Mechanisms of Hyperhomocysteinemia Induced Skeletal Muscle Myopathy after Ischemia in the CBS?/+ Mouse Model

Although hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) elicits lower than normal body weights and skeletal muscle weakness, the mechanisms remain unclear. Despite the fact that HHcy-mediated enhancement in ROS and consequent damage to regulators of different cellular processes is relatively well established in other organs, the nature of such events is unknown in skeletal muscles. Previously, we reported that HHcy attenuation of PGC-1α and HIF-1α levels enhanced the likelihood of muscle atrophy and declined function after ischemia. In the current study, we examined muscle levels of homocysteine (Hcy) metabolizing enzymes, anti-oxidant capacity and focused on protein modifications that might compromise PGC-1α function during ischemic angiogenesis. Although skeletal muscles express the key enzyme (MTHFR) that participates in re-methylation of Hcy into methionine, lack of trans-sulfuration enzymes (CBS and CSE) make skeletal muscles more susceptible to the HHcy-induced myopathy. Our study indicates that elevated Hcy levels in the CBS^−/+ mouse skeletal muscles caused diminished anti-oxidant capacity and contributed to enhanced total protein as well as PGC-1α specific nitrotyrosylation after ischemia. Furthermore, in the presence of NO donor SNP, either homocysteine (Hcy) or its cyclized version, Hcy thiolactone, not only increased PGC-1α specific protein nitrotyrosylation but also reduced its association with PPARγ in C2C12 cells. Altogether these results suggest that HHcy exerts its myopathic effects via reduction of the PGC-1/PPARγ axis after ischemia.     

Two polymorphisms in methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene (C677T and A1298C) frequently associated with recurrent spontaneous abortion show no association in Saudi women

Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) deficiency is the most common genetic cause of hyperhomocysteinemia, which has been implicated in the etiology of recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA). This study was designed to investigate the association between two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) (rs1801133 [C677T] and rs1801131 [A1298C]) in the MTHFR gene and RSA, in Saudis. These two SNPs were selected as these polymorphisms have a different effect on the activity and stability of the enzyme, and significantly diverse effects have been reported in relation to the association with RSA. Ethical approval was acquired from the IRB at King Saud University (KKUH), Saudi Arabia, and written informed consent was obtained from each participant. The study group comprised of 100 Saudi women with unexplained RSA and 100 age-matched controls, both attending KKUH for a routine checkup. Blood was drawn in EDTA tubes, and DNA was extracted. Genotyping was conducted using TaqMan SNP genotyping assay kits. The frequency of the T allele of C677T was 0.165 in patients and 0.17 in controls. Genotype frequencies for CC, CT and TT genotypes were 70%, 27% and 3%, respectively in RSA, and 71%, 24% and 5%, respectively, in the controls (p > 0.05). For the A1298C polymorphism, the C allele frequencies were 0.345 in patients and 0.28 in controls, while genotype frequencies for AA, AC and CC genotypes were 44%, 43%, and 13%, respectively, in patients, and 54%, 36%, and 10%, respectively, in controls (p > 0.05). The frequency of CC genotype and C allele of A1298C were higher in the patients with RSA, but not significantly, while C677T genotypes and allele frequencies did not differ between patients and controls. The results suggested that MTHFR gene polymorphisms are population-specific and may not associate with RSA in Saudi women.     

MTHFR Knockdown Assists Cell Defense against Folate Depletion Induced Chromosome Segregation and Uracil Misincorporation in DNA

