• RNA binding proteins co-localize with small tau inclusions in tauopathy

      Maziuk, Brandon F.; Apicco, Daniel J.; Cruz, Anna Lourdes; Jiang, Lulu; Ash, Peter E. A.; da Rocha, Edroaldo Lummertz.; Zhang, Cheng; Yu, Wai Haung; Leszyk, John D.; Abisambra, Jose F.; et al. (2018-08-01)
      The development of insoluble, intracellular neurofibrillary tangles composed of the microtubule-associated protein tau is a defining feature of tauopathies, including Alzheimer's disease (AD). Accumulating evidence suggests that tau pathology co-localizes with RNA binding proteins (RBPs) that are known markers for stress granules (SGs). Here we used proteomics to determine how the network of tau binding proteins changes with disease in the rTg4510 mouse, and then followed up with immunohistochemistry to identify RNA binding proteins that co-localize with tau pathology. The tau interactome networks revealed striking disease-related changes in interactions between tau and a multiple RBPs, and biochemical fractionation studies demonstrated that many of these proteins including hnRNPA0, EWSR1, PABP and RPL7 form insoluble aggregates as tau pathology develops. Immunohistochemical analysis of mouse and human brain tissues suggest a model of evolving pathological interaction, in which RBPs co-localize with pathological phospho-tau but occur adjacent to larger pathological tau inclusions. We suggest a model in which tau initially interacts with RBPs in small complexes, but evolves into isolated aggregated inclusions as tau pathology matures.
    • Salivary metabolite levels in perinatally HIV-infected youth with periodontal disease

      Schulte, Fabian; King, Oliver D.; Paster, Bruce J.; Moscicki, Anna-Barbara; Yao, Tzy-Jyun; Van Dyke, Russell B.; Shiboski, Caroline; Ryder, Mark; Seage, George; Hardt, Markus (2020-09-11)
      INTRODUCTION: Salivary metabolite profiles are altered in adults with HIV compared to their uninfected counterparts. Less is known about youth with HIV and how oral disorders that commonly accompany HIV infection impact salivary metabolite levels. OBJECTIVE: As part of the Adolescent Master Protocol multi-site cohort study of the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study (PHACS) network we compared the salivary metabolome of youth with perinatally-acquired HIV (PHIV) and youth HIV-exposed, but uninfected (PHEU) and determined whether metabolites differ in PHIV versus PHEU. METHODS: We used three complementary targeted and discovery-based liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) workflows to characterize salivary metabolite levels in 20 PHIV and 20 PHEU youth with and without moderate periodontitis. We examined main effects associated with PHIV and periodontal disease, and the interaction between them. RESULTS: We did not identify differences in salivary metabolite profiles that remained significant under stringent control for both multiple between-group comparisons and multiple metabolites. Levels of cadaverine, a known periodontitis-associated metabolite, were more abundant in individuals with periodontal disease with the difference being more pronounced in PHEU than PHIV. In the discovery-based dataset, we identified a total of 564 endogenous peptides in the metabolite extracts, showing that proteolytic processing and amino acid metabolism are important to consider in the context of HIV infection. CONCLUSION: The salivary metabolite profiles of PHIV and PHEU youth were overall very similar. Individuals with periodontitis particularly among the PHEU youth had higher levels of cadaverine, suggesting that HIV infection, or its treatment, may influence the metabolism of oral bacteria.
    • Structural analysis of a highly acetylated protein using a curved-field reflectron mass spectrometer

      Wang, Dongxia; Thompson, Paul R; Cole, Philip A.; Cotter, Robert J. (2005-06-01)
      Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) were used to determine the multiple acetylation sites in the histone acetyltransferase (HAT): p300-HAT. Partial cleavage of the peptides containing acetylated lysine residues by trypsin provided a set of nested sequences that enabled us to determine that multiple acetylation occurs on the same molecule. At the same time, cleavages resulting in a terminal unacetylated lysine suggested that not all of these sites are fully modified. Using MS and MS/MS, we were able to characterize both the unmodified and acetylated tryptic peptides covering more than 82% of the protein.