Medical and Biomedical Researches

Immunotoxic Effects of Perfluorononanoic Acid on BALB/c Mice.

June 29th, 2008
Immunotoxic Effects of Perfluorononanoic Acid on BALB/c Mice. The effects of perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) on the immune system and its mechanism of action in mice have not been elucidated. Thus, BALB/c mice were exposed to the PFNA (0, 1, 3, or 5 mg/kg/day) for fourteen days. ...

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PET amyloid ligand [11C]PIB uptake shows predominantly striatal increase in variant Alzheimer’s dis

June 29th, 2008
PET amyloid ligand [11C]PIB uptake shows predominantly striatal increase in variant Alzheimer\'s disease. Variant Alzheimer\'s disease (VarAD) with spastic paraparesis and presenile dementia is associated with certain mutations of the presenilin 1 (PS-1) gene, particularly those leading to deletion of exon 9 (PS-1Delta E9). VarAD is ...

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Efficient delivery of RNA Interference to peripheral neurons in vivo using herpes simplex virus.

June 29th, 2008
Efficient delivery of RNA Interference to peripheral neurons in vivo using herpes simplex virus. Considerable interest has been focused on inducing RNA interference (RNAi) in neurons to study gene function and identify new targets for disease intervention. Although small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) have been used to ...

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Mechanism and substrate specificity of telomeric protein POT1 stimulation of the Werner syndrome hel

June 29th, 2008
Mechanism and substrate specificity of telomeric protein POT1 stimulation of the Werner syndrome helicase. Loss of the RecQ helicase WRN protein causes the cancer-prone progeroid disorder Werner syndrome (WS). WS cells exhibit defects in DNA replication and telomere preservation. The telomeric single-stranded binding protein POT1 stimulates ...

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p73{alpha} isoforms drive opposite transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of MYCN expre

June 29th, 2008
p73{alpha} isoforms drive opposite transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of MYCN expression in neuroblastoma cells. MYCN activation, mainly by gene amplification, is one of the most frequent molecular events in neuroblastoma (NB) oncogenesis, and is associated with increased malignancy and decreased neuronal differentiation propensity. The frequency of ...

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Minigene-like inhibition of protein synthesis mediated by hungry codons near the start codon.

June 29th, 2008
Minigene-like inhibition of protein synthesis mediated by hungry codons near the start codon. Rare AGA or AGG codons close to the initiation codon inhibit protein synthesis by a tRNA-sequestering mechanism as toxic minigenes do. To further understand this mechanism, a parallel analysis of protein synthesis and ...

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A protein-DNA docking benchmark.

June 29th, 2008
A protein-DNA docking benchmark. We present a protein-DNA docking benchmark containing 47 unbound-unbound test cases of which 13 are classified as easy, 22 as intermediate and 12 as difficult cases. The latter shows considerable structural rearrangement upon complex formation. DNA-specific modifications such as flipped out bases ...

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Dispatched Homolog 2 is targeted by miR-214 through a combination of three weak microRNA recognition

June 29th, 2008
Dispatched Homolog 2 is targeted by miR-214 through a combination of three weak microRNA recognition sites. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate gene expression by inhibiting translation of target mRNAs through pairing with miRNA recognition elements (MREs), usually in 3\' UTRs. Because pairing is imperfect, identification of bona fide ...

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Multiple segmental and selective isotope labeling of large RNA for NMR structural studies.

June 29th, 2008
Multiple segmental and selective isotope labeling of large RNA for NMR structural studies. Multiple segmental and selective isotope labeling of RNA with three segments has been demonstrated by introducing an RNA segment, selectively labeled with (13)C(9)/(15)N(2)/(2)H((1\', 3\', 4\', 5\', 5\'\'))-labeled uridine residues, into the central position ...

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Systematic analysis of enzymatic DNA polymerization using oligo-DNA templates and triphosphate analo

June 29th, 2008
Systematic analysis of enzymatic DNA polymerization using oligo-DNA templates and triphosphate analogs involving 2\',4\'-bridged nucleosides. In order to systematically analyze the effects of nucleoside modification of sugar moieties in DNA polymerase reactions, we synthesized 16 modified templates containing 2\',4\'-bridged nucleotides and three types of 2\',4\'-bridged nucleoside-5\'-triphospates ...

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Filament formation and robust strand exchange activities of the rice DMC1A and DMC1B proteins.

June 29th, 2008
Filament formation and robust strand exchange activities of the rice DMC1A and DMC1B proteins. The DMC1 protein, a meiosis-specific DNA recombinase, catalyzes strand exchange between homologous chromosomes. In rice, two Dmc1 genes, Dmc1A and Dmc1B, have been reported. Although the Oryza sativa DMC1A protein has been ...

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CH2-Units on (Poly-)ethylene Glycol Radially Dehydrate Cytoplasm of Resting Skinned Skeletal Muscle.

June 29th, 2008
CH2-Units on (Poly-)ethylene Glycol Radially Dehydrate Cytoplasm of Resting Skinned Skeletal Muscle. Observing the optical cross-section and electron micrographs of mechanically skinned fibres of frog skeletal muscle, we found that ethylene glycols (EGs) of small (mono-, di-, tri- and tetra-EGs; M(r) 62-194) and medium (poly-EGs; M(r) ...

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Arginine Increases the Solubility of Coumarin: Comparison with Salting-In and Salting-Out Additives.

