Biomedical subjects

Wei-Ming Zhao

Publications and source records attributed to Wei-Ming Zhao.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Ganoderic acid T from Ganoderma lucidum mycelia induces mitochondria mediated apoptosis in lung cancer cells.

Ganoderma lucidum is a well-known traditional Chinese medicinal herb containing many bioactive compounds. Ganoderic acid T (GA-T), which is a lanostane triterpenoid purified from methanol extract of G. lucidum mycelia, was found to exert cytotoxicity on various human carcinoma cell lines in a dose-dependent manner, while it was less toxic to normal human cell lines. Animal experiments in vivo also showed that GA-T suppressed the growth of human solid tumor in athymic mice. It markedly inhibited the proliferation of a highly metastatic lung cancer cell line (95-D) by apoptosis induction and cell cycle arrest at G(1) phase. Moreover, reduction of mitochondria membrane potential (Delta psi(m)) and release of cytochrome c were observed during the induced apoptosis. Our data further indicate that the expression of proteins p53 and Bax in 95-D cells was increased in a time-dependent manner, whereas the expression of Bcl-2 was not significantly changed; thus the ratio of Bcl-2/Bax was decreased. The results show that the apoptosis induction of GA-T was mediated by mitochondrial dysfunctions. Furthermore, stimulation of the activity of caspase-3 but not caspase-8 was observed during apoptosis. The experiments using inhibitors of caspases (Z-VAD-FMK, Z-DEVD-FMK and Z-IETD-FMK) confirmed that caspase-3 was involved in the apoptosis. All our findings demonstrate that GA-T induced apoptosis of metastatic lung tumor cells through intrinsic pathway related to mitochondrial dysfunction and p53 expression, and it may be a potentially useful chemotherapeutic agent.

Animals↗

PubMed2006

Establishment and application of a TaqMan real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assay for rubella virus RNA.

The aim of this study was to establish and apply a real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for rubella virus (RV) RNA. First, the primer and TaqMan probe concentrations, as well as reaction temperatures were optimized to establish an efficient real-time quantitative RT-PCR assay for RV RNA. Next, an RV-specific PCR amplicon was made as an external standard to estimate the linearity, amplification efficiency, analytical sensitivity and reproducibility of the real time quantitative assay. Finally, the assay was applied to quantify RV RNA in clinical samples for rubella diagnosis. The RV-specific PCR amplicon was prepared for evaluation of the assay at 503 bp, and its original concentration was 2.75x109 copies/mul. The real time quantitative assay was shown to have good linearity (R2=0.9920), high amplification efficiency (E=1.91), high sensitivity (275 copies/ml), and high reproducibility (variation coefficient range, from 1.25% to 3.58%). Compared with the gold standard, the specificity and sensitivity of the assay in clinical samples was 96.4% and 86.4%, respectively. Therefore, the established quantitative RT-PCR method is a simple, rapid, less-labored, quantitative, highly specific and sensitive assay for RV RNA.

Humans↗

PubMed2005

Analysis of synonymous codon usage bias in Chlamydia.

Chlamydiae are obligate intracellular bacterial pathogens that cause ocular and sexually transmitted diseases, and are associated with cardiovascular diseases. The analysis of codon usage may improve our understanding of the evolution and pathogenesis of Chlamydia and allow reengineering of target genes to improve their expression for gene therapy. Here, we analyzed the codon usage of C. muridarum, C. trachomatis (here indicating biovar trachoma and LGV), C. pneumoniae, and C. psittaci using the codon usage database and the CUSP (Create a codon usage table) program of EMBOSS (The European Molecular Biology Open Software Suite). The results show that the four genomes have similar codon usage patterns, with a strong bias towards the codons with A and T at the third codon position. Compared with Homo sapiens, the four chlamydial species show discordant seven or eight preferred codons. The ENC (effective number of codons used in a gene)-plot reveals that the genetic heterogeneity in Chlamydia is constrained by the G+C content, while translational selection and gene length exert relatively weaker influences. Moreover, mutational pressure appears to be the major determinant of the codon usage variation among the chlamydial genes. In addition, we compared the codon preferences of C. trachomatis with those of E. coli, yeast, adenovirus and Homo sapiens. There are 23 codons showing distinct usage differences between C. trachomatis and E. coli, 24 between C. trachomatis and adenovirus, 21 between C. trachomatis and Homo sapiens, but only six codons between C. trachomatis and yeast. Therefore, the yeast system may be more suitable for the expression of chlamydial genes. Finally, we compared the codon preferences of C. trachomatis with those of six eukaryotes, eight prokaryotes and 23 viruses. There is a strong positive correlation between the differences in coding GC content and the variations in codon bias (r=0.905, P<0.001). We conclude that the variation of codon bias between C. trachomatis and other organisms is much less influenced by phylogenetic lineage and primarily determined by the extent of disparities in GC content.

Animals↗