Activation of the alternative complement pathway by lymphoblastoid cell lines derived from patients with Burkitt's lymphoma and infectious mononucleosis.

Cultured human lymphoblastoid cell lines derived from patients with Burkitt's lymphoma or infectious mononucleosis were shown to activate the alternative pathway of complement fixation. This reaction does not require any conventional antibody directed against the cells. Although the reaction showed an absolute dependence on the presence of factor B it was relatively independent of the presence of factor D or of properdin. To this extent activation of the alternative pathway by lymphoblastoid cells resembles that produced by “C3-nephritic factor.” Rat and mouse complement were activated in a manner similar to human complement, but guinea pig complement was inactive. Chicken complement, unlike any of the mammalian complements tested, was able to bring about lysis of the lymphoblastoid cell lines by the alternative pathway.     

Oxidant types in copper–dioxygen chemistry: the ligand coordination defines the Cu<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis></Subscript>-O<Subscript>2</Subscript> structure and subsequent reactivity

The considerable recent advances in copper–dioxygen coordination chemistry demonstrate the existence of a variety of dioxygen-derived Cu_n-O₂ complexes, forming a basis for discussion of alternate oxidant types in copper chemistry and biochemistry. Peroxo complexes may react as nucleophilic reagents, and several types of electrophilic mono- or dicopper (hydro)peroxides exist. Side-on peroxo-dicopper(II) species effect aromatic hydroxylations, including phenolic substrates, in model systems and in the enzyme tyrosinase. Bis--oxo-dicopper(III) entities are capable of hydrogen-atom abstraction reactions, or atom transfer to phosphines and sulfides. The scope and mechanisms of mononuclear Cu(II) superoxides or peroxides are yet to be established, but may be relevant to monooxygenases like peptidylglycine -hydroxylating monooxygenase.     

Regulation of low density lipoprotein receptor mRNA levels by estradiol 17β and chorionic gonadotropin in human placenta

Inhibition of synthesis of estradiol 17 by the addition of inhibitors of aromatase, a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of estradiol 17, or addition of tamoxifen - an estrogen receptor antagonist, to human placental minces resulted in an increase in the level of LDL-receptor mRNA. This increase could be blocked by the simultaneous addition of estradiol 17. A concentration dependent effect of estradiol 17 on the level of LDL-receptor mRNA was seen both in first trimester, and term placenta. Addition of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) to term placental minces also increased the LDL-receptor mRNA levels. When hCG and cycloheximide were added together, an additive effect was observed. The results obtained in this study suggest that the LDL-receptor mRNA levels in the human placenta are regulated by estradiol 17 and hCG.     

两株四环素降解菌的分离鉴定及降解条件优化

为发掘四环素高效降解菌株,本研究从以四环素为唯一生长碳源的养鸡场粪便堆肥样品中分离筛选到2株四环素降解菌TC-04和TC-09,并通过形态特征、生理生化特征和16SrRNA基因序列分析,对其进行鉴定.采用单因素试验分别探究不同碳源、氮源、微量元素这3个培养基成分和培养时间、接种量和装液量这3个培养条件对两株菌降解四环素...     

Predicting RNA secondary structures with pseudoknots by MCMC sampling

The most probable secondary structure of an RNA molecule, given the nucleotide sequence, can be computed efficiently if a stochastic context-free grammar (SCFG) is used as the prior distribution of the secondary structure. The structures of some RNA molecules contain so-called pseudoknots. Allowing all possible configurations of pseudoknots is not compatible with context-free grammar models and makes the search for an optimal secondary structure NP-complete. We suggest a probabilistic model for RNA secondary structures with pseudoknots and present a Markov-chain Monte-Carlo Method for sampling RNA structures according to their posterior distribution for a given sequence. We favor Bayesian sampling over optimization methods in this context, because it makes the uncertainty of RNA structure predictions assessable. We demonstrate the benefit of our method in examples with tmRNA and also with simulated data. McQFold, an implementation of our method, is freely available from http://www.cs.uni-frankfurt.de/~metzler/McQFold.     

Overview of commercial treatment planning systems for targeted radionuclide therapy

IntroductionTargeted Radionuclide Therapy (TRT) is a branch of cancer medicine dealing with the therapeutic use of radioisotopes associated with biological vectors accumulating in the tumors/targets, indicated as Molecular Radiotherapy (MRT), or directly injected into the arteries that supply blood to liver tumour vasculature, indicated as Selective RT (SRT). The aim of this work is to offer a panoramic view on the increasing number of commercially-available TRT treatment planning systems (TPSs).Materials and methodsA questionnaire was sent to manufacturers' representatives. Academic software were not considered. Questions were grouped as follows: general information, clinical workflow, calibration procedure, image processing/reconstruction, image registration and segmentation tools, time-activity curve (TAC) fitting and absorbed dose calculation.ResultsAll software reported have CE-marking. TPSs were divided between SRT-dedicated software [4] and MRT [5] dosimetry software. In SRT, since no kinetic process is involved, absorbed dose calculation does not require TAC fitting, and image registration is not fully developed in all TPS. All software requires a radionuclide-specific calibration. In SRT, a relative image calibration can be obtained by scaling the counts to a known activity. Automated VOI contouring and rigid/deformable propagation between different acquisitions time-points is implemented in most TPSs, although DICOM export is rare. Different TAC fits are available depending on the number of time-points. Voxel S-value and Local deposition methods are the most frequent dosimetric approaches; dose-voxel kernel convolution and semi-Monte Carlo method are also available.ConclusionsAvailable TPSs allows performing personalized dosimetry in clinical practice. Individual variations in methodology/algorithms must be considered in the standardisation/harmonization processes.     