Folate depletion causes chromosomal instability by increasing DNA strand breakage, uracil misincorporation, and defective repair. Folate mediated one-carbon metabolism has been suggested to play a key role in the carcinogenesis and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) through influencing DNA integrity. Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) is the enzyme catalyzing the irreversible conversion of 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate to 5-methyltetrahydrofolate that can control folate cofactor distributions and modulate the partitioning of intracellular one-carbon moieties. The association between MTHFR polymorphisms and HCC risk is inconsistent and remains controversial in populational studies. We aimed to establish an in vitro cell model of liver origin to elucidate the interactions between MTHFR function, folate status, and chromosome stability. In the present study, we (1) examined MTHFR expression in HCC patients; (2) established cell models of liver origin with stabilized inhibition of MTHFR using small hairpin RNA delivered by a lentiviral vector, and (3) investigated the impacts of reduced MTHFR and folate status on cell cycle, methyl group homeostasis, nucleotide biosynthesis, and DNA stability, all of which are pathways involved in DNA integrity and repair and are critical in human tumorigenesis. By analyzing the TCGA/GTEx datasets available within GEPIA2, we discovered that HCC cancer patients with higher MTHFR had a worse survival rate. The shRNA of MTHFR (shMTHFR) resulted in decreased MTHFR gene expression, MTHFR protein, and enzymatic activity in human hepatoma cell HepG2. shMTHFR tended to decrease intracellular S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) contents but folate depletion similarly decreased SAM in wildtype (WT), negative control (Neg), and shMTHFR cells, indicating that in cells of liver origin, shMTHFR does not exacerbate the methyl group supply in folate depletion. shMTHFR caused cell accumulations in the G2/M, and cell population in the G2/M was inversely correlated with MTHFR gene level (r = −0.81, p < 0.0001), MTHFR protein expression (r = −0.8; p = 0.01), and MTHFR enzyme activity (r = −0.842; p = 0.005). Folate depletion resulted in G2/M cell cycle arrest in WT and Neg but not in shMTHFR cells, indicating that shMTHFR does not exacerbate folate depletion-induced G2/M cell cycle arrest. In addition, shMTHFR promoted the expression and translocation of nuclei thymidine synthetic enzyme complex SHMT1/DHFR/TYMS and assisted folate-dependent de novo nucleotide biosynthesis under folate restriction. Finally, shMTHFR promoted nuclear MLH1/p53 expression under folate deficiency and further reduced micronuclei formation and DNA uracil misincorporation under folate deficiency. In conclusion, shMTHFR in HepG2 induces cell cycle arrest in G2/M that may promote nucleotide supply and assist cell defense against folate depletion-induced chromosome segregation and uracil misincorporation in the DNA. This study provided insight into the significant impact of MTHFR function on chromosome stability of hepatic tissues. Data from the present study may shed light on the potential regulatory mechanism by which MTHFR modulates the risk for hepatic malignancies.     

MTHFR,GSTP1,ERCC1基因多态性与结直肠癌FOLFOX化疗方案疗效相关性研究

目的: 探讨亚甲基四氢叶酸还原酶(methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase,MTHFR),谷胱甘肽S转移酶P1(glutathione S-transferase pi-1,GSTP1),核苷酸切除修复交叉互补组-1(excision repair cross-complementing group 1,ERCC1)基因多态性与结直肠癌5-氟尿嘧啶/奥沙利铂/亚叶酸钙(FOLFOX)化疗方案疗效的相关性。方法: 150例晚期大肠癌患者抽取静脉血并提取DNA,用荧光定量PCR和高分辨率溶解曲线分型技术(HRM-SNP)等方法检测患者MTHFR、GSTP1、ERCC1基因型。所有患者均经FOLFOX方案治疗,以实体瘤化疗疗效评价标准(RECIST1.1) 评价疗效。运用SPSS 19.0 结合临床资料进行统计分析。结果: ⑴患者性别,年龄,结直肠癌分期(TNM),肿块部位等和FOLFOX化疗疗效均无明显相关性(P>0.05)。⑵GSTP1 Ile105Val Ile/Ile和Ile/Val+Val/Val有效率分别为19.7%、20.5%,两组基因型之间的OR值为 2.876,95%CI(1.288,6.424),P<0.05;MTHFR Ala222 Val Ala/Ala和Ala/Val+Val/Val有效率分别为 11.8%、28.3%,OR值为 2.236,95%CI(1.020,5.017),P<0.05。结论: GSTP1 Ile105Val 、MTHFR Ala222 Val单核苷酸多态性与结直肠癌对FOLFOX方案化疗疗效相关,检测GSTP1 Ile105Val、MTHFR Ala222Val单核苷酸多态性可能成为预测结直肠癌患者接受FOLFOX方案化疗疗效的指标。     

Genetic Polymorphisms in miR-604A>G,miR-938G>A,miR-1302-3C>T and the Risk of Idiopathic Recurrent Pregnancy Loss

