Synthesis and cleavage of oligodeoxynucleotides containing a 5-hydroxyuracil residue at a defined site

Oxidation and hydrolysis of a cytosine residue can lead to the formation of 5-hydroxyuracil in DNA. The biological consequences of this modification are not fully understood. To facilitate biochemical and biophysical studies aimed at elucidating the effects of this modification in DNA, we have developed a solid-phase synthetic method for the placement of 5-hydroxyuracil residues at defined sites in oligodeoxynucleotides. This method is based upon the enhanced acidity of the 5-hydroxyl proton which allows selective aqueous acetylation. Under standard aqueous ammonia deprotection conditions, however, we observed that 5-hydroxyuracil residues are lost substantially from synthetic oligonucleotides. Substitution of aqueous ammonia with methanolic potassium carbonate and the use of phosphoramidite derivatives with alternatively protected amino groups allow synthesis of oligonucleotides containing 5-hydroxyuracil and all normal bases in high yield. The composition of the oligodeoxynucleotides prepared by this method has been verified by enzymatic digestion followed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis as well as acid hydrolysis followed by GC/MS analysis. The location of the 5-hydroxyuracil residue is demonstrated by selective permanganate oxidation of the 5-hydroxyuracil residue followed by beta-elimination. We have also probed a synthetic oligonucleotide containing a unique 5-hydroxyuracil residue with uracil DNA N-glycosylase, previously reported to remove this lesion from DNA.     

Anisomycin selectively desensitizes signalling components involved in stress kinase activation and fos and jun induction

Anisomycin, a translational inhibitor secreted by Streptomyces spp., strongly activates the stress-activated mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases JNK/SAPK (c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase/stress-activated protein kinase) and p38/RK in mammalian cells, resulting in rapid induction of immediate-early (IE) genes in the nucleus. Here, we have characterized this response further with respect to homologous and heterologous desensitization of IE gene induction and stress kinase activation. We show that anisomycin acts exactly like a signalling agonist in eliciting highly specific and virtually complete homologous desensitization. Anisomycin desensitization of a panel of IE genes (c-fos, fosB, c-jun, junB, and junD), using epidermal growth factor (EGF), basic fibroblast growth factor, (bFGF), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), anisomycin, tetradecanoyl phorbol acetate (TPA), and UV radiation as secondary stimuli, was found to be extremely specific both with respect to the secondary stimuli and at the level of individual genes. Further, we show that anisomycin-induced homologous desensitization is caused by the fact that anisomycin no longer activates the JNK/SAPK and p38/RK MAP kinase cascades in desensitized cells. In anisomycin-desensitized cells, activation of JNK/SAPKs by UV radiation and hyperosmolarity is almost completely lost, and that of the p38/RK cascade is reduced to about 50% of the normal response. However, all other stimuli produced normal or augmented activation of these two kinase cascades in anisomycin-desensitized cells. These data show that anisomycin behaves like a true signalling agonist and suggest that the anisomycin-desensitized signalling component(s) is not involved in JNK/SAPK or p38/RK activation by EGF, bFGF, TNF-alpha, or TPA but may play a significant role in UV- and hyperosmolarity-stimulated responses.     

The paradoxical influence of thymine analogues on restriction endonuclease cleavage of oligodeoxynucleotides

Thymine residues in the DNA of eucaryotes may be replaced occasionally by uracil (U) or 5-(hydroxymethyl)uracil (H) as consequences of dUMP misincorporation or thymine oxidation, respectively. In this study, we constructed a series of 44-base oligonucleotides containing site-specific U or H residues and 5'-fluorescein labels in order to probe the influence of such modifications on sequence-specific DNA-protein interactions using several type II restriction endonucleases. We find that substitution within the recognition sites of several restriction endonucleases increases initial cleavage velocity by up to an order of magnitude. These results contrast dramatically with several previous studies which demonstrated that U substitution in short oligonucleotides inhibits or prevents nuclease cleavage. We propose that this apparent paradox results because the rate-limiting step in the cleavage of longer oligonucleotides is product release whereas for shorter oligonucleotides substrate binding is most probably rate-limiting. For longer oligonucleotides and DNA, more rapid release of the cleaved, substituted oligonucleotides results in more rapid turnover and a faster apparent cleavage rate. The sequence length at which the transition in rate-limiting step occurs likely corresponds to the size of the enzyme footprint on its DNA recognition site. We conclude that both U and H do perturb sequence-specific DNA-protein interactions, and the magnitude of this effect is site-dependent.     

Pulmonary cytopathology of former asbestos workers. Report of the first year

Five hundred fifty-four workers, 84% of whom are chronic cigarette smokers, have been examined during the past year with emphasis on the role of sputum cytopathology in the early detection and diagnosis of lung cancer. Of the 554, 232 (42%) have shown squamous metaplasia, 44 (8%), mild to moderate atypias, 18 (3.2%), severe atypias, and two (0.4%), squamous carcinoma. Both of the carcinomas were in x-ray negative, cytopathology-positive elderly cigarette smokers. Ferruginous bodies have been found in the sputa of 187 (33%) workers. Ferruginous bodies in the sputum do not appear to be a marker for severe atypias; rather, their presence correlates best with duration and extent of industrial exposure to asbestos.     

Studies on the disulfide bonds of glycoprotein hormones. Complete reduction and reoxidation of the disulfide bonds of the alpha subunit of bovine luteinizing hormone

Reoxidation of the disulfide bonds of the alpha subunit of bovine luteinizing hormone (LH) after their complete reduction both in the presence and absence of denaturing agent yields a product which is indistinguishable from the native subunit in its electrophoretic pattern on polyacrylamide gels and in its ability to recombine with the beta subunits of both luteinizing hormone and thyrotropin. The circular dichroism spectrum of the reoxidized alpha subunit is essentially identical to that of native alpha subunit except that its maximum at 233 nm is smaller than observed with native LHalpha. The intact hormone preparations obtained by recombination of reoxidized alpha subunit with native LH-beta exhibit electrophoretic patterns in polyacrylamide gels, elution profiles on gel filtration, binding activities to a membrane fraction from rat testes, and circular dichroism spectra identical to those of native LH and recombinants of native LH-alpha with the beta subunit. Recombinants of native or reoxidized LH-alpha with the beta subunit of thyrotropin are also indistinguishable in their electrophoretic patterns on polyacrylamide gels and in their in vivo activities of stimulating 32P uptake in thyroids of day-old chicks. While this study does not preclude that the alpha subunit may be biosynthesized as part of a larger precursor protein, the data demonstrate that sufficient information is present in the linear sequence of the alpha subunit to allow folding and formation of disulfide bonds to yield a functional alpha subunit.     

The geographic and functional distribution of black physicians: some research and policy considerations

Studies of the geographic and functional distribution of physicians rarely include race of the physicians as a study variable. For black physicians, there are some rather strong justifications for doing just that: 1) their services are directed almost exclusively to black and often medically underserved communities; 2) recent efforts to reduce constraints to medical education based on race, sex, ethnicity, and income have resulted in a substantial increase in the proportion of black medical students; 3) inferring about black physicians from information on the general population of physicians given the differences in biographical and experimental characteristics is tenuous at best. Hence, an adequate information base and focused conceptualization on the educational and career patterns of black physicians are indicated. At the policy level there is a need to clarify the relationship between equity in educational (and career) opportunity and efforts to redistribute physicians.