The Mechanism of the Development of Macrophage Tolerance in Tumor Microenvironment

Bacteria forming the resident microbiome of the tumor are an integral component of its microenvironment. The interaction of the tumor microbiome with the tumor or tumor stromal cells is not well understood. We hypothesized that bacteria in the tumor microenvironment induce macrophage tolerance. Macrophage tolerance is a phenomenon of macrophage inability to respond to a repetitive inflammatory stimulus, which leads to a loss of cytotoxic activity. We studied the development of macrophage tolerance under the influence of bacteria and cytokines of the tumor microenvironment in vitro. It was found that the macrophage tolerance in the tumor stroma can develop in response to bacterial cell wall components and inflammatory factors. The acquired tolerance is inability of macrophages to produce proinflammatory cytokines TNFα, IL-1β, and MCP-1 and activation of the production of immunosuppressive IL-10.

De novo methylation of selective CpG dinucleotide clusters in transformed cells mediated by an activated N-ras

We have explored a possible role of an activated N-ras oncogene in aberrant methylation of CpG clusters in DNAs of transformed cells. Using three lines of hamster cells transformed by Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) and the method of detection of CpG islands as clustered sites for methylation-sensitive restriction enzymes we have demonstrated that in each cell line the transcribed RSV proviruses are integrated in the vicinity of sequence containing the cluster of unmethylated CpG dinucleotides. Two out of three examined CpG clusters had hypermethylation patterns in N-ras-neo- but not in neo-transfected variants of the cell lines. De novo methylation of CpG dinucleotides correlated with transcriptional inactivation of adjacent RSV proviruses that was related neither to the lack of transcriptional factors binding RSV long terminal repeat (LTR) nor to the transcriptional incompetence of the LTR, as measured by reporter gene assays with the LTR cloned from DNA of these cells. These data suggest that activation of N-ras signal transduction pathway in transformed cells may be relevant to long-term inactivation of selective genes by hypermethylation of their CpG islands.

A series of meso-tris (N-methyl-pyridiniumyl)-(4-alkylamidophenyl) porphyrins: synthesis, interaction with DNA and antibacterial activity

A series of meso-5,10,15-tris(N-methyl-4-pyridiniumyl)-20-(4-alkylamidophen yl) porphyrins were synthesized by derivatizing the amino group on the phenyl ring with the following hydrophobic groups: -C(O)C7F15, -C(O)CH=CH2, C(O)CH3, -C(O)C7H15, and -C(O)C15H31. The cationic tris-pyridiumyl porphyrin core serves as a DNA binding motif and a photosensitizer to photomodify DNA molecules. The changes of the UV-Vis absorption spectra during the titration of these porphyrins with calf thymus DNA revealed a large bathochromic shift (up to 14 nm) and a hypochromicity (up to 55%) of the porphyrins Soret bands, usually considered as proof of porphyrin intercalation into DNA. Association constants (K) calculated according to the McGhee and von Hippel model, were in the range of 10(6)-10(7) M(-1). An increase in hydrophobicity of the substituents at the 20-meso-position produced higher binding affinity. These porphyrins caused photomodification of the supercoiled plasmid DNA when a green laser beam at 532 nm was applied. Those with higher surface activity acted more efficiently as DNA photomodifiers. The porphyrin with a perfluorinated alkyl chain (-COC7F15) at the meso-20-position inhibited the growth of gram-positive bacteria (S. aureus, or S. epidermidis). Other porphyrins exhibited moderate activity against both gram-negative and gram-positive organisms.