• IMMUNE NETWORK
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.3.1-3.14
• /
• 2023

Microvilli are outer membrane organelles that contain cross-linked filamentous actin. Unlike well-characterized epithelial microvilli, T-cell microvilli are dynamic similar to those of filopodia, which grow and shrink intermittently via the alternate actin-assembly and -disassembly. T-cell microvilli are specialized for sensing Ags on the surface of Ag-presenting cells (APCs). Thus, these finger-shaped microprotrusions contain many signaling-related proteins and can serve as a signaling platforms that induce intracellular signals. However, they are not limited to sensing external information but can provide sites for parts of the cell-body to tear away from the cell. Cells are known to produce many types of extracellular vesicles (EVs), such as exosomes, microvesicles, and membrane particles. T cells also produce EVs, but little is known about under what conditions T cells generate EVs and which types of EVs are released. We discovered that T cells produce few exosomes but release large amounsts of microvilli-derived particles during physical interaction with APCs. Although much is unanswered as to why T cells use the same organelles to sense Ags or to produce EVs, these events can significantly affect T cell fate, including clonal expansion and death. Since TCRs are localized at microvilli tips, this membrane event also raises a new question regarding long-standing paradigm in T cell biology; i.e., surface TCR downmodulation following T cell activation. Since T-cell microvilli particles carry T-cell message to their cognate partner, these particles are termed T-cell immunological synaptosomes (TISs). We discuss the potential physiological role of TISs and their application to immunotherapies.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.20 no.10
• /
• pp.1451-1457
• /
• 2010

Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) is an important mediator of cell-cell signaling in neuronal systems. The serotonin transporter (SERT) on the plasma membrane controls the extracellular 5-HT level by reuptake of released 5-HT from the synaptic cleft, but the underlying regulation mechanism is unclear. Here, we used the yeast two-hybrid system to identify the specific binding protein(s) that interacts with the carboxyl (C)-terminal region of SERT and found a specific interaction with protein kinase C-$\varepsilon$ (PKC-$\varepsilon$), a PKC isotype that is characterized as a calcium-independent and phorbol ester/diacylglycerol-sensitive serine/threonine kinase. PKC-$\varepsilon$ bound to the tail region of SERT but not to other members of the $Na^+/Cl^-$ dependent SLC6 gene family in the yeast two-hybrid assay. The C-terminal region of PKC-$\varepsilon$ is essential for interaction with SERT. In addition, these proteins showed specific interactions in the glutathione S-transferase (GST) pull-down assay. PKC-$\varepsilon$ phosphorylated the peptide of the SERT amino (N)-terminus in vitro. These results suggest that the phosphorylation of SERT by PKC-$\varepsilon$ may regulate SERT activity in plasma membrane.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.52 no.2
• /
• pp.328-336
• /
• 2020

Cesium is a major product of uranium fission, which is the most commonly existed radionuclide in radioactive wastes. Various technologies have been applied to separate radioactive cesium from radioactive wastes, such as chemical precipitation, solvent extraction, membrane separation and adsorption. Crown ethers and calixarenes derivatives can selectively coordinate with cesium ions by ion-dipole interaction or cation-π interaction, which are promising extractants for cesium ions due to their promising coordinating structure. This review systematically summarized and analyzed the recent advances in the crown ethers and calixarenes derivatives for cesium separation, especially focusing on the adsorbents based on extractants for cesium removal from aqueous solution, such as the grafting coordinating groups (e.g. crown ether and calixarenes) and coordinating polymers (e.g. MOFs) due to their unique coordination ability and selectivity for cesium ions. These adsorbents combined the advantages of extraction and adsorption methods and showed high adsorption capacity for cesium ions, which are promising for cesium separation The key restraints for cesium separation, as well as the newest progress of the adsorbents for cesium separation were also discussed. Finally, some concluding remarks and suggestions for future researches were proposed.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.17-28
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the efficacy of modeling a surface effect ship's air-cushion flexible seal utilizing a two-dimensional beam under steady state conditions. This effort is the initial phase of developing a more complex three-dimensional model of the air-seal-water fluid-structure interaction. The beam model incorporates the seal flexural rigidity and mass with large deformations while assuming linear elastic material response. The hydrodynamic pressure is derived utilizing the OpenFOAM computational fluid dynamic (CFD) solver for a given set of steady-state flow condition. The pressure distribution derived by the CFD solver is compared with the pressure required to deform the seal beam model. The air pressure, flow conditions and seal geometry are obtained from experimental analysis. The experimental data was derived from large-scale experimental tests utilizing a test apparatus of a canonical surface effect ship's flexible seal in a towing tank over a variety of test conditions.

• Interaction and multiscale mechanics
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.17-34
• /
• 2011

This paper deals with the modeling of the plane frame structure-foundation-soil system. The superstructure along with the foundation beam is idealized as beam bending elements. The soil medium near the foundation beam with stress concentrated is idealized by isoparametric finite elements, and infinite elements are used to represent the far field of the soil media. This paper presents the modeling of shear wall structure-foundation and soil system using the optimal membrane triangular, super and conventional finite elements. Particularly, an alternative formulation is presented for the optimal triangular elements aimed at reducing the programming effort and computational cost. The proposed model is applied to a plane frame-combined footing-soil system. It is shown that the total settlement obtained from the non-linear interactive analysis is about 1.3 to 1.4 times that of the non-interactive analysis. Furthermore, the proposed model was found to be efficient in simulating the shear wall-foundation-soil system, being able to yield results that are similar to those obtained by the conventional finite element method.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.139-148
• /
• 2019

