BACKGROUND Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) constitute a significant part of infiltrating inflammatory cells that are frequently correlated with progression and poor prognosis of a variety of cancers. Tumor cell-produced human beta-defensin-3 (hBD-3) has been associated with TAM trafficking in oral cancer; however, its involvement in tumor-related inflammatory processes remains largely unkno...

Diverse therapeutic strategies for food allergy are under investigation including food allergen-specific and nonspecific approaches. Allergen-specific approaches include immunotherapy with native food allergens, immunotherapy with mutated recombinant allergens, and diets containing extensively heated milk or egg. Native allergen immunotherapy can be administered via oral, sublingual, subcutaneo...

Tolerance and dependence result from long-term exposure to opioids, and there is growing evidence linking acute receptor desensitization to these more long-term processes. Receptor desensitization encompasses a series of events leading to the loss of receptor function and internalization. This study examines the onset and recovery from desensitization in locus ceruleus neurons recorded in brain...

When subjected to prolonged exposure to nicotinic agonists, nicotinic acetylcholine receptors undergo desensitization, resulting in an inactive receptor that does not allow for the passage of ions. The induction of desensitization of diverse nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subtypes in muscle, ganglia, or brain is likely to play important modulatory roles in synaptic transmission. Furthermore, ...

Desensitization of heterologously expressed metabotropic glutamate receptor 5a (mGluR5a) was examined in rat sympathetic neurons. Calcium currents in cells expressing mGluR5a exhibited substantial inhibition in response to glutamate exposure. In the continued presence of glutamate, inhibition attenuated rapidly over the course of about a minute. Desensitization was eliminated when a nonhydrolyz...

Desensitization of crayfish glutamate channels was studied in outside-out patches employing an improved fast drug-application technique. Low concentrations of glutamate produced substantial desensitization without correlation with the detected number of open channels. The desensitization time constant (tau(D)) was found to be independent of glutamate concentration (0.3-20 mM). These results sug...