Three mutants of OX174 were examined for their abilities to grow in temperature-sensitive dnaA, dnaC, dnaE, or dnaG mutants of Escherichia coli. The results indicate that the phage mutants have acquired the ability to grow in some tsDNA mutants that normally block the replication of wild-type OX174. Evidence is presented indicating that the phage mutants contain one or more altered structural p...

Enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) is one of the main causative agents of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD). Unlike other enteroviruses that cause HFMD, EV-A71 is more frequently associated with severe neurological complications and fatality. To date, no effective licensed antivirals are available to combat EV-A71 infection. Little is known about the immunogenicity of viral non-structural proteins in h...

Avian influenza (AI) is a highly contagious disease in poultry and outbreaks can have dramatic economic and health implications. For effective disease surveillance, rapid and sensitive assays are needed to detect antibodies against AI virus (AIV) proteins. In order to support eradication efforts of avian influenza (AI) infections in poultry, the implementation of “DIVA” vaccination strategies, ...

One of the most important targets in Alzheimer disease is Beta site amyloid precursor protein cleaving enzyme-1 (BACE-1). It is a membrane associated protein and is one of the main enzymes responsible for amyloid β (Aβ) production. Up to now, a considerable number of peptidic and non-peptidic inhibitors of BACE-1 have been developed. Recently, small molecule BACE-1 inhibitors have attracted the...

The nucleotide sequence of feline panleukopenia virus (FPV) strain 193 was determined and compared with the sequence of canine parvovirus (CPV) strain N and partial sequences of FPV strain Carl and CPV strain b. Base differences were identified at 115 positions in these 5.1 kb genomes and predicted amino acid differences occurred at 40 positions. The two overlapping capsid protein genes contain...

The function of a protein is determined by its three-dimensional structure, which is formed by regular (i.e. β-strands and α-helices) and non-periodic structural units such as loops. Compared to regular structural elements, non-periodic, non-repetitive conformational units enclose a much higher degree of variability--raising difficulties in the identification of regularities, and yet represent ...

Human parvovirus 4 (PARV4) is an emerging human virus, and little is known about the molecular aspects of PARV4 apart from its incomplete genome sequence, which lacks information of the termini. We analyzed the gene expression profile of PARV4 using a nearly full-length HPV4 genome in a replication competent system in 293 cells. We found that PARV4 utilizes two promoters to transcribe non-struc...