0000000000587223
AUTHOR
Matthias Platzer
CYP3 phylogenomics: evidence for positive selection of CYP3A4 and CYP3A7.
CYP3A metabolizes 50% of currently prescribed drugs and is frequently involved in clinically relevant drug interactions. The understanding of roles and regulations of the individual CYP3A genes in pharmacology and physiology is incomplete.Using genomic sequences from 16 species we investigated the evolution of CYP3 genomic loci over a period of 450 million years.CYP3A genes in amniota evolved from two ancestral CYP3A genes. Upon the emergence of eutherian mammals, one of them was lost, whereas, the other acquired a novel genomic environment owing to translocation. In primates, CYP3A underwent rapid evolutionary changes involving multiple gene duplications, deletions, pseudogenizations, and …
Alternative splicing of SMPD1 in human sepsis.
Acid sphingomyelinase (ASM or sphingomyelin phosphodiesterase, SMPD) activity engages a critical role for regulation of immune response and development of organ failure in critically ill patients. Beside genetic variation in the human gene encoding ASM (SMPD1), alternative splicing of the mRNA is involved in regulation of enzymatic activity. Here we show that the patterns of alternatively spliced SMPD1 transcripts are significantly different in patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome and severe sepsis/septic shock compared to control subjects allowing discrimination of respective disease entity. The different splicing patterns might contribute to the better understanding of th…