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The Arabidopsis Calcium-Dependent Protein Kinases (CDPKs) and Their Roles in Plant Growth Regulation and Abiotic Stress Responses.
Shi, S, Li, S, Asim, M, Mao, J, Xu, D, Ullah, Z, Liu, G, Wang, Q, Liu, H
International journal of molecular sciences. 2018;(7)
Abstract
As a ubiquitous secondary messenger in plant signaling systems, calcium ions (Ca2+) play essential roles in plant growth and development. Within the cellular signaling network, the accurate decoding of diverse Ca2+ signal is a fundamental molecular event. Calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs), identified commonly in plants, are a kind of vital regulatory protein deciphering calcium signals triggered by various developmental and environmental stimuli. This review chiefly introduces Ca2+ distribution in plant cells, the classification of Arabidopsis thaliana CDPKs (AtCDPKs), the identification of the Ca2+-AtCDPK signal transduction mechanism and AtCDPKs’ functions involved in plant growth regulation and abiotic stress responses. The review presents a comprehensive overview of AtCDPKs and may contribute to the research of CDPKs in other plants.
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Coenzyme Q10 supplementation therapy for 2 children with proteinuria renal disease and ADCK4 mutation: Case reports and literature review.
Feng, C, Wang, Q, Wang, J, Liu, F, Shen, H, Fu, H, Mao, J
Medicine. 2017;(47):e8880
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Abstract
RATIONALE Mitochondrial nephropathy has a poor prognosis and often progresses to the end-stage renal disease. Renal pathology often is focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) and does not respond to steroid therapy or immunosuppressive therapy. Some patients are benefited from the therapy of coenzyme Q10, which affect the synthesis pathway of coenzyme Q10. PATIENT CONCERNS Herein, we report 2 cases of children with proteinuria renal disease with ADCK4 mutation. DIAGNOSES Proteinuria renal disease with ADCK4 mutation. INTERVENTIONS Compound heterozygous mutation in ADCK4 gene were detected with next-generation sequencing and confirmed by Sanger sequencing. Both of the patients were given coenzyme Q10 supplementation therapy. OUTCOMES The first patient showed a decreased proteinuria after coenzyme Q10 supplementation therapy, while the other was not improved. LESSONS Based on the cases we reported and from the literature, recognition of ADCK4 mutation through early and accurate genetic screening could be helpful in avoiding unnecessary toxicities and in preventing complications arising in mitochondrial nephropathy.
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GPS 2.1: enhanced prediction of kinase-specific phosphorylation sites with an algorithm of motif length selection.
Xue, Y, Liu, Z, Cao, J, Ma, Q, Gao, X, Wang, Q, Jin, C, Zhou, Y, Wen, L, Ren, J
Protein engineering, design & selection : PEDS. 2011;(3):255-60
Abstract
As the most important post-translational modification of proteins, phosphorylation plays essential roles in all aspects of biological processes. Besides experimental approaches, computational prediction of phosphorylated proteins with their kinase-specific phosphorylation sites has also emerged as a popular strategy, for its low-cost, fast-speed and convenience. In this work, we developed a kinase-specific phosphorylation sites predictor of GPS 2.1 (Group-based Prediction System), with a novel but simple approach of motif length selection (MLS). By this approach, the robustness of the prediction system was greatly improved. All algorithms in GPS old versions were also reserved and integrated in GPS 2.1. The online service and local packages of GPS 2.1 were implemented in JAVA 1.5 (J2SE 5.0) and freely available for academic researches at: http://gps.biocuckoo.org.
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A phase 1 trial of PfCP2.9: an AMA1/MSP1 chimeric recombinant protein vaccine for Plasmodium falciparum malaria.
Malkin, E, Hu, J, Li, Z, Chen, Z, Bi, X, Reed, Z, Dubovsky, F, Liu, J, Wang, Q, Pan, X, et al
Vaccine. 2008;(52):6864-73
Abstract
Apical Membrane Antigen 1 (AMA1) and Merozoite Surface Protein 1 (MSP1) were produced as a recombinant fusion protein and formulated with the adjuvant Montanide ISA 720 with the aim of replicating the structure present in the parasite protein. A previous trial with this construct demonstrated the vaccine was safe and immunogenic but was associated with injection site reactogenicity. This Phase 1a dose-escalating, double blind, randomized, controlled trial of PfCP2.9/Montanide ISA 720 was conducted to evaluate alternative dose levels and vaccination schedules, with a pre-formulated vaccine that had undergone more in-depth and frequent quality control and stability analysis. The trial was conducted in seventy healthy Chinese malaria-naïve volunteers between January 2006 and January 2007. The objective was to assess the safety, reactogenicity and immunogenicity of 5, 20 and 50microg of PfCP2.9/ISA 720 under 2 different schedules. The most common adverse event was injection site tenderness (53%). The frequency and severity of adverse events was similar in both vaccination schedules. Antibody responses were induced and remained elevated throughout the study in volunteers receiving vaccine (p<0.001). Although high antibody titers as measured by ELISA to the PfCP2.9 immunogen were observed, biological function of these antibodies was not reflected by the in vitro inhibition of parasite growth, and there was limited recognition of fixed parasites in an immunofluorescence assay. At all three dose levels and both schedules, this formulation of PfCP2.9/ISA 720 is well tolerated, safe and immunogenic; however no functional activity against the parasite was observed.