In this study, the removal of MB from saline solutions was evaluated by two methods by adsorption and electrodialysis; the adsorption of the mixture dye/salt on dried orange peel waste (OPW) was studied in batch method. In this study the biosorption of cationic dye by OPW was investigated as a function of initial solution pH, and initial salt (sodium chloride) concentration. The maximal dye uptake at $pH{\geq}3.6$ in the absence and in the presence of salt and the dye uptake diminished considerably in the presence of increasing concentrations of salt up to 8 g/L. The Redlich Peterson and Langmuir were the most suitable adsorption models for describing the biosorption equilibrium data of the dye both individually and in salt containing medium. As well, this work deals with the electrodialysis application to remove the dye. Synthetic solutions were used for the investigation of the main operational factors affecting the treatment performance; such as applied voltage, pH, initial dye concentration and ionic strength. The experimental results for adsorption and electrodialysis confirmed the importance of electrostatic interactions on the dye. The electrodialysis process with standard ion exchange membranes enabled efficient desalination of cationic dye solutions; there are two main factors in fouling: electrostatic interaction between cations of dyes and the fixed charged groups of the CEM, and affinity interactions.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.1-9
• /
• 2019

This paper proposes a new numerical approach to model geocell reinforced soils, where the geocell is described as membrane elements and the complex interaction between geocell and soil is realized by coupling their degrees of freedom. The effectiveness and robustness of this approach are demonstrated using two examples, i.e., a geocell-reinforced foundation and a large scale retaining wall project. The first example validates the approach against established solutions through a comprehensive parametrical study to understand the influence of geocell on the improvement of bearing capacity of foundations. The study results show that reducing the geocell pocket size has a strong effect on improving the bearing capacity. In addition, when the aspect ratio maintains the same value, the bearing capacity improvement with increasing geocell height is insignificant. Comparing with the field monitoring and measurement in the project, the second example investigates the application of the approach to practical engineering projects. This paper provides a practically feasible and efficient modelling approach, where no explicit interface or contact is required. This allows geocell reinforced soils in large scale project can be effectively modelled where the mechanism for complex geocell-soil interaction can be explicitly observed.

• Genomics & Informatics
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.41.1-41.11
• /
• 2023

The Dengue virus M protein is a 75 amino acid polypeptide with two helical transmembranes (TM). The TM domain oligomerizes to form an ion channel, facilitating viral release from the host cells. The M protein has a critical role in the virus entry and life cycle, making it a potent drug target. The oligomerization of the monomeric protein was studied using ab initio modeling and molecular dynamics simulation in an implicit membrane environment. The representative structures obtained showed pentamer as the most stable oligomeric state, resembling an ion channel. Glutamic acid, threonine, serine, tryptophan, alanine, isoleucine form the pore-lining residues of the pentameric channel, conferring an overall negative charge to the channel with approximate length of 51.9 Å. Residue interaction analysis for M protein shows that Ala94, Leu95, Ser112, Glu124, and Phe155 are the central hub residues representing the physicochemical interactions between domains. The virtual screening with 165 different ion channel inhibitors from the ion channel library shows monovalent ion channel blockers, namely lumacaftor, glipizide, gliquidone, glisoxepide, and azelnidipine to be the inhibitors with high docking scores. Understanding the three-dimensional structure of M protein will help design therapeutics and vaccines for Dengue infection.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.41-50
• /
• 2002

The streaming potential generated by the electrokinetic flow within electric double layer of charged microchannel is applied to determine the zeta potential of hollow-fiber membrane pore by using the general Helmholtz-Smoluchowski equation. The streaming potential is know to provide a useful real-time information on the surface property and the interaction between pore and particles in actual situations and physicochemical conditions. The influence of physicochemical parameters upon the filtration with hollow-fibers has been examined with an in-situ and simultaneously monitoring the streaming potential as well as permeate flux. In particular, the present study examined an experimental method to identify the effect of cake layer which can vary according to the axial position of a hollow-fiber and the progress of membrane fouling by measuring the position-dependent streaming potential. As the latex concentration increases, the permeate flux decreased but the streaming potential increased. The growth of cake layer has been mire developed with increasing latex concentration, however, the effect of surface charges of latexes deposited on the membrane surface leads to increase the streaming potential. With increasing ionic concentration of KCI, both the permeate flux and the streaming potential decrease. The increase of ionic concentration provides a compact cake layer due to the shrinkage of Debye length and the decreased streaming potential results from the weakened ionic flows owing to a thin diffusive double layer.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.44 no.9
• /
• pp.572-577
• /
• 2011

Elevated phospholipase D (PLD) expression prevents cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. However, the roles of PLD isoforms in cell proliferation and apoptosis are incompletely understood. Here, we investigated the physiological significance of the interaction between PLD2 and protein kinase CKII (CKII) in HCT116 human colorectal carcinoma cells. PLD2 interacted with the CKII${\beta}$ subunit in HCT116 cells. The C-terminal domain (residues 578-933) of PLD2 and the N-terminal domain of CKII${\beta}$ were necessary for interaction between the two proteins. PLD2 relocalized CKII${\beta}$ to the plasma membrane area. Overexpression of PLD2 reduced CKII${\beta}$ protein level, whereas knockdown of PLD2 led to an increase in CKII${\beta}$ expression. PLD2-induced CKII${\beta}$ reduction was mediated by ubiquitin-dependent degradation. The C-terminal domain of PLD2 was sufficient for CKII${\beta}$ degradation as the catalytic activity of PLD2 was not required. Taken together, the results indicate that the C-terminal domain of PLD2 can regulate CKII by accelerating CKII${\beta}$ degradation in HCT116 cells.