BACKGROUND Cigarette smoking has been shown to be one of the most important risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. However, little is known about cumulative effects of daily tar and nicotine intake on the risk of incident myocardial infarction (MI) so far. To bridge this gap, we conducted an analysis in a large prospective study from Southern Germany investigating associations of daily tar a...

Replication of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) requires specific interactions of Tat protein with the trans -activation responsive region (TAR) RNA, a 59 base stem-loop structure located at the 5'-end of all HIV transcripts. We have used an intramolecular RNA self-cleaving strategy to determine the folding of TAR RNA and its interactions with a Tat peptide. We incor-porated an EDTA ...

HIV-1 Tat enhances viral transcription elongation by forming a ribonucleoprotein complex with transactivating responsive (TAR) RNA and P-TEFb, an elongation factor composed of cyclin T1 (CycT1) and Cdk9 that phosphorylates the C-terminal domain of RNA polymerase II. Previous studies have shown that Lys-28 in the activation domain (AD) of Tat is essential for HIV-1 transcription and replication ...

Chemoreceptors of the methyl-accepting chemotaxis protein family form clusters, typically at the cell pole(s), in both Bacteria and Archaea. To elucidate the architecture and signaling role of receptor clusters, we investigated interactions between the serine (Tsr) and aspartate (Tar) chemoreceptors in Escherichia coli by constructing Tsr mutations at the six hydrophobic and five polar residues...

Tat activates human immunodeficiency type 1 gene expression by binding to TAR RNA. TAR comprises a partially base paired stem and hexanucleotide loop with a tripyrimidine bulge in the upper stem. In vitro, Tat binds to the bulge and upper stem, with no requirement for the loop. However, in vivo, loop sequences are critical for activation, implying that a loop binding cellular factor may be invo...

The effects of the rabbit papilloma virus upon tar tumor tissue are widely various, as the present paper and previous ones attest. It enables some of the benign tar tumors of domestic rabbits (papillomas, carcinomatoids) to establish themselves after implantation,-which they are unable to do under ordinary circumstances, being dependent upon favoring factors; and it may drive them to active pro...

The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) RNA genome is flanked by a repeated sequence (R) that is required for HIV-1 replication. The first 57 nucleotides of R form a stable stem-loop structure called the transactivation response element (TAR) that can interact with the virally encoded transcription activator protein, Tat, to promote high levels of gene expression. Recently, we demonstra...

INTRODUCTION It has been shown that walking kinematics remain near to normal after mobile bearing total ankle replacement (TAR). However, no information is available on mechanical joint loading. The purpose of this study was to determine whether mechanical load and 'quasi-stiffness' of the ankle joint after TAR differs from the normal load and stiffness of a healthy ankle joint during walking. ...

The trans-activation (Tat) protein of human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) is vital for the replication of the virus. In a transcription assay i n v i t r o in the presence of authent ic TAR RNA, we found that authentic TAR RNA inhibits transcription from a template based on the CMV early promoter in a manner that is not related to the Tat/TAR interaction. Using variants of TAR RNA, we i...

Our study describes the clinical outcome of total ankle replacement (TAR) performed in patients with moderate to severe varus deformity. Between September 2004 and September 2007, 23 ankles with a varus deformity > or = 10 degrees and 22 with neutral alignment received a TAR. Following specific algorithms according to joint congruency, the varus ankles were managed by various additional procedu...