Impact of the green tea ingredient epigallocatechin gallate and a short pentapeptide (Ile-Ile-Ala-Glu-Lys) on the structural organization of mixed micelles and the related uptake of cholesterol

Background

High levels of blood cholesterol are conventionally linked to an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease (Grundy, 1986). Here we examine the molecular mode of action of natural products with known cholesterol-lowering activity, such as for example the green tea ingredient epigallocatechin gallate and a short pentapeptide, Ile-Ile-Ala-Glu-Lys.

Cats as a potential source of emerging influenza virus infections

<正>Dear Editor,Historically,the influenza virus has not been regarded as a major pathogen of cats.However,since 2003,natural infections of domestic cats with highly pathogenic H5N1 avian virus causing fatal cases have been reported(Songserm et al.,2006;Yingst et al.,2006;Klopfleisch et al.,2007).Furthermore,infections of this animal with A(H1N1)pdm09 virus,causing respiratory illness with some fatal cases,have also been reported in various parts     

ID09, A Newly-Designed Tubulin Inhibitor,Regulating the Proliferation,Migration, EMT Process and Apoptosis of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Microtubules, a major target in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) chemotherapy, contribute to multiple malignant biological behaviors, including proliferation, migration, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Surpassing traditional tubulin inhibitors, ID09 emerges with brilliant solubility, photostability, and drug-sensitivity in multidrug-resistant cells. Its anti-tumor effects have been briefly verified in lung adenocarcinoma and hepatocellular carcinoma. However, whether OSCC is sensitive to ID09 and the potential mechanisms remain ambiguous, which are research purposes this study aimed to achieve. Various approaches were applied, including clone formation assay, flow cytometry, wound healing assay, Transwell assay, cell counting kit-8 assay, Western blot, qRT-PCR, and in vivo experiment. The experimental results revealed that ID09 not only contributed to cell cycle arrest, reduced migration, and reversed EMT, but accelerated mitochondria-initiated apoptosis. Remarkably, Western blot detected diminishment in expression of Mcl-1 due to the deactivation of Ras-Erk pathway, resulting in ID09-induced apoptosis, proliferation and migration suppression, which could be offset by Erk1/2 phosphorylation agonist Ro 67-7476. This study initially explored the essential role Mcl-1 played and the regulatory effect of Ras-Erk pathway in anti-cancer process triggered by tubulin inhibitor, broadening clinical horizon of tubulin inhibitors in oral squamous cell carcinoma chemotherapy application.     

Effects of colonisation by different strains of Coniothyrium minitans on the viability of sclerotia of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum

White mold is a major disease in commercial soybean production. An effective measure to reduce the negative effects of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is the use of bio-fungicides. Strains of Coniothyrium minitans were isolated and efficacy tests against S. sclerotiorum was studied. The efficacy of pycnidiospores sprays of strain N09 (GenBank Accession No HQ908274) from Iowa, USA and strain CON/M/91-08 of Contans® WG were compared in a series of experiments. Sclerotia viability was significantly (P < 0.05) lower in both sclerotia-infested-sterilized-soils (SISS) and sclerotia-infested-unsterilized-soils (SIUS) sprayed with N09 compared with CON/M/91-08 and control at 3°C for 75d and 90d sampling. Similarly, sclerotia viability was significantly (P < 0.05) lower at 23°C for 45, 60 and 75d sampling in SISS and 45, 75 and 90 d sampling in SIUS compared with CON/M/91-08 and control. In contrast, viability of N09 colonies were significantly (P < 0.05) higher than that of CON/M/91-08 both at 3°C and 23°C in SISS across sampling periods. While in SIUS, N09 colonies were significantly higher at 3°C for 15, 30, 45, 75 and 90 d sampling, and at 23°C for 30, 60 and 75 d sampling. Also, (1) N09 had a faster growth rate and produced 1.5 times more pycnidiospores than CON/M/91-08; (2) mycoparasitism by N09 was faster than CON/M/91-08; and (3) co-inoculation of sclerotia and the strains, N09 showed lower sclerotia reproduction than CON/M/91-08. Our data suggest that the new strain N09 has a greater efficiency than CON/M/91-08 in killing sclerotia.