Inflammation may contribute to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. On the basis of previous reports that human atherosclerotic lesions contain alpha-defensins, a class of cationic proteins released by activated neutrophils, the study was designed to ask whether defensins modulate the binding and catabolism of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) by human vascular cells. The results of the study demon...

TORRETTI, JORGE, ERNESTO HENDLER, EDWARD WEINSTEIN, ROBERT E. LONGNECKER, AND FRANKLIN H. EPSTEIN. Functional sign@ance of NaK-A Vase in the kidney: e$ect.s of ouabain inhibition. Am. J. Physiol. 222(6): 1398-1405. 1972.-Infusions of ouabain directly into the renal artery of the dog produced substantial inhibition of renal Na-K-ATPase activity, which was almost complete in some experiments. The...

2. McErlean P, Shackelton LA, Lambert SB, Nissen MD, Sloots TP, Mackay IM. Characterisation of a newly identifi ed human rhinovirus, HRV-QPM, discovered in infants with bronchiolitis. J Clin Virol. 2007;39:67–75. DOI: 10.1016/j. jcv.2007.03.012 3. Lee WM, Kiesner C, Pappas T, Lee I, Grindle K, Jartti T, et al. A diverse group of previously unrecognized human rhinoviruses are common causes of re...

BACKGROUND Glucokinase (GK) is a metabolic enzyme encoded by the GCK gene and expressed in glucose-sensitive tissues, principally pancreatic islets cell and hepatocytes. The GK protein acts in pancreatic islets as a "glucose sensor" that couples fluctuations in the blood glucose concentration to changes in cellular function and insulin secretion. GCK and GK have proposed importance in the devel...

Boundary-element methods (BEMs) for solving integral equations numerically have been used in many fields to compute the induced charges at dielectric boundaries. In this paper, we consider a more accurate implementation of BEM in the context of ions in aqueous solution near proteins, but our results are applicable more generally. The ions that modulate protein function are often within a few an...

In our previous study, we utilized a 26-residue amphipathic alpha-helical antimicrobial peptide L-V13K (Chen et al., Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2007, 51, 1398-1406) as the framework to study the effects of peptide hydrophobicity on the mechanism of its antimicrobial action. In this study, we explored the effects of net charge and the number of positively charged residues on the hydrophilic/pol...

More knowledge on the reasons for refusal of the influenza vaccine in elderly patients is essential to target groups for additional information, and hence improve coverage rate. The objective of the present study was to describe precisely the true motives for refusal. All patients aged over 64 who attended the Medical Outpatient Clinic, University of Lausanne, or their private practitioner's of...

Inflammation may contribute to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. On the basis of previous reports that human atherosclerotic lesions contain a-defensins, a class of cationic proteins released by activated neutrophils, the study was designed to ask whether defensins modulate the binding and catabolism of lowdensity lipoprotein (LDL) by human vascular cells. The results of the study demonstrat...

Cystathionine b-synthase (CBS) catalyzes metabolic reactions that convert homocysteine to cystathionine. To assess the role of CBS in human glioma, cells were stably transfected with lentiviral vectors encoding shRNA targeting CBS or a nontargeting control shRNA, and subclones were injected into immunodeficient mice. Interestingly, decreased CBS expression did not affect proliferation in vitro ...