June 29th, 2008
Arginine Increases the Solubility of Coumarin: Comparison with Salting-In and Salting-Out Additives. Summary Poor aqueous solubility of low molecular weight drug substances hampers their development as pharmacological agents. Here we have examined the effects of arginine on the solubility of organic compounds, coumarin, caffeine and benzyl ...

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Citrullinated fibrinogen inhibits thrombin-catalyzed fibrin polymerization.

June 29th, 2008
Citrullinated fibrinogen inhibits thrombin-catalyzed fibrin polymerization. SUMMARY Citrullination is the post-translational modification of arginine residues by peptidylarginine deiminases (PADIs). Fibrinogen is one substrate of PADIs under physiological conditions. Fibrinogen is an important factor for blood coagulation and inducing inflammation. The citrullinated form of fibrinogen appears in ...

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Causation and Cleanliness: George Callender, Wounds, and the Debates over Listerism.

June 29th, 2008
Causation and Cleanliness: George Callender, Wounds, and the Debates over Listerism. This article reexamines the surgical and historiographic debate over antisepsis and the germ theory through the work of the prominent London surgeon George W. Callender (1830-1879) and the statistical records of St. Bartholomew\'s Hospital. Surgeons ...

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Frequent and Widespread Parallel Evolution of Protein Sequences.

June 29th, 2008
Frequent and Widespread Parallel Evolution of Protein Sequences. Understanding the patterns and causes of protein sequence evolution is a major challenge in evolutionary biology. One of the critical unresolved issues is the relative contribution of selection and genetic drift to the fixation of amino acid sequence ...

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Extension of the SAEM algorithm for nonlinear mixed models with 2 levels of random effects.

June 29th, 2008
Extension of the SAEM algorithm for nonlinear mixed models with 2 levels of random effects. This article focuses on parameter estimation of multilevel nonlinear mixed-effects models (MNLMEMs). These models are used to analyze data presenting multiple hierarchical levels of grouping (cluster data, clinical trials with several ...

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Phenylalanine ammonia lyase functions as a switch directly controlling the accumulation of calycosin

June 29th, 2008
Phenylalanine ammonia lyase functions as a switch directly controlling the accumulation of calycosin and calycosin-7-O-{beta}-D-glucoside in Astragalus membranaceus var. mongholicus plants. Previously it had been shown that calycosin and calycosin-7-O-beta-D-glucoside (CGs) accumulate in whole plants, mainly in leaves, of Astragalus membranaceus Bge. var. mongholicus (Bge.) Hsiao ...

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Effects of brassinosteroid, auxin, and cytokinin on ethylene production in Arabidopsis thaliana plan

June 29th, 2008
Effects of brassinosteroid, auxin, and cytokinin on ethylene production in Arabidopsis thaliana plants. Inflorescence stalks produced the highest amount of ethylene in response to IAA as compared with other plant parts tested. Leaf age had an effect on IAA-induced ethylene with the youngest leaves showing the ...

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The POK/AtVPS52 protein localizes to several distinct post-Golgi compartments in sporophytic and gam

June 29th, 2008
The POK/AtVPS52 protein localizes to several distinct post-Golgi compartments in sporophytic and gametophytic cells. The organization and dynamics of the plant endomembrane system require both universal and plant-specific molecules and compartments. The latter, despite the growing wealth of information, remains poorly understood. From the study of ...

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Investigations into plant biochemical wound-response pathways involved in the production of aphid-in

June 29th, 2008
Investigations into plant biochemical wound-response pathways involved in the production of aphid-induced plant volatiles. Feeding damage to plants by insect herbivores induces the production of plant volatiles, which are attractive to the herbivores natural enemies. Little is understood about the plant biochemical pathways involved in aphid-induced ...

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TbRGG2, an essential RNA editing accessory factor in two Trypanosoma brucei life cycle stages.

June 29th, 2008
TbRGG2, an essential RNA editing accessory factor in two Trypanosoma brucei life cycle stages. In the mitochondria of kinetoplastid protozoa, including Trypanosoma brucei, RNA editing inserts and/or deletes uridines from pre-mRNAs to produce mature mRNAs for translation. RNA editing is carried out by several related multiprotein ...

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Protein-protein docking and analysis reveal that two homologous bacterial adenylyl cyclase.

June 29th, 2008
Protein-protein docking and analysis reveal that two homologous bacterial adenylyl cyclase. Calmodulin (CaM), a eukaryotic calcium sensor that regulates diverse biological activities, consists of N- and C-terminal globular domains (N-CaM and C-CaM, respectively). CaM serves as the activator of CyaA, a 188 kDa adenylyl cyclase toxin ...

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The basis for selective E1-E2 interactions in the ISG15 conjugation system.

June 29th, 2008
The basis for selective E1-E2 interactions in the ISG15 conjugation system. E1 and E2 enzymes coordinate the first steps in conjugation of ubiquitin (Ub) and ubiquitin-like proteins (Ubls). ISG15 is an interferon-a/ss-induced Ubl, and the E1 and E2 enzymes for ISG15 conjugation are Ube1L and UbcH8, ...

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Effect of the C-terminal truncation on the functional cycle of chaperonin groel: Implication that th

June 29th, 2008
Effect of the C-terminal truncation on the functional cycle of chaperonin groel: Implication that the C-terminal region facilitates the transition from the folding-arrested to the folding-competent state. To elucidate the exact role of the C-terminal region of GroEL in its functional cycle, the C-terminal 20 amino ...

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