propranolol (pl), a non-selective beta-blocker, is a cardiovascular drug widely used to treat hypertension. the present study was concerned with assessing the cytogenetic effects of this drug on chinese hamster ovary (cho) cell line. mtt assay was then carried out to determine the cytotoxicity index (ic50) of the drug. the ic50 value of pl was 0.43±0.02 mm. to investigate the clastogenic effect...

Essentiality (ES) and Synthetic Lethality (SL) information identify combination of genes whose deletion inhibits cell growth. This information is important for both identifying drug targets for tumor and pathogenic bacteria suppression and for flagging and avoiding gene deletions that are non-viable in biotechnology. In this study, we performed a comprehensive ES and SL analysis of two importan...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the progressive loss of motor neurons leading to paralysis and death. Mutations of the human Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) are found in some cases of familial ALS (fALS). Recent evidences suggest the accumulation of intracellular calcium is one of the primary mechanisms of motor neuronal degeneration. In th...

Background: CD52 is a small glycoprotein with a GPI anchor at its C-terminus. CD52 is expressed by Normal and malignant T and B lymphocytes and monocytes. There are detectable amounts of soluble CD52 in plasma of patients with CLL and could be used as a tumor marker. Although the biological function of CD52 is unknown but it seems that CD52 may be involved in migration and activation of T-cells...

Mammalian glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-specific phospholipase D (GPI-PLD) is capable of releasing GPI-anchored proteins by cleavage of the GPI moiety. A previous study indicated that overexpression of GPI-PLD in mouse RAW 264.7 monocytes/macrophages could be cytotoxic, since survivors of stable transfections had enzymic activity no higher than untransfected cells [Du and Low (2001) Infect...

Mammalian cells in culture have been used to study the genetic effects of physical and chemical agents. We have used Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, clone K1-BH4, to quantify mutations at the X-linked, large (35 kb) hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (hprt) locus (the CHO/HPRT assay) induced by environmental agents. By transfecting an hprt-deletion mutant CHO cell line with the p...

Hereditary sensory neuropathy type 1 (HSN1) is a dominantly inherited degenerative disorder of the peripheral nerves. HSN1 is clinically and genetically heterogeneous. One form arises from mutations in the gene SPTLC1 encoding long-chain base 1 (LCB1), one of two subunits of serine palmitoyltransferase (SPT), the enzyme catalyzing the initial step of sphingolipid synthesis. We have examined the...

Transmembrane movement of phosphatidylserine (PS) and various PS analogs at the plasma membrane is thought to occur by an ATP-dependent, protein-mediated process. To isolate mutant CHO cells defective in this activity, we first obtained conditions which inhibited the endocytic, but not the non-endocytic pathway of lipid internalization since PS may enter cells by a combination of these two path...