt pathway at the level of the destruction complex. Specificity was verified in various cellular reporter systems, a Xenopus double-axis formation assay and a gene expression profile analysis. In human colorectal cancer (CRC) cells, the new compounds JW67 and JW74 rapidly reduced active β-catenin with a subsequent downregulation of Wnt target genes, including AXIN2, SP5, and NKD1. Notably, AXIN2 protein levels were strongly increased after compound exposure. Long-term treatment with JW74 inhibited the growth of tumor cells in both a mouse xenograft model of CRC and in Apc(Min) mice (multiple intestinal neoplasia, Min). Our findings rationalize further preclinical and clinical evaluation of these new compounds as novel modalities for cancer treatment.

On-line solid phase extraction-liquid chromatography, with emphasis on modern bioanalysis and miniaturized systems.

On-line solid phase extraction (SPE)-liquid chromatography (LC) allows for automated, sensitive, precise and selective bioanalysis. It is a common feature in miniaturized- or nano LC systems, which are well suited for applications requiring high sensitivity and/or treatment of limited samples (laser micro-dissection samples, rare cancer stem cells, etc.). Traditionally, particles with reversed phase (RP) functional groups are used for the columns in SPE-LC systems. There is however an expanding diversity in SPE-LC combinations applied to meet todays bioanalytical challenges. Current online SPE-LC combinations employ, e.g. porous graphitic carbon (PGC) and hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) materials for metabolomics and glycomics, restricted access media (RAM) columns coupled with nano LC for peptidomics, immunoaffinity trap columns for targeted proteomics and metal oxide affinity phases for phosphopeptide analysis. However, issues can arise when combining different phases in on-line SPE-LC, e.g. due to solvent incompatibilities between enrichment/separation principles and sample solvent requirements. Consequences can be low recovery and poor resolution, or need for additional instrumentation. On-line SPE-LC with very narrow columns (10-20 μm inner diameters) can be appropriate to obtain maximum sensitivity and information. In such highly miniaturized systems, non-particulate columns are arguably more suited (e.g. monolithic or porous layer open tubular (PLOT) columns) as e.g. hardware contributions resulting in extra column volumes are reduced. Basic SPE-LC systems can be configured/modified to perform quite complex analytical operations, and certain columns, configurations and hardware can improve robustness.

Poly(lactide-co-glycolide)-rifampicin nanoparticles efficiently clear Mycobacterium bovis BCG infection in macrophages and remain membrane-bound in phago-lysosomes.

Summary Nanoparticles (NPs) are increasingly used as biodegradable vehicles to selectively deliver therapeutic agents such as drugs or antigens to cells. The most widely used vehicle for this purpose is based on copolymers of lactic acid and glycolic acid (PLGA) and has been extensively used in experiments aimed at delivering antibiotics against Mycobacterium tuberculosis in animal models of tuberculosis. Here, we describe fabrication of PLGA NPs containing either a high concentration of rifampicin or detectable levels of the green fluorescent dye, coumarin-6. Our goal here was twofold: first to resolve the controversial issue of whether, after phagocytic uptake, PLGA NPs remain membrane-bound or whether they escape into the cytoplasm, as has been widely claimed. Second, we sought to make NPs that enclosed sufficient rifampicin to efficiently clear macrophages of infection with Mycobacterium bovis BCG. Using fluorescence microscopy and immuno-electron microscopy, in combination with markers for lysosomes, we show that BCG bacteria, as expected, localized to early phagosomes, but that at least 90% of PLGA particles were targeted to, and remained in, low pH, hydrolase-rich phago-lysosomes. Our data collectively argue that PLGA NPs remain membrane-enclosed in macrophages for at least 13 days and degrade slowly. Importantly, provided that the NPs are fabricated with sufficient antibiotic, one dose given after infection is sufficient to efficiently clear the BCG infection after 9–12 days of treatment, as shown by estimates of the number of bacterial colonies in vitro.

Improving the resolution of neuropeptides in rat brain with on-line HILIC-RP compared to on-line SCX-RP.

Our two already established on-line 2-D LC systems, a strong cation exchange-RP chromatography (SCX-RP) system and a hydrophilic interaction LC (HILIC)-RP 2-D LC system, were compared to explore which system is best suited for our further studies of differences in cerebral neuropeptide expression as a function of hypoxia-caused stress. The same mass spectrometer and database search parameters were applied in both systems. In total, 19 first dimension fractions were collected with the novel on-line HILIC-RP system, including a Hypercarb SPE column that was applied to trap the compounds not retained on a Kromasil C18 enrichment column. In contrast, six fractions were collected in the SCX-RP method, due to practical limitations of this traditional on-line 2-D LC system. With the on-line HILIC-RP system three times more peaks were detected. It was observed that most of the compounds eluted in the first two fractions in the SCX-RP method, while in the 2-D HILIC-RP method there seemed to be no correlation between peaks detected and fraction number. Thus, from this systematic study it seems that on-line HILIC-RP chromatography is the method of choice for comparative peptidomics of cerebral neuropeptides in future studies.

Hydrophilic interaction chromatography of nucleoside triphosphates with temperature as a separation parameter

Eight deoxynucleoside triphosphates (dNTPs) and nucleoside triphosphates (NTPs): ATP, CTP, GTP, UTP, dATP, dCTP, dGTP and dTTP, were separated with two 15 cm ZIC-pHILIC columns coupled in series, using LC-UV instrumentation. The polymer-based ZIC-pHILIC column gave significantly better separations and peak shape than a silica-based ZIC-HILIC column. Better separations were obtained with isocratic elution as compared to gradient elution. The temperature markedly affected the selectivity and could be used to fine tune separation. The analysis time was also affected by temperature, as lower temperatures surprisingly reduced the retention of the nucleotides. dNTP/NTP standards could be separated in 35 min with a flow rate of 200 μL/min. In Escherichia coli cell culture samples dNTP/NTPs could be selectively separated in 7 0min using a flow rate of 100 μL/min.

