Jia-Yee Lee

Aging is a major risk factor for Parkinson's Disease (PD) and is linked to various biological processes at the molecular, cellular, and systemic levels. At the molecular level, aging-related oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, genetic factors, and impaired proteostasis contribute to dopaminergic neuronal death. Cellular alterations include persistent glial cell activation, autophagylysosomal dysfunction, and impaired cellular repair mechanisms. At the systemic level, aging is associated with metabolic imbalance, gut microbiota dysbiosis, and immune system dysfunction, which may contribute to PD pathogenesis through the gut-brain axis. Antioxidant therapy, stem cell therapy, anti-aging agents, and modulation of gut-brain communication have shown promise in the management of PD. Lifestyle modifications, including dietary changes and regular exercise, may exert anti-aging effects that could help delay or prevent the onset of PD. Emerging anti-aging interventions, including N-acetylcysteine and plant-derived compounds that support mitochondrial function, have also demonstrated therapeutic potential for PD.

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Hepatitis B immunoglobulin is used for prophylaxis against hepatitis B virus (HBV) and is thought to act by neutralization of virions and hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg)-containing particles in circulation. Using a panel of hepatocyte-derived cell lines, the present study investigated in vitro whether HBs-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) is internalized in hepatocytes and whether it interacts with HBsAg in the cells. By immunoelectron microscopy and immunoblotting, human IgG and FcRn receptor for IgG were demonstrated on cellular membranes and in cytoplasmic extracts, irrespective of the HBsAg status of the cells. Furthermore, HBsAg and anti-HBs were shown to be colocalized in the same cellular compartment by two-color confocal microscopy. Endocytosis of HBs-specific IgG caused intracellular accumulation of HBsAg in a dose-dependent manner and inhibited the secretion of HBsAg and HBV virions from the cells. These effects were not observed with F(ab)₂fragments or nonimmune IgG as controls. The specificity of intracellular HBsAg- anti-HBs interaction was further investigated in cells transfected with HBV genomes expressing wild-type HBsAg or immune escape HBsAg (with a G145R mutation). Monoclonal anti-HBs markedly reduced the secretion of wild-type HBsAg, while the secretion of mutant HBsAg was not affected. These results suggest that HBs-specific IgG binds to hepatocytes and interacts with HBsAg within the cells. This may be relevant for the selection of surface antibody escape mutations.

Differences in virion RNA dimer stability between mature and protease-defective (immature) forms of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) suggest that maturation of the viral RNA dimer is regulated by the proteolytic processing of the HIV-1 Gag and Gag-Pol precursor proteins. However, the proteolytic processing of these proteins occurs in several steps denoted primary, secondary, and tertiary cleavage events and, to date, the processing step associated with formation of stable HIV-1 RNA dimers has not been identified. We show here that a mutation in the primary cleavage site (p2/nucleocapsid [NC]) hinders formation of stable virion RNA dimers, while dimer stability is unaffected by mutations in the secondary (matrix/capsid [CA], p1/p6) or a tertiary cleavage site (CA/p2). By introducing mutations in a shared cleavage site of either Gag or Gag-Pol, we also show that the cleavage of the p2/NC site in Gag is more important for dimer formation and stability than p2/NC cleavage in Gag-Pol. Electron microscopy analysis of viral particles shows that mutations in the primary cleavage site in Gag but not in Gag-Pol inhibit viral particle maturation. We conclude that virion RNA dimer maturation is dependent on proteolytic processing of the primary cleavage site and is associated with virion core formation.

Primary cultures of intrahepatic bile duct epithelial (IBDE) cells isolated from duckling livers were successfully grown for studies of duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV). The primary IBDE cells were characterized by immunohistochemistry using CAM 5.2, a cytokeratin marker which was shown to react specifically to IBDE cells in duck liver tissue sections and in primary cultures of total duck liver cells. Immunofluorescence assay using anti-duck albumin, a marker for hepatocytes, revealed that these IBDE cultures did not appear to contain hepatocytes. A striking feature of these cultures was the duct-like structures present within each cell colony of multilayered IBDE cells. Normal duck serum in the growth medium was found to be essential for the development of these cells into duct-like structures. When the primary cultures of duck IBDE cells were acutely infected with DHBV, dual-labeled confocal microscopy using a combination of anti-DHBV core proteins and CAM 5.2 or a combination of anti-pre-S1 proteins and CAM 5.2 revealed that the IBDE cell colonies contained DHBV proteins. Immunoblot analysis of these cells showed that the DHBV pre-S1 and core proteins were similar to their counterparts in infected primary duck hepatocyte cultures. Southern blot analysis of infected IBDE preparations using a digoxigenin-labeled positive-sense DHBV riboprobe revealed the presence of hepadnavirus covalently closed circular (CCC) DNA, minus-sense single-stranded (SS) DNA , double-stranded linear DNA, and relaxed circular DNA. The presence of minus-sense SS DNA in the acutely infected IBDE cultures is indicative of DHBV reverse transcriptase activity, while the establishment of a pool of viral CCC DNA reveals the ability of these cells to maintain persistent infection. Taken collectively, the results from this study demonstrated that primary duck IBDE cells supported hepadnavirus replication as shown by the de novo synthesis of DHBV proteins and DNA replicative intermediates.

Rubella virus (RV) is the causative agent of the disease known more popularly as German measles. Rubella is predominantly a childhood disease and is endemic throughout the world. Natural infections of rubella occur only in humans and are generally mild. Complications of rubella infection, most commonly polyarthralgia in adult women, do exist; occasionally more serious sequelae occur. However, the primary public health concern of RV infection is its teratogenicity. RV infection of women during the first trimester of pregnancy can induce a spectrum of congenital defects in the newborn, known as congenital rubella syndrome (CRS). The development of vaccines and implementation of vaccination strategies have substantially reduced the incidence of disease and in turn of CRS in developed countries. The pathway whereby RV infection leads to teratogenesis has not been elucidated, but the cytopathology in infected fetal tissues suggests necrosis and/or apoptosis as well as inhibition of cell division of critical precursor cells involved in organogenesis. In cell culture, a number of unusual features of RV replication have been observed, including mitochondrial abnormalities, and disruption of the cytoskeleton; these manifestations are most probably linked and play some role in RV teratogenesis. Further understanding of the mechanism of RV teratogenesis will be brought about by the investigation of RV replication and virus-host interactions.