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The importance of arenavirus glycoprotein processing has only been understood within the past decade, with the majority of work focused on the Old World arenaviruses. Evidence has shown that SKI-1/S1P (subtilisin kexin isozyme-1/site 1 protease) is the cellular protease responsible for glycoprotein cleavage in Old and New World arenaviruses. Furthermore, glycoprotein cleavage is shown to be necessary for the production of infectious virus particles in Lassa and Junín viruses. In this thesis, evidence is provided that the recently emerged Chapare virus (New World) is also processed by SKI-1/S1P. Additionally, novel serpin-based SKI-1 inhibitors were shown to effectively prevent SKI-1 mediated cleavage. Using a wide panel of recombinant vesicular stomatitis viruses expressing New World arenavirus glycoproteins, these inhibitors were capable of significantly reducing viral titres. This provides strong evidence that SKI-1 inhibitors can be used as an effective treatment against the majority of New World Clade B arenaviruses and LASV in vivo.

A baculovirus (Spodoptera frugiperda) system was designed to express recombinant canine thyroid stimulating hormone (rcTSH). The efficacy of rcTSH was measured against pituitary derived bovine thyroid stimulating hormone (bTSH) through a series of in vitro and in vivo experiments. Initial purification of rcTSH was performed in order to characterize the hormone for further analyses. Ion exchange columns and tangential flow membranes were chosen based upon the traits of the rcTSH molecule. Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) gels visualized by Coomassie blue, silver stain, and western blot demonstrated the effectiveness of the purification process. Primary cell, static tissue, and perifusion tissue cultures were employed to investigate in vitro thyroid cell/tissue response to rcTSH and bTSH. Canine thyroid cells were liberated from tissue samples, cultured, then exposed to TSH treatments in which media was subsequently harvested and measured for cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), a second messenger in the TSH downstream signaling cascade. The cAMP concentrations measured were sporadic and not consistent with expected concentrations for treatments or controls. For the static tissue culture, slices of bovine thyroid tissue were incubated and exposed to a series of media-only wash steps as well as treatment steps using varying concentrations of rcTSH. Unfortunately, the experiment was compromised resulting in the slow release of thyroxine (T4) for all samples due to tissue death. Perifusion experiments conducted on bovine thyroid tissue compared the release of T4 due to bTSH and rcTSH stimulation in a dynamic system. Unable to perform statistical analysis due to small sample sizes, graphical representation demonstrated stimulatory effects by bTSH and rcTSH when compared to control. Biological assays were used to compare the in vivo efficacy of rcTSH to bTSH which included 3 species (goldfish, rat, and canine). Results from mammalian experiments when subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) resulted in the rejection of the null hypothesis of equal means (P<0.05) between control, bTSH, and rcTSH treatments. Further analysis by Tukey's W procedure demonstrated the stimulatory actions of rcTSH and bTSH to be similar (P>0.05) to each other while greater (P<0.05) than control at the 4 and 6 hour post injection time.

Kyoto University (京都大学) / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第17598号 / 工博第3757号 / 新制||工||1573(附属図書館) / 30364 / 京都大学大学院工学研究科合成・生物化学専攻 / (主査)教授 濵地 格, 教授 森 泰生, 教授 跡見 晴幸 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当