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether polymorphisms in five microRNAs (miRNAs), miR-604A>G, miR-608C>G, 631I/D, miR-938G>A, and miR-1302-3C>T, are associated with the risk of idiopathic recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL). Blood samples were collected from 388 patients with idiopathic RPL (at least two consecutive spontaneous abortions) and 227 control participants. We found the miR-604 AG and AG + GG genotypes of miR-604, the miR-938 GA and GA + AA genotypes of miR-938, and the miR-1302-3CT and CT + TT genotypes of miR-1302-3 are less frequent than the wild-type (WT) genotypes, miR-604AA, miR-938GG, and miR-1302-3CC, respectively, in RPL patients. Using allele-combination multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) analysis, we found that eight haplotypes conferred by the miR-604/miR-608/miR-631/miR-938/miR-1302-3 allele combination, A-C-I-G-T, A-C-I-A-C, G-C-I-G-C, G-C-I-G-T, G-G-I-G-C, G-G-I-G-T, G-G-I-A-C, G-G-D-G-C, three from the miR-604/miR-631/miR-938/miR-1302-3 allele combination, A-I-G-T, G-I-G-C, G-I-A-T, one from the miR-604/miR-631/miR-1302-3 allele combination, G-I-C, and two from the miR-604/miR-1302-3 allele combination, G-C and G-T, were less frequent in RPL patients, suggesting protective effects (all p < 0.05). We also identified the miR-604A>G and miR-938G>A polymorphisms within the seed sequence of the mature miRNAs and aligned the seed sequences with the 3′UTR of putative target genes, methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) and gonadotropin-releasing hormone receptor (GnRHR), respectively. We further found that the binding affinities between miR-604/miR-938 and the 3′UTR of their respective target genes (MTHFR, GnRHR) were significantly different for the common (miR-604A, miR-938G) and variant alleles (miR-604G, miR-938A). These results reveal a significant association between the miR-604A>G and miR-938G>A polymorphisms and idiopathic RPL and suggest that miRNAs can affect RPL in Korean women.     

木犀草素与叶酸对黄曲霉毒素B1致食管上皮细胞毒性及MTHFR基因高甲基化的影响

目的：研究木犀草素（luteolin,LUT）与叶酸（folic acid,FA）对黄曲霉毒素B1（aflatoxin B1,AFB1）诱导损伤的人正常食管上皮细胞（human normal esophageal epithelial cells,HEEC）MTHFR基因甲基化的影响。方法：不同浓度（0、13、25、50、100、200 μmol/L）AFB1染毒HEEC 24、48、72 h,CCK-8法检测细胞活力;将HEEC分为空白对照组、AFB1染毒组（200 μmol/L）、LUT干预组（160 μmol/L）、FA干预组（20、200 μmol/L）以及联合干预组（160 μmol/L LUT＋20 μmol/L FA、160 μmol/L LUT＋200 μmol/L FA）,处理24 h后CCK-8法检测细胞活力,流式细胞术检测细胞周期及凋亡,Western blot检测MTHFR蛋白的表达水平,MassARRAY甲基化检测MTHFR基因启动子区甲基化的情况。结果：不同浓度的AFB1染毒HEEC 24、48、72 h均可以抑制细胞增殖,而经LUT和FA干预后,与AFB1染毒组相比,LUT及联合干预组细胞周期阻滞显著减少（P＜0.05）,细胞抑制率及凋亡率显著降低（P＜0.05）,MTHFR蛋白表达上调有所改善（P＜0.05）。且LUT与FA及二者联合对MTHFR基因启动子区高甲基化水平均有降低作用（P＜0.05）。结论：AFB1对HEEC有毒性作用,表现在增殖抑制、周期阻滞,促进凋亡,上调了MTHFR蛋白的表达,LUT干预可减弱这些损伤,对AFB1所致毒性起到一定的保护作用。AFB1提高了MTHFR基因启动子区甲基化水平,导致表观遗传的改变。LUT与FA及联合作用可以降低该甲基化水平,改善该表观遗传的改变。     

A Glance into MTHFR Deficiency at a Molecular Level

MTHFR deficiency still deserves an investigation to associate the phenotype to protein structure variations. To this aim, considering the MTHFR wild type protein structure, with a catalytic and a regulatory domain and taking advantage of state-of-the-art computational tools, we explore the properties of 72 missense variations known to be disease associated. By computing the thermodynamic ΔΔG change according to a consensus method that we recently introduced, we find that 61% of the disease-related variations destabilize the protein, are present both in the catalytic and regulatory domain and correspond to known biochemical deficiencies. The propensity of solvent accessible residues to be involved in protein-protein interaction sites indicates that most of the interacting residues are located in the regulatory domain, and that only three of them, located at the interface of the functional protein homodimer, are both disease-related and destabilizing. Finally, we compute the protein architecture with Hidden Markov Models, one from Pfam for the catalytic domain and the second computed in house for the regulatory domain. We show that patterns of disease-associated, physicochemical variation types, both in the catalytic and regulatory domains, are unique for the MTHFR deficiency when mapped into the protein architecture.