Separation of intact proteins on porous layer open tubular (PLOT) columns

Porous layer open tubular (PLOT) polystyrene divinylbenzene columns have been used for separating intact proteins with gradient elution. The 10 microm I.D. x 3 m columns were easily coupled to standard liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) instrumentation with commercially available fittings. Standard proteins separated on PLOT columns appeared as narrow and symmetrical peaks with good resolution. Average peak width increased linearly with gradient time (tG) from 0.14 to 0.33 min (tG 20 and 120 min, respectively) using a 3 m column. With shorter columns, peak widths were larger and increased more steeply with gradient time. Theoretical peak capacity (nc) increased with column length (tested up to 3 m). The nc increased with tG until a plateau was reached. The highest peak capacity achieved (nc=185) was obtained with a 3 m column, where a plateau was reached with tG 90 min. The within- and between column retention time repeatabilities were below 0.6% and below 2.5% (relative standard deviation, RSD), respectively. The carry-over following injection of 0.5 ng per protein was less than 1.1%. The retention time dependence on column temperature was investigated in the range 20-50 degrees C. Proteins in a skimmed milk sample were separated using the method.

Proteomics tools reveal startlingly high amounts of oxytocin in plasma and serum

The neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) is associated with a plethora of social behaviors, and is a key topic at the intersection of psychology and biology. However, tools for measuring OT are still not fully developed. We describe a robust nano liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (nanoLC-MS) platform for measuring the total amount of OT in human plasma/serum. OT binds strongly to plasma proteins, but a reduction/alkylation (R/A) procedure breaks this bond, enabling ample detection of total OT. The method (R/A + robust nanoLC-MS) was used to determine total OT plasma/serum levels to startlingly high concentrations (high pg/mL-ng/mL). Similar results were obtained when combining R/A and ELISA. Compared to measuring free OT, measuring total OT can have advantages in e.g. biomarker studies.

A Critical Review of Trypsin Digestion for LC-MS Based Proteomics

Proteomics is defined as the large-scale study of proteins in particular for their structures and functions (Anderson and Anderson 1998), and investigations of proteins have become very important since they are the main components of the physiological metabolic pathways in eukaryotic cells. Proteomics increasingly plays an important role in areas like protein interaction studies, biomarker discovery, cancer prevention, drug treatment and disease screening medical diagnostics (Capelo et al. 2009). Proteomics can be performed either in a comprehensive or “shotgun” mode, where proteins are identified in complex mixtures, or as “targeted proteomics” where “selective reaction monitoring” (SRM) is used to choose in advance the proteins to observe, and then measuring them accurately, by optimizing the sample preparation as well as the LC-MS method in accordance to the specific proteins (Mitchell 2010). Whether “MS-based shotgun proteomics” has accomplished anything at all regarding clinically useful results was recently addressed by Peter Mitchell in a feature article (Mitchell 2010), and he states that the field needs to make a further step or even change direction. Referring to discussions with among others John Yates and Matthias Mann, Mitchell addresses the failure in the search for biomarkers as indicators of disease, the difficulties of protein arrays, the uncertainty of quantification in “shotgun proteomics” (due to among others the efficiency of ionization in the mass spectrometers), database shortcomings, the problems of detecting post translational modifications (PTMs), and finally the huge disappointment in the area of drug discovery. The field points in the direction of targeted proteomics, but targeted proteomics will not be the solution to all our questions and comprehensive proteomics will still be needed. In order to get as much information, with as high quality as possible, from a biological sample, both the sample preparation and the final LC-MS analyses need to be optimized. The most important step in the sample preparation for proteomics is the conversion of proteins to peptides and in most cases trypsin is used as enzyme. Trypsin is a protease that specifically cleaves the proteins creating peptides both in the preferred mass range for MS sequencing and with a basic residue at the carboxyl terminus of the peptide, producing information-rich, easily interpretable peptide fragmentation mass spectra. Some other proteases can be used as well, such as Lys-C, which is active in more harsh conditions with 8 M urea, and give larger fragments than trypsin. Asp-N and Glu-C are also highly sequence-

Separation optimization of long porous‐layer open‐tubular columns for nano‐LC–MS of limited proteomic samples

The single-run resolving power of current 10 μm id porous-layer open-tubular (PLOT) columns has been optimized. The columns studied had a poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene) porous layer (~0.75 μm thickness). In contrast to many previous studies that have employed complex plumbing or compromising set-ups, SPE-PLOT-LC-MS was assembled without the use of additional hardware/noncommercial parts, additional valves or sample splitting. A comprehensive study of various flow rates, gradient times, and column length combinations was undertaken. Maximum resolution for <400 bar was achieved using a 40 nL/min flow rate, a 400 min gradient and an 8 m long column. We obtained a 2.3-fold increase in peak capacity compared to previous PLOT studies (950 versus previously obtained 400, when using peak width = 2σ definition). Our system also meets or surpasses peak capacities obtained in recent reports using nano-ultra-performance LC conditions or long silica monolith nanocolumns. Nearly 500 proteins (1958 peptides) could be identified in just one single injection of an extract corresponding to 1000 BxPC3 beta catenin (-/-) cells, and ~1200 and 2500 proteins in extracts of 10,000 and 100,000 cells, respectively, allowing detection of central members and regulators of the Wnt signaling pathway.