Japan as a folk medicine for the treatment of female disorders. This compound exhibited significant and selective inhibitory activity against HIV replication in H9 lymphocytes (EC50= 0.798 mgmL ) compared with noninfected H9 lymphocytes (EC50> 25 mgmL ), which amounts to a therapeutic index (TI) of greater than 31.3. Furthermore, biyouyanagin A strongly inhibited lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induce...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the therapeutic potential of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) as a vaccine to induce an immune response and provide antitumor protection in a rat model. METHODS Cross-reactivity of antigens between hESCs and tumour cells was screened by immunohistochemistry. Fischer 344 rats were divided into 7 groups, with 6 rats in each, immunized with: Group 1, hESC; Group 2, pre...

BACKGROUND Avian influenza viruses (AIV) cause huge economic losses in poultry industries and pose a substantial threat to human health. However, predicting AIV epizootics and emergence in humans is confounded by insufficient empirical data on the ecology and dynamics of AIV in poultry systems. To address this gap, we quantified incidence patterns for 13 hemagglutinin subtypes of AIV using 6 ye...

The isolation of a pure population of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected cells is highly desirable for evaluating the impact of HIV on cellular gene expression. Given that HIV gp41 transmembrane protein is anchored on the surface of HIV-infected cells, we evaluated the use of pooled anti-gp41 monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) and HIV immunoglobulins (HIV-Igs) indirectly conjugated to magnet...

The cGMP/protein kinase G (PKG) signalling pathway, at basal levels, has anti-apoptotic/pro-survival effects in certain neural cells. The present study determined apoptosis-regulating effects of basal cGMP/PKG in an immortalized uterine epithelial cell line, HRE-H9 cells, using two soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) inhibitors, NS2028 and ODQ, and a PKG inhibitor, KT5823. A new quantitative, ultras...

Bats are likely natural hosts for a range of zoonotic viruses such as Marburg, Ebola, Rabies, as well as for various Corona- and Paramyxoviruses. In 2009/10, researchers discovered RNA of two novel influenza virus subtypes--H17N10 and H18N11--in Central and South American fruit bats. The identification of bats as possible additional reservoir for influenza A viruses raises questions about the r...

In influenza, the envelope protein hemagglutinin (HA) plays a critical role in viral entry by first binding to sialic acid receptors on the cell surface and subsequently mediating fusion of the viral and target membranes. In this work, the receptor binding properties of influenza A HA from different subtypes (H1 A/California/04/09, H5 A/Vietnam/1205/04, H5 A/bar-headed goose/Qinghai/1A/05, and ...

There is a growing appreciation for how cells integrate and appropriately respond to competing signals for proliferation and apoptosis. The studies described in this report examined the effects of exposure to the cytokine IFN-alpha (IFN-alpha-2a) on sensitivity of the human cell lines H9 and SKW6.4 to Fas ligand (FasL)-induced apoptosis. In a concentration-dependent manner, FasL induced apoptos...

Cardiomyocytes (CMs) differentiated from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are a promising and potentially unlimited cell source for myocardial repair and regeneration. Recently, multiple methodologies-primarily based on the optimization of growth factors-have been described for efficient cardiac differentiation of hESCs. However, the role of extracellular matrix (ECM) signaling in CM differen...

Assessing influenza A virus strains circulating in animals and their potential to cross the species barrier and cause human infections is important to improve human influenza surveillance and preparedness. We reviewed studies describing serological evidence of human exposure to animal influenza viruses. Comparing serological data is difficult due to a lack of standardisation in study designs an...