Prevention and treatment of respiratory syncytial virus bronchiolitis and postbronchiolitic wheezing

Growth factors mediate tissue interactions and regulate a variety of cellular functions that are critical for normal lung development and homeostasis. Besides their involvement in lung pattern formation, growth and cell differentiation during organogenesis, these factors have been also implicated in modulating injury-repair responses of the adult lung. Altered expression of growth factors, such as transforming growth factor β1, vascular endothelial growth factor and epidermal growth factor, and/or their receptors, has been found in a number of pathological lung conditions. In this paper, we discuss the dual role of these molecules in mediating beneficial feedback responses or responses that can further damage lung integrity; we shall also discuss the basis for their prospective use as therapeutic agents.     

Kalign – an accurate and fast multiple sequence alignment algorithm

Background  

The alignment of multiple protein sequences is a fundamental step in the analysis of biological data. It has traditionally been applied to analyzing protein families for conserved motifs, phylogeny, structural properties, and to improve sensitivity in homology searching. The availability of complete genome sequences has increased the demands on multiple sequence alignment (MSA) programs. Current MSA methods suffer from being either too inaccurate or too computationally expensive to be applied effectively in large-scale comparative genomics.     

Chemical composition of salt-marsh plants from Ynys Môn (Anglesey): the concept of physiotypes

Abstract The chemical compositions of a number of halophytes from salt marshes on Ynys Môn (Anglesey), Wales, and of some related mesophytes and sand dune plants have been determined. Analyses of the inorganic ions broadly confirmed the existence of a characteristic chemical composition of many monoco-tyledonous salt-marsh plants in that they contain high levels of potassium and relatively low levels of sodium. In contrast to most dicotyledonous halophytes, especially members of the Chenopodiacease, the monocots restrict the entry of inorganic ions and use high levels of soluble sugars to maintain an adequate solute potential. Low calcium levels were not found to be a feature of these plants, as was previously reported. The large amounts of sugars found in the monocotyle-donous plants suggested that they must be located mainly in the vacuoles, in contrast to glycinebetaine which is thought to accumulate principally in the cytoplasm of the salt accumulating Chenopodiaceae. The monocotyledonous halophytes which accumulate proline differ from the normal monocotyledonous physiotype in the accumulation of larger quantities of sodium. Triglochin maritima is one species of this type, and Puccinellia maritima a less extreme example. Spartina spp. accumulating glycinebetaine and β-dimethyl-sulphoniopropionate also have unusually high inorganic ion contents for monocots. Several salt marsh plants contained large quantities of amino acids other than proline. As with ionic composition, the nature of the organic solutes broadly followed taxonomic lines. The usefulness of the physiotype concept is discussed.