The human high molecular weight-melanoma-associated antigen (HMW-MAA) meets the criteria to be used as an immunogen for immunotherapy of malignant melanoma, because it is expressed by a large percentage of melanoma lesions with limited heterogeneity and has a restricted distribution in normal tissues. The high immunogenicity of the HMW-MAA in BALB/c mice has resulted in the development of a lar...

Abstract Background 99m Tc-macroaggregated albumin ( Tc-MAA) scintigraphy is utilized in treatment planning for Yttrium-90 90 Y) Selective Internal Radiation Therapy (SIRT) of liver tumors to evaluate hepatopulmonary shunting by calculating the lung shunt fraction (LSF). The purpose this study was if LSF calculation using SPECT/CT instead planar gamma camera imaging more accurate and can potent...

BACKGROUND Co-exposure to cigarette smoke and alcohol leads to the generation of high concentrations of acetaldehyde and malondialdehyde in the lung. These aldehydes being highly electrophilic in nature react with biologically relevant proteins such as surfactant protein D (SPD) through a Schiff base reaction to generate SPD adducted malondialdehyde-acetaldehyde adduct (SPD-MAA) in mouse lung. ...

Vaccines based on peptide mimics (mimotopes) of conformational tumor antigen epitopes have been investigated for a variety of human tumors including breast cancer, tumors expressing the carcinoembryonic antigen, B cell lymphoma, neuroblastoma, and melanoma. In our previous work, we designed a vaccine based on a mimotope of the high molecular weight-melanoma associated antigen (HMW-MAA) that eli...

The budding and fission of vesicles during membrane trafficking requires many proteins, including those that coat the vesicles, adaptor proteins that recruit components of the coat, and small GTPases that initiate vesicle formation. In addition, vesicle formation in vitro is promoted by the hydrolysis of acyl-CoA lipid esters. The mechanisms by which these lipid esters are directed to the appro...

Previously synthesized poly(methacrylic acid-co-cholesteryl methacrylate) P(MAA-co-CMA) copolymers were examined as potential drug delivery vehicles. P(MAA-co-CMA) copolymers were fluorescently labelled and imaged in SHEP and HepG2 cells. To understand their cell internalization pathway endocytic inhibition studies were conducted. It was concluded that P(MAA-co-CMA) are taken up by the cells vi...

Scavenger receptors on sinusoidal liver endothelial cells (SECs) eliminate potentially harmful modified proteins circulating through the liver. It was shown recently that aldehyde-modified proteins bind to scavenger receptors and are associated with the development/progression of alcoholic liver diseases. For these studies, rat livers were perfused in situ with 125I-formaldehyde-bovine serum al...

Atherosclerosis is widely accepted to be a chronic inflammatory disease, and the immunological response to the accumulation of LDL is believed to play a critical role in the development of this disease. 1,4-Dihydropyridine-type MAA-adducted LDL has been implicated in atherosclerosis. Here, we have demonstrated that pure MAA-modified residues can be chemically conjugated to large proteins withou...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to compare the renal function measured with either 99mTc-DTPA or 99mTc-EC dynamic scintigraphies with that measured using 99mTc-DMSA static scintigraphy. METHODS the values of relative renal function measured in 111 renal dynamic scintigraphies performed either with 99mTc-DTPA (55 studies) or with 99mTc-EC (56 studies) were compared with the relative functi...