Evolution from a furan-containing high-throughput screen (HTS) hit (1) resulted in isobenzofuran-1(3H)-one (2) as a potent inhibitor of the function of both isolated perforin protein and perforin delivered in situ by intact KHYG-1 NK cells. In the current study, structure-activity relationship (SAR) development towards a novel series of diarylthiophene analogues has continued through the use of...

BACKGROUND CD8(+) T-cell activation, characterized by increased CD28 expression, reduces neointima formation after arterial injury in mice. The CD8(+)CD28(hi) phenotype is associated with increased effector function. In this study, we used a mouse model that has CD8(+) but no CD4(+) T cells (CD4-/-) to assess the role of CD8(+) T cells and test the function of CD8(+)CD28(hi) T cells in modulati...

Granule exocytosis-mediated cytotoxicity by CD8(+) CTL plays a crucial role in adaptive immunity to tumors and to intracellular pathogens. This T cell effector function has been shown to be defective in various murine tumor models and in human cancer. However, factors and their mechanisms that cause inhibition of CD8(+) T cell lytic function in tumor-bearing hosts remain to be fully defined. We...

When washed sporulating cells of Bacillus cereus were incubated in buffer a t 37" in the presence of toluene, a partial autolysis occurred resulting in the freeing of mature and immature spores. The autolysate contained lytic enzymes which attacked vegetative cells and cell-wall preparations, releasing hexosaminecontaining peptides of characteristic constitution. The most active enzyme preparat...

Females of many species select their mates on the basis of the size or intensity of sexual ornaments, and it has been suggested that these provide reliable signals of a male’s ability to resist parasites and pathogens. European earwigs, Forficula auricularia , are sexually dimorphic in forceps shape and length. Male forceps are used as weapons in male contests for access to females, but recent ...

The ability of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) to attain a latent state in sensory neurones and reactivate periodically is crucial for its biological and clinical properties. The active transcription of the entire 152 kb viral genome during lytic replication contrasts with the latent state, which is characterized by the production of a single set of nuclear-retained transcripts. Reactivatio...

Lysobacter enzymogenes is an important biocontrol agent with the ability to produce a variety of lytic enzymes and novel antibiotics. Little is known about their regulatory mechanisms. Understanding these will be helpful for improving biocontrol of crop diseases and potential medical application. In the present study, we generated an hfq (encoding a putative ribonucleic acid chaperone) deletion...

Luminal free fatty acids and bile acids may damage the colonic epithelium and stimulate proliferation, which may increase the risk of colon cancer. It has been suggested that only soluble calcium ions (Ca2+) precipitate fatty acids and bile acids, thus reducing their lytic activity. Consequently, precipitation of luminal Ca2+ by dietary phosphate should inhibit these effects. To evaluate the pr...

BACKGROUND Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most prevalent microbial diseases and their financial burden on society is substantial. The continuing increase of antibiotic resistance worldwide is alarming so that well-tolerated, highly effective therapeutic alternatives are urgently needed. OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of bacteriophages on Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pne...

We recently reported that low molecular weight B-cell growth factor (LMW-BCGF) plus recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2) synergistically induced lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) activity from the bone marrow (BM) cells of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The kinetics of cell growth, antigenic phenotype, and lytic activity of the generated effector cells were further analyzed in t...