Biomedical subjects

Ansgar J Pommer

Publications and source records attributed to Ansgar J Pommer.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Analyzing proteome topology and function by automated multidimensional fluorescence microscopy.

Temporal and spatial regulation of proteins contributes to function. We describe a multidimensional microscopic robot technology for high-throughput protein colocalization studies that runs cycles of fluorescence tagging, imaging and bleaching in situ. This technology combines three advances: a fluorescence technique capable of mapping hundreds of different proteins in one tissue section or cell sample; a method selecting the most prominent combinatorial molecular patterns by representing the data as binary vectors; and a system for imaging the distribution of these protein clusters in a so-called toponome map. By analyzing many cell and tissue types, we show that this approach reveals rules of hierarchical protein network organization, in which the frequency distribution of different protein clusters obeys Zipf's law, and state-specific lead proteins appear to control protein network topology and function. The technology may facilitate the development of diagnostics and targeted therapies.

Dermatitis, Atopic↗

PubMed2002

Mutagenic scan of the H-N-H motif of colicin E9: implications for the mechanistic enzymology of colicins, homing enzymes and apoptotic endonucleases.

Colicin E9 is a microbial toxin that kills bacteria through random degradation of chromosomal DNA. Within the active site of the cytotoxic endonuclease domain of colicin E9 (the E9 DNase) is a 32 amino acid motif found in the H-N-H group of homing endonucleases. Crystal structures of the E9 DNase have implicated several conserved residues of the H-N-H motif in the mechanism of DNA hydrolysis. We have used mutagenesis to test the involvement of these key residues in colicin toxicity, metal ion binding and catalysis. Our data show, for the first time, that the H-N-H motif is the site of DNA binding and that Mg2+-dependent cleavage of double-stranded DNA is responsible for bacterial cell death. We demonstrate that more active site residues are required for catalysis in the presence of Mg2+ ions than transition metals, consistent with the recent hypothesis that the E9 DNase hydrolyses DNA by two distinct, cation-dependent catalytic mechanisms. The roles of individual amino acids within the H-N-H motif are discussed in the context of the available structural information on this and related DNases and we address the possible mechanistic similarities between caspase-activated DNases, responsible for the degradation of chromatin in eukaryotic apoptosis, and H-N-H DNases.

Alanine↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Profiling lymphocyte subpopulations in peripheral blood under efalizumab treatment of psoriasis by multi epitope ligand cartography (MELC) robot microscopy.

CD11a-blocking efalizumab has recently been approved as a systemic treatment of moderate to severe chronic plaque psoriasis. When treating 6 psoriasis patients with efalizumab over 12 weeks in the present study, we observed an overall good tolerability and 5 treatment responders characterized by a decrease of PASI from 21.3 +/- 5.4 to 3.9 +/- 0.6. The accompanying significant increase of peripheral blood lymphocytes from 1.9 +/- 0.7 to 4.3 +/- 1.0 x 10(9)/L (p < 0.05) was analyzed by multi epitope ligand cartography (MELC) robot microscopy. Thereby a high-dimension simultaneous multiplex immunophenotyping was pursued using 39 fluorophore-labeled antibodies including labeled efalizumab and 3 other affinity reagents such as lectins. Due to efalizumab treatment there was a substantial decrease of the cellular expression of CD11a (detected by mab clone 25.3.1) and efalizumab binding sites (EfaBSs). This was paralleled by an increase of the number of EfaBS- and EfaBS+ lymphocytes by a factor of 2.4x and 2.2x, respectively. The latter effect was mainly derived from a subpopulation showing a low degree of EfaBS expression. Efalizumab treatment led furthermore to an increase of the numbers of CD3+, CD4+, CD8+, CD44+, CD45+, CD45R0+, CD45 RA+, CD52+, CD58+, CD247+, HLA-DR+ and Sambucus nigra lectin-reactive lymphocytes (by factors from 2.0 to 3.3x). In terms of a combinatorial molecular phenotype we identified a CD3+/CD4+/CD44+/CD52+ lymphocyte subpopulation which accumulated most predominantly from 0.824 +/- 0.270 x 10(9)/L up to 1.616 +/- 0.152 x 10(9)/L under efalizumab treatment (p < 0.01). Thus, the current study extends the knowledge of efalizumab-dependent perturbations of recirculating blood lymphocyte subpopulations in psoriasis patients.

Adult↗