The paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT) sends a very dense projection to the nucleus accumbens. This area of the striatum plays a key role in motivation and recent experimental evidence indicates that the PVT may have a similar function. It is well known that a dopaminergic projection from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) to the nucleus accumbens is a key regulator of motivation and r...

The physiological role of the plasma protein factor XII (FXII), as well as its involvement in human pathology, is poorly understood. While FXII is implicated in thrombotic pathology as a coagulation factor, it can contribute to inflammatory conditions without triggering coagulation. We recently generated nanobodies against the catalytic domain of activated FXII (FXIIa). Here, we describe two of...

Phenotypic diversity between laboratory mouse strains provides a model for studying the underlying genetic mechanisms. The A/J strain performs poorly in various endurance exercise models. The aim of the study was to test if endurance capacity and contractility of the fast- and slow-twitch muscles are affected by the genes on mouse chromosome 10. The C57BL/6J (B6) strain and C57BL/6J-Chr 10A/J/N...

Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) hyperplasia is a common feature of pathologic cardiovascular event such as restenosis and atherosclerosis. The role and mechanisms of microRNAs (miRs) in VSMCs proliferation are poorly understood. Here, we report that miR-181b promotes VSMCs proliferation and migration. In an animal model, miR-181b was significantly increased in the rat carotid artery after ...

We hypothesized that the disordered tissue architecture in cancer results from the cells executing the program designed during ontogeny in a spatio-temporally inappropriate manner. HOX genes are known as master regulators of embryonic morphogenesis, and encode transcription factors which regulate the transcription of the downstream genes to realize the program of body plan. In this study, we qu...

We report a novel quantum dot (QD)-aptamer(Apt)-doxorubicin (Dox) conjugate [QD-Apt(Dox)] as a targeted cancer imaging, therapy, and sensing system. By functionalizing the surface of fluorescent QD with the A10 RNA aptamer, which recognizes the extracellular domain of the prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA), we developed a targeted QD imaging system (QD-Apt) that is capable of differentia...

We were able to purify two distinct sodium pump inhibitors to homogeneity from human urine based on [3H]ouabain-displacing activity from intact human erythrocytes. The polar and less polar compounds were eluted off the C18 reverse-phase column with 18% and 31% acetonitrile, respectively. The polar compound cross-reacted very weakly with specific antidigoxin antibody and lacked a characteristic ...

Autophagy is increasingly being recognized as a critical determinant of vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) biology. Previously, we have demonstrated that c-Ski inhibits VSMC proliferation stimulated by transforming growth factor β (TGF-β), but it is not clear whether c-Ski has the similar protective role against other vascular injury factors and whether regulation of autophagy is involved in it...

Epidemiology and etiology of hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) based on large sample size or evaluation of detection for more enterovirus serotypes are not well investigated in Chongqing of China. 45,616 suspect HFMD patients were prospectively enrolled among whom 21,615 were laboratory confirmed HFMD cases over a 5-year period (January 2011 to December 2015). Their epidemiological, clinical...

The PredicTM method begins with a BLAST search using the ExPASy proteomics server. This search is set up to yield all matching sequences that satisfy the E-Value threshold. This differs from the previous method where only a few dozen to a few hundred sequences were used. Additionally, the PredicTM method is relatively tolerant of unrelated sequences, so hand-filtering of sequences by the user i...