<p> The fibrinolytic system has an important role in maintaining vascular patency by restricting fibrin clot formation to prevent occlusion of the blood vessel. Plasminogen activation is the central event in fibrinolysis and is tightly regulated by activators and inhibitors. Histidine-rich glycoprotein (HRG) is an abundant plasma protein that has been proposed to have a regulatory role in many biological processes, including fibrinolysis. Approximately 50% ofplasminogen in the blood circulates in complex with HRG. Conflicting reports dispute the role of HRG in fibrinolysis, specifically whether it promotes or inhibits plasminogen activation. To elucidate the role of HRG in fibrinolysis, we isolated HRG from human plasma and analyzed its effect on plasminogen activation by tissue-type plasminogen activator in a kinetic assay. HRG had no significant effect on plasminogen activation by tissue-type plasminogen activator once contaminating plasminogen was eliminated from our HRG preparations. Based on these results, the focus of our research was redirected to analyzing the effect of HRG on additional plasminogen activators, namely urinary-type plasminogen activator and factor (F) Xlla. HRG inhibited plasminogen activation by both activators. HRG had the greatest inhibitory effect on FXIIa activity. This novel finding led us to explore the relationship between HRG and FX.IIa by measuring the affinity of HRG for FXIIa by surface plasmon resonance, and by analyzing the effect of HRG on FXIIa activity in various contact pathway reactions. ZnCh was also included in these reactions because it plays an important role in enhancing both HRG-and FXII-mediated interactions and is released by activated platelets. In the presence of 12.5 μM ZnCl2, FXIIa bound to the histidine-rich region of HRG with very high affinity (Kd = 56 ± 8.9 pM). Interestingly, HRG does not bind to FXII. Functional analysis of HRG revealed that it significantly inhibits a number of contact pathway reactions, including FXII autoactivation, kallikreinmediated FXII activation, and FXIIa-mediated FXI activation. Conversely, HRG enhanced FXIIa-mediated prekallikrein activation. Based on these findings, we hypothesize that HRG binds to an exosite on FXIIa, which is not expressed by the zymogen FXII, and alters FXIIa activity. The mechanism of HRG-mediated FXIIa inhibition is not fully understood and needs to be further analyzed by both binding and functional assays. These observations raise the possibility that the main function of HRG is to modulate FXIIa activity, rather than plasminogen activation. Because of its abundance, HRG may function as a modulator of haemostasis through its effect on coagulation and fibrinolysis. </p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Membrane fusion plays a crucial role in many biological processes from virus infection to release of neurotransmitters (Hughson 1999). Membrane -bound surface glycoproteins are involved in the fusion process. The enveloped animal virus infection is initiated by interactions between the virus and the cell membrane through the surface glycoproteins called fusion glycoproteins (Eckert and Kim 2001). The fusion glycoproteins are responsible for both receptor binding and membrane fusion activity. The fusion proteins are characterized by a large ectodomain containing fusion peptides, a transmembrane (TM) domain, and a cytoplasimic domain. The viruses can enter cells either at neutral pH or at acidic pH. When exposed to appropriate conditions, the fusion protein undergoes conformational changes, which in turn drives the fusion process. The fusion glycoproteins can be classified as Class I and Class II fusion proteins (Lescar eta/. 2001 ). The Class I fusion proteins are synthesized as a precursor molecule, which then undergoes proteolytic cleavage to generate a mature molecule containing the hydrophobic fusion peptide at the N -terminal. The class II fusion glycoproteins are not synthesized as precursor molecules, and they have internal fusion peptides. The vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) glycoprotein G is a class Ill fusion protein. It has a neutral internal fusion peptide and upon exposure to low pH, the protein undergoes reversible conformational change (Gaudin 2000, Yao eta/. 2003). A 62kDa soluble ectodomain of VSV G (Gs) has been generated by limited trypsin digestion. The SDS PAGE gel electrophoresis indicates that the trypsin has possibly cleaved near the transmembrane (TM) domain. Liposome binding experiment suggests that Gs can bind to liposomes in a pH dependent manner. Liposome fusion studied by RET assay suggests that the Gs can induce significant amount of hemifusion. However, it failed to induce any content mixing mainly due to considerable amount of membrane leakage activity. This indicates that the binding to the membrane through the TM domain is required for complete membrane fusion. Unlike TBE E soluble ectodomain, Gs can form dimers and trimers at neutral and fusion active pH. Light scattering experiment shows that the aggregation of Gs increases with a decrease in pH. The conformational change with changes in pH was evident from the trypsin sensitivity assay and CD spectroscopy. It was observed that Gs became resistant to trypsin digestion at low pH and a-helicity content of the molecule increased upon lowering the pH. However, the maximum amount of a-helicity was observed at pH 6. The removal of the TM domain also shifts the optimum fusion pH towards more acidic pH in comparison to VSV G. These results indicate that the TM domain is not required for the oligomerization of G protein, but some role has been reserved for the TM domain during membrane fusion. The CD spectroscopic data also indicated that the G protein undergoes structural rearrangement between pH 7.4-6, which could be responsible for the exposure of fusion peptide and subsequent target membrane binding. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

In mammalian cells newly synthesised proteins are translocated across the ER membrane and their subsequent folding is facilitated by an array of folding factors present in the lumen. These include the lectins calreticulin and calnexin, which form complexes with ERp57 to generate glycoprotein specific molecular chaperones. ERp57 is a member of the protein disulphide isomerase (PDI) family and its binding to ER lectins can be reconstituted in vitro. I have exploited this approach to define the regions of ERp57 that are necessary and sufficient for its specific interaction with calreticulin and calnexin. Truncated forms of ERp57, chimeric proteins containing various domains of ERp57 and PDI (which does not interact with calreticulin) and ERp57 b' domain point mutants have been constructed. By analysing the interactions of ERp57 derivatives with calreticulin using both cross-linking and binding assays I have been able to provide detailed insights into the molecular basis for the specific assembly of these components within the ER lumen. My results indicate that the b and b' domains of ERp57 are necessary, but not sufficient for binding to both calreticulin and calnexin. The more stringent binding assay revealed that the a' domain of ERp57 significantly enhanced binding to biotin-tagged calreticulin. The ERp57 C-terminal extension also increased binding to biotin-tagged calreticulin, perhaps by playing a role in the overall stability of the ERp57. In addition, the ERp57 b' domain point mutants show that certain amino acids in this domain, in particular residues F280, V283 and F299, may be crucial for binding to calreticulin, consistent with the principal lectin-binding site being located in the b' domain. However, the binding region clearly extends into other domains, in particular the b and a' domains.

published_or_final_version / Obstetrics and Gynaecology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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