Introduction: The purine base adenosine (ADO) can function as an extracellular signaling molecule and has been reported to reduce inflammation in several in vivo models (1). Adenosine receptor stimulation increases intracellular accumulation of cAMP and suppresses nitric oxide (NO) synthesis by lipopolysaccharide (LPS)and interleukin-1 (IL-1)-stimulated chondrocytes in monolayer culture (2,3). ...

We evaluated West Nile (WN) virus seroprevalence in healthy horses, dogs, and cats in New York City after an outbreak of human WN virus encephalitis in 1999. Two (3%) of 73 horses, 10 (5%) of 189 dogs, and none of 12 cats tested positive for WN virus-neutralizing antibodies. Domestic mammals should be evaluated as sentinels for local WN virus activity and predictors of the infection in humans.

For a supercritical branching process (Zn) in a stationary and ergodic environment ξ, we study the rate of convergence of the normalized population Wn = Zn/E[Zn|ξ] to its limitW∞: we show a central limit theorem forW∞−Wn with suitable normalization and derive a Berry-Esseen bound for the rate of convergence in the central limit theorem when the environment is independent and identically distrib...

Theorem 0.1 (Fibered power theorem). Let X → B be a smooth family of positive dimensional varieties of general type, with B irreducible. Then there exists an integer n > 0, a positive dimensional variety of general type Wn, and a dominant rational map X B 99K Wn. Specifically, let mn : X n B 99K Wn be the n-pointed birational-moduli map. Then for sufficiently large n, Wn is a variety of general...

Aldehyde deformylating oxygenase (ADO) is a unique enzyme found exclusively in photosynthetic cyanobacteria, which natively converts acyl aldehyde precursors into hydrocarbon products embedded in cellular lipid bilayers. This capacity has opened doors for potential biotechnological applications aiming at biological production of diesel-range alkanes and alkenes, which are compatible with the no...

Gender influences volume regulation via several mechanisms; whether these include microvascular exchange, especially in the heart, is not known. In response to adenosine (Ado), permeability (P(s)) to protein of coronary arterioles of female pigs decreases acutely. Whether Ado induces similar P(s) changes in arterioles from males or whether equivalent responses occur in coronary venules of eithe...

8-Aminoadenosine (8-NH(2)-Ado), a ribosyl nucleoside analog, in preclinical models of multiple myeloma inhibits phosphorylation of proteins in multiple growth and survival pathways, including Akt. Given that Akt controls the activity of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), we hypothesized that 8-NH(2)-Ado would be active in mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), a hematological malignancy clinically resp...

A physiological red blood cell (RBC) kinetic model is proposed for the adenosine (ADO) transport into erythrocytes and its subsequent intracellular deamination into inactive inosine (INO) and further breakdown into hypoxanthine (HYPO). The model and its parameters were based on previous studies investigating the kinetics of the biochemical mechanism of uptake and metabolism of ADO in human eryt...

Mosquitoes and wild birds were collected from three sites near locations in the New York City metropolitan area where single, West Nile (WN) virus-positive dead birds were found early in the 2000 transmission season. The mosquitoes were tested for the presence of infectious virus with a Vero cell culture assay and for WN viral RNA by using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR...

In this review, we discuss the possibility that the glycosylation of West Nile (WN) virus E-protein may be associated with enhanced pathogenicity and higher replication of WN virus. The results indicate that E-protein glycosylation allows the virus to multiply in a heat-stable manner and therefore, has a critical role in enhanced viremic levels and virulence of WN virus in young-chick infection...