Emergence of arboviruses could result from their ability to exploit new environments, for example a new host. This ability is facilitated by the high mutation rate occurring during viral genome replication. The last emergence of chikungunya in the Indian Ocean region corroborates this statement since a single viral mutation at the position 226 on the E1 glycoprotein (E1-A226V) was associated wi...

Each Sindbis virus (SINV) surface glycoprotein has two sites for N-linked glycosylation (E1 positions 139 and 245 [E1-139 and E1-245] and E2 positions 196 and 318 [E2-196 and E2-318]). Studies of SINV strain TE12 mutants with each site eliminated identified the locations of carbohydrates by cryo-electron microscopy (S. V. Pletnev et al., Cell 105:127-136, 2001). In the current study, the effect...

Ubiquitin activating enzyme E1 plays a pivotal role in ubiquitin based protein signaling through regulating the initiating step of the cascade. Previous studies demonstrated that E1 is inhibited by covalent modification of reactive cysteines contained within the ubiquitin-binding groove and by conditions that increase oxidative stress and deplete cellular antioxidants. In this study, we determi...

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes acute and chronic human hepatitis infections. Due to the high genetic diversity and high rates of mutations in the genetic material so far there is no approved vaccine against HCV. Materials and Methods: The aim of this study was to determination B and T cell conserved epitopes of E1 and E2 proteins from HCV and construction of a chimeric pepti...

Replication of the genome of human papillomaviruses (HPV) is initiated by the recruitment of the viral E1 helicase to the origin of DNA replication by the viral E2 protein, which binds specifically to the origin. We determined, for HPV type 11 (HPV-11), that the C-terminal 296 amino acids of E1 are sufficient for interaction with the transactivation domain of E2 in the yeast two-hybrid system a...

BACKGROUND Adenovirus vectors have been utilized for a variety of cancer gene therapy. The present study examined the oncolytic effect of adenovirus type 5 (Ad5) and fiber-substituted conditionally replicating adenovirus (CRAD) Ad5/F35 vectors on human lung cancer A549 cells (an epithelial adenocarcinoma cell line), SBC-3 cells (a small-cell cancer cell line), and Lu-65 cells (a giant-cell lung...

Mutations in MECP2 cause the neurodevelopmental disorder Rett syndrome (RTT OMIM 312750). Alternative inclusion of MECP2/Mecp2 exon 1 with exons 3 and 4 encodes MeCP2-e1 or MeCP2-e2 protein isoforms with unique amino termini. While most MECP2 mutations are located in exons 3 and 4 thus affecting both isoforms, MECP2 exon 1 mutations but not exon 2 mutations have been identified in RTT patients,...

RNA binding protein (RBPs) and microRNAs (miRNAs or miRs) are post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression that are implicated in development of cancers. Although their individual roles have been studied, the crosstalk between RBPs and miRNAs is under intense investigation. Here, we show that in breast cancer cells, cyclin E1 upregulation by the RBP HuR is through specific binding to regi...