Leo Pharma

About: Leo Pharma is a company organization based out in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Psoriasis & Betamethasone dipropionate. The organization has 604 authors who have published 681 publications receiving 18144 citations.

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy

Abstract: In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. A key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process vs. those that measure flux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process); thus, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation needs to be differentiated from stimuli that result in increased autophagic activity, defined as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (in most higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the field understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field.

Ingenol mebutate gel for actinic keratosis.

Abstract: Background Actinic keratosis is a common precursor to sun-related squamous-cell carcinoma. Treating actinic keratoses and the surrounding skin area (i.e., field therapy) can eradicate clinical and subclinical actinic keratoses. Topical field therapy currently requires weeks or months of treatment. We investigated the efficacy and safety of a new topical field therapy for actinic keratosis, ingenol mebutate gel (0.015% for face and scalp and 0.05% for trunk and extremities). Methods In four multicenter, randomized, double-blind studies, we randomly assigned patients with actinic keratoses on the face or scalp or on the trunk or extremities to receive ingenol mebutate or placebo (vehicle), self-applied to a 25-cm2 contiguous field once daily for 3 consecutive days for lesions on the face or scalp or for 2 consecutive days for the trunk or extremities. Complete clearance (primary outcome) was assessed at 57 days, and local reactions were quantitatively measured. Results In a pooled analysis of the two trials...

A high-quality catalog of the Drosophila melanogaster proteome.

Abstract: Understanding how proteins and their complex interaction networks convert the genomic information into a dynamic living organism is a fundamental challenge in biological sciences. As an important step towards understanding the systems biology of a complex eukaryote, we cataloged 63% of the predicted Drosophila melanogaster proteome by detecting 9,124 proteins from 498,000 redundant and 72,281 distinct peptide identifications. This unprecedented high proteome coverage for a complex eukaryote was achieved by combining sample diversity, multidimensional biochemical fractionation and analysis-driven experimentation feedback loops, whereby data collection is guided by statistical analysis of prior data. We show that high-quality proteomics data provide crucial information to amend genome annotation and to confirm many predicted gene models. We also present experimentally identified proteotypic peptides matching approximately 50% of D. melanogaster gene models. This library of proteotypic peptides should enable fast, targeted and quantitative proteomic studies to elucidate the systems biology of this model organism.

The effect of short-chain fatty acids on human monocyte-derived dendritic cells

Abstract: The gut microbiota is essential for human health and plays an important role in the pathogenesis of several diseases. Short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), such as acetate, butyrate and propionate, are end-products of microbial fermentation of macronutrients that distribute systemically via the blood. The aim of this study was to investigate the transcriptional response of immature and LPS-matured human monocyte-derived DC to SCFA. Our data revealed distinct effects exerted by each individual SCFA on gene expression in human monocyte-derived DC, especially in the mature ones. Acetate only exerted negligible effects, while both butyrate and propionate strongly modulated gene expression in both immature and mature human monocyte-derived DC. An Ingenuity pathway analysis based on the differentially expressed genes suggested that propionate and butyrate modulate leukocyte trafficking, as SCFA strongly reduced the release of several pro-inflammatory chemokines including CCL3, CCL4, CCL5, CXCL9, CXCL10, and CXCL11. Additionally, butyrate and propionate inhibited the expression of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced cytokines such as IL-6 and IL-12p40 showing a strong anti-inflammatory effect. This work illustrates that bacterial metabolites far from the site of their production can differentially modulate the inflammatory response and generally provides new insights into host-microbiome interactions.