Phage-peptides were prepared from L. lactis ssp. lactis ml3 and L. plantarum yit0068 bacteriophage using a ficin hydrolysis. The ml3 and yit0068 peptides were compared to L. lactis ssp. lactis c2 bacteriophage peptides to determine growth inhibition of C2 host and inhibition of both ml3 and c2 bacteriophage. M17 with .011 mM CaCl2 media with and without phage peptides (2 or 2.5%) were heat trea...

Background: Oncolytic herpes simplex virus (oHSV)-based vectors lacking γ34.5 gene, are considered as ideal templates to construct efficient vectors for (targeted) cancer gene therapy. Herein, we reported the construction of three single/dually-flourescence labeled and γ34.5-deleted, recombinant HSV-1 vectors for rapid generation and easy selection/isolation of different HSV-Based v...

Results obtained over the past 40 years have demonstrated that tumor cells of all types tested have an elevated growth requirement for methioninase compared with normal cells. Recombinant methioninase (rMETase) cloned from Pseudomonas putida has been found previously to be an effective antitumor agent attributable to deprivation of the extracellular methionine source of the tumor. To degrade in...

To better understand the mechanisms by which neurotropic viruses invade peripheral nerve pathways and produce CNS disease, we defined the type 3 (T3) reovirus genes that are determinants of the capacity of reovirus T3 strain Dearing (T3D) and T3 clone 9 (C9) to infect the spinal cord and kill mice after hindlimb injection. T3D and C9 viruses are both highly virulent (LD(50) < 10(1) PFU) after i...

We have used adenovirus-mediated gene transfer and bolus injection of purified apolipoprotein E (apoE) in mice to determine the contribution of LDL receptor family members in the clearance of apoE-containing lipoproteins in vivo and the factors that trigger hypertriglyceridemia. A low dose [5 x 10(8) plaque-forming units (pfu)] of an adenovirus expressing apoE4 did not normalize plasma choleste...

Molecular dissection of mechanisms that govern the differentiated cardiac phenotype has, for cogent technical reasons, largely been undertaken to date in neonatal ventricular myocytes. To circumvent expected limitations of other methods, the present study was initiated to determine whether replication-deficient adenovirus would enable efficient gene transfer to adult cardiac cells in culture. A...

Serial samples from the same individuals may be required for certain virological studies, however, some small animals cannot easily be blood-sampled. Therefore, we evaluated the use of Culex quinquefasciatus Say and Aedes albopictus Skuse mosquitoes as "biological syringes" to draw blood for virus titer determinations in small vertebrates. Groups of chicks (Gallus gallus), hamsters (Mesocricetu...

General features of the manne lysogenic bacterium H24 are described. The bacterial strain was isolated from a sample of North Sea water in 1978 After several consecutive transfers on seawater agar slants spontaneous plaque-formation was observed in 1981 When H24 was grown in bouillon the cultures were found to contain plaque forming units (PFU) at any number between zero and 10%1-', indicating ...

Random mutagenesis constitutes an important approach for identifying critical regions of proteins, studying structure-function relations and developing novel proteins with desired properties. Perhaps, the most popular method is the error-prone PCR, in which mistakes are introduced into a gene, and hence a protein, during DNA polymerase-catalysed amplification cycles. Unfortunately, the relative...