Recombinant Protein Polymers: A Coming Wave of Personal Care Ingredients
ACS BIOMATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
Authors: Breslauer, David N.
Abstract
After decades of research and development, recombinant protein polymers have begun to find applications outside the pharmaceutical and biomedical fields. Several recombinant derivatives of natural structural proteins are now being sold in personal care products, providing novel functionality while also being animal-free, not derived from petroleum, biocompatible, and biodegradable. Consumers are now demanding these material characteristics in their personal care products, and a backlog of well-characterized recombinant protein polymers could become the future of personal care ingredients.
Thrombotic, inflammatory, and HIF-regulated genes and thrombosis risk in polycythemia vera and essential thrombocythemia
BLOOD ADVANCES
Authors: Gangaraju, Radhika; Song, Jihyun; Kim, Soo Jin; Tashi, Tsewang; Reeves, Brandi N.; Sundar, Krishna M.; Thiagarajan, Perumal; Prchal, Josef T.
Abstract
Thrombosis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in polycythemia vera (PV) and essential thrombocythemia (ET). The pathophysiology of thrombosis in these disorders remains unclear, and we hypothesized that upregulation of thrombotic, inflammatory, and hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-regulated genes may play a role in it. We performed unbiased RNA sequencing in granulocytes and platelets of PV patients and found differential expression of several thrombotic, inflammatory, and HIF-regulated genes. The expression of many of these genes positively correlated with JAK2 expression and JAK2(V617F) allelic burden. We then validated these findings by quantitative polymerase chain reaction analyses of selected gene transcripts in a larger number of PV and ET granulocytes and platelets (58 patients) and in 28 controls, and we compared these findings in patients with and without thrombosis. The study included 29 females and 29 males; of these, 28 had a history of thrombosis. We found that transcripts of several selected genes were upregulated in patients with PV or ET compared with controls. In granulocytes, the expression levels of F3, SELP, VEGFA, and SLC2A1 were significantly higher in patients with a history of thrombosis compared with those who did not have thrombosis. Patients with a history of thrombosis have significantly higher expression of IL1RAP (P < .05) in platelets compared with those without thrombosis. Our study confirms the presence of a thromboinflammatory state and augmented HIF activity in PV and ET and its role in thrombosis. These data may provide the background for targeted therapies in PV and ET.