Biology subjects

Day, P. J.

Publications and source records attributed to Day, P. J..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2020

An untargeted metabolomics strategy to measure differences in metabolite uptake and excretion by mammalian cell lines

IntroductionIt is widely but erroneously believed that drugs get into cells by passing through the phospholipid bilayer portion of the plasma and other membranes. Much evidence shows, however, that this is not the case, and that drugs cross biomembranes by hitchhiking on transporters for other natural molecules to which these drugs are structurally similar. Untargeted metabolomics can provide a method for determining the differential uptake of such metabolites. ObjectivesBlood serum contains many thousands of molecules and provides a convenient source of biologically relevant metabolites. Our objective was to measure them. MethodsWe develop an untargeted LC-MS/MS method to detect a broad range of compounds present in human serum. We apply this to the analysis of the time course of the uptake and secretion of metabolites in serum by several human cell lines, by analysing changes in the serum that represents the extracellular phase (the exometabolome or metabolic footprint). ResultsOur method measures some 4,000-5,000 metabolic features in both ES+ and ES- modes. We show that the metabolic footprints of different cell lines differ greatly from each other. ConclusionOur new, 15-minute untargeted metabolome method allows for the robust and convenient measurement of differences in the uptake of serum compounds by cell lines following incubation in serum, and its relation to differences in transporter expression.

biochemistry↗

bioRxiv2018

Very rapid flow cytometric assessment of antimicrobial susceptibility during the apparent lag phase of microbial (re)growth

Cells of E. coli were grown in LB medium, taken from a stationary phase of 2-4h, and reinoculated into fresh media at a concentration (105.mL-1 or lower) characteristic of bacteriuria. Flow cytometry was used to assess how quickly we could detect changes in cell size, number, membrane energisation (using a carbocyanine dye) and DNA distribution. It turned out that while the lag phase observable macroscopically via bulk OD measurements could be as long as 4h, the true lag phase could be less than 15-20 min, and was accompanied by many observable biochemical changes. Antibiotics to which the cells were sensitive affected these changes within 20 min of reinoculation, providing the possibility of a very rapid antibiotic susceptibility test, on a timescale compatible with a visit to a GP clinic. The strategy was applied successfully to genuine potential Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) samples taken from a doctors surgery. The methods developed could prove of considerable value in ensuring the correct prescription and thereby lowering the spread of antimicrobial resistance.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2017

Novel ‘housekeeping’ genes and an unusually heterogeneous distribution of transporter expression profiles in human tissues and cell lines, assessed using the Gini coefficient

We analyse two comprehensive transcriptome datasets from human tissues and human-derived cell lines in terms of the expression profiles of the SLC and ABC families of membrane transporters. The Gini index (coefficient) characterises inequalities of distributions, and is used in a novel way to describe the distribution of the expression of each transporter among the different tissues and cell lines. In many cases, transporters exhibit extremely high Gini coefficients, even when their supposed substrates might be expected to be available to all tissues, indicating a much higher degree of specialisation than is usually assumed. This is consistent with divergent evolution from a more restricted set of ancestors. Similar trends hold true for the expression profiles of transporters in different cell lines, suggesting that cell lines exhibit largely similar transport behaviour to that of tissues. By contrast, the Gini coefficients for ABC transporters tend to be larger in cell lines than in tissues, implying that some kind of a selection process has taken place. In particular, with some exceptions such as olfactory receptors and genes involved in keratin production, transporter genes are significantly more heterogeneously expressed than are most non-transporter genes. The Gini index also allows us to determine those transcripts with the most stable expression; these often differ significantly from the housekeeping genes commonly used for normalisation in transcriptomics and qPCR studies. The lowest four in tissues are FAM32A, ABCB7, MRPL21 and PCBP1, while the lowest three in cell lines are SF3B2, NXF1 and RBM45. PCBP1 is both reasonably highly expressed and has a low Gini coefficient in both tissues and cell lines, and is an excellent novel housekeeping gene. Overall, our analyses provide novel opportunities for the normalisation of genome-wide expression profiling data.

systems biology↗