The Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an arthropod borne virus. In the last 50 years, it has been the cause of numerous outbreaks in tropical and temperate regions, worldwide. There is limited understanding regarding the underlying molecular mechanisms involved in CHIKV replication and how the virus interacts with its host. In the present study, comparative proteomics was used to identify secreted host proteins that changed in abundance in response to early CHIKV infection. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis was used to analyse and compare the secretome profiles of WRL-68 cells infected with CHIKV against mock control WRL-68 cells. The analysis identified 25 regulated proteins in CHIKV infected cells. STRING network analysis was then used to predict biological processes that may be affected by these proteins. The processes predicted to be affected include signal transduction, cellular component and extracellular matrix (ECM) organization, regulation of cytokine stimulus and immune response. These results provide an initial view of CHIKV may affect the secretome of infected cells during early infection. The results presented here will compliment earlier results from the study of late host response. However, functional characterization will be necessary to further enhance our understanding of the roles played by these proteins in the early stages of CHIKV infection in humans.
The epigenetic changes of RELN that are involved in the development of dopaminergic neurons may fit the developmental theory of schizophrenia. However, evidence regarding the association of RELN DNA methylation with schizophrenia is far from sufficient, as studies have only been conducted on a few limited brain samples. As DNA methylation in the peripheral blood may mirror the changes taking place in the brain, the use of peripheral blood for a DNA methylation study in schizophrenia is feasible due to the scarcity of brain samples. Therefore, the aim of our study was to examine the relationship of DNA methylation levels of RELN promoters with schizophrenia using genomic DNA derived from the peripheral blood of patients with the disorder. The case control studies consisted of 110 schizophrenia participants and 122 healthy controls who had been recruited from the same district. After bisufhite conversion, the methylation levels of the DNA samples were calculated based on their differences of the Cq values assayed using the highly sensitive real-time MethyLight TaqMan® procedure. A significantly higher level of methylation of the RELN promoter was found in patients with schizophrenia compared to controls (p = 0.005) and also in males compared with females (p = 0.004). Subsequently, the RELN expression of the methylated group was 25 fold less than that of the non-methylated group. Based upon the assumption of parallel methylation changes in the brain and peripheral blood, we concluded that RELN DNA methylation might contribute to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. However, the definite effects of methylation on RELN function during development and also in adult life still require further elaboration.
Stem cells (SCs) are capable of self-renewal and multilineage differentiation. Human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) which can be obtained from multiple sources, are suitable for application in regenerative medicine and transplant therapy. The aim of this review is to evaluate the potential of genomic and proteomic profiling analysis to identify the differentiation of MSCs and HSCs towards osteoblast and odontoblast lineages. In vitro differentiation towards both of these lineages can be induced using similar differentiation factors. Gene profiling cannot be utilised to confirm the lineages of these two types of differentiated cells. Differentiated cells of both lineages express most of the same markers. Most researchers have detected the expression of genes such as ALP, OCN, OPN, BMP2 and RUNX2 in osteoblasts and the expression of the DSPP gene in odontoblasts. Based on their cell-type specific protein profiles, various proteins are differentially expressed by osteoblasts and odontoblasts, except for vimentin and heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein C, which are expressed in both cell types, and LOXL2 protein, which is expressed only in odontoblasts.