Flu Universal Vaccines: New Tricks on an Old Virus

Conventional influenza vaccines are based on predicting the circulating viruses year by year, conferring limited effectiveness since the antigenicity of vaccine strains does not always match the circulating viruses. This necessitates development of universal influenza vaccines that provide broader and lasting protection against pan-influenza viruses. The discovery of the highly conserved immunogens(epitopes) of influenza viruses provides attractive targets for universal vaccine design. Here we review the current understanding with broadly protective immunogens(epitopes) and discuss several important considerations to achieve the goal of universal influenza vaccines.     

Continuing Medical Education: Some Thoughts on Sponsorship

The proper role of departments of continuing medical education in the medical faculties of universities needs to be more clearly defined. Much of the initiative for the development of extramural postgraduate instruction in this country came from organized medicine. The individual practising doctor has traditionally made his needs known most effectively through his professional organizations and should be encouraged to continue to do so. The individual doctor, professional organizations, hospitals and medical schools are all vital elements in any successful program of continuing medical education. A variety of administrative patterns may well emerge, each adapted specially to the region it serves. With a sense of urgency and the co-operation of all concerned, rapid progress in this important field is clearly possible.     

Horse Liver Alcohol Dehydrogenase: New Perspectives for an Old Enzyme

The EE subunit of horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase (HLADH-EE) has been subcloned in pRSETb vector to generate a fusion His-tag protein. The migration from a multistep purification protocol for this well-known enzyme to a single-step has been successfully achieved. Several adjustments to the traditional purification procedure for His-tag proteins have been made to retain protein activity. A full characterization of the fusion enzyme has been carried out and compared with the native one. The K _m for EtOH, NAD and NADH in the His-tag version of HLADH are in line with the ones reported in literature for the native enzyme. A shift in optimal pH activity is also observed. The enzyme retains the same stability and quaternary structure as the wild type and can therefore be easily used instead of the native HLADH for biotechnological applications.     

Activating p38 MAPK: New Tricks for an Old Kinase

Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) participate in signaling initiated by a wide variety of extracellular stimuli. MAPKs are most commonly activated by a series of phosphorylation events in which one kinase phosphorylates another, the “MAPK cascade”. The cascade concludes with the dual phosphorylation of MAPKs on a conserved Thr-X-Tyr motif. In the case of the p38 MAPK, an exception to this paradigm has been found when signaling via the T cell antigen receptor (TCR). Rather than trigger the MAPK cascade, TCR-mediated stimulation activates proximal tyrosine kinases, which results in the phosphorylation of p38 on a noncanonical activating residue, Tyr-323. This phosphorylation activates p38 to phosphorylate third party substrates as well as its own Thr-X-Tyr motif. Here we discuss the structural and functional implications of this alternative p38 activation pathway, which may provide a new target for tissue-specific pharmacologic inhibition.     

Chemotaxis: Old and New

After describing briefly the work of Engelmann and Pfeffer about 100 years ago, the author presents the early history of bacterial chemotaxis in his laboratory since 1960. Then the report is brought up to the present by review of research in many laboratories including the author's.     

Notes on Technic: Pkotargol: Old and New

Stocks of protargol of foreign origin are becoming exhausted, and since such protargol is no longer available, the American-made product must be used for histologic staining. Some of the earlier domestic protargol seems not to have given satisfaction in neurohistology; therefore it seemed desirable to compare the staining qualities of the pre-war material with several lots furnished recently by Winthrop-Stearns, Inc., New York City.     

Notes on Technic: Pkotargol: Old and New

Stocks of protargol of foreign origin are becoming exhausted, and since such protargol is no longer available, the American-made product must be used for histologic staining. Some of the earlier domestic protargol seems not to have given satisfaction in neurohistology; therefore it seemed desirable to compare the staining qualities of the pre-war material with several lots furnished recently by Winthrop-Stearns, Inc., New York City.