Th17 cells are thought to play a pathogenic role in various autoimmune diseases. Cytokines secreted by Th17 cells like IL-17, IL-17F and IL-22 have the capacity to mediate a massive inflammatory response. These proinflammatroy cytokines are likely to mediate the pathogenic potential of Th17 cells. Recent evidence suggests a role for Th17 cells in the breach of immune tolerance. This might shed ...

Target-guided screening of fragments (TGSOF) was developed and employed in the identification of EV-A71 3C protease (3Cpro) inhibitors. We identified 4-acetylpyridine and 3-acetylpyridine as effective P3 fragments of an inhibitor and obtained the corresponding irreversible inhibitors 12c and 12fvia this method. Furthermore, based on 12c and 12f, we have obtained reversible inhibitors 17c and 17...

Background Chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis (CMC) is a heterogeneous group of primary immunodeficiency diseases (PID) characterized by chronic and recurrent infections of the skin, nails, and oropharynx, mostly caused by Candida sp. CMC is often associated with autoimmune and endocrine disorders. However, CMC may be the only or the main phenotype in patients with AD IL-17F and AR IL-17RA defic...

Psoriasis is a common chronic skin disease characterized by pro-inflammatory environment mediated keratinocytes and both innate adaptative immune responses. This inflammation mostly driven the IL-17/IL-23 axis resulting in production of inflammatory factors (chemokines antimicrobial peptides) keratinocytes. These mediators lead to an amplification loop consequently epidermal hyperplasia. To our...

1 Graduate School of Information Science, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, 8926-1 Takayama, Ikoma, Nara 630-0101, Japan 2 Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashinoha, Kashiwa, Tokyo 277-8562, Japan 3 Computational Biology Research Center (CBRC), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 17F Aomi Frontier Building, 2-43 A...

Charged pion photoproduction is proposed as a new method to study halo nuclei. In particular, it is demonstrated that the reaction 17O(γ, π)F(12 + , 0.495 MeV) is well-suited to investigate the well-known proton halo in 17F which is not amenable to radioactive beam experiments. The cross sections are shown to be very sensitive to the halo structure of the loosely bound proton. Typeset using REVTEX

Psoriasis is a common, relapsing inflammatory skin disease characterized by erythematous scaly plaques. Histological manifestations of psoriasis include keratinocyte dysregulation and hyperproliferation, elongated rete ridges, and inflammatory infiltrates consisting of T cells, macrophages, dendritic cells, and neutrophils. Despite the availability of new effective drugs to treat psoriasis, the...